Crochet, Fashion, Magazines
The photo on the homepage of fashion designer Michael Kors's website features a crocheted cashmere cardigan. The photo is used in ads in fashion mags this season, and I smile every time I see it.
Speaking of fashion mags. I've kept no secret about my love of Teen Vogue. It's the whole package, kids. Pretty pictures, good writing, a clear editorial scope. It addresses teens as intelligent people, and it skips the flaky, flighty, likeohmygod quiz crap of most other teen mags. I do flip through big-girl Vogue every so often, but I admit I don't read it cover-to-cover like I do the teen version. Maybe it's because the qualities I find appealing to a teen audience I react cynically to for myself. Really, I don't care a bit about high society, and there are a million things I'd rather do than read about who's who at gala events and resort outings. They do often run great feature articles, though. Anyway.
In the last few weeks I've decided to branch out and pick up some new reads (to me). I started with Seventeen (beware the assault of ads when you click), thinking I should expand beyond Teen Vogue. Dude. The last time I read Seventeen I was about fourteen. It was okay until I got about halfway through it. Then I was awash with flaky, flighty, likeohmygod crap and I couldn't go on. Yes, I understand that as one of the few teen magazines not planning to go out of print in coming months, Seventeen must have quite a readership. Which means that as consumers, not all teens seem to want what Teen Vogue gives them (or they want both - to be approached meaningfully and to be approached as vacuous allowance-spenders who can't see much past the zit-faced guys they've got their sights on - I really can't say). I'll stick with Teen Vogue exclusively, and let myself live the illusion that teens are more self-confident and self-aware than I was, and I'll smile because of it.
I also picked up Lucky and Marie Claire. Lucky was recommended to me, and I hated it. It's possible I hated it because it takes the final step away from reading fashion mags - the step where I imagine how I'd find inspiration for crochet or knitting, or how I'd muse about putting odd outfits together for myself - and is entirely about consuming their idea of the outfits we should be wearing, and is about the actual consumption, too. Blech. Catalogs are for buying things. I have no need for a mag that's about how to buy things, especially one that tells me what to buy.
Marie Claire, on the other hand, was fabulous. I'd never actually read the mag before, and was attracted to the September issue based on a report I'd read about them ramping up their “smart woman†content. Yes, I love that the cover is black and that Maggie Gyllenhaal graces it. I actually read this mag cover-to-cover. It's well-written and down-to-earth. Nice.
Away from fashion, I've been reading some street art mags of late. They're hands-down more beautiful and visually interesting than any other mags I read. Only thing is, they're written by artists, not writers. I have my typical college-newspaper reaction to them, and have an often distracting urge to read them with red pen in hand. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to update our submission guidelines for ages.
How's that for rambling blogging?
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About Kim Werker
About Me:
I'm the founder of CrochetMe.com and the author of Crochet Me and five other books. I love sushi, thunderstorms, good books, the smell of clean laundry, and I also blog at kimwerker.com. You can follow my daily moves on Twitter and Tumblr.
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i was an avid reader of seventeen and then glamour as a girl/young woman and eventually gave both of them the boot because i started realizing that the insecurities i had were bad enough without having magazines tell me that i should have others that i hadn't even considered. (i used to also love mademoiselle which only as i type this do i realize no longer exists). and i used to subscribe to lucky but gave it up a couple of years ago because like you said, it became too obviously like a catalog and also a particular look. i currently subscribe to domino, the home version, and like it much more, but am on the fence about whether or not i should let it go.
perhaps the reason that you like marie claire so much is that it's a much more mature publication and is heavily influenced by it's european older sister. i remember reading marie claire in french when i lived in france and then later on when i visited. a lot of the fashion spreads appear in both versions. i haven't read it in years (i've slowly replaced fashion magazines with home magazines) but the maggie gyllenhaal cover has stopped me in my tracks.
Yeah, I was really surprised by how taken I was with MC. It's rare that I pick up a mag and actually feel like a member of its audience. If that makes any sense. What I mean is that usually, I feel like an examiner of magazines who's doing research by reading them - I usually have their intended audience in mind, and assess the mag both in terms of what I think about how it reaches out to that audience, and about how my own reactions to it relate to my relationship with that audience.
