Johnny Weir to be Nine Network's RAFW commentator?

lifeskate.com

For anyone who hasn't been following the Johnny Weir/Nine Network saga during the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics, quick headsup. Eddie McGuire, Nine commentator (and former ceo), who has been anchoring the network's 2010 winter Olympics coverage, became embroiled in controversy over comments delivered during coverage of the male ice skating events last week, in tandem with guest host, Australian comedian Mick Molloy. The duo joked that flamboyantly-dressed male ice skaters - and in particular, ferosh US ice star Johnny Weir - did not leave "anything in the closet", with one competitor's costume described as "a bit of a Brokeback", in reference to Ang Lee's 2005 bromance Brokeback Mountain. In the wake of a backlash - which has included demands for a formal investigation in Australia into McGuire and Molloy's alleged vilification of homosexuals - Nine attempted to make amends by corralling Weir onto its Olympics team as a guest commentator.

After several nights of guest spots calling this week's womens' ice skating finals in Nine's field studio, Weir just presented an 11-minute wrapup of the best and worst fashions of the winter Olympics, together with McGuire and co-host Leila McKinnon.

In thanking Weir, McGuire alluded to possible future collaborations between the network and Weir. Noted McGuire:

"We are going to try to get you down to Australia in the not too distant future. Not only come down and have some fun, maybe with Fashion Weeks and things like that, but we want to see to see you skate, You are a champion and for all the hoohaa that's being going on, sometimes you can forget that you are a fantastic athlete".

Rosemount Australian Fashion Week is due to run from May 3-7 at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Beyond some high profile blogging invitees that organisers are rumoured to be wooing - the names Tavi Gevinson and Susie Bubble spring to mind - will Johnny Weir ice the rest of the competition out of Sydney's front row?

Tavi to a T: Style Rookie profiled (finally) by NYT, outed by AP

style rookie

Long time, no Tavi update. After already doing three posts on the 12 year-old fashion blogger behind Style Rookie, frockwriter thought we’d give it a rest for a mo. But events dictate an update: a case in point, the much-touted New York Times T magazine feature on tween bloggers which was published yesterday.

Here’s the link to Elizabath Spiridakis’ feature ‘Post adolescents: Tween bloggers’ which profiles Tavi, alongside three other teen bloggers - and alludes to an additional two blogs.

It's unclear if Tavi is the only blogger younger than 15.

Beyond a fleeting mention of these young bloggers not being bothered by anonymous haters, it’s an upbeat, uncritical story.

But then, T is a fashion publication and as Spiridakis herself pointed out in her comment on frockwriter, she is employed at The New York Times as an art director, and not apparently as a journalist.

This is in spite of the fact that Spiridakis writes a sub-blog for nytimes.com’s The Moment blog (in addition to her own independent blog, White Lightning).

The T story had been in the pipeline for months. However as frockwriter pointed out in our third, and last, post on Tavi – and as Spiridakis herself concedes in the above-linked comment - New York magazine scooped T when it ran a profile on Tavi on July 22nd.

Last week the Associated Press went one better with a story written by Amanda Kwan called ‘Girls who blog: Innocent fun or potential danger?’ which has since been widely published in the US.

The August 12th AP story discusses the potential dangers for child bloggers – in the same breath, outing Tavi’s real identity and location.

Tavi’s real name is evidently Tavi Gevinson and her family lives in xxx, xxx.

This will presumably make it much easier for kiddie fiddlers to find them.

The story also notes of Tavi:

“To some wary adults, she's in a world where she doesn't belong”.

And introduces Parry Aftab, an internet privacy/security-specialist lawyer who is the executive director of wiredsafety.org, who notes:

"Parents have no idea what their kids are doing online. Most parents have no idea what a blog is."

This certainly appears to apply to Tavi’s father, Steve Gevinson, who reveals that he was not “fully aware” that his daughter was blogging until she sought permission to appear in The New York Times magazine story.

