'Page Six' assails Fidel line for its perceived link to the Cuban leader
CRAIG SILVERMAN
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
04/23/2003
MONTREAL -- A small but popular Montreal clothing label is engaged in a political fashion fight with one of the world's premiere gossip columns, The New York Post's Page Six.
Apparently a subscriber to the notion that the facts should never get in the way of a good story, Richard Johnson, the ubiquitous editor of Page Six, fired the first salvo after spotting a full-page ad for the Fidel clothing label in fashion bible Women's Wear Daily. "Some idiot on Seventh Avenue [the fashion district in New York], who doesn't realize that the dictator of Cuba is about as popular with his people as the dictator of Iraq was with his, has come out with a Fidel clothing line," read the April 11 edition of the popular column.
But according to Fidel president Andrew Raisman, Johnson is making up his story from whole cloth. First, he notes, the company draws its name from fidele, the French word meaning loyalty -- and not from El Presidente. Raisman adds that his company never took out an ad in Women's Wear Daily, which would have cost $80,000 (U.S.).
On April 14, Raisman fired off a letter to Page Six clarifying the label's name and asking for an immediate retraction. "Your remarks about our company are unfounded and . . . damaging to our reputation and to the good will of our brand," wrote Raisman. "Our brand reflects qualities of loyalty and integrity, which are literal translations of the word 'fidel' . . . We expect that The New York Post will act responsibly and will officially retract the statements made about our company in your next printing."
"Hogwash," declared Page Six the following day, effectively asserting that in the new world order, Fidel means what Americans think it means, so there. "Most customers assume Fidel refers to the Cuban dictator," it read. "If you didn't want the association, you'd change the name."
Reached by phone, Johnson says he chose to tell Raisman to "stick it in his ear" instead of proffering a retraction. "Any normal American would make the association," says Johnson, expressing what might be called an admirable fidelity to his fellow citizens. "But this guy writes me with some snarky explanation . . . I speak French and never heard that word before."
Johnson also happily shared his thoughts on Canada's unwillingness to join the war in Iraq.
"I think Canada has always been such a small appendix to the U.S. that it's not even worthy of weasel status," says Johnson. "You are below weasels, which makes you moles, or perhaps shrews."
Raisman's letter said the column was unfairly targeting his company because of "trying times for the U.S."
In any case, he notes, "We sent them a full-page response and they printed one line. Just because there's a similarity between our name and a controversial world leader doesn't mean we support him. Our stuff is feminine and girly. We do floral skirts and pretty T-shirts, so it's even more ironic they are picking on us."
Raisman sent out copies of his second letter to a company mailing list (subject: "The NY Post is on our ass") and called upon supporters to write in with comments. Many have, including some from New York and other parts of the U.S. The letter also offers a tongue-in-cheek suggestion for the paper: "In response to your remarks suggesting that we should change our name, we submit the following suggestion of our own: The [New York] Post should undertake an investigative weekly column exposing secret links between garment manufacturers and controversial historical figures, in an attempt to finally rid the world of subversive political messages woven into cloth and sold to unsuspecting fashion victims to support the Communist mandates of island-nation dictatorships. Now that would surely sell some papers!"
