Fashion

Tavi Has No Time For The Sartorialist's Remarks

by Melanie Richtman

In her recent interview with The Talks, Tavi Gevinson shut down The Sartorialist (Scott Schuman) for ageist remarks he made about the fashionable teen several years ago. If you've forgotten, Gevinson started her blog Style Rookie when she was 13. A year later after finding major success, Schuman made the comment that Gevinson didn't truly understand what she was blogging about, saying that "it is like a five-year old Michael Jackson singing about love — to him they are just words.” Those are fighting words if I've ever heard them. As expected, Gevison's response was perfect—well thought out, but also a little feisty.

That young people don’t have valid thoughts about the world because they haven’t been alive long enough is sadly a very popular and, frankly, unoriginal sentiment. When I think about that time, I was just responding to the world around me. And I was perceptive enough that I felt like I could make connections to things in my life. I don’t think it was abstract. And I am basically skeptical of any adults who have those kinds of things to say about young people because it seems to always very transparently stem from fear and insecurity. And to be honest, the fact that he’s shorter than me in real life.

While I disagree with the Sartorialist's comments—age is just a number—it's not like he's saying this about an 18-year-old Gevinson. He said this several years ago when she was 14, before she had a chance to show her real chops. I'm willing to bet that now, in hindsight, he would absolutely retract those statements and probably admit that Gevinson might know a thing or two about fashion, considering her work with Harper's Bazaar and BlackBook — not to mention her new collaboration with Clinique.

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