Week 2: Planning Contents

This week during class, we visited Park Communications in East London to look at printing options for creating a physical body of work. Additionally, there were beneficial lectures in fashion writing from Megan Doyle (Sustainable Fashion Journalist & Consultant) and Lauren Cochrane (Senior Fashion Writer for the Guardian) which helped in forming my individual tone-of-voice and learning to describe looks. I missed a day of college in order to attend the GQ Heroes event at Soho Farmhouse which made me think about the influence of fashion events in a wider cultural context and caught up with any missed work in my personal time. 

In my independent study, I planned my publication contents and compiled a spreadsheet of potential interview participants to be given the green light by Hannah Shakir in my individual tutorial. 

Classwork

Visit to Park Communications with Jesse Jenkins

2nd of July 2024

Printers for: Homme Girls, Soho House, Beauty Papers, Dazed, Hunger, Kinfolk.

• Press passing enables brands to be a close part of the printing process.

• Printers have to have a licence for fonts, otherwise could be liable. 

• Printers have to try and match the proof (the real image).

• Tracking is the way colours look on pages.

• Repro houses make sure images are the best resolution (for example, RGB instead of CMYK to ensure print comes out the same way as digital).

• They have a digital press for smaller quantities of work (10-100 copies) as opposed to using the large-scale machinery which costs millions.

• Condé Nast doesn't allow reverse gatefold as it places a greater focus on  advertisements as opposed to magazine content.

• There are typically two options: sheet fed or web (Park Communications don’t do web). As they use sheet-fed presses, the quality is therefore enhanced as it is a slower more high-quality experience meaning publications advertisers were happier as for them, this means more sales. 

• ABC offers accurate circulation information.

• Coated pages are better for image-based publications (fashion magazines, a layer to make the colour more prominent). 

• Some people use A and B paper stocks.

• 115gsm is typically used for glossy magazines like Vogue. 

• There are different types of white colour stock.

• It is common to hear terms like ‘spec’ which is short for specifications 

Publications of Interest

• Miami Beach Now (side printing)

• Just Smile (binding)

• Port Magazine 

• Print is Dead podcast

• Unusually Brilliant Brands: Stock made from recycled coffee cups for sustainability (off white stock)

• Using the term ‘Yearbook’ in my publication title.

‘Spec’ for printers

• Hardback (linen or cloth finish) or case bindings. This can be debossed. 

• Size of the production (dimensions, e.g. 320 x 240).

• Page numbers divisible by 8 or 16 but always an even number for best economy of scale. 

• Full colour process (standard)

• Print only in CMYK

• Specify paper: silk gloss 130gsm (but you can also go for single coated matte stock).

• Binding process

• Resin- based glue bound is used for Homme Girls

• Thread sewn (specify the wanted thread, this also means the book can be opened further) 

• Wire stitch (stapled)

• Hardback binding

• 300gsm cover for a typical magazine.

• Spot UV finish, foil process, press, debossing. 

For feed forward: Look at instructions on the Park Communications website to ensure the PDF has the right resolution, colour bleed and colour profile for example to speed up the printing process as there is a quick transition between the IFP deadline and graduation exhibition, where I hope to have my final work printed to present to industry guests. 

I am worried about the short turnover time for printing with Park Communications, therefore I will look into other printing options too.

Megan Doyle: Sustainable Fashion Journalist & Consultant 

Substack newsletter: The Titan Thread Newsletter.

Publication Portfolio: Matches Fashion. BoF, Vogue Business, Good On You, Harper’s Bazaar.

As I already had the same interview-based lectures from Paul Tierny during my Fashion Writing / Journalism module in Year 1, I decided to attend the other lectures on this particular day. Furthermore, I have used Megan Doyle’s fruitful studies and articles for previous modules and bodies of work as secondary research so wanted to hear more about her process in her one-of-a-kind talk / freelance masterclass. Key takeaways from her talks included:

• After you have a few publications under your belt, make a match with content you want to make to certain publications and ensure fair pay.

• You have to decide which type of writer you want to be. Opinions can be used through using experts' insight. There are consequences for every type of writer. 

• Look at the wider picture and don’t neglect key issues in order to represent issues fairly.

