How did Zendaya become a fashion icon? What happened in Milan fashion week? What is the best fashion show in London? Is fashion moving towards decadence day by day?
These are the questions that may occupy the minds of fashion enthusiasts or anyone who deals with fashion. But where can we find the answers to these questions?
The new generation interested in fashion, with the expansion of digital possibilities, show less favor to paper magazines. They prefer to follow fashion news by spending a long time on social media and through Tik Tok and YouTube, because reading long and official articles from magazines like Vogue and L is probably out of their interest (and most likely accessible). With the increasing trend towards digital platforms, a new form of fashion journalism has emerged and a new demarcation has been formed in the space of fashion criticism and journalism.
Criticism and analysis of fashion, from university to YouTube
Odunayo Ojo, known as Ayo, is a Nigerian fashion critic and journalist who is very popular among the new generation. His YouTube channel with 103 thousand followers (to date) is one of the most popular fashion analysis and criticism channels on YouTube. He works on various platforms as fashion roadman and analyzes various issues of the fashion world on his YouTube channel. But the remarkable thing about him is that Ayo is studying fashion journalism at Saint Martins University in London. In fact, he is the one who has created a meaningful connection between the academic space of fashion journalism and virtual platforms.
Ayo’s foray into fashion began with an internship for a brand when she was a chemical engineering student.
” As I want to learn new things for my job, I constantly used to watch YouTube videos. I used to watch fashion and styling vlogs. It was with an internship in this brand that I found information about patterns and sewing and the fashion industry.”
After graduating from chemical engineering, he applied to study fashion journalism at Saint Martins University in London and was accepted.
Ayo Ojo entering Saint Martins and studying fashion journalism in this university
YouTube and Instagram replace fashion magazines
Ayo has done various works in the field of fashion journalism and fashion criticism. From making videos on YouTube to producing content on Tik Tok and Instagram, and even published a magazine called The Fashion Archive in print.
“Definitely I think YouTube is better than Instagram! I promise you this is not a bigoted opinion (laughs). This is because when someone opens YouTube, their mind is ready to watch a long video. Therefore, more ideas can be implemented and more information can be conveyed in a YouTube video. On Instagram, you can keep the audience focused for less time because they want to scroll for a few minutes and leave. Therefore, I think the value of, for example, 50,000 followers on YouTube is more than 50,000 followers on Instagram.”
Of course, he pointed out the essential differences between the two and said:
“Instagram is an image-oriented space and is different from YouTube, which is a video platform. Naturally, video conveys more information than images.
Essential skills for fashion analysis and criticism
There are as many different tastes in clothing and fashion as there are people who wear clothes. Everyone can decide whether or not they like, ugliness or beauty of a dress according to their taste and opinion. But not all of them can claim to be fashion critics.
“Criticism and analysis in fashion means having something more to say than “this is really rubbish” or “this dress is very good”. A fashion critic should be able to say why a collection is strong or weak.”
Accurate and professional analysis in fashion requires the acquisition of skills that guide the critic to the right path of criticism. According to his academic knowledge in the field of fashion journalism and his experience in fashion analysis and criticism, Ayo divides these skills into 3 categories:
1. A fashion critic must know the history of fashion very well. Because if he does not have historical information, he cannot comment on the context of the works and clothing collections.
Resources for learning fashion history
2.” In addition to history, the fashion analyst and critic must have worked in the fashion industry and know the ins and outs of the industry. Because in this case, he can know about the backstage of the runways and know things that people from outside do not see. For example, many times, the collection shown on the runway is not complete and has flaws. But these defects are fixed in store samples. Therefore, being in the heart of the industry leads to a more accurate and complete understanding of fashion.”
3.” Talking to designers and interviewing them, makes us understand things about a collection that we don’t see when we look at it from the outside. In my opinion, in order to be a serious and professional fashion critic, communication with designers is necessary and necessary. It is not enough to just look at a dress from the outside and comment on it!”
Selection and analysis of topics in fashion criticism
Creating content or writing an article that is understandable and fluent for the audience is one of the most important skills of a journalist or fashion analyst. A professional fashion journalist is someone who can categorize the amount of information he has available in a coherent and orderly manner and convey it to the audience according to their needs and understanding. The first step in this direction is to choose the right topic for the type and audience of the content:
“In choosing the subjects of the videos, I try to maintain a balance between the historical subjects and the current events of the fashion world. I usually think about what’s important happening in the world of fashion right now, and at the same time, I connect this event to its history.”
