Hedi Slimane‘s debut Ready To Wear collection for Yves Saint Laurent (or ‘Saint Laurent’ as it was recently rebranded) has been overshadowed by an amusingly petty feud. While most of the fashion industry’s usual suspects were at the Paris Fashion Week showing, some high profile journalist weren’t invited at all based on non-glowing reviews of the past. New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn, and Imran Ahmed (editor of respected industry blog Business of Fashion), became involved in a spat with the fashion house after some interesting exchanges via print.
Although Horyn was one of those not invited to the show, she still reviewed the collection in an article where she also mentioned being shunned from attending, which she attributed to Slimane nursing a bruised ego as a result of a controversial review she wrote years ago.
Slimane then took to Twitter with an inception-style review of Horyn’s review, writing: ‘My Own Times: Miss Cathy, Freedom of the Press‘, published in a New York Timesish font. The batshit insane (and presumably publicist-unapproved) statement included criticisms of Horyn’s writing ability and personal style:
Business of Fashion‘s Imran Amed published his own open letter to YSL’s PR gurus. In the article (which, like Horyn’s, made mention of his lack of invitation to the show) ‘A Wake-Up Call For YSL’s PR Team‘, he details requests by Saint Laurent for Amed to edit tweets that use the brand’s name, as well as requests for the variations of the YSL name only to be used in very particular and exclusive ways.
Amed explains: “Every single time BoF has written about YSL (or Saint Laurent, or Saint Laurent Paris) we have received some kind of request to change the article to comply with what seem like the whims of the brand’s PR team, who appear to think that the media exists solely to serve as their mouthpiece.”.
High fashion = high drama! But should designers get so worked up over negative reviews? – or even be paying attention to them? The tumultuous relationship between artists versus critics (something that’s particularly apparent in the indie music world) will always be lacking in mutual understanding. The only way for artists to avoid getting mad is to avoid, full stop.
Main image by Martin Bureau for AFP via Getty Images
Words By Nikki Brogan
