Fashion Magazines Research Articles

Tracing fashion transformations: a comprehensive visual analysis of fashion magazine covers

Abstract This study looks at the differences and changes observed in the visual design of the covers of French editions of women’s fashion magazines over a period of twenty-one years. To this end, the study aims to identify the changes that can be observed over the years in the design of the covers of the magazines Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, and Cosmopolitan. However, the main aim of the study is to analyze how these visual signs on the covers of French magazines are designed “differently” and how these signs create a “difference” in comparison to each other. By analyzing these visual elements, the aim of the study is to show the development of design trends and their impact on the visual communication strategies and brand identities of magazines.

Visualization of Fashion in European Engravings of the 16th — Early 18th Century

Images of people from different countries in their traditional costumes as a genre emerged in the second half of the 16th century and actively existed in the form of prints until the first fashion magazines appeared in the late 18th century. The article attempts to build a chronology of iconic examples of costume prints of the 16th — early 18th century on the basis of a number of sources of theoretical, historical and pictorial nature. The functions it fulfilled as a kind of graphic art in its time and artistic and technological features of its creation are defined. The study considers the works of artists and engravers from Germany, the Netherlands, England and France, since it is in these countries that the art of costume engraving was most developed. Not being for the most part highly artistic works of art, having no portrait resemblance to the depicted characters, protomod illustrations did not attract close attention of art history, which regarded them as one of many ordinary sources, as elements of applied creativity, which largely prevented their detailed analysis. However, these numerous costume prints (woodcuts and etchings) are worthy of attention as examples of graphic art that give an idea of the fashion of the time. The decline in the popularity of costume prints in the middle of the 18th century, despite the development of printing technologies and the growth of population in cities, which implies the demand for products of this kind, is connected, in our opinion, with the absence of a descriptive part — text as an explanation to the picture. For in the epoch of the formation of fashion journalism in the 18th century, costume engravings were revived as part of women’s magazines, acquiring the form of fashionable pictures-illustrations that would exist throughout the 19th — first half of the 20th century.

Mallarmé et le livre-fétiche (Variations sur un sujet)

Abstract: The aim of the present article is to examine a few “variations” on Mallarmé’s idea of the “Livre”: not from the point of view of his “rêve” as expressed in his letter to Verlaine, but through some more concrete examples. These include the still life book, which seems to take inspiration from painters in Divagations ; the book in the prosaic format of the fashion magazine; the illustrated book or artist’s book; the book-object; and the typographic poem, as projected by Un coup de dés . Added to these various material avatars of the ideal “Livre,” I propose the notion of the “livrefétiche,” which preserves the Book’s sacred dimension, while inscribing it in the one-dimensional universe of things: as an anthropological enigma through which the poem questions the human condition. (in French)

Chinese Fashion in China’s Fashion Magazines (2005-2015)

This paper explores the status of Chinese fashion media from 2005 to 2015 to understand the role of fashion discourse and information flows in mobilizing activity and meaning in the Chinese fashion industry. By examining ten-year issues of two fashion magazines, Vogue China and iLook, alongside interviews with two fashion media workers, this research reveals that during this period, the diffusion channels for Chinese fashion media are experiencing significant change, with a shift in focus to the presentation of more localized fashion content and the creation of a closer relationship between Chinese fashion media and the Chinese fashion industry. The rise of online fashion media has provided an unprecedented way of engaging Chinese consumers with Chinese fashion, supporting a two-way information flow and a new dimension of interaction. Despite this development, the continuing dominance of fashion retailing and consumption, much of this being comprised of global fashion brands, and the scarcity of fashion professionals in China continue to marginalize Chinese fashion discourse.

Evolution of Visual Narratives in Fashion Magazines: The Role and Impact of Iconic Signifiers

Design is a phenomenon that has a communicative or functional purpose in the process of transforming images into form by acquiring meaning in the human mind. Fashion magazines are one of the areas in which the visual significance of design is most clearly recognisable. The aim of this study is to identify the visual signs on the covers of fashion magazines and to analyse how these signs convey the meanings they are intended to convey. Also in this direction, the aim is to determine how the signs on the front covers of the French magazines, which is the subject of the study, differ from each other through the signs. The sample group of the study includes a total of 985 front covers covering the fashion magazines Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan from 2000 to 2020. In the research in which the quantitative research method was used, the visual semiotic analysis of the Groupe μ was chosen as the data collection method. Iconic values were used in this analysis to classify the visual elements on magazine covers. A relational survey design was used to analyse the data collected as part of the quantitative research method. A table of iconic signs was created, which form the structure of the visual semiotic analysis of the Groupe μ. In this way, an attempt was made to find out which visual signs were used to transfer the meaning conveyed by the visual messages on the magazine covers to the cover designs. To arrive at the research results, the SPSS package program was used. The research results show that there are significant differences in the visual expression strategies of the various fashion magazines and how each magazine reflects its own unique visual language and brand identity. We believe that this study contributes greatly to our understanding of diversity in the visual design of fashion magazines and its impact on the fashion industry.

