I have read InStyle since I discovered some old issues selling for really cheap at a charity sale at SFS. I was about 14 years old and basically had to wrestle Michelle, my friend - who was a serious jock, to get it. Anyway I won, or maybe she just wasn't trying so hard, and I bought the magazines. Ever since then I have been completely hooked to InStyle.
I'm not entirely sure what it is about the magazine that strikes a chord in me. The clothes and the style is very sort of old fashioned and kind of middle-aged, WASP-y, proper and put-together and Hamptons-esque. Which ironically is exactly what I aspire to eventually look like. Even though I'm 23 and not white and live in Malaysia. But you know, I want to be the kind of person who throws on a pair of casual but super overpriced trousers, a casual white button down and loops a lovely cashmere sweater on their shoulders while wearing the requisite Cartier tank watch and bling - but understated Tiffany ear studs. So yeah I guess the fashion does it for me, and the fact that there is no real gossip-gossip in the magazine. As in there's no mention of how crazy people are, how someone's sleeping with someone or that someone looks terrible. Also there's no tacky article about how to find your G-Spot or how to please your man. Sure there are celebrities but you're looking at them having a good time at a party or you're being invited to their home, learning about a cause that is close to their heart or reading about the latest project they're working on. It's like they're your friends and you're getting to know them a bit better. Which is pretty much why I love it.
Which brings me to why I'm so bothered by how thin the magazine is getting. I'm pretty sure it used to be around 300+ pages and now it's a measly 100+ something. And though I don't know much about the magazine industry I know that's bad. I know that's bad because firstly, in Ugly Betty, when MODE couldn't get enough ads they had to cut feature articles. If you cut content that's really bad. And since they've been cutting the Man of Style article every other issue, that must be bad. Secondly in this article about Ron Galotti he said that, “When I took over Vogue, Elle and Vogue were equal,” he says. “When I finished, Vogue had 500 more pages.” It basically means, the thicker the magazine, the better its doing. InStyle, is so freakin' thin its looking like a supermarket tabloid, which really scares me.
What's the problem? The economy? I'm sure that's a part of it simply because everyone has been pulling out money for ads. Or is it that under the direction of Ariel Foxman, InStyle has lost some readers and as a result advertizing sales have dropped? I don't really like the direction Foxman is taking the magazine - younger, hipper and basically aimed more toward generic women's magazines but I was willing to stick around to see if it would change. But seriously I just miss Charla Lawhon, the last editor who took InStyle to new heights and basically made it all that it could be. And I think that InStyle - a magazine that has a mostly female demographic, and not a young one at that, needs a woman at the helm and not someone out to make waves and shake things up. Because InStyle is about being classic and timeless.
I just wanted to throw this out there because there seem to be no other articles or even mention of this on the internet. Maybe the slimmer InStyle is just a temporary thing, maybe it's not.
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