Fashion’s Gossip Addiction

Fashion has an addiction problem. I am not talking about illicit substances here, though the industry’s past issues with those have been well documented. Rather, I am talking about illicit … well, talk. Gossip. It seems unable to stop, and it is getting worse. In Paris last week there was more leaking going on in the maisons of Avenue Montaigne than in the Trump White House. Rumors were rampant on the front row and in the back rooms; during dinner parties and over cocktail canapés. This designer was leaving this brand. That designer was coming. This house was firing that guy. That creative director was wildly unhappy. The whispering went beyond the Kim Jones-to-Versace rumors, which may be true but are largely presented as fact. (Remember what happened to the last Versace fact, that Riccardo Tisci was taking the helm? Nothing!) It went beyond the knock-on speculation about what would happen at Louis Vuitton men’s wear if Mr. Jones left that label and who might be migrating there (though that was a big topic of discussion). It encompassed at least three other big brands that were maybe, possibly, it could happen, undergoing a change. Some of the talk made no sense at all. Some of it was plausible. None of it was officially denied or confirmed, which meant it continued to gain currency. Read more at The New York Times.