Steve Gevinson also reveals that, following the New York magazine blog post on Tavi – which prompted, as we reported, a blogging backlash again New York mag journalist Jessica Coen, who questioned Tavi’s age and savvy – Tavi was upset by some of the snarky comments by readers who agreed with Coen.

One assumes that Tavi might not have been so upset by the attention per se – because in information that has emerged elsewhere, Tavi is also part of a children’s theatre group and played the lead role in a recent production,

Tavi is no shrinking violet, in other words.

Gevinson told AP:

"She slept in the bed with us that night to get back to sleep. [The next night] She woke up, and again woke us up, and said - and this is really heartbreaking - 'I just woke up crying and I don't even know why I'm crying."'

The wiredsafety.org rep believes that haters/anonymous cyber bullies are one good reason why children should not be blogging.

The story also provides tips for parents who suspect that their kids might be blogging. These include:

- Encouraging children to write posts with another person (read adult), in the room.
- Ensuring that photos don’t have any personally identifiable information.
- Educating yourself about the net.

The childrens’ theatre connection may partially explain why some of Tavi’s images are so entertaining. Blogging, at its best, is part confessional, part standup comedy and Tavi appears to be a natural performer.

If Steve Gevinson is, as reported, an English teacher, then that may also help to explain why Tavi is so articulate for her age.

One thing about which I am still unclear however is the quality of Tavi’s photos. This is one of the chief reasons why I initially found it hard to believe her story.

With the exception of the series which appear with Tavi's first post following the NY mag brouhaha - in which she poses against a backdrop of newspaper clippings, with a type headline which reads, 'Between the lines' and even takes a bow in one shot (above) - most of the images that Tavi has since published look like those taken by your typical amateur photographer.

Some of the original shots, which I reproduced for the purposes of news and review – including the original Style Rookie masthead, which showed a shot of Tavi with some artfully-arranged type (but which has since been changed) – looked almost professionally art directed.

Call it beginner’s luck.

NY mag might have been "ragging" on Tavi - but it scooped the NY Times

the photo that launched tavi into orbit: fashion robot

Tavi update! In my nightly net trawls I spotted a comment on NY mag’s The Cut blog overnight from someone claiming not only to be Tavi’s sister, but that Tavi had recently been interviewed for the "New York Times Style" magazine. Coupla hours later comes this update.


According to a new post on The Cut:

“A source at the mag confirmed that Tavi will indeed be in the August 17 women's fashion issue, though they weren't entirely positive if the writer met her in person or talked via e-mail. (But since there are photos on Tavi's blog of her at the Times building, we're guessing in person.)”

Tavi’s blog Style Rookie does feature shots of her at the “NYTimes building” but I must admit, I was still coming to terms with the prospect of a 12 year-old style goddess when I first looked at Style Rookie, that I didn't pay much attention to the fine print.

Her July 19 post:


style rookie

The woman in the photo with Tavi is “Elizabeth” from the White Lightning blog who I quoted yesterday.

You know, the one who had noted:

“let me say this, nymag and all random haters take note: miss tavi, the style rookie, is real. and basically awesomer than most of us. we had lunch. she got to see what a magazine office is like. we discussed the cdg/lv bags. someone in the elevator thought she was MY DAUGHTER (yeah, that has neverrr happened to me before. especially since i still get carded at rated R movies. but i would adopt her in a sec so WHATEVS.). as soon she's old enough i'd welcome her to be the star intern in our office. and then she'll steal all of our jobs”.

This is one and the same Elizabeth Spiridakis who works for The New York Times it now emerges. Spiridakis writes a weekly blog on nytimes.com (to which she occasionally makes reference on White Lightning).

I can find no reference to Tavi or Style Rookie on nytimes.com. Perhaps they thought the story would hold until August 17.

It must be especially frustrating for the NYT given that not only was it onto the Tavi story before the NY mag, a number of bloggers who have been railing against NY mag's so-called "ragging" on Tavi appear to have confused the two mastheads. A case in point this blog headline, "New York Times = Bully".

By "Style" magazine one assumes Tavi's sister meant "T" - whose August 17 issue does indeed, as the "source" mentioned, focus on women's fashion.

