Return Creativity to Fashion Mags

Blake Lively, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish — not only high-profile names but the faces of Vogue’s September, October and November covers. Founded in 1892, the celebrated magazine often features high profile individuals, has been famously heralded as the “fashion bible” and boasts publications in 28 countries.

American fashion publications like Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Vogue have historically served as outlets for all types of creatives, giving photographers, editors, illustrators, makeup artists, stylists and writers a chance for their work to be viewed by a national audience. 

Vogue’s earliest covers were all hand-illustrated, giving exposure to many creatives, such as Eduardo García Benito and René Gruau, whose careers took off from the distribution of these magazines. 

But a gradual shift has taken place in American fashion magazines during the 21st century, one that started in the ‘80s issues and has been growing ever since. Fashion magazines have turned their focus from original, eclectic content to something with more face value — celebrities.  

With so many of these magazines falling on their knees to worship celebrities and their style, I often feel like I’m tapping through Kendall Jenner’s Instagram story when flipping through Elle. Fashion magazines have drifted from engaging content — fashion, lifestyle, culture, art — and traded it in for pages oversaturated with celebrity life and omnipresent advertising. 

This mind-numbing combination has — miraculously — made reading a fashion magazine boring. In its September 2019 issue, Vogue totaled 356 ad in a 596-page magazine, according to Women’s Wear Daily. 

The same month, Elle printed 201 pages of ads in a 364-page issue, and Harper’s Bazaar clocked in 222 ad pages within a 398 page magazine, according to Women’s Wear Daily. All three covers featured celebrities. 

There’s nothing inherently wrong with highlighting celebrities. Having a celebrity on a cover or in an ad can boost sales. But when a magazine becomes overly reliant on celebrity features and endorsements, there isn’t much material left to jump into or pore over. 

In this era of rapidly-evolving digitization, fashion magazines have fallen behind. Online issues keep publications afloat, but the golden age of print media is long gone. Magazines especially have been struggling to keep up — and the constant stream of celebrity content isn’t helping. 

Fashion magazines should return to their roots and feature more articles on the art of fashion construction, culture and its global impact, rather than what’s inside Dua Lipa’s Birkin bag. 

Instead of dissecting Hollywood life, I’d like to see the spotlight thrown on new, unknown designers. I’d like to read articles about fast fashion’s effect on climate change or social class signaling through fashion.

Bring back illustrators for covers. Highlight creativity in the fashion world. Unique content is how many publications built their audience — it’s now what they should return to to keep print culture alive. 

Major American fashion magazines should take a page from smaller indie works such as Voir Fashion or BRICKS Magazine. These publications balance celebrity pieces with writing that dives into the cultural and political aspects of fashion or highlights new designers. This balance makes for a far richer read than a steady stream of celebrity updates. 

On a brighter note, Vogue Italia re-introduced illustrations to their covers to give exposure to creatives and reduce the environmental impact of expensive photoshoots. These covers aren’t only fresh and interesting to look at — they also reduce all the international travel emissions and plastic waste created from a single photoshoot. 

Fashion magazines should serve to highlight fashion as a unique art form and a marker of human creativity — not a pedestal for our nation’s wealthiest and most affluent.