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| Vogue, get off your high horse – fashion shows have changed | Vogue, get off your high horse – fashion shows have changed |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| When four American Vogue editors decided to embed a series of stream-of-consciousness rants against a group of people they lumped together as “bloggers” within a Milan fashion week roundup, they could not have predicted the firestorm they’d unleash. | When four American Vogue editors decided to embed a series of stream-of-consciousness rants against a group of people they lumped together as “bloggers” within a Milan fashion week roundup, they could not have predicted the firestorm they’d unleash. |
| Blogger itself is a term so outmoded that I’m surprised a publication that likes to think of itself as being firmly on the cutting edge is still using it. Brands have been referring to bloggers as digital influencers for some years now, and, as it would seem to Vogue’s bizarre disgust, plenty of those influencers don’t actually have blogs. Or, if they do bother, they are a small offshoot of their main platform, Instagram. | Blogger itself is a term so outmoded that I’m surprised a publication that likes to think of itself as being firmly on the cutting edge is still using it. Brands have been referring to bloggers as digital influencers for some years now, and, as it would seem to Vogue’s bizarre disgust, plenty of those influencers don’t actually have blogs. Or, if they do bother, they are a small offshoot of their main platform, Instagram. |
| I started blogging in 2006, while I was still a fashion editor. At the time I’d seen one other blog, Belle de Jour – the anonymous diary of a sex worker and, while I wasn’t going to be following in her career footsteps, I was inspired by the idea that there was a place online where I could collect my thoughts anonymously. | I started blogging in 2006, while I was still a fashion editor. At the time I’d seen one other blog, Belle de Jour – the anonymous diary of a sex worker and, while I wasn’t going to be following in her career footsteps, I was inspired by the idea that there was a place online where I could collect my thoughts anonymously. |
| There was no road map for monetising blogs back then beyond parlaying your writing into a book deal, or perhaps a newspaper column, if you were lucky. So, although I now have a business built around my digital platform, I still find it hard to comprehend that blogging, once seen as the preserve of the enthusiastic amateur, has reached a level where fashion bloggers are being pitched against editors from American Vogue in a war of words, laced with vitriol and a dash of mean-spiritedness. | There was no road map for monetising blogs back then beyond parlaying your writing into a book deal, or perhaps a newspaper column, if you were lucky. So, although I now have a business built around my digital platform, I still find it hard to comprehend that blogging, once seen as the preserve of the enthusiastic amateur, has reached a level where fashion bloggers are being pitched against editors from American Vogue in a war of words, laced with vitriol and a dash of mean-spiritedness. |
| The main thrust of the Vogue editors’ collective complaint was the spectacle that takes place outside fashion shows, where both dressed-up attendees and overdressed attention-seekers have their photographs taken by a mob of shouting, desperate photographers. I don’t think any regular attendee at the collections, whether in New York, Milan, Paris or London, regards having to push their way through the street-style bunfight outside the shows with any joy. No one wants to be roughly pushed aside, toes squashed, ribs elbowed, as the huge photographer pack rushes, lemming-like, to capture another street-style image. | The main thrust of the Vogue editors’ collective complaint was the spectacle that takes place outside fashion shows, where both dressed-up attendees and overdressed attention-seekers have their photographs taken by a mob of shouting, desperate photographers. I don’t think any regular attendee at the collections, whether in New York, Milan, Paris or London, regards having to push their way through the street-style bunfight outside the shows with any joy. No one wants to be roughly pushed aside, toes squashed, ribs elbowed, as the huge photographer pack rushes, lemming-like, to capture another street-style image. |
| How is being paid to wear clothes different from advertisers pressuring magazines to shoot their clothes on models? | |
| Equally the rise of street-style photography and the seemingly insatiable appetite from, yes, magazines like Vogue for those images, has led to the rise of a kind of style that has been developed solely for the camera. Forget the traditional all-black editor outfit: these looks can be retina-burning. The more over-the-top the look, the more the photographers like it, and the less it has to do with fashion. | Equally the rise of street-style photography and the seemingly insatiable appetite from, yes, magazines like Vogue for those images, has led to the rise of a kind of style that has been developed solely for the camera. Forget the traditional all-black editor outfit: these looks can be retina-burning. The more over-the-top the look, the more the photographers like it, and the less it has to do with fashion. |
| If the editors had just commented on this, I think there would have been some understanding nods – but no, they had to wrap it in some nasty commentary, with Sarah Mower blaming it all on the “professional blogger bit”, along with a few patronising eye-rolls from Alessandra Codinha, the vogue.com fashion news editor, who said: “It’s all pretty embarrassing – even more so when you consider what else is going on in the world.” | If the editors had just commented on this, I think there would have been some understanding nods – but no, they had to wrap it in some nasty commentary, with Sarah Mower blaming it all on the “professional blogger bit”, along with a few patronising eye-rolls from Alessandra Codinha, the vogue.com fashion news editor, who said: “It’s all pretty embarrassing – even more so when you consider what else is going on in the world.” |
| Someone needs to get off their high horse: last time I checked reporting fashion news wasn’t exactly on a par with covering Syria. | Someone needs to get off their high horse: last time I checked reporting fashion news wasn’t exactly on a par with covering Syria. |
