I’ve followed Condé Nast’s fashion coverage since Style.com, back on dial-up when images loaded so slow it questioned your commitment to completing a click through. I owe them for years of education and entertainment. It’s shaped my opinion of fashion as an art form. That’s one side.
The other fuels rage.
Gap Press offered glossy, tangible pages for the shelf. Elle Collections had collages forever unmatched. Both justified the cost with real value.
Paywalling an online archive of runway shows—the history of fashion and items for sale—is a massive disappointment. Like, what are we doing here?
Their reviews these past several years have been horseshit. Timing it before the upcoming major creative director debuts is bullshit. It’s not as if they’re producing the shows or deserve to middleman the process. They’ll make a few bucks, I’m sure, maybe cover the cost of coverage… but ultimately it creates an unnecessary barrier to following the industry.
I see the value in runway images and access to them. But gatekeeping with no added value beyond photo consolidation is maddening. I’m not sure if this is a greedy cash grab or what. Whatever it is, I hope it doesn’t work.
