Favourite Magazine Issues of All Time

[blueorchid]

Well, because I'm tired of opening up the Magazines forum and getting fright after fright with each new terrible magazine release these days, I decided to be the change I want to see in the world. 🌈✌

Question for discussion: What are your favourite all-time magazine issues? What are your favourite all-time editorials? What did you love about the issues? Why did they spark joy for you?

I'm inspired by Vince Aletti's book Issues. Have a look at the Vince Aletti thread, @alwaysademo generously scanned some of the book:

Thread 'Vince Aletti'

Jun 15, 2024

Vince Aletti is a photography critic and writer. He has perhaps one of the largest personal magazine collections in the world. He puts out a great fashion book called "Issues" in 2019, in which Vince curated a selection of 100 issues from as far back as the 1920's til 2019, gave his observant take on the development of photographers and editors & chronicled how photography develops in the specific landscape of fashion magazines in the 20th century.
I'll post scans tomorrow.

img source: vanityfair

• alwaysademo
• Replies: 36
• Forum: Behind the Lens

Phaidon

 

[kasper!]

From Testinofan

It's hard to choose but maybe this is my all-time fav issue. Peak time for Carine and her team. No one can reach that high after this.

 

[BalkaniStaCouture]

Vogue Paris No 803 Dec 1999 Jan 2000 Fashion Magazine Special Double Number​

(magnif.jp)
​

 

[JPineapple]

Vogue Paris No 803 Dec 1999 Jan 2000 Fashion Magazine Special Double Number​

(magnif.jp)
View attachment 1343425​

if it's not much to ask, can you please post some snaps of the issue? I'm desperately seeking the contents but I can't find them anywhere

 

[mikel]

I always circle back to the first couple of issues I ever bought, when I was about to turn 18: Pop S/S 2003, Vogue Italia March 2003 and US Vogue March 2003. I can still remember looking at them for the first time. Everything felt so fresh and so new and a completely different world.

 

[BalkaniStaCouture]

if it's not much to ask, can you please post some snaps of the issue? I'm desperately seeking the contents but I can't find them anywhere

It was really crazy to grab my hands on this issue. I finally did it few years ago for a hefty price. I will in few days. Not at home now.

 

[aracic]

if it's not much to ask, can you please post some snaps of the issue? I'm desperately seeking the contents but I can't find them anywhere

I've got it ready to scan at some point... if you'll have the patience

 

[aracic]

I always circle back to the first couple of issues I ever bought, when I was about to turn 18: Pop S/S 2003, Vogue Italia March 2003 and US Vogue March 2003. I can still remember looking at them for the first time. Everything felt so fresh and so new and a completely different world.

Same! The issues I first bought still hold very special meaning for me and amongst them are Meisel's Oil Spill and Super Mods Go To Rehab issues, along with Klein's couture supplement in black and white with models in laced veils, I think it was 2007 too? God, I loved those. Roversi's Fall 2011 couture was among those I first bought and I've loved it since. I think it was Frida on the cover...

 

[LastNight]

Amazing thread idea, can't wait to read more about everyone's favourite issues!

A few jumped to mind when I started thinking about it, but I had to begin with UK Vogue December 2008, with Kate Moss by Nick Knight on the cover.

vogue.co.uk

I started buying Vogue in the summer of '08 (when I was finally brave enough to go up to the counter with a copy as a 15 year old boy), and the year ended with this glorious issue. Through a mixture of nostalgia and genuine appreciation of the content, this issue is lodged in my brain as a kind of gold-standard for festive issues. Even though there are covers I love more than this one, and tonnes of beautiful editorials in the years before and since, something about this issue just has a hold on me.

It was everything I expected a fashion magazine to be; Kate Moss in a couture gown draped along a fold out cover, unabashedly glamorous. Yes it was her third cover of that year, but I never tired of seeing her. The stunning Nick Knight shoot 'Fantasia' with Lily Donaldson and Jourdan Dunn is one of my most cherished Vogue stories ever. It features my all-time favourite Nick Knight photograph: Lily swirling around in an archive Galliano creation, with pink powder flying off the dress. I have a big print out of it framed in my home.

photographicpictures.tumblr.com | showstudio.com

Then there's the Tim Walker shoot 'Tales of the Unexpected'. This is back when he still did those elaborate props and set pieces. Are there better Tim Walker shoots? Yes, but this was so much fun and I *think* it was my first time seeing a shoot of his in real time. I had mined this forum for every bit of information I could find about magazines - and fell in love with previous examples of Tim's work along the way - but I think this may have been the first new editorial of his that I had seen published since I began buying. It featured Karen Elson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton and a few other faces in Walker's take on Roald Dahl stories. The story was of course accompanied by a piece written by Sophie Dahl - British Vogue never missed the opportunity to feature a posh girl with a famous last name. And honestly? Hate to say it, but I loved that about them.

chinabambi.wordpress.com

There's also a fun shoot by Demarchelier with Anja Rubik. It's a lovely editorial on its own (though not the most memorable from the issue) but within the mix of everything else it just worked so well. It matched the eccentricity of the other stories, but it was a totally different flavour. That's the thing about a truly brilliant issue of a magazine; it's even greater than the sum of its parts. The individual elements can range from good to great, but something about the combination elevates everything to a new level.

