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"Does fashion Twitter have a misogyny problem?"
Ho-hum, another day, another "woman" problem: replace the word fashion in that sentence with anything else you can think of from the manosphere internet and we can have a nice long chat about it.
That was the headline from Elle Australia last year, when the snarking and sniping from young, male commentators about fashion labels led by women creatives was almost universally critical.
This Paris Fashion Week, which has just concluded, we can see exactly what that claim really meant.
Those female directors, who endured years of online undermining, have now gone, been replaced by men — very well-credentialed and well-regarded male designers, just as the women were. And wouldn't you know it? TikTok and Insta are now ecstatic at the change, at the new dawn, at the freshness and the vision and thank God for the change!
There was Virginie Viard at Chanel, described by her predecessor Karl Lagerfeld as "my right hand and my left hand", whose runways were decried by the Tokkers as "uninspired, basic … out of touch with what luxury should be".
You could set your watch by the pursed lips and screwed up faces of the mini-mic clutching commentators: there wasn't a runway by Viard that they would leave unclawed.
The reality is that Viard led Chanel to significant growth, with revenue increasing by 75 per cent from 2018 to US$19.7 billion in 2023 but cowed by the commentary, Viard was replaced: her tenure at the helm, after 30 years at Chanel, now described by company president Bruno Pavlovsky, as an "intermission".
Her replacement was Matthieu Blazy. The commentators all exploded in raptures at his show this week.
At Dior the hatred for the designs of Maria Grazia Chiuri, which included one the greatest wedding dresses of all time for Australian model, Miranda Kerr, was shocking. The vitriol bore no relationship to the fun, beauty and incredible craftsmanship of her pleated, embroidered and sometimes ethereal work.
One show was described by commentator @Ly.as as "by far the worst" they had ever seen at fashion week.
Under Chiuri, Dior's annual revenues increased substantially, with figures suggesting they grew from $3.5 billion to around $16 billion during her nearly nine years as creative director. She was replaced by Jonathan Anderson.
And yes, all the commentators now love Dior.
Women were buying what these women designers were selling.
But just like that, there are now no longer any women designing haute couture — none. All the key labels are led by men. Of the other major fashion labels that show at Paris Fashion Week, most of them are led by male creatives; the ones that are led by women are almost exclusively eponymous labels such as Stella McCartney, Victoria Beckham or Miuccia Prada at Prada.
Sarah Burton, who many hoped might land at Dior after her brilliant turn at Alexander McQueen following the designer's tragic death, is an exception at Givenchy, as is Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta. Who knows for how long. Keep an eye on the TikTokkers to track their fate.
What came before the key changes at the top can't be ignored, because while the devil still might wear Prada, nobody pays much attention to what the magazines say anymore: all the true influence is online on social media, on incredibly popular accounts mostly run by young, male fashion-adjacent commentators with varying degrees of fashion education and experience.
And yet to read their commentary, you'd think they'd trained at the hand of Cristobal Balenciaga himself. (One of them, @hautelemode, actually managed to kid himself that a second-hand jacket he'd picked up was a Balenciaga original
"related to the Austro-Hungarian empire" because of the coat of arms printed on its buttons. I think any seamstress could have told him they were just the standard metal-shank crest buttons that are used on any old jacket. His turned out to be any old jacket.)
There's also a particularly bitchy energy to the commentary and worldview that as a female fashion lover I feel I have had to be very aware of lest I fulfil the stereotype male commentators and designers seem to want women to be.
These were the commentators whose relentless criticism led fashion doyenne Mimma Viglezio, a former executive at Vuitton and Bulgari, to call out the misogyny of "male influencers who tear down successful female designers … it's disrespect dressed up as critique". Her account is worth a follow.
For context, do not kid yourself that this is an obscure issue: the "cerulean blue" theory certainly applies. These are billion dollar companies we are talking about, both public and private, the influence of which filters down into a retail industry worth $28 billion in Australia alone. You, or someone you care for, is going to drop an annual average of $2,500 on clothing that derives from this one week.
So, if there's a misogyny problem at the top of that, you best know about it. You might end up wearing it.
This weekend, if you've read this far, congratulations: you're defying the trend and are clearly very smart. Here's how to keep on the right reading track.
Have a safe and happy weekend and celebrate with the springtime hits that keep coming with British Canadian club singer, Rochelle Jordan, and her luxurious grooves. Go well. |
