Almost Girl

I am concerned. Let me say that again. I am deeply concerned about the state of fashion today. Fashion is the provence of rich, superficial women bickering over seat placements at fashion shows and besting each other at who can eat the least. The fashion elite exert more authority and influence over the way American women think, dress, and understand their self image than anyone else on the planet. But this is changing.

I have two concerns I wish to raise today about the state of fashion. I want to address the way we understand fashion as an industry and the way we understand content as consumers of fashion and fashion journalism.

First, fashion, and the garment industry in general, effect more areas of life than the fashion press would ever like to admit. Fashion has profound impact on political and economic policy, our environment, our culture, and our own individual lives. The fact that we prefer to spend all of our time obsessing over celebrity gowns, the cutest new skirt, or some new skin cream is a travesty and an embarrassment to the way we pursue fashion and fashion journalism. These pieces have their place and I would never begrudge magazines their coverage. I want to know about trends, new products, and new retailers. However, we must acknowledge the many other areas of life touched by the garment industry. The World Economic Forum at Davos is occurring and I know that trade tariffs, garment import and export, the textile industry, underage workers, and environmental pollution are all being discussed. Do the fashion press discuss this? No. We must raise the level of discourse. Those of us participating in this blogging carnival are raising the level of discourse. Fashion impacts many areas of life and we must learn to understand it in that vein rather than as the domain of rich glamour girls.

Second fashion is two clicks behind. The problem is that fashion isn’t two clicks behind anymore. Certain areas of fashion such as the venerable old magazines and large fashion houses are two clicks behind. Those of us participating in the State of the Fashion Union are two clicks ahead and we are the early adopters and the trend setters. We understand that information is being processed more quickly, buzz is produced more organically, and advertisers want more direct and unmediated connections to their readers. Blogging will provide this content. Bloggers will democratize the fashion industry or at very least provide an alternative source for those bored with the staid coverage of fashion. The Fashionable Kiffen has posted many insights in the same vein on this subject.

We are making progress and things are changing. The fact that I able to liveblog from fashion week and be part of the organization of a large blogging carnival on the state of the fashion union are a tribute to the changing nature of fashion and media. People expect more niche coverage and coverage that speaks to them rather than one size fits all magazines that a million women read a year. Great niche blogs like The Jewelry Weblog speak about just this trend. The crafty Andrea Tung tells us about the iKnit generation, again showing us the diversity of content and interest merging on the internet.

So please join me in raising the level of discourse and bringing fashion to everyone. As we count down the days to fashion week let us discuss the many issues surrounding fashion in the most honest and direct way possible. I look forward to hearing your insights. Please send your links to me so that I can let people know when new posts go up. I am honored to be blogging with all of you. Please of course see the press release for details on the blogging carnival and fashionweek liveblogging, vlogging, and podcasting

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 4:17 pm and is filed under And Now For Something Positive, Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.