Lady Gaga vs. Cathy Horyn

[LUXXX]

Before Cathy Horyn takes her front-row seat at New York Fashion Week, setting her critical eyes on the collections, Lady Gaga has a few harsh words for the New York Times fashion critic. For some reason, Lady Gaga has decided to issue a takedown of Horyn and her ilk, in a new column the pop star penned for V magazine, which will be posted on vmagazine.com later this morning.

“In the age of the Internet, when collections and performances are so accessible to the public and anyone can post a review on Facebook or Twitter, shouldn’t columnists and reviewers, such as Cathy Horyn, employ a more modern and forward approach to criticism, one that separates them from the average individual at home on their laptop?” Gaga writes.

Gaga insists in today’s media there are no echelons and, if they’re not careful, the most astute and educated journalists can be reduced to gossipers. Then the Lady points to Tavi Gevinson, noting her “prodigious and well-written blog” is the future of journalism (see above). “Why do we harp on the predictability of the infamous fashion critic?” Gaga asks. “When did the pretense of fashion become more important than its influence on a generation? Why have we decided that one person’s opinion matters more than anyone else’s?”

Source: WWD -- Memo Pad


I'm going to disagree with her on this...I do think there is a place for the professional critic in mediums like fashion and film. You can always tell the difference between an amateur and someone who has spent years analyzing and honing their opinions.

 

[olga.]

Lady Gaga's opinions on fashion and fashion critics are ridiculous. Try to dress yourself properly and then sit for a tea and have a talk.

Sorry, I soooo dislike Lady Gaga. Nothing comes out of nothing.

 

[missbluejean]

Clearly someone was butthurt by that praise-critics article from this month's W and decided to put it all out on innocent Cathy Horyn.

*not just talking about Gaga and her little monsters but V mag as well.

 

[FelipeV]

Gaga's head if full of sh*t. Who in the hell she thinks she is to critic any area in fashion? She's just the rest of the originality of real artist and she tries to be the voice of everybody.

Why have we decided that one person’s opinion matters more than anyone else’s?

This could be her only valid point if she would take personal the opinions of C. Horyn about how D. Versace felt honored to dress Gaga in The Edge of Glory video. In fashion- and now with the bloggers- everybody's opinion count, but i usually like the criticals of the professionals.

 

[Marc10]

Gaga's opinion here is basically the same as Nicola: "Old people" should retire and give space to "new people". And that's wrong. People like Cathy and other critics have the respect they have today beacause they know what they're doing. It's the same thing to say that bloggers should take the place of fashion critics, while i agree that it's a good thing that the internet gives unknown people the possibility to share their opinion, the critics have the experience of a lifetime watching the fashion industry from the inside. They deserve their place and the relevance.

 

[HeatherAnne]

How condescending, to suggest that the average person sitting behind their computer has the same knowledge of fashion and it's history as Cathy Horyn. Also, to suggest that Horyn should write more like some over-hyped teenage blogger [for the record, I like Tavi's voice, but come on!].

 

[MulletProof]

You can tell her Jersey Shore-looking days aren't that far from her yet and she's still getting advice on fashion and trying hard to assemble what she's absorbing (or being thrown at...). For starters, Tavi is eloquent, somewhat cute, a nerd (meaning there is criteria involved but hardly insightful analysis), and, above all things, she's old news . Now Cathy, some methods will never go out of fashion as long as you're still providing honesty and personal effort (education, experience, research).. it's funny because Stefani's arguments against Cathy could very easily be applied to editors in chief.. but I guess going after Cathy won't necessarily affect your chances of landing covers.

Man I don't even know why I'm responding to this thread...

 

[Ives927]

Clearly, she's just stirring the pot like her good friend Nicola to get people talking about them. Of course they are going to discredit those that have been in the fashion industry for decades, how else would they get any attention since they're irrelevant to the fashion industry? I'll give them the 5 minutes of fame they so desperately crave for, that's all they'll ever get. Nothing they do or say have any credibility, nor the creativity they so egoistically think they possess.

 

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

this is a bunch of BS, and she needs to stick to performing because she obviously knows nothing about fashion and having respect for people who have been in this industry for quite some time

 

[Tinsley V]

What she wrote basically has no substance. She is against old-school critics like but doesn't go on to say what they should do to change? Its fine to write a critique but when you have nothing else to add the critique loses merit.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Man I don't even know why I'm responding to this thread...

