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.
欧盟贸易专员卡洛•德古赫特(Karel De Gucht)没参加之前举办的时装秀实在是太不给力了。要不然，在最近举办的欧盟与美国进行自由贸易谈判中，一旦提及“法国文化例外政策” (French exception culturelle)话题，就会让他拥有充足的反击材料。然而，时装业并未列入谈判内容范畴——甚至最高端的定制服装也未能列入，要知道，它们可是在巴黎被创立并臻于完美的。在整个高级定制时装周期间，除了举办地之外，高级定制时装似乎已与法国没多大关系。