Literature

A genius «unrobed» by Loïc Prigent

6 reading minutes

written by Anaïs Sierro · December 22, 2020 · 0 comment

Tuesday's books - Anaïs Sierro

At a time when fashion shows are being undermined by health measures, I'd like to take you on a journey of imagination. Put yourself in the shoes of a distinguished guest in the front row of a fashion show. catwalk of a leading French or Milanese fashion house. Discover the silky elegance of a made-to-measure dress or a three-piece. design, You'll be able to savor the flavors of a famous caterer's petits-fours, or the delicate caress of a sip of expensive champagne. But above all, listen out for the surrounding babble, the ennobled chatter and the m'as-tu-vu chatter? This is the taste that renowned French fashion journalist Loïc Prigent has decided to serve us on caviar toast and slices of sharp vegan eggs.

«Loïc Prigent's formula for a second volume is »A collection of quotations taken on the fly from around the fashion world«.«Pass the champagne, I've got a cat in my throat». The object appealed, as did the title. But then the question arose: «Am I really going to buy a collection of quotations? Because, let's face it, Prigent has pulled off a major coup here marketing.

«Every time I'm with her I feel something exciting happening, but somewhere else.»

«Since I'm reselling my clothes, I don't feel as if I'm going crazy, because I'm not standing in front of the 1,250 bags I've bought over the last ten years every morning.»

«He's actually nice, you just have to get beyond his Instagram.»

But the promise was too good to pass up. And if I call it that, it's because its appearance makes it a marketing object in its own right. I state. A silver mirrored cover that reflects the slightest beam of light from the bookshop, as if everything had been designed to catch our attention. Then, a label stuck to the top like the stickerpromotional sticker that we hastily affix to the bathroom mirror when we're a little tipsy. And finally, on this one, the headline, worthy of a scandal headline, written in a very bold linear font with the name of the «author» - or, more to the point, the «marketer»... shock!

Already, with these elements alone, we are reduced to mere consumers manipulated by a multitude of processes creating a strong visual identity. But if, on top of that, we have the misfortune to open the book and randomly read one of the quotes, we're left like rats in the clutches of a perfect comm’. I'd even go so far as to say: genius!

«Fashion people only like what they don't understand. So just do something incomprehensible and they love it.»

«Good thing he has his glasses to give him personality.»

«I need a one-week sabbatical.»

But the genius doesn't stop there. The idea of a collection of quotations placed one below the other, with a double space separating them, allows for total independence between them and, above all, an insane neutrality. Because even though Prigent writes a delightful foreword blending a masterful journalistic pen, sarcasm and affection for his «colleagues with uncommon common sense» and a love of fashion, this collection is nonetheless free of opinion, comment and tone.

So we become the reader-actors. It's our opinions about the fashion world or each of these quotes that set the tone. If we choose, this book can be sarcastic, or hilarious, or even enticing if we dream of living in such a world. In short, we find ourselves laughing at one quote, weeping with shame at another, or crying rhetorical genius at a third. But the emotion that surpasses all others is that nasty pleasure of intruding into an environment that is, for most of us, unfamiliar. To be a voyeur of a hundred lives and, above all, to belong, if only for a moment, to this world of luxury and glitter. But thinking «Oh, no, but I'd be way above that»... Go figure!

«The new thing is really sincerity. I love it and I'm completely changing the way I communicate.»

«My boss asked me for a charities moodboard because she wants to get into charity work.»

«- I'm on sick leave.
- But why?
- I hurt myself opening a bottle of champagne at work.»

Loïc Prigent offers us here an experiment in genius: the appropriation of «foreign» content, sold within a marketing object. Literary journalism? Relating facts - this time in their utmost authenticity. So much so, in fact, that they become neutral and free for readers to interpret. A bit of guilty genius, in fact, that we read with delight, buy shyly and praise with bitterness. Because, let's be honest, it's a bit dishonest...

And since we've been fed the «fashionista de luxe» attitude, let's say that Prigent's genius here is «a neo-journalistic and literary proposition". merger where journalism and satire come together in a cameo of champagne burst with caviar raised under a vegan-eco-responsible label.»