Rookie mag

Tavi’s new magazine intrigues me. I’m waaaaaay out of her target market but there’s something about magazines and books aimed at teenage girls that continues to intrigue me: I’ve just finished Anna Godbersen’s The Luxe series for example. Partly I’m interested to see how things have changed since I was a teenager and the obvious way is that Rookie will be online: guys, “online” barely existed the year I was sixteen.

Apparently it will be blog-esque, with posts going up after school, after tea and just before bed. I find that really cute: it’s the scheduling and the boxiness that is so appealing about the life of lucky, sheltered teens. Of course that’s we all spent our time trying to bust out of as kids, and now I really like everything neat and labelled. With Tavi running it, I imagine it will have an aesthetic that is less Primark and more vintage. Teenage fashion is SO interesting – I have a beautiful teenage cousin who I went shopping with recently and naturally we have really different tastes but she made me want to recapture the magic of hitting Topshop Oxford Circus and buying tiny tight dresses – first payday this is happening, although it might be Whistles rather than TFNC. I am in my earlymiddellate twenties now, not sure I will look as charming in a cerulean strapless corseted minidress as my cute cousin.

S

The Tavi magazine

As a lover of magazines and appreciator of Tavi from Style Rookie, I am most pleased and excited to learn that she and Jane Pratt, of Jane magazine fame (fame if you read US women’s magazine about five years ago) are starting a “feminist, creative, moody-teenage-girl magazine”. It reminds me of the aims of Elle Girl (tagline: “dare to be different”): to be yourself, do cool stuff like making things and setting up projects, and of course buying endless trinkets. I was sad when the UK version folded. There’s a business-oriented analysis of why it went, and a comparison to Teen Vogue, here.

I sometimes wonder how I turned out so relatively undamaged considering how horrible it is to be a teenage girl. Sometimes you need reminding as a person, especially a female one, that it’s not compulsory to hate your body or want to be thinner (endlessly, infinitely thinner) and that other girls aren’t the competition. That would be a good start. Tavi’s magazine sounds lush and I’ll probably buy it even though I’m completely and irrevocably an adult. Although I did get ID’d the other day just for standing nearby while my friend was buying wine.

Okay so this Elle Girl cover does have the whole “you are a young woman so you must be SEXAY” thing and it does mention that Peaches Geldof wrote for it but please believe me it was surprisingly encouraging about embracing your looks for what they were and then getting on with other stuff.

If you also loved Elle Girl, The Quietest Rebel has loads of scans from it. You never know what you should keep! Tavi references Sassy, a magazine I have never read, but which is sort of legendary on the teen magazine front. Tavs comments: “Sassy was awesome. It called out celebrities and politicians for being assholes, educated its readers on politics without sounding biased, and focused on fashion in a way that was unconventional. It was lipstick feminism for teenage girls, covering sexist issues but not discouraging having fun with makeup or caring about boys. It included R.E.M. records as opposed to the perfume scents of today’s teen magazine pages.” Sounds cool.

Squint at this tiny image from the olden days:

Hilarious. Compare and contrast:

S

Dream covers

I get the feeling that if there was a DiscoNap magazine, A would be the Anna Wintour figure and I would be more your Grace Coddington, right-hand woman type. I don’t have any particular skill in styling, unlike the great Cod, but I do have strong opinions on covers. There’s been some pretty ropey covers on some of my favourite magazines this year and Elle in particular seems to have lost the plot, recycling the same cover stars within a year. I cannot tolerate another Kate Hudson or Lily Allen cover in the foreseeable future – it’s occurred to me that I’d rather see Goldie Hawn on a magazine cover if we have to have one from the family.

My suggestions follow. I would dress:

Rachel Bilson in…Cacharel. Everyone still loves her and apparently she will be back on TV soon. I’m hoping for something as game-changing as True Blood was for Anna Paquin.

I like Anna Paquin’s spirit and I also love True Blood. She has quite an edgy, sex-kittenish look but I’d like to see her in something clean and balletic like…Chloe.

Or, if we just can’t help ourselves (or we have a September Issue moment and it’s just not working, a la Sienna’s hair) we’ll put her in Lanvin:

Christina Hendricks in…Versus. I love this collection in its entirety. I would also really like to see some UK covers for the actresses from Mad Men. I adore the show and the women in it are beautiful and part of something special.

