Why the Obsession with Pitti Peacocks distracts from the real party

As this season's men's shows close up and the heat comes on to couture, it seems like as good a time as any to reflect on, um, Pitti.

As a journalist and editor, I've been lucky enough to visit tradeshows and catwalk events across the world, from Sao Paolo to Stockholm, Paris to Berlin. In this way, you always see the best of the event - just the good parts and none of the oily gubbins that goes on behind-the-scenes (even backstage is primped, polished and logo'd and ready for its close-up now).

Seeing a tradeshow, in this case Florence's infamous Pitti, from the perspective of the organisers though is a completely different game. In my Oliver Sweeney capacity, I was brought along with our sales team to rep the stand this year, and a few things struck me that never have before about such events.

Firstly, and it perhaps seems obvious, but the amount of effort, care, elbow-grease and money that goes into even a relatively small stand is enormous. Behind every single installation in the Fortenza da Basso (in which over 1000 brands exhibited), there's a huge team of designers, merchandisers, carpenters and installers who make it happen (not to mention the supply chain of the actual products themselves). Stands are either bespoke to each show or made to be transportable - before working at a brand I hadn't realised the scale of international logistics that are required to make it work.

Did you know, for example, that there are hundreds of vans, trucks and lorries from all over the world that queue around the block for 24 hours before Pitti starts? In order to get everything into the fort, they have only 3-4 access points, and everything has to be taken in and out on wheeled trollies. It's the same for fairs and catwalks the world over - in fact if you go down to Brewer St over the next fortnight you'll see a taster of the organisation coming together for LFW.

As a journalist, like I said, you rush around stands glad-handing friends and meeting new brands, marvelling at product but rarely having the time to appreciate the enormous supply chain that's been leveraged in order to put this stand here and now.

It's similar with the infamous Pitti Peacocks. They no doubt have a role to fulfil, but having manned a stand for 4 days, I can tell you that no-one with a caped jacket or with improbable levels of sprezzatura was there to do any actual work - they merely swished by to hang out on the Brunello Cucinelli stand and look achingly cool. As people come by the stand, you start to get an eye for who is who, the hallmarks of old-school international buyers (usually a business case and a young, pretty interpreter), or younger buyers (all-white kicks and all-navy outfits), or press (horrified facial expressions of how much stuff they have to cover, and a big bag full of press releases they don't really want). The peacocks are to Pitti what catwalk fashion is to the British fashion industry: a pleasant bit of theatre and a pretty distraction from the real business.

And I say this as someone who has worn improbable items to fashion week (my mind sticks on a technicolour overcoat that I borrowed some years ago). As with the courtyard at Somerset House, I've always maintained that the peacocks are essential to the fashion world, showing trends, personalities and fresh ways of being creative with fashion. But seeing inside a show like Pitti exposed the process of the industry which I find so fascinating: it's one of the biggest industries in the world, growing all the time and becoming a globally-recognised language.

It'd often difficult in the relentless cycle of seasons, shows and style to remember that. There's so much more to fashion than the glamour. It's why, when looking at shows like the Chanel Haute Couture show in Paris earlier today, I was thinking that's an unbelievable accomplishment. One that's repeated many times a year. It's always good to draw back and reflect - which is my theory (and excuse) for holding back on any AW16 menswear show comments yet. They're coming, promise.

Published & Damned: The Decline of the Magazine

I've made no secret over the years of my love for the form of the magazine. Hell, I even worked at one for four years (before it 'went biannual'). And I had a brilliant time: I travelled the world, was showered with gifts, was invited to events as diverse as you can imagine, ate and drank for free...

It sounds ridiculous, and for the most part it was. But please note: this money for travel and gifts and everything else doesn't come from your publication, but from an increasing number of brands with a small to sky-high marketing budget chasing a rapidly-decreasing number of journalists and publications - especially in print.

The current model of fashion media is still doggedly clinging to print publications. Everyone loves to see something in print, is what we're told, but in truth, who does it matter to? Not to the public for starters. Here's a truth that might sting, if you work in print: no-one reads magazines. Your mates don't, your parents don't, people under 25 definitely don't. It's an industry in decline, and that isn't going to change. Print publications as a mass-market means of communication are over. When was the last time you bought a magazine? When was the last time you saw someone with a daily paper that they'd paid money for? Even the Saturday/Sunday papers tradition seems only kept alive by pubs.

