Do you read fashion magazines/books?

nancylee

Before I found YLF, I was an avid reader of fashion magazines and books. I was always searching for ways to help refine and personalize my style, but the books tended to offer up stagnant cookie-cutter looks (the LBD, the tunic, etc.) and the magazines were so trend-focused it was hard for me to figure out how to combine my existing wardrobe with all the new pieces they featured (which is one of the things Angie shows us how to do so spectacularly well here on YLF).

I still occasionally look at a fashion mag just for the inspiration of a colorful layout or to check in on trend interpretations....but I have really cut back. And I have no desire to buy any more fashion books!

Just wondering how everyone else feel about this. Do you read fashion magazines/books now that you've found YLF? If so, what sort of help do they give you?

13 years ago

Book Club

31 replies

Latest reply was from Jaime

Louise

Veteran

Like you I used to love fashion mags but felt rather overwhelmed. Since finding YLF I rarely buy mags. I will read them if in the dentists waiting room or if someone gives them to me x

13 years ago

(website)

Veteran

Funny you should ask this. I don't really read them but just picked up a few month's old copy of Lucky and Allure for fun a few days ago at the thrift store. I've never read Lucky before and Allure I'll read when a GF brings hers in to work. I got nothing out of them. The clothing spreads are always too staged and fanciful for me to really see it as a look for my everyday life. I will say the one mag that I *do* get ideas from is People Style Watch but I haven't grabbed it in over a year.

13 years ago

Queen Mum

Veteran

I've never wanted to admit to it because I thought it was a given here... but no, I don't read style magazines. I rarely even look at them in the doctors office. YLF is my only source of the latest style news

13 years ago

taylor

Veteran

You bet I do.
Working in a Salon there is always a huge stack of People, Glamor, InStyle, Cosmo etc. everywhere...I thumb through for fashion ideas as well as current hair and make-up trends:)

13 years ago

Heather

Veteran

I love them all and read the ones I don't have subscriptions to while getting a pedi or waiting for an appointment or just pick them up on the newsstand. My DH and I get a lot of magazines, but I always collect them when we are done and pass them on to a friend abroad. =D

13 years ago

SW Ann

Veteran

I read at the local bookstore, or salon or library. I like the ads more than the layouts (esp vogue, bazaar, etc) because I do get ideas for what might like to add to my wardrobe, and what the new trends are..... Lots of good ideas in other "women's magazines" that are not fashion only publications--ie O, Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, etc. Worth looking at, I find.....

13 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I'm a magazine hound.

Thanks for the kind words, Nancy

13 years ago

rosee

Veteran

Not so much before or now (except when waiting for appointments in the sitting room). Most of my info was from online sources, but now YLF serves as my fashion outlet so I'll probably do it even less.

I have taken quite a few books from the library on fashion (I usually don't buy them b/c they date so quickly). I have "Pocket Stylist" and "Style Evolution" by Kendall Farr. I also have one called "The Little Guide to Vintage Shopping" by Melody Fortier. I also like looking at the Dover Everyday Fashions series from each decade since the 1900s. I get a kick out of looking at authentic vintage fashions and learning a lot about them too (I like the prices: $2.99 for shoes in the 1940s). Another book I have looked at (library) a few times is the Lucky Guide to different styles; I like the idea of these books but I think they have limited definitions of the various styles, and I don't find them that practical for developing a wardrobe capsule.

While I will check out pretty much any fashion mag, I like ones with other articles too, specifically Real Simple and More. I used to get Wish, a Canadian style and lifestyle mag, a couple of times a year (they went under).

13 years ago

rae

(website)

Veteran

I wouldn't say I "read" them so much as I flip through looking for outfits or pieces I'd like to copy.

13 years ago

thimblelina

(website)

Veteran

I hardly ever buy magazines, but I enjoyed the game Khris started making up looks from InStyle. So I might buy that magazine again. I hear you on the personal style books, most are pretty stale and trite. So far, I have loved Nina Garcia's 100 because it covered more bases than the usual white shirt, black slacks, dark jeans blah blah blah. And I love fashion bloggers. That's how I started coming here. I also check out sites like Refinery 29 which are more like a magazine. But hands down YLF wins, because it is a great place to see individual looks using accessible clothing on many different ages of women, body types, etc. in a relatively compact format. I find sites like lookbook sort of like visual chatroulette -- weirdly voyeuristic and utterly impersonal. I like street style shots from Copenhagen (with bikes!), SF, etc. [I don't want to wade back into that whole Sart thing, but while he practices so-called street photography, many of his shots are pointed at off duty models, fashion merchandisers and buyers, and the higher end consumers of fashion... so I just don't always relate... unless he's in Italy, and then I TOTALLY relate because in my mind I am an elderly Florentine woman riding a bike in high heels... so there!]. I think I like YLF best because it is like a coffeehouse or a salon, and you come to sort of peek behind a person's point of view and it helps push you to try new things yourself in a very kind spirited and low pressure way. L

