Is Honesty Out of Fashion?

“It looked awfully painful,” The New York Times’ chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman told Imran Ahmed of Kim Kardashian’s extremely corseted Maison Margiela dress at this year’s Met Gala on The Business on Fashion Podcast. “Where are all the women and POC designers?” questioned Dazed’s fashion features director Emma Davidson of fashion’s biggest night on the British magazine’s website. “He is so weird,” Nicky Campbell, the deadpan social media pundit, squinted over a green-screen image of a Burberry-boasting Barry Keoghan climbing the museum’s steps on TikTok. “I’m obsessed with him.”

The above recount of Met Gala moments is only a bite-sized sampling of the sprawling landscape that is fashion criticism in 2024 — and like it or not, it’s easier than ever to engage with the industry’s lore.

But beyond the fun, fashion criticism is a business, and even the industry’s biggest players must occasionally submit to the power of a brand partnership’s check to keep the lights on. Publishers strike advertising deals with the brands that they report on, editors consider brand relationships before offering up critiques — to keep those commercial coins coming in, to secure more exclusive opportunities with said brand down the line, or to simply remain on their invite list — and content creators frequently collect hefty checks from labels who seat them in the front row.

If brands are bank-rolling the voices and platforms that talk about them, perhaps the ability to tell the truth is just as much a luxury as the garments coming down today’s runways.

@nickycbell This is.. all over the place 🫨 #MetGala #MetGala2024 ♬ original sound – Nicky Campbell

“The current state of fashion criticism is similar to that of being imprisoned,” says Kim Russell, aka @thekimbino, a self-taught fashion commentator and stylist. Looking at Russell’s Instagram Story at the time of writing, she’s simultaneously praising Rihanna’s archival Christian Lacroix dress for the 2024 Fashion Awards (“Referencing herself in 2019 wearing the mint dress by…FENTY. Like come on, I’m clocked in!”) and quarreling about the fall of Gucci (“[She’s] just not as fly and sexy and gorgeous as she thinks she is”). Russell, who landed a Harper’s Bazaar Australia digital cover that crowned her “digital fashion’s purveyor of taste” earlier this year, is unafraid to tell it like it is. Still, she’s keenly aware of the potential repercussions of doing so, especially for newer faces in the sphere.

“If you’re giving critical thoughts, certain brands and PR agencies may blacklist you,” she said. “It’ll take one person or a cohort of us to just drive it home to the point that brands don’t have a choice but to be open.”

“I never thought it would be so punk to be honest, but somehow it is.”
—Lyas

Interview’s Lyas might be one of those people. In October, he was approached by a “very important” fashion figure after posting a not-so-good review of a then-unnamed show (it turned out to be Dior Spring 2025 womenswear, which he said was “by far the worst [show] he had seen” that season) during Paris Fashion Week on TikTok. The individual first asked why he gave the brand’s collection a negative review before arguing that Lyas only made harsh comments because the designer was a woman. The brand’s employees were also “slandering him, calling him misogynistic and biased,” according to a report from NSS Magazine. Lyas took to social media to explain the situation, noting that a simple critique set off an accusation-filled firestorm: “This industry is scary…I would never [draw] a difference between a man and a woman designing a collection. It just was a bad collection.”

At the time, it was unknown how (or if) his unabridged thoughts might affect his relationship with the brand or the industry, but his decision to come forward about the debacle was bold nonetheless.

@ly.as0♬ son original – lyas

“I never thought it would be so punk to be honest, but somehow it is,” he said weeks later. “I think fashion criticism is at an all-time low, but this new wave of voices is here to shake things up.” In a turn of events, Dior surprised him last week with a present at his doorstep: a bow-tied shopping bag containing a kind note and the brand’s 2024 advent calendar. “To everyone that was concerned about me getting blacklisted…because I dared to open my mouth, just know that freedom of speech is non-negotiable,” he said, carrying the gift in a TikTok. In the end, punk paid off.

It used to be that traditional publications were the only outlets for thoughtful fashion analysis, making their writers’ words the gold standard for what was “in” and what was “out.” Diana Vreeland, Vogue’s former editor, called Coco Chanel’s little black dress the “Ford of Fashion” in 1926, catapulting the now-famous silhouette into fashion’s mainstream. Carmel Snow, previously editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, coined Christian Dior’s “New Look” in a review of the designer’s first collection in 1947. Eugenia Sheppard deemed Yves Saint Laurent’s 1971 “Scandal” collection, a controversial line referencing wartime austerity, “truly hideous” in The New York Times, tarnishing the label’s name for several years. The internet, however, has changed that.

