UK Vintage Fashion Icon Virginia Bates Trampled, Beaten In Paris Riots After Forced Out Of Taxi

PARIS, FR. (THECOUNT) — Virginia Bates, owner of a London vintage clothing store that was frequented by the stars since 1971, was trampled and badly beaten in Paris after getting caught up in one of the recent Yellow Vest riots.

Rioters trampled and attacked the 75-year-old decades-long London fashion icon, whose store sported celebrity customers such as Helena Christensen, Donna Karan and John Galliano. Bates ran her Virginia Vintage Emporium from 1971 to 2013 before moving her operation to her home in West London.

Bates was attempting to return to her Paris hotel when her taxi driver informed her he was unable to reach the now cordoned off area. She was then forced to exit the vehicle and walk, all while dressed in her usual eye catching vintage garb. Moments later she encountered a large group of rioters, who harrassed, trampled, beat and robbed the senior before leaving her for dead on the once upscale street.

During the violent incident, Bates’s head was sliced open and she almost lost an eye when she was kicked and beaten during the relenting riot. She almost shattered her shoulder and was left lying helpless with blood pumping from her head as a thief dragged her along the floor while trying to steal her handbag. source

Thankfully, EMS were able to arrive and retrieve Bates after rioters moved out of the area and on to more viable targets.

Bates told reporters that cars burned and exploded around her as she was overtaken by teargas. She later described the entire city as ‘a war zone’.

‘I had never seen this kind of anger, this hunger for violence – they were picking anything up and just smashing anything up, ripping up those beautiful railings that go around trees and throwing them at cars, setting cars alight,’ she told the paper.

Though she says the incident has not destroyed her ‘love’ of Paris, she admits the thought of going back makes her ‘a little bit anxious’.

Bates required 10 stitches above her eye administered by street level medics who provided no anaesthetic. She later suffered and was treated for an infected head wound and required additional complex surgery for a shattered shoulder.

She is now on the long road to recovery.