American Vogue - Passé?

[tigerrouge]

I just cannot believe that Vogue US readership (11,398,000) is like almost 9 times more than British Vogue (1,307,000). That overwhelms me.

Last time I looked at the ABCs, UK Vogue was selling around 160,000 issues a month. To make the maths of the purported 'readership' work, are eight or so people sharing each and every individually-bought issue to bump 'readers' up to well over a million? Maybe, if most of those 160,000 issues are being bought by libraries...

Ah, media packs, those hyped-up sales packages, full of 'industry multipliers' of an imaginary audience, with half the figures based on replies from a survey.

 

[tortoisie]

^ Yes, that has always puzzled me. If circulation is 210,806 and UK actively purchased is 150,095 as listed in this media pack; how does it make total readership of 1,307,000?

...

I find the eds unbelievably repetitive. My subscription ended just in time, because if I saw one more model leaping about in the air, I was going to let out a piercing scream for about 10 minutes straight.

...

Is it my lack of interest / attention on Vogue US or is there really less of those leaping photoshoots recently?

 

[Scott]

i haven't purchased an issue of vogue in about three or four years,if that tells you anything. i flip through it every so often at supermarket counters and frankly i just put it down,left feeling discontented with the quality they're producing these days. it's virtually the same affect every month.

i suppose,it works for mainstream....stay-at-home mom-types or the prissy st. john shopper set.....but for the life of me,i cannot understand,how vogue and anna wintour,continue to weigh so much influence on this industry.....especially given the dismal approach their "fashion" content has gone.

 

[blueorchid]

but for the life of me,i cannot understand,how vogue and anna wintour,continue to weigh so much influence on this industry.....especially given the dismal approach their "fashion" content has gone.

I wonder how much it has to do with the decline of actual competition in the form of Harper's Bazaar and other American fashion magazines. I mean, Bazaar used to be pretty on-level with Vogue in the past, but now it's just embarrassing.

 

[Scott]

i agree,and especially under the helm of the late liz tilberis. in fact,harper's bazaar was consistently beating out vogue in those days. i still firmly believe when it comes to the established mags,that was the best era probably since the days of vreeland. anyway,after liz's death shook up the fashion world and american publications....kate betts going to bazaar initially and immediately getting sacked and then all the editors from each respective publication got spread out in other areas,it all kind of lost its edge.

i still think as an industry in this country we still rely too heavily on vogue and anna wintour's direction. i personally haven't found anything that inspiring about it since the early 00's. for too long,we've sat and witnessed anna completely ignore so many talents around the world only for her to pay special attention to those she personally likes best. completely the opposite attitude and feel it was in those early days of the new millennium and prior.

 

[Melisande]

What? The title of the thread is even a question?

On a recent US trip I opened a US Vogue and found content that would put teenage diarists to shame, the same model used over and over, editorials romanticizing cheap embarrassing behavior, not to mention boring conservative fashion. All on crappy paper quality. I'm sure I'd have found more abominations but I tossed it down in horror.

 

[RaisinBoy]

If you buy a 500+ pages magazine and only 120 of it are the actual editorial pages (photoshoots, articles etc.), you know there is something wrong.

I think people should stop making something different from Anna Wintour than she really is. She's just an editor in chief, she'll have to leave once and someone else will come. Let's just hope it happens soon, it should have happened years ago IMHO. The photoshoots are plain, unexciting, made to pleasure the undiscerning Carrie Bradshaw-ish New York women without any actual sense of fashion. And the articles? You could just read a tabloid mag to get that sort of information.

 

[Gigi Lamoroso]

I wonder what is going to happen after the fuss about Asma Al-Assad.

 

[LabelWhore4]

If you buy a 500+ pages magazine and only 120 of it are the actual editorial pages (photoshoots, articles etc.), you know there is something wrong.

I think people should stop making something different from Anna Wintour than she really is. She's just an editor in chief, she'll have to leave once and someone else will come. Let's just hope it happens soon, it should have happened years ago IMHO. The photoshoots are plain, unexciting, made to pleasure the undiscerning Carrie Bradshaw-ish New York women without any actual sense of fashion. And the articles? You could just read a tabloid mag to get that sort of information.