I don't think I'm being overly hyperbolic (and in fact, I'm happy to be put right), but the way people consume has changed. It's all about the internet. Obvs. Print magazines won't die, but I've always likened the relationship to MP3s and vinyl records: you wouldn't wander around today with a turntable in your bag would you? Everyone has an MP3 player, or more likely, a phone that plays music. But the people who love a certain band, who cherish the experience of hearing their music, will go out and buy a vinyl record. Same with magazines; but fashion (like music) is a bit of an inward-looking world, and everyone that works in it buys magazines (or rather, has them delivered to their desks), and still likes seeing shoots in glossy format. Interns devour biannuals at a voracious speed.

This decline in popularity has lead to a depressing lack of money in an industry that is supposed to be reasonably desirable: the trickledown effect being that magazines are run by posh girls who love shopping and Daddy's Platinum Amex, and interns. The resulting effect of the lack of money, is a lack of investment in the surrounding media and talent: the second-tiers of print publications are run now by mavericks with a little VC investment (or inheritance); a lack of competition means that advertisers don't spend money further down the tree - I know enormous fashion websites with readerships in seven figures that are run from kitchen tables. Great journalists and writers are following the dollar signs to the Land of Content, overflowing with rollerball pens and heavy gsm writing paper.

Anyway, without going a bit Lexi Featherstone (or moaning relentlessly about the volume of emails one has to sift through) I guess it's just a bit sad to see that the established media hasn't found a way to get around this and jumpstart the industry. The halcyon days of making whatever you want and getting paid top dollar for it are over. Writing a 20-page feature for a glossy magazine and being paid £10k just doesn't happen any more. You're lucky if someone even pays your paltry invoice these days, especially in music journalism.

Some might say that the closure of a magazine is a sad thing, but really, it's an inevitability - they were never meant to last forever. It's the medium that I'll miss; the idea that you could turn a page and have no idea what's coming - a hugely powerful trope in a mass-market product. As my old Editor once memorably put it: "A magazine is a storage space for dynamite; and we want ours to blow your face off."

Don't get me wrong. There are still great opportunities to make content and tell great stories (I'm working in one such place now, in fact). You could start a blog, work with your mates, start a niche magazine...it's not hard. Build your voice on social media, speak what you believe to be the truth, read (for God's sake READ!), write some words somewhere, and who knows, you could be the next Suroosh Alvi or Shane Smith - seemingly Vice is the last hope for some sort of future to the media, and I can't imagine having typed that a few years ago.

I guess what I'm most sad about is the changing idea of telling a great story, and telling it with words, really well. So many fashion writers are so bad at using a keyboard (not that I'm Proust, but at least my sentences are vaguely grammatically correct), which I find to be a huge shame: there are so many fantastic stories in the fashion industry that are just waiting to be well-told.

But I'm going to end on a positive note (and try to get this one put to bed).

First, remember that as long as those sky-high marketing budgets are there, there's always a way to get your words read.

To conclude (and continuing the musical analogy): all the best music has come from tiny, unknown scenes; repressed people, searching for a way to do things their own way. Look at disco, or acid house, or techno. Perhaps this switch in writing culture, driving the best writers away from established channels, away from the old structures of work and supporting themselves will drive a revolution in people writing great stories, putting great words in unusual sequences and making thrilling narratives, just because they want to.

The Staple: Proper Fashion Telly

So it seemed that the BBC actually made an effort to do some proper fashion TV around this season's LFW. There was a triplet of short docs on BBC4, hosted by Susie Lau, Abbey Clancy and Daisy Lowe, they were variously entertaining (intelligent, fun and pretty pointless, respectively), but it also seemed to catapult someone in the backend of iPlayer- longing for the much-vaunted return of The Clothes Show, perhaps - to dig around in the Beeb's archives and pull out a number of old-school documentaries on fashion.

Entitled the Art of Fashion collection, it's not only a really fascinating selection of programmes, but a window on how documentaries used to be made, before the advent of event telly and overbearing, omniscient, dramatic Big Brother-style narrators. My favourite was an episode of 'Ex-S' (a long-running Scottish documentary series akin to Arena) called Styling the Swan which explored Jasper Conran's attempt to costume design a version of Swan Lake, back in 1995. Presented without knowind comment or celebrity voiceover, the whole thing is a simple set of montages with Conran talking us through what's going on; there's a deliciously simple pace to it. It's not been through several rounds of Director approval; it doesn't have a social media strategy or a hashtag; there's no tacked-on 'mission'; it's not really even all that sensational. It's just a film crew following a creative guy as he wrestles with a creative problem.

