Fashion Journalism

[Katie123]

oh my god, what a post

 

[ched]

It might be helpful if someone could post those "standard rates." Writers who have been around seem to know them but the newcomers working for free so often are out of the loop.

 

[prosperk]

That's a good question and one that merits a thoughtful response. When I was still working regularly for fashion and style glossies, my agents got me anything from three to five bucks a word, in USD for the US and similar markets and Euro for the EU.

For magazines or, more to the point, editors I liked, that rate was negotiable if they didn't have much money. A few years ago, one glossy offered me $7.00 a word plus a retainer but the job turned out to involve dishing gossip on friends and acquaintances so I turned it down. Gutter journalism is gutter journalism, no matter how expensive the paper and ink, and it is nice to be trusted by one's friends and acquaintances. Of course, I know plenty of magazine and newspaper writers who have no friends to begin with so they will always take the Judas cheque for snitching on a mate's drug problem or whatever.

For a beginner, there is nothing wrong with asking for a buck a word. Most editors will negotiate down to, perhaps, 50¢ a word but once you start getting a name for yourself and producing good material, you can negotiate a higher rate. As I said, indy mags usually don't pay anything at all but the trade-off in that situation is that you can demand a lot of 'artistic freedom', meaning that your article or interview is published without some egomaniac editor trying to impose his or her presence upon your presence, to paraphrase Norman Mailer on graffiti. Get those tearsheets for that portfolio of nice-looking work!

Regarding the internet, this is a relatively new medium. Most publishing houses have tended to view the web as a supplement to their print media rather than a medium in itself. Consequently, they have either not allocated sufficient funds to buy in good content or they have allocated too much money to charlatan website designers and technicians, leaving nothing in the kitty for the journalists, photographers and filmmakers who should be contributing top notch content as opposed to reheated press releases and mediocre op-eds by staffers who are paid nothing extra for it and are therefore deeply unmotivated.

However, there are people out there who are trying to create good webzines. The original BuyBuy.Com was a good example, although it was launched in French rather than English, which was a tactical error. BuyBuy was paying 50¢ a word for premium copy, which is twice the rate a serious journalist gets for an article for the Vogue or Bazaar websites. So they got some 'names' on their masthead and, even if publishing executives like to imagine that writers are two a penny, all of the major houses advertised in the early issues. In fact, the launch had to be delayed because of the need to design the ads for the webzine. Sadly, there was a change of management and BuyBuy took a different direction. It's probably alright for a certain French target market but now has very little advertising because all the 'names' dropped it like a hot rock when offered substantially less. Or perhaps the advertisers dropped it when all the quality bylines disappeared. Whatever...

All of which leads one to surmise that a beginner generating good articles for a commercial website - a website funded by subscriptions, sponsorship and advertising - should be pleased if they can persuade the website to pay them half what Vogue or Bazaar pay: around 15¢ a word. It's not much money but if you can write, say, five 100-word pieces in half a morning, that's $75.00 or €75.00 you didn't have when the alarm clock went off. The rates for writing on the internet will increase as webzine creators follow BuyBuy's example in offering major advertisers venues with which they feel comfortable. One senior LVMH figure described advertising their fashion and luxury wares on the internet as akin to advertising on billboards overlooking the slums of Mumbai and Rio. Elitist? Sure, of course! Fashion is elitism. And what the LVMH man said is painfully true, like so many politically incorrect statements.

The paradox of the internet is that it has resulted to some extent in a revival of high quality FOB and caption-style writing from an earlier age in print journalism. It has to be short and it has to be good in order to gain that edge that gives your webzine a head start over the others. To get good, established people to supply content, they have to be paid. There are talented novices out there. Some of them even have blogs. But of perhaps a hundred youngsters I've looked at in the past few years, just four were able to produce the goods regularly to a consistent standard of quality and are now forging careers for themselves in print and cyber media.

Bottom line: if you think you're worthwhile, why would you give it away for nothing unless you were helping a friend out, doing it for charity or consciously doing it for a penniless indy mag in return for great tearsheets? Why would you donate your writing to a commercial website or publication free of charge? To get publishers and their editors to respect you, professionally, you have to begin by respecting yourselves. Would you clean my toilet or wash my motorcycle for nothing? Of course you wouldn't! Once you start by pitching low or putting out for nothing when dealing with serious, commercial enterprises, it is very hard to up the ante. Pitch high, settle for half, build a reputation on it and then haggle the price up once the radar starts picking you up.