No idea what the magazine’s lead time is but now that Tavi has graduated to the status of “coolest kid ever” – a gong she will have to share with that Sartorialist kid until she can trump his Pierre Hardy sneakers – stand by to see if the original August 17 T cover subject gets dumped for Tavi.

Meanwhile The Cut wasn’t taking any chances with its tone yesterday.

In the event that anything was to be further misconstrued by "Team Tavi", the blog signed off its Tavi update with the following words:

“To which we say, Huzzah, Tavi! At 12 we were still watching Fashion Television on cable and dreaming of NYC. That's a compliment, by the way”.

Tavi the Style Rookie - she might not have legs, but the story sure does

style rookie

Judging by the traffic overnight (and notably from the US) there was a huge amount of interest in the story of fashion blogger extraordinaire Tavi - the author of Style Rookie - who describes herself as “a vertically challenged 12 year old that could fit inside your purse". The mainstream media appears to be asleep at the wheel, however the internet exploded overnight. And given the outpouring from those who say they either know Tavi, or have met her, it seems there's a chance that this story might not revolve around a clever marketing stunt after all, but rather, one clever kid.




style rookie

Much of the online reaction appears to have been in protest to New York mag journalist Jessica Coen who broke the Tavi story on the magazine's blog The Cut on Tuesday. That's in the mainstream news arena sense.

The Tavi story had been bubbling along in the blogosphere for three months - as it emerges, ever since a 16 year-old blogger by the name of Stephanie, aka Fashion Robot, first photographed her younger sister and bunch of her sister's friends - including a then unnamed Tavi - playing dressups.

Fashion Robot published a photospread of the session on March 22nd. Many commenters swooned over the style of "the little blonde girl".

On April 16th, Fashion Robot revealed that "the little blonde girl" had her own blog.

Subsequent blogs to pick the story up include Style Nova and Fashion Pirates.

On Tuesday NY mag's Jessica Coen simply asked a few questions as to Tavi's bona fides – as indeed any journalist should have done in these circumstances.

It was Coen’s snippy tone which seems to have been the problem.

Coen had written:

“So what sets Tavi apart from all those other bloggers no one cares about? If it weren't enough that she calls out Snoop "Doggy Dog" in the same paragraph that she drops "Margiela DIY," she's "wanting" a "fringed vest" and "listening" to Feist. Her blog is full of pictures of her in trendy duds, like high-waisted pants and mixed floral pieces. She writes about what she wore to her friend Claire's birthday party, thrifting, and Australian Vogue”.

I must admit I missed the Australian Vogue reference yesterday.

Here's a small sample of the many hostile comments posted on The Cut overnight.

Noted one commenter:

“So Tavi happens to be several times cooler than you where when you were her age(12!), get over it!”

And another:

“I'd rather see a thousand and ten Tavis out there than the Ho-llister and Abercrappy and Bitch clanned teens we are forced to see every day. I'm 13, and I have a blog, and mine doesn't deserve half the support that Tavi's does”.

Yet another:

“i am 12 and i have a fashion blog, big whoop. what is it to you? Tavi is my friend, and why doesn't it matter if she has good style. it not her fault that you don't. here, read my blog, i am real and i am real pissed. why can't a 12 year old have good style?”

style rookie

As for the blogosphere, well, it went into overdrive.

This is from a blog called White Lightning:

“let me say this, nymag and all random haters take note: miss tavi, the style rookie, is real. and basically awesomer than most of us. we had lunch. she got to see what a magazine office is like. we discussed the cdg/lv bags. someone in the elevator thought she was MY DAUGHTER (yeah, that has neverrr happened to me before. especially since i still get carded at rated R movies. but i would adopt her in a sec so WHATEVS.). as soon she's old enough i'd welcome her to be the star intern in our office. and then she'll steal all of our jobs”.

Catwalk Queen wrote:

“Why is the New York magazine ragging on Tavi? I think Tavi 'deserves' an 'apology'"!

