wwwwelcome back W

july W! fashion content! for real! no jokes! the bikini ready mag profiles 12 up and coming (well, up and coming for the pages of W, cushnie & ochs and the lake and stars have been around just not hyper-exploded like an alexander wang) and has a comically written article about gloria vanderbilt's erotic mini-novel (did you know, she is anderson coopers mom? you do now) also, all of the ads being pulled makes for a light, improved read that relies on content-shock!-and not 40milli make up ads. kudoos W.

dream glossy aggregation

With the unfair unveiling of the bi-annual LOVE in the UK, I am spurred to (a) cry and beat my fists in vain (b) pout and kick around my boring old american mags (c) petition for someone in the UK to send me a copy and dream of my very own magazine mini shop. Obvs it would include LOVE...and POP...and FACE....PURPLE...Paris Vogue...Phantom Paris Teen Vogue...UK Elle...ID...AnOther; maybe even a cardboard cut out of Katie Grand for aesthetics. HRM! all mags from off yonder. Why could this desire be? Maybe because, among other casualties of the economic fuck up, american magazines and american print individuality are suffering leaving huge swaths of culturally attuned social groups with out print diaries that both speak to and with them. Magazines are a specialized form of media, they have the ability to be as finite as possible, which act as and reflect a cultural barometer and encouraging the fissure and generation of ideas. A large swath of people will still, like myself, and those in the 'creative arts', seek out tangible glossy full bleed papers, but they will have to source them in other locations that are not exactly speaking directly to the end viewer. Additionally, seemingly without fail...well often inevitably WITH fail... groups of design minded youth imagine and spread 'zines through out the sub cultural channels. Idealistically, we would mash up corporate conglomerates with trend forward youth zin-ies and a specific, driven, consumable iteration of culture would be available to feed brains every where. Though, the underlying values of the two parties are in such opposition that a group meeting that did not result in blood shed would be a miracle of biblical proportions. Likely, or hopefully, with increased globalization we will have global iterations of our mainstay magazines that will then have enough money to subsidize 'continental' specific editions filtering into increasingly more unique area of interest. Magazine distribution channels mimicking early early newspaper propagation..except with better quality of paper and foxier moddles. I mean look, we even have our own modern (critiques of) yellow journalism! Until then, I'll just have to re-read and rely on local museums aggregating super publications on my behalf.
Jez does a great take on the recent upswing in Katie Grand interviews and the love over LOVE. Including some choice quotes from Grand herself, "‘‘I think as an editor you have a responsibility to do an interesting, commercial magazine that people want to look at. We need a readership as well as advertisers,"...''with the economy as it is, I wanted to do something that was a reality check on many levels.''" word up kitties.

there is nothing sadder than shopping in your own closet

Lots of lady mags have been touting the super idea of shopping in your own closet. Below my friend and sister discuss this depressing thought. I'm red, she is blue.
click to enlarge

So there you have it; shopping in your own closet is sad and our mother is cray-cray. Also sad: clothing swaps, but that is an entirely different animal.

