Fashion magazine - Genre and

Representations
1. Hayley Roberts

2. Fashion magazines are mainly aimed at an older audience and

aimed at a female audience. This means that the way they show
women is at a more respectable and in a way that inspires women so
there are mainly more positive representations than negative. For
example if it was a magazine like FHM, they represent women in a
completely different way as it‟s a magazine aimed at men and the
women on the front of the magazines are using their sexuality and are
more sexually exploited rather than respected because it‟s more of a
younger audience which consists mainly of men. There are a few
negative representations because they are posed and looked in a way
to inspire their audience to try look like they do and they are also
airbrushed quite a bit which then makes it impossible for the reader to
look like they do and in FHM, they also airbrush the models and make
them look so much slimmer to make them “more attractive” and
appealing to their audience. On the page of the magazines they also
speak about looking good and how to improve your body. For example
on the front of ELLE, they describe how to make the audience have
“the best behind ever” and this encourages the readers to try and gain
that look which attracts more of the male gender and encourages
women to look their best.

3. The positive representations of fashion magazines is that the models

used on the front of the magazine are dressed quite respectable,
formal and natural. They‟re not too overly dressed and they are well
covered up which helps relate them to their target audience because
the target audience are a higher class and middle aged so they need to
appeal to that audience. Even though the models are airbrushed, they
still look quite natural and don‟t have too much make up on and this
gives the models a natural look. The captions mainly used on the front
are about fashion and they don‟t include much about trying to look
better or about how to improve the look of the audience reading the
magazine and stresses more on clothing and because it‟s a middle
class audience the clothes included will appeal to them. The models
are naturally posing and don‟t look uncomfortable in the way they are
posing. On VOGUE magazine the caption „Real style in real life‟ shows
that they will be discussing realistic ideas in the way they dress and
that this is something the audience will want to read because it‟s
expressing it‟s real life and they may want ideas on different styles that
is realistic for them.

4. The average age range for these magazines range from 34 up to 45

and the models used in these covers range from 28 up to 39 so they
 use models around the target audience ages so that they can target
their audience more than using really young models because even
though they are looking up to them in a way of their style, it makes it
more realistic for the audience. The models wear clothes which would
appeal to an older audience and doesn‟t really appeal to a younger
audience because they are covered up where as if it was for a younger
audience where the magazine was promoting weight loss, they would
wear more revealing clothing which an older audience wouldn‟t want to
wear. Women are shown as really respected and well dressed and also
quite natural as they aren‟t plastered with make up. They are also
shown as comfortable and are not on the cover to be sexually
exploited because of the way they are posed and shown on the cover.
Where as on the cover of FHM or ZOO, they sexually exploit the
women on the cover as it‟s a different audience and they are aimed at
a younger audience. Middle class women are the target audience of
these magazines and the models used on the cover are shown as quite
wealthy and higher class as the way they are shown and the clothes
they are wearing and the jewelry they wear too. The audience for Chat
magazine would be a lower class and the woman model used on the
front of those magazines are quite fake and a role model for those to
look up to which is completely different to these models. Also for
women on the front of magazines aimed at men, the women are shown
in a younger, more sexual way than the models on the front of these
magazines because men require different needs to women and this
would appeal to men more than these models are.

5. There are not a lot of social issues represented in fashion

magazines. Sometimes in magazines, they may have articles which
relate to the models life on the front which could involve issues about
their past relationships, big event in their lives or personal issues and
these could be classed as social issues within the magazine. Also,
sometimes in fashion magazines, they may have articles on how furs
used and whether it should be used and this relates to social issues.
But people don‟t buy this sort of magazine to have debates about
different social issues, they buy the magazine because of the fashion
element and this is why social issues don‟t feature in fashion
magazines. In real life magazines like “Chat” or “Take a Break” their
magazines feature social issues which can include domestic violence
and issues like that so people who are into that kind of magazine and
like to relate their issues which are similar, buy their magazines
because the audience can use the social issues used in the magazine
to their real life situations and that‟s why fashion magazines and real
life magazines have completely different audiences.

6. Some people when they look at the magazine and see the types of
models on the cover, they will think that they are quite full of
themselves because of how the magazine interprets their beauty and
 because they are betrayed as “perfect” people will think that they know
they are beautiful and this makes them think they are better than
everyone else which is a typical stereotype. Also, because their
audience is mainly middle class people who have the money to pay the
price of the magazines, people may think they are quite stuck up
because they are quite wealthy people and this shows because they
can afford to spend around £4.00 on a magazine. They also aim their
magazines at people who can spend large amounts on designer
clothes and they may be stereotyped as being snobby and too big for
their boots and look down on people who don‟t have the money that
they do. People could also stereotype the age of the magazine and say
it‟s designed for women which are younger because of the well known
models used and that it may appeal to that audience, but in fact it‟s
aimed at an older audience and some people don‟t expect that. Also
because the models are on the cover directly giving eye contact, they
could be seen as showing people what they could have and be like
them which is a stereotype.

