Dopey Delevingne sparks furore with ‘heroin dress’
AMERICAN Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s annual Met Gala in new York, whose theme was China Through The Looking Glass, i nvolved celebrities parading down the red carpet in supremely tacky gowns. But one silly socialite also managed to offend the very nation the gala was honouring.
Poppy Delevingne, ubiquitous older sister of the more famous supermodel Cara Delevingne, arrived in a red, tulle Marchesa dress decorated with poppies and declared: ‘I’m going as opium.’
Cue outrage on social media with critics pointing out the 29-year-old’s outfit, coupled with her crass comment, offended many people who still view poppies as a symbol of British aggression during the Opium Wars of the mid-1800s.
‘How dumb can you be HOW INSENSITIVE!!!’ one tweeted, while another critic called her behaviour ‘offensive’.
In 2010, David Cameron was accused of bad manners after refusing to honour Chinese officials’ request not to wear a Remembrance Day poppy during a trip to the country.
‘ I never i ntended to cause any offence,’ Poppy tells me.
There is, of course, a more personal reason the daffy blonde might have been wise to keep schtum on the topic of opiates.
Her mother, Pandora, fought a well-documented battle with heroin.
A society beauty of the Eighties and daughter of ex-English Heritage c hai r man Si r J ocel y n Stevens, Pandora has confessed that she has been ‘through some very hard times’ and at one point even lived apart from her daughters so they did not have to witness her ‘illness’ first hand.
‘Sometimes they have had to live with me being too ill to mother them, which has been agony for me,’ said Pandora. There has even been speculation that Poppy was named after her mother’s habit. Two years ago, the night before she attended the 2013 Met Gala, Cara was photographed with a suspicious looking packet of white powder outside her Belgravia flat.
Let’s hope the Delevingne girls aren’t ushering in a new era of heroin chic.