During my vacation at home I’ve decided to write about the sad reality of the Israeli fashion magazines field. I was supposed to tell you how there aren’t any fashion magazines in Israel, only feminine press of questionable nature.

I was supposed to write about LAISHA, the #1 publication in this field. The kind of magazine that puts a pretty girl on the cover and surrounds her with embarrassing titles like “What’s a multiple orgasm and how do you get it?”, “What to tell your boss to get a raise?”, or “Prepare yourself for the bikini season”.

I was supposed to say that the weekly LAISHA (in Hebrew: for the woman…) was established in 1947 and has been organizing the national Beauty Queen pageant since the 50’s, so much for advanced thinking. I wanted to tell you how it is filled with foolish articles, bad-tasted fashion spreads, recipes and decoration tips. I was going to say that LAISHA is low, very low.

But then I brought a copy to my mother’s house…

“Oooh!!! LA-I-SHA!”

Within 3 hours, it was read by each and every one of my fully adult, very intelligent sisters…

I still believe that LAISHA is cr@*. Addictive cr@*.

Have you ever asked yourself what’s between fashion magazines and naked girls? Aside from the occasional glimpse of a thought, I didn’t put my mind to the question (I mean – they have to have an artistic reason to put nudity in there, right?) , until I came across Lula Magazine.

There’s something about it that screams “I’m a fashion magazine for girls”, but it’s hard to put the finger on what it is exactly that makes it so girly. Flipping through its pages, this British publication resembles a lot of other magazines: starts with a Marc Jacobs ad, ends with a Chanel back-cover, filled with girls wearing dresses that would fit a princess…
Oh, that must be the unusual part: all the models in this magazine are fully dressed.

How strange…

Yet, the trick seems to be working. Lula magazine is one of those rare publications that actually get all sold-out, at least in Paris.

Could we be tired of soft porn in fashionable disguise? Interesting…

Chloe Moretz by Aitken Jolly, Wonderland

Wow… It’s been way too long since I took the time to discover a new magazine (too much work at the office, too cold outside to go to look for one, with the winter-clock the days are too short to do anything anyway… But these are only lame excuses).

Finaly, it was worth the wait. The latest addition to my library (or my huge pile of magazines) is Wonderland, a title that promises a lot and delivers just as much.

First of all, Wonderland’s inner division is very comfortable for the reader – the commercial ads are only in the very beginning. After them, it’s a big party for the eyes and the mind with numerous fashion spreads and finely arranged interviews (last issue’s covergirl is Chloe Moretz, the very talanted and intriguing 13 year-old actress form Kick-Ass).

Online, It seem that Wonderland is trying to stay somewhat of a mystery. On their web site you won’t find an “about” rubric, neither on their Facebook fan page… What I could find out is that’s a London based publication, founded in 2005 by Huw Gwyther (Publisher and Editor-in-chief).

Speaking of which, the only thing really missing from this magazine is the editor’s note, but I found a piece of interview that could maybe do the trick :

Huw Gwyther: ”I felt there was a gap in the market for a magazine covering all areas of contemporary culture and style – everything I’m interested in basically – but with a fun, tongue-in-cheek tone that never takes itself too seriously. It’s my ideal magazine… I want Wonderland to have something for everyone, and to reach as many people as possible. Above all Wonderland should be inspirational – not dry, or too serious – but constantly surprising, informative and always visually stimulating”.

Nicely said Mr Gwyther, but… In fact….  Please note that nothing beats a good old-fashioned Editor’s Note.

One of my latest and most pleasant discoveries is an object I’d like to call a “calm” fashion magazine. Meet I LOVE YOU (I love you, please meet Issues).

This German publication is only one year old (5 issues up until now), but is already very put together, concept-wise. It is a magazine that was born up side down, from the web to the print - Christiane Bördner, Editor in chief, was first a blogger. As she said in an interview to the New York Times, she was looking to create a magazine that speaks to the readers eye-to-eye, like blogs. “I like the idea that consumers produce for consumers. I read that in 10 years 50% of the entertainment will be produced by consumers, and you can see it’s already happening… I am sure younger generations prefer to read the news on Facebook than the newspapers”.

Sure, many have said such things before and ended up creating yet another content-less, unidentifiable magazines. But I Love You proves to stand behind its ideas better then them. It’s filled with beautiful productions and well written, amusing texts. However, when you look through its pages, you don’t feel completely out dated, ugly or short. You don’t have a sudden hole in your chest and your finger doesn’t take a life of its own, traveling to topshop.com, cos.com, asos.com or others, searching for something to buy in an attempt to make you feel better.

I do have one little itch about I Love You – the paper on which it’s printed doesn’t do well to photos… But you can’t have it all right, do you?

I Love You magazine, 7 euros

Photographer: Walker Brockington; Model: Vick @ Elite Models NYC

The new business year is here, and along with it comes new reading material from all over the world, even from across the Atlantic. One of them is the fresh, colorful, nicely mise-en-page, Vaga Magazine.

Editor-in-chief and creative director Fernando Lahoz has been working in New-York for several years as an art director in fashion. In his new and promising publication he plans to showcase emerging talents in the fashion industry next to experienced veterans.

