Style Mags C/D

i saw one in DC called Fader which i had never seen before.

i like them, i don't buy them very often though. i like how there are lots of adverts. i like adverts. i like the way that the content and the adverts blur so sometimes you cant remember which is which.

i take them as seriously or not as anything else really. perhaps people who do not like them are looking for the wrong thing, perhaps people who do like them are looking for the wrong thing.

i would also buy magazines about lighthouses

also in dc i saw a magazine called 'golf for women'. i would not buy this though.

style mags cover music better than music mags. but then i do not buy music mags, unless you count the wire, which isnt really a music mag either

i do not know why i have written this post in a stilted manner, that feels different than normal

I paid £60 for my last suit, Tom, do you think I read style mags? (Sorry Suzy.)

i like pictures

-I write for them.
-They give me money for articles and an excuse to hassle PRs for FREE STUFF and INVITES.
-n/a
-with a pinch of salt.
-yes, if only in terms of thinking that everyone involved has 'superior attitude' and dissing them for it. no, everyone's fond of saying it's no cure for cancer.
-definitely, because style does have substance
-no. where's the moody fashion shoots?

Shit Martin, you paid £60? v.i.c.t.i.m...;-p

ilx is not one, because there arent enough pictures. a style mag needs to be primarily visual for me. for some this is grounds for criticism, this i do not understand

is fader well know? i had never seen it before?

why is everyone still obsessed with larry tee?

Unless 'Time Out' counts I don't buy any now.
I used to read (yes, actually read) 'Arena' when it first came out in the mid-80's. Even the first few 'FHM' were half decent. They had sensible blokes on the cover as opposed to Kelly Brook etc (tits, tits, tits -- how often are naked blokes on the cover of 'Marie Claire'?) and featured well written articles and good fashion shoots. Lowest common denominator shite now. Thanks 'Loaded'.
Bought 'Sky' when it first started (well, I was a teenager). Went through a 'Face'/'i-D'/'Blitz'(r.i.p) phase as well.
And 'WallPaper'.
And I'm still the only straight man I know who collected 'Elle Dec'.

- Yes, I used to read them (even WallPaper' had more than just Gucci ads when it started. Soon found myself flicking through in 5 mins before stacking neatly on the shelf).

- I had/have a general interest in art & design. I like fashion but I don't think it's the most important thing in the world. If I have a money I shop, if not .. bothered.

- I don't take them very seriously at all. I don't read any of them now. Waste of money. Grown out of being concerned with what my peers think is cool.

- I know quite a few 'Face'/'i-D' readers are tedious bores, far too concerned with the size of the turnups on their selvage jeans and the length of their ironic mullets. People who write them? Don't know/care. Maybe they're like Piers Morgan editing The Mirror. He's hardly typical of the core readership, is he? Jobs a job.

- 'style'/'seriousness'? Yeah, they can mix. Good/bad? Dunno. Depends on the execution. Serious doesn't have to be dull and Stylish doesn't have to be frivolous.

- ILX? No way.

But I only just got here so what do I know...?

(btw -- who's Larry Tee??)

I read them for moral guidance exclusively.

i like them, but mostly because i like looking at the layouts and design, and the clothes are cool sometimes too. but i don't take them seriously.

and yeah, ilx doesn't have enough pictures or adverts to be a style mag.

Sometimes if they have lots of pictures I buy them and use them in collages. But, I usally just get collage material from Vogue.

I'm not very stylish, I get my clothes from TK Maxx and I've never been part of any scene and don't know that many people.

great questions, Tom.

- do you read them?

yes. I like sleazenation and nylon currently and but will also look at whatever I can get my hands on, from mainstream fashion magazines to japanese "cutie" mag. I have not purchased a magazine in months, except a used copy of cutie. I look at them at the bookstore or while waiting in stores and stuff.

I used to read men's mags like Esquire out of curiousity but I find "lad mags" dull. Also, I don't have time to read all of them.

I used to read *wallpaper and *surface pretty regularly but I've become bored with them.

I've seen a few other lifestyle magazines like Filter and there was one I saw once called "What the People Want" or "Power to the People" or something that was a Montreal-NY hybrid. It was obnoxious but not offensive in teh specific way that's being discussed on the other thread.

medium-sized me used to read the FACE pretty often.

- if so what do you get out of them?

Mainly I look at the pictures of clothes and fashion.

by "clothes," I mean I like the candid photos showing what people are wearing when they're out, to see what people are wearing in different places around the world, how they adapt ideas from fashion so they are wearable in life, or how they invent their own original looks. I like seeing what different people look like in different places. I always liked the little photos in Select and Vox and Mixmag that had snapshots of folks and brief qs and as.

By "fashion" I mean I regard what clothing designers do as an art form that I like to follow like any other. I like the coverage of runway shows. Fashion ediorial picture spreads are okay to see what designers are doing what, but I feel I get a better idea of the designer's concept from the advertising. I like the visuals in editorials okay -- sometimes they do interesting things with combining the clothes with locations and makeup, but I usually find the ads more interesting. I find the Diesel campaigns more exciting than most editorial.

