Critical Journal

VOGUE OUTDOORS

Critical Journal

By Milla Marie Roberts C3579309 Word count - 2,013

VOGUE CONTENTS Fashion Editorial - Technological Advances - History of Magazines - Feminism Refelctive Practice -Kolb’s Learning Theory - Layout - Tone of Voice Editorial and Marketing - Print Media - Social Media - Experiential Marketing

Fashion Editorial: A Historical Perspective.

With the history of magazines being nearly as old as that of newspapers, the circulation of these in the 1700s – 1800s saw the idea of the magazine – ‘a store for a variety of goods’ becoming more widely available. Including short, informal essays, magazines such as the Review (1704-13) expressed singular writers’ personal views, “densely printed with few illustrations, offering comment to the satire comedy of the state (Whittaker, 2017).

Magazines rely entirely on two inter-related developments, technology and the rise of mass media. Involving improvements in presswork, lithography, introduced in the late 1790s, enabled the reproduction of text and images, finally becoming well known to other publishing agencies worldwide. However, the expensive nature of this reproduction meant that its audience stayed small and within the upper class.

Revolutionised press work was later transformed by the invention of the Linotype machine, producing lines of text at the same time. Technological innovations didn’t stop there; the steam press and rotary printing meant publishers could print millions of copies daily.

This rise of mass media showed the sign of wealth slowly decreasing over the century. Slicks – named for their glossy pages and aimed at more affluent readers, showed the symbol of wealth and the movement from black and white text. While in contrast, pulp magazines – made from low grade ‘pulp paper’ allowed accessibility to less affluent people as it didn’t just cost less but also innovated new genres and in “some respects introduced the golden age of magazine publishing” (Whittaker, 2017). Design revolution showed technological advancement, the contribution of modernism to this field of design, displayed a change in physical formatting from the early 1900s and used this for similarity with modern publications.

The design revolution influenced the beginning of photojournalism. Documentation of significant events has been around since the Civil war. Revolutionised by avant-garde magazine publishing demand grew as by the 1920s photography became mainstreamed with cameras starting to make smaller and portable. With more niche magazines and articles connecting with a broader range of audiences, the radical press had become a standard feature.

Digital developments with magazine production imposed a more accessible, affordable, and mainstream media. With the first digital magazine published in the early 1990s, computers allowed small teams to produce final publications quicker and more efficiently. Within the editorial market, the idea of mobile magazines adapted an old business model to the digital age. With changing consumer habits, magazines such as The Tatler (1709) and The Review (1704-13) shaped an industry to communicate with target audiences on a widescale and advanced with technology to adapt to the changing economy.

As of 2020, Harper’s Bazaar is the USA’s oldest magazine. Published in New York, and firstly in 1867. “In terms of quantities sold, consumer magazines dominate” (Whittaker, 2017), with the number of women’s titles taking over most of the top 100 is far higher than men.

Feminism and acts of it were deemed as aggressive or uncalled for in magazines and newspapers in the suffragette era. Prominent figures such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were proud of their appearances.

Still, some argued: that “they would win support if their view were not almost always enunciated by platform women” (Wilson, 2003).

Feminism constantly questions to what extent do ads and overall women’s magazines reflect the goals of the second feminist movement?

When considering technological advancement and female-owned magazines, targeting a specific audience displays the utilisation of social position as women and models of femininity and how this relates to male-biased standards of historiography. Historically magazines were edited by men and published biased views on economic and political issues. “Independent feminist periodicals have been a staple of the women’s movement since the 19th century” (Murphey, 2021). With the start of female-owned magazines coming from suffrage, literary contributions included regular articles on education, marriage rights and employment. The most devoted feminist paper was the Women’s Penny Paper (1888-90), both printed and published by women, becoming the first suffragist paper of the Women’s Liberal Federation. The importance of women-owned magazines comes from a shift in modern culture. For example, “women’s magazines in the late 1700s often included patterns to make clothes” (Gemberling, 2014), reflecting solely on female domesticity and gender norms.

In contrast, magazines now play toward the trend, informing the reader not to portray women as inferior to men. Undergoing significant transformation, the magazine and journalism industry has transformed significantly. The change in holistic attitude across the industry has shown how women can balance a full-time career while starting a family while also providing new and cultural landscapes for women through eh evolution of feminism appealing and progressing through the female society.

The most influential fashion editorial publishers include Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle. Vogue is still published today – and is arguably the most famous fashion magazine in the world. Printed on Galerie Fine gloss 80gsm, the modern-day vogue contrasts that of 1916 due to technological advances and consumer behaviour. However, obsessions with shoes and fascination with royalty never seem to change. With the primary target audience of women never evolving since its creation, Vogue readers couldn’t cast a ballot; however, now, women’s voices and votes and increasingly being heard and counted due to its editor Anna Wintour (Borrelli-Persson, 2017).

