Arise occupies a unique position among magazines in English-speaking Africa as it alone packages both pan-African and global content, producing a provocative blend that Ms. Jennings calls "afropolitan."

With a reported circulation of about 60,000 and averaging about 140 pages a month, the magazine is distributed to seven other African countries and around Europe and North America. In its no-expense-spared fashion shoots, clothes by African designers are paired with global brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Loewe and Ralph Lauren using popular black international models like Oluchi Onweagba and Rahma Mohamed.

In addition to the drool-worthy photography, Arise also features commentary about subcultures and current events:

A recent issue included a saucy exposé of African WAGs (the British acronym for wives and girlfriends of soccer players) that appeared alongside quirky items about Ugandan skateboarders, a multimedia prodigy from Ivory Coast and the leather-wearing biker subculture that grew up in Soweto after apartheid.

However, targeting a magazine to a global audience while focusing on the continent does require its fair share of compromises:

Arise, for example, operates out of London while Helm, an Ethiopian quarterly edited by Rahewa Yemane, is based in Washington. Although these locations help editors produce quality content, they also drive up cover prices as the finished magazines must be shipped to African newsstands. (The cover price for Arise in global distribution is £4.95, or $8; 1,255 naira in Nigeria.)

While a financier's deep pockets can be all that's needed to start a magazine, several factors - including market size, literacy and wealth - are needed to sustain it. Most of sub-Saharan Africa's statistics in these categories are poor, but they sometimes belie the real potential.

In addition, questions swirl about the income disparities inherent in creating a set of the population which has the time, money, and leisure to peruse a luxury goods magazine:

"In most sub-Saharan African countries, only 5 percent to 10 percent of the population is at the top of the income pyramid," said Sakina Balde, an analyst for Africa and the Middle East at the market research firm Euromonitor International. "While this might seem insignificant, in highly populated countries like Nigeria, for example, it represents a large number of individuals." [...]

The continent's wealth, though disproportionately concentrated, already is being spent on luxury goods by affluent Africans who shop in cities like London, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai. Several luxury retailers and stores in London, for example, already count Nigerians among their top five spenders, trailing only Chinese, Russians, Americans and Arab tourists from the Gulf. And in Lagos, new boutiques like Temple Muse and Leila Fowler are catering to the elite locally by stocking both international and African designer labels.

Still, income disparities aside, it is encouraging to see such creatively flow from various nations underrepresented in the global fashion scene. Fashion magazines based outside the standard beauty ideal promoted by western nations are difficult to come by, and these magazines do more than just provide entertainment: they help assert a new narrative of life in other regions of the world.

Putting African Style On The Page [NY Times]

New York Magazine's Cut blog has panned the name, which they find patronizing, but I strongly disagree. Yes, the word is ironically archaic, but it's one that we should bring back into circulation: it's not girlish, it's not prissy, it's not demeaning. Rather, it denotes maturity, respect, and more sense of personal identity that "lady." Plus, this is the title of a defunct American ladymag that featured poetry and demure fashion spreads, and I dig a nod to our printed past.



2. It has solid credentials. This is the long-awaited women's counterpart to Fantastic Man, the tongue-in-cheek cult British style journal which combines an edgy aesthetic with a subsersive anti-fashion sensibility. The tone is often that of an old-school men's journal, but it's not satire-tiresome. And plenty of semi-ironic early-80s-style photography that still somehow manages to genuinely celebrate the moustache or tweeds or whatever new band they're promoting. I don't dig just anything retro - The Chap was always too arch by half for my tastes, and we've all got Mad Men fatigue - but for now, they've got the balance down.


3. If we can go by the tantalizing glimpses - as seen on the blog Mag Culture - it'll actually be worth reading, consciously taking on ladymag puff with humor and style. Says founder Gert Jonkers, (who also founded gay-alt rag Butt) to BlackBook, "It's a magazine about and for amazing woman. It will be inspiring, it'll have great journalism, I hope it'll be super good fun too. Of course it'll look at personal style, and business, power, art ..."Here's one scrap of available text:

Maureen Paley is a legendary London gallerist of open mind and precise thought. A New Yorker who found herself in London's East End long before it was fashionable, Maureen champions artists like Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing and Banks Violette, all of whom fit with her independent, subversive spirit. Maureen is devilishly good company, and an art event cannot be said to be truly happening until her beehive enters the room.

