428: Vanessa Friedman: The New York Times Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic
Vanessa Friedman sees the fashion world from a vantage point few others can as the Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic at the New York Times. She arrived there after pioneering roles covering fashion at Financial Times in a first-ever role there, InStyle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and Elle.
She shares the industry’s forays into sustainability—or responsible fashion in her terms—as well as sharing her thoughts on it.
Right off the bat she talked about reducing consumption, which I differentiate from reusing and recycling, which most people jump to, but I consider tactical. Reducing is strategic. Harder to get at first, but leads to easier life and work.
I was awkward, as I don’t know the fashion world, but you can hear from her that environmental responsibility is catching on in fashion. Barely so far, but in some places at least authentically and growing. It looks like there’s hope in the industry, though they have a long way to go, a lot of resistance, and many players acting in the opposite direction.
I’m also glad to hear Vanessa’s personal attention, thoughtfulness, interest, which all sounded heartfelt, thorough, and genuine. At the New York Times she’s at a leverage point so I suspect she will influence. I like that celebrities are acting because, however small that change, they influence others. I believe they can help change culture.