Fashion Magazine Disillusionment

Jason brought home this month's In-Style magazine for me, because it had Julianne Moore on the cover. I don't buy fashion magazines anymore. I used to read Harper's Bazaar and Vogue like the bible, but then I got poor. It was impossible for me to contemplate the virtues of thousand dollar shoes and million dollar jewelry when I was struggling to pay rent.

Now that I've been out of the retail fashion world for two years, flipping through a magazine is a very different experience. It still offers the basics on cut, proportion and volume, plus guidelines for dressing one's body type. I always liked Harpar's Bazaar and Vogue because they dealt with fashion's hot-button issues too: age, beauty, femininity, and money.

In spite of these good things, the force that drives the existence of magazines like In-Style is advertising. If they can't turn around all of those topics to make you want and buy more new fashion, they're out of business.

This is where the helpfulness of these magazines turns into misinformation. They have to emphasize the brand, the specific item, rather than the aesthetic idea that it represents. They build a concept of fashion as being a white hare that you are chasing through the forest - You have to keep up with the hot new color, designer, or item, or your value is diminished.

Fashion magazines also create, by consensus, what they seem to think are reasonable price points for clothing. In-Style dedicates five pages to new jeans for spring. The average price is $200.00. This, they seem to say, is just what you have to pay to look good in jeans.

By far the worst example is the Deals and Steals section of the magazine. I used to seek out items I found in these articles. I bought a Banana Republic coat and an American Eagle safari jacket, eager to have a little piece of high-fashion.

This is the cheapest that fashion gets, apparently. You can't buy good shorts for less than $130. Even Payless is charging $50 for those shoes. This is the reality they want you to believe so that you keep spending money on new fashion. If you're keeping up with Mrs. Jones, and she's keeping up with you, none of those big corporations will have any trouble meeting their sales goals this quarter.

I want to convince you that in thousands of thrift stores across America are amazing vintage and used clothes at prices that make this look laughable. You just have to take the time and have the patience to shop for them. The effort will be worth it once you create a sense of identity in your fashion that doesn't rely on getting the newest thing, but reflects what you love and want to wear for a long time.