She describes herself as “a deck chair on the Titanic” that is fashion, but after more than two decades working in the world of fashion journalism – and an article list that could quite possibly fill five wardrobes – there's no doubt that Janice Breen Burns is a veteran in the industry and a potent figure in the fashion world.
Her role as fashion editor of Melbourne newspaper The Age sees her regularly casting a trained eye over the vast expanse of fashion and reporting back – often identifying the outstanding, fresh, emerging and unusual. Her written words can define, interpret or destroy. She chooses her subjects carefully.
From the start of her career in fashion journalism at Ragtrader magazine to becoming the youngest women's editor to ever grace the pages of the Geelong Advertiser, Breen Burns has experienced a swift and eventful rise to the top. She has now been fashion editor at The Age for 11 years, and in that time she has seen the industry, and the form in which it is reported, evolve quite a bit. And in certain ways, she has had to shift with it.
“I think now there's a tremendous sense of regret, because fashion is being marginalised more in the news mix, increasingly,” she says. “Although now that we have the online forum in mainstream newspapers, it's being celebrated a lot more there and subjects such as fashion are getting a better run online these days.
“For instance, if a fashion story is dropped from our news list, it will still pop up on The Age website – so it's a great repository for things that didn't make it to print.
"It [online] has completely changed my workload from six or seven years ago – I had a completely different approach to news then. The areas I report haven't really changed, but now I do some pieces to camera for video slots online and I report straight from the front rows of fashion shows via Twitter, etc."
The rise of online and social media has not only altered the mode of Breen Burns' coverage of the fashion industry, but it has also created a catch 22 for the journalist.
“In a lot of ways, it's better, it's different – we've got a wider audience – but it is also a bit of a double-edged sword. Something that I've noticed as many more people want my job is that my job is actually shrinking – or rather it's fragmenting across a lot of different forums, such as online and blogs – and it's disintegrating.
"You get a lot of 'flack-back' now too, because the audience for online fashion reporting is a vocal one and that makes me think about my work differently. You have to think about them when you're writing, reporting or critiquing something."
Perhaps it is a sign of the times, or just the way the fashion cookie crumbles, but despite wider coverage online just last month Breen Burns' section in the Saturday edition of The Age has been slashed from a full page to a half page.
“I had a regular fashion column on Saturday’s which was retired for the summer period, but hasn’t come back because we’ve redone the Saturday section of The Age,” she says.
“It’s been completely relaunched and has become this fantastic new vehicle for weekends, but we had to sacrifice some space – and quite often that’s fashion – but I’m still doing news, general features and cover stories for the Saturday edition on fashion-related subjects.”
When on the hunt for one of these articles, Breen Burns says “ground-breaking” is her key concern, although she generally aims to construct her content in a “holistic” way and steers away from targeting any particular demographic.
“[What grabs my attention is] whatever is new and emerging, or if we’re ever on the cusp of something,” she says. “It’s very important as a fashion writer that you don’t just keep churning through stuff that’s happening around the world.
“Because it’s one thing to keep abreast of what’s happening in fashion and the zeitgeist, but you should also have the ability to recognise when we’re on the breaking wave of something. And I don’t think a lot of fashion writers or editors do that. But that's one thing that gets me very excited, when we’re on the brink of change.”
According to Breen Burns, there also tends to be an assumption among fashion journalists these days that anything original in Australia must have its roots overseas somewhere. This is one theory she is desperate to disprove – but it takes guts, she says.
“We tend to wait for the echos, like sonar, of what’s happening around the world and then we look for the story here, but there’s never been any significant trend that you couldn’t have picked up here [in Australia] first. We are global citizens, so you can pick up that sonar wherever you are, and if it happens to be in Melbourne then you’ve got to be brave enough to say – this is where we are and we’re cresting on this particular trend.
“We do have originators here and trend-quakes do start here, however small, but while our fashion reporters and editors are too frightened to report it, we’ll never know about it.
“Of course, you do tend to get a bit of flack sometimes, because you can’t always get it right, but I like to think that with experience you get it right most of the time. And I suppose that’s because I’ve got a radar now for people who originate.”
In the course of her career, Breen Burns has certainly shown that she has the bravery and insight to spotlight the new and emerging, and her selection criteria is tough, but perhaps that is what makes trailblazers in her stead so influential – they keep the industry lifeblood alive and striving to stay relevant, innovative and revolutionary.
As for plans for the future, Breen Burns says she may one day want to add to her book writing collection – her first book, The Art of Eavesdropping, was published in 1997.
“I’d love to write a new book if I ever get the time. What I’d really like is to write fiction and maybe embellish the truth around the fashion industry to write a blockbuster that’ll sell a zillion copies.”
Now there’s a front pager.