Can Fashion Criticism Keep Up With Fashion Weeks Fast Pace? Part.2
Emmanuelle Maréchal
Freelance Copywriter, Writer, Translator, Sub-Editor for | Luxury Fashion & Beauty | Travel & Tourism
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An In-Depth Conversation About The Fashion Ecosystem In Italy And France With Rivista Studio Fashion Director Silvia Schirinzi
As promised last week, here is the second part of my conversation with the Fashion Director of the quarterly Italian independent culture and lifestyle magazine Rivista Studio, Silvia Schirinzi.
Our conversation is a long one, so I recommend a cup of your favourite hot drink to read it. Unlike the first part, there is hardly a question as, like I said, it really was a conversation. If we chatted in English, it could have easily been a podcast. Silvia and I are simply exchanging thoughts about the fashion industry as two professionals.
In this edition of The Underrated Fashion Professionals Talks, Silvia Schirinzi and I talked about:
It is intriguing to observe now that the fashion critic role is expanding. The fact that someone like Dean Kissick, an art critic, can write about fashion allows one to tackle it from a different point of view than maybe someone constantly immersed in the fashion world. And it goes back to what I was saying: there is a cultural decline in fashion, and as a consequence, fashion critics and commentators lack culture.?
There is such a lack of culture that we fall into clichés. To me, it is obvious when journalists talk about Italian fashion. It feels like we are going back to these Dolce&Gabbana reviews referring to Sicily and its lemons. Or they talk about fashion as something that is just Milanese when there is/was a whole production chain and ateliers outside of Milan and Lombardy. So, it gives the impression the fashion world sees Milan like a postcard rather than a city part of a country with, dare I say, a plethora of cultures because Italy is so diverse, from north to south, east and west.
Absolutely. In Italy, we have had excellent fashion critics such as Natalia Aspesi, Adriana Mulassano, Anna Piaggi, and Angelo Flaccanvento more recently. In Paris, it is different. There, fashion has a cultural value that validates its recognition as an industry. This acknowledgement of fashion being an industry means that, through it, France projects an image of itself to the world. From the Monsieur Dior era to our times, fashion has always been another way to narrate France to the world. Paris Fashion Week is the only one that manages nowadays to have cultural relevancy because all the museums take part in it organising exhibitions. Obviously, nobody can’t deny that Parisian fashion and French conglomerates are born out of aristocratic families that are the same who own, for example, champagne houses and many other luxury businesses. On the other hand, Italy is made up of small to medium companies helmed by adventurous entrepreneurs hailing from various regions of the country, who had a savoir-faire, but never managed to scale their businesses, and that’s our main issue.
I am not too sure about the French paradigm because it is all about marketing France and, above all, Paris. The cultural aspect of fashion is indeed important, but it is also true that LVMH and Kering have created a kind of uniformity centred around Paris, eclipsing the rest of the country. The only one who managed to do something a little different is Simon Porte Jacquemus, whose collections embrace the South of France, despite it still being a cliché.
Yes. He romanticises the South like Dolce&Gabbana did in the 90s for Italy. I am Apulian, and their idea of the southern Italian woman is an ideal I have always rejected. But I recognise their work with Isabella Rossini, Monica Bellucci and photographer Ferdinando Scianna was incredible. Even though it clearly was cliché, it brought glamour to fashion at a moment when it was much more straightforward.
When I saw their Alta Moda collection in Alberobello in Apulia with models wearing gigantic hats imitating Trulli [editor’s note: Trulli are dry stone houses with a conic roof typical of the Itria Valley in Apulia], and the coppola [editor’s note: a flat hat worn in Sicily, Calabria, and Campania], I wanted to throw everything away. I mean, Apulia is not Sicily; Sicily is not Campania. As Italians, we all know and see these differences, yet unfortunately, nowadays, fashion narrates itself using stereotypes. But there is cliché and cliché. For example, there is the work Demna Gvasalia did on black that intersected with his identity as a Georgian who lived in Germany and Paris and Cristóbal Balenciaga who was Catholic. He found a point of intersection between black colour in the Orthodox church and black in Catholicism. Obviously, there was also the post-soviet aesthetic, which Balenciaga had nothing to do with, but behind it, there was an idea. Demna certainly played a lot with stereotypes, but there was at least some depth behind them. Unfortunately, nowadays, most designers can’t even allow themselves to do it because if you think about how we present Italy to the world, we are as much as Paris, a postcard of a mythical southern Italy that you see in White Lotus where Sicily is Apulia.??