• Develop your tone-of-voice through continuous writing on platforms such as Substack and become known as a subject matter expert, explore your ideas and experiment with different formats of writing. With a potential to monetise through self publishing in the long term.

• Find your niche by looking at your personal values for authenticity and to write with passion (e.g. value sustainability, write about sustainability). 

• Anxiety can be useful as a tool to become an activist and spur useful conversations on certain issues.

• Carving out your niche is helpful to attract the right people. Niching into one or more subject matters can be a valuable way to stand out from the crowd. Become a subject matter expert and grow your network strategically. Being too niche could have the opposite effect. I am interested in: high fashion, women's rights, luxury, high jewellery, red carpets, stylist storytelling, events, Welsh culture.

• When considering my personal brand, I want to remain a relatively neutral and unbiased source and experiment with different tones: conversational, formal, academic, humorous, unfiltered, critical, sarcastic.

• Stay up to date with the news - read everything from trade to consumer publications as well as wider political, cultural and environmental news.

• Attend talks, conferences, events, film screenings, book launches - to meet like minded people and build your network.

• Being comfortable with talking to strangers and asking questions 

• Develop a fresh perspective you haven’t read anywhere else. Think about issues from all angles.

• Use social media as a research tool intentionally - remember the rule of three (once you see something 3 times it's a trend).

• Look at news from right to left to gain different perspectives. 

• Make spreadsheets of contacts to reach out to with their emails at every job. 

• Always be sceptical of statistics - try and find the original source in a report or study (and link it)

• Read as much about the topic as you can to make sure you're not missing key information

• Avoid falling back on cliches and worn out or false statements.

• Represent your interviewees fairly.

• Record if you are being interviewed to ensure your words are not misrepresented.

Fashion Writing Masterclass with Lauren Cochrane (Senior Fashion Writer for the Guardian)

• She does exhibition reviews which I could do through a virtual tour of the ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion Exhibit’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and incorporate my thoughts from the New York trip. 

• Look up technical terms for different garments and make them easy to understand for the reader - simplify the language for the average reader. This practice is key for calling in clothes for a shoot. 

• Find like-minded references to the audience to help understand the mood of the look (e.g. The Wicked Witch of the West). 

• Make observations and subversions about what you think the clothes mean, not just what they mean. 

• Look at past collections when you’re writing about a designer so you are informed, meaning you are more entitled to give an opinion. 

• Use short concise text for image-heavy books.

• If you want to be neutral in your opinion, brand yourself as the audience. 

• Encouraged to look at journalist - Alexandra Hildreth. 

• Fashion is a place where politics does not exist. 

The following session helped me articulate and describe looks, which will be hugely beneficial when describing the Met Gala’s best dressed.

Schiaparelli AW24

• Black 

• V-neck 

• Full-length dress 

• Dabbed brushstrokes 

• Gold foil

• Puff shoulder

• V neck

• Mermaid 

• Cropped sleeve

• Extravagant 

• Fleck 

• Legomutten 

• Overpowering 

Balenciaga AW24

• Pamela Anderson inspired wide-brimmed smoky feather hat

• Sharp and slouchy 

• Cool-toned

• Undone 

• High neck

• Boxy 

• Lamp shade

• Surrealist silhouette

• Wide-leg denim jean 

• Mushroom

• Shaggy parasol / umbrella 

• Powder blue sweatshirt

• Juxtaposition 

• Wicked witch of the West shoes

Zendaya wearing Margiela for the Met Gala 2024

Zendaya walked the green carpet in-costume as a moody forest nymph with a bias-cut, mermaid silhouette and peacock-inspired colour palette; perfectly complimenting her surroundings with reference to sea witches or even a Tim Burton character in the John Galliano design for Maison Margiela Artisanal. The brushstroke headpiece by Stephen Jones and organza shoulder with wisteria embellishments drawing the eye to the gothic makeup and 30s starlet skinny brows. Zendaya embodied the drama of her character by showcasing the look in an angular stance. 

