Monday 9 August 2010

Magazines v Blogs - Fashion Forum Fortnight

Remember when Heat magazine was your weekly must have before Grazia? Four years on and do you still buy it?

It would be fair to say that in 2006 you probably didn't read a blog nor did you blog yourself! How things have changed. Do you agree with this statement?


What is interesting is the impact blogging has had on your life, not what the papers say. How has your intake of fashion been impacted by fashion blogs? Do you have favourite fashion blogs that influence you in respect of broader fashion horizons or give great advice you love to get? Do you prefer fashion blogs to fashion magazines? Or will nothing ever replace the front cover of the fashion magazine and the ability to pour over page after page?

Lots of questions I know but please give me your views and if would be helpful but it is not obligatory to state age - you can give approximates!

26 comments:

  1. My blogger friends are a constant source of style inspiration and fashion news, but I do still buy my monthly fix of Elle, Vogue or Harpers Bazaar to supplement my horizons. x

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  2. With blogs it is the daily fashion news fix that does it for me, whats in store, who has bought or is wearing what. Glossies are lovely to look at and obviously they are right on the money with trends but not with what is currently available due to lead times. I also like to see what real people are wearing and how they put looks together, I am beginning to get bored with blogs who post umpteen times a day and only have constant celeb coverage, I honestly don't know who half these actresses are (I have never seen twilight) and neither am I interested in who is on the cover of Japanese vogue - I don't give a shit, I'm not Japanese.
    P.S. Have WSGN asked you these questions? Just wondering because I have been asked similar.

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  3. I feel that blogs have led to fashion being more democratic; much as I love magazines (we need a bit of aspiration in our lives!) it's great to see what fellow bloggers wear, how they style things up, how they interpret fashions (often on a limited budget). Before blogs, it would be possible to get a fairly narrow view of current/catwalk trends, but I find it fascinating to see bloggers' myriad responses. Then of course, through blogs like Style Bubble, we have more access to new designers that we may have missed through mainstream fashion reporting.

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  4. I still love magazines but they are so spensive here. Whereas blogs are free!

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  5. I barely read fashion magazines anymore, and when I do (mostly because there is something free on the cover!) I generally find them full of stuff I can't afford and very prescriptive about what is in and out.

    I have hundreds of blogs on my reader and I find them far more of an inspiration because I can find people mixing vintage, high fashion, high street and thrift shop buys with stuff they already have in a way that actually works in the real world.

    I feel that blogs can be more about style than fashion.

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  6. Agree pretty much with what MrsBossa and Looking Fab have said. The blogs I choose to follow I love, mainly because they're so accessible and the content's updated regularly. I like looking at how people choose to put together their own wardrobes and hints/tips about how they got there. It's more applicable to my own life rather than, say, an article in Elle on how Erin Wasson dresses. But, having said that, I don't think blogs will ever replace magazines such as Vogue for the sheer fantasy appeal that they provide. They serve different purposes, I think, and that can only be a good thing.

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  7. Fashion blogs definitely provide more of an opinion than magazines. They will never replace Vogue though.

    Enjoy your week,
    Hannah x

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  8. I wonder if I'm perhaps completely outside the loop on this as I'm a relatively new blogger and have never gone in for buying fashion magazines. I do give into a weakness for Heat occasionally but I don't buy it for the fashion pages per se.

    I suppose I see the big fashion magazines as portraying some sort of unattainable lifestyle. I won't ever be able to afford all the designer stuff that features in them so there's not much point me looking at them. If I was going to do so, it would be as a form of art - admiration of the style and photography rather than seeing it as inspiration.

    Blogs are definitely more accessible. Personally I like to follow the blogs that express the person behind them. It doesn't have to be about fashion/style.

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  9. Do they still publish fashion magazines?;-)

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  10. I started reading blogs in 2005, but have only recently started writing myself. I find the blog format more democratic - a wider variety of ages, budgets and opinions are represented than in the more restrictive magazine format. It is also easy to choose what you want to read: I'm not interested in beauty products, so I don't read beauty blogs. I am interested in fashion, but avoid blogs where each post is the same outfit shot from a million different angles. Reading blogs is almost like being able to build your own magazine.

    I also appreciate that you get much more personality behind the writing. Sponsorship etc is creeping into blogging, but for the most part bloggers will say exactly what they think of a trend or product. The honesty is refreshing, and much more interesting than paid advertising dressed up as a magazine article. Speaking of which: advertising. It is out of control in magazines. I do actually LIKE looking at beautifully styled and photographed adverts, but when it comprises 50%+ of a magazine it makes me bored and angry.

    Honestly, this is something I could talk about forever. But ultimately, I think magazines have lost their way and I'm so often disappointed, whereas I read through my blog list with enjoyment every single morning.

    Age? Flirty thirty ;)

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  11. I never bought Heat but my best friend used to, I used to go round, she'd make me a brew and leave me sat for half an hour whilst I read her copy LOL!

    I obsessivly buy Grazia, Vogue, Harpers, Elle and Instyle if the US versions look good I buy them too. Sometimes I get Glam or Marie C if I really am bored but they arent really on my wave lenght, sometimes I buy Look when I want to laugh at the WAGS.