I loved the typography work in this issue - it felt so festive and special to me. I believe they commissioned an illustrator / graphic designer to do it and it blew my mind that that was a job somebody could have. My love for magazines is the thing that spurred me on to become a graphic designer myself, and though I haven't created bespoke typography for Vogue in my career, I do still turn to magazines time and time again for inspiration.

This issue came with a fun / ridiculous supplement that was a "Secret Address Book" full of different shops and suppliers from across the country. That, even more than the fantastical photoshoots, was the thing that transported me to another world. Page after page of listings of posh shops and all the things you could buy (if you had the money) was genuinely fun to read. I miss when British Vogue would be unapologetically frivolous, especially because I think it was mostly always done with a wink. It used to have a much better sense of humour.

All being said, it was a fantastic issue with beautiful editorials and remains a favourite in my collection.

 

[proseccotabis]

Amazing thread idea, can't wait to read more about everyone's favourite issues!

A few jumped to mind when I started thinking about it, but I had to begin with UK Vogue December 2008, with Kate Moss by Nick Knight on the cover.

vogue.co.uk

I started buying Vogue in the summer of '08 (when I was finally brave enough to go up to the counter with a copy as a 15 year old boy), and the year ended with this glorious issue. Through a mixture of nostalgia and genuine appreciation of the content, this issue is lodged in my brain as a kind of gold-standard for festive issues. Even though there are covers I love more than this one, and tonnes of beautiful editorials in the years before and since, something about this issue just has a hold on me.

It was everything I expected a fashion magazine to be; Kate Moss in a couture gown draped along a fold out cover, unabashedly glamorous. Yes it was her third cover of that year, but I never tired of seeing her. The stunning Nick Knight shoot 'Fantasia' with Lily Donaldson and Jourdan Dunn is one of my most cherished Vogue stories ever. It features my all-time favourite Nick Knight photograph: Lily swirling around in an archive Galliano creation, with pink powder flying off the dress. I have a big print out of it framed in my home.

photographicpictures.tumblr.com | showstudio.com

Then there's the Tim Walker shoot 'Tales of the Unexpected'. This is back when he still did those elaborate props and set pieces. Are there better Tim Walker shoots? Yes, but this was so much fun and I *think* it was my first time seeing a shoot of his in real time. I had mined this forum for every bit of information I could find about magazines - and fell in love with previous examples of Tim's work along the way - but I think this may have been the first new editorial of his that I had seen published since I began buying. It featured Karen Elson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Burton and a few other faces in Walker's take on Roald Dahl stories. The story was of course accompanied by a piece written by Sophie Dahl - British Vogue never missed the opportunity to feature a posh girl with a famous last name. And honestly? Hate to say it, but I loved that about them.

chinabambi.wordpress.com

There's also a fun shoot by Demarchelier with Anja Rubik. It's a lovely editorial on its own (though not the most memorable from the issue) but within the mix of everything else it just worked so well. It matched the eccentricity of the other stories, but it was a totally different flavour. That's the thing about a truly brilliant issue of a magazine; it's even greater than the sum of its parts. The individual elements can range from good to great, but something about the right combination of particular stories elevates everything to a new level.

I loved the typography work in this issue - it felt so festive and special to me. I believe they commissioned an illustrator / graphic designer to do it and it blew my mind that that was a job somebody could have. My love for magazines is the thing that spurred me on to become a graphic designer myself, and though I haven't created bespoke typography for Vogue in my career, I do still turn to magazines time and time again for inspiration.

This issue came with a fun / ridiculous supplement that was a "Secret Address Book" full of different shops and suppliers from across the country. That, even more than the fantastical photoshoots, was the thing that transported me to another world. Page after page of listings of posh shops and all the things you could buy (if you had the money) was genuinely fun to read. I miss when British Vogue would be unapologetically frivolous, especially because I think it was mostly always done with a wink. It used to have a much better sense of humour.

All being said, it was a fantastic issue with beautiful editorials and remains a favourite in my collection.

Thank you for sharing. Your passion and love for fashion shines through and it’s super touching. ❤️