Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau | A Supermodel in the Making

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In the brouhaha surrounding Carine Roitfeld’s abrupt departure as editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, it was suggested that LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault was beyond peeved with the December issue, edited by Tom Ford.

In particular, buzzed the rumour mill, Arnault found the editorial featuring Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau among the young style damsels, particularly distasteful. As for the old people — Clarissa and Doug — kissing passionately, they belonged in ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They?’.

THYLANE LÉNA-ROSE BLONDEAU

At the tender age of 10, French model Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau has the fashion world in her palm. Thylane is the daughter of French TV personality and children’s clothing designer Veronika Loubry  and former pro-soccer player Patrick Blondeau.

Without jumping into the most obvious question — what is the fashion industry thinking, salivating to make the newest femme fatale a 10-year-old girl — it’s true that Blondeau’s images are both unsettling and mesmerizing. She possesses a self-awareness and poise that make believers in reincarnation call her an old soul. And then we have her undeniable beauty.

A blog — one of several — now tracks her every move. Dani Brubaker is her frequent photographer.

Assembling this collage of images, we note that the photo of Thylane sans top has 444 reblogs. Checking the first 10 reblogs, they are all very innocent blogs. Not to worry.

One can’t read this topic, without remembering Brooke Shields and Richard Prince’s ‘Spiritual America’, an image that not only caused Brooke Shields much grief but again became the subject of controversy and removal from the Tate Modern’s 2009 Pop Life show in London.

The Brooke Shields image is the only one we ever covered up with black boxes on the website.

Cropped portion of Richard Price photo of Brook Shields called ‘Spiritual America’.Classifying ‘Naughty’ Images

Returning to Dani Brubaker’s website, does she create any context of thought with her classification ‘naughty’? I think not, because it appears that the naughtiest girl was spanked recently and we’ll assume not for a child porn film. Then again, perhaps she’s just sunburned. You see what happens when our minds starting running wild.

‘Naughty’ comes in many forms … which only probes the question: what is ‘naughty’? Brubaker clearly probes the young/old hot coals but answers no real context. They are just images, right? (Note to AOC friends, we have filtered these images for the search engines, because we should always err on the side of safety when children are involved.)

Dani Brubaker’s Facebook page does provide a bit of context: “I grew up by the code of the Native American Indian. The code venerates children yet allows them freedom of self-expression.”

I do believe that infuriated bloggers (and we are split) are taking Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau images out of context — and creating their own, which is deliberately sexier than the body of her images. But I do agree that this 10-year-old girl has a commanding presence before the camera; and perhaps it’s we adults who should also be ashamed with our responses.

Even with ‘Spiritual America’, Richard Prince sought to mirror back social and cultural norms. In America — even more so that in France — we worship youth culture and are guiltier of sexualizing children than are the French, in my opinion. Returning to my earlier point, if we regard this girl as an old soul, does it desexualize the imagery and make her a wise young woman?

I’m prompted to ask that question after reading Brubaker’s Facebook comment and a quick Google of reincarnation and American Indian beliefs.

Consider also that just this week in Saudi Arabia, attempts to tackle child bride marriages in the kingdom came under total fire from prominent clerics refusing to support legislation to ban it. And in a Texas courtroom, Warren Jeffs argues that his religious rights are being trounced over his own beliefs in polygamy and child brides. (See Daily | SC Reps Put Nation’s Default in God’s Hands | DSK Maid Hears Phone Tape)

Perhaps Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau’s images unsettle some of us for multiple reasons, all of which are embedded in the content foundation of Anne of Carversville. On this one, I have no answers. but it would be nice if we all admitted that the topic is complex with no quick-fix answers as some bloggers suggest. Anne