Regards II

Regard(s)

Inside ‘Magazine’: A Publication About Fashion Magazines | 4 Resurrecting Ghosts: Lesbian Representation in Fashion Media | 8 Coming Off the Page: Pushing the Boundaries and Borders of Magazines | 12 Designing Identities: Magazine Aesthetics and the Brands That Create Them | 18 Time Capsules | 22 Chngng th sphr: Tffny Gdy frm Th Rlty Shw | 28 Fashion Media in ‘NonFashion’ Cities: Cape Town, South Africa. Why is there no Vogue Africa? | 32

Cover: The creative process of determining the aesthetics of Regard(s). Photograph by Nicolette Contursi, 2019

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Editor’s Note

by Rocio Sanchez

According to Merriam-Webster, the word meta means “showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category; cleverly self-referential.” For the second issue of Regard(s), the tradition of the selfreferential production of a magazine continues for its second year. In interviewing professionals in the magazine industry, in researching different forms of magazines that we admire as individuals, in studying the graphic design process behind a magazine: we created one.

The editorial team of Regard(s) is, by nature, a group of individuals trained in a variety of disciplines. The individuals on our team come from different backgrounds: business, advertising, journalism, graphic design, film studies, art history, fashion design, textile studies, and more. We make sense of the diverse tools in our collective toolbox through this issue’s theme of production.

It could be daunting to go into the creative process of making a magazine when you have only studied business, writing, or are so familiar with academic writing that it seems like being thrown into the deep end. At our first editorial meeting, we tossed questions from one side of the room to the other. What are the issues and topics we want to write about? What typography should we explore? How should we address and prepare for our photoshoots? Essentially, how would we go about producing our magazine?

This unconventional approach in how we learn to create a magazine – from its textual to its visual content – mirrors the unconventional disruption that commercialism, digital media, politics, globalization, and other actors have wrought for the magazine industry. Perhaps our learning process is exactly the approach needed for the quickly changing pace of the magazine industry. We, as students as much as professionals, need to adapt and overcome.

As graduate students of Fashion Studies, a field that has only truly begun to develop in the past two decades, we are experiencing the change and the future as it unfolds. It is up to us to decide whether we want to just observe or be an active part of the production of this change. Maybe some of us will work on magazines in the future, or some of us will go on as professionals outside of the magazine industry entirely. At Regard(s), our framework, timeline, and methodology of this creative process has opened up questions to all of us as a team and as individuals, questions that may inspire us in our future endeavors and investigations.

In a world of increasing globalization, we produced a magazine in the microcosm of a classroom. Through Regard(s), a meta-magazine, we directly experienced the difficulties in creating a magazine and the hierarchies at play in the industry as a whole. We look forward to what the future of the magazine industry has to offer to us, and what, ultimately, we have to offer in return.

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Regard(s) – Issue 2. All the written content is the result of the collaborative works of: Molly Apple, Danielle Barnes, Berline Cherelus, Kandace Clifton, Nicolette Contursi, Deandra Green, Fanny Lerner, Lily Li, Sandra Mathey Garcia-Rada, Clara Montré, Victoria Nergaard, Or Rosenblum, Rocio Sanchez, Svita Sobolyeva and Amanda Stedman. The pictures of the article entitled “Time Capsules” were realized under the guidance of Joan Braun. The graphic design is supervised by Monica Fraile Morisson. A special thanks to Marlène Van de Casteele, Angelo Cirimele, Tiffany Godoy, Saul Marcadent, Justin Morin and Marco Pecorari.

Angelo Cirimele by Nicolette Contursi, 2019

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Inside ‘Magazine’: A Publication About Fashion Magazines A magazine titled ‘Magazine’ about magazines. This meta-definition reflects the very particular point of view developed by Angelo Cirimele and his team: an ongoing and precise analysis of the fashion publication field. Published in 1999, the first issue presented the selection of new magazines available at Ofr, the iconic Parisian bookstore dedicated to art and fashion periodicals. In this issue, Cirimele reviewed all these publications employing different strategies – from reviews to portfolios and interviews. The early issues were spaces of reflection but also collaboration as Cirimele has worked with a variety of figures. Many of them are now playing a central role in the Parisian fashion publishing landscape like in the case of the art director Yorgo Tloupas who had worked on the early issues of ‘Magazine’ and has now launched and is currently working as artistic director for the French version of ‘Vanity Fair’. With more than 86 issues and many editorial transformations, Angelo Cirimele had created an essential database, at the same time factual and creative, about fashion magazines around the world, and by extension, about the fashion industry.

Interview by Molly Apple, Danielle Barnes, Berline Cherelus, Kandace Clifton, Nicolette Contursi

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Regard(s): What makes the content of Magazine R: Does your team have a specific exercise to different from other magazines? Angelo Cirimele brainstorm editorial ideas? AC: I have a very good (AC): Magazine is a place of experimentation. The format of the magazine, its own physicality (the quality of the paper, its dimensions), remains the same but we’re proposing a new team for each issue. We could say that the publication had three periods. The first goes from our first to our fifty-fifth issue (summer 2010) where we welcomed more than fifty different artistic directors. While they have to follow some graphic and layout guidelines I gave, they had the possibility to develop their own aesthetic throughout the magazine. At the time, this was a great opportunity for young artistic directors to present their competences, so it was a great exchange of ideas and enthusiasm. ‘Magazine’ was free and available in every cool places, from art galleries to shops.

R: So what has changed now? AC: Art directors today have so many tools to show their work, they don’t really need magazines anymore. Back in the 60s, editors were discussing the content, what was interesting and the best angle to approach a subject, not only the way they put the words on the page. This is not the case anymore. Now, with Instagram, they have a wider platform. In order to challenge our creativity, I therefore decided to change the format of ‘Magazine’.

This graphic shift has signed a second phase which also brought me to the decision to sell the magazine and stop the free distribution. The last and third phase is connected to the invitation of a fashion directors for each issue in order to give them free space to express their vision outside commercial restrains. We are a small magazine and this allows us to say and do things that other people would not do.

R: The new versions introduced a graphic gimmick: your logo is now a sticker. AC: It was a way to say we’re different. We know that most other mainstream magazines say the same thing: “The cool dress this season is by Balenciaga and the cool bag is by Saint Laurent”. Still, I believe we can propose a different point of view about fashion. I like the sticker because it’s fun. It personalizes the cover for each individual who buys the magazine and can peel it off and place it where he wants.

R: Over the 85 previous issues of ‘Magazine’, you worked with an impressive list of art directors, from photographer Peter Knapp to creative director Florence Tétier who has then launched her own magazine ‘Novembre’. How do you seek fresh perspectives to feature in ‘Magazine’? AC: We try to find young people, but I do not mean in relation to age. We look for people with a fresh point of view about things. We don’t want to talk about the trends of this season, we don’t care because everybody picks up on this. We try to write about things you don’t see or feel in other magazines, something that is not expected.

This is why we don’t interview designers because it becomes a commercial subscription. A section like “Off record”, where an insider speaks anonymously about his field of expertise, is very important to us.

technique: you have to eat and drink and not speak about the work! We don’t organize meetings to talk about the upcoming issue, but we meet each other and we usually have dinner. We drink and speak of everything – of life, of exhibitions, of people, of love.

Only then do I say, “What do you want to write about?”

I could imagine many methodologies, but this is mine.

Then, it’s just a question of balance. It’s like cooking!

The first thing is to have good ingredients. But, if your menu is composed of good rice, good bread and good pasta, I’m not sure it will be a good meal.

R: How big is your crew? AC: It depends. I usually work with a dozen contributors for each publication. We are producing five or six fashion stories per issue. Each editorial has its own team that shoots for one or two days. Of course, this takes weeks of preparation where they put everything together such as location, styling, makeup... And there’s also the post-production. In total, I think there’s at least fifty people involved per issue.

Magazine, Issue N°53 V1, 2010

R: You were mentioning Instagram. How does this change the industry? AC: I think that the Instagram format is not really adapted for fashion stories. But the strange thing is that you know the image you’re producing will be seen much more online. What I find challenging is how you can play with the layout.

The question is how you get your ‘online audience’ to read text. Some magazines are trying to find new ways to engage with their readers – I’m thinking about the German publication ‘032C’ – but still, I believe the screen is not made to read long text. When we think of replacing the screen with print, it never works. To me what is interesting is the specificity of the print and the specificity of the screen. Digital is very powerful for so many things. But print already proved that it can evolve. The truth is that even Instagram is changing every six months. Five years ago, a website was the commercial vision of your propositions and social medias were used to change things more frequently.

Nowadays, the Instagram account is doing both functions. It’s always moving and it depends on your aim: is it to do brand content or to give information?

Magazine, Issue N°9 V2, 2012

R: How did you end up publishing about magazines? What’s your background? AC: I studied philosophy. In addition to ‘Magazine’, I’m teaching visual communications at ECAL, the École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne in Switzerland and I’m running the school’s magazine with the students. I’m also doing some consulting on content for brands on content. I think I wouldn’t be able to do my job in an interesting way if I was only doing one thing. If I was only teaching, I believe it wouldn’t be interesting after two years – for the students and for me. When I launched Magazine 20 years ago, I realized after three or four issues that it will never become a huge business, not a business we could live with. But I accepted this and I have other activities. Now, I am absolutely convinced that it is much better like this: it makes my approach more rich.

Magazine, Issue N°31 V3, 2018

Previous issues of ‘Magazine’ are available online: magazinemagazine.fr

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Magazine, Issue N°53 V1, 2010; Magazine, Issue N°31 V3, 2018

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Resurrecting Ghosts: Lesbian Representation in Fashion Media Article by Amanda Stedman

“We wanted to put gay people back into history, not just by saying that some designers happened to be gay, but by saying, ‘actually, LGBTQ people have had a big impact on fashion for a long time, and it’s not just by chance.’” Valerie Steele, The Guardian, 2013. Brumfitt, Stuart. “A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk – review”. The Guardian.