Refelective Practice: A Rationale for the Project Kolb’s learning experience highlights a four-stage process describing how we acquire and embed new knowledge, “providing a powerful theoretical and practical framework.” The continuation of the cycle explains how the learner first experiences doing something new or having a new adventure, reflecting on its experience and what can be changed, conceptualisation, by concluding and learning from the experience and experimentation of how the planning and execution of this will be beneficial to the learner and in due time other readers.

Primary research involved delving into Vogue UK magazines, reviewing content, layout, and imaging. Vogue’s design includes current innovative photography, highlighting its crisp and uncomplicated structure. However, my idea intended to create a sister publication to Vogue UK, titled ‘Vogue Outdoors’, a summer issue highlighting holistic changes in views of nature across the country while underlining new and upcoming brands that are sustainable in nature under the term of performance wear. From April 2019 to May 2020, Vogue UK managed to sell nearly 2.7 million copies, with its demographic mainly being adults 15+ and the 8th leading women’s magazine in 2020 (Statista 2022). The magazine itself is aesthetic like that of Vogue while also helping the readers enrich their knowledge with new products, brands, and global issues.

I decided to create a summer issue of ‘Vogue Outdoors’, focusing closely on how nature affects mental health and the importance of conservation, hopefully influencing either a change to sustainable shopping or promoting new interests in my heart.

The tone I wanted to convey was optimism, giving a sense of hope and a positive look at the future while relating it to positives within an ever-changing dynamic. This tone starts with the front cover, using a simple yet effective photograph to portray nature and its physical description. This is bright and airy while contrasting this with the Vogue title in bright orange. I also chose to add this colour throughout the magazine in small chunks to show continuity. I decided this due to the psychology of the colour orange being excitement, joy, and creativity (Elliot, 2015). When creating the logo head for the front cover of Vogue, I used the same font, this being Didot in bold (Vogue, 2022); this is also used throughout the magazine for headings, matched with Futura bold font to highlight the change in articles. Vogue magazine and its layout portray high end and luxury due to the minimalist front page, articles within, and the paper feel and colour of the paper. The inclusion of many different advertisements is key to the Vogue brand; however, I saw ads that didn’t relate to the articles when researching past archives.

To connect to the readership, I aimed to portray a sustainability vision through the articles and brands promoted within. To introduce the publication, I wrote an editor’s letter showcasing the contents of this issue of Vogue Outdoors.

Keeping in theme with past Vogue issues, this was important to include, setting the tone for the publication. According to Vogue, research conducted between 2020 and 2021 highlighted that “there was an increase within the Vogue audience who say sustainability is an important factor when making a fashion purchase” (Vogue, 2021). This stat had risen from 65-69%.

For this reason, I chose to include two articles and one shopping page to feature brands that keep sustainability at the heart of their designs. These are ‘how to shop with sustainability in mind’ and FjallRaven leading the change.’ This promotes one of Vogue’s brand highlights: “A Force for Change, unravelling opportunities to learn from the UK’s most brilliant creative minds” (Conde Nast, 2021). I wrote a minor feature on how photography benefits mental health and nature with a fellow photographer, ZRN photography. With this, I chose to ask how she best takes her pictures, how she publishes them and what equipment she uses. This was to imply to the reader how exciting nature can be and how you don’t need to be a professional to enjoy taking pictures. When researching Vogue UK and Vogue America, the interviews are usually written in a formal tone rather than the typical question and answer format, making it more like a conversational piece.

In contrast to the discussion, my first feature takes a severe approach, using stats to deliver a verdict on how mental health is affected by nature and outdoor environments. When researching the layouts of interviews, I found that Vogue likes to display their interviews surrounded by a quote that stands out to the reader and makes them want to learn more about the celebrity or influencer. I used the phrase ‘Interesting detail in Nature’ to make the reader spot what nature is all about, this being the changing seasons, the growing growth of new things, and the introduction of contemporary life. To reflect the layout of Vogue also, I made one shopping page dedicated to outdoor must-haves, this being the equipment that is deemed best for outdoor activities. This is used to make the consumer look into new brands and develop knowledge while building a unique brand rapport. These pages are targeted toward Vogue’s readership, in the UK being “796K and the total spend on fashion being 8.1K” (Conde Nast, 2021).

Editorial and Marketing I would use both print and digital magazines to promote my magazine, similar to that of Vogue now. This would overall maximise audience reach (Martin, 2021). “Magazines and social networks operate in two-sided markets with network effects. Social media offer an ideal platform for word-of-mouth marketing that uses peer recommendations to read magazines.” British Vogue has an audience reach of currently 20.4 million (Conde Nast, 2021) and a global reach of 86 million. The utilisation of these platforms is critical in the marketing of this magazine, which would be done primarily on social media. Showing parts of the magazine as sneak peeks would entice the consumer and the readership but particularly the younger audience. Vogue UK has a current following of 6.3 million, with Vogue magazine having 38.9 million. This would be broadcasted over both accounts showing achievability for this sister title.

