Vanessa Friedman



Profile:
Full name: Vanessa Friedman

Area of interest: Fashion

Journals/Organisation: Financial Times

Email: [mailto:vanessa.friedman@ft.com vanessa.friedman@ft.com]

Personal website:

Website: FT.Com / Vanessa Friedman

Blog:

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/1VAFI | http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/873/997



Biography:
About:

Education: Princeton University

Career: Financial Times: Fashion Correspondent; The Economist: Arts Contributor; American Elle: European Editor; In Style: Features director (at UK launch); Financial Times: fashion editor (since 2002)

 Current position/role: fashion editor


 * also writes/has written for: Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair

Other roles/Main role: Before joining the FT as Fashion Editor Vanessa was the Fashion Features Director for In Style UK, a position she held since 2000. Previous to this she worked as a Fashion Correspondent for the FT, as an Arts Contributor at The Economist and was the European Editor at American Elle

Other activities:

Viewpoints/Insight:

Broadcast media:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours:

Other:



Books & Debate:


Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances: Zimbio: Vanessa Friedman Pictures - Fashion editor of the Financial Times Vanessa Friedman attends the DKNY Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at The Tent in Bryant Park on September 7, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Will Ragozzino/Getty Images North America)



Financial Times:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Fashion and style

Section: FT Weekend / Style

Role: Columnist, fashion editor

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:vanessa.friedman@ft.com vanessa.friedman@ft.com]

Website: FT.Com / Vanessa Friedman

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Saturday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2014

 * Meet the Tutters - Is it the food? The service? This audible punctuation of exasperation by a special breed of customer has a surprising explanation - 19th April
 * Latin lessons in dressing - Bachelet and Rousseff seem to have adopted the Angela Merkel approach to dressing: adopt a uniform - 29th March
 * Latin lessons in dressing - Bachelet and Rousseff seem to have adopted the Angela Merkel approach to dressing: adopt a uniform - 22nd March
 * A victory for resilience - No matter where you go, and no matter how counter-intuitive it seems, when things get thorny, you often find fashion - 15th March
 * Is fashion too safe? - Fashion is predicated on giving people what they did not know they wanted - 1st March
 * Caught in the vortex of pop culture storm - Dilemma between look-at-me outfits or clinging to old formulas - 15th February
 * Is fashion too safe? - Fashion is predicated on giving people what they did not know they wanted - 8th February
 * The art of new beginnings - The Miley Cyrus narrative arc doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by, well, design - 25th January
 * Out of the heat, back in the kitchen - Nigella Lawson doesn’t seem to want to change her image. But that image doesn’t reflect the wringer she has come through - 11th January



Articles: 2013

 * Style lessons for a new year - Nelson Mandela clearly took clothes – and their power – seriously, and perhaps we should, too - 28th December
 * The great cover-up - It’s an open secret in the fashion world that Kate Moss looks her age – sorry if that bursts any bubbles. My bad - 21st December
 * What fashion brings to the tech world - Getting a fashion designer on board would be a boon to any tech company - 14th December
 * Fashion learns the art of film - Rather than use culture to enable product promotion, the brand becomes an enabler of culture - 30th November
 * Fashion learns the art of film - Rather than use culture to enable product promotion, the brand becomes an enabler of culture - 23rd November
 * Blow for the unexpected - Isabella Blow’s personal style represents a kind of insider surety that we no longer have - 16th November
 * De Blasios blaze a trail - Allowing individuals to look individual does not mean ceding any power of image – it may actually mean increasing it - 9th November
 * Gucci goes big for Milan Fashion Week - Jumpsuits join the mix in a show that’s the opposite of discrete - 18th September
 * Manhattan mix - Prints, fringes and sportswear are the key trends from New York Fashion Week - 14th September
 * On trend at the multiplex - Fashion can creep up on you, especially when it’s disguised as pop culture - 24th August
 * On trend at the multiplex - Fashion can creep up on you, especially when it’s disguised as pop culture - 17th August
 * A Sam Cam for 7th Avenue? - Huma Abedin is a fashion dream: 37 years old, very smart and very elegant - 10th August
 * Crème de la crème puff - What the Cronut and the Birkin have in common - 27th July
 * The ultimate dress-down showcase - The conference features a form of reverse power play: who can appear to care the least? - 20th July
 * Forty-three-carat Carla - France’s former first lady was a model – so why shouldn’t she return to what she knows? - 13th July
 * Couture vs culture - Vanessa Friedman reports from the Paris shows - 5th July
 * Tailor-made for the role - If Edward Snowden didn’t exist, Hollywood would probably have invented him - 28th June
 * The knotty message of the no-tie decree - If one man had worn a tie it would, ironically, have been subversive - 22nd June
 * What to wear at the revolution - Clothes have the power to provoke a whole set of assumptions and personal reactions on the part of a viewer - 15th June
 * The end of seasons - ‘Nina Ricci’s new mini-collection should be called ‘pre-pre-spring’ – but that’s really too silly’ - 8th June
 * Beckham’s next goal - To make high-end menswear would empty the athlete’s brand of its values - 25th May
 * Clothes can remake the man - Why the maverick fashion designer needs to dress down - 18th May
 * Does art really sell product? - Consumers feel at ease judging fashion but there’s a degree of self-doubt in buying a sculpture - 11th May
 * Public image versus private finance - ‘I can’t begin to speculate on the cost of, say, Michelle Obama’s wardrobe’ - 27th April
 * Earth to Bloomberg - Finding New York’s mayor on the cover of an Italian style magazine read far from home was a little odd - 20th April
 * An image cast in iron - Margaret Thatcher understood the power of the consistent persona, of dress as shorthand - 13th April
 * Pope and circumstance - Since his selection at the papal conclave, Pope Francis has been communicating through his clothes - 30th March
 * Sheryl Sandberg’s mistake - Why didn’t she ever write about how she decided what to wear in an office filled with guys in hoodies? - 23rd March
 * Is it all right for the kids? - London is about to welcome its first children’s fashion week, and the potential to accessorise with controversy is high - 16th March
 * Milan Fashion Week 2013 - The key autumn/winter trends, straight from the runways - 2nd March
 * Spikes and seams - Punk accessories were a dominant theme on and off the catwalks in Milan - 2nd March
 * Marni-Armani forge old ideas in new light - Armani is still fascinated with Asia, Marni focuses on two latitudes - 25th February
 * Designers preserve fabric of New York show - While most New York designers seem to have accepted the current transformation of the shows as inevitable in today’s livestream culture, others are simply in denial – or taking a stand against it - 2nd March
 * The catwalk in your living room - If things look weird on the catwalk, then imagine seeing them on Netflix - 9th February
 * Whose dress will go to the ball? - Speculation is rife on which designer’s clothes Michelle Obama will wear for her husband’s inauguration - 26th January
 * Whose dress will go to the ball? - Speculation is rife on which designer whose clothes Michelle Obama will wear for her husband’s inauguration - 19th January
 * Golden Globe opportunity - A nominee will ensure eyeballs on a pre-fall dress and, ideally, consumers in stores - 12th January



