“Fashion should be entertaining.”

A lot of coverage and reporting on the fashion industry is taken out of context, and it’s not very fair. As much as I criticize my industry, I also defend it. People in fashion exhaust themselves, it’s hard work. People don’t realize how hard it is, and sometimes they go, “Well, if it’s so hard then why are you doing it?” Because it’s worth it, maybe? I don’t know, why would you work hard for living? Why is it different to work hard in fashion?

Fashion is a hard, hard industry to work in, and it’s a hard, hard industry to defend. I could go on until I’m BLUE IN THE FACE about why clothing and fashion matter, and why the dismissive rhetoric about fashion being silly or frivolous is a LIE, but like, yeah, I have personally felt the burnout that comes with sincere participation in the mainstream fashion industry. It is, I think, more than any other art form or business, one that feeds off youthful energy and exuberance in a totally vampiric never-ending cycle: bleed it dry and move on to the next body.

With that in mind, Hopes & Fears has a very frank and forthcoming interview with Preston Chaunsumlit about fashion, the Internet, and the steadily increasing treadmill speed the fashion industry remains on while also somehow managing to be ten steps behind almost anything cool.

h/t Adrian Chen