ABOUT REVIEWING

When writing a review the mindset is to be as objective as possible and not make it personal but of course every review involves some personal likes or dislikes unless of course you write for Vogue.com and then you just regurgitate designer’s press releases or ooze about ugly clothes because the brands keep you on their payroll.

art by Tim Otte click image to enlarge

 Reviews are meant to evoke, provoke, evaluate and explain the visuals. The most prevalent reaction and observation is that most people DON’T READ…. They look at pictures like they are in the third grade and then they make comments strictly based on their personal likes or dislikes. Yes of course that personal part enters the conversation but that should not be the sole reason a collection is deemed ugly or beautiful. The clothes need to be put into context such as what do you think they might look like hanging in a store or who is going to wear it, no matter the price, and then lastly you must take into account that these clothes are not the under $100 category.. More like in the $1000s category.

art by Marc Antoine Coulon  click image to enlarge

 Another aspect of or mindset of writing reviews or evaluations of a collection involves what the brand might stand for … what is there signature look, who is their customer and lastly if a designer is holding the reins for a heritage brand do they even know what that brand stood for. Anyone who “reads me”, and I know there are many who read my beads so to speak, knows that I am stickler for a brand’s DNA, Houses such as Saint Laurent, Ungaro, Balenciaga, Dior, Versace, Givenchy, Balmain, Chloe, just to name a few have long legendary past with vast archives of what made them fashion icons and yet new designers are allowed to come in and absolutely obliterate what these names once represented; let’s call them the brand assassins. I cannot solely blame them since they have accomplices which would be upper management who are only interested in chasing the dollar via hype and in many cases far more interested in selling shoes and nail polish rather than selling clothes and perpetuating a brand’s DNA. This mentality has cast a pall over the industry and reflects in a lot of wildly expensive unattractive and unwearable clothes for an unknown audience.

art by Marc Antoine Coulon  click image to enlarge

 Lastly, you might consider the source of the comments or the commentary; in my 40 plus years in the business of fashion and I stress BUSINESS, I have been buyer, seller, retail, wholesale, clothing designer, jewelry designer, home accessories designer, clock designer, textile designer fashion book reviewer and more than I care to mention so my perspective is broader than most and my opinions while seeming old fashion always come back to the same common thread…. Women buy clothes to look beautiful and to impress other women and lastly they dress for men … the last aspect was once blatantly explained to me by a mentor like this …. Women who spend $1000s on clothes want to get laid! And that said by a woman who was a pioneer and genius in the business of fashion.

Lastly we no longer have critics like Bernadine Morris or Hebe Dorsey or editors like Diana Vreeland and John Fairchild all of which told you what they saw in the context of the business of fashion. The advertising dollar was always an issue but truth, or at least as they perceived it, was more important as was actually talking about the clothes not the venue, not the audience and certainly not the regurgitation of press releases. Some of us have seen the demise of fashion reportage via every means possible from newspapers to magazines to even online... it is sad to see something that you love slowly wither away due to popular demand or the whim of the times and the almighty dollar.

I don’t pretend to be the smartest one in the room but I have issues with those who think they know what they are just because they have a keyboard of some kind to express themselves, wear clothes or own a phone camera to show they went to a show and need to prove it. I just wish people would think before they comment and realize that your keyboard is not a license to offer pronouncements on what you believe to be the last word on fashion … read more .. Learn more... ask more... be knowledgeable... Don’t be a sheep and speak intelligently or at least try!

The Fashion Chimera 2013... Fashion Miasma pt2

Picking up where I left off, let’s discuss the reviews that are meted out to us by the “mother ship.”  When reviewing a collection of CLOTHES, that is to say wearing apparel, when did it become “de rigeur” to discuss the physical presentation itself , the models’ names and mind numbing arcane details of the designer’s inspirations that never quite match up to the finished product?    For me, I read that these elements allow the reviewer to circuitously avoid any negative comments about the actual clothes hence no review at all, just some high minded nonsense that means nothing!  After all, this is not rocket science; this is clothing and not a scientific treatise on molecular theory.  Clothes do not come with “romance cards” attached to them on a hanger!

Is there an opinion to be given or not, and if so, get to the point and spit it out; take a stand.  Whether Joan Smalls or Karlie Kloss wears a particular garment is of no matter to the reader unless that reader is lost and thought they were reading a fashion review in US magazine, Seventeen or maybe Glamour; none of which are highly regarded for their expertise on matters of fashion or style for adult consumers who follow the upper end of designer fashion trends.  These models are young 20 something women, who in today’s world, are paid to robotically walk down a runway or stand like a deer in the headlights for an editorial but they DO NOT HAVE any say in what they wear on a runway so what’s the point and when photographed “out” at an event they are wearing clothes that were loaned to them; in essence not a shred of good or any taste is being offered?  More wasted extraneous verbiage that bears no relevance to the matter at hand… a review which is supposedly a thoroughly unbiased opinion of a designer’s seasonal collection of CLOTHES!

To be perfectly clear on the subject, in the genuine days of fashion, “when fashion came first,” we had mavens like Hebe Dorsey, Bernadine Morris, Carrie Donovan, Suzy Menkes and Cathy Horyn who weren’t always fawners, and loads of regional fashion critics who were just doing their job and doing it well and all working independently rather that for BIG BROTHER!  And yes, they had their :pets” and their favorites and that was the point!!!! THEY HAD A POINT!!!! If there is no real review to be given then one might as well just present the images and as so many 21^st century bloggers, THE ONES WHO JUST OWN KEYBLOARDS,  and  supposed  “critics” do … well with just a one word assessment...Fierce or Fabulous or just Meh!

 People want to see, yes, and so many want to be educated about fashion whether it is their occupation, pre-occupation or just a form of entertainment.  Today’s critics don’t seem to have the fashion education, resume  nor the chops to make any kind of insightful historical comparisons as their memories and/or resumes only span 10 years or minutes , or even a proper frame of reference ,  so why bother.  Instead we are insulted by glaring and preposterous statements and comparisons that, on the face, are absurd and or then subjected to some information or terminology that a curator at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute would find arcane and useless!

To be fair, reviews will never be perfect but they should demonstrate some shred of independent thought based on an intelligent career path/work experience that has led the writer to offer this most current evaluation of this designer’s current body of work.  As the saying goes … “You are only as good as your last collection!”  Based on our contemporary viewpoints, many designers are just fierce or fab based on their inspirations, choice of venues and who they select to style their shows and model in them .  Again, none of this has to do with the clothes!  As I have repeatedly stated… DESIGNERS DESIGN... it is their job and every time they expose themselves to criticism by doing a runway presentation, they add to the opportunity and being either harshly criticized, highly praised or merely just given a line or 2 so as to prove the critic attended the show. 

But today, seemingly,  it is also important to know who sits in the front row as if that matters since most of those so called luminaries of the A-B-C variety will wear or receive their designer wares via a loaner or freebie or even worse will be paid to wear it to a high profile event.  Let’s get real here; Laurel Smith Jones from Boise or even New York City has no clue that Jane Fonda’s custom made Versace may have cost upwards of 50 grand or that Charlize Theron’s seemingly simple haute couture dress might have cost upwards of 50 grand nor can they fathom it. So indeed what‘s the point unless the only point is to hopefully sell a stick of Dior lipstick or a tube of Versace deodorant.  But I digress; the front row means nothing except when, in fact, the people who inhabit that row actually contribute to the success or failure  of that collection.

NYC fashion; Inquiring minds need to know .....designer focus Gene Meyer