Dualité

The Wall Street Journal was rather cocky about the release of their new lifestyle magazine, WSJ. (with the period) last week, taking slight swipes at their competitions like T Magazine from The New York Times.

After some reflections and analyzing e-magazines, I’m starting to wonder if e-magazines really offer you a different web experience or are they really just spruced up versions of their printed counterparts? We’re now expecting more and more from fashion websites, we want them to be updated daily, we want RSS feeds, we want comment capabilities, forums, and tons of pictures and videos to look at.

Unfortunately, I don’t understand why big reputable newspaper companies such as the WSJ and NY Times cannot afford to give its magazines the same web usability as their newspapers. Granted, these magazines only publish monthly or quarterly, but I believe the extra online features should be added.

Here are some of things lacking from WSJ.

• No comment feature – Are we not allowed to have dialogue in the luxury world?
• Only one RSS Feed of a blog-ish type of daily update called “WSJ. Magazine Today”, of which a couple of the articles don’t show up in the feed, or a few appear in the feed but not on the same page of the site? Where are you pulling your posts WSJ.?
• Videos – Ok. I’m going to rip this apart. What is up with their videos?? I really like Roland Mouret and his interview “The Shape of Things To Come” is a good read. But the videos on this site are little more than decorative and have little to say. I usually like WSJ’s reporting videos on the newspaper’s site, even if they do lack pizzazz. These videos’ intros sound off to the beat of something coming off of MTV’s Cribs. On top of that, you can’t even share the video, not that they’d be worth it… Is this really luxury? I’m not even rich but I know crap when I see it.

I’ve revisited T Magazine’s site and also found a few gripes.

• No comment feature – except for their blog “In The Moment” which I’m starting to believe is really a blog post overload of anything fashion related. Hardly anybody comments.
• RSS only for “In The Moment”, so you’d have to scroll through a maze of articles on the site itself.
• Videos are non-linkable, non-adjustable, and a tad too small for my taste (make it YouTube size at least). I like their “Screen Test” series, and can find a few gems in “Exclusive Films”, but I would do away with “T Takes” of short films, they don’t belong on this site.

I’m split between what e-magazines today should represent. As a print publication, it’s obvious we’re only doing the reading and there’s no interaction whatsoever between the content and yourself. But as a web experience, especially seeing how interaction is now possible between the content and the user, I’ve come to expect this extra feature to be available for online publications (whether they have printed counterparts or not). I suppose magazines don’t want to lose their authority on fashion, and open the gates to dialogue will expose them to direct, unfiltered critique of their content. But so far I think being able to comment and share content has only heightened the interest in fashion and we could get some very insightful opinions from individuals you wouldn’t never hear about. Cathy Horyn’s “On The Runway” blog is a prime example of being able to voice her opinions, and still be respected and receive both favorable or unfavorable opinions from different users. This interaction shouldn’t be ignored and for the fashion industry, reknown as a tough skin industry, to shrivel up so easily to opinionated consumers is sort of an oxymoron.

Now that shoppers can snap up the latest fashionables with a click of a mouse or browse through endless specialized boutiques – what’s left for them to experience?

Customization of course. I’m talking a little more than Carrie’s gold name plate frenzy back in the 90s (and I can attest that this was very popular in New Orleans back then), or having your name spelled out in beads on a string necklacle. In 2008, custom-made apparels are popping up in the accessories at affordable prices.

First there were shoes. Vans, Nike, and Converse are perhaps the most well-known companies who have prided themselves in offering their clientele a choice for self-expression. For the ladies, it was Steve Madden, who back in 2007, had the internet crowd a buzz with it’s new service of customizing over 45 different styles of shoes in your own colors and trimmings. Sadly, as I looked at the site recently – customize thy shoes no more. It appears that this gold mine service is no longer in service on Steve Madden’s website. Maybe they didn’t anticipate the high demand for customizable heels?

Second, there are hats. Specifically baseball caps. In Montreal’s underground shopping mall there’s a highly successful small booth (yes booth, they don’t even have store) which attracts teenage boys like moths to its fiery needle that stitches original graphics onto blank baseball caps. A computer is set up to program the stitching machine, as well as implement any new designs the makers come up with. You can flip through an album with hundreds of premade designs like a tattoo example album.

Thirdly, underwear. Stores like Bang-On adds a personal touch to your daily undies by transferring graphics onto them by hot press. You might remember this as high school homework for Generation Y people. They mostly use American Apparel’s er, apparels, as they’re a perfect canvas to work on. Think CafePress, but cooler and in a retro 80s store.

Finally, we have sunglasses. Perhaps geared towards the more affluent clientele, sunglasses are just another new addition to the mix. “With custom glasses, you can choose not only the frame but also other components, such as the bridge — the piece that rests on the upper part of the nose — and the temples — the arms that go along the sides of the head,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Therefore, creating your own specs at your own specifications, much like custom made clothing.

As shoppers are given more and more choices, it’s only obvious that to stand out from the crowd, we must express our individualistic style. By that, other than dressing differently, how about adding your own personal touch by having someone else do it for you without breaking the bank? As the rich turn to bespoke clothing, the mass consumer will turn to customizing entities. While the likelihood of getting your apparels Gucci-fied is no longer possible due to trademark laws, getting custom made clothing at an affordable price could be a new luxury market that remains untapped. Surely it would be difficult to maintain every single individual style, but given a proper organized system, the idea can surely fly. If we can deck out our iPods, we can surely deck out our closet.

Call it Tailoring 2.0.

