Fashion mag: a big disappointment

Sapsorrow

I forgot my book this morning when I headed into town for a coffee, no where was really open yet save Tesco and they had a dismal selection of magazines so I ended up buying the latest Elle for the hell of it. I've never bought one of these sorts of magazines before so didn't really know what to expect (and they were all wrapped in plastic so I couldn't flick). I was really p*ssed off to see that at least 70% of it is just advertising, I didn't pay a fiver to have some ridiculously over priced and generally ugly clothes sold to me! Most of the people in it (editors, stylists etc.) have the most absurd and unrealistic styles/clothes that you'd never see anyone wearing in real life, and again most of it is so unflattering and ugly (IMO). Are people really so willing to pay for this crap? It's just ads, and I hate ads, that's why I don't have a telly! I especially hate ads for stuff that costs a frankly stupid amount of money. What do you guys think?

Chuchoter

The only one I buy is Look. The big glossy ones are just expensive ads and clothes I can't ever hope of buying.

Twee.

Magazines like Vogue and Elle are "aspirational" and "inspirational" in my opinion. The couture, high luxury and designer clothes are assembled to create extreme looks that cost thousands, and mirror the catwalk trends. If I look at a Vogue photo shoot I'm not gonna think "Ok now I'm going to buy the Mulberry Alexa bag and wear it with the Chloe dress", I think where could I find something on the high street similar and cheaper. Or if a model is wearing a feathered 2 foot tall headdress, I wonder if I could pick up a feather hairband in Monsoon or something.
The advertising is a bit over the top, but they have to get the money from the ad space to run the magazine. In general though, I love the ads Beautiful pictures.
Look and Now are good because they have up to the minute trends (as in weekly versus monthly) and affordable high street brands.

lubie76

The only place I read those Cosmo/Elle type magazines is the hairdressers. They can cost up to €6 and imo that is way to expensive for a lot of pages advertising designer products that are out of my price range anyway. I do like the fashion and beauty parts but a lot of the written articles are american type psychobabble that I don't identify with.

They aren't near as pricey in the UK. I always stock up on mags like womens health and top sante when I'm returning home from a uk airport. To me they are better value for money and help me get motivated to try new programmes.

dudara

I like to buy a magazine once or twice a year - not more than that as I find that they are repetitive and a bit of a waste of money.

It can be annoying that the first quarter of the magazine are ads - but I actually also like the ads. These are high fashion - and given that I also live photography - I like studying the ads.

But overall, the magazines can be a waste of money. Unless they have a really good free gift.

Pythia

I prefer the weeklies. Far less ads and the clothes are affordable. I buy Closer most weeks.

phasers

I'm with Twee. on this, for me the big glossies are an aspirational thing.

I generally treat myself to British Vogue around the start of each season, I adore it but it's so dear. The ads are part of it imo, they're usually gorgeous.

Normally it's just an issue of Look for me, cheap and cheerful and full of high street stuff I can actually buy!

Ms. Inquisitive

Have to say that I have been an avid monthly Elle reader for about 3 years now. I know alot of people complain about the advertisements but TBH they're my favourite part of the magazine! With the weeklies I am bored within about 5 minutes! True, the looks are completely unattainable if you want to go for the exact same pieces - but I think that they are great for stirring up the imagination on what you can create with highstreet buys. I always flick through the latest copy before I go clothes shopping! x

Twee.

I read August British Vogue on the pane to Berlin, saw the one of the big trends for the season was camel. Picked up a vintage camel blazer for six quid! Ta Vogue!

Rockery Woman

Elle and Vogue are terribly expensive. Choice - buy the magazine, or go to Penneys and buy something to wear! For the price of the two magazines you could buy a nice top or a handbag..... I only read those magazines in waiting rooms (if there are no National Geographics there)

Those magazines feature great clothes I admit, but they are modelled by the type of women who would look good in a spud bag!

If you want a bargain magazine I recommend you buy the Daily Mail on Saturdays - Its E1.20 for the newspaper and YOU magazine comes with it, all the catwalk reports are in it, along with some high street stuff.

I love clothes but Burberry, Anglomania, Frost-French etc are beyond my budget and I dont like tormenting myself looking at things I could never afford....

