Research is key! And that is the #1 lesson I have learned from this course. From a specific target audience (age, gender, socioeconomic status), to conventions of beauty magazines, it’s better to have more research and be knowledgable before we make our decisions. If we have research, then we don’t have to go back and do more when we’re actually creating our magazine.
So! Valentina, Catalina, and I got together yesterday in class and we had a genuine talk, weighing our options:
First, we all love the travel genre since we all recently traveled out of the country and have great pictures for our magazine, but these pictures were taken before we started taking AICE Media Studies. Thus, our shots have no technique and won’t add much to our magazine. (While taking the photo, I thought they were so beautiful! But now that I have more knowledge after taking this course, I realize the pictures had no technique...) Also, we could theoretically still do a travel magazine and create content about Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, but I just don’t want our travel magazine to look the same as everyone else’s magazine who is taking the course. So! What is the conclusion after all this ranting? We are not doing a travel magazine after all.
But! My group and I were discussing and we all realized we love beauty: Valentina is really good at and knowledgable about the makeup world, Catalina and I really love the fashion industry, and we all are super interested in skin and hair care. After researching more about the beauty/fashion genre together, we were all really convinced and decided this was the way to go.
I’m honestly so excited… I’ve looked at my mom’s fashion/beauty magazines since I was little and I’ve always enjoyed looking at the colorful spreads. Today, I dug out all of my mom’s fashion/beauty magazines from her basket and analyzed which ones I liked the most, what content this genre included, and what techniques I want to incorporate into my project.
I’m planning on making a case study blog post on some specific magazine issues I really enjoyed later on, but right now I’m still doing even more extensive research on the fashion/beauty genre.
Now for the research:
I did do a lot of research on the beauty genre on one of my previous blog posts, but I feel like I focused mainly on magazines that contain content on makeup, hair, and skin tips. So, for this blog post, I decided to widen my research into not only beauty but also fashion. This is because a lot of the magazines that have beauty recommendations also have fashion tips, like Vogue, Marie Claire, and Elle.
Some quick facts about the beauty/fashion genre:
-Target audience: 16-35-year-old women, with a middle to high socioeconomic status. Consequently, the models throughout the magazine and on the front cover especially are in the middle of this age range, about 20-35 years old. This is so that the magazine can appeal to the target audience; when they see this magazine on a bookshelf or at a grocery store, they will buy a magazine that they think is relatable to themselves or features a model/actress similar in age.
-Content: fashion trends, new styles, up-and-coming designers, interviews, skincare, makeup tips, and women’s issues. Many beauty magazines, including Marie Claire and Vogue, include interviews with the model from the front cover, or even inspiration/ mood boards. The idea of having an interview, with genuine questions and a raw picture is something I’d really like to incorporate into my edition of our group’s magazine. I’m thinking of interviewing my mom or maybe even a girl from school. Like the example shown below, I want to include a double page spread with a raw picture of the person being interviewed and a page with the text, with all the questions and answers. Here is an example that I found from Marie Claire: 
-Representation: Models are usually shown as perfect, with idealistic bodies. In fact, several magazine companies are known to photoshop, airbrush, and filter model pictures to seem more “appealing” and “attractive”.
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| Look at how edited this picture is! |
In the past few years, however, women’s rights and the #MeToo movement have given rise to a women’s rights movement, so magazines articles have evolved as a result. Several magazine issues have written articles on the fight for women’s equality in the workplace, columns on women who have made a change in the world, and pictures with models having their hair and body in their natural and raw style. I love this element for my magazine; I really don’t want to have edited pictures of my models and give women an unrealistic view of what a woman should look like (which I have experienced when looking at seemingly “perfect” models on magazine covers). Thus, my magazine pictures will feature raw, unedited pictures of women.
As can be seen on the front cover, this beauty magazine, Cosmopolitan, includes articles on the #MeToo movement and about a plus size, confident model. Although the masthead is in the signature pink Cosmopolitan color, the rest of the cover image completely breaks the conventions of typical beauty/fashion magazines. The model, normally “slim” and society’s definition of “attractive”, appears as a plus-size supermodel. Instead of talking about a fashion or beauty trend, the magazine decides to talk about how a plus size model is turning her back on her “haters”.
This element is something I want to incorporate into my magazine; through an interview, I really want to talk to a woman who has overcome obstacles to do something greater than herself. I’m thinking about interviewing my mom, who has a fashion brand, but I will talk about this in a blog post later on when my ideas are settled out!
-Distribution: Most of the beauty/fashion magazines sold are through print subscription services. Although there are still millions of magazines sold through online purchases (downloading on a tablet) and non-subscription purchases (like buying a magazine in a grocery store), the leading circulation of the magazine is because of consumers receiving the magazine in the mail through a subscription.
In fact, Harper’s Bazaar Magazine’s distribution in 2013 was 81. 2% because of paid and verified subscriptions (with 78.3% being in print format) and 16.8% from single copy sales. I acquired this information from a really useful slideshow about genre and representations in fashion magazines. This presentation was so handy in providing me statistics about fashion magazines’ target audience and demographics (including gender, median age, relationship status, etc). I will continue to reference this presentation for my magazine!
Whew! I feel like this blog post was all over the place (like my thoughts) but I had a lot on my mind and I just wanted to research the genre fully. I will probably continue my research, and I already have plans underway to create a blog post on a case study on a specific beauty/fashion magazine brand (probably Marie Claire), a blog post on ideas for my magazine (layouts, color schemes, content ideas), and also more research on what program I’ll be using to make my magazine. Next blog post, I think I'll organize my crazy thoughts before I start writing (this one was pretty long). I will continue to flip through magazines and more magazines...and still more magazines...
Thanks for reading!
Till next time,
Malena
In order of appearance:1) Larissa Kwakernaak, L. (n.d.). Interview spread | Magazine Design Inspiration | Pinterest | Magazine design, Magazine and Magazine design inspiration. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/73887250115216247/?lp=true2) Kennedy, M. (n.d) Photos That Show the Before and After Effects of Photoshop On Hollywood's Biggest Stars. Retrieved from https://twentytwowords.com/photos-that-show-the-before-and-after-effects-of-photoshop-on-hollywoods-biggest-stars/3) Harvey-Jenner, C. (2018, September 06). This blogger pointed out the double standard of criticizing Tess Holliday's Cosmopolitan cover. Retrieved from https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/a22993945/stephanie-yeboah-double-standard-tess-holliday-cosmopolitan-cover-criticism/4) Roberts, H. (2013, December 18). Fashion magazine - Genre and Representations. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/hayleylou11/fashion-magazine-genre-and-representations
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