Following the vicious terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the recent vandalism of Paul McCarthy’s big butt plug art installation in Paris, fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck made his feelings about censorship clear on Wednesday. For the debut of his latest collection at Paris Fashion Week, Beirendonck sent his models down the runway wearing giant bald eagles with butt plugs hanging from them. In fact, nearly all of the clothes on display reportedly “incorporated ‘butt plug’ symbols,” in one way or another.
According to Expactica, the decision was:
a nod to a giant inflatable sculpture in the same form done by an American artist, Paul McCarthy, that was vandalised soon after being set up in Paris last October on the same chic Place Vendome where the fashion show took place.
“It’s almost a homage to him (McCarthy). Because I know him, not very well, but I know him… And so the butt plug is pretty much everywhere” in the collection, Van Beirendonck said.
The succession of messages were exhortations for freedom of expression, he said.
“I believe no-one has the right to tell anyone else that he can’t show what he wants to.”
That sentiment seemed to carry over into a nod to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, many of the clothes featured the phrase, “Stop Terrorizing Our World.”
Butt plugs and bald eagles are enough to make the fashion world seem a little bit more tolerable than usual. At least there’s a little bit of a sense of humor going on here. But then, someone like photographer Ed Kavishe comes along and tells the New York Times something like this, “I’ve had a lot of people tell me this week ‘Don’t go to Paris!’ But if I didn’t come, then the terrorists have won.” Yes, Kavishe, your presence at this opulent display of wealth is a bastion on the front lines of the War On Terror.
Here’s a blown up look at that butt plug brooche:
(Photo: Walter Van Beirendonck Promo)