Ms. Inquisitive

Love You mag. They used to have a piece on the last page where they would take a catwalk look and find similier pieces on the highstreet - was sad to see it go! Some of the cheaper versions looked better than the real thing! Have to say that I am slowly weening myself of Penneys. Fair enough, €6 for a tshirt but you really do get what you pay for. Have bought so many clothes there that where doomed to the bin after the first wear;

- the gorgeous purple wedge slighbacks .. wouldn't stay on my feet ... never worn again (did i mention that I was so smitten at first glance that I also bought them in green?)
- the cute little patterned dress .. didn't actually have any kind of hem and so the flimsy fabric tended to uncermoniously roll up my leg!
- the numerous pairs of jeans that have a habit of expanding up 2 sizes after one wash
- why is everything see through??!
- and on goes the list ....

Rockery Woman

I never bought a jeans in penneys - prefer branded ones. However they are good for cardigans, polonecks and stuff. Would steer clear of the shoes - especially high heeled ones. The handbags are alright too - but you are right - you do get what you pay for!

The Big Red Button

Would never buy the likes of Elle or Vogue to be honest! Glamour or Closer are my guilty pleasures.

Ms. Inquisitive

I think that with Penneys, its just a case of being very careful of what you buy. Yesterday I saw a lovely jumper and was going to just buy it without trying it on - but I decided to be on the safe side! Lo and behold - seethrough and made of that itchy to the touch fake wolly fabric. No thanks! So went and bought a gorgeous clutch bag for €9 that looks like it cost four times that amount and is bang on trend!

Ms. Inquisitive: 1 Penneys: 0

cc-offe

Does anyone buy the Irish mag Stellar, It's only €2 euro and it's really good!

ams

If you shop in Tesco and get clubcard vouchers you can get a years subscription to Stellar or Prudence for about €5 in vouchers - I wouldnt buy the magazines in the shop but its nice getting them in the post!

Totally agree with Twee - I travel home to Clare every few weeks on the train so like a big magazine to flick though on the train - I love going into high street shops and seeing how looks filter down. I loved the Chloe and Celine looks this year and they are everywhere on the high street. Its good to pick up a top in Penneys say and think back to how that style looked on the catwalk and put it with a skirt that emulates the look or whatever.

What I love about fashion mags and fashion blogs is sometimes I see the way something is put together and go hey I have something like that already at home I'm gonna try that! E.g. on http://www.stitchesfabricandsoul.com/ this week I saw a pic of a girl wearing a leopard print skirt I bought for my holidays which was resigned to the back of the wardrobe which Im totally going to pull out now and rework.

Totally agree with you Sapsparrow that mags are overpriced though - sometimes I love the advertisments but if you buy them regularly you dont need to see the same ones every month or whatever.

lainey316

I used to buy the glossy monthlies, mostly Elle, but I've lost interest - not in the fashion though, but the articles. Now I just get Heat, it's usually funny and I do like their fashion section (though the beauty stuff is usually crap). I like the Style section from the Sunday Times, and the Saturday mag in the English times used to be good. I always grab Elle in the hairdressers tho, or Vogue.

The one that kills me is Grazia - it's the b*stard child of Vogue and Closer. High fashion shoots with the nonsense "my father's brother-in-law's best friend fell down a well and I was really upset" stories. Hate it. Never again.

dresstoimpress

Love steller!! Fantastic magazine for the price.
I also read Marie Claire, but as for the rest I wouldn't dream of buying them.
I am guilty of buying Interior design and Weddings Magazines that cost a small fortune. Addicted I'm afraid.

Sapsorrow

Thanks for the replies everyone Tbh I wouldn't really be buying any fashion magazines usually (it was a wierd one for me), I have my list of personal style blogs that I love and get all my free inspiration from there on a regular basis. I was just so suprised at what I had found (and not found) in Elle, I really expected a lot more for some reason. More intelligent and interesting articles, interesting photoshoots etc. Part of it for me also, is that the bulk of the stuff didn't appeal to me from an aesthetic perspective, not just that I wouldn't wear it myself but I couldn't see any beauty in so much of it at all. A lot of it seemed so desperately contrived and like it was just trying to be wierd (and ugly) for the sake of doing something different. A lot of it even looked really trashy, which I doubt is reflected much in the prices. So I didn't find it very inspiring, I'm also completed uninterested in following fashion trends, I don't have the money or interest in shopping that much! One thing I noticed is that they seem to be taking a lot of inspiration themselves from the typical popular personal style blogs around these days, as in the backdrops to photoshoots etc. anyone else noticed?

