Critics with balls and bite

[Pumpfish]

I'm sick of anodyne, toothless reviews of fashion shows.

The dishonesty of soft peddling or pumping your advertisers is a bigger issue now these reviews reach way beyond print magazine readers.

And it devalues, or at least crowds out, the sorts of genuine talent found here.

So does anyone in mainstream fashion commentary have credibility and courage?

[Faust]

Pumpfish, this is a very sore topic for me and something I've been harping on for years. Now comes the real test as I enter the industry.

Another problem here is that the fashion industry is actually a very small and intimate world, even much more so than the music, art, or film industry. Maybe it's hard to write negatively about people you keep running into each other in person. But it's not impossible. I wish there was more bite in the reviews of Tim Blanks and Susy Menkes. Both are smart and experienced and it wouldn't hurt to stir things up once in a while. But the basic unwritten rule of fashion journalism (which especially goes for magazines) is, if you don't like it, simply don't write about it.

I think the only critics with bite are the ones working for big newspapers, those that do not solely rely on advertising from the fashion industry. And even those are few and far between. Cathy Horyn is one. Her inexplicable adulation of Raf Simons may be puzzling, but she has her taste and she is not afraid to write a negative review. God bless her.

Cintra Wilson was another fantastic reviewer. Her witty and biting store reviews for the NYT were often brilliant and irreverent. Alas, she was thrown under the bus of political correctness more than once. But now she is with StyleZeitgeist magazine, so things will change.

[ES3K]

In general I agree, and this is not only true for fashion, look at car reviews for example. But with Tim Blanks... If he thinks a collection is awful, you can read it between the lines of his flowery slipslop.

[cremaster]

Faust this is an interesting conundrum for your magazine.
One of the best critical responses to my mind will be what is left out.
If it is kept focused and the aesthetic adhered, much like the website, that will be the most damning criticism of fashion your magazine can make.

Critical discussion about what is good and ignoring the rest is a great platform for change.

[Faust]

Thank you, creamster. I hope I can make all of you proud.

[Pumpfish]

So big fashion magazines (and their websites) have editorial for advertising arrangements. Probably informally.

And I expect the editors justify this by believing that their readers either know this is how it works, or the readers don't give a fuck. (Or indeed the editors don't give a fuck either way!)

I guess the dishonesty is in presenting puff as review.

[Faust]

But this goes for the entire magazine industry, with few exceptions like the Economist or The New Yorker. Essentially, yes, I don't think magazine editors think that their audience cares. In all of my classes at Parsons I have asked students' opinions about fashion magazines - none of them think that fashion magazines serve/should serve any critical function. They view them as another form of entertainment.

[Pumpfish]

I guess I'm sensitised to this, coming from an industry where you are obliged to identify your interests, and there is a concept of "agency" where it is clear who you represent and how you are paid.

But then my industry is full of crooked greedy bastards that have proven many times that it cannot be left to regulate itself.

[North]

But this goes for the entire magazine industry, with few exceptions like the Economist or The New Yorker. Essentially, yes, I don't think magazine editors think that their audience cares. In all of my classes at Parsons I have asked students' opinions about fashion magazines - none of them think that fashion magazines serve/should serve any critical function. They view them as another form of entertainment.

This problem also exists in architecture magazines. Most magazines function as showcases of new projects. there are just a -few- magazines who are actually critical or carry some theoretical information.

Being critical about fashion is also perceived as elitist mostly, as people think it has to do with taste... As if nothing can be objective in fashion.

[Faust]

Honest opinions don't sell handbags.