Robin Givhan/Fashion Pulitzer Prize Winner-Kansas City Central Public Library

Monday, December 9, 2013

Hi readers!

I was excited a few photos with you after attending the event for Robin Givhan. Here is a little description about the event from (Source: KC Library Robin Givhan). I was really nervous to meet her and I was even more nervous on how to dress for her. I have determined after meeting Ms. Givhan that she prefers to wear: a little black dress, her intellectual pair of glasses, and a pair of signature/designer shoes.

Givhan discusses the nexus of fashion and politics with Time magazine editor-at-large David Von Drehle in When Fashion Meets Power, the sixth and final 2013 presentation in the Library’s series Dateline: Washington with David Von Drehle, which provides an insider’s look at key issues in Washington, D.C., through the eyes of America’s top journalists.
Robin Givhan never planned to write fashion criticism.
“I don’t know of any fashion writer — working for a newspaper, anyway — for whom becoming a fashion writer was their ultimate goal,” she says.
“People who are passionately interested in fashion go directly to fashion magazines.
“My first love was writing and journalism. I wanted to be a newspaper writer. I fell into fashion almost by happenstance.”
Obviously it was more than mere happenstance that led to Givhan winning the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for criticism for her fashion coverage inThe Washington Post. The award committee cited her “witty, closely observed essays that transform fashion criticism into cultural criticism.”
Dateline Washington: When Fashion Meets Power
Thursday, December 5, 2013, at 6:30 p.m. at theCentral Library, 14 W. 10th St.
6 p.m. reception precedes the event. Free parking is available at the Library District Parking Garage at 10th & Baltimore.
RSVP online or call 816.701.3407
Told by an interviewer that he was in awe of her Pulitzer Prize, Givhan laughs and replies, “I know. I’m in awe of it, too!”
I was determined to ask a question so I was one of the lucky six people that were able to ask her a question at the end of the evening. I asked "With disposable fashion these days do you have a signature piece of clothing/fashion that you wouldn't give up and love?" She didn't really answer it directly but let me know that she doesn't prefer the term disposable fashion and does like to invest in higher quality pieces.

These public events are funny because people either want to talk about their "fashion or business" instead of sticking to just a question; people are also quick to flatter a speaker. I don't know how many times that night people spoke about her winning the only Pulitzer Prize ever for a fashion writer. Please, don't get me wrong, that is an amazing accomplishment but after hearing it ten times I got the point.

Enjoy the few photos I was able to sneak during the night and I am excited to attend more fashionable events in Kansas City. (Even if the weather was less than perfect)








XOXO

JADATO