Althouse: "I’m fed up with [#MeToo]... I read somewhere that now you must ask a model if she is comfortable with posing. Its simply too much..."

April 14, 2018

"I’m fed up with [#MeToo]... I read somewhere that now you must ask a model if she is comfortable with posing. Its simply too much..."

"... from now on, as a designer, you can’t do anything. As for the accusations against the poor Karl Templar [creative director at Interview magazine], I don’t believe a single word of it. A girl complained he tried to pull her pants down and he is instantly excommunicated from a profession that up until then had venerated him. Its unbelievable. If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model! Join a nunnery, there’ll always be a place for you in the convent. They’re recruiting even!"

Said Karl Lagerfeld, in an interview at Numéro... which is such a beautifully designed website that I am willing to believe that dropping the apostrophe in the contraction for "it is" was an aesthetic decision (and one that will, in time, catch on).

48 comments:

robother said...: " I don’t criticise him, even if at the end of his career all he did was make ballet slippers for menopausal fashion victims." Speaking freely as the ultimate luxury.; 4/14/18, 7:05 AM
Rob said...: I don’t know whether dropping the apostrophe in “it’s” will catch on, but certainly adding an apostrophe to “its” is now commonplace. O tempore o mores.; 4/14/18, 7:19 AM
rhhardin said...: It's just dealing with women. If you don't like it, get out of the designer business.; 4/14/18, 7:19 AM
traditionalguy said...: To the nunnery with you, apostrophes. But remember, he is dealing with French Models. Don't try this at home.; 4/14/18, 7:27 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Smart men keep in mind that women are drama queens, and that they will in the near future reverse course in order to run a fresh drama on us.

Within a few years, women will tire of the prudery and screeching and they’ll want a fresh, new fashion.

They’ll reverse course and demand wildness and freedom. I’ve been through this cycle before. It’s not really serious. Well, it’s as serious as whether you like your hemline at the knee or at the ankle.

Whichever current drama queen nonsense women are running, of course, will be blamed on men. Women are never to blame for their sexual mistakes and indiscretions.; 4/14/18, 7:39 AM
Tcdq1293 said...: ... I’m delighted that Hedi [Slimane] is going to Céline but drawing a men’s collection and having to put up with all those stupid models, no thanks. Not to mention the fact with all their accusations of harassment they have become quite toxic. No, no, no, don’t leave me alone with one of those sordid creatures.; 4/14/18, 7:44 AM
Mark said...: Karl, who doesnt want to acknowledge or change the long practice of anorexia and coke/heroin in faahion. What a hero for making sure groping is also a kept as a part of that.

To his view, women who shoukd just relax and enjoy it, as they used to say.; 4/14/18, 7:56 AM
Wince said...: ...an interview at Numéro... which is such a beautifully designed website...

Really? I thought it looked like a goddamned desk calendar.; 4/14/18, 8:05 AM
buwaya said...: An amusing fellow.
I have no interest at all in his profession, and have no idea who are most of the people he mentions, but he does a good interview. Has had a lot of practice being a wit I guess.; 4/14/18, 8:12 AM
tcrosse said...: Has had a lot of practice being a wit I guess.

A printed interview can be edited, with l'esprit de l'escalier in mind.; 4/14/18, 8:24 AM
PJ said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/18, 8:30 AM
gilbar said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/18, 8:39 AM
gilbar said...: speaking of punctuation marks;
my cousin asked me "what's the name of that thing, you know, the '#'
and i (being old) said it's the pound sign.
and he said; right, and so what are they saying when they say: #metoo ??
and then He said: POUND ME TOO

once i heard that, i can't look at #metoo in any other way.

'a wannabe hollywood starlet says: "Oh! #metoo!! #metoo!! "'; 4/14/18, 8:40 AM
PJ said...: An elaborate system of rules designed both to constrain interpretive freedom and to signify status and adherence to orthodoxy among the trained-monkey educated elite, all while sowing confusion and self-doubt among the historically oppressed. Punctuation perpetuates patriarchy. All of it must go, but that apostrophe even bears an aesthetically repugnant resemblance to male genitalia, so lets start there.; 4/14/18, 8:41 AM
Carol said...: but certainly adding an apostrophe to “its” is now commonplace.

It's autocorrect doing it lately. Not only do you have to know your grammar, you must back up and fix erroneous it'ses. At least at Facebook and Twitter.; 4/14/18, 8:50 AM
Fernandinande said...: EDH said...
I thought it looked like a goddamned desk calendar.

Do you have something against desk calendars?

The classy thing is if you enter the URL "numéro.com" it[']s involuntarily Anglicized to "numero.com", which might be the opposite of cultural appropriation.; 4/14/18, 8:50 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Within a few years, women will tire of the prudery and screeching and they’ll want a fresh, new fashion.

They’ll reverse course and demand wildness and freedom.

The problem is that they (feminist types) are demanding BOTH right now. Prudery, respect and the ability to act like a whore anytime they want without anyone questioning the irrationality of it. Run around with a pussy hat on, pretending to be genitalia ....but get all offended if someone dares to make mention of any of your body parts or notices you have tits.

It is schizophrenic thinking to want, demand and think that you can get all things with no consequences.

No wonder the Millennial Generation is so screwed up. They are mentally ill.

Paranoid Schizophrenics and we aren't supposed to notice.; 4/14/18, 9:03 AM
Ralph L said...: The missing apostrophe was an aesthetic decision by Karl. The mag transcribed it correctly.; 4/14/18, 9:34 AM
tcrosse said...: It's the apostrophe: its itch is itsitis.; 4/14/18, 9:39 AM
Gahrie said...: At times Althouse is amazingly pedantic, at others she's Humpty Dumpty.; 4/14/18, 9:47 AM
Gahrie said...: It is schizophrenic thinking to want, demand and think that you can get all things with no consequences.

