Fashion Industry discussion, review, analysis, news, and information

When a celebrity comes out with a new line, it’s only a matter of time before the world knows about it.  News spreads fast in the internet world and things that are supposed to be kept “secret” or “exclusive” never end up that way.  Never.  Especially in the fashion world.  

If you’re a fashion company - or any company for that matter - you want people to know about you, right?  The idea is to spread the news about a new line instead of making it exclusive to a select few (i.e. Celebrities) who you think will give you rave reviews.  

With that said, the lawyers of Steve & Barry’s have asked Kathryn Finney of The Budget Fashionista to take down the “password protected” photos that she posted of the new Bitten line by Sarah Jessica Parker.  Readers of The Budget Fashionista weren’t too wild about the new clothing line and perhaps that’s why Steve & Barry’s want the pictures removed.  If anything, The Budget Fashionista should have been one of the first permitted to have access to those pictures!  According to Technorati, TBF is linked to almost 500 blogs, so Kathryn does have a pretty good following.  I know, I know, it will take a while for most of the fashion industry to “get it”.  For those who blog or read fashion blogs, we have to remember that we’re still eons ahead of the advertising/media/PR game.  

This reminds of the time when American Apparel was fighting the story that was written in an Ohio publication.  Because American Apparel didn’t like what was being said about Dov Charney, they felt the need to go after the magazine.  However, little did they know that the blogosphere was where all the trash talk was happening.  One of American Apparel’s media team and I had a debate about this.  

I agree with Kathryn, control lies with the individuals nowadays and publicists don’t like that.  Anyhow, who needs a publicist when you have bloggers?