big earrings! neutrals! and PANTS!: all that is hot for S/S 09

Harper's Bazaar, one of the last American fash mags that I will routinely read has an out of this world innovative fashion run down for S/S 09. You, dear consumers, when not 'shopping' in your own closet should be thinking about all the great outfits you will be rockin' in the coming months that you can fashion together from such 'it' pieces as:
-big earrings! H.Bazaar is sure you haven't thrown yours out from when big earrings were cool even though they suspect you have been demode and wearing them all along.
-shorts! You also probably have these lying around along with, a jacket, a white shirt, or even a cardigan!
Though, my favorite is their revelation that PANTS ARE SO IN! Long pants! Short pants! Anything that covers your lower half and separates your legs! You've got to have some of these! See, we are keeping your wardrobe current and being fiscal friendly!
In all seriousness, the issue is ukranian-model-slim due to the somewhat unnerving absense of advertisements. So, I can't hate for them trying to drum up an increase in readership by offering fashion bon mots for the 'rest of us'. Spring fashion in magazines always has had a repetative, cyclical, bent; one season it's nautical, the next it's safari, the next its some combination; whether it be travelling african pirate or coastal multi-culti set on a boat or beach. Never fear though, Harper's Bazaar does have some suggestions for those lucky enough to change wardrobes so frequently that they banish such items as pants from their closets to ensure they are following the latest fashion tenants to the letter. Namely, if you happen to be lacking cardigans for spring, Marni and Burberry make nice ones. Also, dear section of still moneyed readers, no need to buy a new bag, just use one of your old Chanel 2.55s or Hermes totes, you can even reach for that 'vintage' Balenciaga Le Dix. If you dare. Time's are tough, but now is the best time to reach reader's through sartorial escapism in the upper tiers of the fashion mags. If I want to find cheap, cute cardigans; I'll go to Jcrew. If I want pure nonsense of the outfit variety; I go to the glossy glossy pages of upper end and forward fashion mags. I am not saying they should tout the best hotel to stay in on your yearly sojourn to St. Lucia, but I do feel that keeping an element of fantasy in fashion is what will be the real hottest trend for the coming seasons.

Elle Yeah!

By now I have underlined my growing distaste for W multi-fold along with other general women's mag nonsense and trivia. Although, do not fret, you know what is getting pretty fresh? American Elle. British and French Elle have always had it on lock, but now lady liberty's version is slinkin' around lookin fly and being a good read. I nabbed some copies from the library down the block, intending to distractedly leaf through them during bubble baths or whilst wrapped in a fluffy robe. Well, I haven't had a bubble bath since I was 8 and found myself ignoring other pressing issues, like feeding the cat, to genuinely read the glossy tomes. They've got fashion! and beauty! and food! and, best of all, BOOKS! They've got it all, from Margiela to Curry rice crispy recipies to tales about how people should just chill the fuck out. Fluffy book suggestions and snarky book suggestions; I'm a sucker for literacy. Nonsense jewels and every day jewels. Deconstruction of runway looks and none of that 'how to dress your shape' shit. No condescending stories about the agony of having to miss a vay-cay in Mustique because it would gauche considering the economic state of our states. I may or may not have ripped a few pages from the loaned leaves; the same cannot be said for the Vogue and Harper's Bazaar issues I also dragged home. Perhaps Elle has always been this good and I am an idiot for not realizing it's beauty sooner, if so, I promise to treat you right, and even buy my own issues as opposed to mangling the kind copies offered by library boyfriend.

