bedbugs in the front row

Social networks, press and… fashion week. The issue of bedbugs didn’t stop at the front doors of fashion shows. Anna Wintour’s cool silhouette is itching, including at the back: “We just need to talk about it for it to itch,” says a fashion journalist, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, a few feet away. Vogue American. The name of tiny insects was on everyone’s lips during the nine-day fashion week in Paris. THE New York Times even dividedan article It’s relevant, not without a touch of irony. “Top tips from Paris Fashion Week? How to avoid bedbugs?” The editorial team of the New York newspaper with the title knows very well that this scourge was infested in 2019.

You forgot the places where you can taste the best buttery croissants, the cult addresses, the Paris of your dreams. Emily from the journalist (in paris), the imaginary archetype of the American in the capital went into commando mode. She left aside her wool felt beret and bright pink silk blouse and turned to clothes that were safe to be machine washed at 60 degrees. Their best gossip right now concerns potentially infested hotels, restaurants and bars. His suitcase, which was carefully examined before, no longer comes out of the bathtub of his hotel room. Her current favorite accessory is a heated tent she bought on Amazon. Sitting in the subway is no longer possible.

scorching autumn

The magnifying glass effect of social networks is working at full speed. Videos of bedbugs crawling on transport seats in Paris play on a loop: shared on TikTok By Korean influencer Jihoon Kim at the end of fashion week. At the entrance to a fashion show, the young woman is unsheathed by a press officer, both surprised and skeptical to find her ankles and calves covered in red splotches: “I thought bedbug bites had surfaced on the internet…”. The influencer reassures her: She will never take the metro in Paris again. It doesn’t matter that RATP and SNCF deny the existence of bedbugs on their trains: the video has been viewed almost three million times.

In fact, some were thrilled by the soft seats and magnificent theater decor with red velvet upholstery at the Balenciaga show on October 1. Exaggerated? Psychosis is gaining ground, that’s for sure. For a few weeks, bedbugs around the podiums no longer had a secret to keep from anyone. Of course, there is no need to be ironic or deny the plight of bedbug victims, as more than one in ten households in France is affected by this condition. Moreover, everyone knows that these can be stored in a luxury bag as well as in a purse. women bag (a cloth bag). In the crowded rows, overheated by a scorching autumn, there was no shortage of furtive and repeated glances at designer bags and other luxury jackets. Bedbugs, it seems, are challenging the social order, including the fashion week crowd. In this fashion epicenter, front row seats represent a crucial power issue. But bedbugs don’t care if they eat front row.