Speaking of mags. I've bought one copy of Chatelaine since I moved to Canada. It's aimed at an audience older than I am, but holy crap - it's as bad for middle-age-related insecurities as teen mags are for adolescent ones. Most of the ads were for anti-wrinkle cream and hair dye. Maybe that's why I love Teen Vogue so much: I can't recall seeing a zit cream ad in there (which means if they are there, they're scarce enough not to define the tone of the mag).
i totally agree about teen vogue - i'm not a teen but i think it rocks.
another good one to check out is jane magazine.
Yes! I haven't read Jane in a few years. I'll have to pick one up.
Since someone brought up Jane magazine, I had to throw my two cents in. I've been reading Jane since it was Sassy oh those many years ago, and have to say, ever since Jane Pratt left as Editor In Chief, the whole thing has gone downhill. At 31, I don't need articles on how to cure a hangover, or to be told that I'm cool enough to read Jane if I go out and drink all night and still show up to work on time (this idea was actually a response to someone who wrote into the mag and asked why so many of the articles focused on women in their 20's when so much of their readership is in their 30's). The whole thing has just put a bad taste in my mouth. I'm thinking about cancelling my subscription.
Oh, did you actually *read* lucky? I just look at the pictures and I did enjoy the recent fall issue, but I assume you're probably right, I've I'd been looking for anything other than photographic content, I'd have been dissapointed. Thanks for the tip on Marie Claire--I used to read it in Paris, and I'll have to check it out again!
Well. Now I can't remember. I must have read and browsed the pictures. I didn't enjoy the photos much, either, though. I admit my bias is toward words...
I really love the shorter/thinner format of teen vogue. It's more manga-inspired in that way, I think, and their photos are great. And they don't have the "I was soooooo embarrassed!" columns.
I enjoy lucky, probably because I don't get any catalogs (how is this possible, since my parents get about 12 a day?). It's definitely low on content, print-wise, but how much can one say about shopping? I like how they put all the same types of shoes/bags/jeans/whatever on one page to compare the detailing. reminds me a little of "devil wears prada," when the assistant picks up two nearly identical turquoise belts, and has trouble choosing because "they're so different!" Anyway, the pics are a great springboard for my own design ideas (I cut out my favorites and arrange them on a board, for inspiration). They also have a good bit of crocheted stuff in there.
marykate, I 'read' Lucky for exactly the same reason--purely the steady stream of photos, sometimes already categorized for me the way I would do it. It's pure designing food. It's like caffeine for designing brain cells--a doubleshot of espresso. Where else do you get a whole page of nothing but velvet handbags, next page is nothing but trapeze jackets, next page is all ballet flats, etc.? I discover new designers this way too because usually their urls are provided. I skim it at lightning speed for any other designing tidbits.
I tried to branch out from Lucky, since they have a strong style bias, with Instyle, which is supposed to be super influential, but ugh, I'm turned off by the single focus on what celebs are doing and "how to get The Look" and where did Britney buy that coat she was wearing. And I'm tired of the amount of pages I have to flip through that try to keep up with Sienna Miller and Kate Moss (in all the magazines). For designing purposes, these celebs only represent certain looks to me, that's it. Instyle ends up just being green tea.
Marie Claire is a guilty pleasure because I end up reading the articles and I don't budget time for that, I'm theoretically only using these magazines for designing. I'd call it an amaretto latte or maybe spiked with some Bailey's, whereas, I'm such a sucker for Vogue--godde did you see the Marie Antoinette cover?-- that I have to say Vogue is like a mocha with extra dark chocolate. So I should really try Teen Vogue again, huh?
I'm an avid Instyle reader. But I will wholy abmit upfront, I really never read articles. I really only look at the pictures, terrible I know. What I love about Instyle, is the trends they show every month. Then the way 20, 30, and 40 something women can wear them. I think that's pretty neat. But for those of you that like little mags, this is not one of them. Its always a beast. Well, that's my 2 cents.
Kim,
I love your rambling, its helarious. What mom would call the Kim gush, is certainly unique to my writer sister.
Love,
Day
Thanks, Dave. I love you too.
Marie Claire blew my mind too. The Maggie cover is to die for. How anyone said she was unsexy or not beautiful is beyond me. I also love the whole Ashlee Simpson debacle. I wanted to jump up and down and scream "YES!" I'm with you on the whole who's who and LYKEOMGBBQ!!!11! mags have turned into.