And stripping all of this away (or rather before all of this was bolted onto documentaries), it's much more freeing, intimate and intelligent as a result. Maybe that's how telly was before the internet, maybe there was much more of an emphasis on showing without judging, but this simple and clean format is endlessly appealing for telling a story. In keeping the format and filming style as simple as possible, the entire focus is on the story, and crucially, on the costumes themselves; the camera is allowed to linger on details and slot in breaks for the digestion of ideas. It felt at times like a documentary from the future: when attention spans were elongated. I hope someone, somewhere, with commissioning powers watches it, and takes some notes.

The joy of this for me was both the format, and the way it allowed Conran's ideas to breathe. Looking in detail at the costumes, the problems they presented, and the way the designer got around them was hugely interesting. It kind of reminded me of Grand Designs tbh, and that can only be a good thing.

It also reminded me that there's so little good fashion telly, especially on YouTube. A very good friend of mine who is now running a fairly powerful video company was asking me if there were any and I drew a blank. I've sought a number of times a credible, intelligent fashion vlogger (especially in menswear), and they just don't seem to exist. Surely someone (*not me*) is going to take this slot - it seems too good not to, right?

Anyway, there's a few still on iPlayer (apparently for a year!) so if you're looking for a distraction, I can highly recommend. Oooh or the Julien Macdonald one! Back when he was relevant (post his days at Chanel, pre-Strictly), there are some great PTCs of him talking about how he got to where he was and how he put on a show (in Spitalfields! In 1997!), but the best bits are his parents and sisters sitting around on a dralon lounge suite, giggling about "how we knew he was diff-rent".

It's fashion televisual gold. And when was the last time you could say that?

What menswear can learn from womenswear (maybe)

So SS15’s fashion shows have finally come to an end, with Paris’ stragglers ending yesterday. Slightly outside of the magazine world, it’s hard to believe that it went on for so long – how can an entire industry take two collective months a year to view new product? It seems like an age since I took my Mum to a few shows at LFW.

Anyway - while the fashion elite are in recovery (and the rest of the industry gears up for the torrent of press days, launches and industry tradeshows), it’s time for observers to pull together overarching ‘think pieces’ on ‘trends’.

I know I said just last week that I wasn’t going to look at broad brushstrokes, but I’m contradicting myself: the joy of being in charge and all that. I’m going to try and look at womenswear from a menswear perspective: what can menswear designers learn (if anything) from the way womenswear was presented?

I’ve often said that menswear and womenswear are totally different industries. Like live telly and on-demand (or DVD and film), they are two separate industries with different consumers, different habits, different approaches, different teams, different marketing campaigns etc etc, united solely by a single medium: in this case, clothes.

Actually. That’s not strictly true. They’re also united in the way in which the clothes are presented: catwalks and presentations. One thing that really stood out about this season’s shows was the sense of spectacle and occasion that the shows – particularly the Paris shows – had.

Karl Lagerfeld ‘s Chanel is the obvious proponent of this here. You don’t need me to tell you how much of a shift in ideas that the Chanel supermarket was for AW14. SS15’s dubiously-motivated ‘feminist’ ‘demonstration’ (‘inspired by May ‘68’, I mean, c'mon!) was all about the sense of occasion – or more cynically, the Instagram moment. Bailey’s Burberry might have had all the digital bells and whistles, but Chanel trended much more successfully by putting on a proper spectacle.

Back in the day designers like Galliano and McQueen used their clothes to evoke a sense of drama. This season though saw a micro-trend of fresh takes on presenting clothes: Opening Ceremony’s Spike Jonze-scripted play at NYFW, for example; or Gareth Pugh’s beautiful balletic drama (in collab with, bizarrely, Lexus); or even Meadham Kirchhoff’s tampon-adorned tree installations.

Though OC’s show was devoid of cameras (and let’s be honest, designers have played with subverting the catwalk format for years), it seems like this reworking of a clothing presentation is mostly about creating a social media ‘moment’: giving a seasonal shove to a more established brand that brings them back to the forefront. Rick Owens did a great job of this with the step-dancers for SS14’s ‘Vicious’ collection.

But would January’s menswear shows benefit from these bells and whistles? Not yet. But I reckon designers would do well to keep the idea in the back of their minds. Creating a moment that defines the brand has worked for someone like Craig Green, and as the world’s Instagram users get used to regular floods of catwalk images (aside: please no more fuzzy finale videos), they need the occasional shot of something different to punctuate those shots.

