Fashion Fight: Cathy Horyn Vs. Oscar de la Renta with Animated Gifs

Fashion types are fickle people. They don’t like waiting in lines. They, in the words of Biggy, sip champagne when they are thirsty. And, they have a weird relationship with food. They spend a lot of money to eat very little. A hot dog is never on the list of approved and acceptable meal options for these cognoscenti. So, not surprisingly, when fashion critic, Cathy Horyn, compared Oscar de la Renta to a hot dog mayhem obviously ensued.  Here’s how it went down with animated gifs (naturally).

Horyn, in her mixed review of ODLR Spring 2013 collection, wrote:

“Mr. de la Renta is far more a hot dog than an éminence grise of American fashion. He opened his lively show on Tuesday with a red latex pencil skirt, a sleek ivory wool pantsuit and dairymaid lace. The models’ hair was streaked with war paint, and midway along, after bead-quivering jackets and neon-bright skirts, he sent out white lace with black pencil-like scribbles. It was wonderfully cantankerous, a good bit of window-dressing for the gooey stuff that followed.”

Oscar, not one take an insult perceived or otherwise (do we remember his attack on the First Lady ?) without a good verbal lashing, did what any fashion designer with lots of cash would do: wrote an open letter in WWD.

Dear Cathy, This year I celebrated my 80th birthday. With pride, I can say that for more than 50 of those years, I have been privileged to work in a profession that I deeply love, one that has given me tremendous pleasure. I have always considered that my role as a designer and a great admirer of women has always been to make a woman look and feel her very best.

I respect and accept criticism because in many ways it does help us develop; I try to make my work better each time. What I do not accept is when criticism is personal. If you have the right to call me a hot dog, why do I not have the right to call you a stale 3-day old hamburger? My advie to you is to abstain from personal criticism. Professionals criticize the clothes, not the people.

The whole discourse is rather confusing particularly when Horyn was far nicer in her assessment of his collection than that for Micheal Kors. Still, we are really amused. After all adult referring to each other as food items is rather comical.

Though, we hope they hug it out. And, it seems Horyn is raising the white flag first saying:

“I used the term in a professional context, as someone showing off his tricks, like a surfer. I thought an ad was a little over-the-top.”

Hug it out kids.