Womenswear

Critics are objective, fashion editors subjective in their views when it comes to the fashion shows. Critics explain and contextualise what is worth taking a moment to appreciate, and what doesn’t have any value or worse, when designers completely fail. Fashion editors on the other hand treat the shows as elaborate shopping events, pick things they like. It’s that black and white, right? …read more

Fairytales and fashion criticism

This tale – as many within this journal – continues the quest to locate and identify constructive, critical and credible fashion criticism. Critical discussion of fashion in popular culture could be understood in two very different ways. One interpretation could be that of a discussion, which finds fault with fashion, the other as a discussion characterised by careful analysis of fashion. …read more

fashion critic Booth Moore

Booth Moore is a stellar journalist and fashion commentator affiliated with the Los Angeles Times. She is one of the few to use the title fashion critic and she carries it proudly. In the pink glow cast over by the striking façade of the Beverly Hills hotel, she reflected on the state of criticism, her role as a critic and how it has evolved over the years. This is an extract from an interview published in Address – journal for fashion criticism issue two. …read more

Fashion Criticism Education

The state of criticism fluctuates according to fashion – one season it’s in, the next season it’s out. In the circles where criticism remains a constant topic of discussion, the ‘death of criticism’ mantra remains a fashionable staple, just like the color black in fashion. Whilst for some industries this might be true, in our clothing obsessed world of pants, skirts and shoes, things are very different. In fashion, the critic ain’t dead …read more

Project Runway, Unpicked To Pieces

What I’m about to say, I thought would stay between the four walls of the un-judging security of my home. It is as embarrassing as declaring a love for Roberto Cavalli’s aesthetics or appraising Primark for their design merits. I know my statement is bound to arouse intellectual snobbery amongst some but here is goes: I love …read more

Catwalk reviewing

I have a complex relationship with fashion. Having studied fashion design at university, spent the better part of my career working with garments and fashion in general and now occasionally teaching fashion design, I am fully aware of the ins and outs of fabrics, pattern cutting, construction and finishing. When I’m wandering around shops, I tend to levitate towards both mens and womenswear departments to inspect and examine the tactile merits of garments …read more

The state of fashion criticism

When I’m not writing or editing a column for Address online or working on the next issue, my time is spent thinking about fashion criticism as part of my research degree at London College of Fashion. Criticism is very difficult to define and most of my research is drawn from discussions and definitions from other disciplines such as graphic design, product design, music, theatre and film, where the subject is more evolved. Against these, fashion is starving for, not just criticism, but also discussions …read more

Thom Browne A/W 2013 – Look 21

American philosopher and one of the leading voices in defining art criticism, Noël Caroll divides the task of a critic, in his book On Criticism, into two parts. On the one hand critics describe, classify, contextualize, elucidate, interpret and analyse artworks and objects. All of this suggests that a critic should have an ability to capture the object of criticism and to position it against something bigger: frameworks, contexts, narratives or histories. In order to do this …read more