• Theatrical

• Moody forest nymph 

• Mermaid gown

• Peacock

• Emerald corset 

• Organza shoulder 

• Brushstroke headpiece 

• Roaring old Hollywood skinny brow

• Asymmetric 

• Angular 

• Deep sea creature

• Ursula

• Sea witch

• Emerald corset

• Feather headpiece

• Walking the green carpet

• Fishtail silhouette

• Modern stance

• Dramatic makeup 

• Wisteria embellishments

• Gothic makeup

• Tim Burton character 

• Vampy

• Angular 

Daniel Levy wearing Loewe at the Met Gala 2024

Daniel Levy’s Loewe ensemble subverts the typical menswear tux in an outlandish fashion experiment, with a growth of beaded feminine florals overrunning the black double breasted suit with an extended sleeve. Of course, Levy sports his signature shiny loafers and black-framed glasses. The look symbolises the contrast of the count and countess' elaborate garden of crystal time flowers and the dark abyss of the nearby protestors in JG Ballard’s ‘A Garden of Time’.  

• Sleeve length

• Cath Kidston florals

• Knuckle-grazing 

• Extended sleeve

• Ombre-effect 

• Gradient 

• Outlandish other Met Gala looks, fashion experimentation. 

• Subverting typical menswear tux by the feminine flood of florals. 

• Black double breasted suit 

• Signature thick black-framed glasses 

• Shiny loafers

• Levy subverted the masculine ideal of the suit in a design by Loewe. 

• Nearby protestors

Rick Owens SS25

Rick Owens transcended models to a brutalist troupe of minimalist Martians with jawa-inspired hoods, overhanging flares and monochromatic oyster tones.

• Space-age

• Alien 

• Star wars 

• Jawa-inspired

• Martian

• Minimalistic

• Brutalist 

• Troupe 

• Storm trooper

• Cinematic 

• Simple 

• Earthy 

Day 2

I missed the lectures on ‘Image Rights / Call Sheets’, and a Styling Masterclass and Skills Review Workshop with Veronica Blaegova and Mekel Bailey in order to attend the GQ Heroes annual event at Soho Farmhouse. During my own time, I caught up with the course content in my own time based on classmates' feedback and the lecture slides uploaded to Canvas.

GQ Heroes 2024 at Soho Farmhouse

4th of July 2024 

Schedule

(GQ Heroes, 2024)

GQ Heroes, in association with BMW UK and in partnership with Klarna, Bowers & Wilkins, Sky Glass, Tinder and Sunday Riley, was hosted at Soho Farmhouse on the 6th of July 2024.

As a fashion student, GQ being a publication owned by Condé Nast - this event was of massive interest to me. However, this event exceeded more than fashion and lifestyle - even what would be considered Gentleman’s Quarterly a decade ago. The conversations held were political - covering gender inequality in football, lessons in business ownership with Sunday Riley, conversations with sportsmen from Formula 1, experiences from Dr Seema Jilani in Gaza - it was more than a fashion event where different worlds collided, which is where fashion can have influence. 

Even though there weren't necessarily any conversations regarding the Met Gala itself, the event shows how popular culture and events hosted by mainstream magazines have an effect on the wider conversations we have in current society. 

The Practical Stuff: Image Rights, Call Sheets, Release Sheets

My publication is a writing-focused submission, using gathered secondary imagery to illustrate my thoughts on the page. I will not be a part of a shoot for this project. Therefore, a lot of this lecture's content is unusable for my personal project but useful to know regardless. Information I found useful was the stylists toolkit (which I saw firsthand in my internship at Grazia UK) and hierarchy of the credits, which I will use to reference my publication imagery as this is industry standard. Credits start with the photographer and work down the shoot team. If the model is famous, his/her name would be at the top of the list of credits.

• Art Director 

• Photographer

• Set Designer 

• Stylist

• Model

• Hair

• Makeup artist 

• Fashion assistant 

Styling Masterclass with Veronica Blaegova and Mekel Bailey

I want the book to encompass a styling segment of possible in-theme looks that attendees could have opted for. Therefore, I really wanted to participate in this masterclass, as it is also a hobby of mine outside college. In order to try and catch up in my own time I looked at the activities that happened in the collaborative masterclass session with Stylist Veronica Blaegova (who has worked on CERO magazine and Puss Puss Mag) on Canvas. This was allegedly a hands-on session with a chance to style each other with drama and flair.