We probably have a part of responsibility in how we present ourselves to the world, especially with social media and digital culture, in general, encouraging that cultural decline you talked about. They encourage simple images and concepts that are easily assimilated, digested, and forgotten. And sadly, it applies to everything, not only fashion. It also touches on extremely serious foreign policy questions. I am thinking about the debate around Palestine. Israel is a political issue with which our generation, but also older generations, grew up with. It was the start of our political involvement for many of us, but today it has been reduced to a fight between two sports teams. Unfortunately, this kind of oversimplification and trivialisation can apply to Palestine and any other important political issue, as it can apply to a Gucci show.
Another example is Christopher Wiley, Cambridge Analytica’s whistleblower, who discovered that for Donald Trump’s campaign, his team gathered data such as shopping habits from many Facebook users, which prompted him to say that “fashion [was] like politics.” That is why there is an algorithm affecting what we buy and how we use social media, which offers us a specific vision of the world. If we go back to fashion criticism, in that context, it is no wonder this type of journalism is struggling.?
On TikTok, I follow young people who talk about fashion in a much more approachable way. They might have their favourites, but there are so many cases of mid-price designers and brands who have a big following and have their community, like Sandy Liang, Poster Girl, or Sporty & Rich. There are all brands whose starting price point is a $70 hat. Maybe when we were younger, you and I wanted a 300€ Prada bag now costing 1000€. If you look at it from this standpoint, fashion, critics, and brands all struggle to narrate the industry's impact and, therefore, lose a wide range of potential clients.
That is probably why someone like Federica Salto [editor’s note: former Vogue Italia Senior Fashion News Editor] became Gucci’s Head of Communication. I think brands might now need journalists like her to create a new narrative after someone like Alessandro Michele left such a big imprint because, after all, we are storytelling professionals.
I completely agree with you. Think about the Chief Marketing Officer role; it has always been a very editorial and quite hidden position within brands. Now, instead, there are more and more professionals from the publishing industry that go to brands. This is a sign that magazines and newspapers have lost their relevance. Now everyone has their little niche. The Carrie Bradshaws of this world, or even terrific journalists like Cathy Horyn and Tim Blanks, don’t hold the same weight as twenty years ago. Brands have become a little bit like Netflix because they are producers of various types of content, so they now have a very developed editorial team. This is the so-called storytelling, an overused term and concept that is nonetheless needed to build a credible and cohesive story. Something that brands don’t always succeed in because the commercial demands are crazy. Look at Alessandro Michele, who brought in 9 billion dollars yearly but was still fired. So what poor Sabato de Sarno must do? Bring in double the amount?
As many Italian journalists said, they couldn’t critique the first collection so harshly because Sabato de Sarno arrived with a big weight on his shoulders. It would make much more sense if designers could openly deal with their creative expectations and the conglomerates’s financial expectations for fashion professionals to understand their work better now there is so much at stake on the business side, but nobody wants to talk about it.
Business of Fashion published a piece in which financial analysts celebrated Alessandro Michele’s exit from Gucci, yet they also said Sabato de Sarno’s first collection wasn’t a success. Coming from financial analysts, it is a little bit weird to read them say such things. On Friday, the day of the show, Kering rose 4%, and on Monday, it fell because of a downgrade in the luxury market. And it hit the whole group. In a moment of negative financial projections, Prada, Hermès, and Chanel are doing well, so it shows how much financial analysts and fashion critics are struggling to understand what is happening. Meanwhile, some brands were boasting about sustainability during the pandemic, Chanel did shows everywhere in the world, demonstrating that success was possible even in such a climate if they followed their own lane. That is why everyone is raising prices and re-positioning themselves in the luxury sector not to fall prey to trends and avoid linking their brands to designers such as Virgil Abloh, Alessandro Michele, and Demna Gvasalia, whose image is synonymous with the brands they led.?
