Here We Go Again

Ms. New Beauty likes to consider herself a pretty tough cookie. She's a city girl at heart, so she knows how to navigate the world with a healthy dose of realism mixed with a little bit of worst case scenario. So, she tries not to be surprised at people's antics. But some things never cease to amaze her. Chief among them are business and luxury professionals who publicly speak of their disdain and distaste for their customers. First, Tommy Hilfiger got it hit with that Oprah show rumor, but we soon learned that was untrue. And, yet despite all the outrage and lingering beliefs among some that Tommy was guilty of such an offense, for some reason, Francois Rouzaud felt perfectly comfortable opening up to The Economist about his real feelings about his champagne, Cristal, being the bubbly of choice among hip hop's elite. Well he got what he wanted because Ms. New Beauty has not seen a bottle of Cristal available at any of the nightclubs or lounges she's been to since that controversy erupted. And now, Francois Girbaud, purveyor or designer denim, has added payed his initiation fees and joined "The International Brotherhood of I'll Take Your Money but Still Not Like You Buying My Product."

Sacré Bleu Jean? Denim Legend François Girbaud N’est Pas Pumped About His Company’s Hip-Hop Image

by David Foxley Published: July 24, 2007

Tags: The City

This article was published in the July 29, 2007, edition of The New York Observer.

On Monday, July 23, the French designer François Girbaud hosted a party celebrating his new line of denim clothing, called Le Jean, in the Marithé and François Girbaud Showroom, which occupies the 9th floor of a building on 10th Avenue and 36th Street. The crowd, overwhelmingly comprised of fashionably dressed African-Americans in their mid-20’s, seemed blissfully unaware that their host has apparently been less than thrilled about their devotion to the brand.

“Somewhere, the company was running too much in some direction, too much in hip-hop stuff,” Mr. Girbaud, 62, told the Transom (perhaps taking a page from the playbook of a compatriot who last year expressed disdainful befuddlement toward rappers’ loyalty to the Champagne label Cristal). He was wearing a black-collared shirt over baggy black jeans, which were adorned with a single drooping silver chain that smacked against his knee as he strode through the streamlined space. “To be just connected in the hip-hop stuff is other brand; there is people like Russell Simmons or Damon Dash or Puff Daddy or all this kind. I’m not the rap people. Sure, we introduced the baggy jeans, we introduced stonewashed and all this stuff in the 60’s or 70’s, I never target just to be ethnic. It’s stupid.”

. . .

“It’s really boring, non?” he said of the current denim market. “It’s just the same. I walk through projects today, and it’s the same five-pocket jeans. It’s not giving so much possibility to young generation to express themselves.”

When it comes to his own self-expression, Mr. Girbaud seems to think that the exigencies of marketing are cramping his style. “I have to talk like that”—he flashed a gang hand-sign—“and speak like that”—he flashed another gang hand-sign—“and move like that”—he grabbed his crotch—“and it’s ridiculous!” Now he was shouting. “What we bring into the market was always innovative, and I feel now I am trapped and I have to just talk the same way, like I have to have skulls and some kind of snakes. It’s boring, it’s really boring!”

. . .

Truthfully, I haven't worn a stitch of Girbaud clothing since the fifth grade, but if I ever had an itch to purchase some, this article has officially scratched it.


Save your money, don't reward businesses that don't respect you, and remember that Ms. New Beauty told you!