On February 9th, The New York Observer wrote a false and defamatory story about Daniel Saynt, Fashion Indie, and our bloggers. The article has led to the loss of clients, the cancellation of Fashion Indie Week, our writers being uninvited to fashion week shows, and the eventual BLACKLISTING of our brand in the fashion world. It’s not the first time The Observer has ruffled the feathers of bloggers and we are pursuing a class-action lawsuit against The New York Observer for writing a story which was completely FALSE and for lacking the journalistic integrity to confirm any of the supposed “facts” they reported on. Click Here to Read The New York Observers Article.

THE LIES

1.) In the article Daniel Saynt is described as “a 24-year-old blogger who fancies himself the “Perez Hilton of fashion“. HE IS 25 YEARS OLD and I has NEVER referred to himself as the “Perez Hilton of Fashion”,  a distinction which to us is the equivalent of being called the “Hitler of Fashion”. In fact, this title has been given to Mr.Saynt by bloggers seeking to discredit him and Fashion Indie.  We have only reported on the negative things that Perez Hilton has done to our industry and have pushed for the BOYCOTT of his website on numerous occasions.

2.) The article stated that Daniel Saynt was “planning on crashing Christian Siriano’s Fashion Week show on Feb 19. at Bryant Park”. There was NEVER any intention by Daniel Saynt to attend this event as he normally doesn’t attend fashion shows himself, opting instead to send Fashion Indie’s editors and writers. While we were intent on writing an expose through twitter and online on the art of crashing a fashion week event using Christian Siriano’s show as an example; our writers, Fashion Indie, and Daniel Saynt had no intention of “barreling” their way into the show unannounced.

3.) The article claims we have a “crew of crony bloggers“, which suggests that we lack the proper credentials to attend the shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. WE ARE MEMBERS OF THE PRESS WHO HAVE BEEN REGISTERING FOR ATTENDANCE FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS. The writer of this article was aware that making the statement would only discredit us in the industry and make it that much harder for us and other bloggers to attend events. This article has prevented us from providing the kind of coverage we are known for to our over 1.000.000 monthly readers and have forced us to cancel a number of our Fashion Indie Week events to protect the designers we’ve worked with from being associated with our action against The New York Observer.

4.) The article states that due to “pesky bloggers…like Mr.Saynt” designers and publicists aren’t granting our community access to their shows, fearful we “will post inflammatory reviews of stir up a scene for some cheap Web traffic”.  There have NEVER been any attempts by Fashion Indie or Daniel Saynt or create a scene at any of the event we’ve attended and our runway reviews are level-headed considerations on how a designers  collections appear in our opinion. We’ve never had any issue working with designers and publicists and the fact that this reporter would allude to such a fact is libel and an attempt to completely discredit our company and other bloggers who choose not to associate themselves with these supposed “safe” networks.

THE REASON

Fashion Indie and Daniel Saynt have been unfairly targeted by individuals in the blogging world for years. Those who claim they are “supporting” the industry regularly try to identify our company as “what’s wrong” with online publishing.

The fact is that we are one of the only companies that is not afraid to be vocal about our opinions . Certain hungry for headlines, jealous, unoriginal fashion bloggers know that attacking us will generate spikes in their traffic when we respond to their unfounded allegations, so they often engage in such behavior in a failed attempt to increase their readership base.

Julie Fredickson of blogger network Coutortue.com decided to remove us from her network when we posted a story about Andre Leon Tally’s noticable weight gain. We responded back, bashing the network for attempting to censor their bloggers and unfairly control the content of their members.  Julie is no longer at Coutorture, but their attempt at censorship led to thousands of our daily readers heading to their site in defense of FashionIndie.com.

Sarah Morrison a “celebrity” blogger for Missbehave Magazine wrote a post which described our bloggers as “overweight”, “unattractive” writers who were desperately in need of gettting laid. Our response to the attack and  reporting on Sarah Morrison’s own confirmation that SHE PERFORMED SEXUAL FAVORS TO PHOTOGRAPHERS TO GAIN ACCESS TO NIGHTCLUBS, led one off the magazines editors,  Olivia Allin,  to threaten to “slit [Daniel Saynt's] throat” next time she saw him We considered legal action at the time, but felt that the unneeded attention to the unpopular magazine would merely generate the wrong response.

