Fashion journalism I can believe in

As a writer I understand the need for unbiased journalism in most publications. Time magazine, yes. The New York Times, yes. US News and World Report, yes. But Elle, not so much. Fashion and politics have been co-minglers for, well, pretty much forever. Earlier in this fall several designers created visions for the First Lady-elect to wear on the day of her hubby's inauguration and you can bet your student loans that most to all of them were incredibly thrilled that it was Michelle over Cindy. Like I said: fashion and politics are seasoned co-minglers.

Hooray for the January 2009 American Elle:


When I cracked the January 2009 Elle I was way excited to see Robbie Myers' Editor's Letter addressed the recent election and I was even more excited to know that she wasn't afraid to print her opinions even though criticisms may ensue (and I'm sure she's getting hate mail or angry bloggers to voice their own opinions through their various outlets). So the jist of this post is just to give props to Robbi and Elle.

Now for my own take on the relationship between fashion journalism and unbiased reporting. Fashion journalism needs to report on fashion and things that affect it. The readership fashion magazines like Elle accrue want to know about runway shows, new trends, the celebrities featured inside and the newest beauty/health/fitness information. These same readers will pick up Time magazine or the Washington Post for hard news. They will log on to style.com to go through runway shows image-by-image. They will refresh ESPN.com every 30 seconds during the game for the quickest updates. The point is that all of these sources contribute different things to one person's arsenal of news gathering. And so for unbiased politcal journalism same person will reach for the Times on a newsstand while grabbing for Vogue because they want to see the new trends. Different publications are responsible for reporting different things and I applaud Elle for knowing that if it wants to publish its editors' opinions it doesn't need to be afraid to do so.