It's an expression of power...an attempt to force you to join their irrationality, or punish you if you don't.; 4/14/18, 9:49 AM
buwaya said...: True, this sort of thing (making people accept absurd, obvious lies) is in part a control mechanism, intended to establish dominance.

Vaclav Havel had a great deal to say about this.

Its minor, semi-unconscious purpose is to make the liars feel better about themselves. They do understand quite well that they are swine.; 4/14/18, 9:59 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/18, 10:22 AM
rcocean said...: Wow, so there's only two alternatives:

Sexual Assault or the Nunnery.

Really?; 4/14/18, 10:29 AM
Howard said...: A man should never do a job a woman can do because unseemly.; 4/14/18, 10:30 AM
rhhardin said...: There's a weird something-wrong grammar feeling that goes with stuff like

"Some of it's just prejudice..."

The "it" isn't the subject of "'s" but the object of "of."; 4/14/18, 10:36 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/18, 10:42 AM
Narayanan said...: I have heard that 'nunnery' was slang for brothel.; 4/14/18, 10:59 AM
Sebastian said...: I've got the solution for the female modeling conundrum: just use drag queens. (Not trannies -- no.); 4/14/18, 11:13 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: The pic of Lagerfeld at the link makes me think that he must have been the model for the European character played by Count Olaf (as played by Neil Patrick Harris) in Season 2 of Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events ("The Ersatz Elevator").; 4/14/18, 11:26 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: rhhardin said...

There's a weird something-wrong grammar feeling that goes with stuff like

"Some of it's just prejudice..."

The "it" isn't the subject of "'s" but the object of "of."

But than how would you contract "it is" in "Some of it is just prejudice . . ."; 4/14/18, 11:29 AM
Earnest Prole said...: Idiocy envelops the culture, but it’s less depressing if you think of it as an aesthetic choice.; 4/14/18, 12:04 PM
walter said...: What POS ADD addled interview. Apparently any semblance of follow-up is not considered.

Butt there was this gem:
"Personally, I adore Mrs Obama. I fell for her when an American journalist asked her if her leather skirts weren’t a little tight for a first lady, and Michelle Obama answered, “Why, don’t you like my big black ass?”"; 4/14/18, 12:06 PM
tcrosse said...: I've got the solution for the female modeling conundrum: just use drag queens.

It should be easy to build robotic models. I'm surprised they're not doing it already.; 4/14/18, 12:08 PM
rhhardin said...: "Some of him's against it."; 4/14/18, 12:19 PM
Big Mike said...: The wife and I have s theory that men who design outfits for women secretly hate women. There is plenty of support for that notion in the interview. Imagine a woman objecting to having her pants pulled down by a major designer! What is the world coming to?; 4/14/18, 12:46 PM
walter said...: Karl Templer's statement
A snippet of that:
Interactions such as the ones alleged would have been observed by at least ten people, closely scrutinising every move: the photographer instructing on adjustments that they would like made to clothes, a make-up person who would be less than a couple of feet away making make-up adjustments the minute that any clothing is moved even by a millimetre, the hair stylist would be present, the photographer’s assistants who would be adjusting lighting, assorted production people and the art director. All of these people watch every detail of the shot being set up. It’s their job to do that; they’re not in the background. There would also be my team, which is made up of at least 3 to 4 women, standing within a few feet of me and the model. In fact, I made it a practice, of my own volition, over a decade ago, to have only my female team members dress models in the changing area, the only private area on set.; 4/14/18, 12:53 PM
Mark said...: Sounds like someone needs a high-heel to the forehead. Or at least a punch in the mouth, followed by the other models kicking this creep in the gut and groin.; 4/14/18, 2:16 PM
n.n said...: #MeToo, stop the warlock hunts, and lynching by press.; 4/14/18, 3:01 PM
n.n said...: #MeToo, recognize women' franchise. It's choice, conception, then responsibility. The female and male chauvinists, social progression, and political influences, have served as poor role models for a civilized population.; 4/14/18, 3:05 PM
walter said...: Really Mark? Violent much?
You don't think there are instances of overreach by the #metoo movement?
I do think it would have been a better interview if he was asked to elaborate on the Karl Templer issue.; 4/14/18, 3:30 PM
walter said...: Go outside and march..till your legs wobble and you aren't so violent.; 4/14/18, 3:32 PM
Walter S. said...: Hooray for Carol! It's just April, and "it'ses" has already wrapped up Best Noun of the Year.

At least, it's it'ses's to lose.; 4/14/18, 3:35 PM
Rabel said...: On croit rêver.

Looks like the interview was conducted in French and translated to English. Considering all the squiggly marks the French use, they may have just run out of apostrophes.; 4/14/18, 3:45 PM
Earnest Prole said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/18, 3:53 PM
Earnest Prole said...: The wife and I have s theory that men who design outfits for women secretly hate women.

Hate is probably a bit of an overstatement. A gay friend told me of the visceral revulsion he experiences when he contemplates the fleshiness of a breeding woman's healthy hips. I think it's more along those lines.; 4/14/18, 3:55 PM
Krumhorn said...: I am willing to believe that dropping the apostrophe in the contraction for "it is" was an aesthetic decision (and one that will, in time, catch on).

It’s an odd decision if it isn’t used consistently with respect either to other contractions or to this specific one. There are many others that are rendered properly and at least two other uses of “it’s” that are correct.

- Krumhorn; 4/14/18, 4:26 PM
Known Unknown said...: Dessert Island?; 4/14/18, 8:42 PM