I had to write a post today about the British Style awards last night. I think Coco Chanel would be turning in her grave to see the style award go to Harry Styles. Come on you fashion media luvies, my 5 year old niece loves him and goes weak at the knees but has no understanding of fashion or style just yet.
It seems to me that the fashion media are in some kind of brainwashed bubble and just keep pushing the same old faces over and over, not recognizing no one cares any more. Kim K, Kate Moss, Harry Styles, Gary Barlow all get endless exposure in the media and magazines, yet if you ask anyone on the street, those who would normally buy this rubbish, they are sick of it and the reason maybe people are not buying in anymore.
If we want to keep British fashion alive and magazines and the papers want to stay in business, the time has come to change the record and start to invest time and effort in supporting new comers in the industry, by helping them get the exposure they need to thrive. I have no idea why the media think Kim K is so loved by the people. (Roll forward to 2020 and she's doing all her own marketing for a struggling seamless underwear line after closing her fashion empire Dash.) All you have to do is read the comment section in the Daily Mail to see she is not!
If I want to get my Made in England fashion brand some exposure in the media or a magazine, even on a fashion blog, I have to pay for advertorial, or gift product to influencers who will literally say anything in exchange for a freebie, which completely defeats the object of true road testing and real reviews for readers. I have decided I am not following the pack. Chanel doesn't give their product away as a bribe to say something nice, they don't have to. I am taking the hard road, the truth road, relying on my own genuine customers to post pictures because they want to help me revive British textiles and manufacturing. It's the only way my customers can be assured they can trust a brand once more. It's the slow road but the only sustainable road. And I am just waiting for the day when one brave and savvy fashion editor goes against the grain and does something new in the tired world of fashion and celebrity, then watch the difference in sales and interest from the public.
Updated 1st May, 2020 Interestingly not much has actually changed except the same old same old celebrities have been pushed out of the limelight by Coronavirus.
Photo by: Flaunter Unsplash