Katherine

sinner

Katherine Sinner is a Paris based freelancer specializing in fashion writing from a sociological perspective and marketing for young fashion brands. She has also worked in market-week showrooms, and on the set of editorial shoots for Vogue France.

Her experiences include: journalistic writing, copy editing, magazine/editorial assistance, digital content creation, brand marketing, and SEO.

Additionally, she offers personal shopping and styling services.

Katherine is currently available to report on PFW.

Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, she received her Master of Arts from The New School - Parsons Paris in 2021.

Latest Articles

Attending the Fendi Baguette's 25th Anniversary Launch

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In early November this year, Fendi celebrated the 25th anniversary re-​launch of their iconic Baguette bag. A Parisian boutique on Avenue ​Montaigne commemorated the historic event with a cocktail party. ​Attendees included people among the French fashion scene and various ​influencers.

The Fendi Baguette was first launched in 1997, designed by Sylvia ​Venturini Fendi. The brand was losing relevance and needed a way to rise ​up again. Her venture was a success – the bag became a lasting symbol of ​the brand. It reached its peak when Sarah Jessica Parker donned the bag ​in season 3 of Sex and the City, and even having some in her own ​personal closet. The pop culture duo cemented its star power. If ​somebody thought about the Baguette, they thought about Sarah Jessica ​Parker in SATC. The Spring Summer 2023 New York Fashion Week show ​presented the bag in a series of patterns and hues – one of them being ​the very wasabi green which Fendi has centered much of this current ​collection upon.

Fendi also enlisted Marc Jacobs and Tiffany’s as part of their creative ​strategy in the Baguette re-launch. The Marc Jacobs pieces featured ​bright green prints and cellophane capes. Tiffany’s lended their exclusive ​blue to the collection, creating bags with diamonds, sterling silver, and ​white gold. Featuring accessories in this special shade of blue is certainly ​an honor. Furthermore, the recent y2k revival that has taken fashion by ​storm only further enhances the boom of this bag. It makes sense that ​the Sex and the City y2k nostalgia has been a majorly positive ​contributing factor to the re-launch.

The 25th anniversary launch party was full of fashion enthusiasts ​grasping their champagne flutes. I entered the boutique to see the walls ​awash with that very specific wasabi color. A DJ mixed tracks in the ​corner of the boutique next to a digitized wall with flashing images of the ​Baguette. The accessories of the night were carefully placed onto well-lit ​shelves, and some fitted on the tops of encased podiums. The sounds of ​electronic pop music and chatter filled the air. I stood in awe of the bags, ​the privilege of being able to see so many of them in one place. It was a ​moment in fashion history.

The Fendi Baguette has once again made its way into media headlines ​and into the hearts of fashion lovers. It’s clear that it remains an ​undoubtedly beloved symbol of the brand.

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Hair Politics and the Study of Hair Salons

(abridged)

Historically, colonial mimicry plays a significant role for black women. ​Colonial mimicry serves as an action of adapting to the ideals of the ​oppressor or the dominant. “Within that conflictual economy of colonial ​discourse which Edward Said describes as the tension between the ​synchronic panoptical version of domination - the demand for identity, stasis ​- and the counterpressure of the diachrony of history - change, difference - ​mimicry represents an ironic compromise” (Bhabha: 126). Presently, it ​represents a method of taming differences and fitting into the box created by ​mainstream society.

Normative mainstream beauty standards hold a long history of exclusion ​against non-western cultures. Western standards of beauty have historically ​saturated the fashion and beauty industry. Elements of colonialism, ​orientalism, and classicism play into the narrative of dominant beauty ​standards. There are debates about the origins of the formal fashion system, ​though there seems to be an agreement between fashion scholars that ​fashion originated in Europe.

Fast Forward a few centuries to 19th century America. We witness instances ​of African Americans attempting a form of freedom through fashion. Clothes ​become representative of establishing an identity. Monica Miller discusses ​the black dandy in her novel. Historically, a dandy is a man who places ​significance upon physical appearance, a refined language, and leisurely ​hobbies. The dandy emphasized class and sophistication. Black dandyism ​came about as a “practice that destabilized hierarchies of race and power…” ​(Miller: 81).

Then coining the term ‘crime of fashion’, she goes on to explain, “The ​crime of fashion describes the racial and class cross-dressing that was, ​as practices by blacks, a symbol of a self-conscious manipulation of ​authority and, as seen in the blackface, an attempted denigratory ​parody of free blacks’ pride and enterprise” (Miller: 81). By taking a ​culture derivative of the white man and adapting it to their own race, ​black men were able to shake the social classes of the time. This was just ​one example of black individuals seeking equality and justice through ​back to back moments of oppression.

These European standards have persevered into the 21st century. As we ​see with the current BLM movement, inequalities (in the overall context ​of this essay, the inequalities being biased beauty standards) are still ​affecting black women today. The example of unequal beauty standards ​that I chose to examine in this essay was the hair salon. This is an ​example of events that are so common, yet discussed so little. The hair ​salon is a place visited by so many women, while currently existing as an ​underrecognized place of discrimination and segregation.

“This issue of the invisibility of black people has long been discussed in, ​for example, postcolonial studies. Despite their extensive range of ​activities in the public gaze that has snowballed over the centuries, the ​issue of invisibility remains a caustic point in need of address in the ​twenty-first century” (Tulloch: 281).

Katherine Sinner

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