conglomerate cop-out

Looks like with Conde Nast folding some of its papers and consolidating others, W -the magazine I formerly loved in the flush of youth, now I'm getting annoyed with it's bad habits in old age- is fast becoming a catchall for all the offal the other doomed diaries leave behind. To back track to the upsets at the Conde Bldg. here is a run down of their current troubles: Portfolio has less issues a year, Men's Vogue is being folded into Reg. Vogue (take that Sean Avery!), Rumors of Anna Wintour leaving as EIC of Vogue only to be succeeded by none other than CARINE ROITFELD (I fucking hope!) AND! NO HOLIDAY PARTY!
Back to W, seriously, it's getting old. It's no better than American Vogue anymore. Celebrities on every cover for at least the past 6 months, my hands down favorite being Angelina Jolie on the cover of the ART ISSUE. Even my brainy, art imbibed, sig other-who is usually impervious to women's magazines-scoffed and sighed when he saw the nonsense they were peddling in that particular issue.
This issue, December, which I have yet to even get all the way through because, at my age, I am NOT interested in some tv-drama character-ess pouting through the pages because she, apparently, with being conventionally pretty and fairly tall, is a model now, but you know, she has a career too, like, doing stuff.
Not to be out-shone by the clever cover lines and cover choice, you also get what seems like A MILLION FUCKING PAGES OF WATCHES. Ranging from a modest $84,000 (Chanel) to an aspirational-or asphyxiational depending on who you ask- $800,000 (De Beers). Seriously, watches, as an item, are for the poor; for people who need to know what time it is. To have a watch that costs more than a NYC condo is ludicrous. If you are that rich you have no use for the construct of time; you can pay someone to wear your bedazzled time piece(as fancy watches are called) and tell you the time in the native tongue of whichever far flung locale you are currently detoxing in. To top it off, the watches themselves aren't even all that great to look at! They are so adorned that even a rapping guest on Cribs would find the piece a little outre.
Oh, but it's not over, you then are treated to a food article that I can sum up in 10 words: Who is a thin, pretentious, glutton? So sorry, not you.
A stimulating two pages of "Celebrities are rich, thin, eat astronomically expensive and rare food, but not pedestrian items like spinach-artichoke dip. I would rather die, or give up the treat that is cold bone marrow, than eat that slop. Though, ramen noodles are cool because they are kitschy. Oh, exercise 2 hour a day and maybe you wouldn't be such a poor, fat-ass, dear reader. P.s. you're POOOORRRRRRRRRR and uncultured! lol"
W is becoming that girl in middle school that thinks she is so cool because she has her mom's hand-me-down Coach bag and is totally getting a Beemer for her 15th birthday even though she doesn't get her license for another year (yeah, she failed 1st grade, but that's because the teacher didn't see her true genius). She is the leader of the popular girls despite the fact she has a dog-face and frizzy hair; the other kids probably only like her because she has a trampoline and her parent's let her read Cosmo and watch Cinemax.
In a nutshell, or a $3000 Tumi hat box, W, you've got to go. We really can't do this anymore, pack your monogrammed luggage, take those Cheetos you are hiding behind the water heater and get out of my house. I don't want to see you anymore, you need an intervention, you're out of control, and I just don't love you enough anymore to call and get you on the show. Sorry, it's not me, it's you.

quelle surprise! le recession!

French Elle, known for being somewhat more accessable than Vogue Paris, but less accessable than US Elle, has a micro article on wardrobe adapting for the recession. Granted, it was sandwiched between a wheel-barrow-full of 'price upon request' items, but still contained 'tips' that US Yanks know and love. Such bon mots as, 'repair old clothes', 'share items with friends', 'buy quality, not quantity', and the cold war favorite, 'jazz up old outfits with crispy new on-trend accessories' (my words, not theirs, clearly.) There, however, were no fun tips on dumpster diving or stealing from your loved one's closets and just beltin' it to you new lean depression era bod. Considering, Europe is no where near the apocalyptic situation that is the US economy, (hey! the Dow jumped 5000 points wednesday. woop woop!), it seems odd that such a fashion-centric country would offer any amount of glossy pages to 'cutting back'. Though, as someone who has been documented several times over as willingly choosing style over sustenance; cool over comfort, I want to see MacGuyver-y articles on stealing cable, using so many coupons you end up getting paid to buy groceries, and listings of all galleries that are giving free booze and hors d'oeurves. Recession be damned, I still have needs! French Elle needs to step it up.

kittttiez

Conversely to W, this months FLAUNT is pretty righteous. The cover(above) is done by Hisham Bharoocha, artist, RISD grad, former member of Lightning Bolt and Black Dice, and pretty much an all around enviable dude (see this on point Vice interview esplaining this). The entire thing is devoted to aural pleasures, including a fashion piece where looks are illustrated and paired with songs, ex illustration of a designer outfit which exemplifies part of an Ariel Pink song. On top of all of this, a thoughtful look at the life of Prince. Really, I am not asking much from printed media, just for it to tell me more about things I am interested and maybe show me some new tricks. Flaunt, for sure, consistently delivers.

