I rarely talk about fashion in this blog but after a week of Roman Polanski and John Phillips pervscapades, I think we need to turn our heads to Paris France and look at what's ruffling the feathers of the fashion world thanks to Lindsay Lohan.

Yes, I am making a connection between two rapist pedophiles (one of them also being incestual), an up-and-coming fashion designer and Lindsay Lohan. Bear with me.

When it was announced several weeks ago that La Lohan was going to work as "artistic advisor", the fashion world exploded in disbelief. Tim Gunn, bless him, went on record as saying, “It’s got to be a publicity stunt!” ...“Or a crack-smoking board of directors?”

This was not going to go like Stella McCarthey working for Chloe. Lindsay Lohan's twitter stream is notorious for how it shows her inability to writer properly. This is a girl from the white-collar working class of Long Island with no formal education and a present by a recent regrettable past.

There's the shots of her pantiless crotch while disembarking cars. There's the endless parties drowned in alcohol and cocaine which some say were cover for her mother's addictions. There's the alleged new penchant for meth. There's the bulimia and anorexia. There's the nymphomania. There's the mother trying to shove her down deep into the closet throwing her into the arms of men when she only wanted to be with gals. There's the revolving door rehabbing. There's the promise of a young actor now shattered by her inability to move from child/teen sensation to being an actual adult movie star.

So why in the bloody hell would she be hired for this? On the surface it would make sense to thinkk about the publicty since Mounir Moufarrige, the chief executive of Ungaro has said so himself : his main goal in hiring Ms. Lohan was to generate publicity, he said he also believes she will excite consumers. Yet check out the following quote from the same article (emphasis mine):

Virginie Mouzat, the fashion director of the French newspaper Le Figaro, described Ms. Lohan’s hire as a nonevent from a fashion perspective, but she said she was concerned about what it might portend. “Maybe this is the next step of using people by fashion brands,” she said. “But when you look at her own style, for me, she is not really relevant first, regarding fashion and second, regarding a couture house like Ungaro. Maybe she would be relevant for Kookai,” she said, referring to a label that is considered, among the fashion elite, as “not us.”

I find this really interesting for a lot of reasons: Fashion is not for the "not us", meaning you and me. Fashion is a not a class equalizer and it is never meant for the lower classes. Fashion is meant to be almost unattainable by being difficult to make, acquire and wear.

And at this point we need to talk about Estrella Archs. Because it is after perusing her website and looking at her collections that I can assure you, the house of Ungaro is now all Lindsay Lohan --and that is a very sad thing indeed. Not for what is says about Lindsay Lohan but for how it describes the "not us".

Estrella Archs work is really superb. You'll be struck by her use of color and geometry. There's some pieces that are interesting takes on color blocks but where she really shines is in her use of flower motifs. The craftsmanship of her work can be seen a mile away and that's really rare these days in fashion --many houses (am looking at you John Galliano) think that embellishment is the height of craftsmanship. How can it be if you can hide bad sewing under pounds of crystals and yarn? Archs' work, on the other hand, cannot tolerate any sloppiness and for that matter it comes out as crisp and fun to look at and yet solid and purposeful in construction.

So after you take a moment to look at Ms. Arch's work, go over to the aptly named Coutorture to review her collaboration with Lohan. What do you see?

I see past the pasties on he barely there nipples of pubescent looking breasts. I see anorectic looking young things with dresses ready for a closeup with the vagina cam. I see the breast of one of the models is horrendously scarred, presumably by plastic surgery. I see clothes that are either meant for lounging or for clubbing. And of course, there's the fetish shoes.

And it was the shoes on Estrella Arch's feet that prompted me to write this essay.

I am totally capable of being shallow and one of my shallowness tendencies is to judge men and women by the shoes they are wearing. Now, mind you, a pair of Converse or Adidas can give you high ratings in my finger-wagging book. Yet put on stripper shoes and I will judge you terribly.

And that's exactly what I did when I saw Estrella Arch's shoes.

Jesus fucking Christ in a hand-basket.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS SHE THINKING?!?!

Is this some not-so-subtle attempt to tell us she is whoring herself for this job with La Lohan and Ungaro to get to the next level professionally? 'Cause if it is then fucking mission accomplished.

I mean, this is the kind of shit you can buy at DiscountStripper.com, for crying out loud!

Yes, there is such a place as DISCOUNT STRIPPER DOT COM!

And here is where sad @blogdiva gets sad thinking that maybe this was Lindsay Lohan's idea.

Lindsay Lohan is young enough to be my daughter (sure, I'd be a youngish mom, but still). This means it is the women of my generation who are responsible for influencing the sense and sensibilities of the women of Lindsay's age. This means we taught her that looking like a prostitute and standing ambivalently on stripper shoes will streetwalk them right int: the road to success.

Yes: Am saying that it's the mothers and fathers of my generation who have normalized prostitution and sexual exploitation of young girls to the point that it's considered the height of fashion.

And it's for this reason I thought of Roman Polanski and John Phillips after I read that quote by Virginie Mouzet, "the next step of using people". It made me think that social mores around the sexual health of young women have changed so dramatically in the last 30 years that sexual exploitation has become a metaphor for high fashion.

It's why you also get the repellent reaction from the beacons of high society present at the Ungaro show: Glorify the whoring of young girls in common people's idea of fashion, not in the "Fashioi" of the people who count. Create fashion metaphors and semaphores about the sexual exploitation of young girls as long as the clothes are not for "our" young girls. Use them and dispose of them in marketing ploys that'll urge the masses to support our lifestyle --just make sure they know their place as our promotional concubines and not as an equal to us.

Many industries are collapsing under the unexpected weight of globalization and even the super rich are feeling the changes. It's not money that is only changing, it's allocation of capital and thus wealth and status.

That's why you have the outcries over Lindsay Lohan are so relevant to the outcries over Polanski and Phillips. Phillips and Polanski have lost the protective veil around their crimes afforded to them by their social class.

With Phillips, it was by his daughter's betrayal. With Polanski, pure hubris. The inner sanctum of celebrityhood has been defiled and that's why there's so many celebrities are coming out to defend them, especially for Polanski.

To these people, to these elites of the creative class, their class afforded them the luxury of NOT being beholden by the laws meant to control and keep in their place the classes of "not us". That's why you would have thought that arresting him at a film festival was the equivalent of storming the sanctuary of a church looking for political dissidents. As members of the elite of the creative class, they consider art and creativity absolution to all their sins. It's why in their minds a film festival is their sacred space and it's now been defiled.

And to add insult to injury, it was defiled in the name of Justice for the rape of one of the most expendables and exploitable of all people in the world of entertainment and fashion: young girls.

What saddens me is that Lindsay's fashion statement shows how internalized is her sexual exploitation. And it's even sadder to see how a classy and promising designer like Estrella Archs is willing to whore herself to support if it means joining the class (and social network) of the super-rich that make up the untouchable elite of the creative class.

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Estrella Archs and Lindsay Lohan