Some of the fashion photography is really nice. A lot of the lifestyle magazines like sleazenation include coverage of other media like painting and photography so I like that too. Although I love art, I don't read many art world magazines anymore.

- how seriously do you take them?

I look at them because I'm interested but I guess I don't really judge them much. I could spend years rewriting various dissertations on the relationship of created object to consumer, the degress to which the object is opaque or transparent, its semiotics and exchange value versus use value and hundreds of other aspects but I won't. I think the main thing is I don't interpret the contents literally or as commands, but I do enjoy watching the development of designers and couture houses through time, to see what disctinctive charasteristics they retain or new interpretations of their identities.

Fashion is similar to music, I think, in that the cultural consumer appreciates the classics but craves something new constantly so fashion must refresh itself to survive. With respect to my own clothing I guess I like to pick out the ideas that interest me and adapt them if I like them.

- do you think other people take them more seriously than you?

If by this you mean "literally," than yes. If by this you mean whether people care about fashion as much, no. And there's nothing wrong with either of those.

do you think the people who write them do?

It seems uncontrovertible that they do; it's their living.

- do you think 'style' and 'seriousness' can mix?

I take clothing seriously but your quotation marks make me feel like I'm not in the know of something so I can't answer the question.

if not do you think that's a good or bad thing?

I'm not here to judge. It's important for clothes to keep people warm and whatever people want to do with them otherwise is ok with me.

- is ILX one?

no.

- if not why not?

It's a group of internet message boards not available outside the computer for me to page through. Too small a photo:words ratio. There is no apparent, deliberate, creative intention, collaborative or otherwise. Ilx is rich in transparent communciative qualities but poor in opaque. fixed creative properties in comparison to printed media. But I Love ILx, of course!

DUD! aren't there enough ads in the world already?

Sorry about the scare quotes Felicity they were meant to indicate my nervousness with the categories not intimidate anyone else!

excellent point angela. I agree that advertising can be one of the uglier components of the built environment. However, if advertising is a necessary evil ( and I think it's good for people to question that premise, as you did), I prefer the sincerity of traditional advertising to the border regions where the pr industry operates.

oh that's okay Tom, no need to apologize, I just wasn't sure if I was answering your intended questions, which are all very interesting, I think.

My answers then:

- do you read them?

No. Not out of any hostility but just because I'm not all that interested in/confident with clothes. I have bought the Face occasionally, and I used to flick through Dazed&Confused when I worked in the shop, and I bought Deluxe every issue of its brief run. If one has a pretty cover I'll look through it in a newsie. I think they're a good thing but not for me.

- how seriously do you take them?

I don't really. I used to be one of those people Suzy mentions who thought they were The Enemy but since I started doing a website I realised that it's fun to have an audience and be playful with them so I assume thats what most stylemag people are doing.

- do you think other people take them more seriously than you?

Yes maybe. I think there are people who take fashion seriously and really enjoy it as a cultural form. And then I think there are people who take being cool very seriously and try to be. And I think there are also people who want to be in these magazines and try hard to be and they take style mags seriously when they're not in them.

- do you think the people who write them do?

Well yes as in "it's their job" but in most jobs I've had the most clued-in people have been the ones who take it least seriously while still doing it well. So no I'd hope not.

- do you think 'style' and 'seriousness' can mix? if not do you think that's a good or bad thing?

Maybe I should have used 'substance' not 'seriousness'. Yes I think they can but I think it's bad to lead people to expect they should - substantial things need not look good or be fashionable; stylish things need have no substantial point.

- is ILX one?

I threw this in as a joke but now I think about it my answer is 'sort of'. Just like ILM is in a way my ideal music mag - huge, wide-ranging, written by its readers, always inconclusive - ILE is what I would want a 'style mag' to be (and it does have pictures! When Mark S is posting anyway), not telling you or itself what's cool or what isn't, never agreeing, but suggesting the fun to be had by asking the questions. The lack of visible direction is a totally good thing. On the other hand that also describes my 'ideal Reader's Digest' so whatever.

hey Tom, now that you've articulated an intention, I can change my last answer. :)

< / former art historian self-mockery >

My girlfriend reads them for the pictures which she cuts saves and uses for inspiration for her paintings which are teriffic.

They make me feel too inferior to read. Gal mags which write about fashion (Cosmo, Vogue, etc.) feel much more welcoming.

-yes about once a month
-lovely pictures, and advice completely inapplicable to my current life
-reading more than one or two a month gets really dull
-not very
-doubt it, and probably
-yes
-no, lack of pictures

three yr update. what's the current state of play re: style mags? what do the lovely people of ilx think are the best current ones? are they bleeding money from all openings like most print media? how on earth do they survive?!

This might not be the right thread to ask, but does anyone know the names of any old 50s/60s interior design and architecture style magazines? It'd be great if anyone knows where I can buy these from.

Are Jockey Slut and Sleazenation still going?

nope, and nope.