Marie-Pierre Vancallement - Fétiche par Fétiche

2025, Fétiche, French, Marie- Pierre Vancallement,

Original title: "Fétiche par Fétiche" (Fétiche by Fétiche) by Marie- Pierre Vancallement.

Fétiche par Fétiche is not simply a memoir, nor is it a nostalgic tour of Parisian nightlife. It is the intimate reconstruction of a life that began in pain and uncertainty and grew into a luminous legend of cabaret, femininity, artistry, and resistance. Marie-Pierre Vancallement, known to the public as Fétiche, invites readers into a world where glamour was stitched together with courage, where the stage lights burned away fear, and where a child who once cried in the shadows of Northern France learned to dazzle the world with a serene, unforgettable presence.

 

The book begins with the story of a child who was not born Fétiche and not even born Marie-Pierre, but Serge. From the first pages, the reader is confronted with a portrait of a young boy subjected to physical abuse and emotional terror, who clung to a dream that seemed, at the time, impossible. That child longed to be a girl and longed to escape the narrow streets and suffocating rules of her hometown. Rather than dwell in tragedy, the book traces how this young person transformed hardship into a kind of burning determination. The early chapters follow Serge’s evolution into an enterprising young man who had little more than ambition and a stubborn refusal to remain trapped. He eventually gathered the courage to leave the North and join a touring group of singers, a bold act that opened the road to Paris and to her future self.

 

Once Paris enters the stage, the book takes on a pulsing rhythm. The nightlife of postwar cabarets becomes both a sanctuary and a battlefield. Fétiche recounts the heady combination of music, stagecraft, and freedom that cabaret offered her. For the first time she was permitted to show the world the woman she had always carried within herself. The story unfolds with an irresistible sense of discovery as the young performer, still not yet fully aware of the forces that would shape her fate, finds herself surrounded by a constellation of extraordinary figures, including Bambi and Coccinelle, who would become her sisters, mentors, and fellow pioneers of trans identity.

 

Her writing has a lively and elegant quality, weaving moments of intimacy with sharp social observation. She remembers her arrival in Paris with a small suitcase and no contract, and the immediate sensation of being swept into a mysterious new universe. The cabarets offered liberation but also demanded discipline. Auditions were gained or lost in the space of a song. Costumes had to be perfected through ingenuity rather than wealth. Nights were long, and applause could turn to silence without warning. Yet these were the crucibles in which she forged her identity as Fétiche, the blonde apparition who left audiences breathless night after night.

 

One of the most vivid threads in the book is her rise within the mythical world of Le Carrousel, the legendary cabaret at 40 Rue du Colisée. Here she recounts the almost improbable sequence of events that propelled her from a supporting presence to a star. A devoted admirer financed her costumes, and Fétiche decided to do something that had never been done on that stage. Instead of wearing a single gown throughout a show, she appeared in a different dress at every entrance, turning each moment into a transformation and each transformation into a spectacle. The gamble worked. Audiences gasped, word spread, and Fétiche’s fame grew at a dazzling pace. The Carrousel became the center of her world, and she became one of its brightest lights.

 

Yet the glamour was never free from danger. The book pulls back the velvet curtain on the harsh realities faced by transgender women in the 1950s. Doctors turned them away or treated them with condescension. Police hunted them across Paris, arresting them for the simple act of existing in public. Fétiche describes sprinting through the city in heels, desperately seeking refuge in stairwells or behind unlocked doors. She recounts the sting of humiliation as they were photographed and registered as criminals, labeled with degrading terminology under an archaic Napoleonic law. Despite this persecution, the camaraderie between the performers, especially among the hormonée women who lived as women full-time, shines throughout the narrative. Their solidarity was fierce, their resilience astonishing, their sense of humor indestructible.

 

The book also reveals the surprising intersections between her life and the broader currents of French culture. She tells of meeting luminaries like Line Renaud and Suzy Solidor, who recognized her talent before she fully recognized it in herself. She recalls the astonishing list of international stars who flocked to the Carrousel to admire the performers, from Marlene Dietrich to Esther Williams, from Yul Brynner to Gary Cooper. There is even a delightful account of Elvis Presley attending the show while visiting one of the Kessler Twins, complete with a description of his quiet, attentive demeanor.

 

Her recollections of her colleagues brim with affection, especially her portrait of Coccinelle, who emerges as both an icon and a friend. The book recounts the legendary incident at the premiere of “La Femme et le Pantin,” where Coccinelle arrived dressed identically to Brigitte Bardot and momentarily eclipsed the actual star. It is one of many tales that illustrate the audacity and humor of the Carrousel performers, who understood both the power and the fragility of illusion.

 

Running parallel to these star-studded memories is a narrative of personal struggle and transformation. The book explores her relationship with her mother, whose acceptance came in a moment of disbelief on a train platform when Marie-Pierre emerged in a small linen suit with platinum-blond hair. It covers the extraordinary episode in which she presented herself as a woman during her compulsory military evaluation and was declared permanently unfit, an outcome she accepted with both relief and a sense of triumph. And it examines her collaborations with Pascal Sevran and her efforts to help abolish the discriminatory law that had long targeted transgender women.

 

Her reflections on love, loss, and the relentless whirlwind of nightly performances add emotional depth to the story. She recalls nights of passion, heartbreak, and laughter, along with tragedies that pierced even the thickest layers of glamour. Readers come to understand how a life onstage can illuminate but also exhaust, how admiration from audiences can coexist with moments of private despair, and how a performer can both enchant the world and carry silent burdens.

 

As the memoir draws to a close, it situates Fétiche’s life in the broader context of LGBTQ history. She writes candidly about what it meant to be among the earliest visible transgender women in French public life, a model who walked for Jacques Esterel long before the world had a language for her identity. In an era when the rights of LGBTQ people are once again under threat, her testimony feels profoundly urgent. Her voice is a reminder that progress has always depended on individuals who dared to be themselves even when society preferred them silent or invisible. Fétiche par Fétiche is therefore more than a personal story. It is a cultural treasure, a historical witness, and an act of defiance preserved in ink. It is a celebration of artistry, of womanhood, of persistence against all odds.

 

Through her vivid storytelling, Marie-Pierre Vancallement gives readers not only the memory of her own life but also a gift of hope. She shows that authenticity can grow even in the harshest environments, that identity can flourish in spite of danger, and that a life lived in truth can become a beacon for countless others. As she approaches her ninetieth birthday, her narratives feel more essential than ever. They remind us that every glamorous figure who stepped onto the Carrousel stage carried within her a revolution. Fétiche’s revolution was one of grace, intelligence, and unshakable pride. Her book ensures that this revolution will not be forgotten.

Available via Amazon

Photos via @tetumag (YouTube)