Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Mags: Legs 11

Former Paris Hilton BFF, reality TV and, ah-hem, porn video 'star' Kim Kardashian (of Keeping Up With the Kardashians) gives her best 'Brooke Shields for Calvin Klein' interpretation for the latest issue of Radar (ironic, given Shields was a rather innocent, if overtly sexualised, 15-year-old when she donned her Calvins in the 80s)...

Meanwhile, Lindsay Lohan poses for the debut edition of Nylon Korea (shot by editor Marvin Scott Jarrett and styled by Anda and Masha). I'd like to call this look 'boganista'...

But most importantly, New York Magazine has put together a handy little reference guide to the 'Stylings of the World's Top Vogue's Editors' (Anna Wintour, Alexandra Shulman, Franca Sozzani and Carine Roitfeld) in reference to T Magazine's 'United Colors of Vogue' feature (an "international Vogue typology"). My unashamedly superficial vote goes to Carine, hands down (check those pegs!). Not that it's a competition.

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Mags: Women's Health (Guest Review)

Our intrepid reviewer Rochelle Zaknich feels inspired to get off the couch... just as soon as the Olympics are over and she's recovered from reading this month's over-zealous issue of Women's Health...

Being a tragic Olympic fan, it was with somewhat greater enthusiasm than usual that I picked up this month’s issue of Women’s Health. I don’t know if it’s all those fit-looking bronzed athletes (go Aussies!) or the sunny Spring-like weather we’ve been having here in Perth, but my thoughts are starting to turn towards hauling myself off the sofa and getting into some sort of health and fitness regime. While I won’t be giving up the sofa just yet – there’s a whole one more week of Olympics to go –, WH seemed like a relevant magazine to flick through in the ad breaks…

The cover... If there’s one thing guaranteed not to surprise you about WH each month, it’s the cover. Think taut, toned chick in a bikini and you’ll never be far off. This month, we get Nicole Boerner – I never recognise the names of any of the cover girls, so I can only assume they’re fit-looking models, or lesser-known athletes who just happen to be pretty. The coverlines feature the usual slew of numbers (‘2,127 All-new Nutrition, Exercise, Relationship, Beauty and Style Tips’ – who has to count these?!) and motivational fitness-speak. It’s labelled a special issue with a focus on ‘Relax & Recharge’ – yes, please!

The ed. says… Alongside her pretty new ed’s photo, Felicity Percival tells us about her difficulty ‘switching off’ during a recent spa visit and laments the fact that we are all drowning in data. A good point, but a quick flick through the issue only adds to this feeling for me – more on this below…

The story line-up:
• The focal point of this month’s issue is ‘The Big Easy’ – jam-packed full of tips and tricks designed to help us streamline our lives, save time and reduce stress. While it’s obvious that a lot of thought and research went into this feature, and many of the tips are quite useful (a diagram showing how to rescue jewellery from the drain – my greatest fear!), I found it contradictory. The feature is so chock-full of websites, gadgets (advertorials?) and numbers that it’s overwhelming. I would have preferred a more holistic approach – how can we change our mindset and streamline our lives from the inside out?
• ‘Sore Subject’ is the token science story this month, all about – you guessed it – pain. A fact-filled, newsy read if you can stay with it (I skimmed!). As a migraine sufferer, I can vouch for the fact that consuming caffeine with your painkillers really can help.
• ‘Head Strong’ is a fitness article all about mind over matter, which felt like a very relevant read after watching 38 year-old Romanian Constantina Tomescu-Dita win the women’s marathon in the Olympics while eating croissants on the sofa today – truly amazing stuff! The feature explains some of the psychology behind endurance, strength-building exercises and motivational mantras from athletes and the WH team (“This is not the hardest thing I’ve ever done”, Amanda Ryan, 32. Though in Tomescu-Dita’s case, it probably was!).
• ‘Sex Repairs’ by Leslie Goldman gives us her first-person experience of sex therapy (brave girl!). Goldman tries to work through three of her issues: impatience to orgasm, her and her partner’s conflicting schedules, and the most tricky: body consciousness. The first two seem to be checked off fairly easily via some tantric breathing and appointment making, while the body-image stuff takes a little more work. Goldman’s therapist explains that it’s the control freak in her coming out, and after some burlesque dancing and a night of submission, the problem is seemingly cured and the feature wrapped up.