‘Starved for pleasure’: the fashion magazine as a desirous queer archive

ABSTRACT Bringing queer affect theory to bear on the history of fashion magazines, I track how in the 1990s Dutch – an independent fashion publication which became increasingly popular across Europe and the United States at the turn of the century – began to interrogate the visual ideologies of the fashion system. In a historical moment in which the sense of relief brought to the LGBTQ community by the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy coincided with the deflation of radical energies within gay activism and the partial integration of the community into mainstream state systems, a coterie of gay fashion editors and photographers reconceived of the fashion magazine as a platform for gay erotica and collective identification, beyond a heteronormative economy of consumption. Through its photographic spreads and feature articles, Dutch disidentified with the conventional genre of the fashion magazine, typically a mediator of fantasies of glamour and upward mobility. This article argues that Dutch was a covert archive of queer feelings that, by attuning its readership to a counter-mood of hope and pleasure, initiated the formation of fashion magazine counterpublics, ultimately reshaping the fashion mediascape for years to come.

Language Style Used in Advertisements for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine: A Literary Study

This study investigates the language styles used in advertisements for Harper’s Bazaar magazine advertisements. The objective of the current study is to identify the stylistic features of magazine advertisements, particularly the stylistics features to provide valuable insights into how advertisers leverage linguistic and visual techniques to connect with their target audience and convey the essence of their brands. Understanding these stylistic strategies is not only valuable for advertisers and marketers but also for readers and consumers who engage with the content, making it an enriching exploration of the synergy between language, style, and fashion in the context of a prestigious British fashion magazine. The study was descriptive-qualitative and used documentation as the instrument. The data was taken from the September 2019 and April 2020 issues of "Harper's Bazaar Magazine which consisted of 28 advertisements. Content analysis was employed to analyze the language styles of advertisements. The results reveal that noun and noun phrases are the most frequently used in Harper’s Bazaar magazine. It also found figurative language, straightforward language, and emotive terms to accomplish their goals. This study contributes to the understanding of language styles in advertising and provides insights into the role of language in promoting products and shaping consumer behavior.

Concepts of place in British womenswear advertising, 1880–1914

ABSTRACT The mass retailing of fashionable clothing is a practice which is bounded both by time, since each season’s new styles renders previous garments obsolete, and by space, as innovations are promoted as sanctioned by fashion capitals such as Paris, London, or New York. This study of fashion advertising in British national periodicals from 1880–1914 reflects on the historiography of retailing, from Jefferys to Breward and Stobart, which often makes strong distinctions between London and the provinces. Case studies of two retailers with multiple branches, H.J. Nicoll and Alfred Stedall, and of two retailers selling through mail-order, John Noble and Pryce Jones, will examine the methods used to sell goods internationally, nationally and locally. These case studies will draw on unpublished publicity documents in the National Archives and other collections, and on advertisements in national and local newspapers. An analysis of discourses of place in fashion magazines will investigate the ways in which magazines acted as virtual spaces in which readers could both receive and offer information. This will lead on to a consideration of Appadurai and Augé’s concepts of space, place and non-place in consumption, and the applicability of these to earlier periods.

“Sobriété, Chic, Discrétion”: Promoting Modern Jewelry and Accessories in Adam: La revue de l’homme, 1925-1940

This paper discusses the promotion of modern jewelry and accessories in interwar France using the men’s fashion magazine Adam: la revue de l’homme as a case study. It focuses on a number of the magazine’s features on jewelry and accessories from the period 1925-40 in order to demonstrate how its mission to become “the magazine of the rue de la Paix” encompassed the promotion of jewelry and accessories. Recognizing that jewelry and accessories is an under-researched area, particularly in relation to studies of men’s formal attire of the period, this essay provides evidence of the seriousness with which the style commentators of Adam, complemented by its editorial decisions and advertisers’ contributions, were prepared to lend to the subject. Ultimately, the paper argues that a consideration of modern jewelry and accessories in the context of a relatively conservative men’s fashion magazine can help to further our understanding of the role played by modern objects of personal adornment in the interwar period.