LadyMayBelle

I rarely buy magazines these days, i have bought on issue of Company in the past 4 months! I have to say though, Company and Glamour are the only two i ever liked.

I did live in a house full of girls during college, and the ones that always went down a storm were Look and Stellar...which reminds me how much I really miss Stellar, I had forgotten all about it!

Will be considering getting a subscription for xmas..

At a low point in Feb I did buy a ridiculously riced copy of Vogue (Having watched 'The September Issue' and honest to god I felt like bringing it back it was so crap!

shellyboo

I don't buy glossy mags for the fashion, mainly because they don't cater for women my size -- essentially we don't exist as far as the majority of the fashion industry is concerned, so I don't like supporting industries that don't cater to me.

That said, I do like reading the relationship/lifestyle/sex features in some of them, Red is my favourite for that. The only glossy I've ever picked up that I was able to read from cover to cover and not be offended by something horribly sexist or patronising!

Hermione*

Sapsorrow wrote: »

Most of the people in it (editors, stylists etc.) have the most absurd and unrealistic styles/clothes that you'd never see anyone wearing in real life, and again most of it is so unflattering and ugly (IMO).

I have to say Sapsarrow that I find the critique that the magazines show unrealistic and unusual style very ironic, given that you yourself have such an unusual and individual style!

Sapsorrow wrote: »

Are people really so willing to pay for this crap? It's just ads, and I hate ads, that's why I don't have a telly! I especially hate ads for stuff that costs a frankly stupid amount of money. What do you guys think?

Eh yeah, I love the glossy magazines and I'm very happy to pay for them (that said, I know all the shops in town which price them cheapest ). My housemate and I take it in turns to buy our favourites and we get Vogue, In Style, and Glamour every month, plus the Sunday Times Style every weekend. We also buy Stellar, Image and Prudence for the Irish fashion slant. I know to expect ads. I actually love the ads, especially the Chanel ads. Last year's Burberry ads were simply beautiful. A lot of things I aspire to owning cost "a frankly stupid amount of money". I still like to look at them. As Twee said, they're all aspirational. For me, they're also inspirational as I have a very classic style and browsing the glossies gives me ideas for playing around with that.
I detest the weeklies. I think they're much worse value as it's €2 every week instead of €5 once a month, and there's very little in them that I like, anyways. My taste runs more towards the stupidly-priced things!

Rockery Woman wrote: »

I never bought a jeans in penneys - prefer branded ones. However they are good for cardigans, polonecks and stuff. Would steer clear of the shoes - especially high heeled ones. The handbags are alright too - but you are right - you do get what you pay for!

I abhor Penney's knitwear but one of the best pairs of jeans I own are from Penney's. I'm as happy to wear them on a night out as I am to wear my Sevens or Rock & Republics, because they have such a fantastic cut! I regret not buying several pairs of them!

Sapsorrow

I don't see anything ironic about it at all, I don't think my style is anything like as unrealistic as some of the stuff in those mags and I don't really see what it has to do with the present discussion anyway.

RhubarbCrumble

I agree on "Stellar". I think it's pretty good for €2. Glamour (the UK one not the US one) isn't too bad for about €3.50. I used to like Marie Claire years ago, but now I think it's turned into an 'eco, save the planet' magazine. Elle, Cosmo, wouldn't even bother. As the OP said, they're about 70% ads and not much else.

Hermione*

Sapsorrow wrote: »

I don't see anything ironic about it at all, I don't think my style is anything like as unrealistic as some of the stuff in those mags and I don't really see what it has to do with the present discussion anyway.

