Fashion, Explained, at Last

 
One of my favorite childhood memories is of reading the evening newspaper. Papers meant something then; it's how we got our news. TV news, still in its infancy, consisted of a 15-minute wrap-up sponsored by Timex. My dad claimed he taught me to read by looking at the paper together while waiting for dinner. I will never forget reading the serialized version of "Diary of Anne Frank" when it was first translated into English. I was 9.

Who reads newspapers anymore? (OK I still do) Never mind that there are barely any at all. Kudos then to the New York Times for publishing a monthly special section, "The New York Times for Kids" in the Sunday edition. Aimed at 8-14-year-olds, the editor's note reads, "This section should not be read by grown ups." Until recently I obeyed, but in the November 25 paper I spotted an irresistible headline:

STYLE ON THE STREET

Some Kids Just Have It

Inside I found this wonderful double-page spread on young New Yorkers with style:

Then I noticed a piece by Vanessa Friedman, the Times fashion director and chief fashion critic. In a few paragraphs she describes her job and why fashion matters. I've read entire hefty tomes trying to define style and defend fashion. None came as close to clarity as this:

WHAT'S COOL NOW? 

How the Times Fashion Critic Decides What's In and What's Out
by Vanessa Friedman

When I tell people I'm the chief fashion critic for the New York Times, they usually say, "That's such an awesome job!" Then they ask me if I've met Kendall Jenner or someone similar (answer: No, but I;'ve met her mom and once had dinner at a friend's house with her sister, Kim, and Kim's husband, Kayne West). I know that from the outside this job looks superglamorous. And it is, kind of: I get to go to more than 200 runway shows a year around the world (that's kind of exhausting), stare at models and famous people from across a runway, talk to designers and then write my opinions about what's happening in fashion for the paper.
   But there's much more to it than that. Fashion is also about how we show each other who we are. That's what has always interested me the most about it, and why I got into it in the first place: how it's used by normal people, like you and me. When I first started doing this job at another newspaper, the editor in chief told me he never thought about fashion. "Did you dress yourself this morning?" I asked. He said he had. So I told him he thought about fashion. Everyone does.
    Now that everybody is endlessly taking selfies and posting them for all to see, that's even more obvious. We buy the things we buy (or ask our parents to buy them) because they say something to us about who we are, or what group we are in, or how we want our friends to see us. So when I see clothes, whether on the street or on a runway, that's always what I am asking myself: What would people who wore this be saying about themselves? Would it help them say it? Is it useful or completely irrelevant?

Thanks, Vanessa, for making clear just why we bother, let alone still care about clothes and how we look. It starts young, and it doesn't end. Oh, and your job still sounds awesome.

Vanessa of the cool job