“It looked awfully painful,” The New York Times’ chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman told Imran Ahmed of Kim Kardashian's extremely corseted Maison Margiela dress at this year’s Met Gala on The Business on Fashion Podcast. “Where are all the women and POC designers?” questioned Dazed’s fashion features director Emma Davidson of fashion’s biggest night on the British magazine’s website. “He is so weird,” Nicky Campbell, the deadpan social media pundit, squinted over a green-screen image of a Burberry-boasting Barry Keoghan climbing the museum’s steps on TikTok. “I’m obsessed with him.”
The above recount of Met Gala moments is only a bite-sized sampling of the sprawling landscape that is fashion criticism in 2024 — and like it or not, it’s easier than ever to engage with the industry’s lore.
But beyond the fun, fashion criticism is a business, and even the industry’s biggest players must occasionally submit to the power of a brand partnership's check to keep the lights on. Publishers strike advertising deals with the brands that they report on, editors consider brand relationships before offering up critiques — to keep those commercial coins coming in, to secure more exclusive opportunities with said brand down the line, or to simply remain on their invite list — and content creators frequently collect hefty checks from labels who seat them in the front row.
If brands are bank-rolling the voices and platforms that talk about them, perhaps the ability to tell the truth is just as much a luxury as the garments coming down today’s runways.
@nickycbell This is.. all over the place