Articles: 2012
Selected articles
 * Barack and the supermodel - The US president and Kate Moss have adopted the same approach to dressing - 29th December
 * Fashion's new look - After two profitable decades, the sector is fragmenting as tastes in emerging markets shift - 24th December
 * Fashionable page-turners - The language of fashion is fast becoming the language of publishing - 22nd December
 * Animal instincts - These pelt-loving designers are also among the most public pet-loving individuals - 15th December
 * The appeal of true Brit - It’s been years since so much buzz has been heard about UK designers - 8th December
 * Arms and the woman - Well-toned muscles represent strength and our own conflicted relationship to gender politics - 23rd November
 * Be grateful for Grace - Two new books offer a riposte to the idea that practically anyone can be a fashion editor - 17th November
 * New term, old dress - Michelle Obama’s decision to wear an old dress on election night was a conscious choice about changing the agenda -10th November
 * McQueen of hearts - The myth has to do with nostalgia for the kind of designer he was, and for a time that no longer exists - 27th October
 * It’s the accessory, stupid - As shown by the presidential and vice-presidential debates in the US, menswear is no friend of the man-on-man stand-off - 20th October
 * Belles de jour ... et nuit - From swish suits and sweatshirts to gowns inspired by royals from fact and fiction, Paris trends for spring/summer 2013 can brighten any part of day - 6th October
 * Politics of perception in the image age - Isn’t it time we started to take fashion spin seriously? - 29th September
 * Star Trek and stripes - The FT’s fashion editor reports on trends for spring/summer 2013 at New York Fashion Week - 15th September
 * A vote for everyone - With an election on the horizon, designers found most success by being more things to more people - 15th September
 * Politics of perception in the image age - Isn’t it about time we all started to take fashion spin seriously? - 8th September
 * Tied to the election - Is it possible to call a presidential race based on clothes? My own speculation centres on neck ties - 25th August
 * Tales of ageing in a business of youthfulness - ‘About Face’ entertains but never addresses the really relevant issues - 23rd August
 * Cuffed by a colour - Designers are betting that the popularity of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ will act as a spur to send consumers into stores - 11th August
 * Holiday horrors - Any time a leader dons a bathing suit, or the equivalent, they are exposing themselves to ridicule - 28th July
 * Racing for the bottom line - The commercial aspect of the modern Olympics dictates that every country tries to wring as much as possible out of it - 21st July
 * Paris couture report - Armani, Chanel, Elie Saab, Gaultier, Givenchy, Versace, Valli, Valentino - and Raf Simmons’ debut at Dior - 7th July
 * Forget the It bag, the It bike is here - It is increasingly clear that the accessory you really need to be up to speed fashion-wise is a two-wheeled transport - 30th June
 * Fact and fantasy in the newsroom - On-screen reporters always have the benefit of a better costume department than the real thing - 23rd June
 * Mum’s the word for designers - Young fashion business founders are turning to their high-flying mothers for help - 21st June
 * Fascinators: an obituary - In the race to out-milliner the woman next door, these inexplicable quasi-hats have become towering temples of absurdity - 16th June
 * Holding court in style - Why it matters what Rebekah Brooks wears - 9th June
 * Bold platforms for France’s new agenda - If anyone understands how clothing is used as an image-making tool by public figures, Valerie Trierweiler does - 26th May
 * The problem with skinny models - If we get used to seeing all kinds of bodies, all kinds of bodies will lose their stigmas - 19th May
 * Cannes is film’s own fashion week'' - The festival has become the single most important film event of the year in marketing terms - 12th May
 * Squandering a royal style opportunity - The job of the Duchess of Cambridge is to define what monarchy means to the new generation - 28th April
 * Will France vote bling or bland? - How candidates look reflects not just their opposing personal styles but their style of government - 21st April
 * Up at last with ‘Downton’ - The TV show is a cross-border fashion phenomenon, rooted in a period that was never part of the historical grab-bag - 14th April
 * When fashion is stranger than fiction - Three revolutionary fashion initiatives prove that even the grandest and most far-fetched idea might just be possible - 31st March
 * A spot-on sartorial satire - Fashion’s extremity of appearance, values and language makes it a perfect subject of satire as seen in ‘The Hunger Games’ - 24th March
 * Fashion fixers - It is a nice surprise to discover designers coming up with ingenious solutions to sartorial hassles - 10th March
 * Paris fashion shows - All the latest on the autumn/winter women’s wear trends by the FT’s fashion editor - 10th March
 * Milan Fashion Week - The FT’s fashion editor Vanessa Friedman reports from the Milan catwalk - 25th February
 * New York fashion week - The FT’s style editor reports on the autumn/winter 2012 women’s wear trends - 18th February
 * Flights of fancy - Harking back to an era of jetsetters, socialites and movie legends, Paris couture was weighed down by history - 28th January
 * The politics of sweater vests - The question now is whether 2012 will mark the year that politicians embrace fashion as a weapon in their campaign arsenal - 21st January
 * A farewell to silly snow gear - Vanessa Friedman, passing the umpteenth advert on the New York City subway for ‘heat-tech’ clothing, decides to give technology a try - 14th January