Egyptian Fashion Journalism as an Activation Mediator in Apparel Marketing Communication (Analytical Case Study for Hijab Fashion Magazine)

Egyptian Fashion Journalism as an Activation Mediator in Apparel Marketing Communication (Analytical Case Study for Hijab Fashion Magazine)

Western Elegance, Yokohama Style: College Fashion, Urban Redevelopment, and the Rise of Feminine Motomachi in Post-1970 Japan / [西洋のエレガンス、横浜流:女子大生のファッションと都市計画の関係 から見る横浜元町における1970年代以降の女性への再編成

Abstract: Motomachi, a small shopping street on the outskirts of Yokohama’s old town, is architecturally designed with a European aesthetic and caters primarily to a clientele of women in their early twenties. This article traces the history of Motomachi’s construction as a site for feminine consumption. It identifies its origins in the late 1970s with three principal actors: the readers of a new genre of magazines targeting young and highly-educated women; economic planners in Yokohama concerned with preserving the traditional civic functions of shopping streets; and the businessmen in Motomachi’s shopping street association interested in remaining economically competitive. Through the pages of the magazine JJ , young women discovered in Motomachi traditional Japanese craftsmanship and “Yokohama traditional” ( Hamatra ) style. Concurrently, city bureaucrats encouraged Motomachi and other shopping streets to revitalize themselves by capitalizing on their heritage, prompting Motomachi’s savvy businessmen to project this demographic’s fantasies onto urban space. Through archival study of planning documents and fashion magazines combined with aesthetic analyses of Hamatra fashion and Motomachi’s architecture, this article shows how urban space can be impregnated with particular gendered and subcultural forms. It also interrogates the political, economic, and gendered origins of local history and how Occidentalism persists despite a discursive rejection of Western norms in favor of Japanese tradition. Lastly, the article argues that Motomachi’s history is also one of the development of neoliberalism in contemporary Japan, and that future research ought not to overlook neoliberalism’s gendered aspects.

Fashion: an Occasional or Non-Occasional Guest at the Library?

The compatibility of library and fashion is examined in the context of the current problem — audience engagement. The study uses the method of observation, analysis of scientific literature and documents.Does a modern library need fashion? Can such topics of library events and information content of library media be considered appropriate for the “temple of the book”? Are these issues of interest to readers (visitors)? What forms and formats of work to apply for fashion coverage? What advantages does a library have over a fashion magazine? The authors offer answers to these questions. Fashion is a cultural phenomenon that has a significant influence and is therefore of interest to many categories of readers. The concept of “fashion” in the text of the article is most often used in a narrow sense, as the art of creating a beautiful image with the help of clothes and accessories. The extent to which libraries address this topic is analyzed. Three main library sites of Yekaterinburg (Library Center “Yekaterinburg”, Sverdlovsk Regional Universal Scientific Library named after V.G. Belinsky, Municipal Association of Libraries of Yekaterinburg) were chosen for the study. The library media of these institutions were studied. Libraries, using the official website and social media pages, are gradually enhancing the dialogue with the reader by offering articles, reports, videos and other information materials with a broad cultural theme. In the future, library media can develop in the thematic niche of urban periodicals covering lifestyle and everyday culture, systematically addressing the theme of “fashion”. The authors suggest creating a separate rubric dedicated to fashion in the corporate media of libraries (on their websites) in order to make this process manageable. The article presents a model of a fashion column, justifies its importance, and lists the target groups.

Chic in knit: Youth, yarn and the comeback of the Faroese sweater

This article explores the recent revitalization of Faroese knitwear production and fashion in what I have called the ‘woollen turn’ in the Faroe Islands. I examine and analyse the reinvention of the Faroese knitting styles and cultural identities through the lens of an anthropologist reflecting on the role of the multifaceted globalization process in present-day craftsmanship and entrepreneurship in the context of a North Atlantic archipelago. The revival of the patterned sweater is a story about slow fashion, local knowledge and the search for new Faroese expressions inspired by the world beyond the ocean. The patterned sweater, locally embedded yet also immersed in global flows of fashion, has the potential of endless variation as handmade woollen garment. The sweater is not just a sweater anymore. It has a story of value chains and of local–global connections in the Arctic region, but it is also an environmental footprint and a point of identification. This article draws on material from TV documentaries, newspapers, fashion magazines and websites, as well as semi-structured interviews with fashion designers and knitting-connoisseurs in the Faroe Islands.