Oh, and did we mention the first issue has a story - and a spread - on the power of naps?

4. And, oh yeah - the fashion.



5. We want something to love. I'm trying not to get inflated expectations - we've been burned before. But there's a real gap in the market for more smart style, and I'm eager for it. If it follows its bro's formula, it'll be hard to track down and pricey when you do, but also Christmas List-worthy and available on Amazon. Fingers crossed, gentlewomen.


Meet The Gentlewoman [MagCulture]
Fantastic Man [Official Site]
From The Founder Of Fantastic Man Comes Gentlewoman [BlackBook]
Fantastic Man to Spawn Gentlewoman [New York]

As we suspected they might,Bazaar has gone the first-lady route with Boyle, posing her, at a mansion just outside London, in what an editor calls "the most classic beautiful pieces of the season," which run the gamut from Tadashi Shoiji to J. Crew: an accessible (for the most part) wardrobe for a woman-of-a-certain age. So how does she look? Good. By which I mean, she looks like a more polished version of herself.

In the video the mag posted online, Boyle is a game subject, clearly enjoying the process and going along easily with the magazine's suggestions. But reading the accompanying interview, it seems pretty clear Boyle's not an easy nut to crack - and not just because of the author's careful admission that Boyle "isn't expansive when she talks." Basically, we know it all: she had a quiet life, cared for her elderly mother, chased her dream, and found the press a lot to take. And, again, the description of Boyle falls into the somewhat pitying incredulity that journalists so often can't help adopting:

Despite her newfound fame, there are a lot of things Susan Boyle doesn't do. She doesn't go on holiday or go out much. She isn't into fashion or gourmet food. She isn't married, doesn't have children, and hasn't seen the world. When I ask her if she's been shopping, for example, she shakes her head. Not even to Selfridges? "Where?" she asks, half joking. But feeling financially secure must surely be a bonus. "Hey, you don't just do it for the money. I don't do it for the money, babe! Who do you think I am?"

(First of all what does shopping (for example) have to do with marriage and children? She's supposed to have suddenly taken them all up in the past two months? And love how they all, in sum, are supposed to say "empty life" to a fashion mag reader!) If people are looking for sudden outpourings of emotion and a dramatic shift in personality - in short, drama equal to that which brought her to us - it looks like they'll be disappointed. But for those of us who genuinely wish to see the singer with a sustainable life and a career commensurate with her talents, well, this spread should prove reassuring. And one hopes her joke, "as long as I don't break the camera, I'll be fine," is in fun.


Love the peacock blue with Susan's fair complexion - even if this doesn't look like something she'd ever wear in real life. And how pretty is her makeup?


The What Not to Wear outfit! Knee-length skirt: check. Classic heel: check. Tailored coat: check. Hint of color: check, check. They'd probably suggest this was appropriate for picking up the kids or something; seems like a good getup for Susan to wear to the studio, no?


Okay, this is officially my least-favorite, because I can't help thinking "Grimace" and because, sassy as it looks here, you just know that shape could get Helen E. Hokinson-frumpy with very little work.


The perfect concert gown! Nice work, Bazaar.


Hm. The obligatory "woman of a certain age" sequins. I get that a touch of sparkle works on stage, but this feels a little Barbara Bush.


This gown, at $490, is among the shoot's most expensive. On the one hand, I like that they're keeping the prices somewhat realistic. But on the other, perversely, I'd love to see Susan in the priciest gown they've got! Or at least a nice Carolina Herrera. That said, love this one.


Susan Boyle, Unsung Hero [Harper's Bazaar]
Earlier: How Should Harper's Bazaar Style Susan Boyle?

