#fall issue

Leeteuk posing for “FRAIS” Magazine fall 2021 issue.

Maty Fall

for Self Service | Nov 2020

December 1961 cover

Artist: Kelly Freas

The September fall fashion issue of InStyle has come to my attention, and it has left me astonished and more than a little angry and I don't even care that much about fashion magazines. For starters, the first 59 pages are nothing but ads. Feel free to go take a look and rest assured (or horrified) that I'm not lying. It's merely a long-winded herald of the calamity that lies ahead.

Nearly all the ads are placed on the right-hand page, since that is the first page your eyes will see and be drawn to. This occurs on nearly every page so really, out of 440 pages, more than 220 are of various fashion and diet related advertisements.

The "focus" of this issue -a term I can only use extremely lightly- is Selena Gomez. Her name is on the spine, and her face is on the cover. She gets a single page of biography and interview. Seven pages are entirely devoted to pictures of her. Some of them even have quotes!

Any editorial or written material that does appear like sparse oases of intelligent thought and review is crammed into small word blocks on insufferably busy pages, and read more like a terrible version of Us Weekly or People Magazine. Oh, and you know that Selena Gomez article I mentioned earlier? I partially lied. It's more than one page, but they say "continued on page 435" which is at the back of this rage-inducing tome. Speaking of the back...

The rest of the articles that make brief appearances in this glorified paperweight are all crammed into four pages in tiny font at the very end of the magazine. How charming. Honestly, even a student with no editor experience would look at this and see some serious problems.

Moving onto the actual content, I saw almost nothing that related to the season it claims to be celebrating and promoting. Again, it read more like a terrible teen magazine or People Magazine. Where are the fashion trends from around the world? Where are the new designers pushing awesome products and trying to make names for themselves? Where are the articles about what inspired designers and what could inspire your wardrobe and aesthetic in turn?

Afterglow Magazine photoshoot.

Dylan Ali | SHE MEANS BUSINESS

for Office Magazine | Oct 2020

CAP 74024 | Nov 2020