“Continue with Cuypers “
This is the intelligent “motto” and intervention principle  wisely chosen to restore the Rijksmuseum to its full glory.
Pierre Cuypers was the Dutch Viollet-le-Duc … or better told, he was a mix of Viollet-le-Duc, Pugin, Ruskin and George Gilbert Scott, and he represented all the concerns of The Gothic Revival with “Arts and Crafts” and the importance of Revivalism to National and Religious Identity .
The original Interiors of The XIX Century Rijksmuseum were brought back in its glorious poly-chromatic symphony of Nostalgic Medieval Romantic Eclecticism, typical of the “Victorian” late XIX Century.
The pedagogical aspect is deeply enriched and perfectly effective through the chronological reunion of all the aspects of Cultural History / Decorative Arts / Political History / Painting / Sculpture.
Somehow, ironically, in this age of affirmative  Architectural “Stars”, by rupture and sensationalism in Museum Architecture, this Intervention represents the Triumph of The XIX Century over Modernism.
A remarkable “Dialectical Inversion” of History ?
A “sign” of times in this Europe deeply concerned about its Future and in search of Identity?
Yours, Jeeves.

Members of the Press discover with amazement the New Restored Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam ca 1895 Simon Schama: the Rijksmuseum reopens By Simon Schama in The Financial Times March 29, 2013 / http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6050ffc2-96cb-11e2-a77c-00144feabdc0.html#slide8 The ‘Museum of the Netherlands’ opens its doors after a 10-year restoration At last. There they were, all my old friends, missed these past 10 years, propped up against the wall, waiting their turn to be back where they belonged: on the walls of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. There were the dangling legs of Gabriël Metsu’s hollow-eyed sick child cradled in the arms of his mother; there was Adriaen Coorte’s bunch of white asparagus, ghostly against the blackness, filaments of its bundling twine pressing against the papery skin. There was another pair of legs, belonging to Jan Steen’s pretty slattern, curls escaping her soft cap, perched on the edge of a bed, garter-marked right leg slung over the left, the underside of her thigh scandalously visible, rolling her scarlet stockings. “What do you think?” asked Taco Dibbits, the Rijksmuseum’s director of collections and the hero, along with the museum’s general-director Wim Pijbes, of its exhilaratingly brilliant makeover, “Up or down?” “Down” I said. “Oh that’s settled then,” he said, wearing his knowledgeable smile. The reunion was well under way. Earlier we’d watched as chubby-chinned Saskia, cow-eyes glittering, was hoisted back on to the wall of a room full of early Rembrandts. Already on station was the grieving Jeremiah in his dove-grey velvet coat, head slumped as the temple burns behind him; the young boho Rembrandt mugging with his unruly hair and knobbly nose half-masked by shadows to project depths of poetic melancholy. Dibbits and Pijbes were thinking of borrowing the slogan “weerzien met de meesters” (meeting up again with the masters) from the reopening of the Rijksmuseum at the end of the second world war. The present moment can’t have quite that sense of national resurrection but it is still an emotively charged reunion of the public with works that are inseparable from the sense of who, collectively, the Dutch are. What has been done with the museum is less a restoration with some fancy contemporary design than the inauguration of a curatorial revolution. When you see those early Rembrandts or the great mannerist “Massacre of the Innocents” of Cornelis van Haarlem with its ballet of twisting rumps, you will also encounter, as would those who would first have seen them, the silver, weapons and cabinets that were the furniture of the culture that made those pictures possible. You will enter the historical world of the Netherlands at a particular moment. And, because the objects are housed in frameless, edgeless displays in which the glass is of a stunning invisibility, nothing in one’s field of vision separates images from artefacts. The objects are not there amid the paintings in the service of ornamental atmospherics. They have been chosen by Dibbits and his colleagues from the vast Rijksmuseum holdings to create an active dialogue between pictures and artefacts, the material world and the cultural imagination. The idea is gently rather than dogmatically social, and it owes something to a scholarly tradition, best embodied in the work of the great Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga (1872-1945), which believed that images, objects and texts were indivisibly related in the creation of a common culture. In keeping with recent art history’s emphasis on the creative force of a milieu in the making of a master (rather than the musings of solitary genius), the young(ish) Rembrandt is installed in the company of friends and patrons. One of those friends, the framemaker Herman Doomer, is represented by a spectacular ebony and mother-of-pearl cabinet. Another friend, the goldsmith Jan Lutma, is present in a stunning drinking bowl in the form of a slickly glistening opened oyster. Collaborations and relationships bounce from wall to wall. Rembrandt’s early self-portrait is complemented by the in-your-face self-image painted by his Leiden doppelgänger and rival Jan Lievens, who also supplies a head of their shared patron Constantijn Huygens, learned secretary of Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik. If this all sounds daunting and distracting, it really isn’t. History and art have their natural companionship restored, for – although historians condescendingly suppose images to be “soft” evidence of the past, and art historians suspect historians of obtuse philistinism – the truth is, as Huizinga knew, they need each other to reconstruct the reality of lost worlds. History without the eloquence of images is blind; art without the testimony of texts is deaf.

 Parisian flat containing €2.1 million painting lay untouched for 70 years

By Henry Samuel in Paris  04 Oct 2010 in The Telegraph / http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8042281/Parisian-flat-containing-2.1-million-painting-lay-untouched-for-70-years.html

 For 70 years the Parisian apartment had been left uninhabited, under lock and key, the rent faithfully paid but no hint of what was inside.

Behind the door, under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects including a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.

The woman who owned the flat had left for the south of France before the Second World War and never returned.

But when she died recently aged 91, experts were tasked with drawing up an inventory of her possessions and homed in on the flat near the Trinité church in Paris between the Pigalle red light district and Opera.

Entering the untouched, cobweb-filled flat in Paris' 9th arrondissement, one expert said it was like stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty, where time had stood still since 1900.

"There was a smell of old dust," said Olivier Choppin-Janvry, who made the discovery. Walking under high wooden ceilings, past an old wood stove and stone sink in the kitchen, he spotted a stuffed ostrich and a Mickey Mouse toy dating from before the war, as well as an exquisite dressing table.

But he said his heart missed a beat when he caught sight of a stunning tableau of a woman in a pink muslin evening dress.

The painting was by Boldini and the subject a beautiful Frenchwoman who turned out to be the artist's former muse and whose granddaughter it was who had left the flat uninhabited for more than half a century.

The muse was Marthe de Florian, an actress with a long list of ardent admirers, whose fervent love letters she kept wrapped neatly in ribbon and were still on the premises. Among the admirers was the 72nd prime minister of France, George Clemenceau, but also Boldini.

The expert had a hunch the painting was by Boldini, but could find no record of the painting. "No reference book dedicated to Boldini mentioned the tableau, which was never exhibited," said Marc Ottavi, the art specialist he consulted about the work.

When Mr Choppin-Janvry found a visiting card with a scribbled love note from Boldini, he knew he had struck gold. "We had the link and I was sure at that moment that it was indeed a very fine Boldini".