Now Yuli Ziv and The New York Observer have joined in on the Daniel Saynt and Fashion Indie attacks, discrediting us in the industry and attempting to blacklist us based off of FALSE allegations and libel. Yuli is attempting to start a network similar to Coutorture, one which Gawker.com has properly described as The Kiss-Up Guild For Fashion Bloggers. We personally have no problems with her intentions, but when our bloggers and President are unfairly targeted as the negative parallel to her organization we have no choice but to fight.

Further proof of the articles affect on Daniel Saynt’s reputation can ironically be viewed on the Observer’s blog posting of the article in which Lauren Dimet Waters (pictured r.) of SecondCityStyle.com deems Saynt “sophomoric” and a “rotten apple“, blaming him for setting “online media back 50 paces” and stating that other bloggers should “distance themselves from [Saynt].“

Julie Fredrickson, Sarah Morrison, Olivia Allin, Lauren Dimet Waters, and Yuli Ziv are merely bitter individuals who have failed to generate the type of media coverage, credibility or readership that Fashion Indie and Daniel Saynt have been able to.  We’ve NEVER, ever been the first to attack any blogger, network, or publication. We are true supporters of online publishing and whole heartedly believe bloggers shouldn’t be censored, attacked or unfairly discredited by any publication, including members of traditional media, like The New York Observer, but unfortunately our success has led to sour grapes by many in the industry.

THE OBSERVER’S RESPONSE

As soon as we became aware of the story Daniel Saynt demanded The New York Observer post an immediate retraction or at least remove the part of the story that states obvious lies about our company.  He made it aware to the writer that the claims she made were false, were directly affecting our business and that she should have contacted the group for confirmation before posting the story.

This was writer Gillian Reagan’s response…

“I’m sorry you feel slighted by the article. If you’d like to write a letter to the editor, I can submit it to the editorial department for consideration in next week’s paper. “

The writers contempt for the effect of this story on Fashion Indie’s business dealings and Daniel Saynt’s reputation in the fashion world forced us to speak to our lawyers and consider legal action. Suggesting that this could easily be fixed by publishing a “Letter to the Editor” only suggests that this person had absolutely no consideration for truth and was completely satisfied with her libel statements.

In order to protect our name and that of every other fashion blogger who feels they should have the right to be protected from slanderous statements by members of traditional press have forced us to pursue legal action against The New York Observer.

BLOGGERS UNITE!!!

We need the support of the blogging community to ensure that these kind of slanderous attack on independent publisher never happen again. There are four ways you can show your support.

1.) WRITE ABOUT OUR STORY: Feel free to grab any part of this post and tell your readers that you support Fashion Indie and a bloggers right to be protected from libel.

2.) JOIN SAYNTLY: We started Sayntly Network as a home for bloggers who want the benefits of being associated with a blogger network, without fear that they will be censored or kicked out for fear of having strong opinions. You can register for a free account HERE. Members enjoy access to exclusive ad campaigns prepared by Fashion Indie, story inclusion on FashionIndie.com, and the ability to connect to other online publishers and comment on industry issues.

3.) ADD A BANNER TO YOUR SITE: We’ve create a couple of banners for bloggers looking to show their support. We’ve added the banners below with links the code you will need to add it to your site. We only ask that you link the images back to FashionIndie.com so that more people can be aware of our current legal battle.

IMAGE LINK: http://fashionindie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/newyork_observer.gif

IMAGE LINK: http://fashionindie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/theblog.gif

IMAGE LINK: http://fashionindie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/blogger_goliath.gif

4. ) JUST COMMENT: We want to hear what bloggers have to say about this case. Include your thoughts, share your love, or feel free to say that we should just shut the hell up and take it. We want every opinion possible. The best one’s will be added to this pages TESTIMONIAL section.

ABOUT FASHION INDIE

Fashion Indie provides services to fashion brands looking to understand the new media landscape.  We are currently working with a national high-fashion magazine to create a performance-based advertising structure for fashion brands looking to influence bloggers. Our group has produced fashion events associated with companies such as H&M, The Body Shop, and Smart Car.

