On October 24th, 1977 Jacques de Bascher and Xavier de Castella organized ‘Moratoire Noire,’ a party in honor of Karl Lagerfeld. It was to be held at La Main Bleue, an old cinema redesigned by Philippe Starck and Jean-Michel Moulhac as a suburban disco for African dandies, but which quickly drew the thrill-seeking fashion crowd.
The 4000 guests arrived head to toe in black leather and S&M gear. De Bascher and de Castella welcomed them dressed in red and white fencing uniforms. The night soon transformed into a dark room, modeled after the parties on Christopher Street in New York. A dom/sub show took the stage, inspired by one Jacques de Bascher had seen at The Anvil, a NY gay club. The main event of the night: a fist-fucking session with Jacques Brel playing in the background. The event became Paris’ first huge gay S&M party. Moulhac recalls “they had left bottles of poppers on the ground – people kept on walking on them, the smell wafted all the way into my offices on the floor above. Even my press officer was getting up to no good in the cloakroom! There was nothing I could do.” The sensational event was captured by photographer Philippe Heurtault.
Unsurprisingly the party caused a media scandal and numerous complaints from the local community. It led to a police investigation conducted by the communist administration of Montreuil. Fabrice Emaer modeled many aspects of Le Palace based on Moulhac’s club, and it eventually replaced La Main Bleue as the ‘it’ place for the Parisian elite.
