There’s a pretty strong chance that you have no clue who Zahia Dehar is, unless you’re a huge fan of French soccer. But to fill you in and make all of you kids hip to the scene, Dehar is a 19-year old fashion designer who debuted her brand new lingerie line to rave reviews yesterday during Couture Fashion Week at the Palais Brongniart in Paris. Her achievement is remarkable in itself because of her age and the fact that she has only been modeling for the past year or so, but it’s most remarkable because of her first career as an underage prostitute.
So where does the French soccer correlation come in? In 2010, Dehar admitted to French officials that she had been paid for sex on multiple occasions by at least three prominent French soccer players. As the scandal became national news, it was revealed that the three players were Franck Ribéry, Karim Benzema and Sidney Govou. French officials swore that any players involved with Dehar and this huge prostitution ring would be ineligible to play for the French National Team. Fortunately, Ribéry wasn’t investigated until after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, so he was able to play. Only after the tournament was he indicted for soliciting an underage prostitute.
Ribéry’s career since the indictment has been riddled with injuries, as he never quite developed into his one-time status as France’s next big star. But Dehar is doing just fine, and since I feel like we don’t ever have enough fashion on this site, I thought we’d take a little look at what she’s been up to this week.
(Banner via the New Turk, Fashion Week images via the AP and Reuters.)
And here are some photos from her spread in an issue of Spain’s V magazine.
