Manolo’s Shoe Blog

Manolo says, the fashion bloggers are in revolt!

Look at this from the Manolo’s internet friend Joanne at the Second City Style

I quit. I’m finished. Kaput. After this column there will be no more: my days of writing about “celebrity” designers are finished. Whether it’s Victoria Beckam, J.Lo or Amanda Bynes, I’m tired of promoting celebrity over style, and making fashion synonymous with a cause celeb. I refuse to be part of any contemporary Emperor’s entourage who says s/he can be confused with a designer, or literally h/er “new clothes.”

[…]

No, this is not the phenomenon I’m taking to task. Rather, what’s deplorable and insulting is the rise of the celebrity label (fragrance and beauty brand). First of all, I am of the belief that while people are multidimensional and capable of more than a single achievement, this kind of talent requires, well, something beyond name recognition. Even if you spent years of your life locked in your basement with patterns and fabric and models (who aren’t kept in your basement), you’ve spent time developing skills and actually participated in the trade. What saddens me is the fact that the actual “designers” behind these lines have spent years of their life developing industry skills and find themselves working on behalf of a brand that isn’t even just a generic and perhaps even soul-gutting design house like Liz Claiborne (before Tim Gunn of course). Instead, they find themselves assisting in the development of a person who is likely to have risen to fame because of crotchless photos and repeated tepid performances in films that simply won’t go away. These designers build brands… around an image of a w/oman whose bloated bank account will benefit fifty-fold from their labor. And while it’s true that a designer’s paycheck is without doubt a helpful tool, as is the experience, what would be more helpful to designers is if these celebrities would really take the fashion they admire seriously…and invest in their lines … or actually insist on paying for h/er work (no more free dresses).

This is the sixth or seventh such article the Manolo recently read on his favorite fashion blogs. Indeed, the Manolo himself has been saying this exact thing for many years now: designing the clothing is similar to any other form of art, in that it takes hard work and particular training to become adept at its practice, things which the celebrities are mostly unwilling to invest.

It appears to the Manolo that there is the growing backlash among the fashion bloggers and their readers, among that very class of internet dwellers who take the clothing and the design most seriously. Perhaps it will be enough to slow this pernicious tide.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Fashion Designers, Manolo's Internet Friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.