sábado, 5 de mayo de 2007

Dress code

Diplomatic woes sort of... Clothes make the man or the woman, but not all agree it seems.

"Larissa Abramova, a Ukrainian violinist, thought her red dress was lovely. But apparently it offended Iran's foreign minister -- and got him out of a gala dinner attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Abramova said Friday she was wearing a red, sleeveless dress with long matching gloves coming up past the elbow and a red scarf draped over the low-cut front.

She chose the ensemble especially for Thursday's dinner for dozens of the world's top diplomats at a beach hotel where she plays every night -- because, she told the Associated Press, she knew she would "look beautiful in it."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit had hoped the occasion would be a chance for Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Rice to have an informal talk on the sidelines of an international conference in this Red Sea resort town.

But Mottaki stayed away from the dinner, held in a restaurant on the hotel's beach. He later told reporters later the dinner fell short of "Islamic standards." U.S. officials said he complained the hotel violinist was dressed too revealingly.

"I don't know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.

The long-haired, attractive Abramova said she couldn't believe her dress was to blame. "I think the problem (is) not in me and not in my dress," she told the Associated Press, speaking at times in English and at times through an interpreter. "It was some other reason because he left the party."

Mottaki never made it to the actual party. He only went as far as the lobby, where Abramova was playing at the bar, entertaining the dozens of diplomats passing by on their way to the beach restaurant.

He entered the lobby and sat down briefly, never going out to the restaurant, Aboul Gheit said.

Abramova said she saw many diplomats in suits passing by, but didn't recognize Mottaki or notice him sitting. At the time, she was playing her usual repertoire of classic pop songs, like the theme to "Love Story," "Dr. Zhivago" and "The Godfather."

She said she believed the problem was likely as much from the women in mini-skirts in the hotel as her dress. Dress code in Sharm, a secular party town, falls far short of the strict Islamic garb -- including the headscarf -- enforced on women in Iran. Shorts, bikinis, bathing suits are more the norm here.

When Abramova showed up Friday evening for her nightly show, she was surrounded by journalists, photographers and cameramen -- the unexpected center of a diplomatic fuss.

She said she felt "a little bit embarrassed" by the attention but she was "OK."

Friday night, she was wearing black pants and a black top with diaphanous sleeves.

Abramova, who has been working in Egypt for three years, said she was born in Russia, but her family later moved to Ukraine, where she gained citizenship. Her husband, a Ukrainian pianist, accompanied her on Friday night -- but not on Thursday."

Source