Hi! I sincerely apologize for the hiatus that I’ve been on! I’ve settled into a new job, worked on some freelance writing for i-D, The Face, and Input Mag and have been busy keeping up with TikTok content as well! But we’re back— and we’re back to talk about something that has been plaguing my mind since the last time I checked into your inboxes, so please enjoy this free edition this week. This past runway circuit (FW22) felt distinctly strange for two reasons: it was the first post-pandemic season that felt revived in almost full, if not full-force and it was the first season, since I left my previous job in the industry and grown my TikTok and writing platform that I have experienced essentially as an industry outsider. Though I may have ‘insider’ knowledge of how certain things work through first hand experience, as BOF has officially deemed me, I am now classed as a Fashion TikTokker, and decidedly and industry outsider peaking in. Which stings, but is categorically (and hopefully temporarily) not technically wrong! When I reflect on what my ideal participation in and with the industry may be it’s often overwhelming to realize how wide everything has been blown open in our chronicallyonlinecoreera. Writers are influencers, and making much more money doing so, so are they really still an objective writer? (I argue yes! Take the money and run your mouth regardless!) ‘Critics’ are people who goad the algorithms with hot takes and while 100 girls may kill for that job, the reality is all 100 of those girls now have microphones, and opinions, and TikTok, and Twitter, and minor internet clout! What even is a critic? And who’s to critique another’s criticism? What happens when criticism simply becomes….common?
Can we analyze the way in which others analyze?
As long as art has been produced, so has commentary. Criticism, though largely heralded as a devastating review or harsh one liner, firmly establishes an art movement within the context of its time, author’s bias and all. There’s an infinite number of ways to produce art as there is also an infinite number of ways to criticize art, and an infinite number of ways to criticize the method in which we critique. Though, it’s worth noting that fashion criticism, at least in wider popular culture, has historically remained the inferior sibling to food and art critique. Perhaps it’s because fashion has long been inexorably intertwined with the feminine, and therefore considered a utilitarian craft rather than a fine art. But that is an aesthetic philosophy debate to be shelved for another day.
Until recently, there has never been a cohesive compilation of fashion criticism that demonstrates the growth of the industry and the practice of fashion writing itself; Fashion Criticism: An Anthology, edited by Francesca Granata, sets out to accomplish this task, though as she notes her list is far from exhaustive. There are the notable greats such as Suzy Menkes, Cathy Horyn, Vanessa Friedman, and Robin Givhan, who was the first person to receive a Pulitzer Prize for fashion writing in for her coverage in 2006. But there are also those who lie on the outskirts of concrete criticism and exist within the realm of cultural prose, such as Oscar Wilde. The reality is, both criticism and commentary provide an intangible representation of the commonplace, and the daily frequency of our use of clothing cements the necessity of fashion’s criticism alongside that of the Michelin Star reviews of restaurants.
For a brief industry moment, editors, who were largely the critics of their time, seemed to hold an awe-inspiring fear over major designers. Pierre Bergé famously banned all employees of Yves Saint Laurent from uttering a word to Women’s Wear Daily after a lukewarm, half page review on page 12 of the publication. There are indeed other notable examples such as Balenciaga ‘blacklisting’ Carine Roitfeld and therefore severing ties with French Vogue in 2010. Try getting away with that today when all it takes is a check large enough for a cover shoot and a few Instagram stories! While the biggest pocketbooks may now run the advertorial gambit, that doesn’t mean that other prominent members of the fashion industry have not expressed frustrations at the way in which major publications have largely sold out.
Lucinda Chambers, after ‘leaving’ her tenured position at British Vogue, sat down with Vestoj Magazine to explain her bitterness towards the industry at large, stating, in a now redacted version of the interview due to Condé Nast’s legal team, ‘I know they weren’t all good – some were crappy. The June cover with Alexa Chung in a stupid Michael Kors T-shirt is crap. He’s a big advertiser so I knew why I had to do it. I knew it was cheesy when I was doing it, and I did it anyway. Ok, whatever.’ A 30 year career in an underpaid, brutal industry is no small resume to shrug off– to survive it one truly needs to appreciate and love fashion itself. But when things have turned out the way that they have, it becomes difficult to not feel innately cheap, and therefore any discussion surrounding said sell-out designer or magazine becomes equally as cheap as well.
So the questions remain: can the word still hold weight? And what does this mean for major publications? Whose opinion is meaningful and whose opinion is merely… frivolous? The first answer is a resounding yes. True, balanced, and culturally contextual criticism cements art in history while also helping usher forward new movements. If there were no commentary, no search for what’s next, no hunger to see how one may improve, art and fashion would remain as static as many major publications have now become.
However, while magazines are chasing advertisers, commentators are chasing the algorithm. Over the last two years, with TikTok’s complete infiltration into marketing and the fashion industry in general, criticism (or what is thought to be criticism) has in itself become a ‘trendy’ method of content creation. What dominates so much of fashion’s conversation today is merely a fleeting opinion on taste rather than a deep rooted desire to hold, to observe, and to nurture through words. Sometimes, it can feel like there is nothing quite as irrelevant as having an opinion.
But that should not discourage those in and outside the industry from learning, and growing, and reevaluating how fashion discussion could be approached as a whole. Maybe it is a balance of affiliate links and thoughtful journalism. And fashion media may indeed be reaching a tipping point–take a look at Rachel Tashjian’s recent article regarding microtrends and Daniel Roseberry’s and Christian Lacroix’s sit down with Interview Magazine, as two notable examples of industry leaders speaking out.
Fashion criticism can and should bridge the gap between social commentary and artistic analysis. Though not everything absolutely needs to be subjected to this lens, that is, unfortunately, what is happening now with the influx of content creators fighting for the algorithm’s attention. At its basis, we can’t not speak about fashion. It is the thing in which we inhabit most second to our own skin, and when done right, true criticism can provide reflections of the self within the movement of our own clothes and community.