Cancelling British Vogue Subscription After 10 years

[Edith1970s]

After 10 years I think I am done.

British Vogue is so different under Edward Ennifull. It was certainly dull and stale by the end of Alexandra Shulman’s reign, but it was always always aspirational. A sort of gilded world of British fashion and luxury brands, feted public figures, the high brow arts scene and sumptuous interiors.....you could escape into it with a large glass of red wine and a hot bath.

Full disclosure, I read the Guardian and the New Statesman, my DH reads the Times and The Week. We are a mixed race family (relevant because some objections to the new editor are frankly thinly veiled racism).

I don’t buy Vogue for activism. These are important societal issues but Vogue is not the forum where I would go to consider them.
I buy it for fashion, aspiration and escapism.
Don’t get me wrong it is GREAT that it is more inclusive.
But imagine buying a new Jilly Cooper novel and then discovering she is now writing a left wing polemic on the decline mining towns in the industrial Midland. It’s relevant and valid and important but it is emphatically not why you buy Jilly Cooper.
Lets not kid ourselves we (or maybe I) buy Vogue to escape the real world, not to try and make sense of it.

Personally I don't but it because it's full of unusually tall, thin models who don't represent anyone I know in real life. Even just reading one or two issues of any fashion magazine will change your body image in a bad way. Why do women buy these things at all?

I tend to agree. And I always thought of it as a very women-centric publication. Not too happy with a male editor, to be honest.

I get your argument. I get Gardeners world sent to me monthly and i would hate for it to turn into a climate change rant every month. Nothing wrong with a bit of that as the gren agenda is massively important and education on say alternatives to plastic is helpful and a good thing. But not every month. I read gardeners world for ideas and new plants and inspirational gardens.

And yes vogue should have a female chief. Totally agree with that.

I used to subscribe maybe 8-10 years ago but I found that it was ALL adverts. I mean they're beautiful adverts but paying to look at adverts seemed a little wasteful.

I do agree that I used to buy it for escapism too.

I do think Vogue should have a female editor. But I do like what EE is doing.

I completely agree with you OP. I don’t buy vogue for activism. I want impossibly perfect, beautiful fantasy. God knows we need some of that now more than ever. If I want to know how the world is going to hell in a handcart, I can read about that literally anywhere else.

If you really want some escapism I find Tatler gives me a few laughs, although I don't buy anything, I just read the website occasionally. It's full of aristocrats I've never heard of, so we get to learn all about how Jemima Chulmley-Featherstone held a fabulous party at her country home in the Cotswolds last week, before heading to London for a shopping spree at Harvey Nicks. But they are very British and self-deprecating, they know how over-privileged they are and they actually call each other toffs and gently poke fun at stuff. I find it just ridiculous enough to be funny.

I found that it was ALL adverts. I mean they're beautiful adverts but paying to look at adverts seemed a little wasteful

I used to buy it for the adverts as much as the content. The adverts were so highly produced and gorgeous. Like works of art. Nothing more lavish and beautifully bonkers than a perfume print ad.

I know exactly what you mean. I have unfollowed the American magazine Bon Appetit on instagram and their other related accounts. They had a scandal where they got in hot water for not paying their minority-ethnic staff properly (or at all) and had an editor fired for racist comments. But now they barely post any recipes or stuff about cooking, it's all about cultural stuff around food, or restaurants run by African Americans who are feeding BLM protests, or stuff like that.

I only followed for cooking inspiration so it's no longer relevant to what I want to see. I have plenty of other accounts I follow that focus on BLM and social justice and sometimes I just need ideas of what food to cook tonight, you know?

Vogue should have a female editor. I don’t buy it any more either.

@sashagabadon

I get your argument. I get Gardeners world sent to me monthly and i would hate for it to turn into a climate change rant every month. Nothing wrong with a bit of that as the gren agenda is massively important and education on say alternatives to plastic is helpful and a good thing. But not every month. I read gardeners world for ideas and new plants and inspirational gardens.

Your analogy with the gardening magazine is spot on. It is great that the editor wants to use the magazine’s huge platform but there is a definitive brand messaging shift. I wouldn’t be surprised to find Sadiq Khan, David Lammy, Diane Abbott, Priti Patel and Dawn Butler on the October issue discussing knife crime in London. Again, I’m not being flippant but why do we buy Vogue? It’s not for political and societal commentary.

I'm also glad Moss isn't on the cover much these days. I was on the verge of cancelling a couple of years ago when it was her every few months.

Sister OP, this month's cover star is a male footballer and BLM campaigner.

Sep Issue lead articles, in Vogue's own words:

• systemic racism
• disability discrimination
• domestic abuse
• gender inequality
• climate crisis.

We don't matter - I don't think anyone over 30 is Vogue's market any more. They need to get teens off screens and back onto paying a fiver in a 'newsagent' for a 'paper magazine'.

As it happens, I don't think all this borrowed fervour will work. Edward Enninful's a stylist. Not a journalist or even a marketing man - whisper it, but I can't see the quality of debate on these important subjects being that high. Too shouty and too dumb is my guess.

