\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\nSLEEK: How are you surviving the turbulence after the so-called scandal of the Lucinda Chambers interview?<\/strong> \nAnja Aronowsky Cronberg: Now things are back to normal for me: the reporter requests, reader comments and lawyer\u2019s letters have subsided. It\u2019s curious how things explode and then blow over in the blink of an eye.
\nHow does Chambers\u2019 interview relate to authenticity, a tricky subject in the fashion world?<\/strong> \nThe concept of \u201cauthenticity\u201d is very much on my mind right now since it\u2019s this year\u2019s subject for Vestoj Journal. One thing that keeps returning is how often we in the fashion industry presents one persona publicly and reserve another for private interaction. Since the fashion industry tends to be shaped by the collaboration between brands and the media, this dual nature is particularly obvious. I\u2019ve interviewed many insiders over the years and it\u2019s very unusual to hear anyone openly criticizing anything \u2013 there is too much at stake. It\u2019s mostly self-censorship though: journalists and editors are often wary of publishing things that can jeopardise their good relations to a person or a brand. The goodwill of brands has a direct influence on the financial success of a publication, so the \u201cdon\u2019t bite the hand that feeds you\u201d mentality is very common. Though this is understandable, it also makes for a very limited range of creative and journalistic expression. With Vestoj I want to encourage a more open and transparent attitude, and many of the topics I\u2019ve worked on for the annual journal, like \u201cfailure,\u201d \u201cpower\u201d or \u201cshame,\u201d are attempts to reflect on the issues that drive us but that we prefer not to talk openly about.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Vestoj.jpg\")
Vestoj Magazine, Issue 7<\/p>\n
\n“All I can hope for is that hearing someone in power be open about their vulnerabilities might make you feel a little less alone with your own” – Anja Aronowsky Cronberg<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Do you think the Chambers case relates to gender issues within the corporate environment? I heard some people say \u201cshe was so boring, it would have only taken me two minutes to get her fired instead of three\u201d.<\/strong> \nThat sounds like a rather troll-ish declaration to me \u2013 it\u2019s easy to throw controversial statements around if you don\u2019t have to face the consequences. Frankly, I haven\u2019t been thinking about this episode as one played out a certain way because it involves a woman in a corporate environment \u2013 to me it\u2019s more an example of what happens when the smoke and mirrors that we\u2019re used to being surrounded by in fashion crack. The story very quickly took on a life of its own. With the speed at which news travel today, the story itself becomes the news, and the most important thing is to be in on it \u2013 not to add anything new to the narrative.
\nTo me, both Chambers and you have been courageous, but one could also think of people seeing it as petty reaction to getting fired.<\/strong> \nPeople make of things what they will. All I can say is that while on the surface this is the account of a fashion editor\u2019s refusal to remain in line, it\u2019s also about the notorious difficulty to publicly say or publish anything even vaguely critical of the fashion industry\u2019s status quo \u2013 for someone who wants to remain an insider that is. Even the things that \u201eeverybody knows\u201c are obfuscated from the wider public via that screen of smoke and mirrors. We see this in how bland show reviews often are, how magazines kowtow to advertisers and how most write-ups are barely disguised promotional pieces, primarily intended to maintain the existing power dynamic.<\/p>\n\n“Maybe more people will ask whether it is in fact possible to challenge the status quo” – Anja Aronowsky Cronberg<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So in the end it\u2019s all about reputation?<\/strong> \nMarketing ist<\/em> all about reputation, isn\u2019t it? Branding is not about what or who you are, but what you can make people think that you are. It\u2019s not about what\u2019s fake or real, what\u2019s at stake is usually the brand\u2019s image \u2013 \u201cimage\u201d being the operative word. It\u2019s worth asking whether \u201cauthenticity\u201d is still a relevant word in culture<\/strong>. Maybe we\u2019re better off asking questions like that \u2013 at least that\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping to achieve with the issue of Vestoj I\u2019m producing now.
\nDo you believe it has consequences for you or Vestoj<\/em>?<\/strong> \nIt\u2019s too soon to say what the consequences of this whole affair will be for anyone involved. As for Vestoj, it\u2019s true that the platform has received a lot of media attention recently, but what that leads to, who knows? Media storms blow over quickly, and often very little remains. As for me, all I can do is to keep working, creating this alternative way of engaging with fashion that a few more people know about now. And at the risk of sounding cheesy, all I can hope for is that hearing someone in power be open about their vulnerabilities might make you feel a little less alone with your own. I hope that Lucinda’s interview, and its subsequent fall-out, also presents an opportunity to examine\u00a0why it is so hard to be critical in fashion, and look at who gains from the industry\u2019s rigid and static power structure \u2013 but also at how the fashion system mimics a wider social environment where elites dominate the media and dissidents are typically marginalized. And in light of Lucinda\u2019s sincerity and candidness, maybe more people will ask whether it is in fact possible to challenge the status quo, and, if so, how?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vestoj Editor in Chief, Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, speaks for the first time about the British Vogue fashion director controversy and fashion\u2019s problem with honesty<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[9039,9040,9041,9042,9043,9044,2483],"class_list":["post-54609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","tag-anja-aronovsky","tag-aronowsky-cronberg","tag-fashion-industry","tag-lucinda-chambers","tag-scandal","tag-vestoj","tag-vogue"],"acf":{"legacy":true,"main_category":false,"exclude_from_ads":[],"hero_title":"","subtitle":"","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":false,"width":"4","proportion":"default"},"facebook_image":false,"related_articles":"","next_article":"","content":false},"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Anja](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Anja-Aranowsky-Still-from-Vestoj-Vimeo.jpg\")
Anja Aronowsky Cronberg