Fashion Forum

From Time Out NY:

Flipping through the September issue of Vogue, we realized something we always knew but never got pissed about until now: The magazine's useless. It's pretty to look at, for sure, influential and impressively heavy-this month's was their "biggest issue ever," part of a record fall for fashion mags in general. But New Yorkers looking for actual clothes to wear had to sift through 727 pages of ads, only to find a spread featuring an amazon in an explosion of "dyed fox fur spliced with plaid taffeta" and Sienna Miller wearing what looked like a turkey stitched to her back.

In this fashion issue, you'll find our response-stories devoted to on-trend, affordable styles, with a little context, too. (We show you the people who make the clothes-not just the designers, but the Garment District workers.) You'll also see New Yorkers you won't find in the glossies-some superstyling ordinary folks, as well as models' unmodely friends. Because although Vogue may be the bible of fashion, some of us devils just can't wear Prada.

I've been thinking about this lately. Because of the technological advances, I think most people nowadays are starting to view everything online. It would be interesting to see whether or not magazine subscriptions have reduced since everything is available online.

Granted that sites will eventually get blocked by the network admins in offices to increase productivity and that some people prefer to hold something physical to read on while travelling on trains, buses, etc.

It's not as if Vogue makes their entire magazine available online however due to the fact that information is freely available and accessible, maybe that's why they fill it up with ads instead of editorials and much more interesting articles to make up for the reduction in subscriptions.

Take this year's MMSFW for instance, there were video cameras there for the newspapers... Why was this? If you check out the newspaper websites, they all had videos to with the online articles and images.

I don't see the web being a print killer and vice versa, however if they work in conjunction with each other, it will provide massive exposure for anybody.

I've thought a lot about this as well, always with Fashionising.com's place in the fashion industry in mind.

I think the web is going to kill of the magazines who still believe they can do 'news', or those which focus too heavily on editorial. From here on in I think magazines will have to angle themselves as pictorial magazines, hence the renewed interest in the likes of V and W, while Vogue seems to be getting a little stale.

For latest news, forget about the mags. I think if fashion mags (and I'm talking about high art, high quality fashion mags - not trash) took on a similar purpose to other magazines such as Time and National Geographic with feature stories, etc, it would have more substance.

here's how it breaks down for me:

I'll try to keep my photographic interests out because I use alot of sources to annotate and deconstruct to adapt to my own works

the vogues:
couture, editorial. I view it almost like I'd view something in a gallery.

I go to online sources (still trying to find good ones) for news on the runway shows, fashion weeks, launches etc.


my style advice:
comes from old timer tailors. they're a wealth of knowledge for all kinds of fashion and style matters (not just the sartorial aspects either)

and for a hint of the modern or a bit of personal flair I use my own head.


I don't think magazines are slipping, there'll be a slight shift and like any good business they'll adapt and come out on top and probably a lot stronger than ever