Rantings of the Florentine Diva

Fashion journalism in the Philippines has always been a shady area, not really acknowledged for it's "legitimacy" so to speak. We do have fashion magazines and lifestyle sections but I think it's still a challenge for many of those who work in these fields to remain relevant to their readers and target market. I think that this is especially true for fashion columnists in newspapers. All topics by the writers are steeped in heavy self-promotion and misplaced conceit. When you are a busy woman, who only has a few minutes to scan the fashion news, and check out what's happening out there, you certainly don't want to know what "one or two items" a writer has been losing sleep over. I mean, really, who gives a sh*t if out of desperation for "cream colored Zara go-go boots" the "writer" ends up buying something half a size smaller? If you're gonna be writing about boots honey, then stick to the damn subject! Do I have to read the telegraph website just to get a straightforward reporting on jeans and other trends? It's such a pain but local fashion sections in newspapers have become the personal "style diaries" of a few, relatively unknown people, and that is a disservice to the readers. Articles are peppered with "I" "My friends" "I think". It's mind boggling how the "lifestyle section" has become a barkada's little project.

Sunday lifestyle is worse, god, I always end up laughing at the stupid columns and feature articles that somehow got final approval from the editor. You'll have some woman writing about her house chores or something like that. The writer says "There are better things I can think of doing other than counting how many light bulbs need to be changed," I wanted to scream back, "And I have better things to do than read about how you color code your damn towels!" Somehow these people engage in a seriously demented form of escapism by writing about mundane issues that are far from the norm in our little third-world corner. Ok some of you might say, that's like the pot calling the kettle black, but please, atleast we're not pretending to be something we're not over here. This blog IS the style-diary of two people, there is no question about that. We don't have to be relevant because this is OUR space.

ok, just had to get that out of my system...