I read with amusement a column in today’s WWD: ‘STICKY FINGERS’, where they observed, “At this rate, Harper’s Bazaar’s fashion closet will soon be the victim of a daring daylight robbery. The week after both Vogue and WWD’s sibling W admitted their closets suffered from staff-related “losses,” a thief snuck into Nylon’s offices overnight on Thursday and raided the racks.”
As someone who worked as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar years ago, I can attest to the fact that fashion thefts are nothing new- but rather, a fairly common, ongoing problem. Appealing objects- from shoes and bags, to clothing and jewelry- often ‘went missing’ and there was constant speculation on whom the offender(s) was. Of course, most of us never knew or understood the scope of the problem because generally, the guilty party would simply ‘borrow’ the items for specific events, parties, dates, and events, and would return to the closet as soon as possible. At one point, Hearst even hired a woman to ‘man’ the closets and to really monitor the comings and goings.
But regardless, it was pretty much understood that the thief was not some poor, homeless ‘shnuck’ trying to sell the chic loot in order to pay bills- but rather, a well dressed staffer who simply ‘had to’ have the newest, hottest, ‘must have’ item, and who wanted to look as fashionable and up to the minute as possible.
