Vogue - do you love or hate its new direction

lemonsandlimes123 · 2020-08-04T18:26:38+00:00

Personally I hate it. I think Enninful is an awful editor and that if he wants to be a social campaigner then Editor of Vogue is not the right job for him. I buy Vogue for fashion and escapism and sometimes good journalism, not for virtue signalling by the fashion industry. i won't be buying it again whilst Enninful is editor.

PersonaNonGarter · 04/08/2020 20:21

The problem is that people aren’t buying Vogue much at all. And advertisers aren’t advertising.

Vogue is about being fashionable and #Activism is really fashionable.

I really wish that wasn’t the case though. Like you, I just need a bit more escapism. I feel turned off by relentlessness of all the things we are meant to be worried and angry about.

augustusglupe · 04/08/2020 20:34

I hate the new direction and bought Vogue all through the 80s/90s and occasionally since.
I also won’t be buying it again whilst he’s editor.

Laquila · 04/08/2020 21:17

I only rarely read Vogue - what's the "new direction", other than Enninful featuring more people of colour and their stories?

Original poster

lemonsandlimes123 · 04/08/2020 21:22

Laquila- It's on the front page of the bbc today and there have also been lots of articles. I am sure you can find the relevant information if you want to. Odd that you chose to comment given that you say you rarely read Vogue.

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500BusStops · 04/08/2020 21:24

I think Vogue needed a new direction and I'd grown tired of it before he took over. Initially I thought he was a breath of fresh air, but it's all feeling a bit repetitive again. I think Vogue should be about the new and exciting and keep on changing. I agree it feels more about activism than fashion now, but to me the old Vogue felt more about well connected society girls called Bunty than fashion, which I found really tedious.

FTMF30 · 04/08/2020 21:33

@lemonsandlimes123

Laquila- It's on the front page of the bbc today and there have also been lots of articles. I am sure you can find the relevant information if you want to. Odd that you chose to comment given that you say you rarely read Vogue.

Most people who make posts referencing current affairs or something recently discussed in the media post a link to show what they're tslking about.

DreamingofSunshine · 04/08/2020 21:36

I have to say I've found Tatler a more interesting read than Vogue recently.

Original poster

lemonsandlimes123 · 04/08/2020 21:36

FTM - If you read Vogue you will know what I am talking about. If you don't read Vogue then this discussion isn't really for you!

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Laquila · 04/08/2020 21:38

LOLZ @lemonsandlimes123 - you're right, Mumsnet is absolutely only about people commenting on what they know inside out. It's totally its raison d'être 😆

To be fair, your spidey-senses should be tingly as I was being a teeny bit disingenuous, wasn't I? And that was because frankly I thought your comment sounded a touch racist and I wanted to know what you meant by "a new direction". Who do you think social activism should be down to?

Original poster

lemonsandlimes123 · 04/08/2020 21:46

Laquila - you did not hide your agenda well! I don't read Vogue for social activism and therefore will no longer be reading it, if I want to engage in social activism I would not be taking my lead from the fashion industry. Race doesn't come into it, sorry to disappoint you.

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GoshHashana · 04/08/2020 22:19

I absolutely love it. It was so stuffy when Alexandra Shulman and her army of white posh girls were at the helm.

Floisme · 04/08/2020 22:33

I think Vogue had got very tired - half the articles seemed to consist of women who'd been at boarding school together interviewing each other. And I remember thinking Enninful's first edition was really exciting and promising. But after a while I started to get the sense that, while Enninful might have a different set of mates from Alexandra Schulman, we'd really just swapped one London clique for another.
I was unimpressed when they featured Paris Lees in the celebration of women's suffrage and have barely looked at it since. But I like Marcus Rashford so may give the new edition a go.

Totickleamockingbird · 04/08/2020 22:37

@lemonsandlimes123

Laquila- It's on the front page of the bbc today and there have also been lots of articles. I am sure you can find the relevant information if you want to. Odd that you chose to comment given that you say you rarely read Vogue.

Just clicked to see what you meant. Turns out you do need a lot of escapism in your life! Too angry you are OP!

Totickleamockingbird · 04/08/2020 22:41

And it’s all about what’s ‘in’ right now. All they want in the end is clicks. They have got it right again. You are not their future customer.

Original poster

lemonsandlimes123 · 04/08/2020 22:42

Not angry! Just choosing not to be goaded into going off on a tangent by posters with an agenda.

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nctoday1 · 04/08/2020 22:43

I really dislike the direction it has gone in. I don't even pick it up to flick through in waiting rooms anymore. I loved it 15 or more years ago

Original poster

lemonsandlimes123 · 04/08/2020 22:44

totickle - their customers are the advertisers not the readers! Believe me it is not the young activist market that their big advertisers are targetting.

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Totickleamockingbird · 04/08/2020 22:44

It’s not personal. It’s always business.

Original poster

lemonsandlimes123 · 04/08/2020 22:48

I don't think anyone thinks it's personal!

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Ihatemyseleffordoingthis · 04/08/2020 22:49

I love it - I've had a subscription for 20 years from my mum as Xmas present
The fashion editorials in the last edition were banging

and also, yeah what @Totickleamockingbird said

Totickleamockingbird · 04/08/2020 22:51

@lemonsandlimes123

totickle - their customers are the advertisers not the readers! Believe me it is not the young activist market that their big advertisers are targetting.

Then you have missed how their business model has evolved in the last 15 years.

Original poster

lemonsandlimes123 · 04/08/2020 23:12

Well they have tried to make it evolve - unfortunately print media as a whole is on a hiding to nothing!

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RonaldMcDonald · 05/08/2020 02:48

I am heartened by the stance of the new editor, his wider inclusion and fewer fluff based articles
He has my vote

Lanaa · 05/08/2020 07:17

I've read Vogue since I was a teen. It became very staid and predictable under the leadership of Shulman. Although magazine readership is down, and they are all struggling I actually look forward to my copy of Vogue landing on my door mat. Prior to him, they would be left in the cellophane for weeks. EE was a good choice, he's more than qualified for the job (look at the work he did for Italian and American vogue)

I think the all aspects of the mag have improved now he is at the helm. It's a shame that vacuous people can't make the link between current affairs, human rights and fashion. I think EE is getting a lot of unfair criticism, which isn't based solely on his editorial skills...

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 05/08/2020 08:15

Does anyone remember the documentary made about Alexandra Shulman's Vogue - the plotting to get one over on Anna Wintour and put someone on the cover who was meant to be on American Vogue the following month? I'm hazy on the details because it was quite a long time ago but I remember that I really enjoyed it and it made Vogue a bit more relatable to me. I am not their target customer at all and don't really 'get' Vogue, but that documentary made me buy it. I liked seeing how it was all put together and the people behind it. I was quite sad when they got replaced.
I've since read articles by Alexandra Shulman and I do enjoy them. I liked the idea of a middle aged, non skinny woman editing a high fashion magazine. It tickled me because in my heart of hearts I think these types of magazine are all bollocks.

I'm also a bit when a new person sacks all the old staff, who were only doing what they were instructed to do by the previous editor. Seems harsh to me.
I do think it's probably fair to say that one 'in' group has been replaced by another. I suppose that's the nature of the industry.

I guess it just comes down to what you value. Personally I don't want to pay money (the price of magazines these days) to be on the receiving end of activism, however fashionable. I can get lectured by Twitter! I want escapism from Vogue and to just look at beautiful things. But I accept that I'm not its future and if it is to survive then it has to appeal to the majority. Maybe Enninful can do that - time will tell.
Lots of far superior magazines (imo) have fallen, yet Vogue and Grazia survive, so obviously I know nothing about the market!