It is important to talk about! San Francisco Fashion Week is silencing the New Media. How dare they!

How incredibly short sighted of SF Fashion Week.

..definitely important to talk about - thanks for highlighting this issue. i think in some ways bloggers are becoming more of the press than the traditional press, except if the industry admitted that, it would mean huge changes, and obviously shake-ups and a redefining of roles. i believe it will happen regardless, and it is a good thing - bloggers are connected to media consumers in a way that traditional press is not, and i think it is incredibly positive and should be welcomed…oh well, their loss.

This is a great post Jennine and i agree with Nic; there are way too many closed minds in the fashion business today afraid of ‘loosing’ their ‘reigns’.
Bloggers are a ‘free of speech press’ (no one gives bloggers free samples of anything to talk about), so that might scare more than one.
I understand that they can not give invitations to every single fashion blogger that request them, the same way that they also need to select the kind of press that will visit their shows. BUT, they don’t even try to take a look to your blog and decide, they just decline a priori.
Nevertheless, i also must say that this is my impression of something happening only in the US, as i see in other countries like France or England where their fashion weeks are fully covered with fashionista bloggers.
Correct me if I’m wrong, i would love to hear the other side of the story.

thanks for the comments… it is an important issue to talk about. i never really thought of myself as the press until now. it’s important to consider these matters.

honestly, i’m still sorting out how i feel about this whole situation, but there are some really great points here.

thank you.

it seems to me like the neglect to include certain, qualified bloggers as members of the press is related to what i believe is the fashion world’s general ignorance of younger, more modern audiences. at twenty years old, a college student, i can’t afford WWD but i absolutely love reading blogs and have found much inspiration and information in them. sure, marc jacobs uses flannel once in a while, but the fashion world at large couldn’t give less of a care about the young adults out here looking to appreciate.

major bummer!!! Don’t miss out on it due to their shortsightnedness though!

I agree with ams, go no matter what! I’d love to hear your report! Good luck!

Dear Jeannine:

This is Donna, the PR director for SF Fashion Week. I appreciate your interest in covering the event, but I stand by my decision to not issue free passes to bloggers at this time. We have an extremely limited number of industry passes to this event, and unfortunately we have to limit what we can give out and must reserve them for accredited members of the journalism community, buyers and stylists.

I respect and support your right to blog about fashion. Our decision is not a personal slight against you or the many individuals out there who also blog about fashion and related topics.

We hope to see you at SFFW 2007.

Best,
Donna Berry

For years I have had high hopes for San Francisco Fashion Week - I always think that we should have one that’s on a par with other cosmopolitan, style-making cities. The last few years, SFFW has been shrouded by some scandal and suspicion, but I am happy that we’re beginning to move out of that and into something more professional.

It is still disappointing that this “professionalism” is limiting the new media simply by virtue of their being new and “non-accredited.” It may not be personal, but it smacks of snobbishness - and isn’t that why we’re all doing independent fashion writing? To get away from the elite snobbery.

I wouldn’t worry about it so much though - in my mind I’m going to let SFFW actually prove itself as a significant fashion venue before I get deflated about not being invited. I’ve had my hopes raised too many times in the past!

Ms. Berry’s decision to discriminate against bloggers says much more about her Public Relations aptitude than it does about the blogosphere. I wouldn’t necessarily hold her ill-advised decision against the entire SFFW. Perhaps they made a bad hire in Ms. Berry. I am willing to bet it gets rectified in the near future.

Hey there, thank you for all your comments. There are some excellent points in here.

I will post about this in the near future, until then, I still need to sort out some of my thoughts, and some facts.

Thanks again…. and keep talking about this, it’s not just about fashion week… there are other bloggers who are shut out of press conferences regardless of the size and influence of their audiences.

I think it opens a bigger question of when to consider a blog a journalistic source.

Again, the comments of your supporters really reflect what I think about SFFW’s decision. I really do think that leaving bloggers out (who have no editors and no one to answer to) is a way of controlling what is said in the media about each collection. That’s bs. Especially in place as self-reportedly progressive as San Francisco.

I agree with anonymous @11:20.
I would love to get all up in arms about this issue. But unfortunately so many PR practitioners have no idea how to use bloggers and the blogosphere as a media tool. Poor things. They’ll figure it out eventually. Some of these PR folks are stuck in tradition that is no longer working. I think the fashion industry is the slowest of all.

Those who understand the impact of reaching key bloggers will truly excel at new media relations. Those who are slow to joining the party will be sending out press releases to journalists who no longer have magazines to write for.

I was enraged that you were denied access to the SF Fashion week. As a fashion designer myself, I depend liked bloggers such as yourself to keep me my finger on the pulse of today’s latest fashion trends. This unfortunate incident has a silver lining because I just discovered your amazing blog!!
Gail (www.gschneiderdesigns.com)

I’ve worked with Donna Berry before, as well as the SFFW team. While I also think it’s a shame that they’ve decided against giving away passes to bloggers, especially with the publicity impact that comes from public forums for discussion like blogs(i know many designers would have appreciated the blogger attention).

At the same time, I wouldn’t hold Donna specifically accountable for the choice to deny press passes to bloggers, especially if they’re not familiar with the bloggers’ reputations, etc. I think giving out a limited number of passes would be a decent idea, but in all honesty, I doubt Donna is solely responsible for this decision. She is working for a client and it’s generally the client who has the final say.

[...] I never thought bloggers would make interesting subject matter… I mean, many of us take loads of pictures of ourselves… but as blogs become more and more established, it makes sense. Gosh, I remember last year, when SF Fashion Week said blogs didn’t count as press. [...]

SF Fashion Week is so wrong, blogs are more important then never and since now i don´t wanna post anything from there…nice to know about that

a kiss!!