From in vogue fashion and style, the latest news and trends in the fashion space, tweaks and inventions by upcoming and established designers, fashion tips and ideas by celebrities, to all that’s got to do with fashion, there is overwhelmingly everything to love about fashion. This industry is huge and if you love fashion you won’t miss the latest from your favorite magazine.
Online or hardcopy, these magazines are not merely entertainers, they are guides and rich with just the right information. So whether you are catching up with top celebrity tips or learning how to dress up for modeling, these ten fashion magazines will help you keep abreast of the latest. And since online is the in thing, don’t be surprised if they are purely online or decide to go online in the near future. After all, you will have even easier access.
1. Vogue
Published by: Condé Nast Inc.USA
Website: https://www.vogue.com/magazine
Founder: Arthur Baldwin Turnure, Journalist
Founded: 1982
Current Editor: Dame Anna Wintour
Vogue magazine first started in 1982 as a weekly newspaper and soon changed into a monthly fashion publication. Seeing its promising potential, Condé Nast Publishers took up its publishing in 1909. Since then, Vogue has grown to be the most influential magazine in matters of fashion and lifestyle.
Vogue is definitely the most famous fashion magazine with 24.4 million readership and 42 million online users across the globe. Even though it had a stronger appeal to women, Vogue succeeded in publishing the men’s edition so that by 2005 the women and men editions went independent. Vogue covers industry trends, exclusive features, and interviews with fashion icons, runway, and much more. Anna Wintour after taking up the magazine’s editing team has not relented in taking Vogue places and yes, year after year it has topped most charts and set the bar high as a best-seller.
The British Vogue was the earliest Vogue edition in 1916. The American edition came up after and since, other international editions (23 in total) like the Italian Vogue, Vogue Australia, Vogue Arabia, Teen Vogue, Vogue Girl (published in Australia and South Korea), and many others have been born in countries across the world.
2. Cosmopolitan
Published by: Hearst Corporation
Website: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/
Founder: Schlicht & Field Company
Founded: 1886
Current Editor: Jessica Pels (American Edition)
Cosmo, as it is popularly known, is in truth a cosmopolitan magazine that flaunts 64 international editions spanning 110 countries across the globe including Romania, South Africa, Russia, Australia, Croatia, France, and others. It is one of the earliest magazines to be published in 1886 first as a family magazine and then a fashion and lifestyle magazine in the 60s. Cosmo has gone global and is now published in 35 languages of the world.
Cosmopolitan is a fiercely feminist brand that does not shy away from matters affecting women like sex, relationships, lifestyle and fashion trends, beauty, and real entertainment around the tagline ‘Fun Fearless Feminism’.
Cosmopolitan magazine is the 2nd best fashion magazine in the world.
3. Harper’s Bazaar
Published by: Hearst Corporation
Website: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/
Founder: Harper and Brothers
Founded: 1862
Current Editor: Glenda Bailey (American Edition)
From the outset, Harper’s Bazaar has catered for the upper-middle-class woman and this vision carries on years after changing ownership a couple of times to finally be under Hearst Corporation which owns several other top fashion magazines like Cosmo.
Harper’s Bazaar speaks about the latest fashion trends, style, runway shows, designers, and everything fashion and feminine in a rather bold, intriguing, and informative manner, something that makes it an appeal not only to the upper-middle-class women which it targets but also to many other categories of women. However, unlike most other magazines, Harper’s Bazaar is more focused on fashion than on lifestyle and this, it has maintained for over a century to earn the title ‘women’s style resource’.
Harper’s Bazaar has its headquarters in New York. It was first published in 1867 and is today published monthly in 32 countries. In addition to the magazine, Harper’s Bazaar also has blogs and a digital version of the magazine which covers interviews with top models, behind-the-scenes videos, cover shoots, and many more.
4. Glamour
Published by: Condé Nast Inc.USA
Website: https://www.glamour.com/fashion
Founder: Condé Nast Publications
Founded: 1939
Current Editor: Samantha Barry
Originally known as Glamor of Hollywood, Glamour magazine was first published in April 1939. Today, Glamor magazine is published in more than 15 countries including the UK, Greece, Sweden, South Africa, Mexico, Netherlands, and others. It has been doing print editions up until 2019 when it did away with printed magazines to go digital.
Glamour magazine was the first fashion magazine to feature an African-American cover in its August 1968 issue when it featured Katiti Kironde. This magazine caters to women between 18 and 49 and covers everything fashion including fashion news, runway shows, street fashion, celebrity fashion and tips, and more.
