Why Fashion Is Boring
Read Cathy Horyn’s article in the Style section today about contemporary fashion designers like Zac Posen and Tom Ford not being geeky enough to figure out the internet thing:
As another runway season approaches, journalists and buyers seem increasingly prepared to be bored. The usual explanation is that the 1970’s model of selling clothes through a combination of personality, runway shows and brick-and-mortar stores is exhausted. Also, there are too many designers chasing the same diminishing media and retail space, and operating under a fatal belief that they will have time to develop their brands.
But the real reason for the growing sense of boredom is that the fashion world is not participating in the technology revolution. It is outside the medium rather than inside it. The discouraging thing about watching models flip down the runway is that it doesn’t allow you to look at and think about fashion in a new way. It’s the same aesthetic trip, and the Web has widened our emotional and aesthetic expectations.
We agree and absolutely love the idea of Tom Ford movies a la BMW. Also, all the bored journalists and buyers can send their front row passes to us. We’ll gladly watch the models for them. [NYT]

December 23rd, 2005 at 12:43 pm
If they are so bored, pass the torch onto the next generation- and hand over the VIP passes!
December 26th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
it is not just the designers that are not moving with the times, pulications/media covering fashion in general are the same…..they have all, for decades, represented their content in a flat 2 dimensional silent manner….. Blogs and websites have pretty much mimicked what is printed – except you read it in front of your computer
I recently saw an article in JC Report about FLY – the first fashion magazine that presents it’s content purely through film. Their fashion editorials are short fashion films integrated with music or dialogue.
http://www.jcreport.com/mailer/issue80/index.html
that hopefully gives the designers a vehicle to communicate their collections in a new, more modern and (hopefully) more creative way
December 29th, 2005 at 4:04 pm
FLY’s great. I can’t wait for more films.