One month before Paris Fashion Week, the anti-event took place in the garden of Palais Royal, in the heart of the city.

In Grazia’s street fashion show, real women walked down the runway instead of professional models; Chanel, Prada or Dior were replaced by Zara, H&M and Gap (straight from the real womens’ real closets); Anna Wintour’s sit was taken by local bloggers and instead of international stars – the public was invited to see everything.

Photos: Olivier Jeanne-Rose

It was really just a matter of time. For a while now, things were going a bit too smoothly in the fashion blogging field. The biggest bloggers have been wooed by the most luxurious fashion houses for several years now; they are invited to the front row in fashion week and get expensive gifts by the dozen. But now a mini web-storm is threatening to touch this indulgent milieu in France. The credibility and very image of all fashion bloggers is hanging in the balance.

It all began with the crossing of an invisible line. The 3rd most popular French fashion blogger, Miss Pandora (with 15,000-20,000 visits per day!), decided to pose for a campaign of the French label “Comptoir Des Cotonniers” with her mother (traditionally, the ads of this brand show couples of mothers and daughters using the same garment of clothing).

Suddenly, a rain of criticism fell on Pandora’s head. The relationship between bloggers and labels became the hottest issue of the day, with articles and analysis all over the net. The attention, the gifts, the privet parties, the hidden sponsorships… Are the bloggers under influence? Asked L’Express magazine. Are they bribed? Wondered Rue89 website. Are they breaking an ethical code when they write about a dress they “adore” and fail to mention this was a gift? Or when they pose in a pair of shoes made by their own label, without full disclosure?

The answer is yes, they are breaking the ethical code of journalism. But they are not journalists.

The real problem is that the difference between journalism and blog writing has gotten too vague. After all, many respectable journalists write a blog on the side and many major events are covered by bloggers… My first reaction says that we have to keep in mind that these are two worlds apart. But judging by the state of the press nowadays, blogs might be the neo-journalism. Nevertheless, If they want to stay relevant, bloggers will have to adopt certain professional ethics, or they will lose their credibility sooner then expected.

Pandora played with fire, but i can only assume that with today’s buzz she got much more visits than Betty or Alix (first and second French fashion blogs)…. And visibility is the name of the game, right?

A visit to Palais de Tokyo’s wall of magazines ended up with an interesting discovery: Show Off#, published by the fashion department in the Royal Academy of fine arts in Antwerp. This product’s main goal, I assume, is to promote the school’s program and attract students all the way to Belgium, but it’s delivering more than expected…

In between students’ sketches and impressive finished designs, there are some  surprisingly interesting articles. For instance, the one that describes final year students’ encounter with H&M representatives – Margareta Van Den Bosch, head of designer collections, and Beata Aurell, responsible for design work placements and internships.

During the conversation, Van Den Bosch shared some juicy details about the company’s collaboration with Madonna (2006-2007). “I went to see her to talk about her favorite clothes. She really didn’t have a clue. All she said was that she liked trench coats , High heels and black dresses, which wasn’t a lot to work with…. She kept changing her mind: she first wanted one fabric then another “. Luckily, almost everything worked out eventually… “Only the shoes were a problem : she wanted very high heels, over 10 cm, and we told her that wouldn’t work. She insisted and we gave in. They just didn’t sell”.

Don’t you giggle just yet, this is a magazine published by an academy. You are bound to learn something about H&M by the end of the text… 600 (!) people are drawing the designs of the Swedish giant today. The company now has 74,000 employees worldwide, 81 % of them are women. The H&M team wouldn’t reveal any details about a designer’s pay-check.  Oh well,  they already gave us Madonna.

As the Parisian sky’s getting cloudier with each passing day, the new issue of Dansk comes to provide us with some gloomy thoughts for the upcoming autumn.

It seems like this last year has been a real eye-opener for Dansk’s editor-in-chief, Uffe Buchard (Mr Boss). After denouncing the over-consumption culture in the November issue, he’s now criticizing the constant search of the new, the young and the experimental in today’s fashion industry. “The lifestyle we currently aspire towards is completely different than the one we sought after two years ago…. My editorial team and I are suddenly interested in an ascetic sort of life, where everything isn’t about more, more, more but rather about the undiluted essences of life… We forsake bullshit, extreme youth worshipping and uncritical celebration of newness for a life governed by modesty in all its shapes and forms”. Amen.