W-tf

W, wtf. This month's issue is about some shit: blah blah blah..anne hathaway..blah blah blah..dakota fanning..blah blah blah...ralph rucci. Which is well and good for a fashion/culture magazine. It is only natural that they would profile a few iconic, emerging, notable figures that would hold some relevance to their audience. However, what is puzzling and vaguely offensive is the way their writer's handle the diction of their interviews. In the editor's forward regarding Anne Hathaway, there is not only gratuitous mention of Mlle. Hathaway's disastrous love life (she essentially was conned by some guido who was also conning everyone else), but in the same breath of prose they paint her as a bratty naif AND manage to highlight the erratic nature of male actors that have little to nothing to do with Hathaway, but are featured with interview later in the issue. Then, close their run-down of 'emotional disorders of the rich and famous' with "a note to Hathaway: he's single".
In the Ralph Rucci article, they manage to make the designer seem at times anti-current, neurotic, self-effacing, and subversively ego maniacal. Also, they take a stab at Margiela (oh NO you didddnnttttttt chica) who is very anti-publicity -ex: corresponds in to his rare interviews via fax and is never photographed- by calling his activities 'schtick' while using his product a few pages later in an accessories report.
Despite my general, neutrality or minor-distaste for the featured figures in this month's W, I cannot get over how thickly smarmy their coverage of these individuals comes across to the reader. It is as though there is a recurring subtext of, 'these people are totally NOT cool but we felt like doing a good deed and deigning to let them into our aspirational pages, but fyi we still think they are L-O-S-ERS'. Even though W, is more of an industry magazine than Cosmo, and often is elitist they really shouldn't make reading through the lines so easy that, even hung-over at 8am on a Sunday, I can be creeped out by their actions.

"vintage" balenciaga

Fashionista had a post about Balenciaga mag-ads from 2000 and today. I am kind of partial to the 2000. There is wear-ability, directness, accessibility with out losing the air of luxury. I still appreciate the molded forms from ss08 and the de-constructed ease of fw08 and surely I will find beauty in the offerings for ss09. My point lies in that these ads are shown, most often, in up-market women's magazines, vogue, W, harper's bazaar, et al which, especially in American, you cannot throw a Chloe bag at the editorial section without landing on a page that is entirely recreating a Balenciaga runway look. So, why rehash the same look for the ads? The consumer has seen, most likely, the $3000 dress on the runway, in the editorial, and now must see the same thing posed against ad for horse-face's newest vomitous fragrance. Ads are inherently for sellin' and I appreciate the ads that make that a possibility for the consumer. The 2000 ad below and it is kind of refreshing to see two gorgeous people, a dog tee shirt, and a horse without the haughtiness that luxury ads can often impart.

Harper's Bazaar: unlikely Gap enthusiast

Harper's Bazaar the magazine who's official motto should be 'price upon request' is pushing Gap HARD this fall. I love Gap, I really do. What other 10yr old saves their chore money to buy gapkids straight leg jeans and jelly sandals? Have I bought anything at Gap recently? No, however that will change this fall with the new fw08 reworked collections. But I can't help, but be wary when HB has all 8 pages of the Gap fall ad-campaign, complete with Julia Restoin-Roitfeld-as in CARINE Roitfeld's baby-as in Editrix of Paris Vogue Roitfeld. Not to mention the mag prominently displaying a Gap woven top in the 'Newest Hottest Latest' picture rundown. Also, noting the Collette pop-up store that will be outside of the Gap Flagship til Oct. 5th in the NewHotLate news rundown. AND verbally propping Gap in the editorial titled, "New Buys You'll Love Forever" which is most odd as it is an editorial that aims to hand-hold the reader as she swipes her AMEX black for the new Hermes messenger bag because 'its an update on a classic! its cool! you'll have it forever! think of the money you'll save on not buying shitty bags like Coach or Tods!" (buy that 900$ Stella McCartney blazer instead of that ratty 300$ jcrew one! It's good for you!) All of this pressure only 309 pages into the 620+ pages that is the fall fashion tome. I am not hating on Gap's PR for getting choice spots in a magazine that doesn't exactly speak to their current consumer as much as who they want their consumer to be; it's good to grow. Though I do find fault with (a) the instances of Gaps brand placement being so close together and (b) that it appears that PR is not confident that the designs can sell themselves. Seriously, 148$ for a heather gray flannel puff coat that is slimming and chic!? I am fucking there!! I want Gap to rise again and bring accessible American sportswear in the face of a fast fashion pool being over-run with forever 21s and their ilk, but I can't help but feel like pushing something so hard is jinxing it.