The superficial:
• Returning to the ‘relax and recharge’ theme, we get ‘The WH Spa Guide’. All pretty ho-hum for an anti-spa person like myself but possibly quite useful if you’re planning a break yourself. Editor Felicity Percival and Beauty Editor Nicole Wraight both write in-depth reviews before the usual state-by-state guide. It’s probably the cynic in me coming out, but has a journalist ever been sent on an all-expenses-paid spa trip and written a bad review? You know what you’re getting here.
• ‘Lose the Last 3…5…10 Kilos’ features four women who are prescribed diets to help budge the pesky weight that won’t budge. While I think the intentions are good here, I really hate the idea of a diet, especially one that has a name (‘the abs diet’ – sounds fun, huh?). I thought women’s mags were moving past this?
• While I don’t know that it’s ‘superficial’, food articles featuring recipes generally make up the fluffier lifestyle component of the magazine. ‘Power Pizzas’ is a visual treat featuring five pages of recipes that pack a nutritious punch – the Thai Prawn pizza sounds delish!

While I think WH is doing a good job of promoting its mantra, ‘it’s good to be you’, I’d love for it to be a bit more dynamic each month – things are starting to feel a bit formulaic.

The score:
Overall excitement factor: 6
Feel-good factor: 5 and 10ish (ties in well with the tagline of the mag…)
Eye-candy rating: 3

The Stats:
Issue: September 2008
Cover Price: $6.95
Book size: 164 pages
Ad/promo pages: 47 out of 164 pages
FOB ads: Garnier, Olay, Avon, Asics, Biotherm, Champion, O.P.I.
Back Cover: Clinique
Editor: Felicity Percival
Website: www.yahoo7.com.au/womenshealth

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Pretty: Primped goes live

At long last, Primped.com.au – the dedicated beauty site with Zoe Foster as editor-in-chief and Yasemin Turker as editor – has gone live.

Reflecting Foster's cheeky personality, the site features 'The Daily Scrub' blog ("A pore excuse for a beauty blog"), 'Beauty Duty' ("If it's new or it's news, it's definitely here"), 'Tricks and Tips' ("How to become a massively annoying know-all"), 'definitely excellent products' and 'zippy little links'.

A product finder and Primped TV ("watch, listen, learn"), which features several how-to videos (one showing us how to get Foster's trademark 'crazy-bright orange lips' and another giving us the 411 on curling with a ghd iron), as well as interviews with celebrities and makeup pros in the know (see 'mixed palette') and a reader forum (Jessica Biel's bangs, Rumer Willis' jawline and vibrating mascara are all up for discussion) round out the site's features.

Like style.com (or Vogue forum) for ladies who apply lipgloss (several times) as they lunch.

In other news, News Magazines will be launching Sydney Confidential Magazine, a glossy extension of its popular tabloid social/gossip/celebrity/fashion section, on Thursday September 11.

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Mags: State of the (Mag)Nation

So, no surprises with the latest magazine circulation and readership figures – consumers are penny pinching to accommodate the rising cost of living, leaving glossy mags behind at the checkout rather than chucking them in the trolley.

Sales of all the weekly titles fell (welcome to the market, Grazia!), while women's and men's lifestyle magazines also felt the brunt of lower consumer confidence. A rare exception to the trend, Pacific Magazines' Marie Claire managed to hold its ground, while new girl Women's Health (also Pacific) reported an increase of 13%, and Harper's Bazaar (ACP) continues to strengthen its position. Advance apologies for gaps in the below results – Pacific and News Mags have been slow to update their stats on their respective sites!

Circulation (i.e. sales)...

"Magazines have suffered their worst declines in circulation in years, the overall market diving more than 7% as consumers cut discretionary spend in tightening economic conditions," says AdNews. "The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures for the year ending June 2008 reveal weekly magazines suffered the most, declining by 9.31% last quarter while monthlies dropped by 5.38% over the last half year."

Down...
Cosmo dropped 18.7% of sales (165,301 Aussie sales)
Cleo dropped 12.3% (149,256)
The Australian Women's Weekly dropped 12.4% (to 530,143)
Madison dropped 2.4% (95,166)
Shop Til You Drop dropped 6% (75,197)

NW dropped 11.9% (to 155,150)
Famous dropped 10.8% (to 67,135)
Woman's Day dropped 8.5% (430,235)
NW dropped 12.3% (155,150)

Up and up...
Harper's Bazaar up 5% (55,891)
Better Homes and Gardens up 13.56% (335,000+)
Health Smart up 11.34% (80,161)


Readership...

Though overall magazine readership grew by 1.1% in the past 12 months, "
Women’s weeklies, women’s fashion, teen girls, women’s lifestyle, men’s interest, and men’s lifestyle were among the categories to lose total readership," reports AdNews.

Down...
Madison down 20.6% (235,000)
Cleo down 22% (495,000)
Cosmo down 8.4% (688,000)

InStyle down 12.4% (240,000)
Harper's Bazaar down 2.9% (236,000)

NW down 12.7% (529,000)
New Idea down 9.7% (1,955,000)
Woman's Day down 9.5% (2,354,000)

Girlfriend down 15.6% (318,000)
Dolly down 14.4% (366,000)

Up and up...

