‘Grilling’ The Fashion Experts
You don’t hear the word “grill” and “fashion” in the same sentence nowadays. That’s why I’m happy to bring to your attention once again to Lookonline.com’s Daily Fashion Report, claiming to be one of the very first fashion blogs on the internet.
In her latest post last week, blog author Marilyn Kirschner attended Fashion Group International, a conference overviewing the Spring RTW 2008 collections. Here, panelists are able to grill fashion experts from Vogue to Bloomingdale’s, on what will be the upcoming trends and how they are to deal with the financial crisis.
SD: “How are fashion magazines dealing with the financial crunch?”
SS: “We have been increasingly focused on price even before the market crash. We were in Paris when the stock market collapsed. Our philosophy at Vogue is “Don’t buy less- buy better!” We want designers to bear in mind price but we want them to keep value high. As editors, we have to offer all prices.”
I love discovering thought provoking fashion blogs and Daily Fashion Report is a delightful one. Eventhough Lookonline.com is not the best looking site, their content trumps that of style. Considering that their New York Fashion report is compiled by Marilyn Kirschner and Bernadine Morris (former NY Times journalist), though they are new to me, they’ve been on the fashion scene for over 20 years. Giving both a good sense of credibility when they critique the industry.
It makes sense to me to read this bit on their fashion market reports:
Why pay for market reports when so many of them are offered for free on other sites? Because anyone who attends a show can express an opinion on what they saw, but the mere fact that they attended the show does not make them expert, nor what they report necessarily creditable. It is experience that qualifies someone as an “expert” and the esteem others in the industry hold for that person’s opinion that gives their reports value.
I’ve been studying and reading upon fashion for only a year, so any fashion journalist who has over 20yrs of experience will certainly command authority on the subject. I may not have the credibility to really critique a fashion show in terms of what will sell and what won’t, however I will not let that deter me from asking questions that I feel are important. Cheers to intelligent reporting!
Image credit: Daily Fashion Report
Minorities Are Top Fashion Journalists
With the announcement of the first African-American President last night, Barack Obama, as a minority, I feel a great sense of pride. It also ignited in me to blog about some of the most influential, critically-acclaimed fashion journalists today who happen to be African-American.
I found this site that features two prominent fashion journalists, one who changed my life with her eye-opening book, The End of Fashion, the other - writing a riveting article for Harper’s Bazaar called “Everyone is a fashion critic“.
These journalists are of course Teri Agins from The Wall Street Journal, and Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Givhan from The Washington Post.
Fashion Roundtable: An Interview with Three Leading Black Fashion Journalists
Lookonline.com posted an interview with these two admirable women along with Constance White, of whom I am not familiar with, who has previously written for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune. Frankly, this is a goldmine interview of these women who had to struggle through the newspaper and magazine industry. They talk of their experiences at Vogue and Elle, as well as tips in writing compelling news articles- articles with heart, articles with an impact. This is a rare article indeed that looks into the careers of these successful fashion journalists, and I can only feel inspired to follow in their footsteps one day.
Ok, it’s old, posted about 6 years ago in 2002, but this is a timeless piece. These journalists are still active today, still reporting on fashion with the eye of a reporter.
Image credit: lookonline.com
