“What defines him is his ambiguity.” how Joan of Arc became the heroine of a new generation.

On Friday, July 26, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games. the horseman comes out of the night and runs along the Seine. If we did not see her face hidden by a mask, then the whole world recognized the image of Joan of Arc in metal leather armor, created by the Frenchwoman Jeanne Friot. “When Thomas Jolie and Daphne Burke contacted me, they immediately spoke to me about Joan of Arc,” says the designer, who has already included her in his spring-summer 2025 fashion show, titled Idols. “The idea was to ask ourselves how to redefine it in 2024.”

Questions that young American singer Chappelle Roan also asked herself. On September 11, he performed his hit at the MTV Music Awards. Good luck dear he, too, in armor and sword in hand, accompanied by gallant knights, rejoicing before the burning castle. A few days later, Angela posed on the cover of the magazine in exactly the same outfit Photo:. While director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge, Elvis) announces that his next film will be dedicated to the life of the French heroine – “the final story of a young girl coming out of adolescence”. Jenna Ortega has already come forward for the role, stating that The Passion of Joan of ArcCarl Theodor Dreyer’s silent classic (1928) is one of his favorite films. It would be a dream to play Joan of Arc.”

She would be far from being the first Maid of Orleans; in addition to the unforgettable Falconetti, her crown of thorns, homely dress and tear-stained face, Joan of Arc was played in the cinema by Ingrid Bergman, Jean. Seberg, Sandrine Bonnaire, Milla Jovovich and Clemence Poesy. And by Marion Cotillard on stage, in Joan on the stakeoratorio by Arthur Honneger. In terms of fashion, he inspired Thierry Mugler, Jean-Paul Gaultier (who coined his image), Balenciaga and Julien Dossena at Paco Rabanne.

Romantic fate

What is so attractive about Joan of Arc? His fate is as romantic as possible. Both a mystical tale (a young girl who hears holy voices), a war fresco (Joan at the head of Charles VII’s armies), and a tragedy (her trial and execution, burned alive in 1431 at the age of 19), it unites all elements. an epic saga that warrants endless reading.

Long hidden from official accounts (a peasant woman straight with God who overshadowed monarchs by “divine right”), her story was revived in the 19th century; in the making (Joan of Arc was canonized only in 1920, Editor’s note) and a Republican leftist who saw in herself a patriot, but also a woman of the people,” explains historian and biographer Valerie Turey (Perrin, 2020).

Two currents that are becoming more radical. over time, Joan of Arc becomes both a nationalist symbol adopted by the French extreme right, embracing the idea of ​​”kicking” foreigners out of France, and a feminist icon. The first to think so were the British suffragettes. Today, this side of the character attracts Zhanna Frio. “Few women have marked history as warriors, aspirants for political positions. While studying him, many details inspired me. he refused to marry in order to leave his family, become a nomad, and persuade the king to raise an army when he could not do so.”

The designer, who envisions dedicated, gender-neutral fashion, also emphasizes the character’s quirky aura; Today we know that she was burned because she was accused of wearing men’s clothes. What Valerie Turey confirms. “At that time, there was no better method of defeating a political opponent than a heresy trial, which allows for the manipulation of rhetorical arguments. The first examinations conducted by the leaders initially found nothing wrong with Joan’s masculine outfit, because it is inconvenient to go to war in t-shirts, and the end justified the means. But the men of the Church who flocked to the English were reminded at the trial of Joan of Arc that cross-dressing was contrary to divine law.”

In her prison, Jeanne first agrees to wear women’s clothes, which are stolen from her. Forced to wear his old outfit, he is considered a “relapse,” a doubly guilty one. And therefore ultimately reprehensible and reprehensible.

A strange heroine

Joan of Arc, a strange character. The thesis has been around for a long time, from novelist Vita Sackville-West, who in Saint Joan of Arc (1936), claims to be a lesbian in a recent essay to historian Clovis Maile, Gender Fluids – From Joan of Arc to Trans Saints (Arche, 2020). Besides his song Joan of Arc In 2015, Madonna filmed the trans rapper Micky Blanco in a house dress and a crown of thorns in a video. Dark balletIn 2019. As for Angel or Chappelle Roan, they claim to be fighting for LGBTQ rights.

And if these versions of Joan of Arc sometimes give rise to heated debates, they are perfectly suited to the period, as well as its paradoxes. “What defines Joan of Arc is her ambiguity,” as Vincent Grégoire, trend director at Nellie Rodi, explains. and female… We don’t know which way the wind is blowing. in this respect Joan of Arc questions much.” And would bring a glimmer of hope in our anxiety-inducing world, an echo of the Middle Ages, often described as the “dark ages.”

“Norestalgia,” according to Vincent Grégoire, the past’s tendency to acquire weapons for the future, which would also explain Chappell Roan’s medieval headdresses or the crinoline dress worn by Angel in the pages of Photo magazine. But also our need to dig into the soil of our culture in France, to reflect on its roots; “We are in the year of a great national romance. Commemoration of the landing, dissolution of the assembly, Olympic Games, reopening of the Cathedral of Our Lady. ..In the era of globalization, we wonder what the French identity is. And when we don’t know where we’re going, we stick to where we came from.” Even if it means adopting other perspectives, why not in other ways as well? More adventurous, perhaps risky, but innovative. Like Joan of Arc, in her time.