The Mystery

I rarely read magazines any more, or look at them. When I do I'm usually disappointed - especially if I paid for them. There is nothing new to magazines so I say to hell with them if they can't stay relevant. These vintage (ok, kate moss not so vintage, but still an intriguing cover) covers are works of art in and of themselves which I think make them far more valuable than any Vogue cover I can remember in the past five years (except maybe that Nicole Kidman one by Irving Penn, but that was 2004). Can we please have fewer headlines and more thoughtful magazine covers? Why the hell not? I'm thinking a lot about when I first started caring about fashion and magazines, about my long lost stash of Harper's Bazaar from the 1990s (Liz Tilberis/Fabien Baron era), and the very first W Magazine I got in the mail - November 1992 with the circus spread (where can I find this?? Despair!)

Let's bring more creativity to the art of the magazine cover and fewer celebrities! No celebrities! How about no models too? What about art and other things that are visual and beautiful that can make fashion exciting again, give it dimensions beyond the market place, the label, and the bloody boring size issue!! Let's liberate the fashion magazine from it's overstuffed seriousness and bring some humor, light, art, and inspiration back to the magazine. Please!

There are things that women will always want - to feel beautiful, to be successful, strong, and independent. But guess what? No one who is in any way self-respecting and over the age of 18 reads magazines for advice, in all seriousness. Sure, how to put eyeshadow on or what to wear with that new trouser shape, fine. But what will sell the magazines is not headline after headline being shoved down our throats but simple, beautiful, confident covers that exude what we ourselves want to exude: intelligence and beauty. I do not feel either of these things when I read Vogue, of late. Or any magazine for that matter. I do feel that way and get inspired when I look at Garance Dore's blog, or sometimes The Sartorialist, or Tommy Ton's fun pictures. Why can't print hold onto even a thread of that excitement? It's not because they come out once a month versus blogs that can be updated every five minutes, no no no. Magazines should be something to cherish and hold on to - like these vintage Vogues and my old Ws and 90s Bazaars. It's not about fashion, it's about style. And magazines are not about style any more. They must find a way to marry the bottom line with what is at the heart of women who share this love of art and fashion. And that is something timeless.


Don't you just want to read these issues and see what they are all about? I certainly do. Do I want to read about Giselle's latest baby and her celery diet? Heeeeeeeeeeelllll no. (Celeries! They're just like us!)