25 September 2013. The LGBT community has a longstanding history with fashion, and with clothing as a means of expression. Clothing can be, for instance, used to out oneself as queer, or to hide and to blend in with a society that is, as a rule, unaccepting of different sexual and gender identities that differ from preconceived norms. It is intrinsic, therefore, to a queer person’s survival: how one dresses is a kind of signal to others, and to dress in a different way can put one’s safety at risk, at the very worst. To understand why this is, one must look back in time to the history of the queer community as a whole. This article tries to do so starting from the book ’The Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk’, published in 2013 in occasion of the exhibition at the Museum at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. The volume details the longstanding history that LGBT community have had within the fashion industry, whether as designers or as those that start trends.

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Collage of film set photograph of Marlene Dietrich (1929) and photography by Nicolette Contursi, 2019

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The book A Queer History of Fashion serves as a primer for a history of queer dress, where dress is intended as a practice, as a careful means of expression by queer people. All the personalities discussed dressed according to a context, being part of a culture that was and is so entangled in dress and in fashion. The book also examines the ways in which various people have used dress as a sort of language in order to hide or proclaim their sexual orientation and their identities, which often means using feminine clothing worn by men, or the reverse for women. Pieces in the exhibition and discussed in the book ranged from the 18th century to the present day, showcasing notable contributions to fashion by the queer community, even as they faced continual discrimination for their sexual orientations. Fashion acted, and still acts, as a way through which queer people are liable to express themselves, even as historically their stories are continually erased by the larger straight community.

Although queer women have used dress to subvert the notion of traditional gendered dress, most commonly taking on men’s dress as a way to sign to others their orientation, they were dismissed, or deemed deviants, eccentric. Neither were they recognized as queer, an erasure becoming more and more apparent in the case of lesbian couples. The writer Terry Castle notes that love between women is continually washed away, covered up completely, saying that “virtually every woman suspected of homosexuality has had her biography sanitized.” Wilson, Elizabeth, Christopher Breward, Shaun Cole, Peter

there exists a doubt as to whether or not the women were in a relationship because of the lack of described sexual acts in the diary. Wilson, Elizabeth, Christopher Breward, Shaun Cole, Peter McNeil, Vicki Karaminas, and Jonathan D. Katz. A queer history of fashion: From the closet to the catwalk. Edited by Valerie Steele.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. 169.

This, in turn, further points to the culture of deniability.

Wilson writes, “...Nor does the fact that they themselves presented their union as one of celibate devotion prove that it was so - the very fact that they felt constrained to do so implies a different possibility.” Ibid. These women, in all ways, flouted the gender norms of their time: they lived together, were lifelong companions, and presented themselves as more masculine or gender ambiguous in order to further queer the norms of the time. They presented themselves as different, no matter the criticism they received, and became a local fixture in their town due to their “eccentricities”. The erasure of their

Valerie Steele, A Queer History of Fashion, 2013

history lends further weight to the account of the lesbian as a ghost, or an apparition: there for one second, and gone the next, their stories covered up by a society that, for the most part, denies their very existence.

McNeil, Vicki Karaminas, and Jonathan D. Katz. A queer history of fashion: From the closet to the catwalk. Edited by Valerie Steele. New Haven, CT:

Even as women expressed their orientation through their dress, and through their style, there was a culture of denial: women could not possibly love each other. Therefore, the stories of many queer women were erased throughout history, giving way to stereotypes of what a lesbian would look like.

Yale University Press, 2013. 167.

The cultural perception of a lesbian, as Elizabeth Wilson discusses in her chapter “What Does a Lesbian Look Like?” for the book The Queer History of Fashion

by Valerie Steele, exemplifies this exactly. The writer says, “For sure, a lesbian had an image - a gruff person in hairy tweeds and maybe a few whiskers on her chin, but that was not a style.” Ibid In her chapter, however, Wilson discusses the variety of ways that these women dressed and lived, often surrounded by scandals and people who disapproved them, and their own personal style. Wilson notes that the vast majority of queer women have largely been erased from history, as the public did not want to contemplate the thought of a woman who loved another women, citing cases of complete denial. For example, Wilson notes the account of two Anglo-Irish aristocrats, Lady Eleanor Butler and her companion Sarah Ponsonby. Together, they were known as the Ladies of Llandgolen. Often visited by the likes of Lord Byron and William Wordsworth, the couple became well known in cultural circles, arriving to have Chinese ornaments that recalled their image. Ibid, 169. They dressed in men’s riding habits, with pants, top hats, and starched white collars. They cut their hair in a style that pointed to the 1790s, a short, cropped style known as “Titus”, which only added to their eccentricities. Although the women eloped rather than try for a legal marriage, and although there exists a diary of loving entries by Eleanor Butler to her companion,

Valerie Steele, A Queer History of Fashion, 2013

We do have clues, however, such as these, wherein queer women in history used dress as a means of expressing themselves and their sexualities; ways of dressing, and fashion, has remained a fixture in the queer community for as long as it has existed.

Because stories like this are only just now becoming more accepted, it is only now that a small magazine scene is budding, and featuring queer icons and queer women exclusively. Magazines like this have not been in the public eye until now because of the stereotypical image of what a lesbian ‘should’ look like. The single lesbian fashion magazine to date, based in Paris, called DYKE_ON, was created for the purpose of removing women from the male gaze, something ever present in modern fashion photography, and brings to light current and past lesbian authors, models, and public figures. It is an insight and a celebration of lesbian culture. Rain Laurent, the editor in chief of this magazine says in an

DYKE_ON Instagram Account, Art by Robin Isley, 2018

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interview with DAZED, “In terms of magazines, and in style: it proposed to represent lesbians as fashionable. terms of the established fashion world, there’s no place The magazine celebrates lesbian culture as a whole, and for lesbians, in a way...We’re quite invisible.” Allwood, Emma puts it into the public eye. It featured a photography Hope. “DYKE_ON is the lesbian fashion mag you’ve been waiting for”. portfolio by Rebekah Campbell, whose subject is the DAZED. 27 November 2017. Therefore, she aims to carve out queer community in Downtown New York, as well as a niche space for these women, where they can be ex- an extract from the novel Virtuoso, featuring all lesbian main characters, and a spotlight on Nicole Eisenman, actly that: visible. an American figurative painter, queer politics advocate, and a MacArthur fellowship winner. “DYKE_ON”. Boutique Mags. https://boutiquemags.com/products/dyke-on

Valerie Steele, A Queer History of Fashion, 2013

She continues, “I work in fashion, and being gay

myself, I never see women or girls portrayed a way that I feel they should be, as someone that I would really like to be or someone who would really influence me. Also, I have a lot of lesbian model friends, but people would never know that they are gay because they’re always portrayed as straight... I never see women or girls portrayed a way that I feel they should be, as someone that I would really like to be or someone who would really influence me.” Allwood, Emma Hope. “DYKE_ON is the lesbian fashion mag you’ve been waiting for”. DAZED. 27 November 2017.

DYKE_ON Instagram Account, Photo of Milla Jovovich, 2019

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However, despite its success and its featuring of prominent women in the queer community, the magazine has not had a concurrent run. The first issue premiered in 2017, and it has not been continued in print since, though the Instagram account that originally spurned its success has been updating monthly with the types of photos that were the basis of the magazine. The account shows lesbian icons such as Marlene Dietrich, dressed in a man’s suit, or Milla Jovovich, a contemporary actress, dressed in a white men’s undershirt, baggy pants, and wearing short hair. “DYKE_ON”. Instagram.com. https://www. instagram.com/dyke_on/?hl=en The women are presented in a traditional masculine way, as queer themselves or as icons, as something to emulate. Moreover, in continuing with DYKE_ON’s views, the photos are not sensationalized, or sexualized; these women, as stated, are removed from the male gaze. In this way, the magazine continues its life in creating a space where women can exist free from societal norms. There is a celebration of the subversion of traditionally held gender roles, a celebration of queerness, and through social media there is an element of conversation. Fans of the DYKE_ON Instagram account can comment and speak with Rain Laurent, the editor, through the account, and are themselves given a voice.

Whether or not the print magazine will return remains unclear. Still, in 2017 Laurent began a discussion with advertisers to create a second issue, and reportedly has had problems getting advertisers to realize that queer women could represent a market, and an influential one. Allwood, Emma Hope. “DYKE_ON is the lesbian fashion mag you’ve been waiting for”. DAZED. 27 November 2017. Indeed, magazine and advertising commercial nature not only tend to problematically classify individuals but also measure their economic power. Nevertheless, the Instagram account still provides that original space of inclusion, still continues its mission to give queer women a space for themselves. DYKE_ON serves as a clear marker

Therefore, she created the original Instagram account as a way to highlight lesbians, as a reaction to their invisibility to the fashion industry, and as a way to pay homage to what she defines as ‘lesbian style’. Becoming an extremely popular Instagram account, the creation of the magazine seemed the next, natural step. The first issue of DYKE_ON, titled Issue 0, very quickly sold out of progress in equality: queer women’s stories in 2017, from over fifty stockists worldwide. Allwood, Emma are going from largely eliminated and ignored Hope. “DAZED 100: DYKE_ON Publisher”. DAZED. http://www.dazeddig- to celebrated worldwide. The publication was and ital.com/projects/article/39804/1/dyke-on-lesbian-fashion-magazine-bi- is at the forefront of a movement of queer women who ography-dazed-100-profile-201. It enjoyed a massive success, aim to resurrect the ghosts of the past, to make them and disrupt stereotypical perspectives on ways of rep- visible where once they were dismissed, and to have resentation. Here queer women were not a fetish for their stories told. It is a space of celebration, exploration, men, not a tiny niche, and not an undesirable market. It and inclusion, and it gives queer women back their own conflated a representation queer women with a specific stories and their places in history.

References: Allwood, Emma Hope. “DAZED 100: DYKE_ON Publisher”. DAZED. http://www.dazeddigital.com/projects/article/39804/1/dyke-on-lesbian-fashion-magazine-biography-dazed-100-profile-2018 | Allwood, Emma Hope. “DYKE_ON is the lesbian fashion mag you’ve been waiting for”.