In addition to FashionIndie.com, we own 7 online publications and social networks which reach out to a global audience of nearly 1.3 million readers per month. One of the fastest growing digital properties on the web Fashion Indie has attracted the attention of nearly every major fashion label and publication. Our events and websites have been reported on by nearly 500 online blogs and have been featured by the BBC, The New York Post, The Daily News, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, New York 360, Numero, Elle Magazine, MTV True Life and The Tyra Banks Show.

Fashion Indie has produced events for Project Runway designers including Malan Breton, Diana Eng, Zulema Griffin, and recent winner Leanne Marshall. In addition, we grant access to producers and casting directors to engage with their database of over 500 emerging designers. The results have been collaborations with Maurices (owned by Dress Barn), Polartec Fabrics, The CW, The Travel Channel, Project Runway and MTV.

Our event development work with charitable groups including All for Africa, Action Against Hunger, and Fashion Delivers has helped raised over $10,000,000 for those in need throughout the world.

ABOUT DANIEL SAYNT

For nearly three years, Daniel Saynt has been a vocal advocate for blogger rights and their desire to be recognized in the fashion world.

In February of 2008, Saynt critiqued Gucci’s “Gucci Hearts New York” blogger campaign and was the only New York-based blogger who was invited to their Madonna hosted charity event at the UN. The story was featured in WWD and set a standard in the industry in regards to how large labels should work with bloggers.

“I believe that bloggers can unite to support each other without the rules established by faulty, ready to censor networks. Through the actions of independent publishers like myself, fashion is truly becoming a democracy that will one day encompass the views and ideals of the greater number rather than the chosen few.”

He’s established a network of over 50 select independent publishers called Sayntly, a group of partners supporting each other through content sharing and opt-in advertisement opportunities provided by Fashion Indie Media.

Saynt is a firm believer that bloggers should have the freedom to express themselves and not feel threatened by fashion labels or industry leaders.

TESTIMONIALS

Good Luck with everything! Such a shame….I will always be a fan of Fashionindie.  You featured my boutique’s trunk show event last year and I’m very thankful for your support. As my company grows I will do more with Fashion Indie.  Again, Good Luck and everything happens for a reason.  This will take Fashionindie where it needs to be…….ON TOP!  Stay strong.

- Edwina Ofori, Designer | Zhozet Boutique

MORE POWER TO YOU!!!!!!!!!

- Kim Kirby, Graphic Designer

We support you 100%!!

- Niki Johnson, Publisher | Detroit Fashion Pages

As a lawyer who has often enjoyed the sharp fashion criticisms offered by fashionindie, even when I disagreed with them, I wish you luck in your libel suit.

- Fashion Indie Reader

LINKS

The New York Observer Lies

Fashion Indie Cancels Fashion Indie Week

Fashion Indie’s Anti-Censorship Blogger Network, Sayntly

Fashion Indie Week Site

The Village Voice Responds

Racked.com Responds

SF Indie Fashion Responds

Yeah, we know. Coutorture bashing is so May 2008, but we couldn’t help take one more jab at Julie, Sarah and the large bunch of douchers that run this shitastic network of blogs when we heard that the powers at be allowed Mrs. O to remain a member.

Mrs.O popped up a few months ago as a site dedicated to Michelle Obama’s fashion and style. The site grew in popularity and quickly made it on Coutorture’s radar. They added the site to their roster and began promoting the sites content. Of course, all fell to shit when it was revealed that Mrs.O was not run by a heartfelt fashionista, but an ad agency looking to prove they could manipulate and trick blog readers.

The site is really a side business for the company and has no sense of independence or loyalty to the blogging world. The site grows in popularity as does Coutorture.  I’m not one for banning sites, but I am all about being honest and letting your readers know what’s really supporting your business.

Apparently, the folks at Coutorture don’t feel the same…

Your discontent for us fuels our fires and let’s us know that we’re doing something right. Because of our new direction we have shot up in traffic, now reaching nearly 25,000 eyes per day. In addition, we’ve gotten some more inquiries on our site and our business. We’ve leveraged our hate mail to get us an article in an upcoming magazine and it’s let me know that we’re affecting a shit load of people on the web.