Issues: How was Vaga born?
Fernando Lahoz: “I started this project with my closest friend and NYC based photographer Walker Brockington.

As an art director I spend a lot of time looking for new, interesting and different visuals that inspire me. I wanted to create a way to do something relevant with all this huge collection of images… like returning the favor to all these anonymous people who inspired me”.

How is it different from other magazines to you? What was missing from the market that Vega can deliver best?
“We are like an open back door to the fashion industry. It is an open magazine, with a good attitude towards new creatives and with the capabilities to promote their names since we put them next to relevant photographers and artists in the industry”.

How does this open door policy work? Can young designers just send Vaga an email with their book?
“Yes. We are always looking for new talented people. Our full contact information is in our website. Next month we are launching a new space in our site called “VAGA IN MOTION” where we are going to be showcasing these new artist and multimedia fashion editorials”.

The very first issue of Vaga was recently printed in 1000 copies, under the theme “In love with a teenager”. The magazine will be published biannually, and sold online and in selected newsstands in NYC (“soon getting to London, Paris, Berlin and Madrid”, adding Fernando). Price: In US 15 dollars, In Europe 17 euros.

Vogue Paris (the most rebellious of all 18 international Vogue editions, according to some) celebrates 90 years of existence with an overwhelming 624 pages issue. The index is on page 80, in case you were wondering.

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott are responsable to the cover of this special edition, featuring the beautiful Lara Stone – close friend of the editor in chief Carine Roitfeld. On the inside (besides ads) is a retrospective of 90 years of fashion à la française. The courageous readers that will keep turning the pages discover near the end of the issue a real jam – vintage interviews of glorious women that were re-printed for the occasion: Romy Schneider, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, Liz Taylor and Catherine Deneuve.

The birthday issue comes with a supplement – “90 years of daring”, gathering some of the most outrageous photos published in Vogue (including the work of Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, Terry Richardson, David LaChapelle, David Sims, Mario Sorrenti Steve Klein and more and more…).

Happy Birthday!

(P.S. if you’re going to get a copy, learn from my mistake and buy it close to where you live… 624 pages are almost 2.5 Kg to carry)

A visit to Palais de Tokyo’s wall of magazines ended up with an interesting discovery: Show Off#, published by the fashion department in the Royal Academy of fine arts in Antwerp. This product’s main goal, I assume, is to promote the school’s program and attract students all the way to Belgium, but it’s delivering more than expected…

In between students’ sketches and impressive finished designs, there are some  surprisingly interesting articles. For instance, the one that describes final year students’ encounter with H&M representatives – Margareta Van Den Bosch, head of designer collections, and Beata Aurell, responsible for design work placements and internships.

During the conversation, Van Den Bosch shared some juicy details about the company’s collaboration with Madonna (2006-2007). “I went to see her to talk about her favorite clothes. She really didn’t have a clue. All she said was that she liked trench coats , High heels and black dresses, which wasn’t a lot to work with…. She kept changing her mind: she first wanted one fabric then another “. Luckily, almost everything worked out eventually… “Only the shoes were a problem : she wanted very high heels, over 10 cm, and we told her that wouldn’t work. She insisted and we gave in. They just didn’t sell”.

Don’t you giggle just yet, this is a magazine published by an academy. You are bound to learn something about H&M by the end of the text… 600 (!) people are drawing the designs of the Swedish giant today. The company now has 74,000 employees worldwide, 81 % of them are women. The H&M team wouldn’t reveal any details about a designer’s pay-check.  Oh well,  they already gave us Madonna.

As the Parisian sky’s getting cloudier with each passing day, the new issue of Dansk comes to provide us with some gloomy thoughts for the upcoming autumn.

It seems like this last year has been a real eye-opener for Dansk’s editor-in-chief, Uffe Buchard (Mr Boss). After denouncing the over-consumption culture in the November issue, he’s now criticizing the constant search of the new, the young and the experimental in today’s fashion industry. “The lifestyle we currently aspire towards is completely different than the one we sought after two years ago…. My editorial team and I are suddenly interested in an ascetic sort of life, where everything isn’t about more, more, more but rather about the undiluted essences of life… We forsake bullshit, extreme youth worshipping and uncritical celebration of newness for a life governed by modesty in all its shapes and forms”. Amen.

And so, the theme of  Dansk’s latest issue is modesty, a quality so rare nowadays it can even become trendy (hell, you give a teenager a camera and the only thing they find interesting enough to photograph is their own reflection in the bathroom mirror… I’d say modesty is more than welcome in our world).

Translated into getting dressed every morning, modesty would mean stability, consistency, honesty -  not losing our heads over the it bags/prints/cuts in the magazines and embracing a real personal style. A look  in which you feel like yourself only better, bla bla bla bla… Of course, these are the principles of every good wardrobe. The only problem is they’re not so easy to follow… 

If you really want to find your own voice, your own personal and unique style, there is a simple experiment which will help you clear your head from all those seasonal dictations. Just try not to go shopping for one month. Is November good for you? No? February then?