He finally found a reference to the work in a book by the artist's widow, which said it was painted in 1898 when Miss de Florian was 24.

The starting price for the painting was €300,000 but it rocketed as ten bidders vyed for the historic work. Finally it went under the hammer for €2.1 million, a world record for the artist.

"It was a magic moment. One could see that the buyer loved the painting; he paid the price of passion," said Mr Ottavi.

 When the image of moral authority that sustains the symbolical “majesty”,  representing the “metaphysics” of State and Nation is tarnished … what is the point ?
For those who really care about the Monarchy … worrying … really worrying.

“This is a deep-rooted crisis that will have much wider repercussions"

 King Juan Carlos' annus horribilis


- June 3, 2011. The king undergoes an operation on his right knee. The Zarzuela Palace says he has difficulties walking.

- June 4. Juan Carlos has another operation, this time on the Achilles' tendon of his left foot. The media were not informed until after surgery.

- October 26. For the first time, the king's popularity falls to below 50 percent.

- November 2011. The police search the offices of the Nóos Foundation, of which Iñaki Urdangarin, the king's son-in-law, was president.

- December 12. The Royal Household excludes Urdangarin and Princess Cristina from official acts.

- December 24. In his Christmas speech, the king refers to the Urdangarin crisis, saying "we are all equal before the law."

- December 27. Congress gives the king a standing ovation at the opening of the Lower House' 10th legislature.

- December 28. The Zarzuela Palace publishes the Royal Household's accounts.

- December 29. The courts publish details of the investigation into Urdangarin's business activities.

- February 25, 2012. Urdangarin appears before an investigating magistrate.

- March 20. The king meets with the country's business leaders at the Zarzuela Palace to encourage them to "put their shoulders to the wheel" and create jobs.

- April 14. He undergoes another operation, this time for a fractured hip after falling while on a hunting trip to Botswana.

- April 25. The king receives further surgery to correct his prior hip replacement operation.

“Any loss of prestige could reduce his ability to open doors for Spanish firms.”

King Juan Carlos has apologized following an accident while on a private hunting trip in Botswana.

The gravity of the situation

It has been a tough year for King Juan Carlos, with corruption scandals involving his son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarin, health issues, and now an unprecedentedly hostile ride from the media over his Botswana hunting accident

CARLOS E. CUÉ 3 MAY 2012 in El Pais in English / http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/05/03/inenglish/1336057066_975482.html

King Juan Carlos has apologized following an accident while on a private hunting trip in Botswana. Monarchs seldom give accounts of their private activities, and much less apologize, so while his unprecedented act of contrition may have helped assuage a populace angered by their head of state nipping off to shoot elephants while they have to deal with the toughest austerity cuts in living memory, it has also prompted many politicians and commentators to ask privately whether the time has come for the 74-year-old, who faces health problems, to stand down.
Sources close to the Royal Household say Juan Carlos was shaken by the media and public's response to his accident. After all, the trip was a private affair, and was meant to be kept that way. Recent proposals for legislation to improve transparency in Spanish political life will not include the Royal Household. When told that the king was off to Botswana to kill wild animals at the invitation of an unnamed multi-millionaire, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, like his predecessors before him, raised no objections.
But in reality, under Spain's arrangements governing its constitutional monarchy, the government is supposed to oversee the king's activities, whether private hunting trips or public engagements. The prime minister has said that from now on, he will be coordinating more closely with the king.
The Royal Household was also embarrassed earlier this month when the king's 13-year-old grandson Felipe Juan Froilán, son of the Infanta Elena, literally shot himself in the foot while using a gun below the legal age.
The incidents have sparked unprecedented criticism of the royals in a country where the press has traditionally treated the House of Bourbon with kid gloves, avoiding British-style reporting on their private lives, even when foreign magazines have run stories on the king's alleged lovers.
The accident was initially kept secret for 36 hours, until finally, when Juan Carlos had returned home and was about to undergo an operation on his hip, a brief press note was released. Any hopes that the affair would pass unnoticed soon proved ingenuous. The media seized on the key points - luxury safari, Botswana, hunting elephants at 15,000 euros a pop - and even dug up a photo from a previous excursion there showing the hapless monarch standing somewhat stiffly before a magnificent pachyderm that he had just pumped full of lead slumped head first against a tree. And all this in a week when Spain's borrowing rates went through the roof, and of course not long after the king, the honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund, had expressed his concern about the country's 50 percent unemployment rate among young people and called on the business community to put its shoulder to the wheel. Talk about the perfect storm.
The king and his advisors could do nothing as the taboo of respecting what the monarch does in his private life was broken once and for all. Over the following five days, as he recovered in hospital and the domestic, and then the international media, indulged in a feeding frenzy of hunting- and firearms-related headlines he came to the conclusion that either he fessed up, or he was finished, a figure of ridicule. Because there was no way the two main parties could continue to support him otherwise. So, as he hobbled out of hospital, a weary looking Juan Carlos spoke to the media: "I am very sorry. I was wrong, and it won't happen again."
The king's supporters like to say that he has always been able to gauge the mood of his subjects, which explains his popularity after 36 years on the throne. Bearing in mind that in October 2011 his popularity fell for the first time to below 50 percent, and that support among those under 35 years old has been declining steadily for 20 years - a drop that will probably accelerate as the scandal involving his son-in-law's business dealings continues - it is puzzling that he failed to foresee the likely consequences of his African sojourn.
Sources close to the Royal Household say that the king is less and less interested in affairs of state, and that he is tired. In May 2010, surgeons removed a tumor from his lung. Last year he underwent two more operations, on his knee and ankle. In 2010 he sent Prince Felipe to attend the final of the World Cup in South Africa, making it clear that from now on he would be spending more time on leisure activities.
At the same time, he has made it equally clear that he has no intention of standing aside to let Felipe take over. After his post-accident request for forgiveness, the king noted: "I am very well, and looking forward to returning to my obligations," among which is a weekly meeting with the prime minister, which was duly held.
"If the king decides to abdicate, it would be due to illness, and certainly wouldn't be in response to a perceived crisis, or a scandal, or outside pressure. Apart from anything else, abdicating under those circumstances would contaminate Felipe's succession," says a senior figure in the Popular Party.
That said, Felipe has been taking on a more public role in recent years, for example, attending presidential inaugurations in Latin America, a policy that is eroding the influence that the king once exercised in the region.
A new generation of leaders is emerging in Latin America that barely knows the king, and has little reason to respect him. The famous incident in 2007 when he told Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to "shut up" may have raised smiles at home and in Europe and the United States, but failed to amuse the region's leaders, who are increasingly distanced from what was once the motherland. Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's joke about the similarity between the country's oil output curve and that of an elephant's trunk was a less-than-subtle hint that the king should keep out of the decision to seize Repsol's stake in YPF. Juan Carlos was in Botswana when the oil firm was renationalized.
In the meantime, Prince Felipe is trying to forge links with the next generation of Spain's leaders, aware that his father's popularity was in large part due to the perceived role he played in protecting the country's transition to democracy. But Felipe is unlikely to be given the opportunity to defuse a military overthrow, as his father did in 1981.
As his father did before him, this will mean reaching out to politicians whose party affiliations put them on the side of the anti-monarchists, a policy that angers many on the right, who see Juan Carlos as too close to the Socialist Party already. The future of Felipe relies on the continued support of the Socialist Party; the minute it starts to wane, there will be no stopping a widespread debate on the future of the monarchy. Felipe is well aware of the activities of the pro-Republican movement, he knows which town halls are controlled by the Communist Party-led United Left, and he has personally met its leaders, as well as kept abreast of anti-monarchy groups within the Socialist Party. His is a very different approach to his father's hail-fellow-well-met line: he is respectful, professional, and attentive, but there is no backslapping.
The government and the PP's concern at the moment is disagreement between the moderate right and the monarchists. A recent article by the former editor of ABC by the monarchist newspaper's former editor, José Antonio Zarzalejos, upset the apple cart when it accused the king of having squandered his popularity and undermining the hard work of Prince Felipe.
The succession isn't the problem. For the moment, Prince Felipe is managing to protect his image. The problem is with the institution itself, and talking to Spain's politicians and royal pundits, the monarchy's image problem goes back much further than Juan Carlos' poorly timed trip to Botswana, which has been dubbed the "straw that broke the elephant's back" by some.
Far worse has been the damage caused by the media coverage of the investigation into one of Spain's most serious corruption cases, involving the king's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin. While Juan Carlos was in hospital, emails were published showing that Juan Carlos himself had personally intervened on behalf of Urdangarin to the then head of the Valencian regional government, Francisco Camps, who himself had to step down as he faced trial over corruption allegations. When the Urdangarin case first broke at the end of last year, the king implemented a damage limitation exercise to exclude Urdangarin and Princess Cristina from official events, as well as announcing that the Royal Household's accounts would now be made public. The king also said that he had asked Urdangarin in 2006 to cease his business activities with the foundation at the center of the scandal. The meeting with Camps was subsequent to this.