7. These magazines have a middle aged, wealthy and feminine

audience and these are all in the presence group. These types of
magazines are missing men and elderly people in their audience and
not so wealthy people and these are in the absence group. Men
wouldn‟t be interested in the fashion element of the magazine and
would prefer to read more sporty or fitness magazines. The elderly
would be more interested in factual magazines or magazines which are
more “How to do…” magazines (for example, knitting). Then the not so
wealthy and lower class audience would prefer magazines which are
based on real life and something at a cheaper price because
realistically they wouldn't be into the clothes that are featured in the
magazines and they wouldn‟t be interested because they are too highly
priced and wouldn‟t be their taste. But the middle class and women
would prefer these magazines because they can afford the clothes and
they are interested in the different fashion which is displayed in the
magazine. The magazines also have models which are well known
celebrities and these appeal to the audience too.

8. The content of these magazines are all based on fashion mainly,

beauty and lifestyles and all fashion magazines contain these features.
They all contain advice about keeping a decent figure, make-up, style
guides. For example, VOGUE has a caption on the front saying “real
style in real life”, ELLE has one saying “your all-season shopping
guide” and BAZAAR has one saying “the big fashion issue”. These are
all referring to style and all fashion magazines relate to this and have
similar captions. On the front of the magazine, they use a well-known
model which is within, or near, the age range of the audience and they
are also all women on the front because the majority of fashion
magazine audiences are women. This makes the connection between
 the audience and the magazine stronger and make the audience more
likely to buy it. They are also very high quality images because the
focus on the magazine is the images as it displays a lot of images and
they are paying quite a bit of money so they will want their images to
be really high quality. The font used on all fashion magazines are very
similar. They all use a thin, delicate and feminine font and use a range
of colour tones from pinks to purples and keep them very soft colours
because this will attract their audience more. They also use white for
their captions so they stand out from the image on the background and
this contrasts with the pinks and purples used.

9. The advertising in fashion magazines is mainly adverts of products

which could include perfumes, clothes, make-up and they all link to the
magazine so they can sometimes not be seen as adverts. These 3
magazines all contain adverts that are about perfumes. This shows that
they advertise similar products that the audience will be into and this
attracts the reader to buy these products because it‟s something that
interests them. VOGUE BAZAAR ELLE

10. The articles inside fashion magazines are also quite similar. They
don‟t add constant articles throughout the magazine because the
reader isn‟t buying the magazine for the articles so they mainly display
images with a few captions. For example, in the VOGUE example I got
it just displays fashion with a few captions to describe what is being
shown. But then they sometimes put in quite lengthy paragraphs which
can be about fashion, beauty or different lifestyles and advice. For
example, the ELLE example I got talks about different beauty products
which the reader would find interesting. Then fashion magazines can
also include articles which features some of the staff that work on the
magazine or famous celebrities and how they speak about their life.
This then gives the reader something to read and maybe look up to
when they read how they got to where they are and could sometimes
relate their life to theirs, but they are not included often. BAZAAR ELLE
VOGUE

11. The style of fashion magazines are made to have a main image on
the front of the magazine and then around the image is some captions
on what the magazine explains. They use soft and very high quality
images which appeal to the audience and they use a soft and
appealing font to their audience. All the covers of fashion magazines
have similar styles and this also includes the insides of the magazines.
They mainly include images which are either in colour of monochrome
and they are based around fashion or make-up. They use quite bold
fonts on the front of their magazine but don‟t make it too bold, it is still
kept quite feminine and they display some parts of the text in italics
and this is similar on each of the covers. The titles on all 3 of these
magazines use the same font for the title of the magazine and this
keeps the titles feminine to contrast with the magazine. The images
 used all display models or actresses which are well known and they are
kept quite natural and this gives the reader something to look up to
without it being impossible to do so. Where as for a magazine like
Kerrang, they use quite heavy and bold fonts which are quite distorted
and the covers are quite clumsy unlike fashion magazines because
they have an organised and this keeps it feminine as women are mainly
organised and tidy.

12. Fashion magazines use symbols through their models. The models
on the front dress in a way which is seen as symbolic and says a lot
about the way they are and says a lot about the person. The models on
the front and also inside the magazine wear designer clothes, jewelry,
shoes and make-up. This is symbolic because they are wearing
designer clothes and this shows to people that they can afford the
clothes they wear compared to people who don‟t wear designer
clothes. It also encourages people who read the magazine to buy the
clothes they are wearing as someone they look up to are wearing
designer clothes which encourages them to buy them. It can also
mean that they look more respectable and more of a higher class
because of the more expensive clothes they have bought. Also having
the models on the front is symbolic because people look up to the
models and this is what encourages them to buy what they are wearing
and try and look like they are. Because they are airbrushed this could
symbolise fakeness or could symbolise beauty to some people,
depending on the audience.

