“You look at her video, and the writing doesn’t sync up with the way she talks about fashion. When I watched that video it smacked of this ethereal vagueness — this vacant like quality where it was like everyone was on Vicodin. Like everyone was uncomfortably dumb except for me. I’m not trying to take anything away from her — her love of fashion, her love of style. She’s either a tween savant or she’s got a Tavi team.” “What am I getting out of a 13-year-old’s opinion about fashion? How does that help me distill the collections? What am I supposed to be buying? That’s what an editor’s job at a magazine is.”
Oh snap. I agree that there seems to be a noticeable disconnect between Tavi’s written and verbal fashion analysis. But whether or not she is her own invention, I just find it fascinating that she exists and has reached the celebrity that she has. On one level, Tavi is another example of how the Internet has become an equalizer of sorts within fashion. Just two years ago it would be unthinkable to see a random guy from Manila sitting front row in Milan (that guy being current blog star Bryanboy). But these days, it’s the outsiders who are the most enthralling. It’s kind of beautiful to see the old guard give way to new and different points of view. On the other hand, the whole Tavi thing exemplifies how the Internet is basically turning us all into a pack of lemmings, rotating from one Next Big Thing* to the next at a faster and faster rate. That and the fact that we’re in a stage where the public seems to value point of view over expertise. In an odd way, Tavi reminds me of Twitter. You can try and dismiss her, but it won’t change the fact that she signifies major change afoot.
For the past few seasons we have been obsessed with the youth internet-driven phenomenon. Partly because we (grown-ups) are looking for inspiration. (1) Our traditional sources have dried up. (2) This begets a critique of society on a whole; celebrity blogging, after all, is an extension of reality TV (without the drama and hysterics of course) or at least its psychological influence on society. Without the Internet, neither Bryan, Tavi, or Jane would exist–or at least not until they graduated from college and started their careers. So the point is that in order to find the next big thing we have to exploit every possible source of content, i.e. fashion obsessed/informed youth on the internet.”
