Vanessa Friedman was named the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The New York Times in March 2014. In this role she leads global fashion coverage for both The New York Times and International New York Times.

Previously, Ms. Friedman was the inaugural fashion editor of the Financial Times, beginning in 2003. Before that, she was the fashion features director for InStyle UK, from 2000 to 2002. She also worked as a fashion correspondent for the FT, as an arts contributor at The Economist and was the European editor at American Elle. In addition she contributed regularly to Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly. She is the author of "Emilio Pucci" (Taschen) as well as an honorary professor at Glasgow-Caledonian University. She was the recipient of the 2018 Fashion Group International Media Award, the 2013 Fashion Monitor Journalist of the Year award, and the 2012 Front Page Award for fashion writing. Ms. Friedman received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University.