I’m one of these blessed individuals with discerning eyes. I can detect items I like from a distance, within a crowded space or in a mad shopping dash. It was under such circumstance that Walter and I found ourselves smack in the middle of the overcrowded Avenue des Champs Elysées.
The sole of my long-lasting suedes had decided to divorce itself from its main body, leaving me hobbling around Paris like a flapping feet clown. Something drastic had to be done before my shoe disintegrates on wet ground.
While Walter, my beloved was sniggering at my fashion malfunction, I couldn’t help but reminisce an amusing incident during the 1969 Prêt-à-Porter trade fair I attended with my then mentor and an accomplished fashion photographer, Count Mario.
Our four-person entourage, Mario, Andy, my then handsome – 19-year-old model looking lover/Valet, Sammy (a petite gay fashionista) and the teenage moi (a soon-to-be professional fashion designer) were out shopping at this very same boulevard on a wet drizzly day.
To elongate his otherwise five-foot-tall stature, Sammy had donned a pair of 8 inches high platform shoes, camouflaged by his floor-length, extremely wide bell-bottom jeans. To complete his eccentric ensemble, he wore a tight fitted/clinger-waisted denim jacket together with streaks of long emerald and cornflower colored hair to match.
All eyes turned towards these four outré queer men as we trooped around Paris in style. Before we knew what had transpired, Sammy laid flat on the pavement. His colorful platforms had given way under the slippery sidewalk. Socks of every conceivable color scattered around him. He had stuffed his platforms with socks so his tiny feet could fit into the trendy footwear.
Not wasting a perfect photographic opportunity, Mario whipped out his camera to capture this unanticipated fashion faux pas; while Andy and I looked on in shock. Quick-witted Sammy seized this otherwise embarrassing situation and transformed it into a vogue photo-opt. He posed this way and that on the wet thoroughfare as if modeling for an “L'Uomo Vogue” fashion shoot.
As our fashion photographer clicked away at this impromptu gaffe, a pedestrian ring had surrounded us; eager to witness a “fashion happening” in the middle of Avenue des Champs Elysées.
By the time, we assisted dearest Sammy to his feet, he had saved face with his stylish wit and grace. The applauding crowd showered us with accolades.
This and other amusing vignettes are documented in A Harem Boy’s Saga; a memoir by Young (moi – aka Bernard Foong) - (a 5 – 7 book autobiographical series): http://amzn.to/1FMlHVY
Bernard Foong (aka Young)
A HAREM BOY’S SAGA (series) - Film Option Agreement signed with a UK Film production company.
Book I - INITIATION is currently in film pre-production.
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