“Don’t get political” is a line I’ve heard various people advise teams and clients here in NZ, something that today seems hilariously outdated getting political seemed to sit uneasily with MR and Leandra’s ethos too. The site was simply clothes obsessed, which was fine until it wasn’t - the landscape shifted and fashion was expected to be political and socially aware. Like others who often found fashion elitist and lacking in humour, I was a fan of MR from its early days I loved the anti-fashion celebration of personal style. If you’re reading this, you likely already know the complicated story of the downfall of Leandra’s blog-turned-website-turned-media-brand Man Repeller ( read this if you need a reminder). It was interesting to me that Alexandra’s column sympathised with another idol fallen from grace. In the same interview she also bristled against criticism of a photo in her final issue that showed her surrounded by 54 staff that were all white said that she was not a fan of ‘positive discrimination’ pulled the ‘Black models don’t sell magazines' card and refused to accept critique of a lack of diversity of the magazine under her watch. The column was interpreted by many as a veiled dig at her successor Edward Enninful, who has gone on to be revered as a modern editor who showcases true inclusivity in his pages and covers - and staff (and whose magazine is commercially successful).Īlexandra later told the Guardian - in a story that is still jaw dropping in its delusion (a precursor to Leandra Medine Cohen’s recent train-wreck interview on The Cutting Room Floor podcast) - that her comments were “intended to be a comment on what the future of magazine journalism could be”, not about Edward specifically. Should I expect more from her? This is someone who featured only 12 Black faces on the cover of British Vogue over her 25-year editorship and who, following her departure in 2017, wrote a column headlined “what makes a great editor?” that dismissively described the new crop as being “less magazine journalists and more celebrities or fashion personalities with substantial social media followings”. Alexandra, on the other hand, has proven herself to be of the old guard that continues to position traditional newspapers and magazines as the true arbiters of “authority and trust”, and who still champion the old-fashioned ‘play nice, don’t ask questions, don’t rock the boat, don’t disrupt the status quo’ mindset. I have respect for both (and I also criticise both). I’m of the generation that has both been - and consumed - new and old media I am not a total digital native, I am not totally part of the old-guard. I worked at a newspaper for almost 10 years, I’ve worked in and edited magazines (including one that had been around for 40 years a heritage that barely anyone outside of the team cared about), I had a relatively successful blog in the heady days before Instagram, I spend way too much time on social media, I now run a digital-first platform. I have a clear understanding and lived experience of this. This was, I have to admit, a darkly hilarious career highlight (blame my sardonic humour): one of my former idols acknowledging my existence via the Daily Mail, criticising the “small online magazine” I had built and likening it, and those similar, to “a seething swarm of venomous wasps”.īut I soon became fascinated by how Alexandra’s criticisms of social and "new" media for not abiding by the traditional “play nice” rules of old media simultaneously proved how out of touch she still is. In other words: delusion meets delusion privilege supports privilege. Recent stories focusing on the fall from grace of early social media success stories Garance Dore (“a familiar and much-liked figure on the fashion circuit”) and Leandra Medine Cohen of the “popular” website Man Repeller - from “small” new media platforms Ensemble and podcast The Cutting Room Floor - were indicative, according to Alexandra, of an ill-informed and destructive approach compared to old-school media. Her premise seemed to be that rather than offering more informed commentary and allowing more diverse voices to be heard, social media has turned us all into “cannibals with ferocious appetites”. After we published a story chronicling influencer Garance Dore’s international travel and irresponsible social media post, Alexandra Shulman - former editor of British Vogue and a woman I had previously admired for years - referenced it in a column she wrote for the Mail on Sunday.