In the age of Instagram, shows are no longer just for buyers or top press; they are the first way that a designer’s clothes are presented to the world, so you want to make the most noise. Shows cost so much money…etc etc; you get what I’m saying.

The way that fashion weeks work has been revolutionised over the last five years. So why not change the way that designers show their clothes? I expect some designers are already plotting some exciting things for the men’s shows in January.

Clutching Up

So LFW is over. Gosh, didn't it go quick! My six days of running around co-ordinating a team of over 20 people for Notion Magazine was knackering and exceptional fun in equal measures. There's nothing quite like getting dressed up at 8am, chucking an envelope-full of tickets in your bag and hailing a cab to Somerset House to make your day be that bit special. Existing on a diet of randomly-obtained cakes, bottles of sparkling water and the occasional espresso shot was somewhat precarious, but for all my complaining, I love the excitement of LFW. It's utter madness and I needed 2 days off work to recover, but it's so inspiring seeing the catwalks, presentations and tho be honest, the punters; anyone looking for a good people-watching venue would, I think, find it near-impossible to better Somerset House's cafes over LFW. Anyway, my fashion reports are all over at PlanetNotion, so take a look there. Two shout-outs though: JW Anderson & Matthew Miller. Utterly fantastic menswear with a twist, and whose collections I want to wear EVERY piece of (chance'd be a fine thing!). Anyway, this blg is about real life (erm-ish), so it's time to reveal the ASOS clutch bag that I ummed and ahhed over for so long, and which accompanied me to every show that I attended (apparently there were over 20). It was surprisingly practical, for a largish satchel with no handles; the main advantage being that it restricted the amount of crap I could carry about, forcing me to be ruthless with my shit, as well as frequently without a beverage. This did however mean that I didn't have a hernia after this season's Fashion Week, or the remains of cupcakes smeared across my notebooks. It creates a neat, businesslike look that I felt was appropriate to LFW, and didn't interfere with the contours or lines of my outfit. Also the slightly ridiculous orangey-brown leather gradually softened and became less garish as the week continued, and I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of people double-taking (outside of Somerset House, at least) on a man carrying a large women's clutch bag. I was even more pleasantly surprised by a few women I saw at LFW carrying the black version of this, who commented that they'd wanted to buy this one but played it safe with monochrome. So, all in all, a good purchase (though not as bargainous as my recent Vivienne Westwood black crewneck jumper on a sale rail at Selfs, £179 down to £29), which was widely admired - and yes, style-snapped; see here - and practical. I saw quite a few guys around LFW toting document wallets/clucthes of a similar type, so I reckon that makes it a Staple. Definitely one to give a try...amongst other Staples this week:
Navy YMC canvas lace-ups
Delia Smith's recipe for cheese scones
Shine 2009's Associates EP
Patterned Paul Smith socks
An entirely booze-free February
Twitter LFW madness (@sebulous and @NotionMagazine)
'Sup Magazine

PS: The photo above is not, I admit, particularly brilliant. And I don't really DO outfit posts. For a nice shot of what I wore to menswear day, take a look at The London Journal of Style (Navy APC trench, red Carolyn Massey tiefront cashmere jumper, Filippa K chinos, brown plaited leather belt from Turkey, patterned Paul Smith socks, navy YMC lace-ups, grey silk All Saints Union Jack scarf, grey cashmere wristwarmers from Brora, brown clutch from ASOS).

Calendar Girls (and Boys)

