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28-570: Victoria Rowland (née Sykes ; born 4 December 1969), known both professionally and socially as Plum Sykes , is an English-born fashion journalist , novelist, and socialite. Victoria Sykes was born in London, one of six children including a twin sister, Lucy , and grew up in Sevenoaks , Kent. She was nicknamed 'Plum' (the Victoria plum being a variety of that fruit) as a child. Sykes has described herself as

56-525: A "$ 900 bra ". Six years later some fashion journalists claimed that Catherine Middleton had been inspired by Sykes' wedding dress to choose Burton to design hers for her marriage to Prince William . Sykes and Rowland had their first child, Ursula, in October 2006 and their second child, Tess, in June 2010. Sykes' twin sister Lucy, who moved to New York in 1996, became fashion director of Marie Claire and later

84-430: A "painfully shy" child with mousey brown hair and goofy teeth. She went to Ide Hill Church of England Primary School and later to a private secondary school, Walthamstow Hall, where she was unhappy, and subsequently to Sevenoaks School , an independent boys' school that had begun admitting girls to the sixth form . In 1988 she went up to Worcester College, Oxford , where she graduated in modern history. She has published

112-474: A New York-based investment banker, in 2002. In the April 2012 issue of Vogue , Sykes writes of her three-year struggle with anxiety disorder and agoraphobia after the birth of her children, a condition which rendered her unable to work or to maintain her social life or passion for horse riding. Sykes admitted "I had visited doctors and consultants and had tests, procedures and scans, but no one could tell me what

140-700: A closer, if incomparable, antecedent. In 2005 Sykes married British entrepreneur Toby Rowland, son of businessman "Tiny" Rowland and co-creator of King , at Sledmere House , her family's ancestral home (1751) in the East Riding of Yorkshire . Her dress was designed by Sykes' friend and protégé of Isabella Blow, Alexander McQueen . Sykes was sometimes described as a muse of McQueen; she modelled for some of his earliest catwalk shows, as well as for photoshoots of his designs. Before her wedding, she wrote an article for Vogue about shopping for suitable lingerie for her wedding night, an article that included reference to

168-455: A designer of children's clothes. In the late 1990s the Sykes sisters were sometimes described as the "twin set". Sykes later joked, with reference to the heiresses Paris and Nicky Hilton , that "Lucy and I were Paris and Nicky without the sextape" (an allusion to the sex tape featuring Paris Hilton and a former boyfriend that had been posted on the internet in 2003). Lucy Sykes married Euan Rellie,

196-411: A short memoir of her unsettling first term at university ( Oxford Girl , 2011). Sykes' mother Valerie Goad, a dress designer, separated from Sykes' father Mark while Plum was at Oxford. The effects of this left her impecunious for a while and she received assistance from Worcester to remain at the college. Sykes' grandfather, Christopher Sykes (1907–1986), whom she knew as "Fat Grandpa" or "F.G.",

224-684: Is a chief critic and columnist for American Vogue . She is also an advocate for young designers as the Ambassador for Emerging talent at the British Fashion Council since 2009. Mower received the MBE in 2011 in recognition of her contributions to fashion. Suzy Menkes OBE is a veteran fashion journalist who was most recently the Editor of Vogue International, departing in October 2020. She also helmed The New York Times International Edition back when it

252-506: Is key to being hired as a fashion journalist post-grad. Vanessa Friedman is the chief fashion director and fashion critic for The New York Times . Before joining the team at the Times , Friedman was the first fashion editor at the Financial Times , alongside her job editing the pages of Luxury360 vertical. Previously, she was the features editor for InStyle UK. She was the 2012 recipient of

280-435: Is real-time updates/corrections to misinformation. Major fashion magazines such as Vogue , Elle , Marie Claire , Cosmopolitan , and Paper Magazine have altered their business models due to the onset of the digital age, creating an online component in addition to print. Social media has also contributed to the rise in these digital magazine platforms, allowing them to be far more interactive than they have been in

308-745: Is recognized to be the first true fashion magazine. This Partisan publication had illustrated fashion plates that "...fed the increasing appetite for French fashion, which was growing in tandem with the expanding urban population's desire to separate itself from the way of life plotted out and decreed by the French Court". It was followed abroad by Journal des Luxus und der Moden (1786–1827) in Germany, Giornale delle Dame e delle Mode di Francia (1786–1794) in Milan, and Gallery of Fashion (1794–1803) in Britain. During

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336-408: The Times to comment on the late-1990s trend for ultra- high heeled shoes, she observed that "these weird space-age shoes look cool and trendy and are a way of getting back to some degree", but that "this type of trend is not a classic version of beauty. Men want women to be sexy. They'd be happy if we were all [the model] Gisele Bündchen , but that's just not fashion". The world of New York fashion

364-633: The 19th century, numerous fashion magazines were published, employing fashion journalists reporting on the latest trends from Paris. Among the earliest in Great Britain were Ann Margaret Lanchester , who published her own fashion paper, the Le Miroir de la Mode , and Mary Ann Bell , writing for the La Belle Assemblée in the early 19th-century. Fashion magazines of the 20th century include Elle and Vogue . As society increases its dependence on

392-505: The City , Candace Bushnell 's column in the New York Observer , which was the inspiration for a highly successful television series (HBO 1998–2004). However, despite their satire, others have regarded them as too rooted in Sykes' own Park Avenue "set" to be reflective more generally of women's lives in post- 9/11 Manhattan. Anita Loos ' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925) is perhaps