Articles: 2011
Selected articles
 * No news is good news - Vanessa Friedman mulls over what to pick as the most important fashion moment of the year but comes up with nothing - 24th December
 * The problem with pre-fall - Vanessa Friedman finds the concept something of a mind-game. But there seems to be fashion breeds whose needs are satisfied by it - 17th December
 * The allure of Alaïa - A retrospective of the Tunisian designer at the Groninger Museum demonstrates the benefits of taking the long view - 10th December
 * days for politicians'' - Silvio Berlusconi’s hair and dress style is a pretty neat expression of his approach to life and governing - 26th November
 * Good luxe - Vanessa Friedman investigates a growing trend: the use of high-end fashion to promote humanitarian causes in the developing world - 19th November
 * Dress to protest - How do you signal your membership in the underground when its clothes have become the indulgence of the establishment? - 12th November
 * When personnel get personal - The relationship between two senior Gucci executives offers lessons in how to manage romance in the office - 29th October
 * Steve Jobs: fashion inspiration - Without the Apple co-founder, would it have occurred to anyone that technology could be an aspirational accessory - 15th October
 * All that glitters - While designers displayed an obsession with classic couture detailing, Paris accessories focused on surface technique - 8th October
 * The strong pull of the past - Tradition and designers’ own limits prove obstacles to leaving history behind as heritage hangs heavy - 1st October
 * Fresh style with commercial allure - British designers, such as Christopher Kane, Burberry and Erdem, are succeding in creating original clothes with a wider appeal - 24th September
 * Safari through the American dream - New York Fashion Week’s collections embodied the sense of possibility that created the great US melting pot. These well illustrated fashion’s very skewed sense of history - 17th September
 * Facebook, fashion and fantasy - The success of the social networking site has not done the twentysomethings that grew up in its shadow any favours - 10th September
 * Luxury: the next generation - As New York fashion week begins, Vanessa Friedman spotlights the family members poised to take the reins at the world’s biggest brands - 10th September
 * Taylor’s gift of glamour'' - As summer draws to a close and September looms Vanessa Friedman predicts that the unabashedly indulgent film star will be the style icon of the season - 27th August
 * is Pippa on a pedestal?'' - The elevation of the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister to style icon status is one of the strangest events of the summer - 13th August
 * latest blockbuster'' - ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ borrows from the industry not when it comes to costumes but rather its baseline concepts - 30th July
 * confusion'' - Vanessa Friedman makes sense of the mind-boggling shows at this week’s couture collections in Paris - 9th July
 * wedding dress, part two'' - Whatever Kate Moss wears when she marries Kills guitarist Jamie Hince will set trends for the foreseeable future - 25th June
 * longer a Cinderfella'' - Whether it’s web retailer Mr Porter or Hermès’s men-only stores, it seems the XY set is having a fashion moment - 19th June
 * the Vogue brandwagon'' - Brands have been around since Mesopotamia. But we haven’t been obsessed with becoming them until recently - 11th June
 * plays a new game'' - Vanessa Friedman finds it surprising that the athlete’s bodywear is clearly built around him, in a way that wife Victoria’s clothing line, with its aspiration to real design, is not - 28th May
 * job that’s tailor-made for an Italian?'' - Generally, bankers’ dress is not ascribed to country of origin, but a sartorial stereotype sticks to Mario Draghi, just-nominated ECB chieftain - 21st May
 * clues in Carla’s clothes'' - Is the French first lady’s recent use of shawls an indication that she is pregnant? Vanessa Friedman would not rely on waist-related maternity fashion to give the game away - 14th May
 * choices'' - The new princess and style icon’s fashion accessibility – its very banality – helps render the royal family more accessible - 30th April
 * in a crisis'' - For Vanessa Friedman, the narrative of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami has, in part, been a story told through clothes; a drama in three sartorial acts - 23rd April
 * in the News: Angela Ahrendts'' - Burberry’s all-American boss is selling Britishness to the world - 23rd April
 * Day and a sea change'' - The eco-fashion question has forced Vanessa Friedman out of her comfort zone and into a growing sense of systemic change, at least at the upper end of the spectrum - 16th April
 * guests’ dress-code challenge'' - Fascinators, court shoes and coats. Is there no way to be an elegant royal wedding guest without adopting any of these unfortunate traditions - 9th April
 * deliberate non-statement'' - While George Osborne’s Budget-day attire may seem like quite a ‘duh!’ sort of thing, Vanessa Friedman thinks it was more carefully considered than that - 26th March
 * to court the courtroom'' - Amid a number of celebrity cases that seem to be reaching trial,Vanessa Friedman considers how to use style as strategy during a courthouse appearance - 19th March
 * from Paris Fashion Week'' - Transparency appears in sheer tops, skirts and trousers, while elegant caped heroines make visual statements on the runways of the autumn 2011 women’s wear shows - 12th March
 * Creative destruction'' - John Galliano, whose downfall culminated this week in his firing from Dior, is only the latest in a line of designers facing growing pressure to keep pace with high-street brands - 5th March
 * dressers'' - Fashion has always irritated and intrigued female politicians and first ladies. Now a book by Robb Young decodes how they craft their image - 19th February
 * fashion films are flops'' - When it comes to reel life clothes should be the background to the action; you want your wardrobe to be a catalyst, not the point - 12th February
 * about the atelier'' - Maybe we should forget the elitism couture represents and think instead about the economic benefits it involves: all the seamstresses it keeps employed - 29th January
 * and the hoodie'' - Now that he is worth $14bn and has been able to get the establishment on board, Vanessa Friedman thinks Mark Zuckerberg should start dressing like a responsible person - 15th January