The scandal shows no signs of going away any time soon. Urdangarin is now locked in a battle of mutual accusations with his business partner, Diego Torres, who is threatening to publish allegedly compromising emails and other documentation that supposedly shows the king's involvement in his son-in-law's nefarious activities. If such evidence exists, and it emerges, the monarchy could face a serious crisis.
One business leader puts it in the following terms: "Strangely enough, the uproar over the elephant shooting has distracted attention away from the Urdangarin affair. This, and the still considerable groundswell of support the king enjoys, has allowed him to carry on regardless, when it might reasonably be the moment to start thinking about other questions, such as the succession."
It's hard to assess how much damage the Urdangarin affair and the hunting trip have done to the king's popularity. But there is no denying that he remains an important asset for Spain. Not just because of his experience, but above all because of his international contacts, built up over the course of his almost four decades as head of state. He also enjoys close friendships with other monarchs, particularly in the Arab world, who control their countries' key businesses. Juan Carlos played an important role in helping the consortium of Spanish companies win the contract to build a high-speed train between the Saudi Arabian cities of Medina and Mecca, seeing off a bid backed personally by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. This kind of influence is rarely made public, but is well understood by politicians.
The head of one of Spain's largest corporations, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says: "The country's most important business leaders often ask him to lend a hand in their overseas expansion, or in paving the way toward winning a big international contract. Any damage to his reputation will damage Spain's business interests. Obviously, this incident has created problems, but I don't think that it will affect his credibility, especially after he apologized, which is a very unusual thing to do."
Another business leader suggests that the king ought to "explain what he does" to the public. There is widespread concern that any loss of prestige could reduce his ability to open doors for Spain's businesses. All cite the Saudi contract, with some saying that the hunting trip was part of the behind-the-scenes protocol, involving senior Saudi figures. Others say he should have known better: "Especially after saying that he couldn't sleep at nights, and after having met with business leaders to encourage them to create jobs; then it emerges that he has gone on safari. It looks bad."
The gaffe couldn't have come at a worse time. Aside from the worsening economy, there is the regional question. The monarchy is not popular in the Basque Country or Catalonia, and with nationalist parties in control in Catalonia, and the possibility that next year a coalition between the Basque Nationalist Party and leftist pro-independence grouping Bildu could win power, is a cause for concern for the government.



Prince Felipe, who for the moment is standing in for the king at official acts, will experience the less-than-fond regard many in the Basque Country and Catalonia hold for the monarchy when he attends the final of the King's Cup on May 25 between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao.



Some observers say the pace of change in Spain has outrun the monarchy, pointing to the emergence of a generation now approaching middle age that doesn't take into account the king's perceived role in defending the country's democracy in the years after the death of Franco: for them, the failed coup of 1981 is ancient history. "If somebody had told you 15 years ago that there would be an institutional crisis because the king had gone elephant hunting in Spain, you wouldn't have believed them. He has always done as he thought best. I can remember many occasions when nobody knew where the king was. He hasn't changed, he might have slowed down a bit, but Spain has changed, and the powerful are under a lot more scrutiny than before," says one veteran politician.
"This reminds me of what happened in 1975, when Franco was dying, and the Moroccans decided to march into Western Sahara. When a country is seen abroad as weak, others will take advantage. This will affect our business dealings. The king has always been involved in representing Spain's economic interests, particularly regarding energy; you only have to look at the number of trips he has made to oil- and gas-producing nations. This is a deep-rooted crisis that will have much wider repercussions than you might initially think, and it should be resolved, one way or the other, as soon as possible," says another senior politician.
The king has said that "this won't happen again." He can be sure from now on that every move he makes will be under scrutiny. Some commentators have suggested that apologizing was a mistake, and that if he is seen to make another error of judgment, there will be no second chance. And recently, the king's sense of judgment has been under question. He more or less ordered the Queen to be quiet at an event earlier in the year, and then lost his temper with journalists who had accused him of exaggerating his health problems, saying: "You've got it in for me, you're always getting at me."
Those close to the king say that he is aware of the gravity of the situation, and will be listening more closely than has been the case recently to his advisors, even if he is not prepared to give up his private life. He now knows that the pact of silence that has protected him for the last 36 years has been definitively broken, at least as far as the Spanish public is concerned. There is no going back.

Juan Carlos / Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein Sayn-Wittgenstein's name first became public knowledge after she appeared as the mystery woman who travelled to Botswana when King Juan Carlos – then honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – secretly joined a free elephant hunt. His wife, Queen Sofia, was left behind. Sayn-Wittgenstein said she had travelled with another former husband, Briton Philip Atkins. She and the king were no more than "close friends", she told El Mundo , who had met nine years ago at the Duke of Westminster's Spanish hunting estate.

Spain's King Juan Carlos is engulfed in scandal
The once-popular king is losing public support even as he lies in a hospital bed. Some are talking of abdication
Giles Tremlett
The Guardian, Monday 4 March 2013 / http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/04/spain-king-juan-carlos-scandal

The elderly man who sold me my apartment was clear about Spain's King Juan Carlos. "He is a traitor," he said.