13 years ago

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I have a problem with magazine addiction, ahem, left over from my enabling days as a graphic designer when it was all "research." Now I still have a lot of subscriptions, but they're trade mags (Photo District News, ArtNews, etc.), interior design mags (again, qualify as work since I work with the trade), and news mags like Mother Jones and Harper's (not Bazaar, the wordy one). Plus Nat Geo and Traveller. Oh, and Paste. Oh my, I still have a problem, don't I?

But I haven't subscribed to a fashion mag in ages, although sometimes I'm tempted, despite my ire with the prevalence of impossible beauty standards and the parade of Photoshop of Horrors. I usually just check them out when I'm waiting for a hair appointment or getting a pedicure. Once in a while, I'll pick up a Lucky or InStyle at the grocery or the bookstore.

Sometimes I'll treat myself to an afternoon at the bookstore cafe, when I just pick up a bunch of books to leaf through, and a style mag will often find its way in to my pile. But I don't often buy them.

13 years ago

April

Veteran

Because I take frequent medium-length train trips to SO's house, I love having a fashion magazine for the ride. By Friday night, I'm often too tired for serious reading, and a fashion magazine is just the thing.

But I have complained before about my fruitless search for a magazine that is about "real" clothes and how to put them together. Not high fashion (Vogue), not rich-lady fashion (Bazaar), not celebrity fashion (InStyle), and not fashion mostly for 20-somethings (Lucky). Those things are all wonderful in their way, but I'm craving a style magazine that specializes in affordable, hip, grown-up, flattering clothing that can actually be lived in.

13 years ago

nancylee

Veteran

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your opinions on this. April, I think your characterizations of the major fashion mags are spot on!

13 years ago

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I get a stack of magazines delivered ... Elle Canada and LouLou are the only ones I get delivered that are fashion-focused. I draw my inspiration from YLF more; and from my environments.

To be honest, I use the magazines as toilet reads ... and for coupons for makeup!

13 years ago

Barbara

Veteran

Absolutely, nancylee!

I've had a VOGUE subscription for decades.

My other favs:
LUCKY (love the sticker/bookmarks) - it skews young, but is FULL of inspiration.
HARPER'S BAZAAR - fabulous at any age, and they MEAN it.
IN STYLE - somewhat heavy on celebrity fashion but lots of fun
ELLE - good articles AND fashion info

My "fashion library":
Both of Kendall Farr's Books - POCKET STYLIST and STYLE EVOLUTION
ALL of Emily Cho's books, some from the 80s - she was a stylist before it was cool.
Both of the Lucky books: SHOPPING GUIDE and MASTERING ANY STYLE.
And MANY others, too numerous to mention.

13 years ago

anne

Veteran

I used to get InStyle out of the library before YLF - now I rarely bother. I do however, read most fashion/style books that the library gets in.
I used to enjoy browsing in this section of bookshops in years past when I had lunch hours. I remember Trinny and Susannah's first, pre-WNTW book - Ready 2 Dress.

13 years ago

Laura

Member

I read a lot, some of my fav are Vogue, Love, you can find alot of fashion magazines at http://www.laralist.org/vintage-magazines/

11 years ago

Anonymous

I don't. This is the only fashion blog that I participate in. I have a background in interior design so I tend to gravitate to those blogs and I subscribe to shelter magazines. The wide, wide world of fashion is a fickle place that changes so rapidly it doesn't hold my attention for long.

11 years ago

Aziraphale

Veteran

Not really. I get National Geographic delivered (have for years, yet rarely read an article), and occasionally I'll buy The Economist or Vanity Fair from the grocery store (I do read those ones). Never fashion mags though. Which is weird, because I love clothes. I think I get more inspiration from people on the street. It's hard for me to get excited about clothes a a six-foot, 120 lb model is wearing, because I know it ain't gonna look like that on me. At least with ordinary folk, I have a hope of emulating their style.

