TFS Community influencing the fashion world? See Post #1 for related thread.

[Squizree]

Perhaps tFS SHOULD have more influence on the industry.

 

[Echoes]

I went back and looked at this old thread:

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f4...-invites-only-how-send-invitations-45242.html

Looks like there were some changes made, process was tightened up, then loosened again. I'm not really sure how it works now, but it looks like most members can do it.

 

[Echoes]

Care to explain more ?

I'm going to have to re-think this influence angle after doing some digging. The front forum page here is showing 65,000 members (far less than I remember. I could swear it was over 100,000 at some point). Of those, I would guess that about a third are 'active' members who log in at least once a week, every week. Seems like a large number of members have drifted off for some reason based on the names I see on older threads.

So, that leaves my estimate around 25,000 or so members, and that's probably generous. Now, of those, how many are fans of models or celebrities as opposed to buyers of designer goods? Half more or less? How many would like to be buyers but don't have the resources?

How many of what's left actively work or study in the business?

Considering the millions of people in the field worldwide from design to advertising, manufacturing, commentating, editing, retail and so on, how influential can the site be?

How many dozens of other sites are out there?

Do insiders read this site? No doubt at all that some do. But enough to influence anything as far as decision making? That's hard to say.

 

[mariemaud]

indeed, there are a lot of chances that people come here, out of curiosity, read, come back, maybe even get addicted to reading comments about their work,
or even get somehow influenced, directly or more indirectly...
but influence that is not recognised is indeed more like a source that is exploited
So I think the term of influence is a bit akward there...
However definetely a place where discussions happen to bring very interesting points to the table, if you take the time to read, or at least a place where you can take the temperature about something specific quite quickly, even when people do not care to elaborate... that being said, I agree that it may be misleading to read such comments as 'i don't like' bored' with any further explanation... don't know how I would react myself if I got to read such comments about my work... the comments may not come from nowhewere but I'm not sure I would want to take it seriously if there is no more substance added

 

[fantastical]

And I don't really understand the "really" in the title !!!
Is tFS supposed to be influential ?
Not so sure ....

And tFS also represents well the increase of internet in the industry ... so that's a major poll to do ...

just to clarify, I was just wondering the possibility of tfs being influential rather than suggesting that it should be. I feel like a good bit of the members here are a fair representative of the consumers of fashion (whether it be clothes, magazines, or other products). Because we also generally give rather honest opinions of these things, I was just wondering if we somehow had an effect on the people that make and/or are a part of the fashion world.

 

[snowqueen]

negativty spreds alot quicker then praise unfortiantly so so i would imagine in a group of like minded people that news opinions etc would spread quick & then back to people in industry maybe? Thats the only way i could imagine influencing people although it all depends on weather people take notice..

 

[fashionista-ta]

Yes, but though they may not point you in a considerate direction, I do imagine that reading fifty "I hate this." posts on your collection's thread would be the cause of no shut-eye that night.

I would be thinking, 50 inarticulate teenagers with no money to spend on my stuff anytime soon

If it were me, I would be far more disturbed by one incisive critique that really nailed it ...

 

[model_mom]

not influenced the fashion world....you better think again.

We've come a long way baby and along the way many members from the fashion community have joined to make tFS what it is today.

http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f55/birth-tfs-4569.html

 

[ultramarine]

Well ... I do know about blurbs of tFS on magazines mostly ... even quoting posts from tFS members (I very distinctively remember one for some mag about Omahyra Mota).

Now, first of all .. lets see the obvious ... this is a FASHION forum ... its about fashion, but it is a forum ... are there any worldwide star-studded forums from the internet everybody knows about??? Not that I know of ... this little creation has surpassed even style.com (the -former- house of Vogue itself!!!) ... and to be honest, thats how I learned of this forums ... thru style.com ...

Now, saying that its influential its a bit hard to say ... esp on the model forums it IS influential and its a very good compass for agents/models/scouts/campaigns, etc ...
on other regards, hard to tell ... Ill have to admit that to me its hard to believe that tFS has enough influence as to have a designer from x or y house to be fired or replaced or elevated to cult status .. why? Who runs the houses? Suits! Most of the time! Now, close your eyes and imagine an investor franctically typing on a computers keyboard and reading the designers thread going "Ohhhh" and "Aaaahhhh" ... I *just* dont buy it ...

The thing's tFS is the online fashion enciclopedia .. if its fashion-related, and you google search it, most likely tFS will come up as a result with a thread on Page 1 of that search ... on whether how influential tFS can be on the fashion industry? I can only respond to that on a personal level ... before tFS I wasnt even interested in fashion ... damned Tim Blanks (Im kidding, I love you) and tFS are responsible for me linking it. And then, almost solely tFS trained me to become one of the top stylists in my country (Ive worked for the main mags here, from fashion mags, to newspapers, et al) and to work with international stars (biggest one a latinamerican bona fide rockstar). That would not have happened w/o tFS ... I dunno if it does change things at the offices of Vogue or Elle or LVMH or Gucci or Prada Groups ... but it did give a platform for a kid from a developing country ... so there you go.

On a related note .. from all the years Ive been here and the info Ive been able to collect from all the networking Ive been able to do here ... really really influential fashion people do read tFS, whether do they take in what they read in here ... I honestly dont know ... I could ask ... but where's the fun in that? I post for myself, just as a I dress for myself

 

[Flashbang]

Excerp from an article from showstudio.com

....