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But I’d say that fashion and luxury overlapping is fascinating.?
I don’t think people don’t notice these changes. I went to an event organised by Prada, and many customers were saying that, even though they had money, they found it outrageous that an item that was 1500€ two years ago was now 10 000€.
That’s true that rising the prices for their nylon items is ridiculous. But they introduced leather with Raf Simmons. And it appears that Prada never did beautiful leather jackets and trench coats. Now the interesting thing is their price starts at 10 000€.?
This quite intriguing state of bewilderment is, in my opinion, due to the overlapping of fashion and luxury. It is as if luxury had become a kind of safe space for brands desiring to become unicorns like Chanel and Hermès, which they seem to think can overcome any storm. But I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
Louis Vuitton is another fascinating case because Virgil Abloh’s historical parabole was quite sincere and had meaning.?
I love Pharrell Williams, but choosing him as Louis Vuitton’s Creative Director is symptomatic of that celebrification of fashion that LVMH does. They chose him when they could have chosen a gifted Martin Rose, who seemed to be the natural heir, or Grace Wales Bonner, whose menswear is one of the most beautiful. But they preferred a celebrity who has incredible media power. Let me add that Pharrell, for me, was and always will be Chanel. He was the only exciting thing about that brand. But anyway, if his Louis Vuitton show was not the best, the drops he made after were very clever. Pharrell is intelligent and surrounds himself with the right people, so Louis Vuitton chose security by hiring him. His name embodies a pop culture that crosses over generations.?
So either you have an attractiveness, but you don’t want to build it on designers because they dig in your heels like Alessandro Michele, or they get you into trouble like Demna did. Either the brand is yours, like Miuccia Prada, who gave herself five years to rebuild slowly Prada’s future. But she can afford some lean years because the brand belongs to her.
Since you are talking about LVMH and Pharrell, I am jumping on the occasion to talk (again) about this lack of culture, as the conglomerate initially positioned itself as the epitome of French and Parisian luxury. ?With Virgil Abloh’s arrival, it felt they needed to attract younger generations. And I understood to a certain extent because, at least, he was a gifted communicator AND designer who trained as an architect. Pharrell isn’t any of that. And if I am convinced he is a brilliant mind, I also think he is a Black American man at the helm of a Maison that should embody French luxury. To me, this is symptomatic of how we approach diversity and inclusivity in France: when it is about Afro-Americans, fantastic, but when it is about hiring French designers with a diverse background, there is no one to be found. There is only Olivier Rousteing. He is the only one. This is the paradox of French fashion, which looks for Afro-American talents instead of talents in its own country.
This also applies to Italy. Look at Maximilian Davis at Ferragamo. I hope they will diversify the hiring process because it is necessary if we want to talk to a global market.?
Italy is a multicultural country. There are plenty of Italians who are Chinese, Senegalese, Pakistani, Romanian, Albanian, etc. You know, when you go and visit these ateliers, it always makes me cringe that they put the only Black person to welcome you because they want to show they have a Black, a Chinese person, in brief, that they have one person of colour. And then you think, “What the hell! Are you alright?” because having a look at these brands’ boardrooms, they are all composed of white men. This is such a short-sighted vision.?
Young designers like Chinese-Italian Luca Lin, Act N°1 founder, exist. There is also Stella Jean, who is more established. There are Italians with a double culture, and I believe our fashion system can only benefit from these contaminations. If we don’t understand it, we will never evolve. We can train all these people in private fashion schools, but they won’t have access to opportunities like Sabato de Sarno, who spent 14 years at Valentino. And we need them. Right now, we miss the global picture. We need to find a way to make this industry that, from the outside, is considered repelling (which is so true) attractive.