It was just an aside

Sapsorrow

I apprecaite that art and style and all these things are totally subjective, in my opinion the clothes are largely too expensive, impractical, ugly and unflattering for me at least, and I'm sure it's probably true for a lot of us who live normal lives, who don't have huge amounts of cash to throw around on designer clothes or who don't wear size 6 jeans.

I will wear pretty much anything that appeals to my sense of aesthetic no matter how wacky it is and even I thought this stuff was too bizarre to wear down the street. I had an idea these magazines were targetting the masses with realistic inspiration and options (for all incomes, shapes, sizes and occassions) whereas it seems from the responses here that the weeklies are working more along those lines, and that the likes of Elle are more about fashion as an art-form and not about appealing to the average consumer??

I am genuinely just interested in what people think about it because it's a totally new thing to me, I'm only lately becomming interested in fashion myself and a few years ago would never have thought to buy one of these mags.

Would Stellar be as good for someone not living in Dublin or are loads of the articles and features based on designers and shops up there? Do they feature a good proportion of affordable clothing?

fillefatale

I'm inclined to agree. Personally, i just get Style magazine free with The Sunday Times and I'd flick through the likes of Elle and Look more frequently in the hairdressers than ever buying them. Every 3 or 4 months though I tend to splurge and get an issue of Tatler or Harper's Bazaar, they've got genuine decent articles mixed in with high fashion.

My regular magazine buy is Lula magazine, which can't be bought off the shelf in Ireland sadly.

Sapsorrow

fillefatale wrote: »

My regular magazine buy is Lula magazine, which can't be bought off the shelf in Ireland sadly.

This one? http://www.lulamag.com/

Were you getting it delivered to Ireland before you moved or reading online? Looks more up my street!

fillefatale

Sapsorrow wrote: »

This one? http://www.lulamag.com/

Were you getting it delivered to Ireland before you moved or reading online? Looks more up my street!

I got it delivered to Ireland, expensive but it's like a book! It comes out twice a year too so it balances out (or so I like to think)

Sapsorrow

fillefatale wrote: »

I got it delivered to Ireland, expensive but it's like a book! It comes out twice a year too so it balances out (or so I like to think)

LOVE the look of that! The models are really interesting looking and yet realisticially lovely, with imperfections and all which is very refreshing. Sorry to keep bugging you (I'm seriously considering forking out on it) but are there good articles in it or is it just fashion photography? Is there a good mix of different styles or do they just conform with the trends of the catwalk?

fillefatale

Sapsorrow wrote: »

LOVE the look of that! The models are really interesting looking and yet realisticially lovely, with imperfections and all which is very refreshing. Sorry to keep bugging you (I'm seriously considering forking out on it) but are there good articles in it or is it just fashion photography? Is there a good mix of different styles or do they just conform with the trends of the catwalk?

Yup theres a good range of articles, Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst, Karen Elson etc have written for it in the past. And the photoshoots would be right up your street actually now I think about it!

Sapsorrow

Great I'm going to order a copy tomorrow so! Back issues are wicked expensive on ebay. If I love it I'll owe you even more for putting me onto both Etsy and Lula!

RhubarbCrumble

Sapsorrow wrote: »

Would Stellar be as good for someone not living in Dublin or are loads of the articles and features based on designers and shops up there? Do they feature a good proportion of affordable clothing?

I think it's a pretty good mix. Lots of stuff from high street stores, so countrywide, not just Dublin. Sure, give it a go for €2. You haven't much to lose for that This months edition should be out in the next week or two.

Novella

Tbh I like the ads in Vogue. I always cut out my favourites and have them stuck on my bedroom wall. I'm crazy for buying magazines though, practically every time I walk into a shop, I buy a magazine.

ams

Sapsorrow wrote: »

Would Stellar be as good for someone not living in Dublin or are loads of the articles and features based on designers and shops up there? Do they feature a good proportion of affordable clothing?

Hmmm I think the magazine is aimed at late teens early twenties so would be clothes for that age group. One thing I dont like about it is the hot guys section which they tend to have - not really what I want in a magazine. Can do without problem page type stuff as well.

Have a flick through in the shop and you'll know whether it would appeal to you or not!

Tiriel

Little piece on fashion mags here - MissPennyDreadful's blog