11 years ago

jurocha

(website)

Veteran

I have never read a fashion book in my life; after reading a few posts here I feel like dabbing into those waters. When it comes to magazines, I used to read several of them while being a teenager... right now I mainly get my inspiration from fashion bloggers.

That's funny because I will avidly read a fashion mag if I find it laying around somewhere: dentist/doctor's office, school benches, subways. But I am ashamed to say that the last time I bought one was last year!

10 years ago

milehighstyle (Linda)

Veteran

I subscribe to three magazines: People Style Watch, InStyle, and Lucky. Some issues are better than others, but I often get ideas on different color combos to try, pattern mixing, and ways to remix my wardrobe. I get these ideas as much from the ads as from the editorials. Also I find a lot of things that I want to buy, which for me and my bulging closet is not always a good thing. But a fun thing, nonetheless. I have a long commute on the train and don't always have a novel that I want to read, so magazines are great to pass the time. Also, my son is always having fund raisers for school, and a magazine is one of the few things for sale that I will actually use.

I get fashion books from the library once in a while, but not nearly as often as I did before YLF and other fashion blogs became my daily reads.

10 years ago

deb

Veteran

The current fashion magazines I subscribe to are InStyle and Elle UK.

10 years ago

Thistle

Veteran

Nope, I don't read either one. I really feel like most fashion magazines are more interested in promoting whatever products advertisers pay them to promote rather than giving unbiased advice. I quit my last subscription 4 years ago and won't go back.

Here is one of many reasons why:

Wonder why you never see women with gray hair featured positively in any sort of mainstream media? Because gray hair doesn’t make anyone any money. A very telling example from the must-read “The Beauty Myth” by Naomi Wolf is of a fashion magazine in the ’90s that featured a spread of beautiful gray-haired older women in all the latest fashions. Despite positive feedback from readers, one of the magazine’s main advertisers, Clairol, threatened to pull all its advertising support if gray-haired women were ever featured positively again. Thus, no gray-haired women are ever featured positively in any magazine that depends on beauty advertising dollars (hint: all of them).

10 years ago

DonnaF

Veteran

Nope. I've given up on fashion mags. Angie and this blog are much more relevant to my life. Color combo inspiration? Who better to look to than MaryK!

10 years ago

rachylou

Veteran

Ohmigosh. I could sell all my furniture and use my books and magazines for bed, tables, and chairs. I definitely read the fashion mags and books; they have their own section of *the library.*

Wouldn't, however, be able to tell you what impact they have on my style. Or what I read them for, in terms of shaping my own style. If I have any rules for dressing from a book, they probably come from the preppy handbook, haha. I find the list of useful shoes in there very handy...

10 years ago

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

I used to read many fashion mags years ago. Lately I tend to stick to YLF and a few other blogs since I just can't devote much more time than I am here. I used to like Glamours' Dos and Don'ts. I have a few fashion books I bought prior to YLF.

10 years ago

unfrumped

Veteran

Agree with nancy that YLF has been lots more practical help!

Having trouble paying up for them, since it seems there may be only one or 2 good pages (for me) in the whole thing. When free, I enjoy very much, can riffle past all the dross and not feel gypped. So the help/page-$$ ratio award lately goes to InStyle, more the outfit examples--"3 ways to wear the skirt", or the featured ensembles, because they really remind me I need to be more intentional about texture, pattern, and so on. Not so much the celebrity stuff. I think one problem is that I don't have as good an imagination for translating the kinda weird stuff in Vogue, etc to real-life clothes with some of the same vibes. In most mags the prices of the featured items make me gag, so that's a turnoff, even though intellectually I know you can find lower-cost versions or similar effects.

10 years ago

Kristin L

Veteran

I read Lucky and Instyle. While I love YLF, to me, nothing says I'm relaxing like leafing through a magazine. I also have a few fashion books, but it mostly for inspiration or questions I'm too shy to ask on YLB.

10 years ago

Peri

Veteran

I read them, but every time I do I remember that wonderful graduation speech by someone whose name I can't remember.

"Don't read beauty magazines. They will make you feel ugly".

So true. I'll be reading one and looking at all the perfect models and then look in the mirror and go...oh...yeah.

Like I forget who I am while I'm reading them!

10 years ago

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