NEW YORK — Following Monday’s announcement that The Washington Post’s fashion critic, Robin Givhan, had just won a Pulitzer Prize, a collective “Huh?” rose up among hard-core journalists in newsrooms across the country. For starters, the Beltway daily isn’t exactly known as a destination read for fashion coverage. On top of that, no fashion writer had won the Oscar of letters since the Pulitzer board added a prize for criticism in 1970.
In an interview with WWD conducted before she won the Pulitzer, the suddenly in-the-limelight Givhan expounded on how she got her start, what irks her about show notes and who exactly reads about hemlines in The Washington Post.
WWD: How did you get into fashion writing?
Robin Givhan: I started when I was at the Detroit Free Press. It was a bit of a fluke. I was a general assignment reporter, and the person who was writing about fashion became a columnist. I thought, I like clothes. You’re not going to get a better beat that has the range of personalities, the drama, the travel.
WWD: Do you think what you do is akin to critiquing high art?
R.G.: If you’re writing about couture, which I don’t do, to me that’s very esoteric and scholarly. I don’t think you can apply the same rules to BCBG.
WWD: Who’s been the biggest influence on you?
R.G.: Nina Hyde [the Post’s late fashion critic] left such an incredible legacy. She approached this not like a lady’s beat, something soft and silly, but as a business.
WWD: What sort of readers do you have at the Post?
R.G.: If you’re writing for a New York-based audience, you’re writing for people who work in the industry, who care about fashion and the minutiae….It’s a great advantage to be writing for the Post, because you’ve got a proximity to the industry, with a diverse, educated audience.
WWD: What do you typically skip during fashion week?
R.G.: I’m one person, and I can’t go to everything. Generally, I don’t cover secondary lines.
WWD: What bothers you about the collections?
R.G.: Some designers prefer show notes….You may be thinking about your grandmother and the beach and your dog, Pluto, but if none of that translates on the runway, all a person walks away with is, that was a show about khakis.
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WWD: What bothers you about the business?
R.G.: The fashion industry, to its detriment, has an incredibly myopic view of what people are interested in and where they are. It’s taking a bite out of your own business to assume it’s not worth addressing other markets [outside of New York].
WWD: What’s the hardest review to write?
R.G.: The ones that fall in the middle. Most collections come on a bell curve. They’re not great, and they’re not particularly bad.
WWD: We’re in a pretty snarky era. Do you feel pressure to take a sharp tone in your reviews?
R.G.: I don’t think it’s a matter of being tough or not tough. For me, it’s just a matter of being honest.