Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade, especially when it's a racist spade. Zadig and Voltaire may be a cool-ish young French label and they may be opening what's sure to be a cool-ish young hotel on the Left Bank, but that doesn't change the fact that founder Thierry Gillier said this really racist thing to a WWD reporter:
"This was a project dear to our hearts. It will be a slightly private hotel, not open to everybody, with 40 rooms. We are going to select guests. It won't be open to Chinese tourists, for example. There is a lot of demand in Paris — many people are looking for quiet hotels with a certain privacy."
Way to discriminate against an entire nationality! That's the thing about fashion: everyone's always patting themselves on the back for being so forward-looking, but the prevailing attitudes are stupidly retrograde.
Gillier must have realized that he misspoke, because just a couple hours ago, WWD amended the original quote, replacing "Chinese tourists" with "busloads of tourists." (The original version was reported by a couple different outlets, including Vogue.co.uk, prior to the change.) WWD never fails to impress with its unwavering adherence to preserving its relationships with major brands. No wonder it's fashion's newsspaper of record.
Zading and Voltaire Fall 2012 ad via TFS Forums
[h/t FashionETC]
Via: Zadig and Voltaire's New Paris Hotel Won't Accomodate "Chinese Tourists"