5. Marie Claire
Published by: Hearst Corporation
Website: https://www.marieclaire.com/
Founder: Jean Prouvost and Marcelle Auclair
Founded: 1937
Current Editor: Aya Kanai
Marie Claire is a magazine for women’s fashion trends, celebrities, lifestyle, art, news, career, and travel across cultures. Started in France in 1937 by Jean Prouvost who was a businessman, politician, and an influential media person and later managed by Évelyne Prouvost his granddaughter, this magazine is the first that managed over a half million copies in sales for its first edition as it resonated with women’s hearts and feelings after the second world war.
Marie Claire caters to women of all walks of between age 25 and around 50. Today, Marie Claire is available monthly in 35 countries and 24 different languages. From 2019, its print version was done away with to maintain only the digital version.
6. InStyle
Published by: Meredith Corporation (US)
Website: https://www.instyle.com/
Founder: Meredith Corporation
Founded: 1994
Current Editor: Laura Brown
InStyle magazine started in the United States in 1994 and has since spread to more than 16 countries including Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Turkey, South Africa, China, and others with a readership of more than 7 million. In 2018, the UK edition went digital while the Polish publication was stopped.
InStyle is the go-to magazine for beauty, fashion, home, entertainment, philanthropy, and celebrity lifestyle content. It is the first fashion magazine to have banned fur from its content in 2018 in solidarity with animal protection.
7. Allure
Published by: Condé Nast Inc. USA
Website: https://www.allure.com/
Founder: Linda Wells
Founded: 1991
Current Editor: Michelle Lee
Allure is an American fashion magazine published monthly since 1991 to cater to women of all ages. Allure goes beyond fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and all the juicy content in the fashion industry to cover the more serious matters of health and wellness for women. It was the first magazine to cover controversial topics on health for instance its feature on ‘risks associated with silicone breast implants’.
Interestingly, Allure was first in an oversized format that could not fit on store slots. It was later redesigned into the standard size. Allure magazine flaunts a global footprint of 5.3M monthly readers of the print editions and 12.6M unique digital users. Allure is one of the few fashion magazines that have not thought twice about retaining its print editions.
Allure holds an annual Best of Beauty awards every October, a program that has run successfully for the past 14 years and one that features brands and products in hair, make-up, skincare, and other categories. Details of the winning products and where to find them are updated in the iPhone app that Allure developed in 2010.
8. GQ
Published by: Condé Nast Inc. USA
Website: https://www.gq.com/style
Founder: Condé Nast Inc.
Founded: 1931
Current Editor: Will Welch
The GQ magazine started in 1931 as Apparel arts with special attention to the wholesale trade of clothing and apparel. It was a platform for wholesale buyers and retailers of men’s clothing to interact. given that its target audience was limited, there was no need for releasing a large number of prints.
In 1958 however, Apparel Arts changed to Gentlemen’s Quarterly, a men’s magazine published every quarter. In 1967 it was rebranded again to GQ and in 1970 its publications increased from quarterly to monthly editions.
Today, GQ caters to men of all ages from the age of 18 years and has opened up to cover much more beyond fashion. It features culture, latest news touching on men issues, profiles of influencers and celebrities in movies, sports, music, and others. It also covers politics, sports, technology, food, entertainment, travel, health and fitness, as well as relationships among other issues. The magazine also conducts the popular GQ Men of the year awards that recognize influential men.
9. Elle
Published by: Hearst Corporation
Website: https://www.elle.com/
Founder: Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon
Founded: 1945
Current Editor: Nina Garcia (US Edition)
Elle is a French word meaning she or her. Elle is an originally French magazine that enlightens women about current fashion trends, health, beauty, and entertainment. As the world’s best-selling magazine, Elle has gained readership in 46 countries with a huge following of women in love with fashion but curious about feminism and freedom of women, topics that were so close to the heart of Lazareff. Its British edition was the first fashion magazine to cover Hari Neff, a transgender woman. Even so, this magazine has not shied off from featuring cultural and political content. Elle currently has 10 annual publications.
10. Flaunt
Published by: A fully independent magazine
Website: https://flaunt.com/
Founder: Luis Barajas and Jim Turner
Founded: 1998
Current Editor: Matthew Bedard
Unlike most others, Flaunt magazine owners opted to go completely independent. It is a popular magazine that was first published in 1998 as a luxury magazine. It soon shifted focus and now covers fashion, lifestyle, arts, culture, celebrity features, music, film, literature, media, and others. It has succeeded in creatively targeting both genders. Flaunt has featured famous celebrities like Beyoncé, Lewis Hamilton, Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas, Brad Pitt, and many others.
Initially, 10 issues of Flaunt magazines were published annually. Today there are only six issues being published yearly and distributed in more than 32 countries.
Conclusion
Whether you are catching up with the latest celebrity gossip or you are simply in love with fashion and beauty, these magazines will certainly fill you in. Even with the onset of the digital revolution, many publishers have gone a step ahead to embrace the digital but without abandoning their print versions. Magazines will simply never go out of fashion so brace yourself for the latest and most addictive reads in the world of fashion.