“In my new position as international Vogue editor, here is my mantra: no bitching,” writes Suzy Menkes in her inaugural column for Vogue UK. Menkes proceeds to castigate the so-called “bitch brigade,” an expansive term she uses to describe unfriendly designers and critics, Twitter wags, and people who comment on TMZ articles. (This is perhaps the biggest takeaway from the column: Suzy Menkes reads TMZ?)
What’s to be done, as the race to the bottom careers downwards at breakneck speed? I find dispiriting not the harping criticism itself, but the concept that no one can dare to be different, if he/she wants to avoid the e-worst dressed list. I am all for fashion diversity, not dictatorship; for rejoicing not carping.
In the spirit of non-bitchiness, we will just say that we enjoyed Menkes’s first column very much, and we can’t wait to read the next one.
