FASHIONOFFICE INSIGHT
by publisher Karin Sawetz
March 2009
"...Well, how can I see the road
If I'm lookin' at the signs
I'm carryin' the load
And steppin' outta line..."
Text: from the track 'Level' by The Raconteurs (check out the video below).
What is fashion and beauty journalism about? Do high level fashion magazines have to produce 'In' and 'Out' lists?
Fashion magazines with valuable content are not acting like fashion patrols. Neither is a high level fashion magazine a weather channel! Even if some trends appear to be seasonal.
Fashion trends are running through a development phase of minimum 3 years for the production of textiles. Additional to the time phase for manufacturing the fabrics, trends have a lead time for creating the appropriate form (design of textiles, clothes) which expresses the values of the society and its new ideas best. These values are targeted by specialists (designers, trend scouts, market researchers) permanently. Some labels are setting the trends, others are following; in high quality magazines you can monitor the history of trends. That's the reason why the editorials by Fashionoffice about fashion, beauty, and cultural themes are not produced for a one or two day consummation time.
The railroad to the future
Since 1996 Fashionoffice is preparing the content for researchers in the future. It was not easy to rail this, because nobody had in the mid-90ies the experience how to work against the evanescence of the internet and secure cultural heritage.
Fashionoffice is founded by media researchers. We are taking the work of journalists very serious. The journalist has to chronicle 'daily' (in French 'jour') life for the posterity by writing 'objective' (as far as this is possible) articles.
Today, media, culture and fashion researchers can analyze the development of trends, the change of society, the roles of men and women, the trends in art... even by using Fashionoffice. Brand new is the integration of the Designer A-Z from the channel 'design' into the archives of the channel 'collections' on fashionoffice.org/collections/spring-summer.htm and fashionoffice.org/collections/fall-winter.htm.
For the ones who want to learn more about reading the signs of daily life: on 26 March the exhibition 'Archaeology of the Future' will open at the Designhuis in Eindhoven, curated by renowned trend forecaster Li Edelkoort who reveals in this show that trends are not a brief phenomenon, but are deeply rooted in our daily lives fashionoffice.org/design/ 2009/designhuis2-2009.htm.
Journalists and the influence of the media Internet on the preception of trends
The Raconteurs are singing: "Well, how can I see the road. If I'm lookin' at the signs". Looking at the signs, to collect and prepare knowledge for the users are the duties of a journalist. A journalist is railing the road for advanced opinion.
In February we have published the newest statistical data delivered by Google Analytics about the most questioned keywords and the highest ranking pages between 25 Aug 2008 and 25 Jan 2009.
The questioned keywords and high ranking pages influence our perception such as any other 'In' and 'Out' list; with one difference: this list is made by the users themselves. They have impact on the internet as a whole. High ranking pages and questioned keywords increase the relevance of labels and themes on search engines.
Find out what are fashion people international interested in: the keywords and most visited pages on Fashionoffice fashionoffice.org/survey/
2009/pagesused2-2009.htm.
fig.: You can see the bridge of the Viennese 'Ostbahn' (free translat. East Railway) in Simmering, the 11th district of Vienna, Austria. The railway leads to Brno, Czech. Left from the bridge - not on this photo - is Austria's biggest gasworks; but this is not the reason for the name 'Simmering'. Some say it comes from the old tradition of fishing in this area on the riversides of the Blue Danube and the name for a 'ring' to fix the boat; some say the name 'Simmering' comes from a family which settled there in the 11th century. Unfortunately it seems as if the real source of the name can not be explained. One of the causes for unresolved history is that the profession "journalist", the chronist of daily life, was unknown in the Middle-Ages.
After Johannes Gutenberg has invented the movable type printing press in 1456 it lasted around 200 years until the first newspapers have been published. In the 1670ies the first fashion magazines appeared.
Video: 'Level' by The Raconteurs Video: 'Level' by The Raconteurs from their debut album 'Broken Boy Soldiers' (released in 2006). The video is directed by Sophie Muller. By youtube.com/user/V2RecordsNYC.
The songs of the American band The Raconteurs are written by Jack White (from The White Stripes) and Brendan Benson. On the video you can see Jack White - vocals, guitars; Brendan Benson - vocals, guitars; Jack Lawrence (from The Greenhornes, Blanche) - bass guitar; Patrick Keeler (from The Greenhornes) - drums www.theraconteurs.com.
Dr. Karin Sawetz, founder and publisher of fashionoffice.org (since 1996), is journalist, media researcher and fashion scientist.
Karin Sawetz has a diploma from a higher-level secondary college for the fashion and clothing industry. She was awarded with the first prize for her design of the male work trousers for the OMV filling stations (OMV is Central Europe's leading oil and gas group) - the design has been realised. Before and while studying for the diploma she was designer for her own label, which she has presented international.
Beneath her studies at the University of Vienna she worked as costume designer for theatre and film, was civil servant at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economics (Department Fashion & Textile Industry), ...
After she has finished her studies at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Sciences, the Institute for Film-, Theatre- and Media-Sciences, the Institute for Philosophy at the University of Vienna, and the Institute for Artistic Sciences, Art Education and Communication, Department for Cultural and Intellectual History, at the University of Applied Arts, she was lecturer at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, published scientific studies, ...
In the last years she focused her work on fashionoffice.org as an international magazine and organization for intercultural approaches in fashion and art.
More publications> sawetz.com/publications.htm
FASHIONOFFICE INSIGHT:
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