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  • 4 months ago
In an era known for protests and sit-ins, the 1973 Grand Divertissement at Versailles, made a statement of its own - a fashion statement. The legendary event pitting the five lions of French couture Givenchy, Dior, Ungaro, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin with five American designers Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Anne Klein, Stephen Burrows and Bill Blass created a cross-stitch of change across fashion, race, business and catwalks. When African American models Bethann Hardison, Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn, Billie Blair, Norma Jean Darden, Barbara Jackson, Jennifer Brice, Romana Saunders and Amina Warsuma boarded the plane to Paris, they had no idea they would help change the course of fashion and pull off its biggest coup. Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution tells this story
Transcript
00:10This whole event was to help repair history.
00:13The Versailles 1973 event actually started in a very different way than it ended up.
00:18This idea, which at the time was absolutely crazy, to have five designers from New York
00:25competing with five designers from Paris.
00:30And it ended up being a battle, or that's what the press said it was,
00:36between the American and the French designers.
00:39It started out very low-key. There's a show that's going to happen in Paris and they're looking for models.
00:45Some people that were close to you didn't get selected to go, but the main girls got in.
00:50I never would have been there if it wasn't for Bill Watts.
00:52It was very, very important for everybody because everybody involved was put into the light in the best way, you
01:00know.
01:01The French had very elaborate sets. They had very complicated routines.
01:06It was electrifying. For all the stiffness of the French thing, the Americans got out there and just slammed them
01:14with this, just this raw energy.
01:16We moved it a little bit, a lot a bit, in an extraordinary amount, and it just took over everything.
01:23Something happened there that night, and the French were willing to admit it.
01:28American sportswear was something that had to be paid attention to.
01:34There are moments in history that changed the course of history.
01:39That was a moment in history that changed the course of fashion history.
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