“We are in a moment of abundance.”
—Emilia Petrarca

Today, the fashion critic exists in multitudes. “We are in a moment of abundance,” says Emilia Petrarca, The Cut’s former senior fashion writer and present-day freelancer with bylines in every glossy from Vogue to The Wall Street Journal, who also runs a Substack newsletter with more than 21,000 subscribers called Shop Rat and is also something of a style influencer on Instagram, where she boasts more than 29,000 followers. Her lengthy descriptor alone indicates how nimble critics must be to float amidst the whims of technology’s evolutions.

But it wasn’t just glossies to the internet; the current diversification of the media landscape was, in some way, forecasted by blogs. When self-publishing websites like Blogspot popped off in the early aughts, fashion bloggers like Bryan Yambao, better known as Bryanboy, and Susanna Lau, also known as Susie Bubble, grew such cultish audiences for their witty, thought-provoking and honest posts that the fashion enterprise had no choice but to perk up to their disruption. Despite some initial attempts to fend them and their intimidatingly loyal readerships off (Observer’s 2006 headline — “Oh, Lowly Blogger? Your Seat’s in the Back” — should paint a clear picture of the sentiment at the time), the fashion establishment, especially print magazines, ultimately recognized the threat that digital platforms posed against the regime. Bloggers like Tavi Gevinson were quickly given coveted bylines in magazines like Harper’s Bazaar. Others were seated in the front row at shows (Dolce & Gabbana famously filled the best seats at its Fall 2009 runway with bloggers like Bryanboy, who was just two chairs down from Anna Wintour) — all before Vogue even had a website.

“History repeats itself, and nothing lasts forever,” says Petrarca, who documented the aforementioned fashion internet history in great detail for SSENSE earlier this year. “These cycles move really quickly.”

It was brands that decided to hand a golden front-row ticket to bloggers some time ago, and it is brands that are opting to place content creators in the same seats today — because while fashion lovers still eagerly seek more knowledge from publications’ show reviews and in-depth think pieces, Joe Blow and Jane Doe are being influenced to like or dislike designers or trends while they scroll through social media, whether or not they intentionally sought out such content. It’s strictly business.

“Because of social media, it’s now a lot easier for you to be seen by a brand or by someone from the brand,” Wesley Breed, a short-form content creator who specializes in fashion deep-dives, says, “and I think people operate with that in mind.”

The green-screen fashion creator is the new blogger, and the fashion establishment is eating them up just the same: in September, Interview officially hired Lyas as its official fashion correspondent; and in October, Elle plucked Campbell to become its digital fashion critic. “What the fashion industry loves, it woos—then swallows whole,” Robin Givhan wrote for The Cut in 2014, or, in the context of this article, Peak Blog. Now, we’re climbing Mount Content Creator, and it seems there are still miles and miles of appetite before the summit.

“There’s still a fight to be seen as legitimate in the digital fashion criticism space.”
—Luke Meagher

“I think there’s still a bit of a stigma towards content creators, but that is changing rapidly,” says Campbell. “Social media creators are inherently more relatable. You have a built-in audience waiting to hear your opinion. When you have a dedicated community of people you speak to daily, you build a level of trust that most traditional fashion critics will never have with their readers.”

Campbell is not saying the traditional fashion critic is dead; in fact, the classic pundit is very much still alive and, often, still several red ropes ahead of its social-media-first counterpart. The writer’s role is ultimately much different from that of the short-form video producer. Where the creator’s goal is to stop your scroll with a bite-sized hit of dopamine, the scribe looks to make sense of what is shown to you in detailed, engaging and opinionated written word. Ultimately, though, both want to be the authority that decides what is cool for you.

“Traditional media feels more available to the industry, while digital criticism feels more available to a wider audience,” says Luke Meagher, the content critic known to the internet as @hautelemode. “There’s still a fight to be seen as legitimate in the digital fashion criticism space.”

While smart opinions are now more accessible than ever, social media’s expansion has democratized fashion criticism to the point where practically anyone can hop online, share a hot take and go viral without any actual knowledge of the topic they’re discussing; and the reality is that many people would rather quickly swipe through an Instagram carousel for the scoop than read something brilliantly written by the greats, like The Cut’s Cathy Horyn or The Times’ esteemed Friedman. In the sea of content, the good stuff, like Meagher’s knowledgeable analysis, has the potential to be washed away by brain-rotting takes that strategically appeal to today’s algorithms. So, while it might be significantly easier to earn millions of views on an Instagram Reel than it is to drive the same number of eyes to a web article, the latter medium is still generally held to a higher regard because of the experience and access it has always required.

“This chaotic moment creates a vital role for the fashion critic,” says Samuel Hine, GQ’s senior fashion writer, also known for his cult-read Show Notes newsletter, in which he documents the full fashion show experience, with detailed designer interviews, on-the-ground attendee accounts and even the smallest details — like his conversation with Gwyneth Paltrow while riding on a tiny boat to Jacquemus’ Fall 2024 show in Capri — alongside his own collection reviews. “Now more than ever, you need someone to cut through the noise. I feel that it’s my responsibility to tell a story that explains to the reader why what I’m talking about is relevant. I think it’s important to explain to a layman why Prada, for instance, is particularly interesting right now.”