After choosing the topic, it is time to explain it in such a way that the audience can communicate with the topic. In virtual platforms, where the diversity of the audience is much greater than in fashion magazines, this task seems a little difficult. Building the mental context to better understand the subject is a method Ayo uses:
“If I suddenly and suddenly talk about a topic that the audience has no knowledge of, it’s like I accidentally put some words together and the audience doesn’t understand what I’m talking about at all. But when I connect the new themes to what happened in the past, it makes sense to the audience.”
Fashion journalism in the service of social media
It seems that in attracting the audience, the fashion critics who are in the virtual space have stolen the lead from the fashion reporters in the magazines.
“In my opinion, social media is more powerful than fashion magazines in terms of influence. Naturally, because they involve a larger audience and more people listen to what we say.”
Although audience attraction is one of the most important indicators to measure the success of a media, it is not the whole story. In traditional journalism*, there are significant points that increase the audience’s trust in that media:
1.” The positive thing about traditional journalism is that it is carefully evaluated. Naturally, when we write for an important magazine, there are editors and editors who correct the text many times until the result is satisfactory. They can tell exactly which parts the journalist should change.”
2. “In magazines, there is detailed research for each topic because it is very important to convey the correct information and not to mislead the audience. The reason for this strictness is often that there is a possibility of judicial follow-up for magazines, and if an article is published that is not accurate or creates a threat to the job position of people, it can be pursued completely. I think journalists should be sensitive to the accuracy of the information they convey. Unfortunately, this is rarely observed in social media.
Ayo uses the skills she gained from studying fashion journalism as one of her differentiators on virtual platforms:
“What I try to do is to observe the accuracy and research of traditional journalism in social networks. Usually, the audience wants me to make videos faster, but the process of researching the topic takes time. That’s why I can’t, for example, make a new video every day. Although it takes me more time, I am very interested in it.
Fashion magazines and unattainable dreams!
Walter Benjamin, a German philosopher and aesthetician of the 20th century, is of the opinion that photography wants to make the photographed object beautiful. The manifestation of this theory can be found in fashion magazines. In photos taken of clothes and models, there is a loose connection between the clothes, the workers who made them, and the audience viewing the photo in the magazine. In fact, the photo published in a magazine separates the dress from its real relations.
Many magazines convey a sense of unattainability to the audience. They work with big brands and operate at a very high level financially.”
Fashion magazines, while being a link between the fashion world and the audience, make fashion and clothes seem more unattainable for the audience. But in social media, the situation is different:
“In social networks, people get to know the daily life of a fashion journalist and establish a much closer relationship with him. “There’s a much stronger relationship with the audience than what happens in fashion magazines.”
Money! disrupting the equations of fashion journalism
One of the events that we are witnessing in the world of fashion journalism today is the entry of traditional and academic fashion journalists into the space of social networks. The border between traditional fashion journalism and fashion criticism and analysis on virtual platforms is becoming more blurred day by day. But there is probably a stronger reason for this happening than the close relationship with the audience.
“The gap between traditional journalism and social media is blurring and we are seeing traditional fashion journalists operating on Instagram and social media. If I want to be realistic, I have to say that I think the reason for this is money. Fashion journalism traditionally pays well if you are at a very high level and are among the best in your profession. Therefore, many fashion journalists face the fact that they do not have an income equal to their knowledge, and to compensate for this, they start working in the virtual space and compensate for the lack of income.”
Who are the best reporters and fashion critics?
In the end, Ayo categorized her favorite fashion journalists and critics as follows:
Among traditional journalists, I follow the work of Robin Givhan, Tim Blanks, Rachel Tashijan, Vanessa Friedman, and Alexander Fury. In my opinion, they are very educated and knowledgeable, and given the close connection they have with the fashion industry and the conversations they have had with designers, they are at a high level of knowledge and influence in fashion journalism.”
Among the new fashion critics on social networks, he mentions a few people and believes that they do their job better than others:
“On YouTube, I can name Fashion Lover and Bliss Foster. Their opinions are important to me. It is difficult to name favorite journalists in social networks because, as I said, there are fewer people working in this space in a purposeful and realistic way. Most of the people comment about a collection or dress like “this is bad” but they don’t say why it is bad and by what criteria it is bad or good. But I think that in the end, the audience will be able to distinguish from all this who is really criticizing objectively and impartially.”
*Traditional journalism or traditional journalism: includes television, radio, newspapers, news magazines and their online branches. These media are regulated by media laws and press ethics, and before the advent of digital platforms, they were highly regarded as the only sources of reliable news.
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