THE FASHION EDITOR AT LARGE UNMASKED

My friends and work colleagues say there is no point in me being anonymous for this blog as everyone knows it’s me anyway and whats the point. So, OK, my name is Melanie Rickey. I love being a fashion journalist. But “fashion journalist” is not what I write when I’m filling in forms under “occupation”. I write “journalist.” That is what I am. I am driven by a need to understand the world around me and inform or explain it to those who don’t have the time to find out, but are still curious, interested or maybe just a bit obsessed. My specialist subject is fashion. I totally love main-lining the zeitgeist but equally what I do is about respecting the integrity and creativity of the people who make fashion happen. It’s also about recognising the good and the great from the bad and the ugly. Oh, and exercising my trend divining gene. I love to sniff out a trend. I’ve been writing for print media for twelve years and have worked for everyone you can think of in the British press including The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times Style and have been with the amazing Grazia since its very first issue nearly five years ago, and my current role there is as Fashion Editor at Large. Hence the idea for my blog. A fashion editor out and about and at large is what I am, and that is what I bring to Grazia and my blog. I also write for American, Australian and Japanese press. Yet despite my hard earned professional status, there is still something of a teenage fashion superfan about me. I really enjoy the infectious excitement of Bryanboys blog - he is a bonafide superfan pressing his pretty nose up against the window of the industry – and now he’s in it too. Likewise, look at the success of Susie Lau’s Style Bubble blog. Both of these bloggers have crossed over into the industry from being amateurs. And I’m in the industry and sort of crossing over by adding blogging to what I do. I’m a professional journalist and editor working in the heart of the industry. Yet, this parallel of reporting and blogging feels totally right. There's so much that I store for later use in print that never makes it to publication. Or stuff I want to talk about with my friends, except that they are not interested in what model I've got a crush on this week, what shoe I can't stop wearing, or more important issues as to where fashion is going, how it is changing and who is changing it. Who ever heard of someone making their career their hobby aswell? Not me, but what I do know is that my blogging life has begun.