Fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. Photo provided by the artist’s office.
Night settles slowly over a literally burning Paris. Behind television cameras broadcasting the scene live around the world, a salt-and-pepper–haired man walks, nearly in tears, toward a dense crowd applauding first responders and firefighters in front of a monument reduced to a faint silhouette beneath glowing embers.On the night of April 15, 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames — the result of an accidental spark during renovation work — as Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, his wife Pauline in his arms, joined the faithful praying under an ominous orange sky.“I felt as if my mother were in danger, as if something that protects us were disappearing. I pushed through the singing crowd, overwhelmed, thinking a divine intervention might stop the fire,” the designer tells L’Orient-Le Jour nearly seven years later.“Over my life, faith has...
Night settles slowly over a literally burning Paris. Behind television cameras broadcasting the scene live around the world, a salt-and-pepper–haired man walks, nearly in tears, toward a dense crowd applauding first responders and firefighters in front of a monument reduced to a faint silhouette beneath glowing embers.On the night of April 15, 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames — the result of an accidental spark during renovation work — as Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, his wife Pauline in his arms, joined the faithful praying under an ominous orange sky.“I felt as if my mother were in danger, as if something that protects us were disappearing. I pushed through the singing crowd, overwhelmed, thinking a divine intervention might stop the fire,” the designer tells L’Orient-Le Jour nearly seven years later.“Over my...
