Calvin Klein: designs on American beauty
Memories of Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Faye Dunaway, Kim Basinger, Angela Bassett, Keri Russell, Jessica Biel, Janet Jackson, Victoria's Secret and Jimmy Choo. Frenchman Giles Devos upsets his cackling countrymen by praising American style and women.
In the 1990s, while my French friends were planning yet more ways to be ludicrously left wing and destructive, I consumed and adored every aspect of American culture, including its gorgeous, confident, sexy, and modern women.
Europe preserves the old and crumbling to the extent that nothing works properly -- the continent is like a museum. Americans on the other hand boldly renew themselves. If the past is not helpful to them, either its buildings, roads, or cities, they knock it down, or abandon it, and start again with fresh eyes and confidence in the future.
Keri Russell
To me, self-confidence is the most inspiring of all American qualities. Americans believe in their country and the ability of individuals to drag themselves out of whatever problem or predicament they are in and build a glittering future.
Love of freedom
American self-confidence goes hand in hand with the love of freedom. Americans can and do say they want without the government or anyone else tring to stop them (unless it's run by Bush and Cheney).
Freedom builds the confidence you need to pursue and realize your dreams, provide for your education, your family, your own old age. In America, there is a rock solid belief that if you are successful, it is because you are talented and work incredibly hard. Americans praise you for that, they look up to you. They're not envious of other people's fame and fortune.
Jessica Biel
Where Europe has its aristocrats, and royal families, all of whom acquired their wealth by robbing, plundering, and keeping the poor in their place, the American nobility of Hollywood stars, best-selling authors, billionaire businessmen, and millionaire sports stars got where they are by talent, work, and utter commitment. They didn't rely on being born into this or that aristocratic family. They didn't need to be a prince or count or duke, unless of course they were musicians, making up, and thereby mocking, Old World titles: Count Basie, Duke Ellington ... and, more recently, Prince, the diminutive rock musician from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Required reading
My long song in praise of America is required reading for Europeans. The country IS the home of the brave and the land of the free. Americans are our cousins, our brothers and sisters. We should cherish and love them. We should look up to and respect their magnificent nation. Most of all, we should bend our knees and bow down before American women, who combine beauty with confidence and a strong belief in love and romance.
Elizabeth Banks
Road trip
Not so many years ago, I was on a seemingly endless American road trip. I'd bought an old car in New York and coaxed it through the Eastern states into the Midwest, eventually arriving in St. Louis, Missouri. I made for the famous arch which looks like half a McDonalds 'M', then I found a Starbucks and sat there wondering, "What's next?"
Stunning looks
I must have said the words aloud because a stunning woman in sharp business suit and high heels was looking at me, asking "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that". That is so wonderfully American. People speak to each other over there.
Model's figure
There's not that cold, European distance between people. If you want to talk to someone, you do it, you don't think about whether you should or shouldn't, what the person will think of you blah, blah, blah. You speak, you communicate.
The woman, who quickly introduced herself as Mary, was sipping coffee and nibbling on a scone. She said again, "You were saying something, I didn't catch what you were saying."
Jessica Alba
I explained I was from France driving across her country and had come unstuck. The country was so huge, I'd been on the road for a few weeks and I wanted to try something different. I'd OD'd on driving.
"Why don't you hang out here for a few days," she said. "I can tell you about some places you should see .... tell you what, are you free in two or three hours? I have a meeting now, but in about three hours I could tell you about places to visit in the City."
Not fazed
Well of course I had time. Three hours was nothing. I wandered the dull downtown streets of St. Louis, dived into a bar or two, walked once again around that famous arch of theirs, sat on a bench to read USA Today, the time flew past.
Mary arrived at the coffee shop where we'd first met, apologized for being late, and told me she needed to change into some more comfortable clothes if she was going to show me the city.
Halle Berry
I would have preferred to see her in that business suit and heels all day long, but my heart was racing because she was now talking about showing me the city rather than telling me about it. So I went along with whatever plans she had.
"Tell me," she said, "You're on the level, right? You're a normal guy, not a weirdo? You're not some crazy Frenchmen who makes a habit of getting American women to spend the day with him?"
"No, no, no," I told her. "I have been on my own for three weeks. I am not crazy at all. I am just French and bored."
"Good," she said, "You are just French and bored. I like that. Now then, let's cure your boredom."
My road trip ended in St. Louis. I sold my car there, abandoned my plan to drive to LA and instead spent two glorious months living in Mary's apartment in an affluent suburb on the edge of the city. She looked after me. I had no money, which she didn't mind at all. She bought me food, let me use one of her two cars, gave me a credit card to use, and became my lover and dearest friend.
Amanda Peet
The following year she visited me in Paris and fell in love with the city. I took her to all the places where famous Americans had lived, where Hemingway and Henry Miller had paced the streets and idled in bars. We slept in my tiny bed wrapped around each other, making love morning and night for 8 days.
Then, on the last day with tears in her eyes, she told me she was going to marry an attorney called Doug who lived in Kansas City. She said she would always love me, that I had a unique place in her heart, but she could not live like this, which meant she could not live like I live, for the rest of her life.
At that point in my life, in my 30s, I was still rather bohemian and care free, not caring or worrying about the future. Mary, in contrast, was focused. She knew the difference between fun and work, the joy of the moment and long term security.
Fashion designer Calvin Klein
After she left me, I plunged into a deep sadness. I got myself out of it in a typically American way. I worked hard. I worked day and night for two years, carving out a good career as a freelance print designer. I made more money than I thought possible.
After a three-year absence, I emailed Mary to find out whether she was happy. Long story short, she'd left Doug -- "It didn't pan out. He was not like you, Giles. He wasn't able to enjoy life".
I told her I was coming to be with her. I said I'd be prepared to spend the rest of my life in godforsaken St. Louis. That, fortunately, was not needed. We got married and moved to San Diego, and we, just like the fairy story, lived happily ever after. We even have four kids!
By Giles Devos