    I love blogs but nothing will ever replace glossies for me, I like to take them on the bus and read them in bed so practically blogs cant replace that. I also love the editorials and high fash styling, but I really hate it when they are over shot and you cant even see the clothes as the photographers inflated ego takes over, if I wanted art I would go to a gallery (sorry pet hate). The reason I love blogs as a blogger and reader is that they are 'real', they arent limited to what is expected. For example every Sept issue has the exact same clothes featured, how many times do I need to see a Burberry aviator so they can get repetative. I do wish some of the mags would mix up the styling, and how much do I hate 'more dash less cash', adding a £3 pair of socks doesnt not make an outfit cheap LOL! I would love to see some real styling in mags, and not just an odd page of bad street style, I love it in Elle where they do the 'what... wears to work'.

    So, yep I love both for different reasons, what I would really love is all the Vogues to be available in translated print! I love French and Japanese Vogues, my very good friend reads the important looking stories to me!!

    I also like to make scrap books which just dont look the same with piccies printed off the laptop, I like ripping out mag pages.

    So many things, so little time lol

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  12. Argh I just wrote a super long comment and it vanished :-(

    Basically I said I like both 4 diff reasons, and would like French and Japanese Vogues available in translation!

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  13. I love reading but my tastes have changed over the years. I read each month, Glamour, Easy Living and InStyle and then pinch my younger sister's cosmo and Company magazines. But it still doesn't feel like I would find an inspiration outfit on my budget and size, I do feel that for size 16 and above there is still not enough fashion coverage. I'm a really new blogger but have found that blogs have made fashion more accessible to me. I think the appeal is that its every day women talking about fashion from vintage, high street to designer but its not snobbish and there is no hierarchy.

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  14. I am totally with you on that first statement... I don't think I even knew what a blog was in 2006!

    That said, I am a magazine addict, so nothing could take the place of my glossies.

    I go to blogs for a different sort of inspiration, I suppose.

    Both types of media are indispensible to me!

    Fab post, darling! Very thought-provoking!

    xoxox,
    CC

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  15. I stopped reading fashion magazines a long time ago. I got so fed up of their crap advice on body shapes and the overly expensive clothes they showed. I especially hate a lot of the magazines like Heat (and to an extent Grazia), so and so too fat, so and so too skinny while all the time propagating an unhealthy body image for women.

    In terms of blogs yours is the only fashion blog I read! It's the only one which genuinely offers insight and fashion which discusses real issues like body image and shopping on a budget.

    If I had to read a fashion mag it would be Vogue or Harpers where it is all so above anything I can afford all I can do is dream...

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  16. I never bought fashion magazines before I started blogging and it was this blog in particular that opened my eyes to the world of fashion blogging and how huge the network was. In turn I became interested in fashion and now buy Grazia most weeks (I like the that the clothes are a bit more within my budget), Harpers and often Vogue (mainly if there's a good photo shoot).

    In my mind, the fashion blogs deliver more personal, 'real' thoughts with raw opinion and because of the medium, they're always on the pulse, which is why I like them. However, I've spent the last 13 years working in print and have a very biased preference to magazines (if I had to choose, otherwise I love to look at both), purely because I like to feel the paper (I love the Grazia stock) and smell the fresh print.

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  17. The only fashion mag I still read is American Vogue. I subscribe and I will always do so, love it.
    I get my fashion advice, inspiration, and greedy-gimme's from my bloggy friends. It's really opened up a fun new world for me, as most of my "rl" friends are not interested in discussing this frock or that with me.
    Oh, and I just turned 40!

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  18. I like to read magazines but it is very nice to see what normal people are wearing and talking about.

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  19. I'd never trade my mags for blogs, but I do enjoy blogs for the original, self-styled outfits. Mags could never match that.

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  20. I am more partial to fashion blogs as there is the opportunity to interact with other individuals on a global scale and observe other viewpoints that do not all fit with those held by our coterie per se.

    http://sunglassesandhandbags.blogspot.com

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  21. Love this series of posts. I read both blogs and magazines.Magazines are so practical for flicking through when I happen to have a few spare minutes while I look at blogs when I am taking a break from my work!

    I love the opinions and style of real people on fashion blogs, which is very different to the style of magazines which seem to almost dictate what you should wear each season.

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  22. When I now do the occasional magazine purchase I always feel like I've seen it before and I usually have because the blogs on to stuff as it happens.
    Still buy Grazia though, but not for the articles!!

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  23. I dont buy many magazines these days, and when I do there's always a vague feeling of disappointment. This is compared to age 15 when I would practically wet myself on getting hold of a new issue of vogue. It was a dreamland to me then. The times they are a-changing!

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  24. I have cut down on my magazine consumption because of lifestyle change & I just got sick of all the clutter. Can't give up American & Italian Vogue tho.
    Am definitely influenced by blogs but have only found a handful I can stand reading.

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  25. I started blogging last October. Before then I never read any blogs, now I read loads. I had a ridiculous magazine habit which is now slightly more under control. I buy less than I used to, I get Vogue, Tatler, Grazia, Elle sometimes, Heat sometimes (although I used to buy it every week - I read a lot less celeb magazines therefore don't know who some of these young American TV stars are anymore) and I read the Sunday papers. I say read; I tend to pile them up round the house rather than actually read them. I try and take a couple with me when I go to the beautician or hairdresser and get through them but mostly I'm out or glued to my laptop xx

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  26. No blogs will never replace my addiction to magazines, I subscribe to Vogue and Harpers and the thrill of opening the plastic to reveal the cover...and all my thoughts of frugality ..How I don't need anything turn into lust and I want everything.
    Blogs then become interesting as I love to hear what others think on the same subjects xx

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