13. Fashion magazines are produced not just in the UK, they are
international and are produced in a range of countries. VOGUE is
printed in 18 countries and a few examples of what countries it‟s
printed in is the UK, US, Brazil, Australia, China, France, Germany,
Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico and a lot more. BAZAAR is
printed in 29 countries and ELLE has 43 international editions in over
60 counties. This makes the magazine more successful and makes it
easier for other countries to also read the magazine because of certain
words and symbols used in the UK version of the magazines. They
translate the words in the magazine from the UK version to different
languages but they sometimes won‟t be able to translate some of the
words because it‟s only used in the UK which creates dilemmas for the
magazines. They use the models to symbolise different cultures and by
having different models from different cultures and countries on a
certain countries magazine, it makes it easier for their country to
engage with the magazine. By having their magazines translated into
different languages, it makes the audience understand the magazine
easier because they understand the language and it makes it less
difficult for people while reading the magazine.

14. The front of the magazine has a main image which takes up the
whole ratio of the front cover and around the image there are mainly
 little captions that just describe some parts of what will be in the
magazine. Fashion magazines in general contain around 200 pages
within it and this is mainly of images and doesn‟t contain as many
articles as images and this makes the magazines quite thick because
of all the pages it contains. The magazines can sometimes come in
handbag size, just like COSMOPOLITON and this makes it easier for
the audience to get the magazine and take it around with them so
when they want to read it, it‟s there. Then some fashion magazines are
at a normal A4 size and even though it‟s still quite small, they are really
thick because of the pages and this makes it less easier to take out
and around with the reader.

15. ELLE Inside the magazine, the producers mainly use images and
these are used way more than text in fashion magazines. From the
examples you can see that only limited text is used and it‟s only there
to support the images used as people who buy fashion magazines
don‟t want to be reading loads of writing, they want to see the images
and sometimes they don‟t use text at all on images as it isn‟t needed
for some photo shoots. To suit the target audience, because they are
higher and middle class, when articles are included in the magazines
they use quite lengthy and long paragraphs and also use quite formal
and sophisticated language so the reader can understand what is
being said as they will be well educated and the language used will
click with them. The images take up the full page and are at a high
quality because the reader is paying good money for a good magazine
and want it to be perfect for them. Also, the magazine uses quite a few
advertisements within the magazine but place them on a full page so it
fits in with the magazine and they don‟t give prices or details about the
product because the audience will be able to understand what is being
advertised and look up the name and designer of the product being
advertised but they use quite a lot of advertising especially at the start
of the magazine. BAZAAR VOGUE

16. The first ELLE magazine was published on the 21st November in
1945 and was produced in France. There has been a lot of changes
over the time. For example, when the first copy was published they
don‟t use captions around the image about what the magazine has in
compared to now where they use captions all around the front of the
magazine to explain to the reader what the magazine contains. The
font used on the front of the cover is still exactly the same apart from
now they have enlarged the font a lot and place in around the model
and this makes it stand out a lot more. The image back then had quite
a pastel look to it and now they have invented Photoshop, they use
that instead to airbrush the model and make it look “perfect”. The
amount of pages used in the older versions were around 24 pages,
where as now it‟s got around 200 pages so they will have extended
what has been put into the magazine too.

 17. The first VOGUE magazine was created in 1892 and since then it
has changed a lot over time. In the first version of VOGUE they used
sketches of the Gibson Girl because she is the personification of
feminine ideal of beauty and even now they use models which are seen
as beautiful and personify beauty. The first versions were produced in
black and white and over time they have used colour which makes the
magazine more brighter. The font is still exactly the same apart from
now they have enlarged it a lot and also created some part of the
VOGUE a little thinner which makes the title stand out more than just it
being one size throughout the title. They also didn‟t use captions
around the image and on some versions they used really small images
on a patterned background, where as now they have one main image
of the model with several captions around it to describe to the reader
what the magazine features. From the first ever edition they have stuck
to keeping female models for the front cover which suggests that the
audience of the magazine has never changed and they have only
featured 4 men on the front of VOGUE magazines.

18. The first Harper‟s Bazaar magazine was published in 1867 and was
published in New York. When the magazine was first produced, the
name of the magazine had quite an old and patterned font and it was
quite small and they included the full name of the magazine. Where as
now „Harper‟s‟ font is really small and then „BAZAAR‟ is quite a large
font and it‟s changed a lot overtime because it‟s also added an extra
„a‟ into BAZAAR and from 1867 to 1948 the font had changed to how
it is now. They used illustrations for their images and it was also
published in black and white, and now it‟s in colour and use pictures of
models. Also for the colour scheme, they stick to one theme of colours.
For example, the BAZAAR magazine in 1948 use a tone of browns and
they use the same colour of clothing to the title and now they use white
to match the really pale colour of the clothes on the model. No
captions were used around the image like they are now.