“[Brands] want someone’s audience or platform to help them tell their story, even if they have found more power through their own social media.”
—José Criales-Unzueta

The general public sees fashion as a driver of culture, so readers are more interested in learning about a brand’s impact than the inspiration behind their drape. “When people go online to read a review, they not only want to know about the clothes, they also want to know what it was like to be on that little Jacquemus boat,” says José Criales-Unzueta, Vogue Runway‘s fashion news editor. “There’s a reason why brands still want their collections to be reviewed. They want someone’s audience or platform to help them tell their story, even if they have found more power through their own social media.”

A fashion writer’s words still hold unequivocal weight (some of the biggest titles are presently raking in more than 100 million global monthly readers), but perhaps it’s less criticism and more storytelling driving people to their platforms. “I’m not sure if anyone’s even looking for publications to criticize the industry anymore,” says Alec Leach, a sustainable fashion expert and critic who formerly held editor positions in mainstream media. “When I was running that coverage at Highsnobiety a decade ago, it was still very low-performing content,” he says. “Most people who are interested in fashion don’t care about runway shows.”

Leach believes that the best criticism has always come from fact-based, business-oriented publications rather than the mainstream fashion press. While working as an editor, he viewed runway coverage as more of a vessel for growing brand relationships. “We could do a video interview with A$AP Rocky outside the Dior show because we had that type of relationship with Dior. That’s the kind of thing that made covering their show every season worth it, not the eyeballs we’d get from our coverage of the show itself.”

“People want to follow fashion like they follow sports.”
—Samuel Hine

Leach’s comments raise an interesting question: how is this landscape to progress if it operates at the mercy of brands’ wallets — both through the partnerships and access they can offer to the A-list talent they pay for endorsements?

“People want to follow fashion like they follow sports,” says Hine, noting that new-age fashion creators do a great job at broadcasting the industry’s happenings to the masses with immediacy. “I think institutional media could do a much better job of figuring out how to tap into the discussion in real-time.”

Meagher, meanwhile, sees the battle between magazines and content creators intensifying: “Video and the written word will continue to dual for attention.”

Leach predicts content creators will give publications a run for their money. “I’d imagine that you’re going to see a lot more independent content creators do well because they can do the job of a legacy fashion title better than the legacy fashion titles can these days.”

Campbell agrees: “Content creators are the future of fashion journalism. You have to meet consumers where they are, and people are digesting media in a completely different way than they used to. If traditional fashion publications can’t keep up, they’ll be left behind.”

Breed pictures the traditional establishment led by youth: “I think we’re going to see a lot more younger voices in more powerful positions in editorial. With the scope of social media and how young platforms trend, this is what magazines want.”

In any case, Lyas waxes, “I think we’re going back to a place of honesty. It won’t be edgy to be honest anymore in a few years.”

And if all else fails, Russell has an entirely off-leash vision for the future: “It’s going to be pure madness. Like the watering hole scene in Mean Girls.” Now that would be fashiontainment.

With or without the teen-comedy brawl, the cream that rises from this moment of abundance will undoubtedly be specific. In the nine interviews conducted for this piece, four respondents referenced Charli XCX’s Brat as a blueprint for the future of the fashion criticism landscape. The breakthrough album, filled with blunt takes and candid confessions, birthed a hyperspecific aesthetic that looks something like a self-empowered, white-tank-top-wearing, skinny-cigarette-smoking party girl who generally does not give a f*ck. In the context of this discussion, the sheer chart-topping success of such a fixed, unapologetic idea is key.

“All of a sudden, there is an interest in storytelling that is so singular and so particular,” Criales-Unzueta says. “Fashion, and culture in general, is beginning to prioritize the niche.” Take a look at the designers that came out on top of this latest awards circuit — Willy Chavarria, Grace Wales Bonner, Simone Rocha, Jonathan Anderson — all of them boast identifiable design languages embedded with their own specific, personal and honest narratives. In fashion criticism, those identifiers will be paramount to success, too.

“The future will see writers and creators becoming more niche in the way that they build and put out stories,” Criales-Unzueta adds. In fact, that’s already becoming the case: Hine says his best-performing Show Notes newsletters are the ones where he nerds out on ultra-specific, sometimes insider-y topics; and if you look at Petrarca’s Substack, her top-performing post is a commentary on Madison Avenue’s luxury branded trash cans. “Readers are smart,” she says. “They can smell bullsh*t.”

So, to answer this article’s titular question: honesty is simultaneously the most scarce and valuable resource in the industry right now. People want the uncut take on a collection, the biased rant about a red carpet look, and the raw peak inside the industry’s gates — no matter if it’s good or bad, so long as it’s real.

If Brat’s success taught us anything, it’s that honesty is the only way to remain in fashion.