In the early years of the magazine, Outlook and India Today were the only two magazines that really mattered. As a fashion designer, your coverage of fashion was what I looked forward to and I was never disappointed because it was done with seriousness and intelligence. I remember Sunil Mehra writing about fashion—although he was often nasty, the reporting was good and his opinion, whether I liked it or not, made sense. In those times, Outlook’s sensible writing on fashion as opposed to the usual glossies on it was refreshing.
Now I think that is missing. Outlook seems to have deemed fashion as frivolous and is indifferent to an industry that is huge in the country. You’ve become too serious; your reporting has become too serious. I’d like to believe it is still good reporting but we creative people live in a different world, one away from seriousness and therefore I refuse to pick up Outlook now, and haven’t for the last five years. And it is not just fashion; I think features in general in the magazine have become boring. You’ve got to have a mix of everything. Every serious person has an alternate side to them and Outlook needs to bring out the other, fresh side of it for me to want to pick it up once again. Touch on all the elements of life and not just what you believe is popular news.
J.J. Valaya, Indian fashion designer and founding member of FDCI
Outlook invites readers to take part in its 20th anniversary celebrations. Send us your bouquets and, more importantly, your brickbats. E-mail your entry to editor [AT] outlookindia [DOT] com
