Fashion File

A file, in the office sense, is a folder or box for holding loose papers in order for easy reference — which has almost nothing to do with fashion. In fashion, the name belongs to media: Fashion File the television series, and FashionFiles the online magazine. Both covered the fashion industry for audiences who wanted reporting rather than paperwork.

Fashion File the Television Series

Fashion File was a Canadian television series about the fashion industry, airing on CBC Television and CBC Newsworld and in international syndication from 1989 to 2009. For twenty years it reported fashion industry news — designers, collections, business and personalities — at a time when dedicated fashion coverage on television was rare, which made it a reference point for viewers well beyond Canada.

The series was created and developed by Karen Morrison, who served as its series producer. Its long run ended in March 2009, when CBC Television cancelled Fashion File. A two-decade run is itself the story: the programme survived the industry's shift from print dominance into the internet era, and its archive records how fashion presented itself to a television audience across that whole transition.

FashionFiles Magazine

FashionFiles is an independent online fashion publication describing itself as a destination for the modern, intelligent, tech-savvy, fashion-forward online reader — readers who want to be front row at every fashion show, know the latest trends and shop the best deals. It was founded as a labour of love by co-founders Anna Marevska and Dietrich Zeigler, with a stated commitment to excellence and complete dedication to its readers.

The contrast between the two Fashion Files is a small history of fashion media in itself. One was a national broadcaster's scheduled television programme, made by a production team and cancelled by a network decision. The other is an independent digital publication, founded by two people and published continuously online. Fashion coverage moved from the first model to the second, and most fashion publishing today follows the FashionFiles pattern rather than the CBC one.

Fashion Television After Fashion File

Fashion File's twenty-year run demonstrated an audience for serious fashion reporting on television that outlasted most fashion programming. After its cancellation in 2009, that audience did not disappear; it dispersed — to broadcaster websites, to streaming documentary series, and above all to independent online publications and video channels run by small teams or single founders, the model FashionFiles represents. The reporting itself changed with the move: shorter, faster, illustrated rather than filmed on location, and measured by clicks rather than broadcast ratings. Comparing an episode of the television series with a modern online fashion publication is a compact lesson in how completely the industry's media changed in a generation.