Arkansas Blog: The pride of Judsonia

Beth Ditto, lead singer of the Gossip and Arkansas's current leading contribution to the music world (I originally put her origins in the wrong Ark. town), makes the scene at the Paris fashion show, an occasion for a New York Times feature. It comes with a photo of the outsized punk singer showcasing her mama tattoo during her appearance for Fendi. Highly recommended story. The lead:

I’m a big prude,” Beth Ditto said on Sunday.

That would be Beth Ditto, the lead singer of the Gossip, the Beth Ditto who not long ago took off her underpants during a performance and tossed them into the crowd, the same Beth Ditto who once mooned the paparazzi on the red carpet going into an awards show, the very Beth Ditto who appears naked on the cover of the new Condé Nast start-up, Love.

Ms. Ditto was sitting in a gilt-ornamented hotel suite. There were views of the Louvre from the living room. Through the windows drifted the tinny music of the children’s carousel in the Tuileries.

...

“In fashion, in a way, everything is permitted,” Ms. Fendi said Monday night at the Hemingway Bar of the Ritz, a favorite watering hole of people like Kate Moss, Ms. Ditto’s recently acquired best friend. “We wanted to have Beth Ditto not to sell the ultimate new handbag, but because it’s a pleasure to take a little risk and to show that fashion is the one discipline that, because it is about change, is the most open to others.”

Fashion may be frivolous and superficial and often cruel. (When she met Karl Lagerfeld, Ms. Ditto explained, he uttered a lot of “fat-phobic” remarks.) But, whether you are a soulful, rambunctious, alternately foulmouthed and soft-spoken tattooed lesbian feminist with a big career in front of you or a designer hopeful with a pincushion and a portfolio of sketches, fashion can open up worlds you did not know existed.

Anyway, that is what Beth Ditto concluded once she decided to let fashion reel her in.

Comments

"Anyway, that is what Beth Ditto concluded once she decided to let fashion reel her in."

Ugh.

Posted by: eLwood | March 10, 2009 02:48 PM

It's so obvious...Fendi is grabbing a larger part of the market.

Posted by: eLwood | March 10, 2009 03:02 PM

Well...this picture proves I've cross over to the other side of something. I am suddenly aroused! I think it's good that my 40 year fixation on high school cheerleaders is apparently over. But damn the bad timing.

Now that I've developed the ability to find something sexy about every woman I meet.....I hear nothing but snoring emanating from my trousers. Wake up boy....the whole world is ours for the taking! zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Posted by: Deathbyinches | March 10, 2009 03:06 PM

DBI, check out the 41-year-old UALR Trojan cheerleader on the front page of today's Hot Springs Sentinel-Record.

Posted by: Mannish Boy | March 10, 2009 03:10 PM

Never heard of her. Zilch. But I lost interest when Roy Acuff left the scene.

Posted by: Cato | March 10, 2009 03:20 PM

Mannish
The Sentinel Record is only by subscription. No public access allowed. Perhaps you can copy-paste the url for the picture somewhere, like myspace or facebook and then link it to here.

There is no reason a 41 yr old woman should not be good looking and well built but I haven't seen the Sentinel record shot.

Posted by: eLwood | March 10, 2009 04:26 PM

Hey. I was wrong. You can see the front page photo on Sentinel Record.

on my name is the cheerleader in question,,,here's hopin..

Posted by: eLwood | March 10, 2009 04:40 PM

I saw her on one of the local news segments of a LR tv station. Second childhood stuff. Perhaps she can tell the younger cheerleaders about the importance of Trojans and stuff.

Posted by: Cato | March 10, 2009 04:41 PM

Cato, surely you know that Trojan has morphed. It's no longer a latex company.

click on eLwood.

I doubt she needs to tell younger cheerleaders.

Posted by: eLwood | March 10, 2009 06:10 PM

Oops. Try this link to the new trojan

Posted by: eLwood | March 10, 2009 06:12 PM

Well...Sheez! copy paste this

https://www.vibratingtouch.com/

Posted by: eLwood | March 10, 2009 06:14 PM

eLwood, I'm probably the only one who cut and pasted that url and all I can say about it is I just feel sorry for frenchie if zelda finds it.

Yes, she needs to tell them 'cause all they hear about is abstinence.