DAZED. 27 November 2017. http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/38209/1/dyke-on-is-the-lesbian-fashion-magazine-youve-been-waitingfor. Date accessed: 24 February 2019. | Brumfitt, Stuart. A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk – review”. The Guardian. 25 September 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2013/sep/25/queer-history-fashion-closet-catwalk-review. Date accessed: 24 February 2019. | “DYKE_ON”. Boutique Mags. https://boutiquemags.com/products/dyke-on. Date accessed: 24 February 2019. | “DYKE_ON”.

Instagram.com. https://www.instagram.com/dyke_on/?hl=en. Date accessed: 24 February 2019. | Wilson, Elizabeth, Christopher Breward, Shaun Cole, Peter McNeil, Vicki Karaminas, and Jonathan D. Katz. A queer history of fashion: From the closet to the catwalk. Edited by Valerie Steele. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.

Saul Marcadent by Victoria Nergaard, 2019

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Coming Off the Page: Pushing the Boundaries and Borders of Magazines Saul Marcadent is a researcher at IUAV University of Venice: an Italian university originally focusing on architecture and recently exploring other disciplines like fashion, design, visual arts, and the performing arts. He has obtained a PhD in 2018, with a study on niche fashion publishing. His main interest has been related to issues of media, creative networks in the fashion industry and the investigation of the visual and tactile properties of magazines. Marcadent developed his reflection through writing, performances and exhibitions that brought him to theorize and practice the idea of ‘editing as curating’. Saul has recently collaborated with Gucci Garden, an exhibition and museum space by the Gucci brand located in Florence, Italy, and presented his own exhibition, Fiamme, which focuses on the contemporary niche magazines. In the following interview, Saul discusses the materiality and community around niche magazines, as well as the potential future for print magazine in new spaces and digital dĂŠrive of the fashion industry.

Interview by Victoria Nergaard, Or Rosenblum, Rocio Sanchez, Svita Sobolyeva, Amanda Stedman

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Regard(s) (R): What was the focus of your PhD R: Why did you feel it was important to focus thesis, in terms of physical materials? Saul your studies on magazines in the first place? SM: Marcadent (SM): I focused on four case studies: Purple, Self Service, Visionaire, and A Magazine Curated By. These magazines were founded between 1991 and 2001 in major fashion cities such as New York, Paris and Antwerp and are still active today. Each one of these magazines stages the discourse of fashion while nourishing it by using it as a lens to observe the contemporary landscape, breaking fashion into other subjects and contexts.

R: And what drove you to choose these specific magazines? SM: These four magazines are deeply connected to the 90s, to a generation of publications that links the culture of the fashion system with artistic practices which reveals the work of previously unknown fashion designers, artists, and photographers.

Each of these magazines seems not only to record but also actively participate in the processes of fashion design, both in its material and immaterial dimensions. Still active and accredited in the system, they are all models in their responses and impulses to the editorial scene through the questioning of established practices of production, distribution, and creation, as well as presenting an alternative to the official circuit.

The starting point of my research is the detection of a lack of attention for magazines in fashion studies.

Although they represent a valuable source for many researchers mainly engaged in the field of historiography, they are an object of study that receives little attention. The perception of magazines as an ephemeral creature, often pierced by distracted glances – Walter Benjamin attributed its reception and use to the consumer – leads to a lack of attention and conservation.

At the same time, the only academic book explicitly focused on niche fashion magazines, Niche Fashion Magazines: Changing the Shape of Fashion by Ane Lynge-Jorlén, focuses primarily on their consumption which is not the point of my research.

R: While these magazines do have commonalities, they also have very different identities. How do you approach researching different magazines and what methods do you use? SM: The hybrid iden-

A Magazine Curated By Yohji Yamamoto, Issue 2, 2005

tity of my case studies has lead me to develop an interdisciplinary approach to structure a critical discourse about the objects of study and to report on its material qualities and visionary potential. I attempt to overcome the historiographic and objective description by interweaving the reflexive production of scholars, thinkers, R: What makes these magazines special in the theorists, visual authors, designers and curators.

way they create content in comparison to typical magazines that readers are more often exposed to? SM: They are different from the popular periodicals as they were self-initiated and not supported by a publisher or a publishing group. These publications are characterized by a high level of experimentation and a slow periodicity: they come out once or twice a year.

R: We notice that you are using the word ‘niche’ to describe these magazines, can you define ‘niche’ for us? SM: The definition of niche magazines is based on my interest in investigating the dimension of special interest groups which is practiced by the founders of these publications. The choice of the term ‘niche magazines’ is used in the academic field in mainly sociological research and recently in fashion studies, and is associated with the language of marketing. However it is important to question this and, moreso free the term ‘niche’ from marketing.

R: And what makes a ‘niche’ magazine a different experience from traditional glossies? SM: I like to focus on the figure of the insider, so the person who takes part in these magazines in various ways. I also focus on the relationships between the actors: the term ‘niche’ is used in the sense of ‘refuge’ or ‘community’ and not as a market segment, thus underlining the aspiration of readers to be part of this community.

R: Do you then see a connection between your selected publications and the concept of community associated with ‘niche’? SM: The longevity of the four case studies seems to be functional to support their connection because despite the fact that they have changed over time, often strengthening and interweaving a close dialogue with the fashion system, Visionaire, Purple and Self Service continue to foster the collaborative dimension by taking care of relationships and editorial design with the independent character of their roots. Now you can find these publications, aside from Visionaire, in newsstands and in a lot of bookshops.

R: Can you speak about your curatorial work and research during your PhD? SM: In the middle of

A Magazine Curated By Yohji Yamamoto, Issue 2, 2005

my PhD in 2016-17, I decided to curate an exhibition. My methodological action has also been developed through creating the idea, design, and implementation of this curatorial project. The title was Fiamme, which means ‘flames’. Fifty contemporary art, fashion, design and architecture magazines were set up in the Library of the IUAV University of Venice. The attention for my object of study is driven by an intense interest in publishing which was developed during my training and translated, since 2012, into an activity of curatorship that includes the ideation and design of exhibitions in public and private contexts. My theoretical research work is combined with a personal curatorial attitude and in this frame magazines are not considered exclusively as an object of analysis but as a space of practice. As a matter of fact,

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saulmarcadent Instagram Account, Photo of Magazines, 2019

reflexive observation and production are complemented content and established economic models – in differby the curatorship of Fiamme with the aim of capturing ent ways: through their physicality, porous design, niche topics, and attention to specific communities of interthe potential of the materials observed. connected individuals who share a similar point of view.

R: And what did you want to communicate Often, these magazines get stronger by creating new through this exhibition? SM: The exhibition Fiamme social, cultural, geographical categories and imagine examines the contemporary editorial landscape through unforeseen demographics that go beyond their topics; a selection of niche publications. This experimental op- they are not published merely to cater to focused demoeration has inspired me to reflect on the connection be- graphics or marketing whims but instead their publishtween research and curatorship, and more specifically ers, editors and designers are compelled to satisfy their on carrying out research through an exhibition and on own desires and inspire others. The magazines selected have a defined editorial line, establish serene relations the exhibition as a research action in itself. with the web, and reserve extreme attention to graphic R: What specific attributes were you looking for design and print. They are objects to keep and collect.

when choosing publications for your exhibition?

SM: Fiamme is an exhibition that looks at the contemporary periodical publishing scene with special attention to printed publications that cover niche topics.

The exhibition presents fifty international titles born in the new millennium specifically in the last ten years after the economic crisis which occurred between 2007 and 2008.

R: What else has impacted niche publishing in the last few years? SM: The ever-changing fash-

saulmarcadent Instagram Account, Photo of Fiamme Exhibition, 2017

R: How would you sum up the focus of ‘Fiamme’?

SM: Fiamme develops a discourse through keywords: the first one was ‘exploration’, the second ‘classical’, then ‘concentration’ third, and the last one is ‘intimacy’.

According to their qualities, the periodicals are combined into the four sections enabling new connections.

‘Exploration’ comprises magazines that reinterpret the theme of travel, border, and migration. They explore places through geography, writing and photography.

The publications gathered in ‘classical’ rediscover forms of publishing already existing but at the same time introduce innovations in terms of content, research and theory. ‘Concentration’ includes often concise and/ or sometimes single theme publications, which may condense ideas and visions in a few sheets. ‘Intimacy’ gathers magazines that establish a close and direct relationship with the reader. These magazines are capable of relating to gender issues as well as to themes of the body and sexuality.

ion publishing scenery responds to a varying reality under the influence of the means of replication and distribution. As a result, niche magazines coexist with heterogeneous formats such as blogs, artist books, projects for iPads, handmade and limited run products that hybridize neighbouring cultural areas. At a time in which mass media is migrating en masse to the web, these magazines get stronger by identifying and nurturing their own scope and often building up an empathic network between designers, photographers, stylists and journalists. They show their ability to read R: Can you give us an example of niche magacontemporary culture intensively and at the same time, zines and how they built communities other than to tickle and feed it with input. the magazines that are the focus of your study?

SM: MC1R is a publication focused on the people with red hair which started as a photographic project and then with crowdfunding they published the first issue, creating a niche of readers. They have published the sixth issue recently. I think it’s interesting because there are few redheads in the world, about 2%. This magazine is a sort of political response because they try to create a community around a very specific topic.

R: In your work with Gucci Garden, there seems to be a heavy emphasis on translating a two-dimensional magazine into a three-dimensional performance and experience. Do you feel like exhibitions such as Gucci Garden communicate ideas in a same way that a magazine does? SM:

A Magazine Curated By Yohji Yamamoto, Issue 2, 2005

R: What traits are particular to these print magazines? SM: The selection, which does not extensively covering the subject matter, highlights a particular common trait of the periodicals: the expressive urgency that results in the production of the physical and tangible publication. These magazines transcend the boundaries of traditional publications – faithful to

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The collaboration with Gucci Garden in Florence is part of my research at the University. I decided to create Publishing Traffic, a series of conversations, lectures, and performances focused on contemporary editorial landscape. We started with four conversations focused on Italian publishing from July 2018. Starting from the end of the last year, I decided to experiment with a different format. The idea was to collaborate with magazines to create performances and in February 2019 we made a performance with Odiseo, a bi-annual publication dedicated to eros, art, and fashion. In occasion of the launch of the issue 13 ‘The Last Supper’, the idea was to recreate the Last Supper with only two performers, not thirteen. More precisely, two women. One was Jesus, the other one Judas. It was a 15 minute-performance by invitation at Gucci Garden.

