The SFP LookBook Atelier to Runway: New York Fashion Week Spring 2015

What is immediately apparent about this book is that it bears an amazing resemblance to an Italian magazine by the name of Collezione. The magazine was a comprehensive display of designer fashion collections from around the world when there were really only four major “fashion weeks.” The magazine was absolutely glorious in its presentation and with little to no text. The SFP LookBook appeared to offer the same quality, but fell far short once the reading began.

Andrea Thatcher, according to her bio has never worked a day in the fashion trenches but has merely been a spectator and writer. She is living proof that one can’t learn to appreciate or understand what it is about fashion that makes it such an alluring subject unless one has been immersed within that world. She would have known that fashion changes almost weekly, turns on a dime, and formally shifts five times a year rendering  this book inconsequential. So one must instantly question the timing of the book as right now, Spring 2015 is about to go on sale and Fall 2015 is about to hit the retail racks in less than 30 days. In actuality, The SFP LookBook Atelier to Runway: New York Fashion Week Spring 2015 is old news.

Problems also arise when verbiage is offered that is a day late and a dollar short. Why exactly do you need a read about trends for said season when the season is already over? Fashion professionals predict trends months ahead of collections and not after the fact—especially six months later.

Then there is the issue of how exactly do you use a quote from a make-up artist to assess a collection? We won’t make an issue of that fact that make-up and hair are barely paid any lip service when reviewing a collection except immediately after that city’s show schedule or entire season has ended.

Compounding the felony is that offering show notes as an indicator or direction of a specific collection is like offering an equation for nuclear physics to an uneducated laborer. Any fashion professional will tell you that in 95% of the cases, the notes are some blah blah blah that rarely if ever relates to the visuals—unless of course you are the designer.

Another of the shortcomings of a book like this is compiling “unequal” collections that basically can be compared as apples and oranges. It is wonderful that Thatcher gives coverage of many unknown collections as well as a smattering of marquee collections. One of the problems is that there is no explanation to the uninitiated reader regarding the make up of this grouping. There are fast fashion resources as well as what we consider American couture. Just because a designer does a runway show does not make every collection equal in the eyes of the fashion press.

It saddens me that books like this give a reader an erroneous view of fashion. Granted, some more curious or less fashion savvy readers might not know the fashion grind, but for those us who are aware, this book is an absolute no no. One might as well have dredged up WWD’s from seven months ago. Just because you have a keyboard does not make you a fashion critic.