I can't believe I've not blogged directly about this before, but there's one thing that I think everyone should carry with them everywhere, and that's a paper diary. I've carried one for years now, and this year is no exception. I bought this Korean-made diary as it looked smart, but still interesting and not too business-y (and as for the previous few years, they'd sold out of mini Tate Modern ones). Adding in birthdays, future gigs and festivals now means that I'm more likely to do something about them when the time comes. I'm actually unable to do anything, or remember events without writing them in here. Perhaps I've been with a basic phone and no internet for too long, but even ready access to Facebook is no substitute for a diary - Any organised person should have a place to organise themselves, which is accessible and easily updateable on the go. For me, the idea of keeping a diary also goes hand-in-hand with writing, and particularly handwriting. While a BlackBerry might combine everything digitally, I'd rather have an old-school notebook and black rollerball; it's just the way I'm wired. Anyway, if you've still ot got an '09 diary, it's not too late, most stationery shops will have a few left over; you'll be reaping the rewards in no time. On another note, I am aware it's London fashion week this week, and have been dressing up accordingly; I'm certainly feling in more of a baggy jeans mode than I was a year ago, but it seems to be all about the shoes for me; I've been rediscovering metallics; Gold Converse and Silver Bstore. But I think Fashion156, The Fashionisto and StyleSalvage are doing a rather fantastic job of coverage, and as I've got not tickets, I'll wait until the MAN show pictures appear. Other Staples for this week:
A hardback, paper diary
Whitest Boy Alive's new album, Rules
Expanding the ClubRees empire to Islington's Orwell Bar
Following the Fashion Week coverage
Dalston Jazz Bar's riotous retro soul night
Plotting a summer of festivals, hopefully with a holiday
Uploading more CDs to my iPod (this is taking much longer than expected)

EXTRA! EXTRA!

The reason for the delay on this week’s blog is threefold; a rather busy weekend, starting work at 6.30am this week (necessitating a 5.15am wake-up alarm) and spending my Monday night this week not at home with the laptop and a cup of peppermint tea, but at my first Fashion Show. And it was in the ultimate spirit of My First..., as it was for the London magazine SuperSuper. So neon abounded, crazy make-up on the models (glittery 'taches for men) and guests (full-on clown faces), and unusual (to say the least) cuts, fabrics and details. Much of the evening was so 'fashion' that it made my brain hurt. As well as some utterly directional outfits (pea-green fur bodysuit, gimp masks and boys in heels that would have looked out of place in that peak of Nouvelle Rave, BoomBox) there were examples of promising talent there. Scott Ramsey Kyle's collection was a little OTT in its use of contrasting fabrics and neon for me, but did feature some well-cut dresses. Emma Bell's beautiful Quality-Street shiny fabrics and structured puffa jackets were a highlight; they may sound terrible, but were genuinely beautiful to see, and though the outfits jarred, individual pieces were beautifully made, and almost wearable. Dharma Taylor's menswear was very Shoreditch; a little gimmicky and made too much of putting your coat on your head. That is, if the just-released-from-borstal models didn't rip it off first. Finally Thomas Sels' dresses were a highlight, with one off-white striped, drop-backed creation really piquing my attention - it would have looked brilliant on a red carpet, on a Tilda Swinton-type perhaps. Interspersed between the clothes was video art, some terrible Art Brut-esque indie and a scene darling rapping about 'poached eggs' (actually pretty funny). Best of all was the soundtrack of eye-melting techno and b-more bass. We like. So an amusing start; last year I did promise myself I'd get to fashion week, so this is a good start, but next year I want to see some mens and womenswear that is both challenging and beautiful. SuperSuper show kids...and of course big thanks to the fabulous Katie for inviting me, and making it happen so successfully...

La mode

London Fashion Week has arrived, and at last I've had a free weekend to escape to the shops. And amongst the distressed D&G denim and the dayglo patent hi-tops in Selfridges, I browsed among the more sophisticated brands APC, Martin Margiela and Dries van Noten. But one brand to which I keep returning is Full Circle, kind of like Kris van Assche for Dior on a more modest budget. That's where I discovered this beautiful shirt, which had me thinking all around Selfridges, despite the preponderance of well-dressed young men, and eventually I was rushing back to buy it. The colour is the hottest of the season, featuring throughout the menswear floor, from Alexander McQueen through Burberry Prorsum and Paul & Joe to Gucci. Note also the beautifully-cut, minimal and unusally small collar. The fit is immaculate, slim but not skinny or tight, and the colour is flattering but not garish; on trend but not fashion victim. OK, at £50 it's not especially cheap, but I would be surprised if anyone could recognise it as non-designer. Men's fashion (ouside the fabulously hedonistic BoomBox scene) is all about a subtlety of cut and colour that merges together to create an almost imperceptibly better whole that is immediately noticeable. This fashion week, I have been telling my mates (semi-jokingly I suppose) to 'do their bit' for British fashion. This shirt, and indeed much of the Full Circle Autumn/Winter collection is a very good place to start. Along with this week's other Staples:
Cadbury's mini rolls
The new Go! Team album, 'Proof of Youth'
Full Circle menswear
Framed film posters
The Rake pub in London Bridge
Hoegaarden with a slice of lime
Notting Hill Exchange