Articles: 2010

 * catwalk to coffee table'' - Fashion, even in book form, is capable of providing endless distraction for the mind as well as the eye - 24th December
 * to gift wrap the news'' - Vanessa Friedman believes there is a lot of gifting opportunity that is not being seized – for example, why hasn’t the new government started its own brand of ‘austerity’ products? - 18th December
 * new face of WikiLeaks'' - In all the hoo-ha about the arrest of Julian Assange, it seems that no one else has noticed the website founder’s makeover - 11th December
 * come the sequins'' - If it’s late November, it must be time to turn off all critical faculties and embrace the sartorial cliché, both on screen and in the closet - 27th November
 * Kate wears and why it matters'' - How the probable future queen of England looks on her wedding day is not just a fashion issue – it’s also a political, cultural and economic one - 20th November
 * by Blow accounts'' - Vanessa Friedman reads two memoirs about Isabella Blow, the late British fashion editor, and discovers that the same subject can be presented in entirely different ways - 13th November
 * Congress, new closet'' - Vanessa Friedman thinks that politicians are increasingly becoming sartorial role models – when they change position, so do the winds of trend - 30th October
 * transformation'' - Vanessa Friedman says that there are more subtle ways for pop star Taylor Swift, who has been seen wearing black leather and Roberto Cavalli, to change her fairy princess image - 23rd October
 * from Paris fashion week'' - Vanessa Friedman reviews tropical vacation-inspired looks from Christian Dior, sleeveless jackets from Yves Saint Laurent and fluffy feathers from Chanel - 9th October
 * fashion week'' - Gucci and Pucci propose fringes, Marni and Moschino say primary coloured stripes are It for spring and D&G and Fendi bring back 1970s dresses - 2nd October
 * pick of New York fashion week'' - Vanessa Friedman reviews the latest trends for next spring/summer – long white dresses, high-waisted, loose trouser suits and midriff-baring looks - 18th September
 * a rip in the world’s fabric'' - Amid the hoopla that surrounds the fashion season, Vanessa Friedman hopes there’s a space for some acknowledgement of an event that mattered, in a very essential way - 11th September
 * issue with September'' - Vanessa Friedman surveys the month’s thick, door-stopping fashion glossies, whose contents seem designed to provoke – although what, exactly, is the point of the provocation is not clear - 21st August
 * pray, love – and shop'' - For people who made a film about finding inner truth, the crew of Julia Roberts’s latest movie have taken a surprisingly worldy approach to marketing - 14th August
 * big day'' - Will Chelsea Clinton wear Oscar de la Renta or Vera Wang when she walks down the aisle? Vanessa Friedman explains our rabid curiosity with the name on the label of clothes - 31st July
 * à la mode'' - After seeing Peter Mandelson’s new memoir, Vanessa Friedman says it’s about time that politicians get in on the celebrity clothing collection act - 24th July
 * couture report'' - Big fashion houses seem to be looking back, and are doing so with a nostalgic air, as if pining after the days when couture set the agenda - 10th July
 * old for tuxedo bloomers?'' - Spending the past few weeks immersed in the World Cup has led Vanessa Friedman back to her obsession with age-appropriate clothing and what that actually means - 26th June
 * in fathers’ eyes'' - The svelte new iPhone and iPad show that technology can profit greatly from being treated like fashion - 19th June
 * ability: Fiorina’s style more Pelosi than Palin'' - Carly Fiorina may be one of Sarah Palin’s “Mama Grizzlies” – the “emerging, conservative feminist” Republican women who took this week’s American electoral primaries by storm – but in one respect she seems to be as close to her would-be colleagues on the opposite side of the party politic, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, as she is to Ms Palin herself: her choice of clothing - 12th June
 * have found my soul mate'' - Fashion designer Riccardo Tisci and artist Marina Abramovic discuss their symbiotic friendship and their creative professional relationship - 5th June
 * matrimony'' - Whether or not Prince William and Kate Middleton are announcing their engagement soon, Vanessa Friedman enthuses about a royal wedding and speculates on who should make the bride’s gown - 29th May