Christina will just have to wear two dresses because I can’t choose.

Therefore I’d also like to see January Jones in…Christopher Kane. And with big messy hair.

I think DiscoNap magazine would try and feature British cover stars where possible. I would put Gemma Arterton in…Erdem. Oh yeah.

Never Let Me Go is about to come out so we’ll almost certainly be seeing Keira on the front of magazines again. I want to see her in Rodarte.

I’ve chosen all celebrities because both Vogue and Elle, arguably the only titles in the UK that walk the line between being women’s magazines (Glamour, Marie Claire) and fashion magazines (Tank, Purple), tend to go with actors rather than professional models – it’s the Anna Wintour touch. I do like model covers when they do something interesting with them – often it’s a choice between your standard Kate Moss Vogue cover or the Terry Richardson-dominated school of iD, Dazed etc. I hate editorials where you can’t even see the clothes.

xx S Coddington

Strike a pose

I used to be a devoted Vogue buyer but around a year ago I broke the habit and this year I have given away quite a bit of my archive, which I have lugged around various different flats. I felt it was time to stop scrapbooking and live a more minimalist, and less dusty, life.

I get quite frustrated with repetitive covers as well and really am not tempted by a Kate Moss Vogue cover. She is a fantastic model but there are other models; I loved the Freja cover for example. And no, I doubt I will ever stop reposting this cover everytime I mention her:

It might be my favourite cover of all time.

This month’s upcoming Cheryl Cole cover has a similar happy vibe to the Freja one and I will definitely be buying it. Vogue is the fashionista’s fashion magazine if I can utilise a cliche, and I disagree with Anna Wintour that celebrities are the best hangers for clothes on every issue but Cheryl is so influential and so defines the mainstream beauty paradigm of 2010 that it makes sense for her to go on. She is also the opposite type in every way from a Freja.

This cover is a big improvement from Cheryl’s previous one as well. That was a cover churned out by the Tweedy PR machine, with signature mask of makeup and Matthew Williamson dresses. This October 2010 issue looks more fun and a small step away from her super-done image. I am a sucker for colour and love anything pastel-toned.

I think a New School Year splurge on magazine subscriptions may be in order when my ship comes in next week.

S

Signposts

• Amazing Mad Men cover for Rolling Stone.
• Cos, H&M and Monki all getting online stores at last! From Style Bubble.
• Lanvin are doing a collab with H&M. I’m slightly dubious as ever about these but we’ll see. Also rumoured are Bottega Veneta and Carolina Herrerra.

• Elle’s 25th anniversary issue should be on my mat when I get home. My fingers are crossed for the Helena or Coco covers, please not Kate Hudson. I love Elle but its covers haven’t been so good recently.

S

Magazines

I love magazines and spend all my very meagre disposable cash on them. Elle comes in the post though and doesn’t cost me anything. In my view it’s the best women’s magazine in the market at the moment – look at the new edition that just arrived. It has fun, high-quality artistic direction and a semi-feminist message. I follow Lorraine Candy on Twitter and I really rate her as an editor. It’s not many major mainstream magazine editors who would put a feature on feminism or abortion at the front of the magazine instead of celebrity news. Plus everything in it looks really shiny and neat. Its pages often end up on the walls of my room.

But once Elle is read and everything of worth torn out and blu-tacked up, I do run out of options a bit for the rest of the month. I get Look for a treat but even Vogue these days leaves me a bit blah. I think they lost me forever with the More Dash Less Cash silliness. We live in the era of the high-street Voguettes, we don’t have to make hats from rubber gloves. Clearly I am a philistine who doesn’t appreciate Vogue’s artistry.

I’m always on the look out for new magazines to consume. I’m not interested in magazines like Dazed and Confused, I need words as well as pictures sometimes, preferably spelled correctly and laid out in a coherent order. I haven’t yet motivated myself to go up Selfridges to get the last Lula magazine, and not sure where else I can get hold of it, so much as I long to, I cannot pass half-formed opinions on it yet (thank goodness blogging gives me an outlet for these).