Demand a buck a word from magazines and half that from webzines and see where you end up. They might even agree...

PK

 

[ched]

Who are some of the 'names' out there in fashion writing right now, and how did they become major players?

 

[prosperk]

Tricky. It depends on how purist one's definition of "fashion writing' might be. I obviously have my opinions but they are bound to be biased and I am not even sure that I am qualified to judge, as I am not a fashion writer as such. I would say that the standard is certainly set by Suzy Menkes but one has to qualify that by bearing in mind that she is not as handcuffed as her colleagues on magazines and supplements that rely more on a dwindling pool of fashion and luxury advertisers than The Herald Tribune.

Suzy can, literally, afford to be devastating honest about developments in the fashion world. I'd certainly include others like Kathy Horyn, Marion Hume, Godfrey Deeny, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni and Alicia Drake in the small 'pantheon' of fashion magazine editors and writers who have dared and still dare to point out that the proverbial king is naked rather than knuckling under and writing the requisite puff piece to keep publishers, ad managers and advertisers happy.

Another paradox for our young hopefuls to ponder: the nicer you are about the great and good of the fashion business, the less likely you will be to receive invitations to parties and get good seats at shows. These people only respect those who are unafraid to point it out when they get it wrong.

To refer back to my earlier posts: if you haven't enough self-respect to demand fair payment for a fair day's work, then you're hardly likely to be inclined to give designers the good beating they sometimes deserve for taking the piss out of their public with preposterous clothes and accessories, are you?

A good journalist is an honest journalist. If you take the money and write a puff piece despite loathing the latest sartorial outrage perpetrated by some misogynistic queen undergoing a perpetual midlife crisis, then you have compromised your ethics and you may never recover from it.

There are some younger fashion writers worth watching but it is far harder for them than it was for us, because we came of age in a time when offering quality was still an important part of the equation. Now it's all about chasing a shrinking pool of advertising revenue and a dwindling readership one step ahead of receivership and bankruptcy. Dissident voices are gagged...which is why, offhand, I cannot think of anyone really good under the age of 35 or even 40.

Mind you, I'd be very pleased to be directed to some youngsters showing the calibre of some of the writers I mentioned.

PK

 

[Cicciolina]

Other well known fashion journalists (other than Cathy Horyn, Suzy Menkes et al
- Robin Givhan
- Teri Agins
- Guy Trebay (though he's not totally restricted to fashion)
- Holly Brubach

I can't think of many well known fashion writers who work or have written for magazines though. Perhaps Sally Singer at Vogue? Dana Thomas obviously got her name out there with 'Deluxe'.

 

[vavavinny]

I am graduating from college next year with a degree in English and a minor in Art History. I plan on going to graduate school in NYC and am going to apply at NYU, Columbia, and Parson's. At both NYU and Columbia, I would apply to the journalism programs and at Parson's I would do a fashion MBA of some sort-either Fashion Studies or Fashion Society . Which school do you think would be better if I wanted to focus on fashion journalism? I don't want to get stuck doing journalism in general and am afraid if I go to either NYU or Columbia, I will end up writing for some publication that is not at all fashion-related. Also, I would eventually like to be a fashion editor and work with photographers styling shoots, so I figure taking the fashion route at Parson's would be more valuable for me in the long run. Still, I am not completely sure what to do and need some direction. Any thoughts?

 

[iluvjeisa]

Another paradox for our young hopefuls to ponder: the nicer you are about the great and good of the fashion business, the less likely you will be to receive invitations to parties and get good seats at shows. These people only respect those who are unafraid to point it out when they get it wrong.

Really? That almost makes me feel hopeful about the world...I bet it has to be pointed out in the right medium, though.

 

[prosperk]

I am graduating from college next year with a degree in English and a minor in Art History.

Congratulations. Your degree will prove to any future employer that you can stick at something for more than two years and may be worth engaging.

I plan on going to graduate school in NYC and am going to apply at NYU, Columbia, and Parson's. At both NYU and Columbia, I would apply to the journalism programs and at Parson's I would do a fashion MBA of some sort-either Fashion Studies or Fashion Society .

OK...

Which school do you think would be better if I wanted to focus on fashion journalism? I don't want to get stuck doing journalism in general and am afraid if I go to either NYU or Columbia, I will end up writing for some publication that is not at all fashion-related.

