The Glamour Magazine Plus Experiment.... was it a success or was it a failure?
When it comes to fashion, plus women are tired of two things; never seeing what they really want..and being told what they should want. I think that's what's fundamentally wrong with Glamour's curvy magazine edition. It's compiled in a way that made me feel like I had no idea how to dress myself. The clothing spreads in the magazine assumed that plus-size women had no idea what looked good and had no sense of personal fashion, that I needed to know the basics... and they were here to educate me. The pages were filled with tips I could file under.... yeah... I already know...
I know I need dark wash jeans and a good bra... thanks Mom.
The models featured throughout the pages were mostly size 14. I wondered if the editors themselves were really buying into the concept of a true plus magazine ... they avoided featuring bigger sized models, why? Plus vs curvy. Interesting that they made this distinction. They could publish a magazine with a plus size model on the cover and dedicate the rest to standard size 8 women, tall women....Amy Schumer. I love her...but not a plus-size. She's a size 10. I guess Anna Wintour considers a size 10 to be plus....but that's only in Hollywood.
This magazine is just not a fair representation of what a plus-sized woman is.
At first, I was pretty jazzed to pick up the first plus edition of Glamour. There was some good advice in issue, the Zak Posen/Lauren Chan piece on the importance of buying clothing to fit the widest part of your body and consulting a good tailor is helpful. It's something I've been doing for years. I also thoroughly enjoyed the spread with Christina Hendricks, "Today I'm Not Wearing Black." There are two beautiful shots of Christina wearing a rust coloured hat and blouse and another shot her her fire red hair framed by a jewel tone peacock/ teal ruffled dress. There is also disappointment here. They don't tell me who she is wearing, probably because the fashion doesn't come in a plus size. Christina's size varies from a size 10 to a size 14. She's curvy, but is she really a plus size? I glean she's painted her pout with a Yves St Laurent lipstick, and that's about it. Drat.
There's also a lot of articles...a lot, focused on body confidence. Not really what I was looking for. Most plus women are pretty confident and accept their bodies, it's the rest of society that needs this information.
I just bought a plus sized fashion magazine and didn't bat an eye, didn't I?
I wonder who the demographic is? Is it a 14 year old teenager who needs that extra confidence boost or is it a self confident, cash spending 35 year old?
There were classic DO and Don't pages.
I was told to buy three pairs of pants, Culottes which I find heinous, track pants, or dark jeans with flares.
Nothing really earth shattering here. I'm annoyed the pants are modelled on three skinny women with board flat bums. Where are my buxom beauties?
Page 10 also tells me to invest in a wrap belt. I know: I have 4 in my closet. Why is there picture of a woman from Game of Thrones? Did we just grab the first plus woman we found in a Google image search? Is this strange, frumpy attired warrior woman with a scabby nose, fashion forward?
There was a section on bras. I would have preferred to see the lingerie modelled on plus size women. I like visuals. I want to see the fit. I wanted to see beautiful sexy women rocking these looks. I want to see myself wearing that bra.
Page 22, the section on dresses... the models featured were all size 14. What about showing me a sexy dress on a size 18, a size 22? Why not tell me who designed the dresses and where I could buy them? Where is this information?
The Bloggers Saved the Issue.
Beck Delude's blogger page was well thought out. She researched it and gave me some great dress choices and told me where to buy them. Page 25 with another blogger, trend setter Kellie Brown, was also informative. Pretty jackets, and info on who made them and where I could pick them up online. Perfect. Epic. I took notes.
There was an annoying accessories page that was filler. Trending now: purchase pointy toe heels.. narrow toe pinching flats and heels would never find their way onto my wide width mostly swollen feet.
Ashley Graham's photo spread and style tips were simple but they were helpful. I loved how she stretched her dollar and created different looks from classic staples such as a patterned blazer, a striped dress and dark wash jeans. The cover of the magazine features Ashley wearing this gorgeous blood coloured belted maxi dress. I wanted it. I want to buy it now.
For the life of me I couldn't find out who designed it or where I could buy it. So frustrating.
I loved the looks in the Day to Night fashion spread, photographed by Victor Demarchelier. My only complaint was that the looks were too safe. I wanted to be transported somewhere else. To a fantasy land of inspirations. I have already have a camel trench in my closet, a pair of white jeans, a white tunic, a cotton dress and a leather jacket.
It was clear to see this magazine was an experiment. It was thinner then any other mag on the shelf and it was a pricey $15.00. I felt it was cobbled together very quickly and was sponsor heavy. I saw the same handful of plus celebs, I always see, as if they are the only ones in the universe who exist. For that price, I wanted to be enlightened by the fashion. I wanted to see fresh faces and more research. There are literally thousands of beautiful plus size models out there, of every size and race. No money was spent to bring them on board for some real fashion shoots. This whole endeavour was made on the cheap.
The experiment did work..in the end. I bought the mag.
I truly hope it turns a profit and becomes a retail success, I'd like to see more effort in the next addition.
Come on Glamour! Inspire me! Respect me!