The performers were in pieces of clothing made by young fashion designers from Central Saint Martins. The idea was to come out from the page in order to create a three-dimensional experience for the audience.

R: And was the experience of creating this similar to creating a magazine? Were the roles of the team alike at all? SM: I like to play with roles. In this case, the editor-in-chief of the publication became the director of the performance. And as a curator I like to create this kind of inversion of roles. I want to create something physical, a real experience, but also the audience could read along with the magazine and fill out the pages. We were experimenting with a real combination of a paper publication and the physical experience of a performance. That was the idea of this kind of event at the Gucci Garden and I want to continue to work in this direction. We will add another performance in May with another magazine, The Plant.

R: You are a pioneer in using curating and editing interchangeably, as in your point of view they are the same thing. Can you tell us more about your thought process behind this idea? SM: I decided to title my PhD thesis ‘Editing as curating’. Magazines are a sort of ‘exhibitions on paper’. The sequence of the content and the relationship between the people involved are two key elements to understand the relations between editorial and curatorial practices.

R: How do you work as a curator? SM: I am a curator of projects related to cultural and artistic production with a deep interest in paper publishing and the continued search for connections, relationships and collaborations which are the basis of my work. According to Harald Szeemann ‘The curator is not a chef, but he could be a waiter’. The linking role of the curator is fascinating and complex so I like to think of myself as a ‘bridge’. I am interested to step into the shoes of the artists to understand their world and to interpret it and give it shape. The role of the insider in the industry is crucial for my research and curatorial practice.

R: Do you feel that print magazines are still relevant in a world where news is mostly delivered digitally, constantly, and in short bursts?

SM: In the debate between paper and digital, it is impossible to ignore the changes to communication; we are all interconnected and totally immersed in a world of hyperlinks that set new deadlines. Paper and digital are different tools destined to live side by side despite their limitations. While the paper has lost its informative function because the daily news is immediately provided online, the digital is sometimes used only as a support a paper product.

Self Service, Issue 46, 2017

R: Where do you see the future of magazine editing, as magazines become more commercial? SM: This is a very interesting question. In my thesis, I decided to focus only on the first five issues of A Magazine Curated By published from 2001 to 2003. This biannual magazine follows the seasons of fashion and each new issue is curated by a different fashion designer, who is invited to translate his/her imagery into paper. As a result, every issue is a conceptual and visual adventure on its own, it has its own temperature and rhythm. The title of the first issues followed the letters of the alphabet: «N°A», «N°B», «N°C», «N°D» and «N°E» were assigned to Dirk van Saene, Bernard Willhelm, Hussein Chalayan, Olivier Theyskens, Viktor & Rolf, and they explored a variety of new opportunities both formal and in terms of contents thanks to the graphic designer Paul Boudens.

I think the original issues of the magazine were more interesting than the present. The first issues were real ‘exhibitions on paper’ because they had a lot of change, a lot of experimentation in different ways. Now I think that we had some recent issues that are good, but A Magazine Curated By is more commercial and connected to the fashion system and its rules.

In this view, periodic publishing finds reason to exist in its differentiation from the digital world and takes a mono-thematic direction; all the magazines that investigate a specific topic can cut out a niche by breaking down the barriers of time through visual and written content that do not set limits to fruition. The future of periodical publishing is to fill a gap by adopting a precise thematic strategy and identity. Niche magazines R: What is the current niche magazine market take time to go out and to be launched. like in Italy? SM: The ever-stronger bond with the web has created, in reaction, a diffuse interest in printed R: So essentially, you can see a future where paper and the desire for slower – and even visual – print is not dead, but just takes on a new role reading has come to the surface. This renewed interest in the magazine industry? SM: I think there is no in paper seems a reaction to the social dematerial- struggle between paper and digital publications today. ization that occurred with the digital. Forms of inde- Editorial teams use Instagram and other social netpendent publishing promote real, physical exchanges. works very well to promote their printed magazines, so Niche publications like Archivio, San Rocco and Alla I think the web is a very important tool. But what they carta play an important role in this scene. Anyways, do on paper is very different; it’s not to inform someone I don’t like to focus much on the Italian scene in my but to create values, to say something. I think there is work, because I think we are participating in a global space for paper publications today, not in competition system. I think it’s interesting to read this phenomenon with the web. The future for me is not the death of in a global perspective. paper, but the combination of different mediums.

Purple, Issue 28, 2017

Purple, Issue 28, 2017

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Self Service, Issue 46, 2017

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Designing Identities: Magazine Aesthetics and the Brands That Create Them Article by Victoria Nergaard

It’s no secret that magazines and brand-sponsored content have shared a very close relationship almost as long as magazines have existed. Even the most naïve readers are aware that, unless proudly stated otherwise, magazine profit is particularly dependent on sponsored content and advertising despite our contemporary craving for authenticity in the age of social media and brand sponsorship. And while many magazine publishers would argue that partnering with brands is financially necessary, it is important to look to how these partnerships influence and shape the identity of a magazine. This is clearly a pertinent issue in the magazine industry, especially due to the fact that there are multiple studies devoted to the link between advertising and aesthetics such as ‘The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research’, a seminal work in magazine scholarship edited by David Abrahamson and Marcia R. Prior-Miller.

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Collage of Vogue February 1958 cover and photography by Nicolette Contursi & Victoria Nergaard, 2019

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While this book features a variety of articles focusing on the business of magazines, magazines and communication, as well as the practice of magazine research itself, there are two specific chapters which discuss the partnership between the branding and aesthetics of magazines and the advertisers they publish from multiple angles, “The Business of Magazines: Advertising, Circulation and Content Issues” by Sela Sar and Lulu Rodriguez as well as “Magazine Design: Defining the Visual Architecture” by Carol Holstead. These two chapters come from a highly academic context, analyzing the issue of magazine identity and advertising through relevant methodological research, to present concretely how the creative direction teams of magazines are not the sole producers of the aesthetic identity of their publication.

Evidently, there are many magazines on prominent newsstands whose own brands are entirely tied to their reliance on heavy advertising. Often, when

explain, in a more basic sense, that advertisers select magazines based on clear-cut demographics in order to ensure that their products are being presented to the correct audience Ibid, 183., and while this seems a very easy selection process from the perspective of the advertiser, magazines which feature brands out of financial necessity face more of an identity crisis in forging a partnership.

Sela and Rodriguez state “Advertisers capitalize on this condition, aware that readers screen advertisements in much the same way that they screen editorial parts…” Ibid, 182. alluding to the fact that advertisements are equally engrained in a magazine as its own creative content, thus having an impact on the way the reader perceives a magazines aesthetic identity. Although these authors enter the conversation from a very different perspective – they are far more concerned with the impact of an ad and do not take on a creative directorial approach. It is clear through their research that the aesthetics of a placed product, and the messages of said products company are viewed as attached to a magazine once printed in its pages, pulling pieces of creative control from the creative team.

Crash Magazine, Issue 86, 2019 Collaged with The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research, Edited by David Abrahamson, 2015

one thinks of a corporate magazine, like Vogue, the first association that comes to mind is the pages upon pages of glossy, luxury advertising wrought with glamorously made-up models clutching designer bags and shoes or hustling the perfumes that keep couture houses afloat. Magazines are shaped as much, if not more, by the And while this may not be the intended visual identity of Vogue, their cultural perception has been concretely linked to the types and volume of advertisements featured in their pages just as much as the actual content constructed by the creative team for the magazine.

For a commercial magazine like Vogue however, advertisements and major brands are so central to their business model and financial goals that it’s an easy trade off in sacrificing a clear artistic identity.

It is the independent magazines which intend to create an expressive and distinctly creative aesthetic through the design of their pages that are impacted and reshaped in a more detrimental way. Ultimately, by looking to the selected chapters featured in The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research in comparison to many examples within magazines, and anecdotes from magazine professionals, it is obvious that the creative identity of a publication is not shaped exclusively by the creative team directing its aesthetic, but also by the brands and their attached connotations with which they must advertise in order to stay afloat.

For independent magazines, involvement with advertisers is for the most part a necessity, a strict business exchange which allows them to continue to produce the content which actually achieves their aims of constructing a desired aesthetic. As a result of this, it’s important to look to magazine advertisements from a business perspective, which is where Sela Sar and Lulu Rodriguez’s chapter comes in.

Although much of this chapter focuses on the basic structure of the relationship between advertising and magazines, such as the functionality of a magazine as a two-way communication platform between audiences and businesses, Sar, Sela, and Lulu Rodriguez, “The Business of Magazines: Advertising, Circulation and Content Issues,” in The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research, ed David Abrahamson and Marcia R. Prior-Miller, (New York: Routledge, 2015), 180. there is also an emphasis on matching brands with publications to create a harmonious relationship, and the way branded content impacts the perception of magazines. The authors

intentional images, graphics and design constructed specifically for them as a publication as the actual written content featured on their pages. Carol Holstead argues in her chapter concerning the design of a magazine that it is truly the graphic work in a magazine which conveys the publication’s chosen identity. The author describes using semiotic theory the way different colours, shapes, text and types of images convey particular meanings to an audience, visually communicating the ideals and tastes of a publication Holstead, Carol, “Magazine Design: Defining the Visual Architecture,” in The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research, ed David Abrahamson and Marcia R. Prior-Miller, (New York: Routledge, 2015), 394.

Essentially, this means that the very specific details of images and the way these images are constructed and displayed on a page alters the way a magazine will be conceived by its audience. She states, “A magazine is branded by its design, by its use of typeface and colour and photos and space.” Ibid, 395. clarifying that the imagery of a particular magazine builds a specific character beyond the words and messages that is printed on the page.