 * ability: Why slick is not smart for oil chiefs'' - Vanessa Friedman on the sartorial choices of oil executives - 27th May
 * I'm not a 'Miranda''' - Rather than being role models of fashion, the women of ‘Sex and the City’ have become examples of what to avoid - 22nd May
 * to wear with a crutch'' - After undergoing surgery a few weeks ago, Vanessa Friedman realises that she had never once thought about how she would dress if injury suddenly entered the picture - 15th May
 * put the app in apparel?'' - It took some time before Vanessa Friedman could figure out Style Star, the product Microsoft will be introducing at the Cannes Film Festival - 8th May
 * ability: The colour of money'' - Financiers no longer believe greed is good – or at least they want to look as though they don’t. So Hank Paulson’s politically correct attire at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing seemed to suggest, anyway - 8th May
 * wardrobes: Gordon Brown'' - Staying true to his sartorial signature, the PM has made his clothing a uniform reflecting efficiency and lack of artifice, with the exception of his soft-tone ties - 2nd May
 * ability: The ties that bind'' - Though Thursday’s UK prime ministerial debate was supposed to be about following the money, the real surprise was reserved for those of us who had followed the ties. The neckties. Especially Nick Clegg’s neckties - 1st May
 * wardrobes: David Cameron'' - The Tory party leader’s echo of the Barack Obama look suggests the possibility of the same youthful change in Britain as in the US - 24th April
 * wardrobes: Nick Clegg'' - Vanessa Friedman examines the sartorial style of the Liberal Democrats’ bet and the interesting evolution of his wardrobe since becoming the party’s leader in 2007 - 16th April
 * Tiger Woods'' - The revelation of the golfer’s human foibles may have been a good thing, not just for the man himself but for his sponsors - 10th April
 * ability: ASEAN unity'' - At the opening of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Hanoi, a certain unity of colour, if not political agenda, governed the stage - 8th April
 * and exposed'' - The new company specialising in the ‘improvement’ of one’s Facebook photos clearly had its eye on the market - 27th March
 * grown women wear leather?'' - A middle-aged woman can pull off a punk-inspired look. But there’s a fine line between being embarrassed and being cool - 20th March
 * from Paris fashion week'' - This autumn, look forward to armour-like creations, masculine overcoats and a proliferation of flowers and frou-frou - 13th March
 * from Milan fashion week'' - The fight against size zero has had an effect on the fashion industry, with Milanese designers creating clothes that emphasise curves and look better on girls with flesh - 6th March
 * York fashion week'' - Ruffles, 3D flowers, furs, checks, plaids and tweeds are the new looks for the autumn/winter trends presented at the New York fashion week -20th February
 * to dress under stress'' - Since judgments are rendered as soon as we step into public view, a personal crisis demands that we should take an approach to what we wear - 13th February
 * fashion: what does green mean?'' - The fashion world has been slow to pin down terms such as ‘eco’, ‘organic’ and ‘ethical’ - 6th February
 * Edge: Charles, defender of the fleece'' - Whether Prince Charles is the man to render wool fashionable is a matter of opinion, for it is not Royals but the mass market that needs convincing - 30th January
 * ability: Lady in red'' - Hillary Clinton’s jacket as she spoke of internet freedom said it all: military red, glinting with gold buttons, topping standard black trousers – the civilian equivalent of a general’s dress uniform - 30th January
 * shirts and punchbags'' - Vanessa Friedman offers tips for demonstrating wardrobe empathy to financial figureheads, who can only do so much with the usual suit, shirt and tie - 23rd January
 * in the face of fashion'' - Vanessa Friedman wonders whether Ricky Gervais, as Golden Globes host, will make his usual snide comments about the nominees and whether this marks the beginning of the end of the fashion/Hollywood symbiosis - 16th January
 * Noughtiest of them all'' - It is not possible to name the person who was most influential in fashion between 2000-10, says Vanessa Friedman, but there is someone who embodied the zeitgeist of the decade - 9th January