Shop Til You Drop up 16% (206,000)
Marie Claire up 3.2% (513,000)
Vogue up 0.6% (350,000)

OK! up 31.4% (431,000 readers)
Famous up 3.9% (308,000)
Who up 2.9% (786,000)

Better Homes & Gardens up 16.9% (1,698,000)
Real Living up 8.2% (122,000)
Home Beautiful up 8.2% (367,000)
Notebook up 4.1% (340,000)
Vogue Entertaining & Travel up 20.1% (173,000)

Slimming & Health up 15.6% (89,000)
Delicious up 18.9% (509,000)
Super Food Ideas up 15.6% (1,003,000)

The Monthly up 102.2% (91,000)

Read my last readership report here and the last 'State of the (mag)nation' circulation report here.

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Monday, 18 August 2008

Mags: Shop Til You Drop (Guest Review)

Paula Bridges dips into the September edition of Shop Til You Drop – the first for new editor Justine Cullen – and gets the sense this may just be the 'prettiest spring ever'...

After convincing a male friend of mine that Shop Til You Drop is not just a giant catalogue, but the giant catalogue and worth paying actual money for, I hoped that this month’s magazine would live up to my expectations. And it did. I even wrote a shopping list.

Along with Shop’s usual fashion and beauty fare are some subtle changes (fonts, tidy intro pages, more white space, less text-heavy features) and additions (’30 Best Buys for September’, ‘My Foolproof Outfit”), giving the overall book a new-season, spring-cleaned-wardrobe effect (a mag that practices what it preaches).

The cover... Jessica Alba graces the cover of this issue and we’re promised a glimpse of her post-baby style inside (though we can assume the cover shot is from the pre-baby collection). As GWAS touched on before, Jess’s lipstick is perfectly matched with the masthead, and the mix of blue, lilac, hot pink, black and white keeps things fresh and relaxed for spring. We’re further enticed with promises of ‘Your Prettiest Spring Ever’, ‘Beauty Steals’ and ‘Essential Denim’. Sold.

The ed. says... “There’s something a little weird about become the editor of the magazine where you already work…”. Cullen was previously Beauty and Style Director and insists that because of this, she knows us, and what we want from Shop, very well. Further on, we get the requisite mention of the ACP 30 Days of Fashion and Beauty event to be held throughout September (accompanied by the standard 17-page promotional spread and Eva Mendes editorial inside – surprise!)

The story line-up...

• Find out how to wear the pieces of the season, including the floral dress, maxi dress, shorts, the jumpsuit, ruffles and jodhpurs. Worn by real women (aged 21-46) with fabulous figures, readers can take inspiration from the pieces shown and find something (in their price range) that suits them.

• ‘To Dye For’ is this month’s road-test piece that shows how to wear tie-died clothes. Emma Markezic is quick to point out that the tie-died clothes of this era are much more subtle and less ‘should-have-been-burnt-with-the-bras psychedelic.’

• I love all of the fashion shoots this month (all FIVE of them… six if you include the denim workshops shots), my favourite being ‘Heaven Sent’, which features romantic dresses in various shades of white and ivory. ‘Full Bloom’ balances florals, ruffles and soft blouses with more structured pieces and statement shoes; ‘High Voltage’, shot on the Amalfi Coast (take me there!), encourages readers to wear block-colour statement dresses; ‘On The Flip Side’ shows off the season’s flirty-flippy skirt shape (wear yours with a Sandra Dee ponytail!); and ‘Fringe Dweller’ is “Penny Lane meets Kate Moss”, with short sequined skirts, fierce heels, fringed vests, short shorts, oversized tees, cuffs, skinny jeans and rock-chick hair.

• ‘30 Fashion Questions’ is a great value feature (inspired, as it is, by the ACP event). It’ll answer all the questions you didn’t know you had 'til now, like: “What can’t I live without for spring?” (“a flippy, dippy, swishy skirt”), “Can I really wear my one-piece from beach to bar?” (“yes, but tread carefully… you want to look chic not cheap”), “Bangles – how many can I wear at once?” (“fortune favours those who stack”) and “Which celeb should I be obsessing over?” (“Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively”). You know, all the important stuff. [GWAS note: this may just be the best Shop feature I’ve read to date – simple, bitsy, effective, clever, cheeky and in-the-know, it shows Shop knows how to have fun with fashion. Nice writing, girls!].

• ‘Summer Denim’ takes readers out of their dark-denim-for-winter slump and focuses on pale shades of denim as a neutral base. Dresses, shorts, skirts and jackets (I can’t remember the last time I saw a denim jacket) are all essentials for this coming season. Mostly casual, these denim pieces are strictly for daytime or playtime; slip into one of those bold, colourful, sophisticated dresses if heading out after dark.

The superficial...

