What would we do without fashion magazines?
We would be at a complete loss: not the faintest idea what happens in Paris, in London, in Milano and in New York. Full blown catastrophy: So essential to be informed!
Who would be otherwise so easily convinced, that painting your nails in a shade remembering more the glibber of a corpse in stagnat water than of a supposedly embellishing colour, is the utmost of stylishness, if you would not have seen it in all the major papers?
The hold those pages have over us - we all wait for the autumn issues of our favourite fashion magazines with the same impatience as we wait for school to begin again in september - to unveil all the secrets and must-have´s, do´s and dont´s of the upcoming season fall/winter. And every year it is the same stuff we see, the same counsel we take and the same ridiciulous readiness to believe it all.
By browsing for a first "overview" through this years paper harvest I had the distinct feeling once again, perhaps never so clearly expressed, of wondering, WHY do I read that stuff anyhow? Why do I look at those pictures of beautiful and heavily retouched young girls, in outrageous wardrobes, far away from my metro station and lunch cantine?
You will say, that this exactly is the appeal and magic of a good ( and I say good!) fashion magazin - it should make us dream and get creative about who we want to be and also the way we present ourselves to the outer world. (Ok, not very philosophical or intellectual, but then normally intellectuals are rarely well turned out.) It is meant to be an inspiration to the masses. An incentive to go out hunting for a little glamour at Zara´s - where you find the copies of all great inventions boiled down to wearability and affordable prices. A sacrifice on the altar of consumerism: the quality is bad, you throw it out after wearing 4 times and hop, off a new circle starts and our economy is happy and well. Yesterday I went with my daughter to H&M and, I tell you, the place was buzzing. No crisis in sight, far from it.
Fair enough - let us not discuss this - it is obvious.Everyone of the people there hunting for some style and glamour, all on remote control of the imense fashion machine. Why would those magazines otherwise have such a hugh editorial number and be big bussiness? Why would I buy them all the same?
But to come back to my train of thought: How many times have I laid down a magazine - happens particularly often with french Vogue, which I do not even bother any longer to buy once in a while, so much it gets on my nerves - with the distinct feeling of looking at a Bilderbuch for big girls, with no what so ever relation to my reality: the way I live, I look, I dream, I think, I eat, I work - the environment I live in etc etc pp. Said French Vogue is, in my personal dowdy view, so disconnected from reality - and I believe also from french reality - that they miss the point totally.
Another interesting fact: For the last 20 years, models have been all about 15 years old and heavily underweight. Now, apparently there is a new crop of Supermodels out there, in their glamourous 50ies, selling us the fact, that 50 is the new 30. Hurray!
Just think about the huge potential group of buyers with well equiped purses and the time at their hands to go out and shop indeed. At least, the beloved glossy pages make us normal people believe, that they do so. And off we go and buy the copie of the copie of the copie of that Galliano dress, which would not be recognizable to all but the insiders of the fashion industry. ( Remember the cool drydown Meryl Streep gave the newcomer Anne Hathaway about the colour "blue" in The Devil wears Prada?)
But to keep things straight: I love to read them all the same - my favourites being English Vogue and american Harper's Bazaar.
The magazines are a lifeline to glamour and an ideal projection of personage. All of a sudden we are not mothers and cooks and drivers and secretaries and but all in the grasp of becoming the next grace Kelly and it seems all right and only natural that the Valentino dress for 8000 £ is for us...
So even if we cannot wear almost nothing of the things we see, we go on buying the next issue and will read with utmost interest what is the latest in make-up and fashion for the upcoming season.
And then go out and do as we like anyway.
As I said, information is all and the query as old as humanity: Which fur is it this year Darling, Mamut or Seal?
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