BY OLSEN, Elise (ed.)
Wallet #9 – Culture of Critique

The ninth edition of Wallet “Culture of Critique” is a conversation on criticism and its numerous contemporary forms. Fashion criticism is a complicated thing, and often dressed up in different guises: as collection reviews, society columns, industry reports, or ethical investigations into businesses. What’s the difference between fashion coverage and fashion criticism? In this issue, “Culture of Critique”, we will take a stab at describing the state of fashion criticism, its potentials and its pitfalls.

This issue’s text conversation invites three selected critics altogether representing the Culture of Critique; The Washington Post’s Senior Critic-at-Large Robin Givhan, one of fashion’s most critical independent voices Steve Oklyn as well as the Chief Fashion Critic at the New York Times Vanessa Friedman. With these names we're diving into very new directions of critique; ranging from the anonymous “call out” critic using sharp image-making, social media and lists as means of conducting criticism, to the traditional newspaper critic with a stronger evaluative function, besides working more broadly and visibly. What’s the role of the fashion critic today?

In the visual conversation we want to encourage our reader to playfully engage in the practice of critique. The interviews are accompanied by a visual essay presenting the work of 20 different fashion designers – along with a five-star rating system for you to fill in and make your own critical evaluation, an annotated micro-review in print form. Including Agnès B., Ann Demeulemeester, Gauntlett Cheng, Hermès, Miu Miu, Robert Wun, Susan Cianciolo, Takahiromiyashita The Soloist, Telfar, Undercover and Vacquera.

[publiser's]

Published by ECUDORP AS, 2021
Fashion / Periodicals