After hearing about this forthcoming exercise in glossiness, formerly-anonymous Jenna and I speculated about how, exactly, the 48-year-old Boyle has been transformed. We can see it going in several directions, none of them good: the standard dignified/lounging/satin gown treatment they give non-fashion types like First Ladies; Boyle sports fall fashions (doubtful), possibly with some vacant-looking male model at her side; or something ludicrous. If they go with the latter, have we got some ideas for them:

Obviously, the spread should evoke Scotland. May we suggest Susan Boyle as Celtic Warrior Queen?


Susan Boyle as Mary, Queen of Scots...


And as if it needs saying, Susan Boyle in Brigadoon. We recommend Gerard Butler in the Gene Kelly role. (Hey, he did Phantom!)


Maybe Bazaar will want to do one of those "tributes to famous singers" deals.


Or maybe they'll just do something...random.





Boyle To Appear In Fashion Magazine [Daily Mail]

Perhaps it would be better if magazines tried to offer tips on how to make realistic fashion scenarios work for us, like say, having no money to buy new clothes! Or the exciting world of juice stains! Or how to feel whole when one's socks are filled with holes! You know, the basics. Since I don't anticipate Cosmo doing a spread on lint balls anytime soon, I thought I'd give it a go myself. Below, a list of how to make a fashion d'oh into a fashion do. Like to hear it, here it go:

• D'oh: Deodorant Stains Oh, deodorant stains! The price we pay for not wanting to smell like the bathroom of a Greyhound bus. You can try to avoid such things by using clear deodorant or whatever, but if you happen to find yourself walking around with bright streaks of deodorant on your t-shirt, as I do on a regular basis, you can rub the fabric of your shirt together so that the friction removes the stain. Or, you can do what I do, and say something like, "I just want to let everyone know that I'm a deodorant user. That way, if someone in the room smells like garbage, you'll all know it isn't me."
• 
  
  
  
• D'oh: Smudged Mascara: While this may have been the look you were going for as you wept over your copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in 1996, it may not be the ideal look for your office. Mascara primers are helpful if you, like me, have trouble with waterproof mascaras. Or, you could just tell people to back off because they don't know you or your goth style.
• 
  
  
  
• D'oh: Stained Shirt: Whoops! Your straw slipped and now it looks like the Kool-Aid man has thrown up all over you, which is precisely the excuse you should give any co-workers who feel it necessary to point out that you have a giant red stain on your white blouse, as if you didn't know. Either that, or say, "Yes, the stain is intentional. It's a one-of-a-kind piece, thanks for noticing." Or, you could be like me and just go to the office bathroom and pour the rest of the giant red drink over your head to dye the entire blouse reddish-pink. Glamorama!
• 
  
  
  
• D'oh: Ripped Stockings When I wore nylons, I recall clear nail polish being a quick fix to stopping a run. However, after a while I just figured it was easier to remove the nylons altogether. If this is not an option, I suggest ripping holes all over said nylons and telling people it's a fashion choice. "Oh, you're not aware of the Run Fad? It's very Fall '09." Hopefully some Regina George action will kick in and everyone will be walking around in ruined nylons by the end of the day. You could also say something like, "My invisible cat Mr. Georgio ripped them! He's so naughty!" People will then think you are insane, and they will leave you alone. In fact, after that, nobody will notice your nylons at all! Only your wackiness and tendency to speak to imaginary creatures.
• 
  
  
  
• D'oh: Food In Your Teeth Oh, awesome! You've just discovered a piece of spinach between your teeth...and you ate lunch 3 hours ago. Charming! By now everyone has seen it, and nobody has told you about it. This means your co-workers are either afraid to tell you, or they're all laughing at you behind your back and have already dubbed you "Popeye." You have two ways of dealing with this: remove the spinach discreetly in the ladies room with a piece of floss and pretend the incident never happened, or go to the grocery store, buy an entire bag of raw spinach, shove it in your mouth, and walk around the office waiting for someone to point it out. When someone finally does, give them a weird look and say, "Spinach? Where?" Hilarity will ensue. And you'll get your daily dose of some vitamins, I can't remember which ones. Victory is yours!
• 
  