I'm not sure if you get how magazines work. Those all important ad pages are keeping the mag afloat. I also think that people should stop trying to make this magazine something its not. Its not the most fashion-forward and thats ok. I think Anna has really reflected the American attitude towards fashion in Vogue. Plus, the art direction and layout is among the best in the business. Good or bad it responds to its market (which is one of the biggest markets). This isn't VI or VP. Its strictly business.

 

[fashionista-ta]

I'm not sure if you get how magazines work. Those all important ad pages are keeping the mag afloat. I also think that people should stop trying to make this magazine something its not. Its not the most fashion-forward and thats ok. I think Anna has really reflected the American attitude towards fashion in Vogue. Plus, the art direction and layout is among the best in the business. Good or bad it responds to its market (which is one of the biggest markets). This isn't VI or VP. Its strictly business.

Ouch

 

[Modelo]

^ lol yes OUCH!! Because that statement is really an insult to many Americans who love fashion. Anna understands the business yes but that magazine in now way reflects American fashion. In fact, I am baffled as to why she doesn't know what people really want or what people actually wear when her office is in freaking Times Square and loads of people walk past that building all day everyday, both on 42nd and 43rd...

 

[blueorchid]

I think American Vogue definitely represents one very narrow aspect of American fashion. I mean, it's not avant-garde (or even interesting), but it exists. I really don't think that Vogue needs to be everything to everyone.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ But I think if it were interesting and useful to me, a lot of other people would agree

 

[Melisande]

I think American Vogue definitely represents one very narrow aspect of American fashion. I mean, it's not avant-garde (or even interesting), but it exists. I really don't think that Vogue needs to be everything to everyone.

I think the problem is more that people feel US Vogue no longer represents the Vogue brand with its historical reputation. Now it's veering dangerously towards being a woman's magazine rather than a fashion magazine (I think the same can be said of UK Vogue since eons ago but that's another topic)

 

[blueorchid]

Was Vogue ever cutting edge though? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the point, but when I look back specifically at American Vogue it seems very status quo to me. I don't know.

 

[PROPERMENTAL]

It was when the magazines buyer audience was people working in the fashion industry and the rich women who would look at the magazine for what colored Chanel suit to buy this week. But the thing that bugs me the most about this is that it seems as if she isn't taking fashion anywhere but quite the contrary almost trying to stop it's evolution.

 

[LabelWhore4]

I think American Vogue is almost exactly how it should be. They are no longer or never were the forward-pushing innovators of fashion mags. That burden has always been placed on magazines with a smaller circulation. Anna is more business woman than any other fashion editor.

 

[loladonna]

I think the problem is more that people feel US Vogue no longer represents the Vogue brand with its historical reputation. Now it's veering dangerously towards being a woman's magazine rather than a fashion magazine (I think the same can be said of UK Vogue since eons ago but that's another topic)

Vogue is nothing like typical women's magazines (Cosmo, Glamour..etc). That is a grand leap. Vogue distinguishes itself by its focus on exclusive and high end clothing and art. I've never read about artists showing installations at the Met in Marie Claire or Glamour likewise I haven't seen endless articles in Vogue on how to please your man in bed. Vogue also has a regular focus on gourmet food in addition to it's focus on fashion and designers. Jeffrey Steingarten's column is always one of my favorites.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ And I have no idea what that column has to do with fashion. I'm a foodie, and I find it TMI. Plus I don't live in New York, so I can't go get the things he's talking about. Sometimes I wonder if they realize tout le monde does not live in Manhattan. I think they believe all the important people do.

 

[loladonna]

^ And I have no idea what that column has to do with fashion. I'm a foodie, and I find it TMI. Plus I don't live in New York, so I can't go get the things he's talking about. Sometimes I wonder if they realize tout le monde does not live in Manhattan. I think they believe all the important people do.

Vogue is a lifestyle magazine with a main focus on fashion. Most of the Vogue issues cover a range of subjects related to an uber-wealthy lifestyle- fashion, art, architecture, entertainment, vacation, beauty...etc. The magazine would be boring if they just showed pics of models in designer clothes with no other context about the type of lifestyle that would necessitate wearing those clothes.

I don't live in Manhatten but I love dining and cooking so the Steingarten articles are must-reads for me. He has featured articles on delicacies that can be ordered to ship so his suggestions are not necessarily limited to New Yorkers.