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Scott Schuman Slams Tavi Gevinson, Brags About His Blog

by Julia Rubin | 2:36 pm, September 28th, 2011

Today Scott Schuman gave an interview that blew our minds in a really horrible way, and proved that the man behind The Sartorialist is cripplingly out of touch.

The interview on The Talks starts off with an obnoxiously leading question: “Mr. Schuman, nowadays teenage bloggers like Tavi Gavinson are getting flown around the world to sit on the front rows of fashion shows in order to write about them. Isn’t that getting a little absurd?” Schuman’s answer is even worse:

“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.”

It’s almost laughable how very, very wrong Schuman and his interviewer are. Discounting Gevinson because she’s a teenager? Gross. Discounting her because she “has never had a boyfriend or any of that kind of stuff”? Disgusting. The 15-year-old has proven time and again that she is every bit as smart as “serious grown-ups”. In fact, she works with a whole slew of them over at Rookie! Ira Glass? Miranda July? Game recognize game and all that. It’s awful to call anyone “just a kid”, especially one who has proven herself to be as talented and savvy as Gevinson.

Furthermore, it’s painfully obvious Schuman has barely ever glanced at Style Rookie (and certainly never Rookie). He doesn’t get what she does! In fact, we’d go so far as to say the man does not understand the internet as a content medium. He admits that he lives in a vacuum, and doesn’t read any other fashion blogs except for that of his girlfriend Garance Dore. He even goes on to call her blog a “game-changer”. Here’s the thing: we really like Dore’s work! We do! But game-changing it is not. At all.

Then he talks about the money. Oh, the money!

“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 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…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.”

Just let that sink in for a minute. Oh, and Tavi? She’ll probably just brush this whole thing off. You. Go. Girl.

[The Talks]



  • USHISATO

    I DONT EVEN CONSIDER HIM A BLOGGER!DUH???HE EVEN DOESN’T POSSESSED A STYLE. HE CALLED HIS WEBSITE A BLOG, WHERE HE ONLY POST PICTURES. WE’LL YEAH, HE CAN GET A GOOD PICTURE, BUT IT’S TOO ORDINARY! 

  • Anonymous

    Someone needs to tell this guy that he’s not God’s gift to fashion OR the internet. He’s no innovator, and Tavi is. You threw down with this: ‘ In fact, we’d go so far as to say the man does not understand the internet as a content medium.”

    I’d say he doesn’t understand the internet’s *potential.* Tavi is brilliant, quick to adapt, and produces excellent content, period. She’s inspiring, and he seems jealous. Too bad– if he got over it and approached her work as a student, he could learn something.

  • Anonymous

    TAVI ROCKS! Everything she writes is so relevant in different ways! He is clueless.

  • Anonymous

    he is obviously way jealous.

  • fatima kamara

    I’m not that crazy about Tavi. I think she is a very fortunate young woman to have gotten as much attention for what she’s doing as she’s received. There are other young bloggers out there doing the same thing and for whatever reason they haven’t taken off the way she has. The fashion industry is a fickle mistress, I will not jump on “team Tavi” just because she is the flavor of the month, so we’ll see where this all goes. I don’t know how big her audience is. I usually only hear about her when independent blogs decide to feature her and there’s isn’t much usually said apart from the writing marveling at her youth and the irony of her style given that youth. 

    Her “style”, I don’t get. It’s refreshing and different when compared to people her age and what’s in vogue for them at the moment but I don’t feel as if it’s truly anything I haven’t seen. Some of her designer duds are nice but they are after all expensive, well made, designer duds; that usually have been gifted to her. I think this article is trying to make something out of nothing. I don’t think Scot was disrespectful. I think he was being honest. Being in the fashion world requires a thick skin and if this somehow ruffles her feathers I don’t know how she’ll survive; 15 or not. He was asked questions about her, leading as this article pointed out, in an interview so, he responded. She is 15, talented or not, there are many things she hasn’t experienced. While the boyfriend comment wasn’t the best example, he’s right. For what it’s worth I am 27. I personally enjoy his site much more than hers, the pictures have a certain professional and artistic quality that I think hers lack at the moment. Will they get better? I would think so. Her precocity is sometimes off putting or, for me at least, seems like a gimmick and somewhat inauthentic. There’s no doubt she loves fashion and that’s great but sometimes I wonder who she’s trying to channel and why. As for her responding to his interview — Scot has been in the game much longer than her. It would be wise for her not to say anything back. With all that said, I sincerely wish her a happy and successful career. 

  • http://www.ruslana.co.za John

    Personally I don’t car much for Tavi’s blog at all. However the photo’s on Scott’s blog are always appealing and gives a great insight into what is happening on the street.

  • Kavin

    i wish he actually said “i’m planking on half a mill”

  • http://twitter.com/littlesebastien Sebastien

    This guy sounds like a self absorbed dick.

  • Joyce A

    I’ve always enjoyed the Sartorlialist. I do appreciate his eye. However, his mouth is another thing and coupled with the support of American Apparel I will not look at his blog again. Period.

  • Jack

    Tavi picked Bill over Scott in the lightening round on Fashcab…. http://www.refinery29.com/fash-cab-three?utm_source=search Maybe this hurt his feelings and he had to throw a sucker punch – who’s the kid now? 

  • ThisIsMyFace

    Most of my respect for him was lost about a year ago, when he showed up for a speaking engagement late — and DRUNK.  And condescending to staff.  He says some @-hole things so often.  Tavi is Tavi, like her or hate her, get her or feel like you’re missing the appeal.  But his comments were a low dig, nothing insightful.  And combined with the bragging about his blog’s revenue, totally tacky.

  • Scribble1

    What amused me is Schuman’s total ignorance of what Tavi is up to now. On Labor Day morning Seventeen and Teenvogue were the #1 and #2 teen mags in the world. Then, due to some magnificantly  orchastrated worldwide publicity Rookie blow both of them out of the water for the first week. On Rookie’s best day it pulled in a phenomenal  .05 % of the WORLDWIDE Internet traffic. Now after only a month Rookie is in a dead heat with Teenvogue for the  #2 teengirl mag position (all data per Alexa)

    Since Rookie has the demographics advertisers dream about, Tavi’s Dad (at 15 Tavi is not legal) has been signing multiple contracts while Tavi is interviewing for a full time staff.  (Chicago Tribune today)  So Schuman should not have been so… dismissive…since Tavi has started to siphon off the advertising money he bragged about. All in all, Tavi’s transformation into a media mogul at 15 is impressive.

  • Danny Kelly

    long live The Startorialist. if you dont know what has gone before you how the hell are you suppose to move on an come up with something new! i find it cringe worthy that some of you on here can not recognise you wouldn’t even have a fashion blog if it wasn’t for this man. lets be honest now. 
    He may not have actually started the movement but he sure was one of the first their in the mix. take a breath , calm your selves and stop overreacting going on all perez hilton like a typical no one self righteous blogger. 

    and if you would like to abuse me for speaking my mind, my blog is haha

    http://www.DannyKelly.blogspot.com 

    x

  • k387f

    What an arrogant dick.  Tavi’s got more smarts in her little finger than Scott has in his (admittedly) little body.

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