Fashion+Magazines

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//**Fashion Magazines: An Overview**//
Fashion magazines in North American society exemplify excessive commoditization of clothing and accessories within our culture. Fashion magazines give us a lot of what we crave, a sense of what we could have, what we could look like and how much we can "improve" ourselves through our clothing. The statement "the clothes make the man" denotes a smiliar message; we are all aware of what our clothing says about us. Many of us strive to increase our appearance through our clothing. Our clothing makes a statement about who we are and this statement is presented to society. We are constantly made aware of what the latest trend is, what designers have created, and what designs are showcased in couture houses around the globe through fashion magazines. Fashion magazines are in large part an advertising forum that include articles and photos of what to wear, the designer brands that are the most respected, as well as providing information on where to purchase these clothes. Staying on top of the latest trends and incorporating these items into one's wardrobe have become desires for many of us. As a medium, fashion magazines demonstrate, mediate and influence culture around us. For the most part these texts focus on a high end target market, the people who are able to afford clothes from designer labels. They do however provide, in most cases, fashion tips and outfit guides for more appropriately priced clothing for the average consumer, but the message to buy even more expensive clothing is always present. Fashion magazines are a way to keep up with developing culture and in many cases serve as entertainment for readers. Often times the clothing from designers are not clothes that we would incorporate into our daily wardrobes but present a certain statement or ideological suggestion. Many magazines have followed their trend incorporating fashion sections to give readers a look at what is current and popular. We see celebrities and designer endorsements that denote which trends are popular and which styles they are wearing. Fashion magazines have become distinguished by region as well as style, we now have various versions of magazines to represent countries like America, Canada and Great Britain.

===**The Birth and Growth of Fashion Magazines**===

Fashion magazines can be dated all the way back to the 1860s. American women were able to view designs from well known designers in the popular publication of Harper’s Bazaar. As designers moved up in rank and started to appear on the scene, their creations began to make its way on the pages of fashion magazines. More designers began to emerge on the scene and also display their work in popular journal publications, and this was the most popular form of communication for women to know what is in style at the moment. By the turn of the twentieth century, fashion magazines were the primary method to disseminate news of fashion trends from Paris, the seat of fashion.

In the beginning, the gowns were illustrated with drawings, but in time photography became more sophisticated and the fashion press used more and more photographs of new designs. There was a merger of fashion and art. These artists not only painted, but also created textile designs and fashion illustrations. The introduction of photography in fashion in the early 1900's, can be considered the first time photography and fashion fused to create the genre of fashion photography. Until the Second World War, even mainstream fashion journals like Vogue and Vanity Fair continued to publish fashion illustration by modern artists, encouraging the connections between fashion designers and visual artists.

American magazines, such as Vogue, displayed fashions from France. As a result people who were seen wearing Paris fashions ensured that others would recognize the wearer’s status as a cultivated and wealthy person, perhaps able to travel to Paris, certainly able to afford the best her own locality could provide. Paul Poiret, a recognized French designer, claimed that the magazine, “is today one of the best methods of communication with a distinguished clientele” (The influence of fashion magazines). Especially in Paris, women were concerned with what their clothing and style said about their status in society. So they would consult magazines to see what the latest trends were. Also during the 1920’s many women actually ordered the dresses they saw in the magazine. Magazines where seen as a form of selling the products along with the promotion of the styles and the promotion of the designers themselves. Eventually dressmaking declined and it was mostly due to the success of the fashion magazines. Women were more concerned with wearing designer clothing instead of making their own clothing. This created a shift in the way clothes were purchased and the value attributed to them. The creation of magazine furthered the communication flow of fashion as a style and designers as a brand. This increased fashion influence and joining the fashion community together around the globe.

**Fashion Magazines and Advertisment**
When it comes to learning what to wear, how to do your make-up or even loose weight, magazines is where an individuals goes to. Magazines tend to grab the readers by making the information on their cover's seem interesting. For example: LOOSE 10 POUNDS in 3 DAYS these time of advertising make an individual pick up the magazine and find out what their secrets are. Once looking into the magazine the process to loose weight is not a simple. Magazine use celebrities to bring out their choice of accesories and tend to match the clothing in the magazine to ones that were seen on stars. These magazine are looked up as a manipulator to manupulate people to think that their are easier and chaper ways of going about making over themselves. Fashion magazines also denotes a negative portrayal of women in general. There has never been a magazine cover that had on overweight women or a woman with a few extra ounds than the average "top model". This is obviously not reality because there are many woman who are 150lbs or more in this world but if that women was on the cover of an Insyle magazine or Vogue, it would somehow seem....foreign.

Advertising in Magazines is directed to a specific audience; a target market. It is able to narrow in on a particular group, making it one of the most effective ways to advertise. Advertisement’s goal is to find the best way to sell a product; and the best way to do that is to focus in on the consumer’s needs and wants. In magazines, advertisements link products to consumers, by finding out what they want. In fashion magazines such as Vogue, Cosmo and Elle, the main audience is high class woman, who have the extra money to spend on fashion and beauty products. Ads which are found in these magazines include hair and makeup produces, as well as the hottest new look available in a store near you. Mass marking is used by advertisers to market their product to a large amount of people. The do this by using mass media, to help get the information out to the most amount of people. This ads at not direct in there content, because they need to say open to related to the broad population that they are trying to require. Mass marketing allows for the gain of the most amount of people, for the lowest cost; therefore making it one of the most useful ways of marketing for businesses. The problem with mass marketing is that it can be very broad, which may result in a loss of message to the viewer. On the opposite side of mass marketing is a niche market; which focused on a direct targeted area. It is a step away from the mainstream marketing, in search for a product of services that will apply, and is needed, for a smaller group. Also see Narrowcasting.


 * Issues with fashion magazines**

The fact is that these magazines, in particular, are full of lies. The photographs of these so called "beautiful women (and/or men)" after taken are then transferred over to computers for some manipulation (photoshop). The fact that they fill fashion magazines with all these writings about weight loss, and all these manipulated photographs of so called "beautiful people" is yet another scam in our world full of scams. Another way to blind people from the reality of things. The reality of these fashion magazines is that no one, not even the models themselves, can look the way they do in the pictures (if this truly IS what people want to look like). It's simply one lie after another. Another thing to keep in mind is the influence that these fashion magazines have on children, feeding children materialistic goods such as the latest Gucci Purse or new celebrity hairstyles. There is a dove commercial for one of their campaigns that needs to be seen by everyone that shows exactly how they make a good fashion shot or photograph. The use of Photoshop touches up is a technique that the market uses to create the perfect image, with the perfect skin, and an overall perfect look. This here shows the truth about the reality of the so called glamorous life. Our perception of beauty is distorted because we only see the celebrities that are all done and we think that’s how look without the entire make up. The media does a good job of this not only in fashion magazine but in everyday life such as television, the internet, billboards etc. The main point of this is the influence media can have on society and how society cannot differentiate what is real and what’s not or simply being in denial of the hidden truths. Dove commerical can be seen on this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U.

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 * Related Links:**
 * Magazines
 * Japanese Magazines

Reference: Unknown Author. “The Influence of Fashion Magazines” 514 Broadway. Online. Date Unknown. http://tirocchi.stg.brown.edu/514/story/fashion_magazines.html. Acquired on Nov. 27th 2006.