Dear Fashion Industry,
My question to you is what the hell happened? My timeline on any social media platform has become Celebrity filled updates, where they, what they’re wearing and which events they’re at. You’ve got Reality stars and established artists on the cover of your magazines, but what happened to your back bone?
Fashion has always been the trend setter, sticking the finger up at society and smoking a cigarette in defiance. It made it’s own rules and decided who sat front row, who was in and who was out, you even made rising stars into global phenomenons. You’ve shaped decades, influential era’s for designers to make new decisions about and re-invent for their audience today. You’ve had more face lifts and come-backs than Cher herself, telling the world “we’re a Billion dollar industry for a reason”, making everything elitist and exclusive – that ultimate desirable lifestyle only for the few.
The history of fashion is one of infamy, it’s herald in genius designers such as; Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Oscar De La Renta, Versace and Gareth Pugh – that’s just naming a few we all know and love. We’ve now seen these fashion houses been taken over by their successors, but for what? Profit? There doesn’t seem to be much more about it than that, I’ve certainly not seen any new innovations just slight changes to what women/men wear today.
Selling out! The one thing I never thought I would see designers or the fashion industry do, they’re giving away their clothes and magazine front covers to the latest popular “Viral” celebrity. Not only that but they’re bowing down to what we now call ‘Influencers’, these bloggers and vloggers with multiple thousands of followers – just to reach a new audience. I know that fashion must change with the times, but it’s core philosophy shouldn’t – to make someone feel beautiful. Fashion is a lifestyle, not a single post, Advertising space or a YouTube segment – where has the passion gone!
What about bringing out new designers and talent to the surface, we all love a good success story, but what about the people trying to make it now? They can’t all be from Saint Martin’s school right? Where’s the new wow factor, the front covers that make people think?
Modelling used to be one of the toughest gigs going, in the end they started reality shows to find new modelling stars because of how strict it was. Now if you want to model, all you have to do is build a fanbase on Instagram first – back in the era of the ‘supermodels’ they never had this platform. Where is your defiance now? What happened to your casting a girl because she has the ‘IT’ factor, as I like to say the next Kate Moss.
Social Media has been your friend but soon it will be your enemy, well, if you don’t get wise. You work with people who have big followers to gain a new audience, but what about your own strategies? There is not yet proof working with someone who has a big audience, makes your audience bigger, nor is their any evidence they’d be interested in your brand neither. You don’t work with bloggers or people who will tell an audience what the brand is like, how to use it, you’d rather work with style bloggers – but that will be your down fall.
I think it’s time you re-invented yourself again, you need some of your defiance back. Show the world you’re not afraid to work against them, change it up, don’t be like everyone else. We’re getting bored with Celebrity news 24/7, we want new interesting angles. I especially want magazine covers that blow me away, not just middle of the road – shock us, surprise us and delight us.
Yours Faithfully,
Fossy Meade.