This should be interesting. In 1985, Malcolm McLaren commissioned a screenplay from Alan Moore for a film he was trying to get made called, Fashion Beast. The story is supposed to be loosely based on the life of Christian Dior and is, “…an updating of the Beauty and the Beast fable set in the fashion world”. Fashion Beast was never made into a movie, but next year Avatar Press is planning on releasing Moore’s screenplay as a 250-page graphic novel adapted by Antony Johnston (who adapted Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance - well worth the read) and drawn by Facundo Percio. The script can be downloaded here.

A page from Fashion Beast without colors or lettering.

The “Dior Addict” marketing campaign for cosmetics and perfume (weren’t there the shirts as well?) launched a few years ago, peddling luxury goods and the accompanying addiction. Christian Dior doesn’t use the “Admit It” tagline anymore, but that’s just as well. Don’t admit it. In fact, don’t even have a paper trail of the purchase. Shivani Vora’s “Money Doesn’t Talk” is an article in the New York Times about the growing trend of paying cash for luxury goods among women in order to avoid justifying purchases to husbands, boyfriends or parents. Women are doing this, Vora says, even when it’s their own money that they are spending. Of all the reasons cited for the increase in cash payments at luxury boutiques, hiding an addiction is conspicuously absent.

attacked by a perfume craving on her way to the local needle exchange: Liberty Ross for Christian Dior, circa 2002

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