US Men's Vogue

[testinofan]

an editorial
from www.gawker.com

This photos have the same style of VogueUK Oct2004 " Another Country " by Mario Testino

 

[fugfashion]

boring ...

 

[pointup]

from http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article307433.ece

More than a century after the launch of the original, a new Vogue is entering the increasingly crowded US men's magazine market next month, specifically targeted at "the guys on the arms of the women who read Vogue", in the words of publisher Tom Florio.

Men's Vogue, initally to appear quarterly, is the latest addition to the growing family of the magazine known in America as Big Mama and brought forth by its legendary editor Anna Wintour. Already available on US news-stands is Teen Vogue; on the horizon, they say, is Vogue Living.

Fashion will only be one component of the magazine. But it will not, say the people behind it, be the sort of magazine young men run to for advice on how to improve their love lives. Lines such as this from the latest Maxim - "Your crappy card tricks might not work on women any more but a classy pair of shoes will get them every time" - will be conspicuous by their absence.

This will be a magazine for the man who has already arrived. "Men's Vogue is very much talking to a man who is already living his life," insists Mr Florio. "It's not aspirational. It's not a shopping magazine. We're not teaching him how to drink Scotch." It will, however, promises the cover, advise you how to choose "the perfect gift for your wife".

Of course the original Vogue already counts many men among its readers: husbands combating boredom at catwalks and outside fashionable dressing rooms, bored chaps in dentists' waiting rooms, homosexual men. (am I the only one who finds this a little closed minded???) Gay males apart, it's probably fair to say that most men read it somewhat furtively.

Ms Wintour has no need of such wimps among her subscribers. "The target reader," she declares, "is a man over 35 who earns more than $100,000 [£56,000] a year, is already living the life he wants rather than merely chasing it, and presumably isn't too embarrassed to be seen reading a magazine that for more than a century has been associated with women."


That "presumably" is a gauntlet flung down to potential readers: will you have the courage to take this out of your briefcase on the train? If you do, the cover of the first issue goes out of its way to assure you that you are doing something robust and manly. George Clooney lounges centre stage, modelling a beautiful coat but also cradling an old-fashioned black telephone, with a quizzical frown playing on his lips. "George Clooney Exposes the Secrets of the CIA", the puff promises, "And Almost Dies for It". The coat's nice and the magazine will tell you where to get it and how much it costs. But it will spare you the ineffable rag trade prose of the wife's Vogue.

There'll be some manly meat in there. A definite whiff of James Bond comes off the cover of the first issue; the word "fashion" is conspicuous by its absence. "Eyes in the Jungle" yells another cover line: "A Journey to the Strangest Places on Earth."

Ms Wintour says of editor Jay Fielden: "He's sort of the target reader." Aged 35, Mr Fielden was raised in San Antonio, Texas. "I'm a guy who loves magazines," he says eagerly. "I grew up reading them and would carry The New Yorker around like an acolyte, with my dictionary, when I was 15. Magazines were a connection to something a long way away. They were meaningful. It's eerie, half my life later, to be doing a magazine like this. You feel the momentum of where you came from and what you've been thinking for years and how it all makes some strange, interesting sense."

Mr Fielden relates to the anxiety of potential readers who may feel iffy asking for a magazine called Vogue. "Well, men care," he admits. "I'm no psychoanalyst but I know that much."

But despite his boss's stern prescriptions regarding income and orientation, Mr Fielden is determined to be open-minded. "I think this magazine is open to all," he says, "and it doesn't try to stereotype or imagine what it is a person does in his private life."

 

[fashpass]

About the article exerpted above: There is a world...no, wait, a galaxy...separating The New Yorker from the budding Men's Vogue...not all magazines are the same...someone who likes to read the new yorker or the economist wont necessarily be drawn to a FASHION magazine just because he likes magazines...men's fashion magazines are never interesting because men's fashion sucks...you dont have a lot to play with, clothes-wise, men cant really experiment with fashion, at least not American straight men of a certian age...that would not be culturally acceptable...just shows how nuts Anna Wintour is...how out of touch with reality she is...I give the mag two years, tops, unless it transforms itself into something else, or plays to a younger audience...

 

[amchan]

the cover of clooney is the only reason i don't wanna buy it...

 

[ghoulxqueen]

...

magnum!

This sounds cool!

 

[kimair]

i got my issue of mens vogue yesterday, and it does try to be a more grown up version of GQ...more sophisticated...but i think too much so...i was disappointed overall...

there is a good piece called "in her eyes" by patrick demarchelier that features three models talking about what clothes they like to see on a man...

jacquetta wheeler is photographed with alexi lubomirski, karolina kurkova with private investor ludi salm, and sophie dahl with her boyfriend danny baker, a nyu business school student.