Why focus on journalism at all if you don't want to be a journalist?

Also, I would eventually like to be a fashion editor and work with photographers styling shoots, so I figure taking the fashion route at Parson's would be more valuable for me in the long run. Still, I am not completely sure what to do and need some direction. Any thoughts?

It seems rather as if you have answered your own questions. You want to style fashion photo shoots - and, presumably, advertising shoots to pay the rent - which has very little to do with the journalism side of things.

A fashion editor is, in fact, an experienced fashion stylist who has been engaged by a publication and given this masthead title. This should not be confused with, say, a fashion features editor, who would handle, as the title indicates, fashion-related articles, usually in the Front-of-Book and Back-of-Book sections. However, this person is generally overseen by the features editor or director, reporting to the Editor-in-Chief, who handles journalistic and features content throughout the magazine as a whole, including FOB, Well and BOB.

A fashion features editor might be entrusted with sponsored supplements and inserts from time to time. There again, as some magazines do not include any text in such supplements, apart from credits and perhaps an editorial by the EiC or the head honcho of the firm sponsoring the exercise, the overseer might be the Fashion Director or the Fashion Editor, working with the photographer or photographers producing the fashion editorials - confusingly named as they are about pictures rather than text - and perhaps a couple of freelance stylists, especially if the photographers have enough juju to impose their own people.

In summary, I would say that you should put down Parsons, Parsons and Parsons on your application forms and explain to their interviewers that you had thought of NYU and Columbia but that they simply don't offer anything resembling the course you need to do in order to realise your goals. Forget about journalism. You can always learn that 'on the job'. You don't need a degree in journalism to be a journalist. You need simply to be a journalist and to be reliable from a commissioning editor's viewpoint. You either have the talent or you don't. I've said this before, to the fury of people on agendas, but not a single one of my colleagues at any level whatsoever possesses a journalism degree. In fact, if you swan into the majority of busy editorial offices waving a journalism degree or, worse, a degree in media studies, you'll be lucky not to be defenestrated.

If you want to teach journalism, then a Master's, followed by a PhD, is certainly the way to go. You would enroll at NYU or Columbia with that aim in mind and if you made the right friends in academic circles, you might end up with a comfortable Ivy League sinecure, running an upmarket version of those dodgy writing courses advertised in various broadsheets. No, lad, you don't want to be a journalist. What you want to be is a stylist with the goal of ending up as a Fashion Director on a prestigious publication, with nice juicy creative direction gigs in advertising.

Hope this is clear...

PK

 

[prosperk]

Other well known fashion journalists (other than Cathy Horyn, Suzy Menkes et al

- Robin Givhan
- Teri Agins
- Guy Trebay (though he's not totally restricted to fashion)
- Holly Brubach

Ah yes, all excellent writers and commentators.

I can't think of many well known fashion writers who work or have written for magazines though. Perhaps Sally Singer at Vogue? Dana Thomas obviously got her name out there with 'Deluxe'.

Sally Singer is also very good. As for Dana Thomas, I'd say that, like Trebay, she's not totally fashion-oriented. I'd classify her as a more broadly-based style-related features writer and reporter. I'd also say that she got her name out there working on Fashion Wire Daily when it was still a cutting edge source, before its teeth were pulled because of the stories and exposés that pricked so many egos on Planet Fashion. FWD didn't play the game like the other fashion-related media.

Mind you, to refer back to iluvjeisa's post and the question of well-aimed criticism of the great and the good of Planet Fashion, FWD was relatively tame compared to Chic Happens, the caustic webzine 'gossip column' edited some ten years ago by Horacio Silva and Ben Widdecombe. Horacio Silva is now an editor on supplements published by the NYT, living proof that making people scared of you and what you might print next can sometimes lead to career advancement, as long as you don't blink first when your targets square up to you.

It is easier to become a respected (feared) commentator when working for newspapers rather than magazines because, as I pointed out previously, newspapers are less dependent upon advertising to pay their way whereas any magazine editor or staffer who feels inclined to state an honest opinion of, say, a fashion show of little or no merit is in for trouble with the ad manager and other corporate types if the target is an advertiser or a potential advertiser.

