2. Vogue
Vogue is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine
covering many topics, including fashion, beauty, culture, living,
and runway, based in New York City. Vogue began as a weekly
newspaper, first published based in New York City in 1892 in the
United States, before becoming a monthly publication years
later.
Vogue is quite a high end magazine showing clothes mostly
from high end designer companies like Gucci, off white etc. The
magazine is aimed at working class up and is read by people
who want to be rich or have the money to buy these clothes
giving it quite a varied audience. However most of the brands
looked at in vogue have a very specific body type they cater to,
high end fashion brands usually make clothes for skinny people,
most will not have sizes after large and will usually make their
larges sizes fit smaller than your average shops anyway. This
means that by showing primarily high end clothes you are
limiting who will read without maybe even noticing because it
isn’t very often high end brands will use plus size or even
average size models
From looking solely at front covers of this magazine it is quite
apparent there is a variety of people used on the covers, a lot of
POC, celebrities, models and even the elderly. There are some
images of LGBT+ people on these covers and very few plus
size models or celebrities. I
I think this will be a good magazine to talk about because when
people think about fashion magazines vogue is usually the most
prominent one it has some variety in body image but not too
much and has a good target audience, this will make it good to
talk about as it is a nice medium of variety but not as much
variety as there could be
3. Elle
Elle is a worldwide lifestyle magazine of French origin that
focuses on fashion, beauty, health and entertainment. It
was founded in 1945 by Hélène Gordon-Lazareff and her
husband, the writer Pierre Lazareff. The title means "she"
or "her" in French.
ELLE magazine's target audience comprises women
between 20 and 35, primarily single or recently married,
who already have a career or want to develop themselves
professionally, are university educated, live in an urban
environment and have a high income. Because of this the
models used on most Elle magazines are way less varied,
they are usually young white and skinny, there are some
POC on their front covers but it is way more dominated by
white women
The clothes worn on the covers go from 1 extreme to
another, quite tame and regular to very colourful and
strange looking, however they all have one thing in
common and that is showing off body shape. A lot of the
clothing shows off skinny arms or a small waist nearly all
of the models have the same body type, they know their
target audience and they are only catering to them
4. Marie claire
Marie Claire is an international monthly magazine first published in
France in 1937, followed by the UK in 1941. Since then various
editions are published in many countries and languages. The
feature editions focuses on women around the world and several
global issues
“Our readers are educated, stylish women aged 25 to 30-
something. It is a very broad reach – they could work in anything
from marketing and PR to social housing and health.” Trish Halpin,
editor-in-chief
Marie Claire magazine seems to be more stuck in the past than the
other magazines the editor has said this magazine is aimed at
educated stylish women between 25 and 30 something however
they only use white skinny models wearing quite boring clothes, this
isn’t just a personal opinion, this is the opinion most younger
women have about this magazine which I have found by looking at
reviews, most say the fashion does not intrigue them and they feel
out of touch with this magazine, however a lot of older people seem
to very much enjoy this magazine, this a quote from an older reader
“this is a wonderful international magazine that has been around for
ages. It's a women's magazine that focuses on health beauty
fashion hair and everything related women's interests. I like this
magazine” this quote says enough to me, it is for people who still
believe that women can only like stereotypically feminine things,
think the pinnacle for women is a skinny white woman who is
educated and has the average style, nothing too absurd. I think this
will be good to look at as it is the least modern women's magazine
and has a lot that needs to change.
5. Harper’s Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar is an American monthly women's fashion magazine, first published based in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the
weekly Harper's Bazar
the ideal target market for the publication is style- conscious women between the ages of 18 to 30.
Harpers bazaar is aimed at a variety of people, all being white, skinny and between the ages of 18 and 30, the front covers show only
white women wearing designer brands and the two exceptions which are curvy black women, are only different because the models are
Rihanna and Alicia keys, even so Rihanna is still quite skinny, not plus size by far.
I think harpers bazaar with will be good to talk about as it has a similar outlook on body image and colour as Marie Claire but is aimed at
younger people and actually is read by younger people, there are also a lot more celebrities that appeal to younger women on the covers
of these magazines and all together seem to do what Marie Claire failed to do while still having no variety in body type.
One this that is different about this magazine is they tend to not do full body images, they models may be skinny and white but they only
really use face and shoulder shots, this is actually quite good as it is not immediately promoting skinny bodies, it is more focused on facial
beauty and artistic pictures
6. Models and celebrities of colour
I think harpers bazaar will be a good chance for me to talk about whether celebrities can really be classed
as POC when it comes to magazine covers, that might sound weird but when the editor is picking a model
they have to make the decision whether they want the model white or black, when the editor wants
Rihanna because she is a celebrity, they are not choosing whether Rihanna is white or black they are
choosing her because she is a celebrity. To me this means if a magazine uses 20 white unknown models
and 0 black, but then uses 10 white celebs and 10 black celebs, are they really showing a variety in colour?
Because they haven’t made the choice to use a black model when they could. It may sound confusing here
but I want to go more in depth into this because I think it is a big issue, where a magazine will use a black
celebrity so that they maybe don’t have to use a black unknown model but appear race inclusive.
An article from the huffington post 2014 says this “"Overall, there has been a shift from using models to
using celebrities or personalities on magazine covers, which makes it less likely that a model will be used at
all. Vogue UK has featured women of colour on their front covers, but not models of colour in about a
decade.” https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/15/vogue-uk-harpers-bazaar-model-of-
colour_n_6326184.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALZCkYwJUHW7r2r9YqztR
jngLjFOrKebPHW49Qs9Sxb9D6J1rd50wjKBXZCcdzGyf23QmFszgCzxToxcruv7Iw_EvHIQVtx1MdRLO0zTDElHbB2I8HT7h5_k7weXwgERQ2-
WfNxs_28OeFe65ZO0SMq6VQSu-qOtyEFBR5lwZ49u
7. V magazine
V magazine is an American fashion magazine published since 1999.
The magazine is printed seasonally and highlights trends in fashion,
film, music and art.
“V IS ADDRESSING A WHOLE NEW GENERATION OF TRENDY,
ARTSY, FASHION-CRAZED BOYS AND GIRLS. A PARTY IN A
MAGAZINE” —Mario Testino
V magazine is a weird one, it seems to be the most inclusive showing
POC, transgender women, alternative women and men and overall puts
out a message that everyone is accepted, the magazine covers
showcase some very different and out there fashion and makeup and
also show a lot of nudity and sexual outfits.
Now here's the issue with v magazine, the only people used in covers
are incredibly skinny, more so than any other magazines models, v
magazine represents the greatest selection of people out of every
magazine, as long as your skinny. I think this magazine will be good to
talk about because it seems to be the most diverse magazine out there
yet it still don’t show anyone that isn’t tiny, this shows that model body
types aren’t just an issue for older stuck in their ways magazines, even
modern magazines that have changed to show a variety of people still
cant show plus sized models.
This will be a good magazine to talk about and lead into why
magazines aren’t changing their ways and why they are so stuck on
having skinny models even when everything else is now acceptable.
9. V Magazine (57 percent
with one plus-size
woman), Vogue U.K. (57
percent with one plus-
woman, one trans
and four women age 50
above), Marie Claire U.S.
(2) (3)
