It’s too bad EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht wasn’t at the couture shows last week. It would have given him lots of ammunition during this week’s EU-US free trade talks (presuming they go ahead) when the question of the French exception culturelle is raised. After all, the fashion industry is not covered – not even the made-to-order highest end of it, as invented and perfected in Paris. What became increasingly clear during the collections is that, other than location, couture no longer seems to have much to do with France.
歐盟貿易專員卡洛•德古赫特(Karel De Gucht)沒參加之前舉辦的時裝秀實在是太不給力了。要不然，在最近舉辦的歐盟與美國進行自由貿易談判中，一旦提及「法國文化例外政策」 (French exception culturelle)話題，就會讓他擁有充足的反擊材料。然而，時裝業並未列入談判內容範疇——甚至最高階的定製服裝也未能列入，要知道，它們可是在巴黎被創立並臻於完美的。在整個高級定製時裝週期間，除了舉辦地之外，高級定製時裝似乎已與法國沒多大關係。