Charlie Porter

0:25 So basically if someone asks me what they do what I do I say I'm kind of a fashion journalist or I kind of write stuff and my friends find this really annoying they think I'm being evasive or being coy or that I'm seeking flattery that I'm asking the person who's asking me the question to say oh you know tell me more or whatever.

0:56 But the point is I actually am kind of a fashion journalist I don't really know what it is I do also the word fashion journalist seems such an archaic term it seems so kind of 20th century and also fashion journalism is kind of embarrassing as well in some circles like I've on newspapers the fashion journalists are the ones right at the back of the room they're the ones that get to like do the kind of silly stuff and they're not taken seriously but the thing is is that within fashion journalism I found ways of writing that I wouldn't have found anywhere else and I found satisfaction from fashion journalism more than in any other field so there's obviously something in fashion journalism I'm quite old and so I grew up with quite an idealized idea of fashion journalism and this is a copy of the face from september 1986 and it's actually a really important issue it's got a a major feature by jamie morgan and ray petry on buffalo I was 12 years old when I bought this so you can work out my age for yourself I actually became a fashion journalist in 2000 I was a deputy fashion editor of the guardian 2000 was kind of an interesting year the website I think existed then.

2:16 And we were aware of it.

2:18 But it was just that funny thing in another building and no one had broadband at home now and had wi-fi no one had smartphones so we were bringing news if we were reporting on a fashion show then that was the news that no one no one else knew about it before it appeared in print it seemed that your choices as a fashion journalist were fairly straightforward were you a writer or a stylist and there are actually some people who kind of should be one or the other and vice versa and are you critical or are you complicit as in do you say you really think about fashion or are you non-judgmental in the hope of getting advertising or being a kind of friend of the industry but as soon as I started doing fashion journalism I kind of realized there was a whole other world to it and also a world that kind of a lot of people hadn't realized was there most fashion journaling journalism is kind of like oh here's a new bag it's nice isn't it go and buy it you know. And it's quite sort of facile but actually there's a whole other thing going on with it.

3:32 And so I was already kind of a fashion journalist because I wasn't really doing that fashion journalism I mean obviously I like nice things. And I I I there is a part of it which is about oh my god that's so lovely and and there's a kind of pleasure from that.

3:47 But then also there's this whole other world. And I think this whole of the world.

3:50 Actually implies to all of fashion it's not just journalism there's all these other kind of subsets within it and they are so the psychology of fashion I worked on gq for a while and I did a advice column and you quite often asked to ask to ask to answer things like what suits should I buy and you'd I'd always be thinking why are you buying a suit like what's your reason for doing that like we live in the age post steve jobs and post mark zuckerberg you like men who are billionaires don't wear suits what's the reason for for wearing a suit I'm also obsessed with colour and the effect it has on us. And its meaning and why wear it and what color we see and whether you see the same color as what I see and there's all this stuff going on about clothing other than that's nice there's a social implications and also societal as well like the impact of fashion on a wider community when you go to a city what is everyone wearing and not in terms of oh they've read it in a magazine but they're wearing it because someone else is wearing it because that's how the city is I was in mexico city of last month and it was amazing to see how everyone kind of wore the same thing they were a bright color top with jeans and it seemed like they were finding some sort of clarity within the chaos of their city it was a look that I haven't really seen anywhere else it was very specific and and if anyone tries to say fashion is meaningless or irrelevant I always kind of say to them well what do you think of when you think of the 70s and they probably say flares or what do you think of the 60s they say miniskirt like we define errors by clothing it just is in the present era there are many people who deny fashion has any importance at all.

5:40 So there's there's always this kind of effect on a body of people I want businesses fashion I don't mean I'm obsessed with the website the business of fashion I mean as in the actual business of fashion itself and there's nothing more grounding when you're writing about fashion and when you're writing about kind of trend pieces or key items to realize that. Actually. There are people behind the scenes that they just see that as units like it's a super murky world it's super alpha and super strange and kind of really fascinating and then the environmental impact which absolutely no one wants to talk about and everyone wants to pretend isn't there. And we're an entire industry of people making stuff that. Actually probably isn't needed it's amazing how fashion also falls in love in and out of love with the environment and environmental issues there was a time a few years ago when sustainability was was everything anyone would talk about you go to a luxury brand and they'd show you their sustainable collection.

6:37 And nowadays you go and they'll show you their exotic skins like it's completely not fashionable and it's interesting to write about the thing that they don't want to talk about then there's also the kind of hidden characters of fashion most designers in fashion are total oddballs and they make the most amazing subjects to interview but the thing is is that most people just ask the most innate questions or they're kind of trained to answer the most name questions like who would you dress for a red carpet or whatever. But if you just say to a designer how are you feeling today then out comes this torrent of stuff and they just tell you everything. And it's totally different from interviewing actors or musicians who is so trained to talk about life after they've made something and actually from fashion designers you get a real sense of the person when they don't realize they're telling you stuff so I've been very happy to find these things and find a way of writing that involves all this stuff so I've always been a kind of fashion journalist and I've never really done fashion journalism today. I am actually a real live fashion journalist in some sense I I'm the men's fashion critic for the financial times so twice a year for two weeks I am a real journalist and and I go to shows and I file copy and and and it's great writing for them because they let me write about all these things all in one place the rest of the year I'm kind of a fashion journalist I'm not I don't really engage in fashion in any sort of normal way I have my own website which is which is this which is the world's worst screen grab ever which is like tells you absolutely nothing. And this is a story I posted last week about the clothing choices of the next 100 men who appeared on my tinder and I I found this really interesting I find the way that men wear clothes more interesting not more interesting but as interesting as when they're made and it's the a lot of fashion journalism is about the point so they go when the clothes go on sale and actually I'd rather talk about when they've been bought and how people wear them.

8:50 But the thing is this is also recognize me writing I do in a very particular way.

8:55 But it is still some form of writing and actually fashion journalism is about to completely change or is changing already and this is kind of why I say I'm kind of a fashion journalist because I'm not sure whether fashion journalism is a thing that us fashion journalists do anymore like is this fashion journalism this is the instagram account of kim kardashian and I'm sure to a brand it means a lot more for them to be on her instagram or if they're sniffy about her on someone more allegedly classy's instagram than to have 100 words written about them in a luxury magazine now the thing is I actually love instagram and I think it is actually journalism like I find posting on instagram a form of reportage I love writing 20 words and formulating those 20 words to explain what I'm doing and that's it like it doesn't have to be a long piece to be journalism so actually I'm happy to be kind of a fashion journalist I don't really know what fashion journalism is and it won't be the same thing in 10 years time fashion is about change and everything is changing so I'm kind of a fashion journalist and that's 10 minutes you