Editors-in-Chief of fashion magazines who are prepared to stand up to bullying by advertisers are few and far between now. Notable examples from the recent past include Joan Juliet Buck of French Vogue and Marion Hume of Australian Vogue but neither of them came from a magazine background, so the point is even further proven. Godfrey Deeny also came from a newspaper background. So did Richard Buckley, who was also an honest broker in his time at Vogue Hommes International as well as being passionately and expressively against the whole dumbing-down cancer.

Under Buckley, the readership of VHI increased by over 40% in less than a year and the advertising revenue more than doubled, according to the firm's financial director, proving the point that the reading public are far from the suggestible morons many publishing executives make them out to be. With two issues per year, VHI made more money than its sister title French Vogue with eleven issues a year. This was rather embarrassing so the publishers took the easy way out by running VHI down, the suppression of the English language edition being an especially fatal blow, and turning it into a French Vogue supplement. Fragile egos preserved... Problem solved...

I'll leave you all to work out the various morals of these stories for yourselves. I'm off to the gym to earn the right to a few beers on a sultry Paris terrasse at the end of the afternoon.

PK

 

[sassybella]

So when they appoint editors to run their titles, they will often appoint similarly under-educated editors whose talents lie in prostituting the magazine to advertisers rather than serving up the best possible product to readers.

Of course, a magazine is really just a collection of bound advertising pages separated by articles, fashion shoots and other editorial content. To imagine otherwise is naive. The trick lies in creating a fine balance between what we call "the wh*re pages" that finance the magazine and what we fondly hope is worthwhile content for readers who buy the magazine.

I love how you say things as it is Prosperk. It's refreshing to see people don't gloss over the tough facts of the industry.

And to add to that, the more you get into the industry you should watch your step. As "devil wears prada" as it sounds, there is always someone willing to help set up a few hurdles to make things difficult because you are stepping on their territory or something similar.

It is easier to become a respected (feared) commentator when working for newspapers rather than magazines because, as I pointed out previously, newspapers are less dependent upon advertising to pay their way whereas any magazine editor or staffer who feels inclined to state an honest opinion of, say, a fashion show of little or no merit is in for trouble with the ad manager and other corporate types if the target is an advertiser or a potential advertiser.

Try as you might to be like FWD, Horacio Silva and Ben Widdecombe and say what you think to have people scared of what you may say next. You still have to get to an established level to do so, otherwise you're are just a negative/bitchy writer who might not find a door that opens for you to slither through.

As for good journalists, it was equally refreshing to see the likes of Godfrey Deeny at Australian Fashion Week this past May saying things like he saw it - if a designer was good, he said it, if one was bad, he'd not cover them or say so too. In a fashion industry as relatively small as Australia, as a wanna-be fashion writer, it was good to see him say it like it was and seemingly still have fun with it. We don't get enough of it, try as she might, Marion Hume wasn't in the country long enough to keep the constructive criticism coming.

Since fashion has moved on a whole to the online world because of the consumers need for immediacy, I have found the work and blog by Patty Huntington (FrockWriter.com) a marvel to watch over the last few years. She always says things like it is and believes in social media to the point that she is willing to question the pr people and publicists over their continued support to put magazines and newspapers who only give them a fraction of the coverage established social media sites/brands could.

It's inspiring to see journalists actually question things that need questioning - good or bad. And I guess it's a lesson I'm trying hard to learn... though sometimes have the negative consequence, which could be a sign I'm having an effect, no?

 

[LucieRibbons]

This thread is really informative and has cleared up a lot of my confusion. I'm not really sure if I do want to pursue journalism but it's definitely an option right now.

 

[vavavinny]

Rerosperk

Thank you so much for your reply and thoughts. Your words have helped me to put things in perspective. I do really want to be a stylist, not a journalist. But I would eventually like to be at an exclusive publication and not do freelance forever, even though I will probably have to do TONS of freelance work to get my name and work out there before I get to the big leagues. The title stylist is a bit annoying to me. Fashion editor sounds so much better ! What are your thoughts of starting at a magazine to begin with, say, as a fashion assistant? What kind of credentials and/or backgrounds do they look at when hiring the fashion assistants? I've read before that some editors loathe people with communications degrees, and they also tend to be turned off by people who went to school for the obvious, like fashion design or merchandising. Is that true?

Also, your comment that editors like to be corrected and tested on their word is interesting to me. I've heard this before. But I'm sure there is a correct and incorrect way to go about doing this. Is subtletly key?

