Fashion's Forgiveness Test

Good afternoon, Gatekeepers. I’ve been in San Antonio, Texas for nearly a week now, visiting family and friends. Pros: Margaritas that are actually good. Tacos that are actually good. Santikos. HEB tortillas. The Pearl farmers market. Friends with massive vintage collections that they let me dig through. Getting the tea on friend’s interpersonal band drama. Sitting at the breakfast table with my siblings, eating french toast my mom made for us. Cons: It is diabolically hot. The museums are not free and I cannot walk to them. I cannot walk anywhere. I also can barely drive anywhere…it seems the city of San Antonio wants to do construction on every street, all at once, specifically to screw your day up.

All in all…I am rich in life.

In today’s syllabus, the moral complexity behind the Costume Institute’s decision to honor John Galliano, why Chanel seems to be playing by a different set of rules than the rest of its luxury peers, the reported identity behind the anonymous Instagram account Boring Not Com, and what Adam Mosseri’s appearance on Throwing Fits says about how executives want to be seen. Plus, the mythology built inside Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment, the rooms where fashion history happened, the writer who has been peeling back the curtain of our beauty budgets, and Missoni knitwear.

Gatekept is a fashion and style publication that comes with a syllabus. For just $1.63 per week, you get fashion industry updates, style guides, aesthetic culture deep dives, and a curated syllabus that keeps you creatively engaged in your visual world. Plus, my eternal love and affection.

• Chanel is proving that “luxury” isn’t just one market. While much of the industry continues to blame sluggish demand and economic uncertainty for disappointing results, Chanel is telling a different story. Bloomberg reported that the house’s fashion business grew 16 percent in the first half of the year, suggesting that the appetite for Matthieu Blazy’s debut collections remains exceptionally strong. Because Chanel is privately held, Bloomberg’s figure came from an unnamed person familiar with its performance and not a public filing. It’s obvious that brands who create cultural gravity can continue creating demand when everyone else is talking about a slowdown.

• The internet’s favorite anonymous fashion critic may no longer be anonymous. Puck’s Lauren Sherman reports that she traced Boring Not Com—the acid-green Instagram account that says the rude part of fashion criticism out loud—to Rasharn Agyemang, a stylist, photographer, and creative director with nearly 20 years in the industry. Sherman says the account’s sponsored posts helped crack the case: paid work leaves behind paperwork and public filings that an NDA fails to conceal. Agyemang has not confirmed the report, and Sherman acknowledges that the account could still involve a small team. Anonymity allowed Boring to be candid in an industry where magazines, creators, and working stylists often depend upon the same brands they might want to criticize. Once criticism becomes the business, however, one must answer the question every fashion publication eventually faces: Can you take a brand’s money and still tell it that it’s boring?

• John Galliano x Met Gala. The 2027 Met Gala will center on a retrospective of designer John Galliano, making him only the third living designer to receive a solo exhibition from the Costume Institute. The exhibition, titled John Galliano: Horizons, will undoubtedly make for an incredibly remarkable theme. Galliano is one of the most influential fashion designers of the past half century and his work has fundamentally changed the visual language of fashion. That being said, this theme is controversial and has reopened a conversation that extends well beyond artistry.

  In 2011, Galliano was arrested after he made a series of antisemitic remarks during an alcohol and drug-fueled incident at La Perle cafe in Paris. Days after the incident, a video of a separate episode surfaced, depicting an intoxicated Galliano exclaiming things like “I love Hitler,” among other equally disturbing comments. This led to his dismissal from Dior and effectively ended that chapter of his career. During his trial, Galliano testified that he had no memory of the event due to being under the influence of alcohol, barbiturates, and sleeping pills. In his public apology, he said, “Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologize for my behavior in causing any offense…I only have myself to blame. I am seeking help and all I can hope for is time to address the personal failure which led to these circumstances.”