The parade of whores - Wordsmith.org

There is a French phrase for the event known as "the parade of whores". This is where a group of whores at a brothel are presented to a customer so that he can take his pick�an event famously depicted in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso.

Does anyone know the French phrase in question?

I found it�but boy, is it an anticlimax:

Quote:

Their [The Les Demoiselles d'Avignon nudes'] formal aspect was a favourite of 1890s' painting, memorably captured by Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec; it is the parade, the moment the prostitutes of the house display themselves to the client and he picks one.

�Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New (1980)

The italics are Hughes'.

That might be the title of the painting, but, if there is such a phrase I would suspect that's not it.

H's repost indicates that the phrase is parade..

-ron (anticlimatic) obvious

Wull, mehbe... sesquiguously

FWIW, A runway fashion show is "d�fil� de mode" (also d�fil� haute couture and d�fil� pr�t-�-porter).