Although I do consider myself as an aspiring fashion journalist, I was perplexed of what I saw in Vogue’s September issue. Clearly, people don’t buy Vogue for the articles, and I rarely buy fashion magazines in general. It’s more for space and waste reasons really, I don’t like to collect disposable magazines made of cheap quality paper. But I digress.

Back to Vogue, I stumbled upon their “article”, Model Behavior, and was kind of startled to realize that it was 4 pages about today’s top models and their fabulous life. It gives snippets of where they shop, where they get their beauty on, (and – not surprisingly – nothing about where they eat), and I thought to myself: “Is this what fashion magazines are about now? Top models and their daily lives? Is this what we’re “reporting” on? Chanel Iman loves shopping at Victoria’s Secret? Sure. That will make me flock to the store even more because an emaciated top model shops there. No disrespect to Chanel Iman, she seems like a really sweet person from the videos I saw…but come on Vogue.

Flipping through the little content I could find, they did have a profile or two of some interesting fashion people, but nothing long enough to go into detail. Wall Street Journal’s Teri Agins’ article “What price fashion?” was commendable on today’s economic climate and what some designers are doing to change their ways. But it was nothing but a rehash of what’s already been said several times in the newspapers, but I suppose people don’t read the newspapers as much as they used to? Who knows.

Even the cover of September’s Vogue was equally uninventive: yet another celebrity, though gorgeous, Charlize Theron. I would’ve liked it if they could do something along the lines of what Vogue Australia did with their watercolored illustration of Cate Blanchett.

I had considered interning at a fashion magazine, but with the onslaught of the latest celebrity gossip – which seems to be the incentive of nearly every fashion magazine I come across – I don’t think I could particularly fit in. I mean even Teen Vogue’s Amy Astley condones the entertainment culture stating that “You can’t work at Teen Vogue if you haven’t seen ‘Twilight,’ ” she said in to the New York Times.

So you’re not going to hire a girl who hasn’t seen Twilight – a movie that has no fashion connotation whatsoever. Are we supposed to idolize Kristen Stewart’s fashion style in this movie? A wardrobe of jeans, hoodies, and leather jackets? Give me a break.

So, what is quality fashion reporting?

It’s about engaging the reader and informing them, not barraged by 700 pages of ads. I don’t want to know where models are shopping, but rather get an update on the whole stick figured model issue, where that has gotten stuffed in the back closet this year. Or maybe informing people how the fashion industry works, but hey, TV already glammed that up by making reality shows of some companies like Elle Magazine with “Stylista”. It’s Vogue, they should be thriving on creativity!

What’s wrong with the fashion industry is that nobody wants to talk, because every damn company is owned by share holders, and that any word that could tarnish one of their prized possessions means millions of dollars lost. So everyone shuts up, and it’s incredibly frustrating. The minute you question a brand’s products, PR reps shut the door and don’t even have the guts or courtesy to respond to you. Which has happened to me on an article I wanted to write for BoF with Ralph Lauren’s iPhone application. Totally unresponsive to my prying questions. But it’s a billion dollar industry that WE, as consumers, are spending on every year, the least the clothing companies could do is tell us about their practices.

Finding viable, informative and engaging fashion content is very hard to do. There isn’t a single, global publication who will post thoughtful fashion reporting in one spot – we have to source from several places. And in today’s fashion magazine industry, I doubt you will get very far if you’re not in touch with celebrity culture eventhough they’re not even the ones who keep the business running (many of the stars get their stuff rented or for free!), but the millions of regular and the affluent shoppers do.

Weren’t fashion magazines created for the intelligent fashionable woman? And not some mindless spending zombie with a credit card? Aren’t magazines supposed to make you think? To engage you in feature articles that relates to the reader where newspapers don’t normally have the space and time for? Come one people, let’s get back to what real fashion magazines are supposed to be about.

Image credits: Dima Gavrysh/AP

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

With an economic downturn for Americans, I wanted to get some perspective on what buyers were looking for this season. Many American buyers were refraining themselves from buying any European brands because of the weak dollar. London suffered the loss of Saks Fifth and Neiman Marcus’ buyers due to its strong British pound this year.

The two American buyers I’ve met while waiting in line for a show opened up to me about their situation. They’ve also nixed the European brands this season, except for one German label in which they keep good relations with, and wondered how the French designers were going to fare at the showroom since the euro is so high. Hence they’ve made a business trip to our home turf to look for some unique pieces for their older target market from 30-65, the baby boomer bracket. I asked what trends they were looking for and they squarely replied that trends weren’t what they were looking for. The baby boomer generation are over trends, they’re looking for practical clothing that’s both unique and durable. Interesting.

What was their opinion of the state of the fashion industry?

According to them, it’s downgraded quite a lot, especially for Americans. They’ve both been to numerous tradeshows across the country, of which New York was said to be pretty chaotic. “Everyone is trying to sell you something and it’s lost itself to business,” they said. Exactly the kind of scenario Teri Agins (author of “The End of Fashion”) had described a decade earlier and it looks like things haven’t changed. Tradeshows have become popular hotspots to host, “these locations are milking designers for their money” they said. There are so many tradeshows now that buyers keep seeing the same collections over and over.

Addressing fast fashion, what with the bombardment of new designs every month, fashion is spiraling out of control, what’s going to happen? “Well everyone would be running naked if it suddenly stopped!” they joked. But in all seriousness, they believed the industry will realize how ridiculous the pace its going and will rectify itself eventually. At least, that’s our hope. I’m thinking back on just how wacky the 80s were with their zany art deco and over-the-top accessories and styles. The early 90s answer to that was minimalism, I’m starting to think that the following decade in the year 2010, we’ll start seeing perhaps a hopeful return to quality goods, what with even Chinese manufacturing becoming more sophisticated than ever.

It’s hard to say what is true fashion these days, we always refer back to the masters of modern couture, but those were different economic situations, different mentalities, and different business models. Back then, a couturier was considered a type of merchant slash artist in its medium, not to make money but to make clothes. Now it’s a totally different ball game where the reputation of a company not only lies in its quality but its business (and marketing) model. In the end, it really comes down to a matter of choice of whether or not you choose to pay for higher or cheaper quality and your sense of style. After all, fashion is subjective with the times.