Ploughing a Lula-esque furrow is new online magazine Betty. It has a vintage-y twee vibe and very nice visuals. I think it could become better in future issues as it is still a little stilted copy-wise: the first words out of the magazine’s mouth are about an “exciting new jewellery label”. I don’t know what it would take to get me actively excited about jewellery but some scrolly metal on a chain isn’t it, I have learned. I do applaud the effort that has gone into the vibe of the magazine and the fact that it is independent so it gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Fine holiday fun.

S

Karl snarl

“Fat mummies sit there in front of the television with their chip packets and say skinny models are ugly,” Lagerfeld told Focus magazine.

Thanks for that, Karl Lagerfeld, and for feigning shock that your range for H&M was available up to a 16. The horror.

One can only imagine what he thinks of this:

April's Elle Paris

p.s. DNL does not endorse the Karl Lagerfeld diet.

S

March Vogue

This is a rather cool cover in contrast to the endless parade of ballgowns. Not that I want Vogue to become too street but, despite the clogs, I love this Alexa cover. What is the last taboo I wonder?

Nabbed from the Alexa Tumblr.

S

Maghound

I have just learned about this website Maghound in the US where you can sign up to what is essentially a bulk magazine delivery. For the absurdly cheap price of $5 you get any three magazines sent to you each month. You can swap which magazines you want whenever you like and there’s lots of packages for different numbers of mags. We need this in the UK! I am good for a lot of magazine purchases in a month. I should really subscribe to them all but it can be a hassle when you move. I would be especially inclined to sign up if there is a decent discount for buying more as I know I will anyway.

Magazines I read most issues of:

• Vogue
• Elle
• Glamour
• Marie Claire
• Look

And ones I will pick up if I’ve read everything else and am on a train journey or something:

• InStyle
• Grazia
• American teen magazine

Then there’s all the music and culture magazines I would consider if they were a tad cheaper. I love Word magazine but often can’t justify the £5 these days even though I know I will get much more reading out of it than three copies of Look would ever provide.

S

New magazines

I know we’re all very excited about the new Dasha Zhukova-edited Pop magazine but frankly, I spent my magazine money on Love a few weeks ago and I am bitter about it, so we will discuss it no further, except to say that I saw a couple of the beautiful Klimt-esque Tavi covers at the Tate Modern shop and I wanted them. But I walked away, and instead Sting’s daughter keeps looking at me from where I have placed her by the bed, ready to tear out all the good pictures when I have time.

Chosen purely for being "intriguing", Coco is undeniably beautiful and as quick-witted and silver-tongued as the average garden snail.

What I really like about Tavi is how eloquent she is. She does all fashion blogs a favour by writing in a coherent way without emoticons, about topics she is passionate about. I think she dresses well according to her own tastes and that’s good enough for me. As well as being photographed in her now trademark standoffish pose, she wrote a little blurb and it was much better written than a lot of the rest of the magazine, much of which was dross in need of a spellcheck.

Tavi in Love.

I had little to no interest in the heirs to the Playboy fortune, and I really didn’t need to hear about how boring lesbians are when they’re not busy being skinny fashion plates. It seems as if whoever wrote that article for Love hadn’t actually read Beth Ditto’s awesome cover story the issue before. The message of this little article was that lesbians should stop conforming to stereotypes or being political. Truly, under this banner slogan from a straight, married person, lesbians of the world can unite. Cats will be left to die in the street and sensationally talented but non-skinny vocalist kd lang will be declared bankrupt.

In other mag news, I actually spotted one I’d never seen before while prowling around WH Smith’s the other day (I spend quite a lot of time hanging out near magazine racks it seems). Why would anyone launch a magazine now unless it’s going to be amazing? The main question that needs to be answered is why anyone would launch this magazine at all, because look at it:

What does the title mean? It is clearly not a home or design magazine, it’s a fashion magazine. I was going to scrawl comments on this picture in MS Paint but they would all have been “?” as I am confused by everything. What are these bumps that lingerie can solve? Were there no better pictures of Cheryl Cole available? Have they been banned from using pleasant fonts?

I’m not averse to a personal makeover magazine. A long, long time ago there was a magazine called Looks that was all about “making the best of yourself” and it actually wasn’t too soul-destroying: as a young teenager I found a lot of the advice in it rather helpful. But then it didn’t look like someone decided a knock-off hybrid between Yours and Look was a brilliant commercial venture.

Saucer of milk for the S-drive today. I’m going to go and have a lie down now.

x S