Skills Review Workshop with Veronica Blaegova and Mekel Bailey

Veronica Blaegova and Anna Nilsson hosted a session where I would be able to show mood boards for the IFP and talk through ideas of how I will do styling for photo shoots, and/or continue with styling activities from the morning. Based on the following information, I am not styling a shoot for the book but making a moodboard for looks that could have been seen on the red carpet.

Independent Study

Tasks & Further Reading

I ensured to read chapters and topics of Fashion Writing: Journalism and Content Creation by Collins and Spear, relevant to my IFP and copied any relevant quotes I could refer back to at a later date (Collins & Spear, 2011).

Fundamentals: News writing

• Establish the 5W & 1H: Who, what, when, where, why and how. 

• Use the inverted triangle to show the hierarchy of information.
  

• “a standard news story is probably going to run between 150 and 300 words, while a feature will probably start at 400 words and scale up to anywhere between 800 and 1,200 words”

• Conduct relevant background research

Fundamentals: Features

• “As with news, you have to research your story, find sources, interview the affected parties, and report the events with a sense of balance. The big difference is that features require some deeper engagement. What sort of extra depth depends on the format, context and aim of the feature”
  

“As for hard information, numbers are golden. Source sales figures directly from brands – although they will only provide them if they reveal growth – or from research companies and online sales aggregators such as Lyst, Edited or Statista, whose function is to compile such numbers”

• “Social media is also your friend here, with searches, likes and follows all able to add a measure of solidity to your story”

• “Beyond the figures, add in back story or context. Here we may delve into a little fashion history”

• “You can see how utterly vital the quotes are. They form the direction of the feature. You can actually compose an entire feature by copying quotes in order into a blank document and then stitching them together with a few sentences in between, occasionally pausing to sum up, explain or re-pose a particular question”

• “Every time you start a feature, imagine that you’re talking to the person you most commonly gossip with, be they a workmate, a relative or an imaginary friend. How would you tell them about this story?”

• TREATMENTS:

• “Profile pieces: Long-form articles structured around a subject, these seek to get under the skin of their topic – the people, brands or institutions that hold some sort of interest, influence or power in the fashion world.”

• “Q and As: These are relatively simple preparations. You write out your questions and drop in your interviewee’s answers.”

• “Listicles: Listicles are colourful pictureled treatments that offer bite-sized, highly polished nuggets of writing in a numbered format.”

• “Infographics: The power of the infographic is clear. It distils a huge ream of research – often data driven – into a single image, usually bringing a simple and effective method of communication to its subject, which could otherwise struggle to be engaging.”

• “How-tos: The power of ‘how’ continues to grow as how-to features drive an impressive number of likes and watches online.”

Product: Silhouettes

• “Menswear silhouettes echo those of womenswear – for example, the inverted triangle in men’s suiting”

• “The most regularly occurring shapes include skinny, pencil, palazzo, balloon, joggers, gaucho, capri and tailored pants.”

• “Designers frequently raid the history books for inspiration. One of the most regularly revived silhouettes, as mentioned, is the S-shape, taken from the exaggerated bust and rear of late 19th- and early 20th-century garments (the result of corsets, bustles and crinolines).”

Product: Fabric

• “In order to envisage how a garment will behave when worn, and to be able to convey this to your readers, you’ll need to develop a basic understanding of textiles. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll automatically know that an A-line dress made from a stiff, tightly woven fabric will look and move very differently to the same design made from a floppy fabric.”

• “Whatever their origin, textile fibres are usually highly processed. You’ll therefore want to develop a working knowledge of the social and environmental issues at stake, from ethical sourcing and pollution through to sustainability”

• “Exciting developments are now taking place in the field of biotextiles, which are ‘grown’ in a lab using live micro-organisms”

• “it can be hard to discern a ‘true’ colour. But what is a colour, anyway? As a fashion writer you’ll need to communicate the ‘idea’ of a colour to your readers.”

• “Some useful adjectives might include: cool, dusty, deep, fiery, harsh, iridescent, muted, smoky, neutral, greyed, pastel, soft, tonal, translucent, vivid, vibrant, rich, pale or dark.”

• “Colour descriptions often tend to be sparked by thinking about the natural world – rocks and gems, weather conditions, times of day, flora and fauna, for example. And food.”

