The New York Times ran an article in the fashion section today written by Cathy Horyn on the revelation first reported by Horacio Silva & Ben Widdicomb of hintmag.com that Nicolas Ghesequiere copied the work of a little known designer named Kaisik Wong. Putting the merits of the issue aside for a moment, Horacio & Ben have made a name for themselves and hintmag.com by obsessive reporting on the troubled personal lives and public demeanor of some of the fashion industry’s biggest names. While much of what they report is presented in the name of entertainment and has already been reported elsewhere first, it is also true that their gossiping comes at the expense of publicly embarrassing others. One thing about people in fashion is that they have a very long memory. If these two fellows continue to “bite the hand that feeds them” they may find access to more and more events being closed to them. And worse, by continuing on trashing others they open themselves up for the same kind of treatment. What goes around eventually comes around…
And speaking to Cathy Horyn is it really necessary to so publicly humiliate Nicolas Ghesequiere? Like you did not know that designers use earlier works by others as inspiration or out right copy them. What are all those designers doing in the flea/vintage markets every Sunday – looking for bargains? I would say that copying is as much a part of the creative process as editors accepting free gifts, travel, goody bags and other perks from designers who they are supposed to be reviewing. And worse, we know of one NY Times Company fashion & beauty editor who for years and years not only took and took everything that was offered to her, but actually had a guy she would give the “loot” to to sell for cash. I can just imagine what those two media whores from Hint would do with that story.
We just can not understand why you would stoop to this kind of article. It is not like you came up with the info on your own. Were you afraid that someone else would get the story? Is there a promised or implied payback coming for these two “columnists” in a future story about them in your column? It is going to be interesting to watch and comment on.
