A whiz at describing the emperor's new clothes
By Shira Breuer
Last Wednesday morning eight nervous fashion designers waited in their shops on Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Street. Suzy Menkes, the International Herald Tribune's fashion editor and critic, had arrived for a visit, accompanied by a small entourage of guests of the Friends of Shenkar College, which included fashion designer Sylvia Fendi, a second-generation member of the celebrated Italian fashion house.Menkes had come to Israel to Shenkar's annual gala evening to receive an award honoring her work for raising public awareness in Israel and the world of the fashion press and for encouraging young designers. At a gala Thursday evening, Fendi and Vice Prime Minister and Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee Shimon Peres, together with Menkes, received certificates of recognition from Shenkar.Menkes, 63, is no stranger to such honors: She was made officer of the Order of the British Empire and chevalier of France's Legion of Honor. At every fashion show in the world's fashion capitals. she is always given a prestigious place in the front row. Among designers, Menkes is a journalist who arouses fear, if not awe. Her frank comments - phrased in rich, colorful, sometimes cynical, language - decisively impact the fashion world.
With her weird hairdo and exotic clothes, she sometimes looks eccentric. Not surprisingly, she is dubbed "Samurai Suzy." She lives in England and Paris, a mother of three sons and a grandmother. Her husband, David Spanier, who died six years ago, was The Times' diplomatic correspondent and wrote a column on poker. Her father was a Belgian-Jewish cavalry officer killed in battle in 1943, a few months before she was born. She studied history at Cambridge, subsequently working at the London Evening Standard and The Times until she joined the International Herald Tribune 19 years ago.Source of strengthAfter visiting Gideon Oberson's fashion house, she reached Dizengoff Street. She entered Michal Zaiden's shop and Banot, including en route Naama Bezalel's establishment, Comme il faut, and Mirit Weinstock's Reine. "Dessert" was a visit with Dori Csengeri, a designer of embroidered jewelry. Menkes was so intrigued by the visit that she ascended the stairs to Csengeri's workshop in an adjacent building, where she did not conceal her fascination with the embroiderers, most of them Russian immigrants.Later, at a cocktail party held in her honor in the apartment of Castro's owners, Etti and Gabi Roter, she noted the interesting fact that women from different places in the world were able to produce these handicrafts. She was impressed by the presence in Israel of immigrants who had brought with them handicraft skills, considering this a potential source of strength for Israeli designers if they recognize how to effectively tap this knowledge.Menkes refused to disclose the names of the designers who had impressed her the most, although she indicated how happy she was with the visit. She considered it wonderful that young designers could operate their own shops. It reminded her of the Belgian designers in Antwerp. In her view, having their own shop is beneficial for designers because they can maintain direct contact with potential clients.Did she see any problem in the fact that many designers, for commercial reasons, create what consumers are used to wearing, thereby forgoing a personal statement?Yes, she did consider this a problem. Designers must understand their audience and suit their tastes, yet they must be connected to their own individual statement, which makes them and their fashion heritage unique. In Israel, said Menkes, people should be connected to fabrics, colors, the sun, their body self-image and their special Israeli heritage, which included religious, traditional, Armenian, Arab and kibbutz women.The stretch fabric revolutionAt what moments in her career did she sense she was witnessing a breakthrough?She had experienced many such moments: for instance, two years ago, at a Balenciaga fashion show. Nicolas Ghesquiere presented a fresh, different collection. Since the 1980s, Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo has been doing amazing things: for example, her sweaters with holes. The same is true for Miuccia Prada, who last season changed direction, designing clothes for strong women, after producing a fastidious, bourgeois look.According to Menkes, no one pays attention to real-time changes in fashion and instead we regard things retrospectively. Only after five, seven years do we understand fashion has undergone a change. For instance, in the early 1980s, the look produced by Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana with giant shoulder pads appeared unrealistic; nonetheless, after a while, it caught on.Changes, observed Menkes, occurred at two levels: aesthetic and technical. In her view, the greatest change in the last 20 years was stretch fabric. But that is neither sexy nor sophisticated and thus fashion designers would not make such a statement. An additional change noticeable in recent shows is that the body is being covered more extensively and sophisticated collections do not expose everything.What did she think about the fashion problems of women from age 40 on whose needs are not being met by the fashion world, which caters to a very young crowd?Although she did not know how to categorize that problem by age group, she did write an article two weeks ago on working women who must suit their attire to the business community and adjust themselves to the world of male images - for instance, in softly tailored Armani suits. This is already a shopworn look, and she would prefer it if fashion designers could discover a