After talking about fashion and fashion bloggers with big names like Diane Pernet, Paola Pollo and Annette Lamothe-Ramos, today Humor Chic closes this interesting cycle of encounters with one of the most charismatic and interesting journalists on the New York scene.
She is sensuous and glamorous, which we find distinctly appealing, but her seductive and natural charms are not enough to distract the attention of her crowds of followers, who look forward every morning to plunging with extreme punctuality into the amazingly sharp and insightful articles which she writes for the New York Observer.
We are talking about the beautiful and bold Socialite reporter Drew Grant. While speaking with her we received a number of important confirmations, but one that particularly struck us was that being reticent is totally out of fashion!!
Humor Chic - Can you tellus what you think about Fashion Bloggers?
Drew Grant - "They're fine, as long as they don't clog up my Tumblr feed."
Humor Chic - Some Brands involve the Fashion Bloggers in co-branding collaborations of some capsule collection, or more frequently the Brands fill them with individual attentions (fashion houses gifts) which so many Fashion Bloggers can't wait to post on their blog as real trophies. What does this mean?
Drew Grant – It means free clothes and lax journalism ethics. Then again, should fashion bloggers be held to the same standards as journalists? See also: Mommy Bloggers.
Humor Chic - Fashion journalists were the first to encourage and pay tribute to Fashion Bloggers, and many newspapers and media were involved. But after the initial stage of interest, many journalists are now looking at them with reluctance and suspicion. Why?
Drew Grant - See above: they get free shit and we don't. That means all those glowing reviews they post about their new outfits. And after doubt was shed on the Manola Shoe blog-troversy by Linda Grant (no relation) in 2006's Vogue UK, how are we ever to trust that we're not just reading one giant advertorial disguised as a blog?
Humor Chic - During the last catwalk shows in March, Suzy Menkes wrote that wherever she looked, she could see wasps' nests of Fashion Bloggers, an invasion! Is it good or ... bad? And why in your opinion?
Drew Grant – Oh I think it's great! Power to the people! Why should celebrities who couldn't put on an outfit without the help of their stylist get wooed to the front-row seats, while bloggers who actually obsess over fashion be regulated to standing room only? Now that June Ambrose, Leandra Medine and the Fug Girls get the best seats in the house, we're seeing designers bow down to bloggers who are the closest thing they have to the everyday consumers at the shows. It's all very Marxist, except for the orgy of consumption and capitalism.
Humor Chic - A few Fashion Bloggers were sitting in the front row. In Milan, some of them were sitting next to the most influential Fashion Journalists in the world. This has bothered many italian fashion journalists. What was that? A provocation? A marketing action or... just a PR mistake?
Drew Grant – It's a sign of the times. Get with it, fashion journalists. Your influence is fading over the power of the blawg.
Humor Chic - In your opinion, is the fact that Designers are giving so much importance to Fashion Bloggers a good thing?
Drew Grant – Oh for sure. There are fashion bloggers for every niche, shape, and interest, while Vogue is just not trying to ban super-skinny models. If designers actually have to listen to bloggers, they'll start designing clothes for actual human bodies.
Humor Chic - Some very seasoned fashion editors have been influenced by the wave of these young Fashion Bloggers, and some of them have started a Blog, posting a photo of their look every day, in many cases posing like a teenage girl, some enriching it with a post, trying to make a point about Fashion. Do you find that ridiculous?...
Drew Grant – I think it's ridiculous that fashion editors apparently have enough time ontheir hands to blog bitchy photos about young teenagers. It's really tacky... and time-consuming!
Humor Chic - Don't you think that all this could become a big boomerang that turns back to the detriment of the real Fashion System in the long run?
Drew Grant - How so? I mean, everything goes in cycles in the fashion industry. I guess the worst thing you could say is that if all trends are dictated by the intrests of tweens in Minnesota, there won't be enough sober, adult lines shown on runways. Like how Fashion Week is all about sober, adult outfits to begin with?
Humor Chic - How do you see the future of Fashion Bloggers?
Drew Grant - Very lucratively. And with a television show in the works.
Humor Chic - And the future of the Fashion System?
Drew Grant - More DIY designers will pop up, thanks to sites like Etsy that make owning unique, bespoke clothing obtainable for those on a budget. Oddly, it humanizes designers (humanizing is not something the Internet is very good at, in general); turning them from these God-like deities whom the public accepts the fashion commandments of every season, no questions asked, to regular people who are trying to sell their craft and make a living, just like the rest of us.