That was more than a decade ago, and it was a shocking – almost blasphemous – thing to say. Only diehard republicans and even harder-headed former Francoists criticised the monarch. Heliodoro was one of the latter, an unreconstructed extremist who never forgave Juan Carlos for using the powers he received from General Francisco Franco in 1975 to usher in democracy. Few would have agreed.

These days, however, Madrid seethes with discontented talk about the monarchy. The upset is proportional to the awed respect once accorded by almost everyone, including journalists who decided Juan Carlos was untouchable after he stopped a coup when civil guardsmen stormed the parliament in 1981.

As the 75-year-old monarch lies in a hospital bed this week, recovering from his fourth operation in 10 months, there is talk of both abdication and of controlling his use of taxpayers' money. The king is not as weak in mind or body as Pope Benedict, but in Madrid there is also a feeling that an old institution needs shaking up – possibly with a new face.

How did it get to this? The hard-working king with the common touch was once Europe's most popular monarch – a virtuous contrast to Britain's distant and dysfunctional royals. I recall once getting lost and driving freely through the deer park surrounding his modest Madrid palace. The royal guards were completely unconcerned when I eventually reappeared in the wrong place.

Yet, as Spaniards endure double-dip recession, government austerity and 26% unemployment, royal privileges suddenly seem less understated. The king's luxuries are beginning to grate.

Reminders of the royal lifestyle were plastered all over newspapers again this week. Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, a stylish 48-year-old who uses a German ex-husband's title to call herself "princess", gave several interviews about her relationship with the monarch. This, she assured doubting Spaniards, was purely professional. She complained, indeed, that his family scandals were now damaging her business as a go-between in deals involving companies and governments – including in the oil-rich Middle East. "This is doing a lot of damage to my professional reputation," she said.

Sayn-Wittgenstein's name first became public knowledge after she appeared as the mystery woman who travelled to Botswana when King Juan Carlos – then honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – secretly joined a free elephant hunt. His wife, Queen Sofia, was left behind. Sayn-Wittgenstein said she had travelled with another former husband, Briton Philip Atkins. She and the king were no more than "close friends", she told El Mundo , who had met nine years ago at the Duke of Westminster's Spanish hunting estate.

Spaniards only found out about the king's freebie after he tripped and broke his hip. The man who claimed he went to bed every night worrying about youth unemployment (currently at 55% among the under-25s) had to be flown home in a special aircraft and hospitalised. A chastened monarch gave an unprecedented apology. "I am very sorry," he said. "I made a mistake. It will not happen again." WWF members were not impressed. A few weeks later they sacked him.

Sayn-Wittgenstein's help did not stop at joining him on safari. She also tried, at the king's beckoning, to find his embattled son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, a job. Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball star who gained the title of Duke of Palma when he married Princess Cristina, is formally suspected of fraud, tax cheating and embezzlement. A court has told him and his business partner to post €8m (£6.9m) bail – though charges have not yet been presented. Now emails between Sayn-Wittgenstein and the royal son-in-law have begun to surface. "I was just trying to find him a suitable job," she said, claiming that she had also done secret, unpaid work for the Spanish government.

Urdangarin has become a toxic royal asset – as damaging to Juan Carlos as the hundreds of thousands of unsold new homes left behind by a burst construction bubble are to the economy. He allegedly hid behind supposedly not-for-profit organisations as he sweated the royal brand for money. This mostly came from rightwing politicians who paid generous sums of taxpayers' cash in return for proximity – and photo opportunities – with the royal son-in-law. Money was then allegedly siphoned to offshore accounts. Court documents leaked to the Cadena Ser radio station purport to show only 1.5% of the money passing through one foundation actually going to help disabled children.

Urdangarin denies wrongdoing and has tried to keep his wife – who sat on the board of one foundation – out of the picture, along with his father-in-law. "The king's household neither opined on, advised, authorised or backed my activities," he said in a statement. Many Spaniards do not believe him. A recent poll saw half say they thought Juan Carlos had helped his son-in-law land business deals. The vast majority said his wife must also have known.

Politicians have caught the popular mood. "From now on either the monarchy is transparent, or it may stop existing," said Carme Chacón, a potential future socialist candidate for prime minister.

And what about the king's reputation as a playboy? Attempts by two people claiming to be his illegitimate offspring to prove his paternity have stumbled across his status as a man who is, literally, above the law. A court threw out their writ on the basis of the king's legal "inviolability".

Juan Carlos's son and heir, Prince Felipe, has stepped up temporarily to represent his father. With the king, who has disc problems, out of action for up to six months, some think the change should be permanent. Pere Navarro, head of the Catalan socialist party, said: "We need a new head of state."

The palace recently took the unusual step of denying the abdication rumours. As the king lies in hospital, however, he may think there are more peaceful ways to see out his old age.

Sir Alan Titchmarsh in Tweed Photograph: Fiona Campbell in the Chap Magazine "The lovable horticulturalist, popular with elderly ladies due to his affable yet informed approach to the business of tending one’s garden, is clearly in possession of proper gardening attire and knowledge of the rules of country dress. It therefore seems a pity that he chooses to do his televised gardening in a range of sensible fleeces during the chilly months, and in open-necked shirts and casual chino-style trousers, no doubt with elasticated waistbands, during the more clement seasons."

The Vogue Factor, by Kirstie Clements, former editor of Australian Vogue She was fired in May 2012 after 25 years at the magazine

Samantha Cameron watches painfully-thin Chloe Memisevic walk for Erdem at London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2011,  left, and former Australian Vogue editor Kirstie Clements, right

Clements says models eat tissues to stay full and starve themselves for days

How supermodels stay 'Paris thin' by eating TISSUES: Sacked Vogue editor exposes brutal truths of fashion world in tell-all book


The Vogue Factor, by Kirstie Clements, former editor of Australian Vogue

Clements says models eat tissues to stay full and starve themselves for days

She was fired in May 2012 after 25 years at the magazine

By MARTHA DE LACEY in The Daily Mail.

PUBLISHED:, 2 April 2013 / http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2302957/The-Vogue-Factor-Sacked-Australian-Vogue-editor-Kirstie-Clements-writes-books-fashion-industry-claiming-models-starve-eat-tissues-stay-full.html

For those who puzzle over how supermodels stay so whippet thin, a former Vogue editor has lifted the lid on the horrific lengths some go to to maintain their wispy waistlines and cut-glass hipbones.
Kirstie Clements, sensationally fired from her role as editor of Australian Vogue last May, has written a tell-all book about the fashion industry, claiming some models eat tissue paper to feel full, starve themselves for days on end, spend frequent stints on hospital drips, and are often so weak with hunger they struggle to keep their eyes open.
As reported by Georgia Graham in the International Business Times, The Vogue Factor also explains that within the fashion world there is 'thin', and then there is 'Paris thin' - a term that describes the size of a model who has starved their already fragile body down two dress sizes in order to be cast in big oversea shows.
In her controversial tome, Clements says she once spent three days on a shoot with a model who didn't see her eat a single meal - and that on the final day she could barely stand or keep her eyes open.
She also reveals how an Russian model once told her that her flat mate was a 'fit' model - a model whose body is used by top designers for clothes-fittings - and therefore spent lots of time on a drip.
Clements spent 25 years at Australian Vogue - her book's subhead is 'from front desk to editor' - and steered the ship for 13 of them.
Her departure was sudden - she was called to a meeting and dismissed, forced to clean her office and leave without bidding farewell to her staff - and she was replaced quickly by Edwina McCann, editor of Harper's Bazaar.
Clements describes her sacking simply as a 'regime change' that was part and parcel of the dramatic Vogue narrative, but some critics believe the new book - her first - is her way of exacting revenge on the Rupert Murdoch-owned title.