new way of expressing the working woman as a real woman.Can fashion designers exist without a massive system of advertising, marketing and public relations?As she sees things, public relations and advertising are as crucial to designers as bookkeeping services. She believes designers could survive without public relations or advertising; nonetheless, PR and advertising definitely help them. For example, there's John Galliano, whom everybody considers a genius, although he went bankrupt twice before Dior adopted him.Menkes thinks of herself in more modest terms. She does not cultivate fashion designers. She is a writer and journalist committed to basing her views on what she sees and to analyzing fashion history. At most, she makes the public aware of designers by being present at their shows. She cannot turn a designer into a success story or a failure.What was her opinion of the present generation of designers compared to the next generation?Menkes noted that some designers had become superstars, icons, and they were all in the 60-75 age bracket: for instance, Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, and Yves Saint Laurent. She lamented the loss of an entire generation of designers who, had they lived, would now be in their 50s, such as Franco Moschino and Perry Ellis, both of whom died of AIDS. There is today a generation of designers in their 40s, headed by Alber Elbaz and Dries Van Noten. Furthermore, there is a new, fresh generation of designers in their 30s who are introducing a new, refreshing approach: for instance, Dior Homme's Hedi Slimane, Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquiere and Olivier Theyskens of Maison Rochas who should go far.Menkes is not looking for another Valentino Garavani or Yves St. Laurent, but rather someone who will really be new. She does not believe that there will be any further superstars, because today there is much more competition and there are many more fashion chains that simply swallow up the good designers. Nevertheless, there will always be designers who will change the fashion world.Designer clothes, even those produced by people who are not considered stars, are very expensive. What did she think about that fact?It costs a lot of money to manufacture clothes using good materials and in small quantities that reflect a unique vision and a unique imagination. The moment mass production kicks in, the prices can be lowered.Is high quality essential to designer clothes?According to Menkes, quality is crucial and must express what the designer has planned. There is no reason why designers should not be able to use simple clothes that cost less. The fabric must be suited to the quality and the design. Not everyone, she noted, could design like Alber Elbaz and skillfully use silk to flatter a woman's figure.Can journalistic writing determine the fate of designers, that is, whether they will succeed or fail? Or do perhaps television, public relations and celebrities have a greater impact?In Menkes' opinion, her fashion column cannot produce success for someone who has no chances of succeeding. Fashion writers can only make the public aware of a designer's existence. Over the past decade, the fashion industry has changed dramatically. Thanks to television and the Internet, everything has now become accessible.Celebrities, observed Menkes, who wear designer clothes are the best promoters of such clothes today. However, that trend will ultimately lose momentum and then another vehicle will have to be found. Perhaps "real" women will be chosen to wear designer clothes.Unbiased writingDid the fact that she knew many designers and that she was perhaps on friendly terms with them blunt the force of her criticism?Menkes denied being on personal terms with designers and argued that friendly relations with designers had no impact on her fashion critiques. The only thing that can soften her criticism is the knowledge that a designer may have undergone a personal crisis. In that case, she would write her critique with considerable gentleness. As a journalist, it is vital that she be straight with herself. She tries to distance herself and eliminate any trace of bias so that she can be free of pressures at fashion shows.Was she ever "punished" by designers or fashion houses for a negative critique?Sometimes, she admitted, a particularly harsh critique can produce a negative response; however, the anger does not last very long and then the relationship returns to what it was previously.Do large fashion houses, which are also heavy advertisers, get more exposure in the newspapers in which they advertise?In magazines, notes Menkes, there is more pressure to favor advertisers. But not in the daily press. Nobody can force you to advertise something that you are not interested in advertising.Did she feel that she had contributed to the development of fashion and to the cultivation of her readers' taste in clothes?She considered that her work was to conduct thorough research on the fashion world. She saw herself as a historian and she believed that, if 100 years from now, people wanted to analyze fashion, they could extract all her columns from the archives and could thus know what fashion was current at what point in time. Except for reporting at the precise historical level, she did not change fashions.Menkes enjoys a dominant position in the fashion world.How does she cope with the expectations of those around her about dressing in accordance with her status?She ignores fashion dictates in her own attire. She does not believe that she has to be her newspaper's ambassador in her look, unlike the magazine editors. Thus, she is loyal to who she is, to what she likes in fashion.
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