Articles: 2009

 * the ‘us’ in bonus'' - A big Christmas pay-off should result in bigger bottom lines for UK retailers; deferring it until next year due to the taxation issue will be good for Spain or Italy - 19th December
 * and suitability'' - As she packs to go to a sustainable fashion conference in Copenhagen, Vanessa Friedman ponders why women’s clothes are more subject to ethical scrutiny than men’s - 12th December
 * trouser seller’s great strides'' - Andy Dunn and his partner ignored the sceptics to create Bonobos.com, a business that sells men’s clothing online - 1st December
 * thanks for Black Friday'' - Why is the fun, shop-till-you-drop day in America called Black Friday? Vanessa Friedman wonders if the term implies that ‘shopping = bad’ - 28th November
 * hair apparent'' - Sarah Palin and Robert Pattinson have subversively touchable tresses and Vanessa Friedman thinks has real economic and aesthetic repercussions for us all - 21st November
 * needs a man who’s suited to the job'' - A world leader doesn’t just have to think about the provenance of his wardrobe, he must also take into account the way it looks on him - 14th November
 * propriety at the school gate'' - In a sea of parents or babysitters clad in jeans, appearing in a quasi-skating dress and platforms is to feel like a freak and invite glances and speculation - 31st October
 * maketh the Goldman'' - Lloyd Blankfein’s suits and ties seem to represent his personal success, as well as the bank’s - 24th October
 * to photographer Irving Penn'' - Vanessa Friedman remembers the man whose still-lifes – perfectly, pristinely, imagined and arranged – were primers in how not to condescend - 17th October
 * from Paris fashion week'' - Add a little touch of feminine mystique in your wardrobe with ruffles, bi-level skirts and white shirts that are surely next season’s big hit - 10th October
 * fashion week'' - Like financial markets, clothes are heeding the call for transparency, while off-shoulder ensembles reflect an off-centre sort of year - 3rd October
 * of the mysterious'' - Exclusive labels have been pushing cheaper and more accesible second lines but a touch of opacity proves welcome - 26th September
 * usual rules no longer apply'' - The traditional set of American designers have a diverse and numerous crop of up-and-comers nipping at their high heels - 19th September
 * Edge: How Sarkozy fashioned a tall tale'' - The pint-sized president’s efforts to look bigger simply draw attention to his own insecurity – making him seem even smaller - 14th September
 * differences'' - It takes a real amount of talent and intelligence to make it to the top of any profession, and there is no reason such talent should not be transferable - 12th September
 * Men and their trousers'' - A new season of the stylish television show prompts Vanessa Friedman to ponder the question of who wears the trousers, not to mention who makes them and why they make them - 15th August
 * fleeting tweeting'' - After trying out the trendy internet service, Vanessa Friedman realises that there are better ways to express pithy thoughts on fashion than in 140 characters - 8th August
 * your price is right'' - Vanessa Friedman is sceptical of a denim company’s marketing idea to ask consumers how much it could legitimately charge for its products - 25th July
 * ‘Harry Potter’ to prêt-à-porter'' - One of the side effects of the extraordinarily successful film franchise has been the positioning of the actress Emma Watson as a budding fashion icon - 18th July
 * the rules at Paris couture shows'' - Designers try out strategies – from subtle to over-the -top to marrying futurism with traditional – as the rationale for the fashion industry niche becomes in doubt - 11th July
 * fashion, flying and finance'' - Suddenly enamoured with trying out the trapeze, Vanessa Friedman wonders what to wear and thinks it is about time designers came up with circus wardrobe - 27th June
 * mother of all Father’s Day gifts'' - For women in this Momocracy unsure what to buy Dad for his big day, Vanessa Friedman suggests a unique carry-all that is deeply green and neon light years ahead of the It bag - 20th June
 * faith and blind optimism'' - Missoni may have decided that ‘transparency’ is paramount in the new luxury market, but Vanessa Friedman wonders if the idea of see-through trousers is taking it a bit far - 13th June
 * and brainy?'' - Years ago if one devoted any obvious thought to dress, it was revealing of limited mental powers. Now, if done well, it demonstrates general ability - 30th May
 * York fashions a chic stimulus'' - Forget the federal stimulus plan. Michael Bloomberg has another idea: a fashion stimulus plan - 30th May
 * Obama’s tailor could lose its shirt'' - Vanessa Friedman wonders why, unlike their spouses, male heads of state – even those who are wildly popular, young, and attractive – do not sell clothes - 23rd May
 * of the short statement'' - Vanessa Friedman asks if big fashion brands’ recent foray into internet films is a just another way to push products or more a form of outreach - 16th May
 * on the red carpet'' - The Met’s Costume Institute gala – the second greatest fashion show on earth – reflected the ambivalence of the current socio-economic mood - 9th May
 * the middle-aged wear leggings?'' - Some people have an examined life; Vanessa Friedman has an examined wardrobe, which now includes tightly knit wool numbers that act as a sartorial vacuum pack - 25th April
 * day is Earth Day'' - Limited edition eco-products, it seems, are not a subtle commentary on saving mother nature but simply about trying to create a buzz to drive people to buy - 18th April
 * is as special does'' - For a few weeks, the Brits will have done what no amount of rate-cutting had managed: they have got Americans (or New Yorkers at least) shopping again - 11th April
 * call for distracted style watchers'' - McQueen’s curvy mermaid dresses thankfully caught the imagination while Chanel’s dandy pieces and Valentino’s variations on archive looks disappointed - 12th March
 * go a long way with a little restraint'' - Business is mixing with pleasure and business is coming out on top to sobering effect – even as some hark back to the 1980s - 9th March
 * that pushes boundaries between pleasure and pain'' - Is the way out of this mess through The Dream – over-the-top clothes and beautiful people – or through reality? - 3rd March
 * of our desire and reality'' - This season fashion-land is full of dualism - soft and hard, country and city, chic and practicality - 2nd March
 * dress sparkles in a Carnevale atmosphere'' - Recession-conscious catwalk costumes provide a counterpoint to pre-Lentian party gear – with predictably mixed results - 1st March
 * York fashion week trends'' - These days, when it comes to clothes, as to the stock market, apparently it doesn’t pay to be too bullish - 20th February
 * bloody Valentine’s day'' - Out on a date with her husband, Vanessa Friedman realises that love conquers all, except, apparently, the global financial crisis - 14th February
 * is spared from the crisis'' - high fashion continues to exist inside a dream world where the extravagant and the fantastic take precedence over the practical - 31st January
 * Edge: The puffed up war over quilted trousers'' - Vanessa Friedman on catwalk copyright - 24th January
 * and high minds'' - The closures of two important art/fashion collaborations prompt Vanessa Friedman to think that the fashion industry considers such unions passé - 17th January
 * Lunch with the FT: Hussein Chalayan - The designer of morphing dresses and the new creative director of Puma tells Vanessa Friedman about his dream of turning ideas into commerce - 10th January



