Before fashion blogging became a staple of the glamour industrial complex there was Look Online, the first and last word in professional independent fashion coverage. Published by Ernest Schmatolla with Editor in Chief Marilyn Kirschner penning fearless reviews and insights, Look Online is a rare beast in the typically tipped lipped fashion world where one wrong word can get you blacklisted for life.
Thus smart fashionistas quietly listen when Look Online speaks out. Recently Mr. Schmatolla asked a few difficult questions about fashion public relations at Fashion Week. He asked just who is filling up all of the seats at these shows that makes it so difficult to secure enough invitations for small publications and Internet publishers.
Our guess is many of them are brought in by the PR firm or publicist who is handling the front of house for each designer. Each publicist has his or her own group of people -- call them "fashion extras" who can be relied on to fill the house with friendly, attractive and eager faces.
Now this is quite a statement when you consider that public relations firms are paid to ensure that their clients receive as much exposure as possible. Surely having a full house is one way of getting the proper atmosphere for a given designer showing but with the explosion of new media the old ways of filling the house might very well be ineffectual at garnering press and attention for a client. Fashion extras are all well and good but publicists should be more concerned with getting "extra" attention and less concerned with getting their friends in the house. Fashion is an incestuous industry but has it gotten so bad that we would rather please our friends with invitations than look out for a client's needs? Ernest seems to think so and that is a damning statement for public relations in fashion.