“Yelling and screaming will occur during the show- do not be alarmed, this is part of the performance. Thank you.”
A car skids up to the window front where Youths In Balaclava’s debut show is taking place. Men with bandanas covering their faces and dollar signs drawn on the back of their overalls run in, pretending to point guns at the audience under their garments. “Bougez-pass This is a heist!”
The storefront shutters roll down and California beach goth runway music starts to play as the robbers sit on the floor trying to crack a safe and models begin to walk out and around them. Almost immediately a pounding on the window disrupts the show and the shutters begin to re-open. Six police officers are peering in, all hands on holsters. They barge in and the show stops- I’m assuming there was a noise complaint or something. For about ten minutes as the tech team, officers, and actors speak outside we all sit sort of biting our nails, not knowing exactly what’s going on. My neighbor leans over and asks- “This is part of the show right?” Turns out these are terrorist unit police officers who were called by the neighbors after seeing the dramatic “heist” entrance. The officer who is explaining what happened is smiling just a little too much and I think she wishes she could stay for the show. The neighbor who I’m assuming actually reported it is invited in, and he takes a front row seat. As the cops then leave, we applaud louder and more earnestly than I’ve heard at most show finales. The shutters close, the music starts back up, robbers are back in position, and we pick up where we left off. After all, the show must go on!
The looks are punk rock, hip-hop and definitely too cool for school. T-shirts and baseball caps read “youths in balaclava school of hard knocks.” Deconstructed pinstripe suits, bowling shoes, velour track-suits, and pirate-like feather details seem to reference various pop-culture criminals. And with models who look particularly pubescent, it feels like a pretty transparent reference to this generation’s regressive glamorization of gang-culture as a reaction to their overly/constantly-politicized environment. Pretty joker-esque. And although nothing happened and it was mostly a funny misunderstanding, I’m left feeling a little uneasy, a little embarrassed, and really grateful that we are in France where cops are a little less trigger-friendly. That being said, just yesterday a teenager was shot and killed by police after being stopped for a traffic violation in Nanterre.
At the end of the show the robbers open the safe and someone from the tech team throws a bunch of Youths In Balaclava dollar bills around the room. Now there’s a viral video on Tiktok about the show at Paris Fashion Week that was crashed by the police. All press is good press, I guess?
À plus tard ,
Rianna