Modeling fashion as an emergent collective behavior of bored individuals

Boredom is an aversive mental state that is typically evoked by monotony and drives individuals to seek novel information. Despite this effect on individual behavior, the consequences of boredom for collective behavior remain elusive. Here, we introduce an agent-based model of collective fashion behavior in which simplified agents interact randomly and repeatedly choose alternatives from a circular space of color variants. Agents are endowed with a memory of past experiences and a boredom parameter, promoting avoidance of monotony. Simulating collective color trends with this model captures aspects of real trends observed in fashion magazines. We manipulate the two parameters and observe that the boredom parameter is essential for perpetuating fashion dynamics in our model. Furthermore, highly bored agents lead future population trends, when acting coherently or being highly popular. Taken together, our study illustrates that highly bored individuals can guide collective dynamics of a population to continuously explore different variants of behavior.

The Depiction of Beauty-by-Beauty Influencers on Instagram and Generations Z’s Perception of Them

Social media influencers (SMIs) are immensely popular and act as cultural gatekeepers for beauty. While advertisers commonly believe that “beauty sells,” this study asks (1) what types of beauty do SMIs depict and how does it compare to that portrayed in fashion magazines over thirty years ago? (2) as cultural gatekeepers what cultural values do SMIs depict and how are they related to the types of beauty? And (3) what are Generation Z’s (Gen Z) perceptions of the types of beauty depicted by beauty SMIs? These questions are answered through a content analysis of the top-100 beauty influencers and interviews with 20 Gen Z consumers analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis The study found that standard beauty ideals are still valuable when used by SMIs, but the weight of each type is more fluid and SMIs can flow between more than one. SMIs are also helping to grow new or nonstandard beauty ideals, categorized as “other.” The study proves extant knowledge evolves and adapts to this new revolutionary digital format and highlights future possible paths for the future of Gen Z beauty advertising.

Visual Art as a Means of Presenting a Fashion Designer’s Creative Idea

The aim of the article is to identify the types and functions of fashion graphics as a means of visualising the ideas and concepts of a fashion designer. Results. The role of visual art in expressing the idea of a fashion designer is characterised; based on the systematisation and analysis of examples of fashion graphics that visualise clothing models of such designers as K. Dior, Y. Saint Laurent, H. Mepen, V. Nesmiian, A. Tan, V. Anisimov, as well as the author’s graphics of K. Lagerfeld, the following types of using visual art in presenting designer’s ideas are identified 1) fashion illustration in suit presentation; 2) Illustrated fashion magazines; 3) fashion illustration as a design element of the designer’s publications and fashion publications; 4) sketch of the product; 5) generalised (conceptual) image of the collection; 6) narrative graphics. The research methods include analysis and synthesis, historical and chronological, comparative, figurative and stylistic analysis, selective method, and systematisation of visual information. Scientific novelty. For the first time, in the context of the history and contemporary development of the fashion system, examples of fashion illustrations, sketches, and drawings by foreign and Ukrainian artists and designers are considered in the context of the designer’s communication with the target audience; for the first time, models of Ukrainian designers from fashion magazines of the 1960s–1970s, as well as models from collections of contemporary Ukrainian designers, are introduced into scientific circulation. Conclusions. After analysing the goals of designers and the impact of visual works on promoting fashion and fixing the suit images in the imagination of the consumer audience, the following functions of fashion graphics are identified: communicative (by presenting a sketch or illustration, the designer establishes or reinforces a connection with the target audience); advertising (by placing a sketch, illustration or author’s narrative graphics in the information space — printed and online sources, the designer promotes a new product or creates cult features for an existing product); correspondence of the suit to a work of art (using visual means, the designer brings closer or equates the process of creating a suit with the creation of a work of visual art). The practical significance lies in identifying the functions of visual works that present the ideas of designers. The artistic work of artists and designers, which reveals the uniqueness of the created clothing examples, can still be used by designers today, both in the design process and as analogues of advertising and communication tools.

Fast Fashion: English and French Fashion Plates in South America during the Early Nineteenth Century

This article focuses on the circulation of specific European and English fashion magazines and fashion plates in Latin America during the early nineteenth century. Images of fashion and clothing have been present at all stages of the development of visual reproduction techniques. Together, paper and print culture have been linked from the beginning to the notion of speed in the transmission of ideas. The relationship between paper, fashion and the circulation of printed materials was consolidated during the long nineteenth century but began much earlier. Fashion images (fashion plates, but also watercolours and drawings) formed perhaps one of the most important and numerous categories within the visual culture of the period. I highlight the role that some of these representations of fashion on paper have had in the history of the circulation of printed materials in South America, with special attention to Pancho Fierro’s watercolours in Perú, Rudolf Ackermann’s magazines and books in Latin America and César Hipólito Bacle and Adrienne Macaire’s fashion plates in Argentina.

