Mustard Yellow isn’t just for Miss Moneypenny
14th November 2012It’s a faux fur Christmas
9th December 2012More crimes of Fashion with Rupert Sanderson
Beware those festive crimes of fashion
If your Christmas holiday plans involve airport security and an Alexander McQueen knuckle duster handbag or a pair of Rupert Sanderson ‘bullet’ boots, take heed. You could find yourself within the clutches of the law, as did London-based image consultant and author Coni Judge.
On arriving at Amsterdam airport a bemused and bewildered Coni was left speechless, hysterical and distraught – in varying degrees – after being taken aside by security staff who dutifully confiscated her dangerous McQueen black leather clutch for being “an illegal weapon.”
If your Christmas holiday plans involve airport security and an Alexander McQueen knuckle duster handbag or a pair of Rupert Sanderson ‘bullet’ boots, take heed. You could find yourself within the clutches of the law, as did London-based image consultant and author Coni Judge.
On arriving at Amsterdam airport a bemused and bewildered Coni was left speechless, hysterical and distraught – in varying degrees – after being taken aside by security staff who dutifully confiscated her dangerous McQueen black leather clutch for being “an illegal weapon.”
Despite her tears, pleadings and logic that this expensive designer statement was nothing but an innocent ‘til proven guilty clutch bag the Dutch police were having none of it.
They confiscated the clutch on the grounds of Article 94 of the Dutch penal code and told Coni in clipped, no nonsense English: “This is a weapon. It is illegal to possess it in the Netherlands so I’m confiscating it and you face a fine.”
Had she admitted her ‘designer crime’ and paid the weapons’ fine Coni’s cherished clutch would have faced destruction, never to be brandished again.
But her refusal to admit its criminal tendencies meant her threatening clutch was confiscated for safe-keeping. A blog later it became a much-debated topic within police and fashion circles including raising an elegant eyebrow from the Fashion and Beauty Editor of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
Thankfully a sensible and fashion-conscious public prosecutor/fashionista and a dapper Don Draperesque weapon and ammunition law specialist from the Dutch Police saw sense and Coni’s sinister accessory was returned graciously and politely without fine, arrest, court summons, or jail.
Needless to say, in readiness for strutting off to the Netherlands in her favourite pair of ‘bullet-toting’ designer Rupert Sanderson ankle boots later this week, Coni has already ‘fired off’ an email to airport security. She’s been advised that although not ammunition, her faux-bullet boots could be viewed as ‘security items’ that may not be allowed on board.
She is again preparing to dig her heels in, in the name of British fashion.
They confiscated the clutch on the grounds of Article 94 of the Dutch penal code and told Coni in clipped, no nonsense English: “This is a weapon. It is illegal to possess it in the Netherlands so I’m confiscating it and you face a fine.”
Had she admitted her ‘designer crime’ and paid the weapons’ fine Coni’s cherished clutch would have faced destruction, never to be brandished again.
But her refusal to admit its criminal tendencies meant her threatening clutch was confiscated for safe-keeping. A blog later it became a much-debated topic within police and fashion circles including raising an elegant eyebrow from the Fashion and Beauty Editor of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
Thankfully a sensible and fashion-conscious public prosecutor/fashionista and a dapper Don Draperesque weapon and ammunition law specialist from the Dutch Police saw sense and Coni’s sinister accessory was returned graciously and politely without fine, arrest, court summons, or jail.
Needless to say, in readiness for strutting off to the Netherlands in her favourite pair of ‘bullet-toting’ designer Rupert Sanderson ankle boots later this week, Coni has already ‘fired off’ an email to airport security. She’s been advised that although not ammunition, her faux-bullet boots could be viewed as ‘security items’ that may not be allowed on board.
She is again preparing to dig her heels in, in the name of British fashion.