Articles: 2008

 * The future’s yellow - Pantone announces the colour for 2009 as an expression of optimism. But really, Vanessa Friedman asks, how many people will want to wear it? - 20th December 2008
 * Has India lost its allure? - Fashion has been having an increasingly hot’n’heavy affair with the subcontinent, but Vanessa Friedman wonders if a break-up is imminent - 13th December 2008
 * sense in irrationality'' - the stratospheric prices for today’s luxury goods are based on good reason - 29th November 2008
 * thanks for puritan values'' - Thanksgiving is a hard holiday to dress for, but the ascetic edge of the Pilgrims’ buttoned-up dresses serve as a good reminder to limit consumption - 22nd November 2008
 * Gift guide: Bespoke items - What to give to people so they don’t get upset? In the first of a six-part series, the FT picks out the season’s best made-to-order presents - 15th November 2008
 * stylists be the first to go?'' - They have done much to create the celebrity/charity/fashion nexus over the past five to 10 years; to move clothes straight from catwalk to red carpet, thus effectively creating popular taste as it filters down from magazines. In the hard-reality future, we may have to go back to dressing ourselves - 8th November 2008
 * adjustments'' - It will happen on Thursday: London will finally get its own version of that wonderful site the postmodern theorist Arthur Kroker called a “whole micro-circuitry of desire, ideology and expenditure for processed bodies drifting through the cyber-space of ultracapitalism”. That is to say: a shopping mall - 25th October 2008
 * to eye, tie to tie'' - ...Barack Obama and John McCain, seated close enough for their final debate that they could almost reach and touch one another (or shove one another): shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye. Tie to tie. - 18th October 2008
 * tailored for disorderly times'' - Smart, glamourous garments are the order of the day for people with more on their minds than just the aesthetics of style - 4th October 2008
 * up for a debate over colour'' - Some designers at Milan fashion week presented a calming palette for uncertain times, some did just the opposite – and others preferred to hedge their bets - 27th September 2008
 * it short'' - Given the theory that when hemlines go up, so does the economy, the miniskirt’s return suggests that designers may know something Wall Street doesn’t - 13th September 2008
 * meaning of September'' - It’s the end of summer but most of life works on a time lag of sorts. Fashion operates like this; so does politics - 30th August 2008
 * ‘I always dreamed of a castle’'' - Celebrated French shoe designer Michel Perry had a big house in Deauville but sold it after falling in love with an even bigger 18th century château in Burgundy - 26th July 2008
 * wings of fancy'' - Vanessa Friedman wonders what knock-on effect a bottle of Nina Ricci’s couture edition of L’Air du Temps would have on her daughters if she put one on the bathroom shelf - 19th July 2008
 * outside a branded box'' - Fashion is a category-driven discipline in spite of constantly announcing it is time to throw out the rule book - 12th July 2008
 * to great lengths'' - The 1970s-inspired, casually glamorous maxi dress is perfect for almost any summer party and has no drawbacks - 12th July 2008
 * cuts its cloth'' - The couture shows reflected a changing economic climate, with none of the usual fantastical costume-like creations that boggled the mind - 5th July 2008
 * wardrobes'' - When it comes to US presidential candidates, the sartorial message usually isn’t so subtle - 28th June 2008
 * A certain age is all the rage - And so it seems the era of women of a certain age is upon us. Hallelujah says the majority of the population - 21st June 2008
 * Wayne, Coleen and me - And so the much-balleyhooed wedding of the footballer and the shopper has finally arrived - 14th June 2008
 * Young? British? You're hired! - Lately it seems that, in true postmodern style, life has started to imitate reality TV, as opposed to reality TV imitating life - at least when it comes to fashion - 31st May 2008
 * Hats off to the Bush family - It would have been a geopolitical, sociocultural coincidence almost too delicious to imagine: Jenna Bush, the daughter of President George W. Bush, getting married on the same day as Jeanne-Marie Martin, the daughter of Cécilia Attias (ex-Sarkozy), both weddings a mere week before the marriage of Peter Phillips, Princess Anne’s son - 24th May 2008
 * All I got was this lousy shirt - And so the historic trans-metropolitan summit that was the meeting between London mayor Boris Johnson and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg occurred, and all Bloomberg got was... a lousy T-shirt - 17th May 2008
 * A superhero of a certain age - Last Monday's Costume Institute gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the annual black tie fundraiser also known as "the party of the year" in New York, is good for many things - 9th May 2008
