I'm just back from Milan and I forgot how annoying it is that the first question people ask when they find you cover fashion is: "Do you get lots of free clothes?" And not just because the answer is no. Sienna Miller does, I don't. But since everyone wants to know the situation, I'll do a quick post. Fashion magazines practically encourage graft so their editors look the part. Other publications -- the newspapers, newsweeklies and business magazines -- forbid the taking of freebies, though some editors care more than others. (I once had an editor tell me I wasn't allowed anything more expensive than shampoo. A fashion friend was convinced he must have meant champagne. )

The reason for the rule is, of course, that we are supposed to be journalists and unbiased and gifts would compromise our journalistic integrity which is really important when it comes to writing articles and reviews, but is less important when it comes to picking products to put on a page. (Because then what really matters is the ad budget of the house -- the most compromising element of all in fashion.)

But despite the official rules, many fashion journalists make their own set of rules. One writer I know gives a donation to charity whenever they accept a freebie. Another thinks that because she's on contract instead of on staff, gifts are OK. Another thinks there's a fine line between accepting something that was sent as a Thank You and soliciting freebies. For some gifts at Christmas or birthday gifts are OK ("because, you know, they really care about me, not my pages"). But I doubt that tech reporters get constantly asked what kind of freebies they get. Or auto reporters. There's something about luxury goods that makes people assume we're rolling in free stuff. But just about every reporter covering every beat probably has been offered a loaner, a discount, or some such. And consider the accepting of such as part of the job. Art magazine editors do not pay what the public does for works of art. Car writers are given "staff discounts" on cars. I thought it hysterical when at a recent job our editor shrieked when a young reporter said we couldn't cover a play because it was sold out. "We are press!" he said. "We don't buy tickets." And if I told him it was my job to review these handbags? Oh, well, anyway. . .

On the way to the Burberry show, one of my friends said, "I really hope it's good." It made me think that editors-in-chief don't understand a far more compromising element of the job, which is just as well since it is one they can't control. Friendship. No self-respecting fashionista is going to feature or cover something they hated because of a freebie. But you cover these companies for years and you inevitably become friends or at least friendly with the PR, the C.E.O. or the designer. I saw one German journalist look sick while standing in line to greet Jil Sander backstage because she'd been friends with Jil's PR for years and the truth was she hated the show. Finally she fled saying, "I just can't face her."

Every time you head into a show where you like the people working on it you think the same thing. "I hope it is good." And if it's not? The weak or the advertising dependent tone down the tenor of the review. Others press on with both guns firing. (Yet the worst things you'll ever hear about a collection are still heard in the back of town cars after the shows -- not in print). Of course, the most professional people understand that a job is a job and just because you've hated the collection doesn't mean you hate them. But others seem unclear on that point. So they ban the journalists who write negative reviews. Of course it works both ways when it comes to childish behavior. I heard a magazine editor say at a show that she was not going to return the P.R.'s phone calls any longer because the show was late. Especially odd as the P.R. was from an external agency and had nothing to do with the delay.

I have also gotten the distinct impression in the last few weeks that no one in media is getting the kind of freebies they used to. Fashion houses may give away gads of free stuff, but I suspect they're giving most of it to the women who appear in the pages of the celebrity weeklies -- not the women who edit the pages of the celebrity weeklies. And, in case you're wondering, the only freebies I took home from this round of shows has been: two cushions from Carols Miele's show (picked up off the seats for use in my old Morris Minor), some Nars make up (3.1 Philip Lim, I think), some Mac make-up (Fashion East), an assortment of Khiels (Derek Lam) Narcisco Rodriguez cologne, a beach towel from Schumacher and more hair product than I ever knew existed.