We haven’t sold out (yet). We’re still looking to provide our readers with the newest trends, designers and fashion news. We’ve kept our opinions sharp and our views are clearer than ever. We have gotten a bit meaner lately but that’s only cause more and more idiots are trying to become fashion designers when they know they shouldn’t. We like to keep it real and not sugar coat what we have to say. If you don’t like it, don’t come to our site. There are over a billion people on the web and we’re not gonna cry over losing one person who doesn’t agree with us.

NOW TO TORTURE COUTORTURE

First, let’s backtrack. We enjoy writing back to our haters in blog comments. When someone tells me I know dick about fashion, I kindly remind them that the only reason anyone cares about them is cause they decided to comment on my blog, not the other way around, and that if they had an opinion of their own, they should get to writing something and leave us the fuck alone. Well in a recent post on Andre Leon Tally‘s douchiest qualities Sarah Conley, a Coutorture worker, became offended that I used too many fat jokes in my post. I let her know that I was an asshole for saying the jokes, but hell, it was funny. Keep in mind that Sarah herself is not a svelte fashionista, so I could see why saying Andre Leon Tally was “too fat for fashion” might offend someone like herself. Basically, because Sarah commented on the post she was now subscribed to our further comments.

The post stood on the web for a few days and then I received this comment.

so i don’t normally respond to bigoted,nasty uninformed comments but thought this actually warranted a sane response…
just a few little questions
1. what do you actually do ?
2.what movies magazines or any other form of media have you being on recently
3.does anyone actually give a shit who you are?

so i think the answer to all of the above questions will be a big old no no no and nothing…

so before we slag off anyone lets take a look around at ones own life to see if its worthy

Now of course, this was fuel to my fire cause this was obviously a doucher who didn’t realize my glory (talking as Daniel Saynt right now so don’t freak out). I quickly answered back…

Let me bestow on you some knowledge of how shit works around here in Fashion Indie Land. Numero uno, this is what I actually do. We are one of the most successful fashion blogs on the planet. More people read us than all the international Vogue’s combined. Number two, I’ve recently been on the Tyra Banks Show, MTV, and The Travel Chanel bestowing on others my genius. Also, Time Out New York listed us as one of the top blogs of New York City, just under the Satorialist. I’ve been asked to judge numerous design competitions and my company (the one I started four years ago) has developed events for Maurices, Polartec, H&M and a slew of other designers and brands. We’ve worked with over 100 fashion labels and produced some of the most frequented events in NYC.

Does anyone give a shit about me? Try over 500,000 readers per month and an industry that has already marked me as one of the top upcoming influencers in fashion.

So am I worthy. Fuck yeah. Don’t be jealous, just accept.

Hugs and Disses,

Daniel Saynt

Yeah, I’m full of myself, but hell I’ve been working this game for over 4 years and I deserve some credit for the work I’ve done. Within minutes of posting I received this comment from someone posing as help@googleanalytics.com

Daniel,

No offense but I think you may not have a very good grasp on webanalytics. You can’t actually determine that you have 500,000 readers using any proper analytics program. Maybe you have 500,00 impressions a month (though your Alexa ranking doesn’t really suggest that you do) but that isn’t unique views. And unique views isn’t necessarily readers but simply unique IP addresses.

Before getting all high and mighty, realize that these readers may not even give a shit about you, they may be simply random SEO traffic wandering in off the proverbial internet street because you strung together something nicely that some Joe in Kansas had an interest in. Determining influence is a much more nuanced beast.

I would suggest having less of an attitude and simply working harder when a critic comes up. Blowing hot air may seem like a great way to get attention but in the end you have to have something to say that makes people think. This just makes people cringe.

Web Analytics? Alexa Ranking? This must be the work of some angry little blogger. Possibly someone who is a little worried that our site, which launched over a year ago is creeping in on her traffic base. Maybe it was from a blogger who recently held a conference on web analytics which was listened to by five people in her apparent network of 250. Maybe it’s a blogger that everyone openly hates and wishes would just disappear cause seriously, nobody cares about you. Bitch please. I think some people were forgetting where I came from, so I kindly answered…

We use Google Analytics to track our readership levels and our page impressions are much higher than mentioned. In addition, we have built a fairly influential network of bloggers which carry our content and have distribution through partner networks. Plus our reach through social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and our own Indies United is substantial with a reach well above a daily 20,000 mark. (We don’t count that when speaking to advertisers and sponsors, it’s just a bonus).

