Les Jones

No offense, but I wouldn't have thought I'd hear gratuitous France bashing from you, especially when said bashing is based upon faulty premises.

What the author of the article fails to realize, but which can be found with about 2 seconds of gooling, is that the "governing body" is in no way part of the French government, but is rather an industry group which is defending a trademark, or something equivalent to a trademark. Just as you can't market orange juice as "Florida Orange Juice", or cheese as "Vermont Cheddar" without the approval of the owners of those trademarks, you can't sell clothes as "haute couture" without the approval of the French group. Big whoop.

Reference: http://www.modeaparis.com/va/toutsavoir/

* The Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, created in 1868

which is composed of the Haute Couture houses, and firms that are not registered under the label of "Haute Couture" but which have a made-to-measure dressmaking activity in the Paris area.

Not that I'm above French-bashing, but I don't think this is. It's just dumb government regulation which happens to be French.

Just for the record, I do despise Villepin and Chirac for buddying up to Saddam Hussein. They sold out the U.S. displomatically by, among other things, continuing to sell to Iraq's military during the U.N. embargo, and promising Hussein that they would stop the U.S. in the United Nations.

I also hate the fact that a survey of the French people taken in the months leading up to the current war in Iraq found that a majority of them wanted the U.S. to lose. They didn't just want us to desist from war. They wanted us to lose, with soldiers shipped home in body bags. I quit buying French products after that.

So, yeah, screw France.

I followed the link you posted, and I think you're right that the requirements are a trade group restriction rather than a government restriction, but I'm not 100% sure. There are some organizations listed there that may be trade groups, or they may be government departments. I can't tell.