  
  
• D'oh: You Showed Up To Work Wearing The Same Thing As Your Co-Worker: Challenge her to a walk-off. Or get into a fight like Brenda and Kelly did over wearing the same dress to the dance on 90210, but then hope your co-worker goes to lose her virginity to Dylan McKay, because they're so in love or whatever. She'll probably forget about the dress thing after that. And if she doesn't, you can just tell everyone else in the office that the two of you are actually long lost twins, and you didn't know it until you both showed up wearing the same dress, and that it has been so emotional for the both of you that you need to take the rest of the day off in order to rediscover your family connection and eat ice cream and just be sisters. You both win!
• 
  
  
  
• D'oh: You're Too Broke To Buy New Clothes Some of us can't "shop in our closets" because our closets are filled with things that belong on the clearance rack at TJMaxx. This is because they were purchased from the clearance rack at TJMaxx 5 years ago. So what should one do? Realistically, I guess, invest in nice pieces whenever you can afford it (or at least decent pieces to get you through a work day). Scouring Ebay, thrift shops, and online sales helps as well. Or, you could just combine all of the steps above and go to work rocking your stained, deodorized, spinach-hanging, torn, smudged ensemble of dreams. Nobody will match it! Except for your co-worker, of course, who is always trying to steal your sartorial thunder. But you have something she doesn't have, my friend: an imaginary cat to blame your troubles on! And wherever Mr. Georgio goes, hilarity and style are sure to follow.

[Image via Natalie Dee.]

In April, a French Vogue shoot featured a "pregnant" model smoking and tossing a baby doll over her shoulder.

As Tatiana pointed out, if American Vogue were to portray the concept of motherhood, you'd get models holding babies and looking serene — "the mother of all clichés." She added: "French Vogue found the tenderness in mothering, but also the humor, the wackiness, the suggestion that it isn't perhaps natural to all women, and the surprise."

Additionally, in the July issue of Bazaar, MIlla Jovovich played a distracted working mom.





Obviously these shots differ in that there is a man present, but they certainly don't evoke the beaming, wholesome, Norman Rockwell concept of motherhood.

The new Italian Vogue shots include alcohol and cigarettes:






…As well as just plain-old avoidance:

There are a few ways to look at these images. Blogger Gwen from Sociological Images notes,

…Most countries don't share the American middle-class demonization of smoking or our concerns about the effects of second-hand smoke on children, or the idea that drinking cocktails around the kids is problematic (and remember, we used to give kids alcoholic drinks and Marlboros were marketed to moms). And many people don't believe that children need to be tended to every time they cry or look unhappy–that's a culturally and historically specific parenting ideal.

But a reader named Claire points out:

The message that motherhood might produce boredom, irritation, irreverence, and drive one to consume massive quantities of alcohol is one that I find refreshing, rather than appalling. Although this spread glamorizes the condition of being trapped within the confines of domesticity, can we not also interpret it as depicting the failure of domesticity and motherhood as a norm? And isn't the critique of a norm a productive act?

Good point. And here some more questions: Do these magazine editors want to start a dialogue about deconstructing the visual clichés of motherhood? Or do they just want edgy photoshoots? Does it matter? And even if they're not neglecting the kids — why all the bored, distracted moms?

Rich Moms Are Bad Moms: Vogue Italia's "Vagaries of Fashion" [Sociological Images]

Earlier: French Vogue And Ambivalent Modern Motherhood
Mr. Big Plays Housewife? How Bazaar

According to the New York Observer, the eight episode fashion reality show will feature "special access" to Marie Claire editorial meetings, celebrity photo shoots, runway shows, and the private lives of editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, senior fashion editor Zanna Roberts, and shopping editor Zoe Glassner.

It also follows three lowly interns, Ashley Gosik, Samantha Dezur, and Talita Silva, who are described thusly in a Style network press release:

Ashley is a self-proclaimed over-achiever from Washington D.C. who is determined to prove that she can out perform the other interns. Talita, a “fashionista” from Los Angeles, considers herself very street smart but drops the ball on her first assignment. And Samantha is the small-town girl from Wisconsin, who has never set foot in NYC and is new to the fashion world, but wants real-world experience working for a major media outlet.