I feel it is also an issue among Italian fashion critics. I follow and appreciate freelance fashion journalist Giuliana Matarrese’s work, she is an amazing supporter of Italian talents, but they are always white. And for me, it is problematic. I never saw her talk about Luca Lin or Italian BIPOC designers, but I have seen her talk about Sabato de Sarno or Walter Chiapponi. I have an issue with this because if you advocate only for people who look like you, your vision of Italy, even as a fashion critic, mirrors what we see in boardrooms.
I completely agree. Besides, designers like Luca Magliano and Luca Lin face the same difficulties during Fashion Week. In my Milan Fashion Week stories for Rivista Studio, I deliberately leave out young and emerging talents because there is no time to see their collections.
Sara Moschini [editor’s note: Head of Fashion at Grazia.it] said precisely the same: there was no time for seeing less established brands because they were stuck between the more established ones. So when you are a fashion journalist, what can you do??
More often than not, you are limited to going to the bigger shows. Just to give you an idea, Act N°1 was at 1.15 pm, but at 2.00 pm there was Prada. And at 2.00 pm, Act N°1 had yet to start. This makes you understand there is a hierarchy in the system. With Camera della Moda Italiana [editor’s note: the Italian CFDA], we should find a way to dialogue to improve the calendar. In our small way, at Rivista Studio, we are doing what we can because the calendar is too restrictive and punishing for younger brands.?
Vitelli, an amazing collective that does unique knitwear, chose to stop showing because it was difficult to pay 50 000€ for nobody to come as they programmed their fashion show on a Sunday when everyone was going to Paris. It prevented them from being noticed, to have buyers and the Italian and international press. Two seasons ago, they did that festival from afternoon to evening in Bovisasca. It closed with their show. Many young people came because they have a beautiful community, but Andrea Batilla and I were the only journalists. And it was Camera della Moda that gave them this 9.00 pm slot. So you understand that Fashion Week is actually the Big Brands Week.
In Paris, Fashion Week is more distended as they do two big shows daily, one in the morning and the other in the evening. Camera della Moda Italiana should try to talk with Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, but right now, it doesn’t have enough power to re-negotiate this necessary extra day. Or they could decide not to have the showrooms in Milan but in Paris.?
Right now, all these younger brands have the same issue: they absolutely have to show their collection within Friday because, on Saturday and Sunday, they must do showroom because if not, they’ll lose that occasion with buyers. So they find themselves forced to do their catwalks within Friday because they need to give samples for the showroom. Since it is a systemic issue in the industry, maybe we should consider doing everything in Paris to facilitate the process or at least collaborate to save the whole shebang.
In the UK, they are different. When Daniel Lee made his first collection for Burberry, the entire Anglo-Saxon fashion system supported him, although it was a discreet collection. And it is not to say he is not talented. Quite the opposite! It was he who put Bottega Veneta back on the radar, but it was interesting seeing such a support system around him when, in Italy, we can’t wait to throw the first that comes to the wolves.
I see what you mean. I worked for TOPSHOP when London Fashion Week still had a certain relevance. The British Fashion Council and NEWGEN sponsored emerging brands through their sponsoring programme, while Fashion East was a talent incubator discovering and nurturing young designers. I have yet to see such an ecosystem in Milan or Paris that supports fashion designers by giving them a space where they all do their shows and journalists have the time and interest to come along with buyers.
We can’t do it. For the record, in London, young designers do their shows at the Central Saint Martins, where New York Times journalists happen to go. In Milan, we struggle to work collaboratively unless it is a collective highlighting marginalised communities. We always label young brands and people instead of providing them with the structure to have standing. Michelle Ngonmo’s “We Are Made in Italy” is a beautiful project, yet they don’t give it the credit and weight it deserves. When I went to see the presentation, it was great. The designers selected by Michelle were talented, but they could only show one outfit. This said, I am also convinced that many young brands don’t need to do fashion shows but can find different and innovative ways that make them more justice. Putting on a show shouldn’t be a prerogative for brands.