Fashion Journalism is a component of fashion media, focusing on writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists focus mostly on trends and events, and often maintain close relationships with designers, stylists ans other Fashion professionals. It is the job of the fashion journalist to have knowledge of fashion history and to stay up to date on every trend.
That kind of journalism developed during the 18th century, when the fashion magazines started to get published, and right now, as society increases its dependence on the internet, the journalism industry is becoming more and more fluid. That change made many publications make the option to focus on a digital publication – and that’s why I chose to write about it here, on the website. Digital journalism gives the writer unlimited space and the possibility to make real-time updates and corrections if necessary. Social media has also contributed to the rise of digital platforms, allowing them to be far more interactive than they have been in the past.
The internet and social media have made it possible for industry outsiders to view fashion shows without an invitation, allowing everybody to discover their passion for Fashion and bringing the subject to daily conversations. Everybody can love Fashion, not just the people who work in the area, and anyone can read about it – thanks, mostly, to Fashion Journalism. Shows for buyers now became a source of entertainment, becoming more elaborate and often including an element of performance.
Of course, there’s the not-so-bright side to it: this invites outsiders to act as journalists and write articles about new collections or anything else they want to write about. So since anyone with a computer can sound off about a fashion trend, journalism is becoming an even more competitive field, and the writers have to do their best to break through the noise, which helps creating even more professional and capable journalists.
The fact is that Fashion needs the press just as much as the press needs fashion; the two are profoundly intertwined with each other, and same as Fashion and the fashion industry, Fashion journalism has changed in ways that no one expected. The rise of social media has led to publications catering more to their digital-driven audience en masse. With a click of a button, every publication is available at anyone’s fingertips from anywhere in the world. This is great, because it allows people to see and know things as of they are standing there, but it’s also alarming: how can we publish something new when everyone can see everything as soon as it happens?
That’s the power of Journalism and that’s the real future of it: to be able to see that unique thing in every event that will make you different. To be a Journalist without it is just to be someone else in the crowd. And we’re talking about a profession that covers the fashion industry, which is worth over a trillion dollars. If you don’t have that spark, that power to make everything you write desireble to the readers, the future of Fashion Journalism might not be not for you.
While often associated as a shallow form of writing, fashion journalism has quite a lot of depth —more than most are willing to admit. So what exactly will be the future of fashion journalism? What’s certain is that no one can say it for sure, no one can concretely predict the future. But if anyone has the answer, it’s the current emerging writers and editors, and specially the young ones.
The youth dreams of a Fashion industry that is more than just na industry, but is also about art and passion, where Fashion is more than clothes and styling. So if you ask me about the future of Fashion Journalism, I would say that, more than turning into a digital focused area, it is for the ones who are ready to think out of the box and see the hidden beauty of Fashion, the ones who can make a difference, the ones who know that to write without passion is just typing words.