 * Girls (and their bags) on film - The Sex and the City juggernaut has rolled into town - 10th May 2008
 * Ken and Boris: men in suits - So, in the end, next Thursday’s London mayoral election may hinge in part on “dress sense and hairstyle” – or so said Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group research centre at the London School of Economics, to a reporter - 28th April 2008
 * The heiress’s old clothes - Here’s the situation: you are 31, newly divorced from the son of one of the world’s richest men, and you have returned, three children and a fairly good settlement in tow, to the city you left 12 years before. What do you do? - 19th April 2008
 * When transparency leads to trouble - It's hard not to feel "transparency" is having a bit of a moment these days, thanks to the turmoil of the financial world and the pressure on banks to be more open about their sub-prime losses and credit-related issues. Indeed, one day last week I counted 12 articles in this newspaper that featured the T-word - 19th April 2008
 * The importance of casting the right clothes - As a teenager reading Agatha Christie mysteries, I used to be driven up the wall by Hercule Poirot: he inevitably solved his conundrums thanks to a vital clue hidden from the reader - 14th April 2008
 * Statement-making and style: not a sartorial match - When the guests in their sequins and lace, their bespoke and their gems, arrive at the Brooklyn museum this Thursday for the opening gala of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s show “Copyright”, they might be a little surprised at what greeted them by the steps of the edifice – not so much because the sight will be totally new, but because it might seem a little... unseemly - 31st March 2008
 * Shopping for absolution - It is something of a celestial joke that the recently elapsed women’s autumn/winter fashion shows coincided almost exactly with Lent, which began February 6 – four days after New York fashion week kicked off – and ends this weekend, just over a week after the Paris shows finished - 24th March 2008
 * Is the art world still in fashion? - The magazine arrived with a splash: Best-Dressed List 2008 emblazoned across the top. Tatler had pipped Vanity Fair, which inherited the first International BDL, started by the American fashion pioneer Eleanor Lambert and published in September, and Harpers Bazaar, which releases its picks in December, to the gilded sartorial post - 15th March 2008
 * Outside Edge: Fashion’s black day - When history looks back on that strange phenomenon of the fin de siècle known as “business casual”, it may well cite last Monday as the day the movement died - 7th March 2008
 * From Milan to Paris - Diplomacy continues apace. This season both Yohji Yamamoto and Lucien Pellat-Finet did their part to cement the Franco-Japanese relationship - 1st March 2008
 * Facchinetti's moment in the Valentino spotlight - Alessandra Facchinetti's debut women's wear collection for the house of Valentino this Thursday will mark the moment that the honeymoon between private equity and luxury culminates and the reality of their marriage sets in - 25th February 2008
 * The death knell of the age of irony - And so they lined up at the polling stations last Tuesday, New Yorkers fashionable and not, filled with anticipation and waiting to make their difference - 11th February 2008
 * Unseasonable weather, and all-season clothing - The New York women’s wear shows officially began on February 2 but the actual kick-off took place on January 31 with the Earth Pledge Future Fashion show - 9th February 2008
 * The generation gap regenerated - It’s weird to be an American abroad during this election, full of niche characters transformed into front-runners – you miss the texture of it - 26th January 2008
 * Why France cares about Sarko’s wedding belle - Forget whether or not they will be able to sleep in the same bedroom on the State visit to Buckingham Palace, or whether or not it was a shotgun wedding, or how seemly having a pop music room at the Elysée really is. What I want to know is: if Nicolas Sarkozy did wed Carla Bruni last week, as rumour has it, what did she wear? - 19th January 2008
 * Into the closet with new-found resolve - I am not a new year’s resolution-type person. This isn’t because of any existential angst about one medium-sized woman being unable to change the world’s many big problems - 12th January 2008
 * Forget the writers, fashion is the victim - So at last the Hamlet-worthy waffling in the film community over the writers’ strike as the awards season loomed – the hand-wringing over “to cross or not to cross” the picket line and pose for the paparazzi – has ended - 11th January 2008



News & updates:


References:


Links:

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Friedman