New Years Resolutions For the Fashion Industry in 2013

When Nicole Phelps, Bridget Foley, or Tim Blanks give a collection a bad review, no one takes out a full-page ad in WWD to respond to it. And yet that's exactly what happened to Cathy Horyn last year when Oscar de la Renta misunderstood what was intended as a compliment (in her review of his Spring 2013 collection, Horyn called him a hot dog, like a surfer pulling out all his tricks) and penned an open letter asking why he should refrain from calling her a "three-day-old stale hamburger." The two have since reconciled.




Horyn was similarly lambasted for giving a lackluster review to Hedi Slimane's debut collection for Saint Laurent. Slimane called Horyn a "schoolyard bully" in response.




One must be cruel to be kind, and Horyn — regarded by some as the industry's preeminent critic — is just doing her job. Instead of picking on her for telling the hard truth, the focus should be on creating better fashion.