Sour Grapes or the Grapes of Wrath?
For the first time in 12 years, we are not invited to the CFDA Awards – no photographer or reporter on the red carpet; no Marilyn at the cocktail party. I am not surprised given some of the critical comments I have made these past couple of years about the CFDA under the imperial leadership of Diane von Furstenburg – but I am a little sad how petty they really are. Steven Kolb emailed me saying they did not know who our audience was – this after 12 years of us covering the event – thus they could not justify giving us an invite. We sent them all the information they needed, and we did not even get back a reply. And, as we reported last week, KCD said since we did not have a reporter last year on the red carpet, we did not need one this year. The reason we did not have a reporter last year was because KCD would not give us a credential for one. It is Catch-22 all over again.
There is a price for being independent and we are willing to pay it. What others will say only off the record, we say on the record. But fashion is not only an incestuous business, it has become more and more exclusionary under the leadership of DVF. Marilyn is obviously upset about not being invited to the cocktail party – she does vote for the awards and certainly deserves an invitation after all of the years she has worked in our industry? Simply a matter of respect. Of course, deserving is never the reason anyone gets invited to these events, and respect is another word for “what can you do for us?”.
So we will continue to speak out more and more – and on the record. After all, what do we have to lose?
-Ernest Schmatolla