Me neither, except to say Team Cathy all the way!!!

 

[Scott]

honestly,the woman is just clueless and has no real substantial context on this subject except that she has a grudge. darling,you do realise you play music and you play dress up? good and bad,criticism comes with your territory. otherwise you've chosen the wrong profession.

and to belittle fashion critics below the likes of mere bloggers who aren't educated journalists with a wealth of experience in reviewing fashion is inherently ignorant. you cannot sit on your pedestal and tell me that a 14 year old whose main utterances are reduced to mere "you look amazing" has more criteria than a cathy horyn or suzy menkes? and tavi like the great hilary alexander explained....she's cute but most of her blog is reduced to pure ramblings and absolutely no context whatsoever. i mean honestly.

and her entire diatribe is full of contradictions anyway. she talks about pretension but has the audacity to speak on "memorandum" and "intellects....and then goes on bashing hierarchies yet refers to herself a queen. the woman is so full of herself she's starting to remind me of that other ego maniac who thinks the entire fashion world should bow to him.

 

[Libra Skye18]

Here is the full writeup....



Date: September 2011

Re: Extreme Critic Fundamentalism

From: M†SS. GAGA

To: Stephen Gan

Copy to:
Ms. Vreeland
Haus of Gaga
Nicola Formichetti
V Collective
Little Monsters
The World
Art Historians
Intellectuals
Journalists
Columnists
Cathy Horyn

Doesn’t the integrity of the critic become compromised when their writings are consistently plagued with negativity? When the public is no longer surprised or excited by the unpredictability of the writer, but rather has grown to expect the same cynicism from the same cynic? When we can predict the same predictable review from the same predictable reviewer? Accomplished creators of fashion and music have a visceral effect on the world, which is consequently why they are publicly distinguished. So why do so many notable critics seem so impervious to the emotion of the work? Why such indifference? Does intellectualism replace feeling? It’s so easy to say something is bad. It’s so easy to write, “One star, hated it, worst show of the season.” It’s much more challenging to reckon with and analyze a work. It requires research, but maybe no one does their research anymore. So my question, V readers, is this: when does the critique or review become insult and not insight? Injury and not intellect?

I’m going to propose a term to describe this movement in critical journalism: Extreme Critic Fundamentalism. I define this term as instilling fear in the hopes and dreams of young inventors in order to establish an echelon of tastemakers. There is a difference between getting a B- in Biology with a series of poignant red marks from your teacher and being given a spanking with a ruler by an old nun. The former we can learn from, while the latter is just painful. The artist is the general and captain of his or her artistic ship, always ready and willing to take the first blow and drown if an iceberg is hit. But in reviews, should critics not reveal all the scientific, mathematical, and pertinent information to explain why the Titanic could not withstand the blow, or why other cruise ships were successful?

* The temperature of the water.
* The construction of the ship.
* The weight of the cargo.
* The number of passengers.
* The disorganization of the crew.

Where my argument leads is to the perspective space of art, which is subjective and not ultimately rooted in mathematics or physics. Is it not even more critical for fashion and art critics to be profusely informed not only in art history but in the subliminal? The public operates with the assumption that critics are experts in their respective fields. But are they? Does every critic have the soul to really receive a work in the transcendental sense? The out-of-body experience of art?

In the age of the Internet, when collections and performances are so accessible to the public and anyone can post a review on Facebook or Twitter, shouldn’t columnists and reviewers, such as Cathy Horyn, employ a more modern and forward approach to criticism, one that separates them from the average individual at home on their laptop? The public is certainly not stupid, and as Twitter queen, I can testify that the range of artistic and brilliant intellectuals I hear from on a daily basis is staggering and inspiring. In the year 2011, everyone is posting reviews. So how does someone like Ms. Horyn separate herself from the online pack? The reality of today’s media is that there are no echelons, and if they’re not careful, the most astute and educated journalists can be reduced to gossipers, while a 14-year-old who doesn’t even have a high school locker yet can master social media engines and, incidentally, generate a specific, well-thought-out, debatable opinion about fashion and music that is then considered by 200 million people on Twitter. Take Tavi Gevinson. She’s 15, and Rodarte created an entire project inspired by her. Her site is thestylerookie.com. I adore her, and her prodigious and well-written blog is the future of journalism. The paparazzi has similarly been usurped by the camera-toting everyman. That magical moment of the movie star posing in front of the Metropolitan Museum is no longer so magical. Now everyone has a ****ing cell phone and can take that same ****ing picture.