Artist/Rebel/Dandy celebrates the pleasures of the sharp-dressed man, from the discreet sophistication of the consummately elegant George Bryan “Beau” Brummell in the early 19th century to the diverse, highly personal flair of the tastemakers who color the landscape of menswear today. Since the word “dandy” came into vogue in London in 1813, it has at times been used to describe someone superficial, flamboyant, and self-indulgent. Instead, the dandy is here shown to employ profound thought and imagination in his self-presentation, fashioning an image that often challenges the status quo and transcends the ordinary.

A series of fascinating essays traces the often contradictory definitions and images of the dandy, the history of young men and their clothes in the long 19th century, the exquisite fabrics and tailoring that play an important role in dandy style, and the relationship of black dandyism and hip-hop. In addition, this book features fifteen musings on notable dandies written by individuals who share a kinship with their subject, including Patti Smith considering Charles Baudelaire; a reflection on Oscar Wilde by his grandson, Merlin Holland; Daniela Morera, formerly part of Andy Warhol’s Factory crowd, reminiscing about the artist’s image; and writer Philip Hoare describing the “thrift-shop dandyism” of director John Waters.


 Celebrating The Dandy at RISD’s "Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion" in Providence

Monday Dec 31, 2012 / EDGE on The Net / http://www.edgeonthenet.com/style/fashion/137551/celebrating_the_dandy_at_risd&rsquo

PROVIDENCE, RI - The Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design announced that "Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion" will open in the spring of 2013 as the first exhibition of its kind to focus on the persona and history of the distinctively dressed figure of the dandy.
The exhibition features more than 200 objects, including innovative garments, bespoke clothing, works on paper, and paintings, drawn from the Museum’s collections and loans from individuals and national and international institutions.
Beginning with the elegant dandy George "Beau" Brummell (1778-1840), the exhibition traces artist-dandies throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The role of exquisite craftsmanship in custom design, the dandy’s role as both fashion icon and caricature, and the contributions of today’s style leaders, such as Thom Browne, Rick Owens, Ouigi Theodore, and Waris Ahluwalia are explored. An illustrated book accompanies the show, which runs from April 28 to August 18, 2013.
The exhibition breaks ground by emphasizing the personalities of well-known fashionable men, focusing on the enduring bond between identity, creativity, and self-presentation. "The exhibition and its companion book offer a sumptuous view of the power of clothing and fine craftsmanship. It comes at a time of renewed appreciation for the nuances and attention to detail of traditional tailoring but also innovation and boldness in menswear design. The dandy, a historical figure, is central to this development," says RISD Museum Director John W. Smith.
Diverging from recent exhibitions that have explored the general topic of menswear or even the 19th-century notion of the dandy, Artist/Rebel/Dandy proposes a new line of inquiry that examines, deconstructs, and expands on popular definitions of the dandy "from one solely concerned with flamboyance and flash to a figure who is innovative, rebellious and profound in thought," say exhibition curators Kate Irvin, Curator and Head of the RISD Museum’s Costume + Textiles Department, and Assistant Curator Laurie Brewer.
Unlike chronological approaches to the history of fashion, Artist/Rebel/Dandy mingles personalities and time periods with original materials to present the dandy in his full spectrum.
For example, the clothing and caricatures of artist Max Beerbohm are on view adjacent to the garments of Vogue magazine’s Hamish Bowles and the clothing designs and social messages of Ouigi Theodore and his menswear emporium Brooklyn Circus.
Words and images of Charles Baudelaire feature alongside the clothing and style snippets of the late RISD Painting Professor Richard Merkin and the designs and slogans of impresario Malcolm McLaren. The fabrics and designs of the firms Dashing Tweeds and Luciano Barbera are represented by the designers themselves, the contemporary dandies Guy Hills and Luciano Barbera.
The fully illustrated book, co-published and distributed by Yale University Press (2013), includes essays by curators Irvin and Brewer, fashion editor Christopher Breward, and Barnard College English professor Monica L. Miller.
Menswear designer Thom Browne writes the preface, and 15 additional writers contribute "musings" on the topic of artist-dandies, including Glenn O’Brien, contributor to GQ magazine, past editor of Interview magazine and New York bureau chief of Rolling Stone, who writes on style icon Beau Brummell; musician, author, and photographer Patti Smith writes on Charles Baudelaire; biographer Merlin Holland writes on his grandfather, Oscar Wilde; scholar and RISD Museum educator Horace D. Ballard Jr. writes on W. E. B. DuBois; and photographer and author Scott Schuman of the Sartorialist blog writes on Luciano Barbera.
EXHIBITION THEMES
Organized thematically, gallery sections include a four-part introduction: "Beau Brummell" illustrates the style of this forbearer of "man at his best"; "Sketches and Definitions" introduces the often contradictory definitions and images of the clothes-wearing man; "Crafting the Dandy" addresses the workmanship and detail that makes up an aggressively individual style of male fashion; and "Relics" brings together garments and accessories that epitomize certain iconic dandies.
While the exhibition stresses the many ways in which the dandy eludes exacting definition, five themes offer a framework for viewers to explore the individual personalities, suggesting kinship across chronological and geographic borders: Historians, Connoisseurs, Revolutionaries, Romantics, and Explorers.
Such figures as Thom Browne, founder and head of design for American fashion label Thom Browne; Waris Ahluwalia, jewelry designer, actor, and columnist for Style.com; W. E. B. Du Bois, noted scholar, editor, and African American activist; Stephen Tennant, author and member of the "Bright Young People" social set, and Motofumi "Poggy" Kogi, director of the Japanese label United Arrows & Sons, buyer for United Arrows, and previously of the fashion label Liquor, Woman & Tears, embody these themes respectively.
The exhibition acknowledges these classifications as fluid and porous and the individuals as capable of spanning several, perhaps even all, categories. Just as they are all simultaneously artists, rebels, and dandies, the figures represented in Artist/Rebel/Dandy are historians, connoisseurs, revolutionaries, romantics, and explorers, each living his productive and creative life in pleasure and enjoyment of his clothing.
"Connecting the actual garments of the creative men who wore them with portrayals of the dandy throughout history offers the viewer fresh insights into the power of fashion and textiles as a male pursuit," say curators Irvin and Brewer. "This line of inquiry not only brings to light collections of the RISD Museum and other institutions, but it also presents clothing as expressions of individual personality and as art," adds Museum Director Smith.
SUPPORT
Artist/Rebel/Dandy is supported by the Coby Foundation, Jake Kaplan’s Jaguar, the RISD Museum Associates, and the Artist/Rebel/Dandy Leadership Committee.


