Contrasting fashions

The newspaper cartoonist invited us to a ceremony at the Ecole Superieur des Beaux Artes this afternoon where he was getting an award. There was going to be a student fashion show and art exhibit he said. In keeping with my usual plan to never say no to invitations in new countries because you don't know what you'll see we went.

The first hour was grim. The same dull speeches and recitation of names that mark graduations any place in the world. Then suddenly techno music began pulsing and a line of gorgeous young women in strapless, backless, thigh-high, flowing, bra-less designs began strutting around the school courtyard. WHAT WAS THIS?

Men in the audience were just mesmerized but we were too. The last place in the world we expected to see these risque fashions was in conservative, modest Algiers. The school is artistic, our friends explained, and so it can get away with a little more than the usual.