Because imagery is so key in defining the identity of a magazine, the content of the images printed in a magazine also constructs the aesthetic associated with it. If an editorial were to include sponsored products that do not align well visually with a magazines branding, this can disrupt the way the image is perceived by the audience, thus muddling and shifting the magazines perceived identity. Additionally, advertisements themselves are still consumed in the same way as images as described by Sela and Rodriguez, so an ad supplied by a brand that is not reflexive of a magazine’s chosen aesthetic disturbs the creative direction causing a rift between the intention for a magazine and how its identity is actually perceived. Essentially, readers do not necessarily differentiate between sponsored content and the actual artistic content of a magazine therefore featured products are assumed to be a part of the magazine’s artistic identity, confirming it in the eyes of the reader.

Crash Magazine, Issue 86, 2019 Collaged with The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research, Edited by David Abrahamson, 2015

Crash Magazine, Issue 86, 2019 Collaged with The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research, Edited

by David Abrahamson, 2015

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Obviously there is no higher authority holding cover of their publication as the model’s aesthetic aligns a gun to the creative direction teams head forcing with their magazine’s branding, only to then have to them to place certain products, however hands feature specific fashion products in the shoot due to the can be tied when it comes to selecting products models own contracts. Oftentimes, these products do and ad partnerships. For instance, a feature editor not fit with the concept of the shoot or the magazines of a fashion magazine interviewed by The Guardian identity as a whole and impacts the end product of the speaks about the pressure she feels in incorporating magazine issue and how it is perceived by the public products, if they don’t fit the magazines brand, stat- – but it’s a creative sacrifice that a director has to make. ing “I am told that it is these kind of deals that ensure job stability so I feel obliged to agree to it. What I am worried about, and what I dedicate my efforts to, is ensuring readers don’t get fed up with us pushing a product in editorial space that just doesn’t deserve to be there.” Barrett, Lucy, “Publishers weigh up the perils and the positives of advertorials,” The Guardian, August 31, 2009. Providing a personal anecdote on the financial pressure many editors and directors feel when attempting to craft a specific identity for their publication in a capitalist society. Ultimately, as the magazine industry continues to become less and less financially viable, it’s typically the looming threat of financial ruin and the desire to sustain as a publication under capitalism driving poor matches between product partnerships and magazines and impacting magazine aesthetics.

Photo by Nicolette Contursi & Victoria Nergaard, 2019

On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, some fashion magazines with a strong self-image tend to promote fashion brands that align well with their image without obligation or financial gain. A clear example of this is the products featured in the online independent fashion and lifestyle magazine MANREPELLER. This magazine boasts a clear aesthetic of colourful kitschiness and relatability for the young working woman, and this is further expressed to audiences through the brands they so frequently feature in advertorials.

One particular brand that pops up in article after article is the small, female-owned eponymous accessory brand Susan Alexandra which features a variety of hand beaded bags and jewelry in colourful and fruity patterns and shapes. Evidently this small business is not providing MANREPELLER with much, if any, finan Magazines hire a staff of creative directors, stylists, cial support, however the style of these accessories designers, and photographers to build a very specific aligns perfectly to the fun and fresh aesthetics of the aesthetic for a reason – it’s necessary to express a magazine itself, melting into its graphic design. strong brand in order to relate to your targeted audience and define yourself creatively in a world with These products bolster the clear image of itself that countless glossies on the newsstand, but it’s not only MANREPELLER constructs and align well with the ethos this team which develops the identity of a magazine. of this magazine as they are supporting a young selfFashion brands themselves are equally invested in made designer selling sustainable accessories. Clearly constructing their aesthetic identity, and when the this partnership is one that is exemplary of the way identities of a magazine and brand collide, the results brand partnerships shape and confirm the identity of a are not always as harmonious as a creative direction magazine, as MANREPELLER chooses to publish these team would hope for. This identity crisis can rear accessories time and time again, aesthetically reafits head through a plethora of issues, whether firming how the magazine intends to be viewed by its it’s a featured ad that a magazine cannot finan- reader. Essentially, this example illustrates the power cially refuse, or a contractual obligation on the of a sponsored product in declaring a magazines identity through its own image. magazines part.

Crash Magazine, which began publishing in 1998, sought an artistic and independent voice which focused on alternative perspectives of fashion and art, quickly developed into an advertising platform for major design houses such as Dior, who saw this publication as an opportunity to reach a younger and edgier audience “Crash Magazine,” Wikipedia, last modified 17 September, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Magazine. Crash was able to sustain itself as a fashion publication for over twenty years through one of the greatest periods of change for magazines thanks to partnerships like this, however, it also undermined the magazines intentionally alternative identity. These traditional brands

placed jarringly next to grungey young artists and unorthodox fashion editorials question the magazines commitment to the identity it originally attempted to forge.

Crash Magazine, Issue 86, 2019

While sometimes the challenge of off-putting ad partnerships is financially based, it can also be due to legal obligation in working with certain models or creatives.

Stylists and creative directors alike tell stories of making a creative choice to feature a particular model on the

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Independent magazines strive to be recognized as creative platforms which tell their story through images and design in their own unique way. And while the imagery and design of a magazine is an extremely effective way to tell a publications story and establish its personality, certain obligations can restrict a magazines agency to truly assert itself. In much the same way as other forms of artistic expression, magazines succumb to the pressures of capitalism and are reshaped creatively by the need to profit.

Although clearly there are positive examples of magazines partnering with brands who really do represent who they are, ultimately the need to include particular objects and content is restrictive to creating a truly unique and authentic identity for a publication.

Magazines are tragically cursed to exist in tandem with the brands they must advertise, influenced by a capitalist drive. Well, excluding those radical ad-free publications that are fully committed to self-expression – that is until they too burn out from low-profit work surrender to capitalist pressure.

References: Barrett, Lucy. “Publishers weigh up the perils and the positives of advertorials.” The Guardian. 31 August, 2009. | “Crash Magazine.”

Wikipedia. Last modified 17 September, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Magazine | Holstead, Carol. “Magazine Design: Defining the Visual Architecture.” In The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research, edited by David Abrahamson and Marcia R. Prior-Miller, 392-409. New York: Routledge, 2015. | Sar, Sela, and Lulu Rodriguez. “The Business of Magazines: Advertising, Circulation and Content Issues.” In The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research, edited by David Abrahamson and Marcia R. Prior-Miller, 179-196. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Time Capsules More than a collection of pictures and articles, magazines reflect the current preoccupations of our society. The following section of Regard(s)presents a selection of publications approaching fashion media in singular ways – from prominent titles such as ‘Purple’ to more recent unconventional approaches to fashion imagery such as ‘Pylot’. ‘Regard(s)’ addresses how these magazines contribute to some discourses of diversity and inclusiveness developed in fashion studies by looking at their mechanism of production, where temporality seems to be a key notion. In the landscape of the increasingly popular niche fashion magazine, we narrowed in on these seven publications and reflected on what sets them apart.

All images of this ‘editorial review’ were realized under the guidance of the photographer Joan Braun

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Photographed by Molly Apple & Lily Li, see review page 27

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RE | FUSE RE|FUSE is a non-profit magazine that hijacks the language of fashion in order to address cutting-edge and ever-changing social issues. Published in 2016, the first issue focuses on refugees and their fingerprints on the creative community. The second issue, published in 2017-18, focuses on the parameters of luxury and sustainability. Started by Olfa Ben Ali, a French visual artist resident in Amsterdam, the publication sought to provide a unique space for written and visual collaborations between refugees and artists in the first magazine. Showcasing their stories from places like Aleppo, Khabul, Baghdad and Addis Ababa, the articles and editorial bring light to the creativity and imagination of refugees. Through this printed and online media outlet, refugee hidden voices have a chance to speak above stereotypes, and display ‘the unstoppable flow of trends, styles, and mindsets’, as Ben Ali suggests. Presenting very few ads and mostly based on collaborations, RE|FUSE seems on hiatus, proving the economical and creative challenges that independent publications are constantly facing.

Periocity not specified, Netherlands, 12-18€, refusemagazine.com, @refuse_magazine

Photographed by Berline Cherelus & Kandace Clifton

The Skirt Chronicles Collaboration forms the basis of production in any magazine. However, these voices are often put through filters of some kind, whether it be a photographic filter, or a written one, where pieces need to have an exact tone or audience. These filters pervade the magazine industry in the modern world. In contrast, a raw collaboration of many artistic voices is exemplified in The Skirt Chronicles. The magazine was founded by Sarah de Mavaleix, Sofia Nebiolo and Haydée Touitou as a collaborative platform. These three women came together with a common desire to celebrate diverse cultures. Focusing mainly on literature, fashion, politics, and lifestyle, it appeals to a mixed audience who appreciate a contemporary publication where the written word is placed at the center. Each issue keeps with the theme of fashion as a cultural phenomenon, though it gives a new perspective: the magazine features emotional content which is not often found in magazines. Its glossy pages flow with eclectic thought-provoking poetry, interviews, and reports. Written pieces are about a variety of subjects: women in the fashion industry, the connections artisans feel to their crafts, and even a style of dressing resembling saints called Saint-Sulpice. The pieces in each volume vary, but fashion and an emphasis on women are at the heart of the magazine. The artistic direction, meanwhile, is more simple and follows still life, and moves to a series of fashion photographs. The magazine is unlike traditional magazines even in its form and content. This compact publication mirrors the shape of a book, which creates a timeless appeal that ensures readers will want to keep their copy and reread it. The Skirt Chronicles shows its difference from mainstream magazines as a collaborative platform that explores different cultures, putting a focus on the female voice and appealing to all generations.

Bi-annual, France, 10€, theskirtchronicles.com, @theskirtchronicles

Photographed by Danielle Barnes & Amanda Stedman

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Purple Founded in 1992 by Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm, this iconic publication, entitled back then Purple Prose, was a poetic and political response to the superficial glamour of the eighties. Fleiss and Zahm’s collaboration has resulted in many side projects, among others Purple Fiction – a literary magazine published between 1995 and 1998 – Purple Sexe – a magazine devoted to sexuality – and Purple Gallery. The many faces of the project mirror their capacity to reflect the pace of culture and fashion. These essential mutations also show how the weakened printed industry can propose alternatives.

Now entirely managed by Zahm, the bi-annual publication shares its raw, improvisational aesthetic, which became a compelling reference in fashion. Growing from a small paperback to a hardback coffee table, each issue of the magazine is made up of over four-hundred pages of striking fashion images and in-depth interviews with industry insiders, authors, artists and other cultural figures. Independent but strongly connected to the industry, Purple sets the standard for alternative publications, and has established itself as a compelling reference for fashion and culture.

