Fashion journalism involves all aspects of published fashion media, including fashion writers, fashion critics, and fashion reporters. This can be fashion features in magazines and newspapers, and may also include books about fashion, fashion related reports on television and online fashion magazines, websites, and blogs.
The work of a fashion journalist can be quite varied. Typical work includes writing or editing articles, or helping to formulate and style a fashion shoot. A fashion journalist typically spends a lot of time researching and conducting interviews and it is essential that he or she has good contacts with people in the fashion industry, including photographers, designers, and public relations specialists. Fashion journalists are either employed full-time by a publication or are employed on a freelance basis.
A fashion website named Fashion Net was started in 1995. It was soon followed by American Fashion Mall and French ELLE. Fashion Live produced Internet's first live fashion webcast of Yves Saint Laurent's runway show in 1996.CNN Style and Hint Magazine arrived in 1998. The following year saw the rise and fall of Boo.com as the company burned through $135 million in 18 months.Style.com, the online umbrella for Vogue and W, started in 2000. Style.com is not a journalistic website but a resource to show the complete collections of selected fashion shows (among the most notorious brands) each season. Following a tiff in 2007, W left Style.com making it the online home for Vogue alone. In late 2000, Beauty Flow magazine flourished with exclusive content for editorials, portraits, and reports.
The work of a fashion journalist has been depicted in films such as The Devil Wears Prada, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and The September Issue, as well as the TV series Ugly Betty.