Michael Roberts Obituary

Fashion journalist Michael Roberts' medium of choice was Canson fine art paper, which he chiselled freehand into neat collages, or cut into small dots to reassemble them into mosaics, for magazine covers or book illustrations. Her art, gradually assembled, reflects her life in fashion. He wrote about it, commissioned other unexpected people to do it, photographed for media and commercials, and charmed grumpy legendary lenses to take snaps for him. He could find the clothes, choose the crazy location, stage the story of the shoot, and write a witty review of the company. He was also always the smartest person involved, naturally cool.

Roberts, who died aged 75, never cared about a resume , because each new role or project just seemed to develop, but they embarked on a serious career. He was a Sunday Times writer in the 1970s, when the new drama of couture shows and increased designer stardom demanded a fashion voice who was part theater critic and gossip columnist. Then, from 1979, he served as art and styling director for Tatler magazine, when editor-in-chief Tina Brown transformed it from a country house title into the most glossy glossy paper - he and she both believed that print fashion was a money-based transaction here today. and disappeared tomorrow, where style was an attitude, a behavior, yet permanent. They were mickey takers, ready to do some silly things. Roberts could persuade even an institution like Eton College to cooperate at his own mockery, even if his best joke, for a cover, was to dress, style and photograph – until a flash of doubt in his eyes – Vivienne Westwood posing as Margaret Thatcher in 1989, towards the end of her reign. An inspired cartoonist, he could also turn cartoonist Rifat Ozbek into the Dragon Empress editor Diana Vreeland, and a drag queen into Dusty Springfield. The fake could be turned into the real by style.

In his light and funny voice, Roberts would tell you that the boring mechanics of fashion are not more interesting than the car maintenance, and kept his eye on the wider visual world. He could go to a clothing city during its fashion week and not attend a single show, since the visual future was more evident on its streets, or show up at an event in a mall in an emerging country. and write, honestly but not cruelly, about his hopes and claims. He never lost his openness to what he saw, nor his subversive reactions to what has become the international fashion industrial mega-complex. "support" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-a2pvoh">