We're barely four days into the week, but the most compelling iteration of this future fantastic feeling, for me, came from Joseph Altuzarra. The man took a risk - think outerspace Out Of Africa, Neil Armstrong meets Verushka and any other conveniently pithy phrase to denote his collusion of sixties, space age and tribalism with a healthy dose of French chic. The results were undeniably up and down, love or hate, often walking that fine ugly-beautiful divide. But that's exactly what made them so exciting. Altuzarra confessed to me earlier this year that he reads the often vitriolic comments posted in The Fashion Spot's forums - no doubt he is blushing at the disservice already dealt to his pointed breast-cups, as reviled as they are revered. No matter, credit is due for Altuzarra's willingness to test the boundaries and chafe at restrictions in a season that already seems profoundly safe. I for one will jump for joy if I see any woman wearing his savagely chic snakeskin cone-bra - bravely pushing her breasts where no breasts have gone before.

 

[fantastical]

thanks for that Flashbang

I like that Altuzarra admitted that; I think if I were a designer I might look at what people were saying here but understand that everyone is a critic, and we are not all fashion experts here on this forum. The major advantage is that some of us are consumers so the designers can know exactly how people feel about their clothes and not just base it on how much of their collection sells in stores.

 

[sethii]

If you imagine the fashion industry as a news story, then tFS would be the comments section and media gallery. We all know that many people working in the industry visit here including famous names, and that they read what is written about them and others, but it is much harder to say what influence that has. I imagine that comments from their circle of friends/workmates in real life excerts more influence on them, than what they read here which offers something different.

It is probably most influential on people who are looking for comments on their style/work. E.g. for years Jessica Stam's fans have been writing they want her to dye her hair back to red - but she's still blonde. In other threads people even show up to react to comments and do take advice on board. So I think it is more accurate to think of tFS as a resource rather than something influential.

 

[Faith Akiyama]

^You're exactly right sethii, to me TFS is definitely more of a resource at this point than something truly influential (Thus far). But one thing for sure is that at this point, everyone involved the industry either has perused the forum or at least understands the nature of this place. I still recall that the first time I noticed that the forum was much "bigger" than I imagined was when Kanye West publicly blogged (If I remember correctly) that he had seen this pair of shoes that he loved on "The Fashion Spot" and that all his fans should check out the forum for new collections. And now that Conde Nast and other industry companies have absolute no hesitation about contacting us regarding copyright issues...I would say that all eyes are on TFS indeed

 

[sethii]

^ Yes I forgot about that. For non-mods they might not be so aware that people in the industry (esp model related) are interested in how they or their clients are portrayed online. Things which are common (this is mostly from my experience as a Supporting Cast mod) include models/agents/ asking us to correct information about models information, asking us to remove certain photos which they do not want potential clients to see, posting photos themselves to promote models, or building hype generally.

Remember this is the fashion industry where many people's careers are based on maintaining an image, which in turn makes them even more sensitive than they already are There are cases of celebs (not A list whatever but names we here would all know) even pretending, well it's not pretending really, to be their own biggest fan. Sometimes it's really obvious and members call them out which is hilarious. But when anyone makes multiple accounts for some reason like creating artificial popularity that is against our rules and we stop it happening.

Generally I prefer when models and celebs do not make themselves known, because that changes the tone of the thread to a sort of fan club vibe at the expense of being able to have a balanced discussion. Sometimes thats exactly what they want to happen, to have their own little fan clubs for support when they are being criticised and scrutinised in their daily job.

tFS brings something new to the industry/industry followers, and people are influenced by it as much or as little as they want to be.

(one more anecdote: recently in actress/model Elisa Sednaoui's thread, miu miu, another mod, critiqued Elisa's hair style and wrote what might work better for her. The next day on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival there Elisa was for the first time with that style! I'm sure Elisa reads her thread because I noticed her posting photos from here on her twitter, and she doesn't have much coverage outside tFS. I know it's not like miu miu caused a revolution, but it is amazing to think that a post on tFS can sometimes have the kind of effect that used to be reserved for print journalism. That ought to encourage us all to write better posts!)

 

[honeycombchild]

Coco Rocha Tweeted the screen grab of her UK Elle October cover that I did from their site seriously soon after I'd done it and posted into the magazine's forum. (Without crediting where it was from I might add.)

So I guess she checks tFS.

 

[FrenchCactus]

Coco Rocha Tweeted the screen grab of her UK Elle October cover that I did from their site seriously soon after I'd done it and posted into the magazine's forum. (Without crediting where it was from I might add.)

So I guess she checks tFS.

Yes, she once wrote an entry on her blog about her reading TFS and regularly checking her own thread.
Likewise, Garance Doré stated that she's addicted to TFS and that Emmanuelle Alt often uses it for her work.

Also, when Kim Noorda said in the Vogue US article about her that at one point she was concerned people on the Internet didn't say she looked good, I'm wondering if she was talking about TFS?

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Well if so, let me take this opportunity to say, you look good, dahling

Clearly Garance is not influenced by tFS, or she wouldn't have moved to NY

 

[misscheriedior]

I don't know about influence but I do think that this forum is pretty significant in terms of providing comprehensive information and pictures etc.
And like someone else said, with a lot of models you google their name and the first result that shows up is their thread here. I'm sure some read their own threads, at the very least most of them would know it exists. I can see why model agents would use them too.

 

[Flashbang]

On the page of Vogue China September 2010



vvshu

 

[TianSoFine]

^Is there a translation for what it says?