My trip to DC included some great insight from a relative who writes for one of the big newspapers in DC and gave me some useful advice. She told me that the senior fashion editor of the newspaper had quit the paper a few years back in favor to work for the so-called Carrie Bradshaw’s “Mecca” of all magazines – Vogue. She lasted 6 months and quit.

Her reason? Writing for a magazine had too much pressure to be positive ALL the time. If a brand’s collection is perceived as bad for the season, they simply don’t write about it at all. Instead they would focus on the brands they deemed good. Being bred from a newsroom where there needs to be a heart to the story which includes fact checking, interviews, and unraveling the truth (whether good or bad) – there wasn’t any of that at Vogue.

You may find the occasional insightful article, the most notable I’ve read recently in Harper’s Bazaar’s September 2007 issue, “Everyone’s a fashion critic” by Pulitzer Prize acclaimed writer Robin Ghivan (The Washington Post‘s fashion editor). But as a whole, it’s hard to be negative in a magazine, I can vouch that as a writer for Gloss. It’s not that there’s anything to hide really, I enjoy doing interviews and all of them so far have been humble and super nice people. But after a while, it gets redundant. Newspapers have an edge that will allow you to express your opinions if given you can back up your statements.

Being a fashion editor at a newspapers does have its drawbacks. Opinions dished in newspapers can hurt brands, resulting in bans from certain fashion shows. Nobody has been spared, even the almighty Wall Street Journal, The NY Times, The International Herald Tribune, and Newsweek writers have been banned from attending shows, from Louis Vuitton to Armani, for their comments. Frankly though, kudos to these women who have the experience and most importantly – who have their eyes wide open. These women are not easily swayed by the glamour and lavish parties. Oh sure, they’ll attend the parties, but by no means would it bribe them in counting a collection as fabulous if it doesn’t live up to certain standards or capability. What makes them so qualified in critiquing you ask? Perhaps it’s because they don’t blindly follow the herd, that they don’t just gobble up what every designer has to offer. Not only that, they have experience under their belt and they haven’t abandoned their investigative journalistic skills.

Hilary Alexander, for The Daily Telegraph UK, is perhaps the exception to the investigative journalistic style for a newspaper. Although Hilary would rarely express her opinion on collections, she certainly makes up for it by concisely writing show reviews with the pen of a novelist. Her choice of words build and create fantastical atmosphere that one can only dream of how beautiful these runway shows are in real life. She’s incredibly talented on this end, and so I forgive her for lacking an opinion.

With my experience in fashion magazine writing, I feel that here you would have to stretch your creative writing skills by indulging the reader into the fantasy that fashion is portraying. That, in some respect, requires quite a good deal of skills in order to achieve this mystical world for the reader. How do you convince your readers that the latest designer you’re presenting is hot stuff and why? What makes them special? I’ve been struggling with this since I’ve started, but learned a great deal along the way. I do believe at the end of the day that my heart belongs in having an opinion on fashion and digging deeper to unravel the truth and mystery behind the fashion facade.

Image credit: Patrick McMullan for Harper’s Bazaar

When it comes to menswear, there is little to help a man out in picking the best quality suit at the best price. So the Wall Street Journal took it upon themselves to seek out advice from known experts in menswear. This article brings to light how one company has shifted productions to China, believing that the country is now well-equipped and trained to create higher end suits. However China’s quality control reputation hasn’t been quite stellar since last year after a number of recalls from food to toys. So the WSJ put 4 suits to the test and asked a small panel of experts to determine which suit is made in China, and what details a man should look for in a good high quality suit.

The article highlights a good point about the importance of the finishing of a garment, it would appear since my post about the finishing at Teenflo does make a difference to determine high quality. Of course a $1,300 suit jacket versus a $400 suit jacket will surely yield a huge discrepancy in quality which lies in the details. And according to the WSJ, it looks like not even a $998 jacket made in Italy nor does the priciest, at $1495, equate the best of the best of suits! At that price range, it would be wise to try on a few brands before making such a hefty purchase.

Image credits: The Wall Street Journal

If you thought your mind was playing tricks on you in always finding something new in stores, well you weren’t hallucinating. I read this article in the Wall Street Journal how Spanish-based brand Zara is putting pressure on the pedal to beat out its competitors in the fast fashion market.

While competitors like Forever 21 stock up with new duds within 6 week intervals, Zara packs in new styles twice a week. Collections are kept small to minimize losses on flops and capitalize on exclusivity when they sell out. You can say that they’ve created the fast fashion model and turned it into a multi-million dollar business and lots of companies are catching up quick.

Just another growing problem in fashion globalization. Soon you’ll be able to get new fashion every single day. I give it about 5-10 years before fast fashion goes out of hand.

Today is Hi-Speed.

And tomorrow: Ludicrous Speed!

This book should be a lesson to everyone. In fact, I think it should be mandatory for anyone with a serious interest in fashion to read this amazing book that I gobbled up in a mere 3 days.

“The End of Fashion,” written by veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Teri Agins, feels like the equivalent of 100 NY Times or Wall Street Journal articles. Journeying through several examples of popular fashion designers, she shows an evolution in the business of fashion up until the very end of the 1990s. From the flamboyant Isaac Mizrahi to the brutally honest persona of Zoran, she details in great lengths of the struggles of fashion businesses throughout the last 20 years.

Establishing a fashion brand is more than crafting designs. In today’s standards, you have to be as much as a savvy salesman with great marketing skills in order to break even in the industry. Fashion magazines will rarely give you a look of the other side of the moon. Should you wish to further expand your knowledge on fashion, pay attention to the business section of your newspaper, you might find some interesting tidbits.

What I loved about this book are some of the spectacular failures and shortcomings of powerhouses who thought they would be unstoppable.

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