Fashion: Bloggers Behaving Badly?

"I’ve got huge respect for Sarah Brown but I was given this seat." "You tell'em Carmel!"

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, it was customary for women to seek style guidance from a small number of fashion publications. Names like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar immediately inspired confidence and women everywhere on both sides of the pond and beyond willingly submitted to their fashion dictates. These magazines were run by powerful editors who travelled each season to Paris and brought back with them the latest word on hemlines, silhouettes and "the season's must haves". Then a little thing called Web 2.0 came along and suddenly a ragtag bunch of complete "nobodies" with an internet connection upset the established order of things with their blogs and their tweets. Suddenly, magazine editors are viewing couture through the ornate hat of a teenage blogger. Quelle horreur!!

"Hurrah!" cried the masses longing for an injection of new blood into an industry gone stale. Some of these bloggers used their new-found status to reinvigorate the fashion industry and make it more participatory and fun! Sadly, others let the attention go to their heads and suddenly Sarah Brown, wife of Britain's Prime Minister and vocal champion of an industry struggling to regain its footing in the midst of a long and deep depression, is forced to squeeze onto a little bench to attend a show. Surely, a blogger who professes to love fashion must be able to understand the importance of having Sarah Brown attend a budding young designer's fashion show and graciously give up their seat or at least move over a little, no? Apparently not . Quelle horreur.

Sincerely,

The Luxe Chronicles

Comments

[Helene]

Dear Madeleine Gallay:

I take your point about the importance of retailers and buyers. This said, as an ardent follower of fashion who has shopped on at least four continents and too many countries to count, I have often felt let down by the appalling service and unimaginative product mixes at many upscale retailers. There is nothing like experiencing the attentive service and exciting product mix at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong for instance to put the Saks, Neiman's, Holt Renfrew's and Bon Marche's of this world to shame.

I think the retailers of the future (whether existing ones who survive the shake out or the new ones to emerge from it) will have to raise their game significantly. Consumers have never been as well-traveled and better informed than they are today. Our tastes are shaped not only by traditional travel but by the rich tapestry of the Web. They will have to do a much better job of keeping up with their customers than they have to date.

Helene

[Helene]

Well said Silent Storyteller! The cream, whether it be in journalism, blogging or design, always rises to the top (at least eventually).

Helene

[Silent Storyteller]

I completely agree that the traditional media needed a shake up. I have suffered from their merciless power, first hand. But too many bloggers have turned into fashion experts at the risk of seriously misleading the general public.

There is no critical thinking; The majority of bloggers invited to shows are talking more about who they are sitting next too than the clothes they are seeing. What is the purpose?... To keep fuelling our already celebrity obsessed society?..

It is not fair to put them all in one group, there are incredibly qualified and knowledgeable bloggers, but they seem to be a minority. Cathy Horn and Colin McDowell by definition are serious 'traditional' journalists, the best in our industry, who happen to be using this medium, so they most certainly deserve all the respect

I'm incredibly enthusiastic about the future of the business and the impact the internet is having on it. But as in everything else, once the hype is over I hope the true talent in blogging, and in design, will shine through it all

Eilis

[Madeleine Gallay]

The voice that's missing from this moment is the sustenance of the business - the shops. Retailers move the fashion market, even now with designers appointing "ambassadors" who are authorized to lend and/or give the goods away for high hopes on a red carpet. Alas and alack, the attendee is then supposed to do good for the designer and say what she is wearing, no coy smiles and forgotten names. The trouble, and it's deep seated and in horrific taste, is that the retailer buys the designer clothes expecting to sell to this customer and that is profane and dangerous. I understand and think it's all good that at the heart of the business online sales are chockablock: netaporter and yoox up 50% last year. But when Linda Dresner must close her Park Avenue shop and Tracy Ross on Sunset Plaza as well, when Neiman Marcus (it may be staid but it's one of the very elemental pieces in fashion retail) has same store sales down double digits last year .... there's wrong here that can't be fixed by enthusiastic bloggers in Zara displacing the Mrs. Burstein's and Suzie Menkes induced wrath in some bloggers? Oh please. The people of fashion not heard from matter the most. And I love some of the bloggers that are making this moment instant and rich - they have vocabulary and can write. And as retailers are screened carefully so must bloggers. And one can see that many bloggers are missing the point - the designers are setting up shop, bigger and more enticing, and one can imagine that untidy bloggers, the general bloggerati, will go back to their computers empty-handed, checking designer websites.

[Helene]

You raise an excellent point about the complexities of the industry Silent Storyteller. I agree, there is far more to fashion as a business than pretty images. This said, I'm not sure I would agree with you that bloggers should be banned - I think bloggers who are serious about what they do can contribute a great deal to the industry (and in some cases already do).

Also, one of the reasons bloggers have caught on with readers is that too many journalists and editors have failed at their job. I can count only a handful of professional journalists/commentators that seem to take their job seriously and deserve their readers' respect (Colin McDowell and Cathy Horyn spring to mind and perhaps a few others).

I think the fashion industry needs this diversity. I also think Mark Fast needs to find a better PR team.

Sincerely,

Helene

[Silent Storyteller]

This is exactly the problem. So many blogger have NO idea of anything regarding the industry, apart from 'Red is in and Blue is out’,’ I don't like this' and 'I don't like that'.

I'm pretty tired of the twitter feed too. No mentions about the clothes. It's a non stop name dropping nightmare of who is in front of who in what queue???...Not interested.

The industry is far to complex in terms of politics, finance and specially support to be allowing amateurs to run the show.

This a pretty good reason to ban some, if not many bloggers, from shows in the future.