What happens when footballer Kylian Mbappé posts a photo of him in a turtleneck on the networks?
An avalanche of hostile comments, most of them questioning the champion's heterosexuality.
These attacks, the Paris Saint-Germain player suffered this Thursday, December 16 by posting on Instagram the cliché from the front page of
Paris Match
where he appears with a smiling face and chin buried in the white wool of his cable-knit turtleneck.
Observers will note that Kylian Mbappé poses, in fact, as the disciple of Zinedine Zidane. Because obviously, the photo, the attitude, the turtleneck recall the campaign of the Eau Sauvage perfume by Dior, carried out with the Marseille footballer in 1999. Especially when, in the wake of this post, a press release is issued announcing the appointment of Kylian Mbappé as ambassador of the French label… and of the same fragrance. We remember that under the eye of the photographer Antoine Legrand, Zinedine Zidane also concealed part of his face with his turtleneck, in the same way that Johnny Hallyday, or the cartoon characters Corto Maltese and Largo, had done. Winch before him. The brand had then chosen him to embody "the dual personality of its fragrance, both virile and sensitive", wrote the magazine.
Strategy
s
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At the time, the campaign had not made waves.
At the time, too, social networks did not exist.
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Saved from the purgatory of style, the turtleneck is back in the men's closet
In a turtleneck for the Eau Sauvage perfume by Christian Dior
In a turtleneck for the Eau Sauvage perfume by Christian Dior
In 2000, Johnny Hallyday posed for the Eau Sauvage perfume from the house of Dior.
Dior
In a turtleneck for the Eau Sauvage perfume by Christian Dior
Zinédine Zidane was also a model for the Dior perfume in 1999.
Dior
In a turtleneck for the Eau Sauvage perfume by Christian Dior
Largo Winch for the Eau Sauvage fragrance by Christian Dior.
Dior
In a turtleneck for the Eau Sauvage perfume by Christian Dior
Alain Delon was the face of Dior's Eau Sauvage perfume in 1966.
Dior
In a turtleneck for the Eau Sauvage perfume by Christian Dior
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"These homophobic attacks have directly to do with the time, the moment," analyzes Pascal Monfort, fashion sociologist and founder of REC, a consultancy firm in trends and marketing.
We would like to think that the further we advance in time, the more progressive thought becomes about freedom of dress, but that is not the case at all. ”
Fed up with dress etiquette
For the sociologist, wearing a turtleneck as the world champion striker does is a stance that says a lot about the fed up with the dress label that sticks to the skin of the players.
“They can't stand the expression 'a footballer look' any longer.
They no longer want to be stereotypical and need to express their sophistication.
These men love fashion, they know it well and are sometimes even super sharp on the subject.
So that turtleneck, maybe it's a way of saying "if you don't understand my sophistication, too bad for you" ".
This resistance, Antoine Griezmann also expressed it in his own way, last June, during a fashion series for the magazine
À Part.
The striker swept the typical image of the footballer in eternal jogging, in the locker room as in the city, posing wearing a tight white turtleneck with a series of logos and matched with a jacket with extra long and pointed shoulder pads. All signed by Balmain. To display oneself like this was to shake up the codes, to send waltz a widely hackneyed cliché which aims to totemize a fantasy of virility. "Antoine Griezmann explained to me that in football, we always wear an Ami jacket and beautiful pants for sportspeople in representation, whether in magazines or at awards ceremonies, and that in the end we don't have much fun" , explained Pascal Paché, co-founder of the magazine
À Part
and stylist of the player.
And to remember that Antoine Griezmann's thing is more about color.
And in particular, pink and purple.
The editorial team advises you
Saved from the purgatory of style, the turtleneck returns to the men's closet
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Messi, Neymar and PSG players will be dressed in Dior outside the stadiums
