Weighing in on the September Issues

Fashion is back! Or is it? 

September Elle would have us think so with the cover lines, "Fashion is Back! Color, Positivity, Power". They forgot one: Hope, as in "Hopefully fashion is back, otherwise we are all in serious trouble".

The September issues put on a little weight. This year they tipped the scales at 5 pounds, up from 4.6 pounds in 2020. The Fab Four are Vogue, the leader in page count at 368, followed by Elle at 282, Harper's Bazaar at 280, and InStyle at 190. Marie Claire is no longer in the pack.

I've been performing this little exercise since 2013, when Vogue came in at 902 pages. At least it is up from last year's 316, but that's a page loss of 534% in seven years. 

This year of loss has seen huge losses in publishing, too—loss of ad revenue, loss of readership, actual loss in closing down print publication. Marie Claire's sudden announcement they are "redirecting to an online-only platform" was a nice way of saying, "the patient died". Curiously, there has been little publicity about this move. Does no one care?

There were indeed changes for good. The shelter magazines discovered a wealth of architects and designers of color right here in the United States! Fashion magazines, and the advertisers that support them, realized the spectrum is a beautiful thing. Did it seem they were trying too hard to make up for lost time? Sometimes it did. I would like to say to them, "Calm down. We know you mean well, and applaud your efforts, but we are beginning to see you sweat."

Here it is September, usually considered a time of renewed energy and a return to more "serious pleasures". I've yet to get very excited about fall, fashion or much else. It's 95 in the shade and hurricane season with coronavirus affecting everything. 

My cup may not runneth over, nevertheless the glass is still half-full.