The Role of Technology in Changing the Understanding of Privacy Today

The concept of privacy has always existed since the dawn of time. As a result of multiple interpretations, this term, which has different connotations depending on society, period, and culture, has different definitions. Privacy in traditional societies meant guarding one's personal space, confidentiality, and private life. However, as the digital era has progressed, so has the meaning and understanding of privacy. The subject of this study is the change in individuals' sense of privacy in modern society in terms of sociology of religion. We can now continually exchange data via smartphones, social media platforms, and other online services. This data may contain a variety of personal information, such as online buying habits, search engine query records, geographical location, and so on. Social media platforms have evolved into a great tool for people to share their lives and communicate with people who are both relevant and irrelevant to them. However, these platforms have the potential to essentially erase privacy borders. While perusing social media, many of us do not hesitate to post our meals, excursions, relationships, and even emotional states. These social media posts expose private lives to the public. This necessitates redefining the boundaries of privacy. Privacy is a fundamental virtue that, as in the past, must be safeguarded in the era of technology. The purpose of this research is to discover theological and sociological changes in the idea of privacy, as well as the variables that influence it. In terms of the methodology of this study, I shall compare the phenomenon and understanding of privacy in traditional society types and today's society from the perspective of sociology of religion. It can be clearly observed that the understanding of privacy in the modern period has changed especially with the development of technology. Data privacy concerns and social media sharing require individuals to be more conscious about protecting their privacy. Individuals must understand how their personal data is utilized, strengthen their security measures, and take deliberate actions to preserve their privacy in the digital environment. Making people aware of this development highlights the significance of the study. As a result, there are theological and societal variances in the idea of privacy between traditional and modern societies. In terms of privacy, traditional societies were more community-oriented, but modern societies are more individual-oriented. Because technology was not as prevalent in old communities as it is today, invasions of religious privacy were largely carried out through verbal communication. However, because of the widespread use of technology in today's culture, abuses of religious privacy are largely manifested visually through the sharing of images, films, voice recordings, and so on via social media and the internet. * This study is based on my master's thesis entitled "Muhafazakâr Moda Dergilerinde Mahremiyet Anlayışının Değişimi: Modanisa Örneği (The Change of the Understanding of Privacy in Conservative Fashion Magazines: The Example of Modanisa", which was completed in 2023 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Celaleddin Çelik (Kayseri: Erciyes University, Institute of Social Sciences, Master's Degree, 2023).

Wilful daughters, domestic goddesses, pious Muslims, and rebels: Islam, fashion, commodities, and emotions among upper class women in Pakistan, 1947–1962

AbstractPakistan, 15 January 1950. Impeccably dressed, Zarina is going out to celebrate the wedding of her partner-in-gossip-crime, Fizza. Her busy life makes her feel anxious. The wrongdoings of the home helpers and her parents’ constant bickering fill her family life. Fashion magazines, get-togethers at the association she has just joined, and ladies’ glamorous parties are her only antidotes to stress.This article explores the history of Zarina and her fellow upper class women's emotions, everyday lives, and daily perception of religious and socio-political ideas of change in Pakistan's momentous formative years (1947–1962). By relying on Francis Robinson's research on religious change, self, and the fashioning of Muslim identity, it provides the first historical ethnography of how upper class women in Pakistan understood and experienced socio-political change through the transformation of their emotions, religious views, lifestyle, and behaviour.Drawing on material and visual culture and a rich selection of newspaper clippings and government records, this article lifts the curtain on the material and immaterial ‘stuff’ of women's dreams, taste in fashion, private lives, and political and religious ideas. Finally, it illuminates how women and their gendered agency became the key ‘sites’ for a new and, at times, surprising Islamic revival.

Geographies and Histories of World Literature in Interwar Italian Magazines

Abstract This article adopts a historiographical approach to analyse some key debates on world literature that played out in literary and cultural magazines during the Italian Fascist dictatorship. It shows that by hosting such debates – especially on realism – in seemingly random fashion, literary and cultural magazines in the 1920s and 1930s significantly contributed to problematise the cultural politics of a xenophobic regime regarding the arts in general, and literature in particular. To this end, I focus on journals of different sizes, political orientations and visibility to provide different theorisations of world literature. Finally, by discussing the multiple epitomes of world literature that the magazines created, I question the presence of what may be considered a coherent national, or even canonical, literature to argue that world and national literatures could co-exist when made to function not just as literary but also as a cultural mechanism.