tFS: They really just took over the whole…month! Even at DVF in New York — everyone was freaking out about Kendall Jenner on the runway, meanwhile Naomi Campbell, an established supermodel and an icon, closes the show and all anyone can talk about is Kendall.
TA: People gawk, people are curious about them. They’re beautiful women, they are curvy and sexy. People are fascinated and they’re the shiny object. They did suck out all the oxygen at that point, but for certain brands, perhaps that was something they needed to bring attention to their shows. Every fashion brand feels like they need somebody to be an ambassador. Now you know, you go to a show and there’s nobody there in terms of celebrity, you’re gonna think, “This is not a hot show.”
tFS: Can’t lie…
TA: You get there, the first thing is “Hey girl, who’s here?” Even if Anna’s not at the show! You don’t see Adam Glassman, you don’t see certain people, you’re like nuh-uh. But you go to Michael Kors and you see Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas and Hilary Swank and Debra Messing, you’re like “Ooh! This is a hot show!”
tFS: It’s so true, and the coverage of fashion shows has shifted to exactly just that.
TA: Right. I interviewed Fern (Mallis) for the book and she estimated that about 20 percent of the photographers who were there were there to strictly cover the front row. That’s what it turns into. It’s like I tell people, “It’s not the way you want it to be. It’s just the way it is.” You hear so much in the fashion industry, “Oh, what about the days of Diana Vreeland?” or, “Oh, remember when we had the supermodels?” Fashion is dynamic. Things move on. We’re in the whole celebrity culture, it has been fostered by the Internet and all these new information channels, which need to be filled with content. It’s changed the way the world works. When I wrote The End of Fashion 14 years ago, I knew celebrities were going to become a bigger deal. I didn’t know they were going to start having their own brands that would actually be meaningful. I had no sense of that.
tFS: You mentioned at your 92nd Street Y talk that celebrities at runway shows are something of a novelty for some Europeans. Do you think Europeans will embrace celebrity presence the way we have?
TA: Yes and no. I think they will in a certain way because America always sets the pace. It’s not just in Paris. Someone was telling me that in Korea and China their local celebrities are doing their own fashion lines. So, this is starting to happen other places, too. In Brazil, some soap opera stars are starting to dabble because they see how it works in the States. Everybody’s trying to find new ways to make money. Think of some of the French actresses and Carla Bruni, you can see they can go in that same direction if they wanted to. Look at the whole reality show phenomena in the U.S. It’s been copycatted all over the world. The only thing is, I’m not sure how much of this is generational. If you look at Europeans, the way they dress, they have their own kind of personal style and savoir faire. Americans are starting to get into that in a bigger way than they used to, especially generationally. But you don’t see as many logos, shirts with big letters on them. You go outside of New York, everyone’s walking around with sports teams and Derek Jeter T-shirts. It’s a very American thing, but I don’t think Europeans are too into that. So many things are exported from the U.S. that really take off.
tFS: Who did you most enjoy talking to for the book?
TA: I interviewed Anna Wintour. She’s all through the book, but I’ve interviewed her several times in the past as well. She’s always fun to talk to. She is a very, very good interview because she is very candid and very savvy. She understands how this stuff works, the importance of celebrity and she’s clearly into fashion scholarship, and pushing the industry in that direction. But she also understands the vitality that celebrity brings to the fashion industry.
tFS: Of course, she’s part of the reason why it’s so rare to see models on the covers of magazines these days.
TA: Exactly…but I enjoyed most of the interviews because I just like talking to people! But it was also fun to talk to Macy’s and find out how they built a new, young image.
tFS: So, you have a very juicy anecdote in your book about Ralph Rucci and Kanye West.
TA: I kind of stumbled on that. I did an interview with Ralph Rucci, but we were actually having dinner and he was asking me how the book was going, and I told him I was writing about the Kardashians in it. And he said, “Oh, you should hear what happened with me and Kanye.” He started talking and I said, “Oh wow.” I turned on my tape recorder and I said, “I gotta use this for my book.” I didn’t know what he was going to tell me, but after I got the full story I said, “This is a reporter’s dream.”
Trust us, it’s juicy. But you can read all about it in Agins’ book, which is on sale now at Barnes & Noble.