Bi-annual, France, 35€, purple.fr, @purplefashionmagazine

Vestoj

Photographed by Trevor Chapman & Nicolette Contursi

Vestoj is an annual Paris-based fashion publication created to bridge the gap between fashion and academia.

Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, editor-in-chief, and her team conceived it as an alternative to the plethora of resembling fashion magazines available back in 2009, when the first issue of Vestoj was published. Their aim is to reach an audience who is interested in thought-provoking content and topics discussed in the academic world, but who are not academics themselves. In order to do this, the Vestoj team produces brilliant critiques of the world of fashion written by fashion scholars in an accessible way. Each one of their issues is centered around one topic, associating it to the discourse on fashion as a cultural phenomenon. Issue five focused on slowness, and even though it was published in 2014, it reflects on a topic which has been gaining attention in the past few years. In this issue, the Vestoj team explored the acceleration of time in relation to modernity, and even now, in 2019, it feels current. The issue examined different approaches in an attempt to create a new idea of time in the fashion industry, which has been driven by this acceleration for decades.

Annual, France, 25€, vetoj.com, @vestojstories

Photographed by Sandra Mathey García-Rada & Rocio Sanchez

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Pylot Edited by Max Barnett, Pylot is a biannual fashion and fine art photography publication from the United Kingdom that takes an extremely interesting approach in terms of its production. Inaugurated in 2014, it has now arrived at its ninth issue thus far. Everything in this magazine is produced completely in analogue: no digital retouching is used on the photographs of the models, nor on advertisements. Furthermore, photographers consciously decided to use analogue cameras with film and not a digital camera, in order to “slow down” the process. This “slow” process is also shown in the publication dates of Pylot. As it is released biannually, there is a strict adherence to the traditional fashion seasons, which have been so corrupted by the natural acceleration of production in the modern age. Because of this insightful approach, the team is forced to make decisions with more care than if, for instance, they were taking digital photos. With film, the longer process time brings photographers and editors to make more careful decisions in shooting in order to not waste film. A particular attention is also given to gender issues, as visible in their recent fashion editorial entitled “What makes a man”. Photographed by Conor Clinch and styled by Nathan Henry, the editorial features men dressed in their everyday look holding women bags in a documentary aesthetic, proving the importance of authenticity and the gender approach in the magazine philosophy. Pylot have a digital presence through their website and Instagram profile: a revealing paradox questioning the value of a classical media in the digital era.

Photographed by Svitlana Solboyeva & Or A. Rosenblum

Bi-annual, United Kingdom, £5, pylotmagazine.com, @pylotmagazine

Interview Interview is a monthly American magazine created by Andy Warhol and the British journalist John Wilcock in late 1969. The magazine was nicknamed “crystal ball of pop” and includes interviews with artists, musicians and socialites, a formula that inspired many contemporary titles. The publication featured interviews by Warhol himself; the iconic artist enjoyed asking very down-to-earth questions to the it-girls and boys he interviewed. Andy Warhol left all the laughs and sneezes in the content in order to get a rawer effect. The creative and impressive covers of Interview which gave the magazine its notoriety were the product of the artist Richard Bernstein during the years 1972 to 1989.

Interview filed for bankruptcy in May 2018 and came back four months later, in September, with a new issue designed by Richard Turley in newsstands. The issue we are looking at is from April 1983 and features French actress Clio Goldsmith. Printed on newsprint paper, the entire publication is in black and white, except for the cover and a few advertisements. Originally sold for two dollars, this copy can be today purchased online, on website like eBay, for one hundred dollars. Magazines have always been subject of collection, but this phenomenon is expanding, pushing our understanding of both its economical and cultural value.

Photographed by Fanny Lerner & Clara Montré

Quarterly, United States, $12, interviewmagazine.com, @interviewmag

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Rouge Fashion Book Regarded as China’s first “mook” (a hybrid of magazine and book), the young Rouge Fashion Book is an independent, biannual publication with a focus on fashion through an artistic lens. Lily Chou, editor-in-chief, and Calvin Luo, creative director, co-founded the magazine in September of 2018, and have since been working together to create issues that showcase young artists of China alongside works from various international talents.

Each “book” includes fashion editorials, in-depth interviews with designers and influential subjects from the world of art and fashion in the 240+ pages. This second issue, with a theme “Molecules”, features linen texture over its hardcover, with the cover photo of Fernanda Ly shot by Asger Carlsen. Throughout the book, the text has handwritten aesthetics and creative layouts playing with borders and almost amateur style illustrations to make for a stylish photo book. Rouge Fashion Book pushes through a western-centric discourse on fashion media with content created by Asian creatives while attracting the western reader through features from the international community, building a niche market and community in the process.

Annual, China, £30, rougefashionbook.cn, @rougefashionbook

And also...

For the second issue of Regard(s), our editorial team has chosen to focus our content on the process of magazine production. Today many magazines are produced in alternative systems compared to the traditional commercial magazine and we, as a team, felt it important to spotlight these particular publications in our reviews section. Despite the fact that only particular reviews were selected to be featured individually in the issue, our team covered several other magazines. These ‘extras’ include well-known titles such as AnOther, Crash, the gentlewoman, i-D, MM, Fucking Young!, Scrnsht and Fat magazine. Some of these magazines have been long-standing in the industry setting the tone for independent magazine publishing. However, many magazine professionals note that these methods are now outplayed. Independent magazines, such as i-D, presented a new wave of anti-fashion in the 1980s which provided a new framework for content construction.

Still, over the decades, many magazines have adopted their methods while a new digital wave is advancing a new scenario for fashion related publications. Like in the case of Screensht, online magazines are now reshaping the production of magazines for a new digitized audience, sourcing their content from one of the most prominent social media platforms – Instagram – in order to merge digital and print media in a recognizable way.

Despite the recurring question of whether print is dead or not, the value of magazines such as i-D and Scrnsht (traditional versus nontraditional) showcases that print is still very much alive. Ultimately, it is the publication which concoct unique ways to produce a magazine that are proliferating the allegedly dying print industry today.

Photographed by Deandra Green & Victoria Nergaard

AnOther, Bi-annual, United Kingdom, $14.99, anothermag.com, @anothermagazine Crash, Bi-annual, France, 7.90€, crash.fr, @crashmagazine Fucking Young!, Bi-annual, Spain, 15€, fuckingyoung.es, @fuuuckingyoung i-D, Bi-monthly, United Kingdom, £14, i-d.vice.com, @i-d MM, Bi-annual, Italy, world.maxmara.com, @maxmara Scrnsht, Single Issue, United Kingdom, 13€, n/a, @pam_boy the gentlewoman, Bi-annual, United Kingdom, 18€, thegentlewoman.co.uk, @gentlewoman

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Tiffany Godoy by Lily Li, 2019

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Chngng th sphr: Tffny Gdy frm Th Rlty Shw Tiffany Godoy is the creator and editor-in-chief of the Instagramazine called the Th_Rlty_Shw (a play on the spelling of ‘The Reality Show’). She started out as a journalist and worked for a few well-known magazine titles in Japan, including ‘Composite’ and ‘Studio Voice’. With her background in fashion journalism, content creation, and photography, Godoy used her knowledge, resources and contacts in order to create her own medium, Th_Rlty_Shw. The magazine started out as a print publication in 2012 before it became a fully-digital platform on Instagram in just a few years. As the magazine no longer exists in print form, its online presence has allowed Godoy to create a unique visual world. Our conversation opens up with her origins and her professional debut.

“No one really knows how to explain what I do. I’m Tiffany Godoy from Los Angeles.

Growing up, I really loved visuals and I thought that meant being a photographer or working as a director in movies. And since I grew up in Los Angeles, I didn’t grow up around fashion, but I loved it. I loved images, so I studied photography in school. Then, when I was in my early twenties, I met a bunch of Japanese kids that made me curious about Japan and I moved there. I just knew that I could do something different there. I happened to get hired at a magazine, ‘Composite’ Magazine, a very cool magazine at the time, and I became a fashion editor at 22.”

Interview by Deandra Green, Fanny Lerner, Lily Li, Sandra Mathey, Clara Montré

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Regard(s): How did it start? Tiffany Godoy (TG): We started just around the same time as Colette – the Parisian concept store – did, and we were sold there. It was just very much paralleling this kind of development of independent culture, independent boutiques, independent magazines. The internet was just starting too, so I was across the world, organizing shoots and all the pages, as well as all the concepts. I was doing interviews, I was deciding what shoots would be about and who would do them. It was a great education, but it was a lot at once. But I think that’s how everyone works now. I did that for about two years. Then, after ‘Composite’, I moved to ‘Studio Voice’, another important creative magazine at that time. And so, from there I became an ambassador, in a way, of information from Japan to the world and vice versa. I was working as a journalist for Style.com, I would produce shoots or videos, I would write articles. I became very knowledgeable about Japanese fashion and wrote two books. They are both on the history of Japanese fashion and Japanese street fashion. I am actually going to start a third book on Japanese fashion that is going to be out in a couple of years.

R: How did The_Rlty_Shw start? TG: The print magazine, The_Rlty_Shw, was a giant paper magazine [at first]. We did nine issues, and with each one we would just kind of take the next step with whatever was happening in technology. We created a scan application so that every page was scannable with your phone.

You had content that was connecting the information on these pages to something you might like. Almost like an algorithm, and again, it was constant experimentation. Meanwhile, I started doing a lot of work with the platform ‘Ssence’. I wanted to do something a little more fun, easier to produce. So I created a talk show with my iPhone and a selfie-stick. It was called ‘TTT’ - Tiffany’s Tokyo TV. I filmed all of it and then I worked with an editor. The idea here is to mix Youtube, aesthetics and DIY plus documentary. It is journalistic in the sense that we are with a fashion designer, not talking about clothes, but going into a very personal world. It is a different way of showing fashion, and for me just to experiment with the way people are taking information in. Every phase here is playing with where people’s eyes are. I am not just making a magazine, it is not just an egotistical thing necessarily. I think a lot of times people make publications they want to show their work, and that is part of it of course, but I am mainly interested in just seeing how to get information out there, and how to interact with people.

