Do you think fashion critics write something real instead of compliments?

[balmain1914]

I used to read their words, but I now just skip the cliches and click the photos/videos link, especially journalists editors from Style and Vogue. It's a messy collection, but some still write positive for their ad/ed money sources. I don't blame them, they need this **** jobs to keep living, but I feel pathetic for their acts.

Do you think nowadays fashion critics really write something real instead of complements?

 

[VersaceVixen009]

I feel like Style.com/Vogue automatically praises certain labels no matter what, such as Balenciaga, Lanvin and Prada. For the past 6 years they've done nothing but marvel about the collections and list them as their personal favorite collections of the season.

 

[iluvjeisa]

I cannot remember reading anything negative in the reviews at style.com. But then it's an American site so you have to read between the lines

It would be nice to see a very informed description of why a collection does not work.

 

[loladonna]

I can't recall reading negative reviews of a line anywhere outside of private blogs and Cathy Horyn's columns. The relationship between the designers and the publications all over the world makes it awkward and impossible to criticize a designer then expect an invitation to their next show.

 

[ched]

**there is just no one else doing the kind of coverage we want to read. The idea that the big glossy magazines from Conde Nast and Hearst have any semblance of journalistic integrity left is too sad to be a joke. From the total lack of non-advertiser garments in their editorials to their web sites running press releases as reviews and having "buy now" links to Moda Operandi embedded in reviews, the ships are lost, the waves are over the mid-deck, we're watching fashion journalism from its former guardians die a slow withering tasteless death.

 

[Crying Diamonds]

I cannot remember reading anything negative in the reviews at style.com. But then it's an American site so you have to read between the lines

It would be nice to see a very informed description of why a collection does not work.

It is indeed a rare thing, but I find that they reserve their inner cattishness for the smaller brands.
I'm glad this thread popped up because I made a comment on the latest Celine collection about how ridiculous I thought the critics were (As they labelled it "The best Celine by Phoebe Philo collection yet.") and I felt as if I was the only one who felt that way.

The post desirous for this thread is here.

 

[snowqueen]

Alot of hard work goes into a collection so ripping it to pieces and saying alot of bad things no matter how true would be well cruel to say the least but I do think so constructive critism would be usefull for people. I would like to think even if journalists or who ever are praising a collection thats well erm not good then people are able to form their own opinions on it. But I do think this constant praise does give people false ideas on there work etc. also Has any one noticed that the odd bitchy comment is save for the less'er known brands. I mean I know everyone knows everyone and all that. So maybe slating the big brands would make things arquid?

 

[ched]

Big brands buy big expensive ads in big fashion magazines. Therefore, you cannot trust anything a big magazine says about big brands or little brands. If the retailers were buying more ads than the garment producers it might be a different story. The information in them is essentially useless on all fronts. They're all six months behind, so no one should care about them anyway, except that they have the web sites and just spew nonsense all the time now.

 

[softgrey]

i'm not even sure why anyone needs to read negative or positive reviews of stuff...
can't we all just look at it and decide for ourselves...?

 

[MulletProof]

^ exactly!

To be honest, fashion reviews have the same effect on me as music reviews, the moment they start nay'ing or yay'ing something, I can't even look at it with a clear eye, it's all tainted, sometimes I'll take it against the reviewer, sometimes his/her words just circle in my head even though I have a different opinion of what's being presented, but they always have an effect, and I hate that, reason why I can't go through 10 pages of comments here at tFS before actually seeing a collection.. too much love often makes me not want to love and vice versa. It's ridiculous, but that's my nature.