PROGRAMS + EVENTS

Book Signing with André Leon Talley
Friday, April 26, 1 pm
Chace Center Lobby, RISD Museum
André Leon Talley, contributing editor at Vogue and a Brown University alumnus, visits the Museum for the opening of Artist/Rebel/Dandy. In this special event, Talley signs his new book, The Little Black Dress (Rizzoli, 2013). Free, RSVP at risdmuseum.org after April 1.
Museum Associates Annual Gala Fundraiser

Friday, April 26, 6:30 pm
RISD Museum
Join the Museum Associates and special guest André Leon Talley, contributing editor at Vogue, in celebrating the opening of Artist/Rebel/Dandy with cocktails, an exhibition preview, dinner, music, and dancing. Tickets: $500 each. For tickets and information, contact Special Events Manager Pam Kimel at 401 454-6505.

Member Preview Day: Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion
Saturday, April 27, 10 am-6 pm
Chace Center Galleries, RISD Museum

RISD Museum Members are invited to be among the first to view this highly anticipated exhibition. Not a member? Visit risdmuseum.org/join to sign up today!
Member Event: Contemporary Dandy

Saturday, April 27, 2 pm
Location TBA
Accomplished artists, designers, and writers reflect on their personal style and its place in constructing identity and cultural perceptions. For Museum Members, by reservation only. RSVP at risdmuseum.org.


Tweed Ride PVD
Sunday, April 28, time TBA
Depart from Kennedy Plaza

Stylish and well-wheeled gents and ladies enjoy a leisurely bicycle parade through downtown Providence in the city’s first-ever Tweed Ride, complete with high tea!

All welcome, more details to be announced at www.risdmuseum.org.
Southeastern New England’s only comprehensive art museum, the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, also known as the RISD Museum, was established in 1877. Its permanent collection of more than 86,000 objects includes paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, costume, furniture, and other works of art from every part of the world, including objects from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and art of all periods from Asia, Europe, and the Americas, up to the latest in contemporary art.
The RISD Museum, with entrances at 224 Benefit Street and 20 North Main Street in Providence, RI, is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am-5 pm, and 10 am-9 pm every Thursday. Closed Mondays, January 1, July 4, Thanksgiving Day, and December 25. Admission: $12 adults; $10 senior citizens (ages 62+); $5 college students (with valid ID); $3 youths (ages 5-18); always free for Museum members and children under 5, as well as students, staff, and faculty of member institutions. Free admission every Sunday, 10 am-5 pm, and the third Thursday evening of each month, 5-9 pm.
For more information, call 401 454-6500 or visit www.risdmuseum.org

 The Politician's Husband – TV review
Ambition, betrayal and battles in the bedroom – and that's just episode one of this follow-up to Paula Milne's The Politician's Wife
Sam Wollaston
The Guardian, Friday 26 April 2013 / http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/apr/26/politicians-husband-david-tennant-emily-watson

I like to think of a few real politicians watching The Politician's Husband (BBC1). Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls, certainly; it might give her a few ideas. Ed Miliband, too, for the betrayal, though here the betrayal is not of a brother, but of a best friend, best man, godparent of children etc. And any number of politicians for dramatic resignations and/or leadership challengers – Geoffrey Howe, Michael Heseltine, John Redwood …

In the belated follow-up to Paula Milne's 1995 drama The Politician's Wife, Westminster golden boy Aiden Hoynes (television's golden boy David Tennant, worryingly golden-haired here) resigns from the government, nominally in protest at the PM's immigration policy, though really because he is challenging for the leadership himself. It backfires big time, mainly because his best mate, secretary of state for work and pensions and master of the dark arts Bruce Babbish (Ed Stoppard) hangs him out to dry. Aiden scuttles home, to plot bitterly, between the school run and comedy dismal MP's surgeries in the local church hall; and to stare at a symbolic question mark-shaped crack on the bedroom ceiling. While the political career of his wife, Freya Gardner (Emily Watson), who always put the brakes on her own ambition to support her husband and for the good of the family, goes through the roof.

So we're not just talking about power battles in the corridors of Westminster here, we're (actually mainly) talking about power battles in the hall and on the landing at the top of the stairs of a semi in a salubrious-looking London suburb. Oh and in the bedroom; big shift going on in there too. It's not just careerwise that Freya's on top. And she's enjoying it, a lot.

There is heaps to enjoy in The Politician's Husband. Well, him and her, Tennant and Watson; they're both great, and great together, convincing as a couple. I like – no, not like, approve of – the fact that their son Noah has Asperger's. That also makes them more convincing, more real – even before the  massive (question mark-shaped?) cracks begin to appear in their relationship. And Aiden's difficult relationship with Noah, a son he – and she – clearly find it very hard to love, acts as a subplot to what is going on between his parents and down in London SW1.

It's an entertaining, but bleak, picture of politics in this country too, a world of bitter competitiveness and ruthless ambition that has very little to do with the interests of the country. Any ideological motivation someone might have once had is soon squeezed out by the pressure of the system. Soon it's only about party politics, power, battles and games. Probably fairly accurate, then.

A couple of things don't quite ring true for me. Aiden's total betrayal by his pal Bruce, whose hand Aiden held when Bruce's wife left him and when he had a health scare, now stabbing him in the back and kicking him in the balls, when he's down. I suspect there's more betrayal to come from him, I'm thinking maybe involving Freya. No, that's OK, they all do that? OK then, the bottle of wine that Bruce orders over lunch with Freya? Lunchtime boozing doesn't go on any more does it? Unless you're Kenneth Clarke, perhaps. But if you're young and thrusting and power-crazed, you can't do all that after a bottle of 2009 Châteauneuf du Pape blanc.

The Politician's Husband isn't subtle, sometimes to the point of crudeness. Like when Freya, invited to drinks at No 10, sneaks in to the cabinet room, and runs her hands over the backs of the chairs, the ones at the middle of the table where the PM and the most important members sit, and she is overcome with a look of deep sensuality, literally seduced by the power. Ha! Nor is it Borgen – it lacks that humanness, the genuine plausibility and depth of character of the Danish drama. And though, like Borgen, it does have a strong woman at its heart, she's not strong simply because she's brilliant; it looks as if Freya is going to be sucked into the wicked power game with the rest of them. Oh, what the hell. It's melodrama, and a lot of fun, a big boiling pot of hot, lusty power soup, with crunchy croutons of deceit and a generous sprinkling of revenge.

Nice performance by Kirsty Wark too – almost uncanny – as herself.