The first episode will focus on the interns moving into their New York apartment together and starting their first day of work as the rest of the staff plans a welcome party for newly-hired fashion director Nina Garcia.

As you'll recall, Nina Garcia was hired by Marie Claire last spring after being let go from Elle, at around the same time that Project Runway was being sold to Lifetime. Both Lifetime and Marie Claire are owned by Hearst, prompting rumors that Marie Claire would take over Elle's role on the show for season six, and Garcia would be able to continue "auf"ing designers with Heidi Klum and Michael Kors.

Of course, we have yet to see season six of Project Runway because the show is still at the center of a complex legal battle, but that hasn't stopped Marie Claire from following in Elle's footsteps. Running in Heels will premiere less than six months after Elle's reality show Stylista on the CW network. Also, Marie Claire announced this week that on January 15 it will be unveiling a new look for its website in the third redesign since 2007. According to Folio, traffic to MarieClaire.com already increased more than eight-fold since the last revamp. The new site is designed to be easier to navigate and features clips of Running In Heels in hopes of increasing the number of visitors (and advertisers) even more.

Marie Claire has good reason to follow Elle's example. Elle's participation in Project Runway increased the mag's newsstand sales and ad pages, going from the number 6 to the number 2 fashion magazine, after Vogue. Especially in light of yesterday's report in Women's Wear Daily that Marie Claire, along with several other major magazines, had double-digit declines in single copy sales for the first half of 2008, it makes sense for the magazine to follow the formula of one of the few fashion magazines that successfully translated its brand into other media.

Running in Heels Premiere To Include Over-Styled Editors, Three Frightened Interns, And A Newly Arrived Nina Garcia [The New York Observer]
Marie Claire To Roll Out Another Web Redesign [Folio]
Memo Pad [WWD]

Probably the former. Yes, families where both parents are present in the children's lives are more stable and ultimately create a better environment for children, but Grove is implying that parents need to not only be married for children to thrive, but the man needs to be working and providing ("responsibility") for his young while the woman stays home and cares for them. Why not promote a society where single mothers can provide for their children on their own? Grove says that the Conservative government will provide a maternity nurse service for families who need help during the first days after childbirth, but there is no mention of this service being available to single mothers (or fathers) who have a newborn. An emphasis is placed on the relationship between the father and mother, implying that they are together.

And what does Grove think of women's magazines? While he condemns lad mags' presentation of a "narrow conception of beauty and a shallow approach towards women," he praises women's magazines (and their publishers) for addressing their readers "in a mature and responsible fashion." So, being obsessed with materialism, being fearful of any beauty "imperfection," and constantly being reminded that the attention of men is necessary to live a happy lifestyle is "mature"? Has this dude ever looked at a women's magazine?

Lad Mags Linked To 'Social Ills' [BBC]
'Lads Mags' Condemned Over Images Of Women [Telegraph]
Poll" Do Lad Mags Make Men Feckless? [Guardian]

Many women are transformed by Dangin's computer stylus, which sits in a basement laboratory at "Box", his four-story, Manhattan Photoshop fortress: In addition to Drew, there is the trophy wife with the "flat" face and "short" legs; the shoulder blade found "in a recent project at W"; the cast of the Sopranos; Prada models; "a famous actress in her late twenties"; a "crunchy"-faced model; "another well known actress"; "an actress with a movie coming out this spring"; Kate Moss; models Liya Kebede and Raquel Zimmerman; Madonna. And then there is model Christy Turlington, who, Collins explains, "needs the least help".