Perhaps I'm completely off with my notion of what a review should be but those I find enriching are often the Tim Blanks kind (and I know he has a rep of drooling over everything but he actually.. does not, and you can see this clearer in the work he did for Fashion File), to me it should be about presenting a piece of work, attempting to break it down in a respectful manner (respectful to the person that did it and readers).. providing the reader with yes, perhaps a subjective presentation of its creator, but also information on previous work, the phase the artist/creator is in, analising how that relates to current tendencies or his own tendencies, describing properly (very important- reason why I do read style.com reviews).. worshiping or verbally destroying something is unnecessary, same for not being able to control what your taste dictates as repulsive or extraordinary (you can never leave that out, but you can certainly manage it), and I think the readers should have the same liberty as the writer to use their own criteria and being able to praise/condemn. There are exceptions to this though, there are times when something is so bad or so good when you put it into a good amount of contexts that you just have to say it, but anyway, I think my general expectations of reviews on a major publication/site is that they should be less tendentious and respond less to interests, for the sake of their own readers.

*sidenote: I CAN remember negative stuff on style.com, especially by Sarah Mower, whose reviews either send me to sleep or just leave me perplexed by her laziness and poor research.

 

[VersaceVixen009]

I just feel as if certain editors are very biased due to their relationship with the designer and so they automatically praise the collection.

 

[ched]

i'm not even sure why anyone needs to read negative or positive reviews of stuff...
can't we all just look at it and decide for ourselves...?

Most of the runway show reviews ride the line between totally subjective unsubstantiated nonsense and complete drivel.

There is a massive difference between a Beavis and Butthead-style response to a show (either it's cool or it sucks) and what I would call a real critical review from someone with more knowledge than the readers, who asks more in an interview than "what was your inspiration." The most important contribution from a writer is providing real context for understanding what you're looking at, and the majority utterly fail in that responsibility.

For example, punch "Jen Kao Spring 2011 review" into Google and most of what you'll read is about the intricate sand-painting decorating the runway, which the designer did not create. You'll also find some reviews referring to her as Japanese (she's from Kansas City). The collection was phenomenally strong for an emerging designer, but almost no one (...) talked about the garments, their construction, or the dramatic differences between that collection and her Fall 2010 show.

Most people going to runway shows for the magazines, or worse reviewing them from pictures, have no idea what they're looking at or talking about, so it is no wonder that the public has such a bad understanding of fashion.

Another example, type Agatha Ruiz De La Prada into Google Images. You're going to see dresses that look like they're covered in giant fried eggs and models wearing eyeball masks and dresses with mustaches. Those aren't the collection. They're not intended to go on the rack at all. It's conceptual decoration interspersed to give the collection context. That designer has a design philosophy that rejects the notion that the clothing made for children and the clothing made for adults should be stylistically divorced. If you send 99% of all fashion bloggers to one of her shows, they're going to come back talking about the fried egg dress and ignore the magnificently complex mixed-fabric pleating on the cocktail dresses that didn't look like Mr. Potato Head. The sad part is that there is a good chance the reviewers from major US magazine blogs are going to be in the crowd that goes after the shiny object instead of the fashion. Given the opportunity to interview her they would ask "why eggs" instead of "what brought you to the idea of pleating wool with silk?"

Fashion is a serious business and too often we have the most unserious people on the planet sent in to report on it.

 

[balmain1914]

dont you think tim blank's videos are boring enough? everyone is saying bravo, beautiful collection, fantastic, gorgeous, nice, amazing...blah blah blah.

 

[Crying Diamonds]

^ exactly!

To be honest, fashion reviews have the same effect on me as music reviews, the moment they start nay'ing or yay'ing something, I can't even look at it with a clear eye, it's all tainted, sometimes I'll take it against the reviewer, sometimes his/her words just circle in my head even though I have a different opinion of what's being presented, but they always have an effect, and I hate that, reason why I can't go through 10 pages of comments here at tFS before actually seeing a collection.. too much love often makes me not want to love and vice versa. It's ridiculous, but that's my nature.

