Fashion Icon

On Friday, Feb. 27, Amy Spindler, the former fashion critic of the New York Times and style editor of its magazines and fashion supplements, died of brain cancer. Spindler, for whom the Times created the post of fashion critic in 1994, was known for fearlessly criticizing designers and for understanding that fashion is a culturally relevant art form deserving of serious coverage. In a February 2000 Slate “Diary,” Spindler wrote about New York Fashion Week with the playful wit her Times readers knew to expect from her: “Despite the great hostility toward fashion among disgruntled Slate readers—what, do people who are angry about fashion walk around naked? Doesn’t everyone have to get dressed? Isn’t a little variety in the street, an allowance for personal expression, a good thing?—I’ll continue to make the world a worse place by aggrandizing dress.”