 

[testinofan]

i got my issue of mens vogue yesterday, and it does try to be a more grown up version of GQ...more sophisticated...but i think too much so...i was disappointed overall...

there is a good piece called "in her eyes" by patrick demarchelier that features three models talking about what clothes they like to see on a man...

jacquetta wheeler is photographed with alexi lubomirski, karolina kurkova with private investor ludi salm, and sophie dahl with her boyfriend danny baker, a nyu business school student.

Do you have the magazine???

 

[HBoogie]

Holy crud is that cover ever shoddily designed. The slapped-on "MEN'S" (as people have mentioned upthread)? The boxed text that looks like it was put on with a labelmaker? Yucks all around.

 

[HBoogie]

Oh, and one more thing. If they're aiming for the moneyed, dapper over-35 set they should put James Purefoy on the next cover. His star is rising with the new HBO series "Rome" so it'd be perfect timing. Plus I'd like to ogle him.

 

[luwitolundi]

yeah, i got the magazine and if i have to sum up in one word, that would be OLD.

as kimair said... it tried so hard to be 'mature' but i think it only ended with being old. i don't think anyone under 40 is their target market judging from the content.

yeah, i think my favorite article is that article featuring those 3 models and what they think looks good on a man.

as for the layout... it's basically the same as vogue. and the logo... i find it ok... it actually reminds me of a japanese men's fashion magazine.. with that font.

so yea.. i'll stick to GQ and wallpaper* and the fashion edition of brit mags.

 

[mb117]

Yeah, if you are looking for a "Men's" Vogue the best thing to do is subscribe to Vogue Homme. They have an english edition available.

 

[eugenius]

$100,000 per year (according to Wintour in the prior post)??Wow! Quick--get my private jet pronto! There's a Barnes & Noble right around the corner that's just calling my name!!!!!!

 

[The Baron]

I was about ready to weep after the first 120 pages. From the snobbish oenophile article on wine you can't even get in the States to the myriad of ads for sober suiting and yachts and expensive watches, the whole thing had an aura of fusty Anglophilia about it. It's all very old-money, old person, Old World.

There was a brief bright spot with the one-page ad for Comme des Garcons Shirt, and the following article on bespoke tailoring that profiled Cloak's Alexander Plokhov. But my hopes were soon dashed again when the first fashion spread featured - oh, good grief - a country manor shooting party. Now it's weeping time, indeed.

The whole thing seems oriented toward the 40+ monied American man who really wishes his life were more akin to Robert Altman's Gosford Park, right down to the clandestine infidelities with the rosy-cheeked maid.

Ugh.

 

[Deleted member 1957]

really boring stuff, but then again i may not be their target audience. Am more into the offensive Maxim kind

 

[faust]

From gawker.com, hold me, somebody

Vogue editor Anna Wintour and her latest houseboy, Men’s Vogue editor Jay Fielden, descended upon Matt Lauer this morning for a little chit-chat about Men’s Vogue. After clarifying that gay men are really what industry insiders call “fashion customers,” Anna Wintour lobbed the ball over to Fielden, whose mouth moved so very little while speaking that we’d wager he may have had his jaw wired shut (which would explain his trim figure). We can’t really defend this comment, but he really just seemed like an ***hole. But more importantly, Fielden was so clearly terrified — not of being on tv, but of Wintour — that, from here on out, Men’s Vogue shall now be referred to as Little b*tch’s Vogue.

 

[Kel]

Holy crud is that cover ever shoddily designed. The slapped-on "MEN'S" (as people have mentioned upthread)? The boxed text that looks like it was put on with a labelmaker? Yucks all around.

I picked it up today, but haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet. I did notice how they just slapped on Mens, though. It looks completely out of place and that was enough to turn me off.

 

[Acid]

prediction : dead in 3 months time

 

[Fade to Black]

$100,000 per year (according to Wintour in the prior post)??Wow! Quick--get my private jet pronto! There's a Barnes & Noble right around the corner that's just calling my name!!!!!!

I just read the magazine at Borders two days ago, and looking at the ads/photo shoots/articles, I think $100,000 isn't even going to cut it! To live the "Men's Vogue" lifestyle I imagine one must be at least in their mid-forties and a millionaire. The image of the magazine does seem very very mature and conservative. Ads are all Kiton, Tod's, Ralph Lauren purple label, etc. I was disappointed with the Clooney shoot, he's normally very stylish in a suit, but they put him in Polo Ralph Lauren which didn't suit him that well IMO. Definitely not really a fashion magazine, more of a lifestyle thing...the only fashion shoot, the one where they're all hunting and dressed up in tweeds seemed too stiff. Then again maybe my 21-year old self can't relate to it.

I prefer GQ and Details by far as far as American magazines go, the writing/editorials in those is a lot more lively and not so drab.

 

[happycanadian]

UGH. the only good things about the whole magazine are the 2 pics of Karolina. thank God she's gorgeous or i wouldn't have bothered buying.