R: What was the inspiration behind taking Th_Rlty_Shw from a print magazine to an Instagramazine? TG: The whole experiment with ‘Ssence’ and the freedom to create this tv show really inspired me to take the idea of a magazine and go to Instagram, where everybody is. But how do you create nourishing content? Content that will teach someone something, give them something to share that is entertaining at the same time? We do not know what it is going to look like, it is really, really DIY. You go in there just filming as much as possible, and of course having in mind what you want to accomplish, but then you know that you are going to have to shoot a lot, and the idea might have to change afterwards. It’s just a lot of experiments and different ways of documenting stories.

TG: It is really fast actually, depending on if it is an interview or if it is visual. It just takes time to transcribe it, and it takes time to choose the parts that I want to be featured as an interview. And then, depending on how long it is, it can be 30 seconds or almost a minute, but [it] usually [takes] a couple of days.

R: Is this a typical process? From the first idea to the final product? TG: It depends on how fast I go through the material and send it to my editor. But we have a proper editorial schedule and we know what is going to be posted when, and what the content should be. It is very, very organized. It also depends if I am traveling too. For example, I was at Shanghai Fashion Week and I filmed a bunch of stuff. Then, I just had to decide episode one is this, episode two is this, episode three is this. And that one was super quick.

Composite Magazine, Vol.2, No.23, 2001

R: So far you have mentioned a few people that you work with during this process. How big is your team? TG: It is me, and then I have an assistant editor who works part time, and a video editor who also works part time. But right now we are taking a little break because I think it is more effective do it as a project, just because the algorithm [on Instagram] has shifted and I don’t like Facebook as a company, so I am really thinking about how much I want to contribute to their platform. Also, I feel it is just less real and less personal. I would like to consider the aesthetic, almost like doing another [print] issue in a way. I like the idea of a visual break going forward. Something that is going to look very very different.

R: Are you still considering using Instagram or is there any other platform? TG: We are actually developing an app. We just hired two engineers so it’s a really exciting moment actually.

R: Why did you choose Instagram over other platforms? TG: Instagram is a very visual platform.

Visuals are global, whether it is people in China, South America, or in France. There is an emotional impact that you can have with visuals that you cannot have with words. I use words in a very designed way, so that also becomes visual. And of course, I am still saying something, words are very powerful.

Composite Magazine, Vol.2, No.23, 2001

R: It is interesting that you mention the people of China because Instagram is blocked in China.

TG: Of course. And you cannot use Youtube, Google, you cannot use anything. But people use VPNs, and they are very aware of what is going on. And that is another phase, and we are working to develop our account in WeChat and Weibo. I am super interested in China; I am talking with Yoho, which is this Chinese media company that has been around for a while.

They started on print, and now they are moving into an e-commerce site.

R: There are many subcultures in Japanese Fashion often split by small geography regions. For example, you previously mentioned Harajuku, which is a main fashion region that fosters styles such as Ganguro and Decora, which collage accessories onto a body. Do you see that influence into your magazine account, in the way that a lot of accessories are collaged onto a post?

Composite Magazine, Vol.2, No.23, 2001

R: We noticed that the posts in Th_Rlty_Shw go TG: I think Asia in general has an information overload, up every two to three days. How long is the entire whether it be China or Japan. I think there are just mixes of old and new colliding and co-existing, and production process between each post?

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that is fascinating for me. As well as technology – Asia is very very advanced. So I think it is a combination of those things that makes my base of the way I tell stories. Visually, it is much more about the technology in general, and me trying to bring the people into the exact space that I am in, to be able to look around and have as much information as possible to know what we are talking about. I do not think it is necessarily Japanese fashion culture, but rather the technology, the consumption of information and the fashion.

R: Going back to Th_Rlty_Shw, who are your competitors? Do you have any direct competitors?

TG: I guess everybody. The biggest commodity is attention so it is just figuring out how to get attention. But in the end, for me, now it is putting something out there that is innovative and cool and that pushes things in a different direction. It will propel me into new relationships and new types of projects. So I do not really see it as competitive anymore because it is just a platform for sharing ideas more than anything, propositions.

R: How did you come up with the name behind R: There are so many brands right now who are the Th_Rlty_Shw? TG: Well, we started the print coming up with podcasts. How can we interpret version seven years ago, and it was when the phe- the interest for the audio content knowing that nomenon of “watching you” just hit, whether it was fashion is supposed to be a visual field? TG: I think mainstream TV, Youtube or social media in general.

There was an obsession with watching people, filming and documenting things. The idea of who is a professional and who has more influence. Is it Vogue or is it someone on Youtube?

R: You describe yourself as specializing in content initiatives and creations, can you please explain what you mean by this? TG: I would not say I

th_rlty_shw Instagram Account, Zac Posen Lookbook, 2018

am a journalist just because of the way I was trained.

[When I was] working in Japan, I was very multi, from the beginning, writing and creating concepts and photoshoots and everything. I think now, the world evolved in that way, where people are very multi, so I think that content creation is the best way to describe what I do.

I am not necessarily an editor or journalist, I am kind of everything, all mixed into one. And content can be an exhibition, and that becomes something that you photograph with your phone, and it is a very rich platform in a way. Also, the word “content” is mysterious; it explains everything but it explains nothing.

R: How do you finance Th_Rlty_Shw? TG: The

th_rlty_shw Instagram Account, Zac Posen Lookbook, 2018

idea was to test it as a media platform, and we did no sponsored content through that, and I thought it was very important to create something that was authentic because everything else is so branded. Branded content that we did with Zac Posen – Zac and his partner, Christopher, love The_Rlty_Shw they asked us to shoot the pre-Fall 2019 lookbook – was on his platform. We also did something with Slam Jam Socialism very early on but that was also on their platform but it was a great way for us to launch. So I was doing projects on the side and I was able to finance it through. We also did have some finance, it was an experiment for everybody.

But now I want to consider just energy level, output, impact, all these kinds of things.

R: Are there any other jobs that contribute to your income? TG: You know, like anyone who is freelance, you have super busy periods and not-so-busy periods. But now I am quite busy; I’m working with Shiseido, we are doing monthly series, it is going to be posted in a few days. I also worked on the Shiseido pop up with Colette, which was really cool. We created a curated hanatsu baki, which is Shiseido’s magazine retrospective. I have worked with Cartier, and I have, again, another project coming up. I am taking over the Instagram of a brand called Rudi Gernreich, who is one of the most influential fashion designers. There is going to be a lot of information about him soon. I am managing their Instagram account starting next month.

There is a lot going on.

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that podcasts are very suited to today, because we are multitasking and also because we use our eyes so much that is almost a break from being here and being not here. You can do other things while you are listening [to them] so I think it is very, very current. It is great because you can learn things from it. It is going full circle: back to when there were radio programs, so it is very much the same thing. [Podcasts are] a great way to not use your eyes. I think we are so visual now that to have that as a new way of taking information is really cool. And also, this idea of series, there is a great one. It is called S-Town, it was a hit when it just came out. It really just tells a true story, but in a very compelling way. I love the Galliano Margiela podcast. It is fabulous, it is very short. They do it only when there is a new collection out, and you really feel like you are sitting next to [the designer] and it is like a window into a different world. Chanel is still doing podcasts, Chloé has a podcast. It is difficult when a brand does them because how is it not branded content in a way?

Fashion brands [need to] figure out what their territory is, how they can interact with their fans in a way that is not just about a bag. It is a great challenge. I also love the ID podcasts, their wrap-ups of fashion weeks, super well-done and concise. You learn a lot, I really recommend it.

R: How do you see the future of print versus digital? Where do you see Th_Rlty_Shw stand in that future? TG: I think that print functions in a different way than it used to. When do you read it? It is maybe when you are just relaxing, it functions more like a book or a yearbook. Digital is convenient, it is addictive and so I think that we, as journalists, have a responsibility to adapt content in a way that fits the mediums, fits the platforms, fits the phone format. [We need to] figure out what is the best way to convey information and get past clickbait-type pieces because this is where everyone is getting their information. We need to take it much more seriously than we [currently] are. I think people want media that they can trust, that is the most important thing and that is why a lot of people turn to influencers. In a way, it is a trusted voice, and this is more and more important for people. For ‘th_rlty_shw’, I like the idea for it to be more like a startup studio in a way, and focusing more and more on technology and image and how to improve the way people interact with technology and tell stories. So that is kind of where I am going with it.

Fashion Media in ‘Non-Fashion’ Cities: Cape Town, South Africa. Why is there no Vogue Africa? Article by Deandra Green

The world of fashion media is expanding at an exponential rate globally.

The question lies, where was fashion media born and where and how will it continue to grow? Across the globe, fashion as well as fashion media has always been dominated by powerful international players such as North America and Europe. These countries have always set the tone, strategy and rules for the game of fashion media. Just as fashion has had a trickle-down effect in terms of fashion styles, global fashion media has followed the same narrative. Is Cape Town, South Africa going to be a part of the ‘new media?’

And how can we define what ‘new media’ is? There is a subculture of new media emerging that breaks the mold of traditional media narratives. This type of ‘new media’ allows cities such as Cape Town to establish themselves as equal players in the international fashion media arena. The molds are slowly breaking, and the future of media is in sight. According to the book ‘Fashion Media: Past and Present’ by Djurdja Bartlett, Shaun Cole and Agnès Rocamora, “fashion magazines have always been a true reflection of their time.” Bartlett, Djurdja, Shaun Cole and Agnès Rocamora. Fashion Media: Past and Present. London and New York: Bloomsbury: 2013. This is evident in fashion magazines along with other fashion medias that document fashion of the moment. As fashion reflects change, fashion magazines document change just as much as they document moments in time.

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Collage of a world map by Robert de Vaugondy (1783) and photography by Nicolette Contursi & Deandra Green, 2019

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For this essay, I reflected on this particular book, Fashion Media: Past and Present, as a resource to firstly establish what I wanted to write this article on and secondly as a resource to question what I wanted to write this article on. The ideal topic to write about would be what is covered in this book, but I decided it would be more interesting to write about what is lacking in this book.