• “It’s worth noting a couple of colour terms that often cause confusion. Firstly, ‘monochrome’ refers to black and white (a single colour is described as a ‘block colour’), while ‘two tone’ is a type of fabric construction – using different iridescent yarns – rather than a description of colour.”

Product: Assessing a collection

• “Every collection, whether from a designer label, a fashion brand or a retailer, will have a key look. This is a style that gets repeated across a collection, perhaps with variations in colour or fabrication… See if you can identify one or two key pieces that typify the look and sum up the essence of the collection. You’ll then be ready to explore the details behind them.”

• Details 

• Sleeves

• Collars 

• Pocket shape and placement

• “describe the collection’s overall theme, or mood. Designer and brand notes can help you, but there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t suggest a theme yourself, as long as you can justify it with the garments – or the styling, in the case of a catwalk event.”

• “To begin with, identify the brand or designer – when the company was founded and by whom, its design profile and its values. This will establish some context for the show. It’s also helpful to understand the purpose of a catwalk show. In some cases, it can be an extravaganza that overshadows the fashion being modelled”

• “You’ll then want to note the inspiration behind the collection, as identified by the designer or the brand via the PR notes”

• “what the potential life span will be for any new looks being played out on the runway. Are you looking at a one-season wonder, or an evolution from a previous season that’ll be ripe for further development in future seasons? And if you consider the label’s customer base, will the looks sell? Are other designers likely to pick up on the look, and is it commercial enough to make its way to the high street?”

• “Finally, don’t forget to take note of any accessories – bags, footwear, belts – as well as the treatment of hair and make-up. Is there an obvious look, and have you noticed it being repeated across other shows in the same season?”

Product: Trends

• “International Colour Authority (ICA), an organisation that forecasts colour trends across different consumer sectors.”

• “Peclers Paris, Trendstop, Stylus, Trend Union (established by renowned forecaster Li Edelkoort), WGSN, LS:N Global and the Future Laboratory”

• “Trends identified in threes”

Q&A: Luke Leitch

• “It’s not just about the shape of the shoulder, or the silhouette of the leg. It’s about an interaction between the individual and the thing they’re wearing – why they choose to wear it, the perceptions that they anticipate from other people, and people’s actual perceptions. Fashion is like a distilled sublimation of personal, psychological transactions – it’s about affiliation and tribalism, the sense of wanting to be different, wanting to be the same, wanting to aspire or to apparently not aspire. It’s complex. You can see a long dress, for example, and link it to the state of the economy, but there’s never a simple linear connection to a single political event. It’s a great, great pleasure to try and articulate all that. But of course, you often get it wrong.”

• “Cliché is a form of repeated conventional language that becomes meaningless through repetition. You don’t have to avoid it; you have to play with it. Lean into it – it’s like a stereotype. Sometimes it’s apposite because it’s based on an original truth, and many clichés are amusing and interesting.”

People: Interviews

• “The goal is to source unique, enthralling and useful quotes from people who are prepared to share their ideas, experiences and emotions”

• “If you can’t find or persuade any of your subject’s friends or colleagues to talk with you, chat instead with someone who has a more remote connection with them – perhaps a retailer that sells their designs, someone who has worked in their company, an influencer who’s collaborated with their brand or even a student who wants to follow in their path. Ask these people what they’d like to know about your interviewee – what they would ask them if they could. These people are your audience, after all, and your job is to ask the questions they would ask, if only they were in your place.”
  

People: People in fashion

• “When it comes to interviewees, politicians, activists, photographers, artists, illustrators, costume designers, forecasters, models, casting agents, stylists, charity workers, creative directors, retailers and many more will fall within your ambit. But there’ll be a shortlist of people you’ll need to talk to on a much more regular basis.”

• “providing the most jewel-studded of anecdotes, designers can offer context and insight when it comes to trends and the direction of fashion, including details on silhouette, textiles and colour, along with how the business operates, what the audience wants, and what the possibilities of design are. And from a designer’s perspective, the power of an interview is palpable, helping to raise their profile – true of everyone you give coverage to – and helping them explain their art.”

• Use research companies and consultants to provide quantitative data. 

• “National trade bodies such as SFC and the BFC represent and help promote the fashion industry in their country.”