I swear, everything you said in this paragraph, I feel exactly the same.
If you've loved a collection and then a critic says "well it's not going to sell, and some of the trousers are unflattering." like you say, it immediately taints it because you find yourself hesitating whether to agree with them or not.
It's exactly the same with reviews on films, books etc - if you start looking at it with a negative view, what do you expect your opinion will be at the end of it?
It all boils down to whether you allow yourself to be susceptible to other's opinions and whether you can clear your mind well enough of the comments others have said to be able to view it without bias. It's difficult when, like on this forum, we are bombarded with opinions, but it is just down to whether the person has a point or not.

 

[MulletProof]

dont you think tim blank's videos are boring enough? everyone is saying bravo, beautiful collection, fantastic, gorgeous, nice, amazing...blah blah blah.

That's not really accurate though, maybe for style.com it is, but he's worked there only a handful of years, I don't really think that sums him up as a journalist, there are too many interests involved with that site considering it's Condé Nast + US Vogue territory and the format of adding the reception at the end has been there, way before he came along so it's natural that he's been asked to add it as well.

I remember in Fashion File (for which he worked for what? 20 years? I really don't know but it was a lot), attendees' opinions were also frequent, but not really part of the format, and not always positive, you'd often hear people at the end of the show saying things like 'he tried to continue what he did last season, with poor results' .. either that or you didn't see anything at all:



.. it's a shame Fashion File videos are so scarce on the internet because I thought it was a fantastic program and it would still be highly educational for people interested in fashion, and it's funny because he's now representing biased journalism for those unaware of his whole body of work but for me his work had the opposite effect, I found out about new designers, did my own research on them and made my mind about him thanks to the objective way in which he covered them, sometimes hinting something negative or positive but still giving the viewer enough liberty to generate curiosity and process the material on his own. Anyway, I still think he achieves that through style.com, just not as strongly.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

^ Totally agree about Fashion File.

What everyone's talking about is similar in the film industry and it has to do with the fact that a lot of companies are imbricated (conglomerates) or they have some sort of vested interested. For example, I will rarely trust anything I read in Entertainment Weekly since it is owned by people who own studios, Time Warner. i'll look at someone like Ebert instead, as he is just writing for a neutral paper. Sure, he has favorite filmmakers etc, but not because there is some financial bargaining behind the scenes, but because he admires *the work*!

This is similar to what people are saying about Vogue/Style.com/designer advertisements. There is too much overlap, and "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine."

One is better off to read reviews on blogs, or, as softgrey says, look and form one's own opinion. Sometimes I will have a point of view on a film or a collection, then I go read the reviews and we concur. That's nice. But other times, with some lesser known brands, I will think the work is fabulous, ground-breaking,etc, but the review nitpicks. I agree that the lesser know designers, the ones who aren't featured in editorial after editorial, are fodder for the criticism.

Frankly, someone should publish an avant garde fashion magazine that works solely to promote lesser know brands. That would be refreshing!!

 

[iluvjeisa]

i'm not even sure why anyone needs to read negative or positive reviews of stuff...
can't we all just look at it and decide for ourselves...?

It's fun to read what informed people think about a topic, though. It might be either entertaining or educational.

 

[balmain1914]

i'm not even sure why anyone needs to read negative or positive reviews of stuff...
can't we all just look at it and decide for ourselves...?

really? you dont think critics should be more responsible? dont you think readers esp those who have no fashion clu could be affected by their reports?

 

[ched]

Frankly, someone should publish an avant garde fashion magazine that works solely to promote lesser know brands. That would be refreshing!!

Would a web magazine work? Like say an independent one that exists to promote excellence in design, treats emerging designers work as equally valid with established brands, and refuses all designer advertising...

The problem then is how to support it, because every other fashion magazine takes money from the designers to stay solvent.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Sure, why not!? Good idea. Websites can get funding based on ads & hits, and there could be all sorts of non-designer advertising in such a magazine: for e.g., beauty products, shoes (perhaps), mainstream (or highstreet) brands/stores, like topshop, madewell, zara, etc., musicians, artists, writers. Etcetera. Lots of people might be interested in advertising to support emerging designers and avant garde talents - why not?