5 reasons to like Twill Magazine:
It is well presented
It has some really beautiful photographed productions
It has depth articles about real subjects
You can read it for free online
You can read it for free online (this one counts twice)

So why do we hate it?
Well, you know how sometimes you see a really beautiful girl/boy and then discover s/he has a very bad character? After a while you start thinking they’re not that pretty, unattractive even… The same goes for Twill – It might just be the most obnoxious magazine there is.

My relationship with this publication started-off on the right foot. Twill is a thick magazine divided into two sections – the first is made of articles (in the last issue the theme was democracy). The second part is dedicated to photographed pieces, many many many of them, to my liking.
True, the price tag was a little disappointing – 25 euros, but I got over it when I found out that the whole content of Twill is accessible online.  The problems only started later that day, when I got to read Twill’s Manifesto.

First of all, Twill’s people explain, “this is not a fashion magazine”, and even if you found it next to Numéro and Paper Planes, don’t be mistaken to believe so. Because Twill is an  ”intellectual magazine”, and the fashion spreads in it are actually “glossy storyboards”.

Twill is also “an exclusive magazine that only few people can enjoy”, so if you didn’t get your PHD yet, leave it aside for those who can understand the big words.

And that’s not all, “each text is printed only in the original source language (English, French, and Italian) assuming a truly cosmopolitan audience”. If you happen to speak Spanish, Russian, Chinese or any other mambo jambo, don’t even bother to make sense of this.

Are you offended yet ?

I was. But then I started asking myself what kind of person would write these lines? What kind of person would publish a beautiful magazine and then apologize for it? What kind of person would insult their target audience? …I’m sorry, but if I want to read about democracy I’ll probably buy The Economist.

There’s no doubt about it, Twill is a Fashion Magazine, but it’s made by people that have to hide their interest in style under a thick layer of so-called intellect.
All of a sudden, I don’t feel like reading it anymore.

Holding up to its name, in the headquarters of Stiletto magazine you see shoes everywhere you look. On the walls in frames, on the shelves as decoration, as book-holders, in miniature figures and, of course, on the feet of the employees.

The 7 years old french magazine had made itself a home in a classic parisian apartment situated in the popular neighborhood Strasbourg Saint-Denis. From there, Stiletto covers the world of the Luxe and the french know-how, developping an on-growing international public of readers and surpassing its French competitors worldwide. It built itself good reputation by paying attention to the details – from the quality of the paper, to the quality of the image, putting in the front of the stage the most beautiful articles the season has to offer.

Every semester Stiletto comes out from the printing house with a perfume of a work well done.

Issues : How is Stiletto different from all those other magazines ?
Laurence Benaïm : Stiletto is an independent magazine, it doesn’t belong to a big group. Therefore, we don’t yield in front of dictations and trends. We are choosing ourselves the most beautiful pieces, with the most personality. Stiletto is trying to capture today’s spirit, of this time and period by celebrating the beauty and the luxury. We are not a Platform to showcase everything that is new, we sort out the collections and publish a selection of pieces.

Besides the beauty, we try to transmit emotions through portraits, through encounters. In every issue we give an artist a “free pass” to photograph a pair of shoes, for example. Behind each issue there is real fondamental work and reflection.

You’ve mentioned the spirit of our times. What is it about, in your opinion ?
Today is about dealing with the overflow of information on the internet. Everything is changing constantly. We are currently looking into ways to use IPad applications, to present a new experience of the magazine to our readers. Yet, in print there are certain qualities that don’t pass on the screen. The paper, the hot ink impression…

Today is also about the return to the imaginary. It’s a joyful side effect of the financial crisis. People maybe spend less on clothes, but they’re putting more emphasis on the make-up, the hairdo… They are drawn back to the fantastic, the theatrical, the extravagant.

There’s a contradiction between the influence of the luxury industry, on which you focus in Stiletto, and the percentage of people who can actually afford buying these objects.
Stiletto is not a catalogue, it’s not made for people to flip through and  then buy what they see. We want to make our readers dream. The beauty holds a message of love, of magic. It is not the property of the rich, it doesn’t belong only to those few who can buy  themselves a bag for 3,000 euros.

We don’t sell or censure anything, we show what’s pretty without judging.

Do you have any red lines – something you will never publish in your magazine ?
I will never put a photo of a 10,000 $ dress in the mud just because it’s “interesting” or to satisfy someone‘s ego. At the same time, I will never put that dress in a golden cage to show it’s unattainable… It was done a lot during a certain time, gladly, magazines are over that trend now…

Also, the girls photographed in the magazine can’t be trash. I hate trash. I hate showing a sick or a drugged girl in beautiful clothing. I want to transmit beauty and I hate that “snobbism of the garbage can”.

Are there any figures in the world of the Luxe who inspire you again and again ?
Yes. The artisans – the workers in the ateliers. The time seems to stop when they are focusing on a piece.

… I’ve read that your grandfather was a milliner…
That’s why i’m so fascinated by these workshops. I take it from my childhood.

Last question – Why shoes ?
It’s a fine symbol. It’s an obsesion.

How many pairs do you own ?
Quite a few…

Stiletto Magazine (France), 4 Issues/year, Price: 5 euros