420-671: The Front Page Award for fashion writing and the 2013 Fashion Monitor Journalist of the Year award. Robin Givhan is the first and only fashion journalist to win The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism as of 2006. She drew attention to her work after criticizing former US Vice President Dick Cheney for wearing casual attire (a ski cap and parka) to a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In this piece, Givhan stressed

448-657: The Single Girl . "Sex and the City" first appeared in the Observer on November 28, 1994. The column became popular and readers would purchase the Observer solely for it. The column has been credited with creating the terms "toxic bachelors" and "serial daters". Bushnell originally wrote the column from her first-person perspective, but later invented the semi-autobiographical character of "Carrie" so her parents would not be aware that they were reading about her sex life. The columns introduced several characters who were included in

476-457: The girls to the park and pushed them on the swings, something I hadn't been able to do for two years... now more than a year later, the anxiety has not returned." Fashion journalist Fashion journalism developed during the 18th century, when the fashion dolls – dolls designed to display relevant fashion ensembles – were replaced by fashion magazines , notably the Cabinet des Modes , which

504-543: The importance of how political leaders choose to present themselves. Cathy Horyn is the critic-at-large for New York Magazine's The Cut since 2015, having spent 15 years as the former chief critic of The New York Times with roles at The Washington Post and Vanity Fair. In 2001, she was awarded the Eugenia Sheppard Award for fashion writing by the Council of Fashion Designers of America . Sarah Mower MBE

532-432: The internet, the journalism industry is becoming far more fluid. Printing, being more costly and less convenient, many publications (such as Nylon magazine) have opted to focus on digital publication . Digital journalism gives the writer unlimited space (rather than forcing an article to fit in a magazine or newspaper layout), and allows for links to external resources, and many images. Another major advantage of digital media

560-480: The past. The Internet has given rise to a number of outlets for amateur fashion journalism, such as blogs and vlogs . Journalism is a general liberal arts major that can be studied at many universities. A concentration in fashion journalism is specific to a number of fashion schools. Generally, a fashion journalist needs at least a BA in fields such as journalism, communications, fashion or other related areas. A strong portfolio and experience in reporting on fashion

588-523: Was a friend and official biographer (1975) of the novelist Evelyn Waugh and son of the diplomat Sir Mark Sykes , sixth baronet (1879–1919), associated with the so-called Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, by which Britain and France provided for the partition of the Ottoman Empire after the end of the First World War. An 18th century forebear, the second baronet, Sir Christopher Sykes (1749–1801),

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616-557: Was a major figure in the enclosure movement that transformed the agricultural landscape in the 18th century. In 1993, Sykes became a fashion assistant at British Vogue . She was featured that year, with, among others, designer Bella Freud and model Stella Tennant in Babes in London , in a photographic shoot by the American Steven Meisel (responsible in 1992 for the singer Madonna 's controversial collection, Sex ), which

644-561: Was based on her and her friends' lifestyles living in New York City in the 1990s. An anthology of Bushnell's columns was published as a book of the same name in 1996. The columns became the basis for the HBO television series Sex and the City , which led to the 2008 film of the same name , a 2010 sequel , and the HBO Max (now Max ) revival of the series And Just Like That... . Candace Bushnell

672-589: Was produced by the rising fashion guru Isabella Blow (1958–2007). In 1997, Sykes became a contributing editor on fashion for American Vogue , of which Anna Wintour , also British, had been editor-in-chief since 1988. (It was this period at Vogue that inspired Lauren Weisberger 's 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada .) Sykes soon became a familiar figure on the New York social scene, being frequently described as an " It girl ". A decade later, at 38, Sykes reflected that "when you hit 30 you lose your edge": invited by

700-546: Was the International Herald Tribune as its fashion critic for 25 years, ultimately departing for Condé Nast International in 2014. She now produces a podcast "Creative Conversations With Suzy Menkes" and contributes to Air Mail, a mobile-first digital weekly created by Graydon Carter . Sex and the City (newspaper column) " Sex and the City " was a newspaper column written by Candace Bushnell for The New York Observer from 1994 to 1996. The column

728-812: Was the setting for Sykes' first novel, Bergdorf Blondes (2004), which was one of the most successful examples of " chick lit " (or " chic lit" as some dubbed Sykes' writing) and sold a quarter of a million copies worldwide. It took its title from the Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan , founded at the end of the 19th century. A second novel, The Debutante Divorcée , was published in 2006. Sykes publicised it with an array of personal appearances at stores in New York (Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Frederic Fekkai, Ferragamo, Neiman Marcus and Oscar de la Renta). The Debutante Divorcée appeared in paperback in 2007. Some have seen Sykes' books as lying in natural succession to Sex and

756-408: Was working as a freelance writer in New York City when her editor at The New York Observer offered her a column. She based it on her and her friend's experiences as single women in their thirties living in the city, "all of whom seemed to have had a never-ending series of freakish and horrifying experiences with men". The column's name, "Sex and the City", is a play on the 1962 advice book Sex and

784-459: Was wrong... I felt terrified, mentally and physically I was jelly. I was afraid to do anything. "Take some Xanax", said one doctor, 'it's anxiety". Sykes attended an anxiety recovery programme developed by anxiety expert, Charles Linden, which she cites as the solution that returned her to working for American Vogue and a full and active social life. In the article, Sykes says 'I started The Linden Method... and felt better almost immediately... I took

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