The Politician's Husband, BBC Two, review
Terry Ramsey reviews episode one of The Politician's Husband, the BBC Two adaptation of Paula Milne's companion piece to her 1995 drama The Politician's Wife.
By Terry Ramsey10:00PM BST 25 Apr 2013 in The Telegraph / http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10019104/The-Politicians-Husband-BBC-Two-review.html

Sometimes you have to wait awhile for a sequel. But fans of The Politician’s Wife have had to be more patient than most. It is 18 years since Paula Milne’s original political drama caused a stir, and won a Bafta, with the story of a male sleazeball politician. Last night, the companion piece The Politician’s Husband (BBC Two) finally arrived.
Not much has changed in Milne’s view of Westminster. At the end of The Politician’s Wife, the male MP had resigned and his wife has won his seat in Parliament. Last night in the first episode, the MP, Aiden Hoynes, resigned from the Cabinet and, pretty sharpish, his wife (also an MP) walked right into the ensuing vacancy. And male sleazeballs were everywhere.
Hoynes, played by David Tennant, resigned to spark a leadership race within his party – which, of course, he planned to win. But he was betrayed by his best friend who switched allegiance, propelling everyone into a story of deceit, betrayal and egotism (or “politics”, as we call it).
Tennant is, of course, an excellent actor. But in general he uses one of two styles: 1) jumpy and active (eg Doctor Who and those annoying Virgin ads), or 2) moody (eg Broadchurch). If some enterprising manufacturer were to make a walking, talking David Tennant doll, the acting control on the back would only need to be a switch, rather than a dial. And in The Politician’s Husband it was definitely flicked to “jumpy” – especially after his friend lets him down.
While this meant Tennant was not totally believable as a political leader, when he was with Emily Watson, as Freya, they were highly convincing as a career couple whose sexual glue seemed to be ambition. Until, that is, she too appeared to betray him…
And that was the interesting part. The political tale seemed stereotyped and slightly old-fashioned (Hoynes kicked a metal bin to show he’s angry at one point, a dramatic device that was hackneyed even in 1995). And it feels unlikely to tell us anything surprising in the coming two episodes. We already know enough to bet on two things: that Freya will come out of it better than any of the men and that the plot will reinforce the common view that politicians are like babies’ nappies: they should be changed regularly. And for the same reason.
As a political drama, The Politician’s Husband is humdrum. We are cynical enough these days to know that betrayal is what politicians do. We yawn at it. What makes me want to watch again is the personal story: the way that ambition seems to be turning from the adhesive to the corrosive acid at the heart of the Hoynes’ marriage. That’s the real drama.

30 April 2013
10.00-10.30
Abdication of Her Majesty the Queen in the Moseszaal of the Royal Palace Amsterdam. Those present will include the Presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Council of Ministers for the Kingdom and members of the Royal Family, the governors and prime-ministers of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

The Queen will give a short address. The Director of the Queen's Office will then read aloud the instrument of abdication to which the Queen will then give her assent by means of her signature. Finally the instrument of abdication will be signed by the witnesses.

10.30-10.50
His Majesty King Willem-Alexander, Her Majesty Queen Máxima and Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands appear on the balcony of the Royal Palace Amsterdam. Princess Beatrix and the King will both give a short address, after which the Wilhelmus will be played. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange and Their Royal Highnesses Princess Alexia and Princess Ariane will then join their parents on the balcony.

13.30
Opening of the joint session of the States General, following the entry of the members of the States General, the States of Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten, the Council of Ministers for the Kingdom and the Council of State.

13.50
Princess Beatrix and other members of the Royal Family proceed to the Nieuwe Kerk.

14.00
The King and the main cortege proceed to the Nieuwe Kerk.

14.00-15.30
Swearing in and investiture of the King at the joint session of the two Houses of the States General in the Nieuwe Kerk. The King will deliver an address and be sworn in. The President of the joint session, Fred de Graaf, will deliver an address and make a solemn declaration, after which members of the States General and the States of Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten swear an oath or make an affirmation.

15.30
The King and his retinue proceed to the Royal Palace Amsterdam.

16.30-18.00
Reception for royal and foreign missions, dignitaries and members of the States General and the States of Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten, Council of Ministers for the Kindom, the Council of State, governors and prime-ministers of Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten and the Corps Diplomatique in the Royal Palace Amsterdam.

19.30
The Song for the King will be performed in the presence of the King and Queen, prior to the water pageant. This will take place at the EYE Film Museum via a video link with Ahoy Rotterdam.

19.45-21.30
The King and Queen will take part in a water pageant with their daughters on the River IJ. They will sail from EYE Film Institute past the Oever Park and the 'Kop van Java'. At several places along the route they will be treated to a festive programme, including a 'mini Sail'.

21.30
Celebration, hosted by the Prime Minister on behalf of the Council of Ministers for the Kingdom.


Images of a group of windows in a shop in Amsterdam celebrating the event ...

1942

The "Zazou" were a current of mode of France of the 1940s. They were young people expressing their individuality by wearing big or garish clothing (similar to the zoot suit fashion in America a few years before) and dancing wildly to swing jazz and bebop. Men wore large lumber jackets, while women wore short skirts, striped stockings and heavy shoes, and often carried umbrellas. During the German occupation of France, the Vichy regime, in collaboration with the Nazis and fascist itself in policies and outlook, had an ultra-conservative morality and started to use a whole range of laws against a youth that was restless and disenchanted. These young people expressed their resistance and nonconformity through aggressive dance competitions, sometimes against soldiers from the occupying forces. The Zazous were to be found throughout France, but were most concentrated in Paris. Vichy had started 'Youth Worksites' in July 1940, in an attempt to indoctrinate French youth. The same year, they set up a Ministry of Youth. They saw the Zazous as a rival and dangerous influence on youth. By 1942, Vichy high-ups realised that the national revival that they hoped would be carried out by young people under their guidance was seriously affected by widespread rejection of the patriotism, work ethic, self-denial, asceticism and masculinity this called for.

In 1940, 78 anti-Zazou articles were published in the press, as opposed to nine in 1941 and 38 in 1943. The Vichy papers deplored the moral turpitude and decadence that was affecting French morality. Zazous were seen as work-shy, egotistical and Judeo-Gaullist shirkers.

Soon, round-ups began in bars and Zazous were beaten on the street. They became Enemy Number One of the fascist youth organisations, Jeunesse Populaire Française. "Scalp the Zazous!" became their slogan. Squads of young JPF fascists armed with hairclippers attacked Zazous. Many were arrested and sent to the countryside to work on the harvest.