Catwalk Queen has also created a special T-shirt in the Tavster's honour:


catwalk queen

Teen Vogue – which quite possibly had never heard of Tavi prior to Tuesday - nevertheless claimed the story as their own, and Tavi as “One of our absolute favorite fashion bloggers” and a “12-year-old prodigy”.

Together with the headline:

“TAVI TAKES THE TOWN”

style rookie

As for Tavi well, there's still no sign of her on the blog.

Her signoff post however now has 62 comments – all of them telling her, words to the effect, "You go girl!".

And frockwriter has a feeling that, forming a queue behind Tavi's perplexed parents and the child welfare authorities, may well be a swag of literary agents, publishers and the Nickelodeon and Disney networks, all waving six figure contracts.

According to Tavi's mate Stephanie aka Fashion Robot, Tavi is doing fine.

Writes Stephanie today:

“...she's a bit freaked out by this whole thing.... Don't worry guys - I spoke to Tavi and she'll be back to the blog in a few days!“

Is Tavi the world's youngest fashion blogger?

style rookie

Moving on from models-who-blog and models-who-sing, comes fashion-obsessed-kids-who-blog. Today's NY magazine throws the spotlight on what could be the world’s youngest fashion blogger. Or a marketing stunt. Or something else entirely.

On her Style Rookie profile, Tavi describes herself as:

“a vertically challenged 12 year old that could fit inside your purse. I like to think I'm a mix of Little Lu Lu and Iggy Pop, with a bit of Snoop Doggy Dog. I spend my time wearing out crayons and watching Arthur, and taking a rest now and then to try out the latest Margiela DIY, which has most recently resulted in a tire around my neck. I take part in a rap group with a pirate, and we write about Japanese designers and furry vests. Pleasure to make your acquaintance”.

style rookie

If this is to be believed, Tavi has been blogging since April with, to date, 3,813 profile views.

I’ll wager they're not all fashionwatchers.

Now look I know David Jones is doing is darndest to head off at the pass any future underage model scandals – by banning runway models under the age of 18. Some have applauded the decision.


style rookie

But what is one to do when cashed-up, tech-savvy kids are getting onto the net posting pics of themselves in their latest outfits?

The writing style seems incredibly mature for a 12 year-old. The photographs also look pretty professional.

By the same token, 15 year-old Cory Kennedy was an internet celebrity and on the cover of Nylon magazine before her parents had a clue what was going on.


style rookie

Tavi photographs herself in her fave outfits, critiques runway collections and styles her own shoots. She’s on numerous blogrolls and seems to have generated quite a lot of comments.

On June 28th, she wrote:

“I punched out the lenses in my transparent way-farers for a good pair of geek glasses, I swear they're the coolest thing since sliced bread”.

And on June 27th:

“These past couple nights have been quite odd. I would turn off the light to go to sleep and close my eyes and every time I blinked I would see like a model on the runway wearing something I've never seen, I guess outfits I've thought of subconsciously. What the hell does this even mean? Some sort of epiphany? I used to think of fashion as more of a hobby, the idea of perhaps making a career of it is becoming more real every day....”

On April 16 she told readers:

“Also, something interesting happened today at school that I would just like to share. In gym, I'm in golf (one day I will come to class wearing an argyle sweater and pom-pom hat) and we practice outside on the field. There's an alley next to one side of the field. I was on the other side, but I got the inside scoop (sound more middle-school-gossip-ish please?). An old man, 70 or so, in a dark purple van pulled up in the alley and asked for a few girls to get in his car. They didn't of course, but creepy much??? Reminds me of Family Guy. Ha. And then a few minutes later, someone pulled the fire alarm. Can you say intense? But this day just keeps getting better and better......”

Sadly, with all the attention from New York magazine – and possibly also child welfare authorities – Tavi appears to have signed off.

She tells her readers today:

“I'm sorry, I have to take a break. Not quite sure if I'll be coming back...I'll try to keep updating my weardrobe but I can't exactly guaruntee anything. Hate to throw all this dumb adolescence stuff here where it really doesn't need to be”.