Collins, interestingly (purposefully?) glosses over Dangin's flaws as adeptly as he reshapes a model's nasiolabial folds. Her interview subjects, she explains, liken him to "a translator, an interpreter, a conductor, a ballet dancer articulating choreographed steps". (She compares his work to that of painters Jasper Johns and John Currin; he is, she later explains solemnly, "savantlike".) Collins also seems almost resolutely disinterested in exploring Dangin's role in perpetuating unrealistic standards of beauty and when a photograph ceases to be a photograph and becomes, what Redbook editor Stacy Morrison once said, "an image": most of the critics and/or experts of photo manipulation Collins quotes are all long-dead; the only living people she does quote are all fans of Dangin; and she all but skips over the news that Dangin retouched Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" advertisements. And when she finally gets around to asking Dangin about the work he does and how it affects and defines those aforementioned standards of beauty, she follows his explanation — "I'm just giving the supply to the demand" — with a cynical parenthetical announcing, "fashion advertisements are not public-service announcements." (Yeah, tell that to Newsweek's Jessica Bennett, who put up this story on Friday, quoting a NYC stylist as saying "those young kids looking at the magazines, they're dreaming of something that doesn't exist.")

The work Dangin does, has, not surprisingly, made him very rich. (He owns homes in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and St. Bart's; in addition to the cover portrait of Barrymore, Dangin, with the help of favorite Photoshop tools as the smudge brush, the warping tool, and the clone stamp, retouched — or "tweaked" — 107 advertisements and 36 fashion photographs in the March 2008 issue of Vogue alone.) It has also, interestingly, made him somewhat of a god among the egotistical, easily-unimpressed bigwigs in the fashion and photography industries, who defer to his whims without a second thought. His list of clients is both impressive and iconic: Steven Meisel, Patrick Demarchelier; Annie Leibovitz ("Just by the fact that he works with you, you think you're good"); Inez and Vinoodh; Craig McDean, who says he gives Dangin "carte blanche" to basically do whatever he wants. Whether Dangin enjoys all the adulation and deference that comes his way, Collins does not make clear (nor does she explore the fact that from the photographers to the photo retouchers to the art directors, images of women in fashion magazines are manipulated and decided upon by men before they ever appear before a female fashion editor's eyes.) As for the things Dangin doesn't enjoy — on the women whose photographs he alters, that is — they include the following: ropy blue veins; bony temples; fleshy chins; bumps of all sorts; big knees; "slumpy" legs; bad pores. Oh, and of course, fat asses.

Several days later, Demarchelier returned to the studio to continue winnowing images for the show. The conversation turned to which shot to include of another well-known actress.

"I like her in this one, because she looks very natural," Dangin said.

"Yes," Demarchelier agreed. "In that other pose, she looks like an actress."

"But she's also very good here," Dangin said, of a shot that showed her partially nude.

"Yes, she's very beautiful in that position. Do you want to cut it?"

"No, no. I'm going to keep it for the ass," Dangin said.

"Maybe we could redo the ass."

"Yes, the ass is quite heavy."

Related: Picture Perfect [Newsweek]

Earlier: Photoshop of Horrors
Vogue Cover Girl Drew Barrymore Has Been Powerfully Photoshopped
Our Fifteenth Minute: That Faith Hill Photo Wasn't Actually A Photo, Redbook Editor Explains

Fashion ads, or any type of marketing for that matter, should evoke emotion from the customer. That's how you capture attention. That is what makes women stop turning the pages of a fashion magazine — at least for me it works.

You know what? We agree. The ads that stand out for us — that we think work best — are the ones which seem like stills from a movie, or are so unexpected (like those new Harry Winston ads where the jewels are on a raven) that you're forced to stop and take note. The author, Maria Palma, goes on to write that ads should:

stand out and spread a message or tell a story. Women remember stories... not ads with women laying around. Those ads were probably created by men who like those kinds of things.

Glamour
Apparel: $134,648
Accessories: $1,109,270
Beauty: $1,796
Other: $265,864
Total Shit: $1,511,568

Lucky
Apparel: $134,355
Accessories: $133,372
Beauty: $5,949
Other: $826
Total Shit: $274,502

Check back later for specifics on just what some of the expensive shit totaled above actually is.

Related: It's Another Sweet September For Fashion Mags [AdAge]
Faces & Names [WWD]
Who's That Girl? [NY Post]
Scoping Out The September Issues: Glamour [GlossedOver]