At this point the Zazous went underground, holing up in their dance halls and basement clubs. With the Liberation of Paris it appears some Zazous joined in the armed combat to drive out the Nazis -- certainly they had a few scores to settle. But the Zazous were suspected by the official Communist resistance of having an apathetic, even flippant attitude to the war in general.
(Wikipedia)

First, an extract of "France Actualités" of April, 1944, when Jacques Doriot (French politician prior to and during World War II. He began as a Communist but then turned Fascist.) expresses himself in front of the LVF. He says:
"... I want to greet these first pioneers who faced the risks of the fight from 1941, and the even harder rigours of the terrible winter 1941/1942. Thanks to the Legion, France has the possibility of reconstituting the only military force which can be accepted in Europe, because she contributes to the common defence....Does not she know, our youth, that if she does not fight, the youth of Europe which gives its blood to stream onto the east front, will have only been mistaken for her? Be 20 years old, live in the grandest time of the human history and make the "zazou" physically, morally... What a decline, what a decay! "

1r stanza:
" The frizzed hair,
The collar eighteen feet high,
Ah they are zazou!

The finger like that in the air
The jacket which is dawdles on the ground
Ah they are zazou!

They have pants of an incredible cutting
Which arrive a little in the top of knees
And come rain come shine, they have an umbrella,
Of big dark glasses,
And then especially,
They look like disgusted.

 The Zazous were a subculture in France during World War II. They were young people expressing their individuality by wearing big or garish clothing (similar to the zoot suit fashion in America a few years before) and dancing wildly to swing jazz and bebop. Men wore large striped lumber jackets, while women wore short skirts, striped stockings and heavy shoes, and often carried umbrellas.
During the German occupation of France, the Vichy regime, in collaboration with the Nazis and fascist itself in policies and outlook, had an ultra-conservative morality and started to use a whole range of laws against a youth that was restless and disenchanted. These young people expressed their resistance and nonconformity through aggressive dance competitions, sometimes against soldiers from the occupying forces.
The Zazous were to be found throughout France, but were most concentrated in Paris. The two most important meeting places of the Zazous were the terrace of the Pam Pam cafe on the Champs-Élysées and the Boul’Mich (the Boulevard Saint-Michel near the Sorbonne).
The Zazous of the Champs Elysées came from a more middle-class background and were older than the Zazous of the Latin Quarter. The Champs Elysées Zazous were easily recognisable on the terrace of the Pam Pam and took afternoon bike rides in the Bois de Boulogne. In the Latin Quarter, the Zazous met in the cellar clubs of Dupont-Latin or the Capoulade.
The male Zazous wore extra large jackets, which hung down to their knees and which were fitted out with many pockets and often several half-belts. The amount of material used was a direct comment on Government decrees on the rationing of clothing material. Their trousers were narrow, gathered at the waist, and so were their ties, which were cotton or heavy wool. The shirt collars were high and kept in place by a horizontal pin. They liked thick-soled suede shoes, with white or brightly coloured socks. Their hairstyles were greased and long.
Female Zazous wore their hair in curls falling down to their shoulders, or in braids. Blonde was the favourite colour, and they wore bright red lipstick, as well as sunglasses, also favoured by some male Zazous. They wore jackets with extremely wide shoulders and short, pleated skirts. Their stockings were striped or sometimes net, and they wore shoes with thick wooden soles.
The Zazous were big fans of checkered patterns, on jacket, skirt or brolly. They started appearing in the vegetarian restaurants and developed a passion for grated carrot salad. They usually drank fruit juice or beer with grenadine syrup, a cocktail that they seem to have invented.
The Zazous were numbered in the hundreds rather than thousands and were generally between 17 and 20. There were Zazous from all classes, races, and both sexes but with apparently similar outlooks. Working class Zazous used theft of cloth and black market activities to get their outfits, sometimes stitching their own clothes. Some of the more bohemian Zazous in the Latin Quarter varied the outfit, with sheepskin jackets and multicoloured scarves. It was their ironic and sarcastic comments on the Nazi/Vichy rulers, their dandyism and hedonism, their suspicion of the work ethic and their love of ‘decadent’ jazz that distinguished them as one of the prototype youth movements questioning society.
While they did not suffer like their contemporaries in Germany, the Hamburg and Berlin based Swingjugend (many of whom were imprisoned in concentration camps) and the working class, mostly Cologne based Edelweiss Pirates (some of whom were hanged by the Nazis), the Zazou subculture represented an important dissident minority in a society of widespread complicity and acquiescence.
One fascist magazine commented on the male Zazou, “Here is the specimen of Ultra Swing 1941: hair hanging down to the neck, teased up into an untidy quiff, little moustache à la Clark Gable... shoes with too-thick soles, syncopated walk.”
The Zazous were directly inspired by jazz and swing music. A healthy black jazz scene had sprung up in Montmartre in the inter-war years. Black Americans felt freer in Paris than they did back home, and the home-grown jazz scene was greatly reinforced by this immigration. Manouche Gypsy musicians like Django Reinhardt started playing swinging jazz music in the Paris clubs.
The Zazous probably got their name from a line in a song – Zah Zuh Zah by the black jazz musician Cab Calloway, famous for his Minnie the Moocher. Johnny Hess, a French crooner popular with the Zazous, released Je suis swing in early 1942, in which he sung the lines “Za zou, za zou, za zou, za zou ze”, selling more units than any previously released record in France.  An associate of the Zazous, the anarchist singer/songwriter, jazz trumpeter, poet and novelist Boris Vian was also extremely fond of z words in his work. The long drape jacket was also copied fromzoot suits worn by the likes of Calloway.
“The Zazous were very obviously detested by the Nazis, who on the other side of the Rhine, had for a long time decimated the German cultural avant garde, forbidden jazz and all visible signs of...degenerations of Germanic culture…” (Pierre Seel, who, as a young Zazou, was deported to a German concentration camp because of his homosexuality.)
When the yellow star was forced on Jews, non-Jews who objected began to wear yellow stars with ‘Zazu’, ‘Goy’ (Gentile) or ‘Swing’.
Vichy had started ‘Youth Worksites’ in July 1940, in what Zazous perceived as an attempt to indoctrinate French youth. As in 1870-1, France reacted to her shattering defeat by reforming existing institutions and creating new ones. The Vichy regime was very concerned about the education, moral fibre and productivity of French youth. In 1940 a Ministry of Youth was established. They saw the Zazous as a rival and dangerous influence on youth.
In 1940, 78 anti-Zazou articles were published in the press, a further nine in 1941 and 38 in 1943. The Vichy papers deplored the moral turpitude and decadence that was affecting French morality. Zazous were seen as work-shy, egotistical and Judeo-Gaullist shirkers.
By 1942 the Vichy regime realised that the national revival that they hoped would be carried out by young people under their guidance was seriously affected by widespread rejection of the patriotism, work ethic, self-denial, asceticism and masculinity this called for.
Soon, round-ups began in bars and Zazous were beaten on the street. They became Enemy Number One of the fascist youth organisations, Jeunesse Populaire Française. “Scalp the Zazous!” became their slogan. Squads of young JPF fascists armed with hairclippers attacked Zazous. Many were arrested and sent to the countryside to work on the harvest.
At this point the Zazous went underground, holing up in their dance halls and basement clubs. The Zazous were suspected by the official Communist resistance of having an apathetic, even flippant attitude to the war in general.

The Zoot “look” in The United States / 1940

Later, The “Teddy Boys” in England, working class youth “look” in the 60’s