Why do we harp on the predictability of the infamous fashion critic? The predictability of the most notoriously harsh critics who continue writing their notoriously harsh reviews? Why give the elephant in the room a peanut if it has already snapped its trunk at you? That peanut was dead on arrival. To be fair, Ms. Horyn, the more critical question to ask is: when did the pretense of fashion become more important than its influence on a generation? Why have we decided that one person’s opinion matters more than anyone else’s? Of all the legendary designers I have been blessed to work with, the greatest discovery has been their kindness and their lack of pretense. They care not for hierarchy or position. They are so good, and so precise, that all that matters to them while they’re pinning their perfectly customized garment to my body is the way it makes me feel. Perhaps the pretension belongs in formaldehyde. And the hierarchy is embalmed — for us all to remember nostalgically, and honor that it once was modern, but is now irrelevant. Peanut.

VMagazine.com

 

[AD011620]

Sorry what is Gaga's influence on her generation? Dress up to the extent when you become unrecognisable, hide all inner insecurities and qualities behind fashion and gain strength through such life style even if you lose your personality during this process… honestly, her speech at the CFDA was horrendous and should be proclaimed as an anthem of superficiality… Gaga fighting bullies with Mugler clothes… honestly… I don’t think bullies worry about what you wear… this is how she got her integrity? this girl just needs to retire for a while… remove all the make-up and wigs and look at herself in a mirror for 5 minutes with sound mind…

 

[Dora]

Gaga is so overrated!!!!!!

 

[mononym]

who cares what gaga thinks?

tavi was a flavor of the moment, ms. horyn will be here forever.

 

[Drusilla_]

Honestly, I do think it's funny that Lady Gaga would rather criticise a fashion critic for, well, criticising things than tell off the writers of the endless puff pieces that seem to constitute most of the word count of articles in mainstream fashion magazines.

It's also ironic, considering that Ms Horyn is literally the only mainstream fashion writer I've ever seen who acknowledges the contributions of her individual blog commenters to the discussions on her NYT blog - something I have never seen any other media do, and makes Cathy one of the more forward-thinking critics out there. Would Gaga be as likely to talk about what a brilliant but otherwise unknown Slovenian art history student (Marko, for anyone who reads the comments on OTR) has to say, as opposed to the teenager whose story has been covered by every news outlet in existence?* Yeah, I didn't think so either.


*no offence, her blog is lovely but people do mostly know about it because of the hype around her age, and seem to use it as the go-to-answer/solution to any perceived problems with the state of fashion commentary today.

 

[AD011620]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']As a person who emphasizes importance of research Gaga should know that a good researcher also does referencing not just copying the way she does. Most of her work is a copy… it is beyond obnoxious of her to claim that everything she wears or does is a pure art… and as a person who claims to be such an amazing artist she should be nothing but prepared even for harsh criticism. [/FONT]

 

[MulletProof]

^^ yes to the tiny part of your post. You know that year when the Misshapes/cobrasnake emerged and there was this girl at an unbelievable age taking center stage in the whole thing (Cory, yes), well, whatever happened to her? .. and she did have a blog since then and everyone would visit it and she was getting invited to Paris shows. Of course she was not eloquent, there was no need for it in 2007, it was all about drunken typing.
Call me back when Tavi is 19 and suddenly we're just left with her writings, no unsettling age to associate them with and the ghost of a hasbeen.


Gaga's article is just so rude and extremely second-hand embarrassment inducing. She reminds me of a group of goths back in high school that didn't talk to anyone because they thought everyone cared enough to hate them, and were resentful to teachers, and suddenly one day they experienced an outburst and it just happened to be against the only 'cool' teacher that everyone loved. So embarrassing .

 

[LUXXX]

The other thing, too, is that Tavi and most bloggers only have their opinions. Unlike Cathy and other fashion journs, they aren't big on getting opinions and facts to back up certain assertions or to support them. That's what it's like with this blog culture we're in.

But that is not journalism.