As for us? Like you, I'm more than capable of wanting to know both which lipstick to buy and not being a battered wife or a racist.And I crave deep authority on the shallowest trivia, unapologetically, as humans have done through time.

But EE has pitted lipstick v racism to get the young vote. There's something really weird and insulting about that, but I guess what will happen is that Vogue will lose its authority as a style bible and that's about it.

I can entirely see your point OP. I feel the same about Lush (entirely different brand I know), it's the same sort of thing. I want a bath bomb for an hour of luxury in the bath, not a controversial campaign thrust at me. I've stopped going there completely now and I'd feel the same way with Vogue.

I think people are afraid of saying they don’t like British Vogue because the Twitter mob will come after them. It has become TIME magazine with Chanel adverts.

I get that the world is imperfect, socially and economically unequal and structural and systemic racism is hurting people of colour. I care about social justice I just don’t know that I need to read about it in Vogue.

Have we collectively as a nation forgotten how to do frivolous?

I agree about shops doing this too. Shops ! Who are supposed to want us to buy their stuff, not to make it clear we are not wanted in there unless we have specific views.
The Body Shop and JK Rowling being a case in point, but I often get preachy emails from various companies. It tells me who not to buy from I suppose.

It's refreshing to read this thread. Someone posted something similar a few months ago - was about a specialist hobby FB group I think and not wanting to be lectured on social justice issues in it - and was told to read "White Fragility" and check their privilege because this stuff is important!

I'm glad it's beginning to swing back.

Have Vogue sales increased since EE?
I am sure i read the meghan markle cover was highest sales ever?
I did actuslly buy one recently with all the keyworker photos, more as a keepsake than anything else. It seemed light on content otherwise to me.
The proof will be in the pudding i guess. Have sales increaed or not. I have no idea.

Co incidentally i heard ee on th radio this morning talking about blm and racial profiling and an incident when he was directed by a security guard to a trade entrance of the conde nast building.
He got the poor security guard sacked! Who may well have been BAME himself as many security officers are and certainly he was low paid ( and one of the jobs most affected by covid in % of deaths PLUS a keyworker, ironically a group appearing on the cover of his magazine!.)
Anyway i thought sacking the guy was abuse of EE's male and wealthy priviledge - surely a telling off, an apology and retraining would have sufficed?

I never buy Vogue because when I have, every other page is an advertisement. I can order a catalogue if I want that.

The Meghan Markle edition had no content in it what so ever. Was really disappointed with it, same as the key worker edition. The content has definitely decreased in volume in the past year, though really like the online content.

I do enjoy Vogue, always get it when I'm going on holiday! To me its pure escapism and actually used to have some interesting articles.

Actually I also think that where there is a problem with BAME underrepresentation it does BAME communities a huge disservice to tie their appearance in a magazine like Vogue to special issues on social justice, activism, etc. Someone who is BAME can just be a model, a stylist, a designer, a partygoer. Bon Appetit can just include a lasagne recipe written by someone who is African American. Someone from a Nigerian background doesn't have to only publish recipes for jollof rice, a BAME fashion designer doesn't have to design with just kente cloth! It seems racist in itself to only include BAME or minority representation when coupled together with issues of racism or activism, or only when their minority heritage is highlighted, and not just part of whatever that magazine or news outlet is all about (gardening, cooking, fashion, whatever).

I care about social justice

I certainly don’t care about social justice and find all the wokism in every single fucking magazine so tiresome.

I want designer labels, travel inspiration, fine wine, art exhibitions and the occasional deep, intelligent dive into political topics.

Wokism is too afraid to ask serious questions and is afraid to court even slight controversy, thus can never be thought provoking or even relevant (can understand the reluctance though, what with all the journos in the States getting fired for daring to print slightly conservative opinions).

@Xiaoxiong

Actually I also think that where there is a problem with BAME underrepresentation it does BAME communities a huge disservice to tie their appearance in a magazine like Vogue to special issues on social justice, activism, etc. Someone who is BAME can just be a model, a stylist, a designer, a partygoer. Bon Appetit can just include a lasagne recipe written by someone who is African American. Someone from a Nigerian background doesn't have to only publish recipes for jollof rice, a BAME fashion designer doesn't have to design with just kente cloth! It seems racist in itself to only include BAME or minority representation when coupled together with issues of racism or activism, or only when their minority heritage is highlighted, and not just part of whatever that magazine or news outlet is all about (gardening, cooking, fashion, whatever).

Agree completely with this sentiment!

One of the Bon Appetit cooks made exactly this comment...that she was restricted to only publishing recipes tied into her ethnic heritage, but a Caucasian cook had the freedom to not just write about their traditional recipes, but also "takes" on ethnic recipes. And was paid more for this.

I had Grazia subscription since 2006.
I finally ended it two months ago .
There is by the way new App Readly where is every mag possible even international to read for almost same money I paid for Grazia.
Much better.