| Blaming “bloggers” for the mess at shows is naive at best, stupid at worst. Some of the famous street-style stars are, in fact print editors. Caroline Issa (Tank), Giovanna Englebert (Vogue Nippon), Anna Della Russo (Vogue Nippon) Christine Centenera (Vogue Australia) are now some of the most photographed women in the world. They understand, as do the digital influencers, that they are ambassadors for not just their publications but themselves, and that there is serious money to be made from developing a recognisable personal brand. | Blaming “bloggers” for the mess at shows is naive at best, stupid at worst. Some of the famous street-style stars are, in fact print editors. Caroline Issa (Tank), Giovanna Englebert (Vogue Nippon), Anna Della Russo (Vogue Nippon) Christine Centenera (Vogue Australia) are now some of the most photographed women in the world. They understand, as do the digital influencers, that they are ambassadors for not just their publications but themselves, and that there is serious money to be made from developing a recognisable personal brand. |
| Secondly, the print publications are colluding in this circus: they use street-style as both content in the magazines and as clickbait on line. They cite them as “inspiration”, and, desperate to grab on to the millennial audience, they put the girls who are famous for their outfits on magazine covers. Chiara Ferragni, of The Blonde Salad, has been on the cover of six Condé Nast titles to date, including Vogue España, and Kendall Jenner, whose entire power base arguably comes from her 66.5 million Instagram followers was the September cover star of US Vogue. | Secondly, the print publications are colluding in this circus: they use street-style as both content in the magazines and as clickbait on line. They cite them as “inspiration”, and, desperate to grab on to the millennial audience, they put the girls who are famous for their outfits on magazine covers. Chiara Ferragni, of The Blonde Salad, has been on the cover of six Condé Nast titles to date, including Vogue España, and Kendall Jenner, whose entire power base arguably comes from her 66.5 million Instagram followers was the September cover star of US Vogue. |
| Editors may not like how the shows have evolved, but it’s time to face the inevitable: the purpose of a fashion show has now changed, from a trade conference where a closed circle of insiders disseminated their opinions to the masses to a public forum where brands, editors and “bloggers” fight for attention in an overcrowded space by any means possible. | Editors may not like how the shows have evolved, but it’s time to face the inevitable: the purpose of a fashion show has now changed, from a trade conference where a closed circle of insiders disseminated their opinions to the masses to a public forum where brands, editors and “bloggers” fight for attention in an overcrowded space by any means possible. |
| The Vogue editors’ comments also addressed the matter of borrowed clothing and paid appearances with Nicole Phelps, director of Vogue Runway, proclaiming: “It’s not just sad for the women who preen for the cameras in borrowed clothes, it’s distressing, as well, to watch so many brands participate.” | The Vogue editors’ comments also addressed the matter of borrowed clothing and paid appearances with Nicole Phelps, director of Vogue Runway, proclaiming: “It’s not just sad for the women who preen for the cameras in borrowed clothes, it’s distressing, as well, to watch so many brands participate.” |
| I find this mystifying and, to be honest, just plain ridiculous. Not only is the hypocrisy mindboggling, as the borrowing and gifting of product – clothes, bags, shoes, makeup – is endemic across the entire fashion industry from the most senior editor to the assistant in the fashion closet, but brands – and everyone else – knows, or should know, that these days the quickest way to raise awareness of a product and sell, sell, sell, is to get it on the back of the influencers who then wear those clothes to the shows – which then, of course, appear in Vogue et al in the endless stream of street-style photographs. | I find this mystifying and, to be honest, just plain ridiculous. Not only is the hypocrisy mindboggling, as the borrowing and gifting of product – clothes, bags, shoes, makeup – is endemic across the entire fashion industry from the most senior editor to the assistant in the fashion closet, but brands – and everyone else – knows, or should know, that these days the quickest way to raise awareness of a product and sell, sell, sell, is to get it on the back of the influencers who then wear those clothes to the shows – which then, of course, appear in Vogue et al in the endless stream of street-style photographs. |
| Vogue also seems to take exception to the idea that influencers are paid to wear clothes at the shows, with Codinha chiming in: “I have to think that soon people will wise up to how particularly gross the whole practice of paid appearances and borrowed outfits looks.” I’m at a loss to understand how being paid for your job is gross, or how being paid to wear clothes is any different from advertisers pressuring magazines to shoot their clothes on models, or brand ambassadors – actresses, models, athletes, being paid to do press with magazines as part of their contracts. | Vogue also seems to take exception to the idea that influencers are paid to wear clothes at the shows, with Codinha chiming in: “I have to think that soon people will wise up to how particularly gross the whole practice of paid appearances and borrowed outfits looks.” I’m at a loss to understand how being paid for your job is gross, or how being paid to wear clothes is any different from advertisers pressuring magazines to shoot their clothes on models, or brand ambassadors – actresses, models, athletes, being paid to do press with magazines as part of their contracts. |
| Vogue creative digital director Sally Singer’s exhortation to bloggers to “find another business” was perhaps the most extraordinary comment: while not all bloggers can command the fees of Chiara Ferragni, who is estimated to earn over $10m a year, it is not uncommon these days for digital influencers to turn over six figures. | Vogue creative digital director Sally Singer’s exhortation to bloggers to “find another business” was perhaps the most extraordinary comment: while not all bloggers can command the fees of Chiara Ferragni, who is estimated to earn over $10m a year, it is not uncommon these days for digital influencers to turn over six figures. |
| With the going rate for a single Instagram post for an account with 50,000+ followers hovering at about the £500 mark, there are plenty of fashion Instagrammers making north of £50,000 a year just from posting two sponsored images a week. Who’s having the last laugh now? | With the going rate for a single Instagram post for an account with 50,000+ followers hovering at about the £500 mark, there are plenty of fashion Instagrammers making north of £50,000 a year just from posting two sponsored images a week. Who’s having the last laugh now? |
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