I’d have liked to read more about the clothes

Milan Fashion Week finished on Monday, and while there were many strong, newsworthy collections, coverage across UK media outlets has seemed more scant than usual. 

This was the first Gucci collection minus Alessandro Michele (and debut of Sabato de Sarno) and also the first Tom Ford collection minus Tom Ford (and debut of Peter Hawkins), and I’d have liked to read more about the clothes – as I would about Versace, Maxmara and the never-not-season-defining Prada show. 

I know that this won’t be for lack of trying on the part of the British press, who work tirelessly to file show reports and roundups, often at midnight after a string of 15-hour days. So what gives? I appreciate that news outlets have to focus on politics and current affairs, but must Russel Brand dominate the news cycle to the exclusion of all else? Sport is never marginalised by coverage of this month’s alleged sexual abuser. Why must fashion be? 

Or is it that, increasingly, newspaper editors want “a story” beyond the collection itself? That would certainly explain the fulsome coverage of the Karoline Vitto show, which featured curve models, blessing MFW with a rare, newsworthy example of body diversity. Great that Vitto was covered, but not every fashion show has an extra point of interest beyond the show itself. Would newspapers skip reporting on a football match just because it was a 0-0 draw? No: they would cover it because it happened. In an ideal world, the same rules would apply to fashion shows.

That’s my journalistic take. I’d be interested to hear a PR’s.