• Talk to academics and fellow journalists.

Inspiration: Fashion icons

• “More important than any other mission here is the need to widen this list to include more designers from non-Western cultural heritages. Japan notwithstanding, the fashion canon is still dominated by a roster of European and North American names.”

• “this is a consequence of cultural, social, political and economic attitudes that have seen Western fashion and its designers embrace a capitalist mode of production and promotion. This has, in turn, helped them to scale up both their reputations and their revenues until they’ve become touchstones of taste, and category-killing purveyors of global style.”

Content and the ‘new’ fashion journalism: Beyond sales

• “Look at the work of Diet Prada, an Instagram account run by two fashion designers, Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler, who use the account as a watchdog on fashion”

• “Content creators, as we have reiterated throughout this book, tend to work for brands, so are not editorially independent” (Collins & Spear, 2011).

Referring Back to Assignment 2

I went back to assignment 2 of the IRP to understand the targets I had set myself for the IFP and used this information to help design my contents pages and what that would entail over the next few weeks.

• Create a coffee table book between 100 - 320 pages.

• Design a book cover.

• Ensure the content of the coffee table book contains at least 1 of the following forms of fashion writing:

• 1 foreword

• 1 feature

• 1 interview

• Multiple object analysis of red carpet looks and their influence

• Collect relevant imagery, this could include:

• Behind-the-scenes (include the picture of Anna Wintour and the vogue team at the end of the night at the end of the book)

• Sketches

• Red Carpet 

• Archive

• Beauty

• Use of harvard referencing and in-text citations where relevant.

Designing the Contents of the Publication

• Book cover

• Contents Page

• A written foreword

• Historical context of the met / General Information

  • How the theme translates to the runway

  • Look at another theme (past 3 - 5 years / post-covid)

  • What designers were included

• The Garden of Time Story 

• The ‘Sleeping Beauties’ exhibition 

• Feature about the theme

• Styling segment for the theme + The resurgence of archive 

• The Co-Chairs 

• The Mark Hotel

• Employee (look on LinkedIn)

• Case study: How X prepared for the Met Gala

• The carpet 

• Recap of all looks + The Pop Culture Parade

To note: Doja Cat, Greta Lee, Kim Kardashian, Dua Lipa, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman, Emily Ratajkowski, Harris Reed, Kaia Gerber, Lana Del Ray, Gwendoline Christie, Penelope Cruz, Amanda Seyfried, Emma Chamberlain, Anna Wintour, Elizabeth Debicki, Nicki Minaj, Mindy Kaling, Lena Waithe, Stray Kids, Demi Moore, Cynthia Erivo, Phoebe Dynavor, Ariana Grande, Donatella Versace, Lil Nas X, Leah Mahfouf, Kerry Washington, Rachel Zegler, Charlie XCX, Rosalìa, Barry Keoghan, Demi Lovato, Pamela Anderson, Ivy Getty, Adwoa Aboah

• Best Dressed: Object Analysis (use a * to indicate if the book will talk about the designers process based on secondary research) 

  • Tyla in Balmain (news - carried up the steps)*

  • Swarovski Entourage (From Red Carpet to Super Stardom)

  • Zendaya in Maison Margiela by John Galliano 

  • Gigi Hadid in Thom Browne*

  • Mona Patel in Iris Van Herpen*

  • Elle Fanning in Balmain

  • Cardi B in Windowsen

  • Amelia Grey in Undercover

  • Kendall Jenner in archival Givenchy by Alexander McQueen

  • Harris Reed in Harris Reed

  • Taylor Russell in Loewe

  • Kylie Jenner in Oscar De La Renta

  • Brie Larson in Prada

  • Camila Cabello in Ludovic de Saint Sernin (bag)

• Menswear of the Met

  • Dan Levy in Loewe

  • Olivier Rousteing in Balmain

  • Alton Mason in Thom Browne

  • Bad Bunny in Maison Margiela Artisanal

  • Gustav Magnar Witzoe in Atelier Versace

  • Cole Escola in Thom Browne

  • Morgan Spector in Willy Chavarria

  • Chris Hemsworth in Tom Ford

  • Wisdom Kaye in Robert Wun

• News of the night 

• The After Parties

  • Macallan’s cocktail party at the Mark Hotel 

  • Mulberry Afterparty
    

  • Kendall Jenner

  • Zendaya

  • Iris Law

  • Olivier Rousteing

  • Richie Shazam and Lana Del Ray

• Appendices 

• Reference List

1st 1-2-1 with Hannah

• I informed Hannah that I am beginning to plan content, interviews and various forms of writing