Experiential marketing also highlights another way to gain publicity for this sister magazine. This would include digital billboards showcased within a major city, for example, London, due to this being a British produced magazine. The aim of this is to engage the consumer and encourage them to participate in the evolution of a brand, in this case, would be the supporting and reading of the magazine.

With the Vogue target market sitting at the 20-40-year-old mark, this would be ideal for appealing to their demographic and showcased through social media influencers and celebrities. Following traditional methods, displaying these magazines in stores will entice customers to look at the front overcover and flick between the pages before buying.

Critical Journal References @BritishVogue (2021) British Vogue Instagram [Online] Avaliable from <https://www.instagram.com/britishvogue/> (Accessed 25th May 2022) @Vogue (2022) Vogue Instagram [Online] Available from <https://www.instagram.com/voguemagazine/?hl=en> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Bashor, A (2017) [Online] Available from <https://www.hercampus.com/school/akron/importance-womens-magazines-our-modern-culture/> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Borrelli-Persson, L (2017) [Online] Available from <https://www.vogue.com/article/vogue-1251892-2017-compare-and-contrast-now-and-then> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Conde Nast (2021) [Online] Available from <https://cnda.condenast.co.uk/static/mediapack/ vg_media_pack_latest.pdf> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Elliot, A (2015) [Online] Available from <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC4383146/> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Germberling, K (2014) [Online] Available from <http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1039/feminine-agendas-the-historical-evolution-of-feminism-as-reflected-in-the-content-of-american-womens-magazines > (Accessed 25th May 2022) Martin, H.J (2021) The economics of word-of-mouth: designing effective social media marketing for magazines, Journal of magazine media [Online] Avalaible from <https://muse.jhu.edu/ article/773706/pdf> (Accessed 25th May 2022) McLeod (2017) Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle [Online] Available from <https://midatlantic.compact.org/wp-content/uploads/large/sites/61/2021/04/Kolb-Learning-Styles-Website.pdf> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Murphy, G (2021) [Online] Available from <https://artsandculture.google.com/story/explore-two-centuries-of-independent-feminist-press/fAUxKW6zWqZJKw?hl=en > (Accessed 25th May 2022) Statista (2022) Monthly reach of Vogue magazine in the United Kingdom from April 2019 to March 2020, by demographic group [Online] Availbale from <https://www.statista.com/statistics/380962/vogue-monthly-reach-by-demographic-uk/> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Wilson, E (2003) Adorned In Dreams. Second Edition. Published London: I.B. Tauris &Co Ltd. (Accessed 25th May 2022)

Image Refernces Critical Journal Vogue (2017) 1892 vs. 2017: What’s Changed, and What Hasn’t, Since the First Issue of Vogue Was Published [Online Available from <https://www.vogue.com/article/vogue-125-1892-2017compare-and-contrast-now-and-then> Behance (2022) Layout of Vogue Magazine [Online Image] Available from < https://www.behance.net/gallery/63937023/Layouts-for-Vogue-Magazine>

Magazine References and Appendieicies Ati, P (2022) Top 13 Fashion Magazines In The World [Online] Avlaible from <https://www.stylecraze.com/articles/top-fashion-magazines/> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Britannica (2010) Vogue American magazine [Online] Available from <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vogue-American-magazine> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Britannica (2010) history of publication: additional information [Online] Available from <https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/additional-info/history> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Chitrakom, K (2019) What fashion can learn from 2019 stop marketing moments [Online] Available from <https:// www.voguebusiness.com/companies/how-fashion-got-marketing-right-in-2019-glossier-rixo-jacquemus> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Ives, C (2004) Lithograghy in The 19th century [Online] Avalaible from < https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lith/hd_lith.htm> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Korte, B (2015) Between Fashion and Feminism: History in Mid-Victorian Women’s Magazines [Online] Available from <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0013838X.2015.1011893?scroll=top&needAccess=true> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Vogue (2017) The New Wave of Power Girl [Online] Available from <https:// www.vogue.co.uk/article/the-new-wave-of-feminism> (Accessed 25th May 2022) Vogue (2017) 1892 vs. 2017: What’s Changed, and What Hasn’t, Since the First Issue of Vogue Was Published [Online] Avalible from<https://www. vogue.com/article/vogue-125-1892-2017-compare-and-contrast-now-andthen> (Accessed 25th May 2022)

ETHICS FORM https://researchethics.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/print/view/99333

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FjallRaven (2022) FjallRaven X Specialized Collaboration [Online Images] <https://www.fjallraven.com/uk/ en-gb/clothes/fjallraven-specialized> (Accessed 10th May 2022)