-I love it when a reader says, "I have no interest in fashion,
but I love that story." And I'm like, "Ah!
You do have an interest in fashion,
'cause you're not naked."
My name is Robin Givhan,
and I'm the fashion critic for The Washington Post.
I cover fashion as an industry, as a business, as entertainment,
and as a cultural phenomenon.
It's really about being able to take a part of our culture
that is deeply meaningful and helping people
to sort of through it all and make sense of it.
Whole attitudes about what it means to be in a workplace,
to interact, to be powerful,
what power looks like has really transformed,
and that's reflected in our clothes.
-Robin decodes images in an image-driven time.
In fact, she's the only fashion critic
who's ever won the Pulitzer Prize.
Here's what the Pulitzer board said.
It was "for her witty, closely observed essays
that transformed fashion criticism
into cultural criticism."
-Well, a lot of times,
things sort of pop up in the conversation,
and we are obsessed about it, and we keep talking about it,
and we can't turn away from it.
And part of my job when that thing is, you know,
fashion is to try and figure out why are we obsessed with it.
You know, why can't we stop talking about it?
-Do you worry about offending people?
-No.
I don't think I'm particularly mean,
and I tend to think that I'm right,
so why on Earth would you disagree with me?
-Robin doesn't criticize physical appearance,
like height or weight.
Instead, she's focused on people's choices.
-I would say that I get far more feedback
from male public figures
when I write about them than I ever do from women.
-So when you write about someone and what they're wearing,
they respond to you?
-Oh, men are much more likely to respond
and to explain themselves.
-"I had the wide tie because --" -Or, you know,
"Oh, the television must have exaggerated the stripes,
because they really weren't that bold," or -- yeah.
-Fashion is not just personal choice.
It's an industry that straddles artistic expression
and big business.
-My job as a critic is not to say
whether I personally like something,
but to try to judge whether or not the designer
has been successful in what they seem to have set out to do.
And I also consider if it's a brand
that's like a billion-dollar brand
and has every possible advantage that they could possibly have
versus, you know, a new designer,
who basically put the whole show together with bubble gum
and a bolt of fabric.
You know, I think, particularly with the runway coverage,
that is, you know, a fashion lover's Super Bowl.
I mean, that's where it all sort of comes down.
I try to make it inviting by welcoming people to --
with a sense of place, giving them a feel
for the environment where the shows happen.
I try to put it into context and talk a bit
about where the designer might have gotten inspiration
and sort of driving home the fact that,
contrary to what a lot of people think,
fashion does not happen in a vacuum.
Designers are constantly absorbing things
that are going on in the news, going to art exhibitions,
listening to different kinds of music.
-When you're watching a runway show,
how much are you just taking it at face value
and making your own interpretations,
coming to your own conclusions versus talking to the designer,
you know, talking to people who are attracted to the collection
or have their own take on it?
-When I'm at the show, some designers
will actually leave show notes for the audience in advance,
and they will be very specific.
Other designers are a bit more oblique about it,
and they might give you a sentence or two,
and they don't want to tell you what to think.
They want you to just sort of watch it unfold
and then sort of take away what you will.
And, then, others just put the clothes on the runway,
and, you know, it's sort of up to you.
I mean, I think to some degree,
it's a little bit like walking into an art gallery
and looking at a completely abstract painting
that's titled "Untitled Number 10."
That's how you interpret it.
-How often do you get to touch the clothes,
see the clothes up close, have more time with them,
or have conversations with the designer?
-I would say not enough.
Because of the way that the shows are organized,
particularly in New York,
you can literally start your day with a 9:00 a.
m. show and have a show
every hour, on the hour, until 9:00 at night,
sometimes multiple shows scheduled for a single hour.
So the ability to be able to pop backstage
and sort of see the clothes up close
or even show up early and do a quick preview --
it's really, really, really, really difficult.
-What does it take to blow Robin Givhan away?
What does a designer have to do
to get your attention and make you think,
"I have not seen this before, or I'm so shocked or so in love
with or just responding to what I'm seeing?
-I would say I am a sucker for a designer
who treats the runway as a soapbox --
you know, really feels like
"If I'm gonna put something out there,
under a spotlight, on a stage, that there's a message beyond
just I'm showing knee-length pencil skirts for the season."
And I'm also a sucker for just a collection
that is the most breathtaking thing I've ever seen.
You know, I don't think that fashion has to have
deep meaning for it to be interesting.
I think a show that just makes you drop your jaw and think,
"That is the most beautiful thing ever --"
that's an incredible accomplishment.
-Journalists like Robin go to a runway show
to observe and evaluate, but social media has encouraged
and rewarded a new generation of influencers --
people who offer instant promotion for a fashion house.
You definitely have people who have huge following on Instagram
who come to a show,
and their job is to sort of be photographed.
Now, they don't sort of position themselves as,
you know, sitting down and then writing a critique,
but there's definitely a sense
that you can get the image or the brand out there,
you can get pictures of the collection out there.
You don't sort of have to deal with that sort of aggravating,
objective journalism thing.
-Journalists like Robin do it differently.
She's not there to promote a brand or a story line.
In fact, she will wear a designer's clothes
to their show, and she writes critically,
even if it means getting shut out of a future show
by a big-name fashion house.
-I typically just don't think that our readers
just want to hear about what something looked like,
and just from a practical standpoint,
no matter how quickly I write my review
and it's posted, there are like 30 bazillion
Instagram posts already,
so people already know what the collection looks like.
I take notes.
I take notes specifically on, you know, a look
if I feel like it's gonna be
really representative of the collection.
Pen and paper, phone? What's your technique?
-I'm really old-fashioned.
You know, pen and notebook.
I do take a lot of pictures,
because that's just faster than trying to,
you know, jot down descriptions.
But the truth is that when I sit down to write the review,
I probably refer to my notes maybe three or four times,
because the things that I want to write about
typically really stand out in my memory.
-How did you realize that you had a voice for this
and that you had a way of evaluating,
coming up with a take, and, then,
being able to communicate that to other people?
-I mean, I never really thought that I would cover fashion.
I didn't have any particular interest in it.
I just wanted to be a writer, and so I fell into it.
You know, I spent the first, like, early years
just reporting on the industry,
and it wasn't until I'd done enough
reporting to have some sense of how it worked.
I could speak with a certain degree of authority,
but, then, coming to The Post
and kind of being in a feature section
where everything kind of churns together
I think kind of forced me to think
about fashion in a much broader way,
and just realized that that ultimately
is the way that I'm most comfortable,
and it makes the most sense to me.
I always joke that at the end of the season,
if someone says to me,
like, where the top-10 things they should buy,
that is the hardest question.
I'm always just like, "Oh, my God, I have no idea.
Like, I can't tell you.
But I can tell you the meaning of that last
Commes des Garcon show.
-I feel like tours of Robin Givhan's wardrobe
would be like a thing.
Like, if I could sign up for that, I'd --
-I think you'd be so tragically bored.