 

[BetteT]

Since this thread is about jounalism ... writing for magazines, etc. ... your questions are off topic. But ... here are some threads that might enlighten you some about the other jobs at magazines, including a fashion editor:

Careers / Jobs / Positions in Magazine Publishing
What Education is Needed to get into Magazines / Publishing?
How to Get Work at a Fashion Magazine & Get to the Top
So You Wanna Work in Fashion Editorial /Journalism? Article.

 

[ched]

I've read before that some editors loathe people with communications degrees, and they also tend to be turned off by people who went to school for the obvious, like fashion design or merchandising. Is that true?

If it isn't, it should be. If you only know one discipline, you'll never be interesting in that discipline, and you'll just be another drone.

As long as they learn how to sew, the best foundational education for a fashion designer is probably a degree in anthropology or geometry or
engineering.

You can see things driven by personal experience in the work of designers with rich cultural experiences and backgrounds or those who travel to the most exotic places for inspiration. But then you can also see remarkable lines on garments made by truly gifted people who barely leave their front lawns.

Fiction writers, the most interesting ones, don't usually have English degrees.

Our best runway photographers at modaCYCLE are a computer scientist, a lawyer, and an ex-sailor.

Head-on is not always the best approach. To be successful as an artist you need to be able to look at problems creatively. To be interesting as an artist you need a sense of nuance.

A liberal arts education, whether it is in English or Art History or Physical Education, is essentially the same degree, and probably editors looking at talent pools view someone with a degree in communication or fashion merchandising as a person who would have to be untrained before they could be trained.

If you want to be a writer, you need to know about people and cultures, and most of all you need to write.

This idea that fashion journalism can only be done by someone with a degree in fashion is wrong-headed. Travel, be involved in communities so you meet a diverse range of people and have the opportunity to learn their stories, read fashion history books, and get a degree in something off the wall that will give you an unusual perspective. Get out of your comfort zone and do things that scare you. Do things that build character. That's what good journalism is about in the end, having a perspective and sticking to your guns to get the truth out.

 

[vavavinny]

^Thanks for your thoughts ched. I totally agree with everything you said. I think it is so much better to be educated in literature and art and other creative forms than to just focus on fashion itself. Because, when it is really boiled down, fashion is an amalgamation of other artistic and cultural mediums.

 

[vavavinny]

Sorry BetteT, I will be sure to post on the other threads !

 

[Cicciolina]

In the words of Sally Singer (Media Bistro interview

What piece of advice would you offer someone just starting out who's looking to work at a fashion magazine?
It's not a great time to go into magazines. People who often want to be in fashion magazines love magazines, but they love them to the exclusion of the rest of the culture in the world. They do media programs or communication courses [in college]. I always say, get a real education in a discipline with some history and weight behind it. Be an art history major. Whatever you're doing, do it to the utmost. People waste a lot of time thinking about the social operations of things and waste a lot of time growing up and half-paying attention to what they're reading in college or high school. I would say: Whatever you're doing, pay attention when you're doing it. Magazines reward wide-ranging curiosity and intelligence. People that want to consume information at a fast and ferocious level do well at magazines. To be really good at fashion, it's not about what you wear. Looking good in clothes is fairly interesting, but that doesn't help you.

 

[vavavinny]

^I've read that interview! SOO helpful and insightful! I totally agree with everything she says. I really love how she seems like such a down-to-earth, approachable person. She totally dispells the myth that a fashion editor has to be a satanic stuck up snoot. I appreciate that.

 

[tigerrouge]

and get a degree in something off the wall that will give you an unusual perspective.

Yes, for the sake of living a proper life, I'd advise people to get a degree in things that really interest them, rather than trying to turn themselves into some sort of 'acceptable product' in the hope that companies will approve of them.

And doing a degree in journalism will not prepare you for the practical aspects of the job - which involves the sort of 'people skills' that you can't learn in a mild-mannered classroom - so you might as well spend your time doing something gloriously academic, because you won't get those years back, and you might not get the chance again.

Some people I worked alongside had degrees completely unrelated to the industry - like Criminology and Classical Civilisation - and that didn't stop them from being great at the job, highly respected and very much in demand. And superb people to know. Never a dull day.

Everything you need to know to do the job, you will learn by doing the job. Use your education to improve the person you are, because if you're a well-rounded individual, you'll never need to worry about your job prospects, because what you have to offer the world is yourself, rather than exam results or a portfolio.