Sarah Mower, The Telegraph:"At the Dior show, trying to fight my way backstage to get a quote from John Galliano, I nearly fell over a tiny, grey-haired woman who, from the back, I took to be a septuagenarian Japanese fashion fanatic, as she was dressed head-to-toe in Comme des Garçons. When she was ushered into the inner sanctum before me, and turned around, I saw, with a sick lurch, that it was actually Tavi Gevinson, the 14-year-old fashion blogger from Chicago. She was being shadowed by her father, an English teacher, and has recently dyed her hair the trendiest colour.
As a mother of a 14-year-old, my first thought was,“Hang on, isn’t it term-time in America, too?”. Had I not been so busy trying to attract Galliano’s attention, I would have asked Mr Gevinson why he thought it was right to take his daughter out of school to go to haute couture shows, where she would be treated like a celebrity by paparazzi?"
Tavi, The Style Rookie:"My parents and I are the ones who know my school's absences policy, how my teachers feel about my missing school, and what my grades look like -- not anyone else. I know everyone's intentions are warm-hearted because they're just so concerned for my health and future because they're so caring like that, but it is irrelevant to arguments being made about my blog or blogging in general, and a cheap way to distract people from the actual problem they're focusing on. If we really want to bring it up, can we talk about models that travel without guardians?
Ms Mower:
"Checking her blog to see what she’d thought of her couture experience this week, I see she says she can’t write about it because she’s tied up to an exclusive with Pop. It seems fashion’s favourite wunderkind has been sucked into the system in record time, the charm of her indie-voice silenced, having been appropriated and paid for by the traditional print media."
Tavi:
"People continue to have diarrhea of the pen, however, writing out all the possible ways they can somehow make me look like a bad guy. For accepting a gift. For sitting front row (no one mentions the shows where I've had less-than-stellar seats?) For giving a positive review of a show I genuinely liked. For saving some content for a magazine that funded my trip, nevermind that I still have 450 pictures for this blog, and did anyone bother to find that out? Of course not."
Ms Mower:
"It’s all happening too fast for Tavi, and I wonder if her father knows how to protect her from it. I hope she’s got her nose to the grindstone, catching up with missed lessons this week, but it’s hard to imagine a kid being able to come back down to reality after that..."
Tavi:
"I still keep myself separate from this character wearing sunglasses indoors. This isn't to say I am totally self-assured, but I know what I don't like, and I know to take everything with a grain of salt. Let's be realistic here -- I don't look at rail-thin women sucking on cigarettes outside shows with admiration. It seems that with all this "Backlash!" many people have lost sight of what MY blog is actually about: fun, dammit! I thought my let's-go-all-out-and-enjoy-ourselves outfits were of any indication here, but apparently a giant pink hairbow just means I don't want editors behind me to see because bloggers hate editors and vice versa, apparently, apparently, apparently...I'm going to New York on Saturday. I will be wearing some more hats. If you happen to be sitting behind me and you'd like to be able to see, just ask."
what a nice read. but they are still too polite for my liking. dont like the bitch who implied disparaging thots about the Japanese. The only thing pretty about her from the mug is the sunnies. she was just mad about being ushered in later. egos.
ReplyDeletemore more please! i can't wait for them to cat fight!
ReplyDeleteI think they both have a point: I can't help but agree that there are more important things for a 14 yo to do than to go to a couture show (ie go to school) but I also get the point that tavi's life is her own business. But at the same time, she should be prepared to have it discussed, since she has made herself into a public figure. You can't sit in the front rw and then not expect people to zero in on EVERY detail.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is that there is a HUGE generation gap yawning between the two.
This little hiccup strikes a cord because it is the battle between old media and new media made visceral, isn't it? Grande dames should probably maintain a dignified silence, and bloggers should probably stay at home behind the computer.
me thinks every generation should make hay when the sun shines and when their time is up, they have to appreciate and be thankful for what they made and then go quietly and gracefully. Otherwise, it's just being greedy. They really cannot expect to keep up or be embraced by a much younger generation. Just like when they were young themselves. Every generation deserves their own icons.
ReplyDeleteAfter thinking about this, I think I am Camp Tavi. Although Tavi does come off sounding defensive, Ms Mower just sounds old and annoyed, her judgements on Tavi and her parents really based on nothing. The fact that Tavi is able to provide a pretty clear argument shows her maturity, relative as it may be. I for one would have just DIED to have been able to attend the shows when I was 14. It was all I could dream of then! I can't help but think that there was some kind of projection going on by Ms Mower...?
ReplyDeleteAndrew: The couture is pretty special... at any age! But perhaps it would have been appreciated by someone just a little bit older and more discerning? In her time, Tavi can go to the couture, but perhaps not quite yet? If you read her 'coverage' of the Dior show, you can see how immature the observations really are, the sort of stuff really that you don't need to sit in the front row to observe.
ReplyDeleteBeauty: Tavi is not an icon yet, not at 14, surely! She may be pretty matured as andrew pointed out, and she certainly has a special eye and a great passion for fashion but does that necessarily mean she should be set up like this as some sort of new-age fashion icon? I would be slightly suspicious myself, and can see what the frustration is all about.
But you see the I think the point isn't what she thinks or what she has to say. On that point it is rather more silly of POP to contract her for her comments than for her to say no to it. She is entitled to her juvenile opinions and observations, but why anyone gives it credence is beyond me. That's why to my mind, Tavi wasn't worth the amount of column space that Ms Mower wrote and the resulting condescending tone is more reflective of her, especially when she writes for the extremely "diplomatic" Style.com. As Tavi said, to fault her for accepting a gift is just sour grapes. I imagine if I were Tavi's parent, I wouldn't let an opportunity like this pass if my child was so clearly interested in it, and I imagined that the trip was probably negotiated between the parents and the child. Ms Mower's assumption of Tavi's parents' irresponsibility is most telling; clearly Ms Mower is a model mother who knows what's best for all 14 year olds, merely because she has one of her own.
ReplyDeleteAndrew: I agree with you. This was some PR's ill-concieved effort at embracing or appearing to embrace social media. If you want to trace the matter to the source, then you'll have to say that in the first place, Dior shouldn't have invited a 'juvenile' blogger to its couture show, not to mention lending her a lot of credence by giving her a front row seat.
ReplyDeleteIt smacks of desperation to appear hip and with it. As for POP, well, who really cares besides La Salle students and that ilk? In assigning Tavi, they were doing precisely what their readership deserves. Ha!
Yeah! Tavi should just concentrate on school.
ReplyDelete