Fashion coverage wears on some

A reader wrote recently wondering whether The N&O might survey readers to find out how many actually "enjoy and profit from your extensive coverage of fashion 'news.'

"These pages are the first to go to my recycle bin," wrote Robin L. Peacock of Raleigh. "And from what I hear from friends -- both young and old -- I am not alone in having total disinterest in the current design styles -- or 'haute couture,' as I sometimes see referenced."

Good idea, thought I. The News & Observer does give a fair amount of attention to fashion with its "Style and Fashion" page on the front of the Life, etc. section on Mondays. The recently created Arts & Living section on Sundays added another page devoted to the latest frockery. Had I not read a recent issue, I would not now know what is meant by "diffusion line."

So on the suggestion of Ms. Peacock, I did survey The N&O's Reader Advisory Panel, a group of 360-plus readers whom we ask about coverage from time to time. Do they read the fashion pages?

Not many in this group, anyway. Of the 200 who responded, 59, or 30 percent, said they read the fashion coverage with some frequency. One hundred and forty one, or 70 percent, do not.

But the survey wasn't really representative, because most of the respondents were men. Break the results down by gender, and 53 percent of women read the pages. Among men, only 17 percent follow fashion. I'd have to say also that this reader group isn't what you'd call the ideal target audience. Most are "chronologically gifted" -- i.e., older. Also, a 30 percent following isn't unusual for most pages in the paper, except main news, metro and sports.

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WE'LL TALK IN A MINUTE about what the editors are trying to do with the coverage, but first let's hear some of the comments from these readers about the fashion fare:

"Good feature articles, though they lean a little too high-end for most everyone I know who reads the coverage." -- NANCY KAISER, Durham.

"I read the fashion coverage on Sundays and Mondays and sometimes cut out an article to send to my daughter in another city." -- DOROTHY MCFARLANE, Pittsboro.

"I scan the articles because my daughter is a student of fashion design. Therefore I can use it for conversation with her." -- HUGH JOHNSON, Cary

"I am a baby boomer and the fashions presented are often for a younger, more hip consumer." -- RUTH ROSS, Chapel Hill.

"I think there is too much focus on New York and designer fashion. I would prefer more local coverage, as I can get the world view from magazines." -- PATTY BRIGUGLIO, Cary.

"I think space devoted to fashion news is vacuous and only encourages people's attention to shallow values." -- HOYT TAYLOR, Chapel Hill.

"I look at the pictures of the models on Mondays for all the wrong reasons." -- FLOYD WHITNEY, Chapel Hill.

Samantha Smith and Adrienne Johnson Martin have heard most of these observations/complaints before (well, maybe not Whitney's), and they say they do try to design the coverage around local readers' interests. Smith is The N&O's fashion writer and Martin is Pop Culture editor.

Stories cover the range from boutiques to Kohl's, they said, and they do feature clothing that fits non-runway bodies. Yes, Smith does go to New York Fashion Week twice a year, but she seeks out shows of designers whose work will end up in North Carolina stores. "I don't go to the haute couture shows," she said. "I really edit my shows to show whose clothes will be sold here. It's all accessible, what I write about."

"Vacuous" was a word I saw a couple of times in our correspondents' critiques, and Martin doesn't deny that the subject matter is frivolous. But it's a topic people are interested in. "Our basic idea is that what you wear says something about you, whether you want it to or not," she said. "As soon as Adam and Eve bit the apple and put on clothing, they were saying something that does have meaning."