And so, the theme of  Dansk’s latest issue is modesty, a quality so rare nowadays it can even become trendy (hell, you give a teenager a camera and the only thing they find interesting enough to photograph is their own reflection in the bathroom mirror… I’d say modesty is more than welcome in our world).

Translated into getting dressed every morning, modesty would mean stability, consistency, honesty -  not losing our heads over the it bags/prints/cuts in the magazines and embracing a real personal style. A look  in which you feel like yourself only better, bla bla bla bla… Of course, these are the principles of every good wardrobe. The only problem is they’re not so easy to follow… 

If you really want to find your own voice, your own personal and unique style, there is a simple experiment which will help you clear your head from all those seasonal dictations. Just try not to go shopping for one month. Is November good for you? No? February then?

The latest addition to my shopping address book is what we call at home “a strange bird”. Situated in the very happening Etienne Marcel neighborhood, Episode sells vintage (not to say 2^nd hand) clothing and accessories for men and women. Like Kiliwatch, the competition from down the street, Episode offers original 2^nd hand and “renewed” used clothes – pieces that were given new life with a pair of scissors and a sewing machine.

Thanks to affordable prices, here there’s loads to see, a lot to try on and much to buy.

After good 45 minutes of digging, and just as I thought there were no more secrets to explore, a shocking discovery came to change everything: this is actually a BRANCH of what seems to be a second hand clothing CHAIN STORE (what a strange notion… It must be another side effect of the economical crisis…).

From the headquarters in the Netherlands, Episode sends out merchandise to all its branches in Europe – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, London, Brussels, Paris and Antwerp. And that’s not all, there’s also an Online Store.

So now the dream is dead. Even used clothes are no longer rebellious… That’s really a shame… At least we can find comfort in the form of a big yellow bag.

Prices: Dresses 25 euros, Blouses 13, jackets 30, leather boots 35, sweaters 25, bags 25, giant bags 45, belts 7-12, sneakers 25, sunglasses 12.

Episode Paris
12-16 rue Tiquetonne,
75002 Paris

Monday 13:00 till 20:00
Tuesday- Friday 11:30 till 19:30
Saturday 11:00 till 20:00

(After, take a little walk to Kiliwatch at number 64 of that same street. True, they’ve marked-up their prices, but you’re in the neighborhood…)

5 reasons to like Twill Magazine:
It is well presented
It has some really beautiful photographed productions
It has depth articles about real subjects
You can read it for free online
You can read it for free online (this one counts twice)

So why do we hate it?
Well, you know how sometimes you see a really beautiful girl/boy and then discover s/he has a very bad character? After a while you start thinking they’re not that pretty, unattractive even… The same goes for Twill – It might just be the most obnoxious magazine there is.

My relationship with this publication started-off on the right foot. Twill is a thick magazine divided into two sections – the first is made of articles (in the last issue the theme was democracy). The second part is dedicated to photographed pieces, many many many of them, to my liking.
True, the price tag was a little disappointing – 25 euros, but I got over it when I found out that the whole content of Twill is accessible online.  The problems only started later that day, when I got to read Twill’s Manifesto.

First of all, Twill’s people explain, “this is not a fashion magazine”, and even if you found it next to Numéro and Paper Planes, don’t be mistaken to believe so. Because Twill is an  ”intellectual magazine”, and the fashion spreads in it are actually “glossy storyboards”.

Twill is also “an exclusive magazine that only few people can enjoy”, so if you didn’t get your PHD yet, leave it aside for those who can understand the big words.

And that’s not all, “each text is printed only in the original source language (English, French, and Italian) assuming a truly cosmopolitan audience”. If you happen to speak Spanish, Russian, Chinese or any other mambo jambo, don’t even bother to make sense of this.

Are you offended yet ?

I was. But then I started asking myself what kind of person would write these lines? What kind of person would publish a beautiful magazine and then apologize for it? What kind of person would insult their target audience? …I’m sorry, but if I want to read about democracy I’ll probably buy The Economist.

There’s no doubt about it, Twill is a Fashion Magazine, but it’s made by people that have to hide their interest in style under a thick layer of so-called intellect.
All of a sudden, I don’t feel like reading it anymore.