Alexa is a fairly inaccurate way to track unique views since it only tracks the views of those with an Alexa tool bar on their browser. Most young women (the bulk of our audience) don’t give a rats ass about Alexa and probably don’t know what the hell it is.

We do get a good amount of pop-ups from SEO which only shows that we are producing content that is of interest to readers. Terms like “Summer Hair Trends” and “New York Fashion” are fairly targeted search terms which get readers to our site. Our bounce rate has decreased by about 25% since February and many of our current marketing outreach plans should help us generate a more dedicated direct visitor (someone who types in fashionindie.com rather than reaches us through Google). Still an SEO generated reader is still a reader, so we’re very happy we have laid out such a successful campaign.

Basically, my background is e-commerce. I graduated Berkeley with a degree in Business and a minor in Information Technologies. Before Fashion Indie I was in online marketing and ran campaigns for Action Against Hunger and the United Nations. I’ve worked in my share of dot.com’s and have built the infrastructure for sites like Trendible.com.

I’m not trying to be all high and mighty, but occasionally we get dicks on our site who like to believe they know what the fuck their talking about. They don’t. We enjoy correcting them.

Plus, I’m a total asshole online. It’s fun to play a role a bit and make your opinion known. If people disagree that’s okay. We encourage people to write their opinions and regularly feature our favorite “Hate Mail”. Will we answer back? Hell to the yes. It’s fun to fight.

Please don’t think I’m trying to make people cringe. I love the bulk of our readers and regularly feature their lines and comments.

On a side note, who are you and why do you care so much about what we’re doing?

Within a few minutes of writing this response it became blatantly clear who wrote the comment when we received this email from Coutorture.

Daniel,

Fashion Indie has been removed from the Coutorture Network. Please remove any Coutorture badge currently running on your site.

We wish you continued success in all your endeavors.

Best,

Sarah

–
–
Sarah Conley

Holy shit!!! I tracked the IP address of the person who was claiming to be help@googleanalytics.com and the address was from some computer in Brooklyn, in an area that certain Coutorture girls like to call home

My theory is that Julie Fredrickson, the most loathed blogger in fashion, decided to answer back on my claims of online greatness and when I trumped her “Alexa” claims she became angry and decided to kick us off the network. Great way to do business. Get rid of one of your top bloggers.

Now it’s time to Torture Coutorture.

So here are some great Julie Fredrickson links for your viewing pleasure…

Julie Fredrickson Knows Where to Find the Best Lesbian Porn

Julie Fredrickson Tells Coutorture Bloggers to Fuck Off

And some pictures of her looking really shitty in everything she wears.

FAIL

FAIL

FAIL OVER A CLIFF

Seriously girlie, you’re in fashion, dress the part.

Also, here’s a quote in which she threatens to bash me over the head.

“Sometimes we want to smack Daniel Saynt upside the head….”

Okay the last one was probably said in jest, but I can’t be too sure these days.

Vogue has reported that the Alexander Wang collection for Uniqlo is selling fast. They report, “the collection is instore now and selling out fast. Plan your purchase now.”

Coutorture has something to say about this..

“Sooo, uh, yeah. We were there just yesterday and happened to take a photo of just how much Alexander Wang is sitting in the store. It blows our minds that Vogue editors think that A. This is worthy of heading up today’s top news stories (Er, Yves Saint Laurent just passed away. That’s all you could come up with!?) and B. That they don’t bother to investigate whether this is actually true. Surely those British fashionistas must know someone in New York.”

…and I must agree. We were there over the weekend to check out the collection, and it seemed as though it was plentiful. Though only 200 pieces were backstocked for each location, it didn’t seem like they were close to running out. The dresses looked cheap, and for 50 bucks (I guess this is cheap for some) but they were NOT worth buying, considering their recognizability. Kinda upsetting, but surely anticipated.

We are love the Blonds and the warrior feeling looks that hit the runway in their fall 2008 show.  Coutorture had some fun with the collection during their last photo shoot, lucky.

An original photo editorial by Coutorture.com. Photographer Justin William Lin, Fashion Editors Megan Zanke and Julie Fredrickson, Makeup & Hair Timothy Fischetti, Model Megg Morales from Red Model Management, and Phillipe and David Blond as stylists. All clothing part of The Blonds Fall 08 collection.