The book outlines the evolution of fashion media from its early establishment of magazines and film to more recent topics of models, technology and the digitization of the fashion image. The book covers regions such as France, America, Europe and China, with no coverage of emerging economies such as South Africa. The topics covered in this book speak volumes about the significance of fashion media and magazines. However, more significantly, the topics not covered in this book speak volumes as well. As magazines are a reflection of their time, so is this book.

Bartlett’s book explores both the past and present of fashion media. Without trying to state the obvious, of course the book would not cover every ‘past’ and every ‘present’ of fashion media. Fashion media is far too complex to fit into only one book. However, the book certainly reflects a dominant narrative of fashion media set by the central Western countries, such as North America and Europe. With the changing course of post-modern globalization, crossing borders exceeds just trading of goods. Knowledge, exchange of ideas, cultural and social capital are also shared beyond borders, allowing previously less connected countries to receive and create their own domain. This changed the game of fashion media, as media was no longer contained into one section of the world. For the purpose of this essay, I would like to use Vogue magazine as an illustrative example of a fashion media platform and empire that spread across borders but only certain borders. Vogue magazine extended to other fashion territories beyond North America where it had been established. Though, it only extended to other countries of the world that were establishing strong fashion identities for themselves both socially and economically.

Vogue magazine was established in the United States in 1892, where it was originally published as a weekly magazine before becoming a monthly publication. The first international Vogue was established in Britain in 1916 then launched in France as Vogue Paris in 1920.

Why would a magazine such as Vogue not extend to a country such as South Africa? What prohibited

the establishment of Vogue magazine in Cape Town, South Africa – a country and city that held as much potential as any other? Was it politics?

Economics? Social structures? Cultural structures?

Historical legacy? Or a combination of these things.

The historical contributions as to why Vogue magazine was never established in a country such as South Africa is highly contested. It could be attributed to many factors such a political instability or social and cultural inequality evident during the days of Apartheid that began in the country in 1948. During this period, legislation instructed that press in all its formats – news and fashion – would be restricted. Essentially a consequence of oppression and political propaganda. Major media houses that were licensed to publish local versions of international magazines such as Cosmopolitan and ELLE magazine were only introduced into the country towards the end of the Apartheid era.

However, in recent years there has been speculation as to whether there would ever be a Vogue Africa. This proposition can be attributed to British model Naomi Campbell who is also a contributing editor at British Vogue, whom put forth the idea of having a Vogue Africa. The proposition was put forth to give designers of the African region a platform equal to that of international magazines and media discourses.

As a South African citizen, it is interesting to

investigate the motivations and reasons why the Vogue empire has never set foot into the African region. Published in August 2018, the Forbes article ‘Vogue’s Fashion Magazine Empire Still Leaving Out Africa’ written by Kori Hale, a contributing editor and the CEO of CultureBanx – a company that redefines business news for minorities, touched upon this issue.

Hale hypothesized that reasons may include the assumption that African countries and cities, including Cape Town, South Africa, do not have “adequate luxury markets.” Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2018/08/02/ vogues-fashion-magazine-empire-still-leaving-out-africa/ Another motivation could be attributed to the lack of appropriate manpower and infrastructure to support such a media empire such as Vogue. These are indeed relevant assumptions shining light on what could be considered as somewhat false narratives and motivations. Ibid. Regardless of whether these accusations have any truth to them is up for debate. Nevertheless, cities such as Cape Town have the potential for major experimental growth, whether it is in the direction of Vogue Africa or not.

Bartlett, Djurdja, Shaun Cole and Agnès Rocamora.

Fashion Media: Past and Present, 2013

In the media landscape of South Africa, magazines such as Cosmopolitan South Africa are leading the way in fashion narratives and innovation. Some may argue that magazines such as Cosmopolitan do not carry the same stature and applause as Vogue. Regardless,

magazines such as Cosmopolitan are dominating the South African fashion and media landscape with archives that will one day contribute to the global knowledge of fashion evolution. Archives

that will be just as valuable as those of Vogue, archives that capture the national, social and cultural fashion identity of an incredible and courageous country and archives that in the right hands, will be extremely powerful and influential one day. The Fashion Director of Cosmopolitan South Africa, Cleo Marcopoulos, spoke to the narrative of national identity of fashion media in a digital interview conducted in February 2019.

The fashion director discussed South Africa’s unique fashion identity affirming that it is “unique because no country is more diverse than ours, which makes our fashion diverse.” The Cosmopolitan South Africa’s Fashion Assistant, Amber Barker, supports this notion suggested by Marcopoulos where she attributes the difference of South African media to its international counterparts defined as “localization of the magazine to the African culture.” Clearly, national identity is at the forefront of content creation, as it should be.

American magazines put American culture at the forefront of their content, French magazines do the same as do British magazines. Hence, the ‘trickle-down’ effect, as coined by Economist Thorstein Veblen, seems to have historically infiltrated into countries that have less economic backing, into countries that have needed to follow international agendas in order to remain relevant. African culture is at the forefront of content

Stuart Cloete, People and Ideas: The Voice of Africa, 1940, Vogue Archives

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Cosmopolitan Magazine South Africa, #SayYesToLoveIssue, February 2018

Cosmopolitan Magazine South Africa, #COSMOInfluencerIssue, March 2019

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creation but international agendas are still a strong In the same way that magazine editorial and fashion force as discussed later in this article. However, this teams have cemented and historicized fashion mois historically speaking of course. In this sense, the ments and magazines around the globe, South Africa digital has played a major role in the parting of should fit into this new post-modern sphere. When ways between countries such as South Africa to Cosmopolitan South Africa published the first transgentheir dominant fashion media internationals. der woman cover star on the cover of their February 2018 issue, South Africa made it’s mark. It was the first In an article published on Forbes online, the writer transgender women star to cover a Cosmopolitan magshowcases published summaries of the market potential azine globally. The transgender woman is Laverne Cox, in African countries and cities such as Cape Town. The American actress of the hit TV series Orange is the writer suggests that as Africa is such a large continent New Black. This made history for the magazine, putting it would seem impossible to have a ‘Vogue Africa’ that Cosmopolitan South Africa at the forefront of revoluwould summarize the entire fashion landscape of 54 tionizing what beauty means to fashion magazines and countries in Africa. Regardless of this, the writer makes media. This shows that cities such as Cape Town valid points as to why African cities, including Cape have their finger on the pulse too and do not only Town, have just as much fashion media potential as any take international queues. other growing city in the world. In all the major cities in Africa, mainly Cape Town, Johannesburg, Cairo and In a similar way, just recently Cosmopolitan South Lagos who all have fashion weeks of their own that at- Africa has just launched their March 2019 cover with tract major global media attention. However, it seems the first ever “selfie cover.” The cover included three that this media attention may not be enough to sustain major South African Youtube stars and influencers the long-term success of these fashion designers who who shot the cover themselves with a self-timer “selfie” showcase their work during these fashion weeks. In the camera. If “fashion magazines have always been a true same article, it states that CultureBanx found that these reflection of their time” as stated in the book Fashion African designers are unable to sustain their success Media: Past and Present, then this most certainly is from fashion weeks due to the fact that there are no ma- just that. Yet again, the magazine has made history by jor publication titles supporting them on a global scale. being the first magazine with a ‘Selfie-cover’ in global history. We may not know the future life-span of the A potential Vogue Africa would be a true re- ‘fashion influencer’ however, the fashion influencer has flection of the ‘trickle-down’ effect. Whereby, small- certainly revolutionized the fashion media landscape er and less ‘powerful’ cities in fashion media, such as in more ways than one. Thus, this deserves a cover Cape Town, are influenced by dominant fashion cities whether we criticize it or praise it. The South African such as London, New York, Milan and Paris whereby the media landscape, as evident with Cosmopolitan magnarrative and media strategies of magazines is trick- azine, is forming part of this ‘new media’ discourse led-down to inform the content of the local publication. whereby the molds are breaking. As evident from the The ‘trickle-down’ theory was termed by the economist interview with the Cosmopolitan South Africa’s magand sociologist Thorstein Veblen. This theory highlights azine fashion director and fashion assistant, South the hierarchy that exists in fashion and has existed in African media has the potential to change the global fashion for centuries. While this theory was related to landscape of fashion media. When asked what sets class and imitation in society, the same form of dom- apart South African media to media in the United ination can be recognized in the realm of magazines. States and Europe, Marcopoulos stated that “we are It is no secret that magazines such as Cosmopolitan more representative, and the world is finally catchSouth Africa look to the fashion capitals of the world to ing up.” As part of the ‘new media’ landscape, South build up content, but in a very specific way. “We defi- African media is ensuring that they are staying ahead nitely follow the international events and trends and of the game and anticipating what may come next. then curate it to suit our local reader,” states the South African Fashion Director Cleo Marcopoulos when asked about international versus local inspiration for content.

Following international trends and events seems to be inevitable for a city such as Cape Town, even when creating local content. “Yes, of course we follow international trends” states Barker, Cosmopolitan’s Fashion Assistant. On the other hand, media players in South Africa are more and more connected than ever before with the influence of the digital. Will this be the key component that will make international fashion media fair play? “Africa is where it is all happening, I truly believe that Cosmopolitan South Africa is making a major transformation from publishing to digital, just like a dark horse – watch this space,” concludes Barker.

References: Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2018/08/02/vogues-fashion-magazine-empire-still-leaving-out-africa/ | Bartlett, Djurdja, Shaun Cole and Agnès Rocamora. Fashion Media: Past and Present. London and New York: Bloomsbury: 2013. | Channel 24. https://www.channel24. co.za/Gossip/News/cosmopolitan-south-africa-makes-history-with-laverne-cox-cover-20180123 | In an Interview with Cosmopolitan SA Fashion Editor Cleo Marcopoulos and Fashion Assistant Amber Barker. Interview conducted on 22 February 2019.

Regard(s) Issue 002 April 2019 This magazine was printed

by Newspaper Club in London in the quantity of 100 copies in collaboration with Parsons Paris Masters of Fashion Studies Class of 2020