• I have briefly been looking at coffee table books. For example, I bought Barbie: The World Tour as this was a big case study in my IRP and there is not much text, but where there is written copy - there’s a lot and its thoughtfully done. I will analyse this in depth further along in the project.

• I asked if I needed to provide forms for each of the participants as it feels annoying. Participants must be made aware of the scope of the project and where it will be used.

Hannah’s Feedback

• Recommended face to face, guaranteed interviews where possible. 

• Interviewee recommendations:

• Olivia Lower (Social Manager at Vogue), she has previously covered Vogue World

• Myriam Beldy (KESH Communications), previously conducted talent casting for Vogue World.

2nd 1-2-1 with Hannah (Week 6)

• I’m using second hand imagery and likely would not get permission to use them for this project. I would navigate this by referencing the images as I have done in previous modules.

• In Armand’s slides it says I need to prepare promotional materials too? Hannah suggested thinking about writing a press release to promote the publication. However, I am unsure on where this would go within my submission. 

• To be more inclusive I have changed the name of the ‘Men of the Met’ section to ‘Menswear of the Met’. 

• Make a flat plan of the publication and use Post It notes to change the arrangement of the book. Hannah recommends looking at around 200 pages at this stage. Barbie: The World Tour can be used as a reference point for this. 

Creating an Interview Spreadsheet

To fully understand the scope of the IFP, it feels essential to know the content I am working with in order to weave it seamlessly into the publication. Interviews are unpredictable so some interviewees may be unavailable or not provide the desired content. For this reason, I aim to do the interviews as soon as possible so I can solidify my publication content. To be as organised and methodical in my approach as possible, I have created a spreadsheet to track my individual progress on each individual interviewee. 

During my Fashion Journalism module, I worked simply from a bullet point list of interviewees and was successful in my approach. However, with outreach to an increased number of people, I must ensure to remain organised, productive and proactive in my approach, especially under time constraints. 

In my second 1-2-1 with Hannah, I wanted this to be approved before emailing participants about the scope of the project so that I can be clear in regards to the purpose of the interview in my initial outreach. She then added the tab ‘Hannah’s Suggestions’ to inform where interviews should be placed within the publication. Now that this has been approved, my next goal is to reach out to the following people and secure an interview. Having a tab for interview dates will also aid in keeping track.

Features require around 2 - 3 sources each, so not everyone will need to be interviewed but it is best to email more people for contingency purposes. Additionally the tutorial made me think about doing one written profile / interview (Hannah recommends someone like Chloé Janssen). Ideally for a profile piece or more detailed interview, I would like to interview someone like Amaan Duffer (Founder of Basliq) as Jeremy Pope wore Basliq jewellery to ‘The Garden of Time’ Met Gala which is the focus of this publication.

Key Takeaways

• Tone-of-voice must remain consistent throughout the publication. I aim to be neutral and unbiased in my writing style. 

• When describing Met Gala outfits, use correct terminology for the clothing but ensure the language used is also digestible to the average reader and provide context where possible.

• The GQ Heroes event at Soho Farmhouse made me think about the influence of fashion events in a wider cultural context as magazine content influences the conversations we have as a society. 

• A methodical working style works best for me. 

Further Actions

• Make a flat plan of the publication and use Post It notes to change the arrangement of the book. Hannah recommends looking at around 200 pages at this stage. Barbie: The World Tour can be used as a reference point for this. 

• Reach out to potential interview participants and fill in the spreadsheet as necessary. 

Reference List

• Collins, J. & Spear, S. (2011). Fashion Writing: Journalism and Content Creation. London: Laurence King Publishing. 

• GQ Heroes. (2024). GQ Heroes: Lecture. BA (Hons) Fashion Communication & Industry Practice. Oxford: Soho Farmhouse, 4 July 2024.