• Featured in the magazine (‘Smarty Pants’, pp. 99 & 100) are some high-waisted, wide-leg jeans which seem very similar to those made (in)famous by Katie Holmes last week. Not sure anyone will be running out to grab them after the response she got.

• Interestingly, Tobacco scents are featured amongst other must-haves in Shop Beauty. Not sure I will ever be able to get past the dank pub carpet smell, but apparently it is subtle and sexy... I’m not convinced.

• I really enjoyed ’10 Beauty Acts That Drive Men Crazy’. The clever copy makes the truth easy to hear (though we knew most of it anyway and just refused to admit it) about the stickiness of fake tan and the threat our over-straightened hair poses to a man’s eye.

• ‘Soft Sell’ highlights the fact that consumers would now prefer having gentle, natural products to put on their skin, as opposed to chemically enhanced creams, lotions and potions. Out with alpha hydroxy acids and in with rosemary extract and vitamin C!

• ‘Stealing Beauty’ talks about how much easier it is nowadays to grab our clothes, underwear and, most importantly, make-up from chain stores, rather than boutique outlets or department stores. With the introduction of brand name designers in big retailers like Target, nearly everything is available across the country on a large scale and usually at very affordable prices. Convenience is winning us over, it seems.

The score:
Overall excitement factor: 8 out of 10
Feel-good factor: 8 out of 10
Eye-candy rating: 5 out of 6

Total: 21 (out of 26)

The Stats:
Issue: September 2008
Cover Price: $7.20
Book size: 259 pages
Ad/promo pages: 70+ (Remember, the giant catalogue?)
FOB ads: Kahlua, Loreal, Revlon, Covergirl, Clinque....
Back Cover: Wittner
Editor: Justine Cullen
Website: www.shoptilyoudrop.com.au

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

GWAS Latte Post

Newsy snippets to digest as you sip your latte, contemplate your cinnamon and raisin toast (and Heidi Klum in a vest) and ease into the work week...
  • Madonna celebrated her 50th birthday at a London nightclub on Saturday night wearing layers of gold necklaces to accessorise her all-black outfit... then she got up and went to the gym on Sunday morning. (The Daily Mail)
  • Portia and Ellen tied the knot wearing Zac Posen. Ellen wore the pants; Portia looked like a princess.
  • Katie Holmes is still wearing baggy boyfriend jeans.
  • Mia Freedman gave birth to a baby boy last week (also delivered her Sun-Herald column on deadline). Congratulations!
  • Swimmer Michael Phelps is the only person ever to win eight gold medals at a single Olympics. Can we claim him as our own?
  • Virgin Blue has baggage issues. From today it will charge an excise for passengers with check-in baggage to offset rising fuel costs. Virgin customers flying on the Blue Saver or Promo fares will be hit with a flat fee of $8 if they pay online for up to 23kgs of baggage. Those who don't pre-pay online will be charged $20 at check in. This leaves us with less money to spend on international glossies at the newsstand! Outraged.
  • The Pussycat Dolls (Bratz dolls immortalised) will fly into Sydney on October 11, no doubt carrying a lot in the way of excess baggage (actually, their skimpy clothes probably don't weigh a lot... it's the makeup haul that'll add significant kgs).
  • Still on baggage, some Victorians can expect to pay 10c for their plastic bags at Coles, Safeway and IGA stores from this week. The Australian National Retailers Association is beginning a four-week trial to gauge consumer responses, with the funds raised being donated to environmental projects. In parts of Europe, a levy is already commonplace. (The Sunday Telegraph)
  • More couples are signing pre-nuptial agreements. They have baggage issues, too.
  • Madison magazine (September) is on sale today. The issue covers angry women, baby talk, child abuse, body image, gay marriage, spring looks (an A-Z), neutrals, budget beauty and the 'Victoria's Secret Workout' (starring Miranda Kerr, no less), which you'll need to do after whipping up the recipe for chips and roasted garlic mayo.
  • Cleo magazine is also on sale today and comes with a 10-track CD, chubby shadow duo and black eyeliner, so you can perfect your party makeup to the tune of Faker and Moby. This month Cleo wants you to have a better orgasm, download Sam Ronson's playlist, get to know Chanel Iman, consider the jumpsuit, scoop up a beauty bargain, get to know Daisy Lowe, learn to get along in a sharehouse, stop drinking so much, get over our envy issues, swing it like a New Yorker, say no, work out if you're dating a loser, dress like a free spirit, dress for your shape and give yourself a manicure.
  • The number of women aged in their late 30s or older seeking Medicare-funded abortions or surgery for pregnancy complications has reached record levels, relative to the mini baby boom amongst older women who've chosen to delay childbirth and the risks associated with delayed pregnancy. (The Sun-Herald)
The Word for the Week: "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27)

Yours in procrastination,
Girl With a Satchel