Anna Wintour and Fashion Stories that Don’t Want to Be Banal
Anna Wintour’s credibility falls like the data of some luxury companies: she no longer understands that time is passing by and finds TikTok as a sponsor for the Met – fashion should never be unchallenging
The Floral Theme for the Met Ball: Sponsored by TikTok
“Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking,” Miranda Priestly dismissed the blond editor – but Anna Wintour chose florals for the Met Ball. A further effort of imagination, and we have the code: Garden of Time. We will count flowers embroidered in plastic, synthetic volume petals: nylon, lurex, polyester, sequins. Everything that is not fashion, that is not aimed at the future of the textile industry: it’s New York, on the first Monday of May in 2024. The sponsor is TikTok – CEO Mr. Shou Chew arrives at the Met.
TikTok is No Longer Usable in America: Universal and Taylor Swift
Just a few days ago, the American rulers decided to stop TikTok in the States. To be more precise, the law says that if TikTok does not become American-owned for at least a good portion of its shares, the application will no longer be accessible. There are about 170 million TikTok users in America, and the resolution was prompted by the fear that their data could go into Chinese systems where privacy controls are reduced. American users would become customers for Chinese products and would send too many dollars to eastern banks.
TikTok’s sponsorship implies a budget of millions of euros. The agreement couldn’t fall through just before the event, not even due to a law from the American Senate. Universal Music has blocked its editions on the platform—but Taylor Swift, a business priority for both Universal and the entire American music industry, has decided that her music must be on TikTok. The lightness with which Mrs. Wintour chooses the floral theme for a spring party is the same with which she signs an agreement with a Chinese social media as the sponsor of an exhibition that would like to be cultural.
Joe Biden 81 years old, Donald Trump 77 years old, Anna Wintour 74 years old
In 2024, with the American elections in the fall, a war in Ukraine and one in Israel, and a world that is choosing record temperatures on fire, fashion speaks of flowers. In this current year, Joe Biden turns 81, Donald Trump reaches 77—Anna Wintour turns 74: when they get interested in social media, they risk credibility. I don’t want to put politics and fashion on the same table.
Updated Definition of Boomer
Fashion is a matter for young people—I would dare to evolve such a statement: fashion is not a matter for Boomers, and Boomers are not defined by their age. Boomers are those who today remain convinced that social media are the communication tools for the future and for the next generations. Boomers are those who have managed to degrade the word sustainability to a synonym for boredom: Boomers are not interested in talking about natural fibers, they are not interested in worrying about microplastics. Boomers are interested in spring flowers, embroidered in sequins.
Sleeping Beauties, Reawakening Fashion co-chairs and the theme The Garden of Time
If the theme of the floral party dresses is The Garden of Time, the title of the exhibition is Sleeping Beauties. The connection is called entertainment. The exhibition was subtitled as Reawakening Fashion – the exhibition aims to awaken fashion and its creativity. The inspiration for so much effort to be made comes with flowers in spring. The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan displays a selection of historical dresses, from Nina Ricci to Dior, passing through nineteenth-century crinolines by Worth, going back to Tudor embroideries. Together with TikTok, Loewe sponsors the exhibition.
The co-chairs are four people who, along with Mrs. Wintour and Mr. Chew, appear at the top of the invitation for the opening gala. We read Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez, and Bad Bunny. These people should somehow be consistent with the cultural theme of the exhibition—either by their professional background, the roles they have played, or by news or magazines.
The 2005 Exhibition was dedicated to Chanel – at that time, they were reading a blog titled Socialite Rank
In 2005, the exhibition was dedicated to the history of Chanel. Leading the invitation was Princess of Hanover, Caroline of Monaco—the co-chairs were Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Wintour – and Nicole Kidman, the woman who starred in th perfume number 5 commercial, a short movie that was filmed at the steps of the Metropolitan.
In 2005, Facebook was just becoming popular. In New York, one of its early versions was working, called A Small World—but above all, in New York, there was a blog called Socialite Rank that released an overview of the most prominent socialites, the “It Girls” everyone was talking about. The criteria that moved some names of cute, wealthy girls with relevant parents up and down the rankings was not known—just as the writer who wrote on the pages of that site remained unaware (it was supposed to be Derek Blasberg in the role of Truman Capote surrounded by his ladies, but it was not confirmed).
Tinsley Mortimer, Fabiola Barecasa, Olivia Palermo, Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Lauren Davis, Paris Hilton. The girls were pretending to pay little attention to those sharp phrases with which their ups and downs were described: the invitations they received, the clothes they chose, the flirts they talked about. The heirs of the Swans, of course—and there was a bit of mystery, of playfulness about them—thanks to the nonchalance they demanded. Without nonchalance, everything collapses—with the arrival of Instagram, self-satisfied exhibitionism, and a dance on TikTok.
“It Girl” or “It Boy” — the Meaning of the Term
“It Girl” or “It Boy.” The term It intends to convey the one who is the object of attention even though she or he does nothing to seek it. It is based on physical attractiveness and wealth. As the years went on, the term evolved thanks to a bit of literature—the Sitwell brothers and Evelyn Waugh’s literary circle; Thomas Mann’s two children, Klaus and Erika, amidst fluidity, Nazism, and the Nobel Prize; then moving on to Truman Capote and Bret Easton Ellis’s Glamorama. Around the first decade of the 2000s, the term goes on television with Gossip Girl.
Getting media attention, doing little to seek it, even less to get it. The paraphrase is obvious: everything is calculated. The nonchalance of being noticed is just an attitude. The effort to show off is filtered: others talk about me, I don’t talk about myself. We can save a note about the difference between an “It Boy” in New York until the 2000s and the influencer today who never misses the opportunity to post a photo from his bathroom.
The girls who once seemed like princesses and who made people dream of a life of comfort, lose themselves in a selfie and a smirk, becoming nothingness. “She’s forty years old, she’s beautiful: once she stops being hot, she’ll become nice”—someone talked about that one who seemed to have everything that could be called lucky, and who now appears with plastic surgeries and an unexpressed lesbianism.
It was said that Anna Wintour decided to shut down the pages of Socialite Rank. It was said that a gossip appeared on those pages that put the Proenza Schouler duo’s relationship in crisis—at the time protected and nurtured by Wintour until it produced funding.
Anna Wintour, the Met, the first Monday of May: Fashion Must Not Become Banal
At the Met, taking pictures with your phone is forbidden, so that the first release comes from the Vogue digital platform, and from there, the digital amplification can spread out. A correct mechanism that would support the editorial system—if we didn’t realize how the weights have been shifted. The exhibition for which so much clamor is stirred no longer matters; the party for the opening of such an exhibition no longer matters—it’s all about overemphasis so that an image goes viral on TikTok.
Mrs. Wintour seems to no longer remember what nonchalance she used to use so properly. We find her agitated dressing fluorescent and plastic-colored robes. She smiles when she talks about an exhibition titled Sleeping Beauties, and about many flowers in spring. Companies like Gucci and Valentino and many others will close quarters with negative results if fashion stories really become this banal.
