The World of Fashion Critics

[BetteT]

I edited it for you ... to increase the font size and to add breaks between paragraphs ... should be a bit easier to read, now.

 

[YoninahAliza]

^Thanks a bunch BetteT! It looks so much better now.

 

[BerlinRocks]

Don't we have a thread about Fashion Critic ?

One thing I've always wondered is : is there any fashion critical theory ?

I guess if Suzy Menkes' been the BEST fashion critics for decades it is because she has a standpoint, and remains there ... She has enough distance, compared to all ***-lickers...
And distance and standpoint, with theory is what is a critic about ...

 

[BetteT]

Don't we have a thread about Fashion Critic ?

We do ... so I merged them. Thanks.

 

[LostInNJ]

With the amount of attention fashion critics have been getting recently, namely Cathy Horyn and Oscar de la Renta/Hedi Slimane, I figured it was a good time to bump this thread.

One question I always ponder is, aside from the fact that there are critics who are very well respected, how important are they in terms of a designers career? I can understand how a negative review for an unknown designer could kill their career, but for someone like Oscar or Hedi at Saint Laurent, is what they say even relevant?

For example, with Hedi - so many critics had less than positive things to say, but the retailers were overjoyed. At the end of the day, do they really affect a designer's bottom line if they say they had a bad season, or is it really up to the retailers to decide. Clearly in this instance, for a major brand even a negative review, or three, didn't deter major retailers from placing orders.

 

[advo]

^I'd say critics are only relevant if sales follow the criticism. Like with movies, it doesn't matter if a movie is panned by the critics as long as it does well commercially. Fashion, movies, etc. might be creative businesses but the bottom line is always what count the most.

Consumers and critics don't always agree. The buyers clearly think that Slimane's collection can sell. However, the buyers are not the end-consumers so the real test of success is not only how well it sells to retailers.

 

[brooksie]

In the case of someone like Oscar (or earlier, Armani) I don't think what Cathy had to say will make a tiny bit of difference and she knows it too. They are way too established and pretty much beyond the destructive powers of editors and stylists. People who like/dislike their clothes and images will continue to do so UNLESS the designer himself does something radical... a la Oscar's outburst towards Mrs. Obama, but that really had nothing to do w/ Cathy's actions.

I suspect it's quite a bit different w/ younger designers that are far less established than an Oscar or Armani tho. I used to be a far bigger reader of her stuff than I am now, but I know that some of her reviews rattled the designers themselves (see Marc Jacobs), not to mention their fans. I'm almost certain that her taking a side in the Sarah-Jessica Parker vs Olivier Theyskens kerfuffle (over a dress for her premiere for one of the Sex films) ultimately did him in at Nina Ricci...or was at least the last straw. I wouldn't underestimate her influence because lots of people read her and take her quite seriously. She rarely goes there, but when she does it always makes a splash.

As for Slimane, Cathy is known to have a very strong PoV about designers (she favors conceptualists and individualists), quality of merch/fabrics/design, and she has very little time for people she sees as "hot dogging" therefore when she feels someone is trying to BS her, she states so. I don't know what affect that will have on Slimane, but nobody should be surprised that his antics have gotten up her nose. That's just how she is and that makes her voice one that's pretty singular out there these days.

 

[fashionista-ta]

I remember when Marc Jacobs did that collection especially for Suzy Menkes ... IMO it was quite awful. I think many designers take the critics too seriously. I have seen even very good critics just not 'get' a collection before.

We all know here that a collection takes time to sink in, but critics have to get their reviews out quickly. It may be an educated opinion, and it may be published in an important newspaper, but it's still one opinion, and there's nothing infallible about it. It should be informed and interesting and provide perspective, that's what I expect from a review. Probably there is something any one of them would like to take back ...

I wish designers would take it all with a big rock of salt, and give those giant egos a break. I guess they feel like they're being graded, and they want to argue about it. But why respond? Let your success speak for itself. I have a straight pin right here that I'd be willing to loan any designer needing to deflate anything ...

I think they are so unused to any straight up criticism at all that it just freaks them out. Stop surrounding yourself with sycophants and it will all come as so much less of a shock

 

[LostInNJ]

^ I agree with a lot of what you are saying, especially the part about designers' egos needing to be deflated. I suppose (and this goes for anyone who is presenting something) at the end of the day you want your work to be liked. Simple as that. Whether you are releasing an album, a movie, or sending your collection down a runway, it is like a baby of sorts. Something you have seen from the the initial concept to the birth, if you will.

In the end, it is how they react (or do not react) to the reactions other people have to their work.

 

[Littleathquakes]

I think people need to read fashion reviews like reviews of any other products. Will it affect their next purchase (assuming they're that well off to afford high fashion)? As previously mentioned, some of these brands are so well established, the answer would be no. But more importantly, they do the work for you. You want a buy a new car - you'd have to find out the equipment each model of the car comes with, you'd have to compare it with competing cars, etc. A car review will do that for you. But unlike fashion, the reviews for other products are more...honest. And this is why people like Cathy are important. Not because they're just honest reviews, they're honest reviews in a sea of fluff. You want someone to restore your sanity when you've seen something like a dress made out of chicken wings and every other review you've read says it's "beautiful" "gorgeous" "genius" or any of the other cliched adjectives used by such fluff reviews.

