Genre Research: Fashion

Hey guys! So, for the past day or so I have been looking into magazine genres through pictures, lists, titles and even in stores. The biggest thing I have to comment is that I had no idea there were so many kinds of genres when it came to magazines! Eventually, I pulled up a list that had just about every genre made. That made it a lot more overwhelming, but also easier to pick out certain ones for research. With that being said, the first genre I decided to research is: Fashion!

Fashion magazines are typically the default genre many people think of when thinking about magazines. And I got that pretty quickly. Originally when I had first started my research into magazine genres, I had asked a few people I knew to list 3 magazine genres, and all 4 of them chose fashion first. In other words, it wasn't much of a shock when reading into the genre and finding out it was such a staple.

Usually, these magazines are a creative blend of journalism, photography, and design that all work together to create a physical representation of social ideas, especially ones of the time or that are "trendy". Although reading more, I discovered that they're also a way to inspire and influence their readers through a carefully structured design.

The most common or "default" design I found was this:

Cover-

• Main image (typically featuring a celebrity or a model).

• Feature article headline displayed.

• coverlines (catchy phrases to tell you about the articles/ teasing the content inside).

Table of contents spread-

• Page numbers listed with each article so they can be found.

• Visuals relevant to content.

• Follows same color palette shown on the cover and throughout the magazine.

• Fonts are the same and easy to read all while complimenting the magazines style.

Feature article spread-

•   Usually plays with the balance of pictures to text. Some have not much text but lots of picture while others have a large main picture and a decent amount of text.

• Pictures relate to the story/topic (if about a person, usually features that person in the pictures).

Example of cover pages:

     

Example of Table of Contents Spread:

Example of Feature Article spread (Two different types):

Text dependent:

Photo dependent:

Upon some deeper reading however, I learned that that this genre had a close "relative" or "sister genre": Teen Magazines. I personally was unaware the two were actually pretty different until I started looking at them more closely. I had always believed that the two were fashion magazines and one was just targeted for younger audiences. And in a way, they are, just also not.

After reading into what a fashion magazine is and what it contains, I have found myself surprisingly interested. I think I can overall have a lot of fun into making a product of this type and I wouldn't mind the idea of it at all, even if fashion had never been something I personally valued very much. I think it's a nice step out of my comfort zone and generally pretty intriguing.

However, this was my first attempt into research and reading up on a specific magazine genre, so maybe I will change my mind. For now, I'll keep this genre as an option in the back of my mind, but for the next few days, I'll be looking into different genres. One definitely being Teen magazines.

Thanks for reading, see ya next time with a new update! :)

Sources:

https://genreslist.com/magazine-genres-list

Magazine Conventions | Masteringmedia

features | Topics | Vogue

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Teen Magazines | Encyclopedia.com