a round of magazines

Since so much of my time is spent in the air, and I do actually enjoy print magazines over reading magazines online, I thought I'd offer up what I thought of recent magazines.

December 2010 Elle with Jessica Alba
Getting over the fact that it's winter and the magazine cover is all about summer (it's not even resort yet) and it looked so similar to the previous month that I almost didn't buy it, Elle is usually my favorite mainstream fashion magazine. It feels super dense, often focuses on women in politics (often in more obscure roles, not just HIllary Clinton or Sarah Palin), layers photos in a collage way that reads more art school than Instyle. More often than not, features products and clothing lines that I actually want to buy and in some cases, I can actually afford.
Cons- sometimes the shoots are super uninspiring, in fact the shoots are what I usually look at last, since I've spent most of my time devouring the tiny articles in front. For instance, I couldn't even tell you what the shoots were this month, but I could tell you there was some cool knitwear from a recent RISD graduate.

December 2010 Vogue with Angelina Jolie
Feature Angelina Jolie looking like a conservative housewife, which is no mean feat given that Jolie has often mentioned her penchant for knives and leather. Though, with so many designers from A/W 2010 showing witchy looks, it would've been so freaking cool to get Mert and Marcus to shoot Jolie looking like a witch, in some obscure location. With taxidermy. And her five children in a cauldron or maybe her evil witch helpers. Just sayin'. A girl can dream can't she?
Cons- sometimes conservative and staid, but when they get into fairy tales (with Grace Coddington styling) they show why they are the Wall Street Journal of Fashion magazines.
Pros- the bible of the fashion crowd.

December 2010

W

with Katherine Heigl
The recent revamp feels a lot a bit like T magazine, just with a different logo. Tonchi, understandably, wants to differentiate new "W" from the old "W," except it now reads like Art Forum light. The feel of the magazine itself feels more masculine with the photography choices. Huge, engorged luscious blood red lips become cooly sensual on one page. Perhaps it's the choice of articles used, perhaps it's how it does mimic T magazine, that W reads completely different.
Featuring work by Alex Prager (a predominately fine artist), this W is different, and I don't mean that in a negative or positive way, it's simply a fact. Do I like the new art influence? Sorta. DO i think it's super sellable? Well, not really. It's a fashion magazine, and featuring some art would be one thing, but massive chunk of the small articles in front of the magazine only feature art- that changes the feeling of the entire magazine, and since it bills itself as a "Who, What, Where, When and WHy" on fashion, it seems a bit disingenuous to be covering art so much. I do like that some art is covered, it is interesting, but they could cover newer brands, collaborations, ect. If you are going to try to make W a like a W and T combo, then at least include some things T would include- like happenings on more ready to wear brands.

December 2010 Lucky
One of the first magazines under new editor, Brandon Holley, and I've got to say, I was pleasantly surprised and I really liked it. Lucky has always prided itself on featuring affordable, cute and easy to wear pieces for the every woman. However, the revamp Lucky a lot more online experiences- using smart phone interactions and apps for online shopping in addition to, and this is my favorite part, more whimsical shoots that use high end labels like CHloe. This one shoot only used the colors black, white and red, and it looked so french, in photo the model was wear a wee bow tie the stylist had made. So kudos to you Lucky, I totes wanted to copy every look in that shoot that you featured.

Another Magazine- A/W 2010
Perfect, loved Bjork, don't change anything. Buy it. Done and Done.