Scott Schuman Makes Lots of Money and Hates Girls

Yesterday, a website called The Talks published an interview with Scott Schuman, also known as The Sartorialist, an established street-style blogger. The interviewer begins by asking Schuman about his thoughts on Tavi Gevinson, the ever-positive 15-year-old blogger who has recently started her own online magazine. On the topic of Tavi, Schuman (proud father of two daughters, no less) has this to say:

"Well I don't think her audience is that big. I think her success is a little bit of a conspiracy by established print media that wanted to show that this blog thing is not that important, that it's done by a bunch of twelve year olds. But a lot of us are serious grown-ups. I think it's great that Tavi can create a blog and write for other people that are like-minded - probably other kids around her age - but I don't know how that is going to help a 26-year old, if she has never had a boyfriend or any of that kind of stuff. She's just a kid, so she can talk about art and stuff only in an abstract way."

In other words, he is suggesting that Tavi's success has been masterminded by the Evil Print Media to show that blogging is, essentially, a joke. But isn't Schuman himself a blogger? Whose success is due, in part, to other bloggers? He also complains that people like Tavi "steal pictures from other people" in order to have imagery on his blog. Welcome to the Internet! Oh, and have you heard of Bill Cunningham?

There are so many excellent quotes in the article that it's hard to choose which ones to pick out. Here's a good one, on the topic of whether Schuman reads any other Fashion Blogs:

"No not really. The only one I look at is my girlfriend Garance Dore. To me she is the game-changer right now. She is a great writer, she does video, illustration, and photography. I look at her and I get jealous because she is so artistic in so many different ways - she does great illustrations, heart-felt writing, beautiful photography, and inspiring videos. She is funny, consistent, and her point of view on fashion is great. So that is the only blog that I look at on a consistent basis."

Cute! I love the smell of nepotism in the morning. Then he talks about how much money he makes from his Blog:

"American Apparel bought advertising for the whole year and then I just got an email yesterday that Net-A-Porter.com is going to buy advertisements for the rest of the year (2010) as well. So those two ads alone are a good fraction of a million dollars: more than a quarter million and less than a half a million. The key for me, and for Garance also, is like any good business: diversity. I make money from shooting campaigns and editorials, from prints, the rerelease of my photos in different magazines, and from doing personal appearances. I make money from a bunch of different places ... My audience is so much larger than everybody else's that advertisers, well at least American Apparel told me that I am not in their internet budget. My order is so big and they have to pay so much that I am actually in their magazine budget. That comes from having a good size audience."

So, I guess what we really get out of this is that Scott Schuman is an all-round great guy, who sleeps on a bed made of the money that he makes from doing little-to-no work, only waking to complain about other people doing the same thing.

Maybe I'm just upset because he's made me concerned about the future of the print industry:

Have magazines lost their integrity because of the power advertisers have?
I think everyone knows not to believe in magazines anymore, they know that magazines are just page after page of advertisers.

What do you mean?
Magazines are driven by fear: they have to keep these advertisers and do these things for them. But now blogs have grown so big that I get emails like that all the time. But we know, Garance and I, that the thing for us is the level of integrity so we just don't do it.

He's right, though, a magazine is a terrifying place to work. Hey Scott! I really liked your Levi's post!

thesartorialist.com
the-talks.com