Suzy Menkes at SF's Academy of Art University
Monday, May 10, 2010 at 11:19AM 
“It’s very hard to keep fashion down.” – Suzy Menkes
Sometimes I wish I were back in school again. It’s not that I love assignments and such, but I do miss the stimulation of a well-informed, insightful lecture. Therefore I was very happy to attend a Q&A between Suzy Menkes and Gladys Perint Palmer at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University last week. The subject of “If fashion is for everyone, is it fashion?” led to infinite tangents on the state of the fashion world, fashion journalism, and trends.
While Ms. Menkes is not one of my favorite fashion writers, I do have a lot of respect for her career, experience, and appreciation of new ideas in the world of fashion. Now that I participate in the fashion world from a distance, it's more difficult to see beyond hot products, trends, and what's happening in the moment. Like a true fashion editor of the old guard, Ms. Menkes was adept at viewing current topics through the larger lens of fashion as culture and social benchmark. It is always refreshing to gain this type of perspective.
Most of the Academy of Art students that asked questions were Fashion Journalism majors or MFA candidates. (It may sound snobbish but I had to suppress a chuckle when this title was announced; I didn’t know such a field of study existed, plus in my mind I find this sort of narrow vision too limiting for the greater world of writing. Sorry if I offend, but there it is.) Because of this the talk took a long look at media, journalism, and blogging. While most editors and old-school fashion writers still have some suspicion of the new media world, Ms. Menkes was in complete support. She stated that she liked the freshness of the blogs and that periodic shake-ups are always good for journalism. With sagacity she advised that this new role of the fashion blogger has some inherent responsibility within the speedy world of runway-to-web publishing. She advised that the bloggers need to edit well, have high standards, and “pull out the truth and weed out the ‘good’”. Ms. Menkes said that it’s clear which bloggers have these characteristics and which do not hold themselves to this level.
The challenge now, according to Ms. Menkes, is to couple the freshness [of the blogging voice] with the history and knowledge of brands, design, and fashion heritage.
Ms. Menkes also shared interesting thoughts on the greater world of the fashion business. Notably that luxury brands are going to have to re-think themselves in the world of new media. She mentioned that we need to “come up with a world to replace ‘luxury’ as it no longer has any resonance…We need to bury the word ‘luxury’ and instead talk about the world around it.” Ms. Menkes mentioned that the luxury brands must re-think their ideas of brick-and-mortar stores, their traditional notions of a luxurious environment, and re-apply them to the world of ecommerce. She challenged the brands to re-create the experience of luxury shopping in stores in an online format.
Ms. Menkes stated that e-commerce will never fully take over for brick-and-mortar stores. “As long as the world has existed, there has always been an idea of an arena or area where people congregate: the church, the school, the market…” However, the two (bricks-and-mortar and ecommerce) need to work together. Ms. Menkes mentioned her disappointment when traditionally minded CEOs don’t acknowledge the importance of ecommerce. While CEOs light up when they talk about new flagship stores, they take a different tone when discussing online sales. Ms. Menkes said their statements begin with “unfortunately we have to [host ecommerce],” or “we have a team for that…” While these executives still take a personal hand in creating brick-and-mortar stores, they are happy to assign the creation of the online experience to someone else. They feel their passion in the store alone. According to Ms. Menkes: “they have to get over it and begin to build this presence online.”
;)
For a final bit of excitement, Ms. Menkes let it slip that Madonna has picked up a copy of Menkes’ book The Windsor Style in preparation for her role as the Duchess of Windsor in an upcoming film. While rumors of this project have been circulating since last year, Ms. Menkes hinted that it was still somewhat of a secret. Madonna has been researching Wallis Simpson for some time, and hopes to bring her own brand of glamour to the role as she did for Eva Peron in Evita.
As it is wont to do these days, fashion talk of Madonna quickly morphed into talk of Lady Gaga. Ever appreciative of those who push the envelope in fashion, Ms. Menkes said “no, you can’t go too far in fashion,” adding with a mischievous gleam “I can’t wear a telephone on my head because of my hairstyle.”
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