 

[blueorchid]

I don't have much to add to this, but I honestly find the word of fashion critics to be so fascinating. They seem to have such a different place in the fashion world than literature, theatre, art, or film critics do in their spheres, but then I guess those areas are more accessible to the "general public" than the fashion world often is... hmm...

 

[VogueDisciple93]

As One PR exec told me recently, the designers he works with are more interested to heard what the anonymous commenters on TheFashionSpot.com have to say about their collections than the mighty critics.

Source: Dirk's Tour, Style.com/Print Magazine Spring 2013

 

[Bernadette]

TOM FORD: Do you think the press is getting meaner? I think some journalists and bloggers want their articles to be clever, and the way into that is by writing nasty things. I think our culture likes to be mean. I don't just find this in fashion—I find it in the news. More and more, it is about ripping people apart.

NICOLAS GHESQUIÈRE: Strangely, meanness pays more than offering constructive and interesting commentary. Every season I think, “This is the last season. I'm not gonna read tomorrow morning. Forget it.”

Source: interviewmagazine.com

 

[iluvjeisa]

I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever read hard fashion criticism, except at tfs or other websites where independent people write. Everybody else is just afraid of the consequences. Well, I guess Cathy Horyn does say her piece about Slimane, but that's about it.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^^ I certainly hope Tom's concern is for other designers ... I don't think I've ever seen anything but fawning in the press for Tom and his Botoxed little forehead. (I'm not being mean, if you're reading this, Tom ... just descriptive.)

 

[softgrey]

this world just got a little smaller...



Goodbye to Cathy Horyn...
the NY Times willl not be the same without you and we will definitely miss your insights here at tFS!
wishing you well...

 

[Koibito]

The Sorrier State of Fashion Criticism

BY IMRAN AMED 2 FEBRUARY, 2014

LONDON, United Kingdom — On Friday, the collective hearts of fashion fans around the world sank on hearing the surprise news that Cathy Horyn, one of our last true fashion critics, was leaving her post at The New York Times for personal reasons.

Indeed, with the start of a new cycle of womenswear shows only days away, for many of us, it is almost unfathomable to imagine fashion week without seeing it through Cathy’s sharp and honest eyes. Scores of comments and reactions from the BoF community around the world underlined just how unique — and respected — her voice is.

On the BoF Facebook page, Paulo Guimarães of Lisbon, Portugal wrote: “The moments I looked forward to the most during fashion week were reading Cathy Horyn’s take on the proceedings… huge, huge, *huge* loss.”

Eddie Frantz of Australia, one of the original commenters on Ms Horyn’s much-loved New York Times blog, “On The Runway,” posted a comment on BoF, writing: “It is an understatement on my part to say that she will surely be missed. She was one of the few pure, unadulterated voices of fashion criticism.” Another regular commenter, agreed: “I will now have to hang up my NYT blog handle La Genevoise!”

“She added balance and truth to her reviews,” added Michelle Fix from New York. “Rarely do you see anything critical of a collection in WWD or on Style.com. The reviews are always filled with accolades — deserved or not.”

In a memo to the New York Times newsroom announcing Horyn’s departure, executive editor Jill Abramson and styles editor Stuart Emmrich called her “the pre-eminent fashion critic of her generation… who has set an almost impossible standard for those who may follow.”

But the question on my mind is this: Is there anyone who can actually follow someone like Cathy? Have we, the fashion industry, nurtured and nourished truly independent, informed voices who say what they really think? I think not. Too much fashion writing is fluffy drivel concerned with front-row attendees and the “hottest new trends.” And too often, it describes the clothes in only an elementary, superficial way that lacks an understanding of how garments are designed and constructed, and how they fit into a wider cultural and economic context.

What’s more, too many of the honest comments that experienced show-goers make to each other on the way out of a show never make it into print. Too many journalists have told me that their opinions are neutered by the powers that be for fear of pissing off advertisers or jeopardising relationships.

And, while Suzy Menkes continues to cover the shows with seemingly indefatigable energy, Robin Givhan pens honest pieces for New York magazine’s “The Cut,” and Tim Blanks stays up late at night for weeks on end to pen his beautifully crafted reviews for the Style.com, I’m hard-pressed to think of who the next generation of critics to write with an equally informed and honest voice will be.

After all, the entire fashion industry benefits from honest, informed criticism, not least the designers themselves, who need real feedback to evolve and progress their work.

I wish Cathy the very best in this next chapter of her life, and lament the now sorrier state of fashion criticism.

businessoffashion

 

[softgrey]

so depressing because we will begin to have fewer and fewer 'journalists'- people who are knowledgeable and educated and can actually write...

and more and more 'bloggers'- random youngsters who can only express their own personal taste and can't even do that with any sort of eloquence...
but who have no understanding of how to put things into historical perspective or relate them to the current market...

it's a good time to quit, imo...
a good time indeed...