Mags: Glamour's easy-breezy style

Handbag-sized British Glamour serves up its usual contradictory mix of celebrity Dos & Don’ts and self-affirming lifestyle articles, while continuing to impress on the easy-on-the-eye sartorial front...

The cover... Keira’s flushed and airbrushed, her hair decidedly neater than the post-workout look she’s rocking on US Vogue, trout-pout relatively sedate and soft, smoky makeup flattering. She’s almost overwhelmed by fluoro cover lines. The ‘Exclusive! Kate Moss “My 10 Style Rules”’ cover line is a joke (see below).

Keira is really growing on me – she seems like the kind of girl you could have a good chat with over a glass of wine; who’d put you at ease and make you feel good despite her looks and fame. Writer Chrissy Iley says, “she can appear stressed and nervous” but at the interview is “relaxed, composed and funny”.

The actress recently had some time off: “I did lots of reading, walking and sitting in cafes. I visited the English countryside, a little of France and bits of Germany… just doing normal things.” The star says she’s impressed by women who can walk in heels, hates the phrase ‘girl crush’, confesses to not being good at female friendships and says she’s lost touch with Sienna since filming The Edge of Love: “I think that’s what’s lovely but also sad about acting. You get incredibly close to people for that moment and as soon as it’s over you don’t see each other… It’s a very intense relationship for a while, and then it’s not any more.” To round out the piece, Keira laments: “I don’t believe anyone who says they don’t have any insecurities and moments of feeling completely crap about themselves. I don’t think it does anybody any good to pretend those moments don’t exist. But just now I’m having a lovely time.”

The ed. says… “It really pains me how boringly predicatble the media can be in fabricating female rivalry anywhere they can… all this girl vs girl rubbish is just another way to demean us all…”

The story line-up:
• Best quote in the issue comes care of Angelina Jolie care of ‘The Celebrity Trend That Saves Lives’, a story about Afghan Hands, the organisation set up by Jolie’s makeup artist Matin Maulawizada which employs widows to embroider scarves (they are paid a salary and attend school – female illiteracy is rife in Afghanistan): “When you go to those places, it’s not about you. You do whatever it takes to help them – your emotions don’t count.” Chew that, Roseanne.

• ‘Is this your office?’ recounts real-life stories of bitching and backstabbing and suggests victims of office bullying ‘look for ways to lose the victim mentality’; 'The rise of the nearlyweds' is a stark warning to women who might be getting their hopes up about that Tiffany's ring. Fairy-tale, schmairy-tale: Cinderella doesn't live here anymore.

• Chace Crawford dishes out some surprisingly good and wholesome dating and relationship advice (“threesomes cheapen a relationship”).

• ‘How to be happy (without being perfect)’ is typical Glamour. The message: accept yourself exactly as you are and take the quiz to find out what’s fueling your unhappiness (perfectionism, learnt helplessness, comparison syndrome, your comfort zone). Glamour is guilty of espousing self acceptance while pandering to the celebrity machine.

• I found ‘Who are Ant and Deck?’, a bunch of real-life emails from mums to their daughters, quite funny, as my sister and I had to laugh when our mother friended us on Facebook. The story neatly segues into a DPS promotional spread for Sony’s Vaio laptop. How handy!

• ‘The All New Celeb Dating Rules’ is a fantastic feature idea given how exemplary celebrities are when it comes to relationships. Sign me up!

• In Monitor, Rebecca Romjin says ‘Bye Bye, Betty’: “They’ve reduced my role and introduced a new regime. I just don’t think the writers know how to take care of my character.”

• The issue rounds out with ’20 reasons to love the credit crunch’ (“supermarkets are the new Selfridges”), the hot topic in all the UK mags right now. A mag must be seen to be sympathising with the reader's plight, while still extolling the virtues of fall's new must-have looks.

The superficial:
• Roberto Cavalli is given a few pages to espouse his thoughts on what makes women happy: “A beautiful dress can change your life. Buy the most beautiful dress you can afford… because that’s what will make you happy.”

• ‘My Hot Style Tips’ by Kate Moss is thinly disguised advertorial for her new perfume, Velvet Hour, followed by two Rimmel ads featuring Ms. Moss.

• ‘The happy skin handbook’ tells us how to deal with enlarged pores, oiliness and spots; other beauty pages address ‘no-fuss facials’, hair extensions (are they not so 2006/7?) and the ‘new tool for everyday cool’ (the curling tong).

• Loving the layout of 'Destination: Gorgeous and 5 Fast Hair Updates'. Simple and visually appealing.

• Fast Glamour gives us ‘272 ways to wear the new trends’ (almost too much value for money here: I'm overwhelmed).

• ‘On your Marcs, get Stella, Gucci!’ is a rather clever heading for the first main fashion spread, in which a model with disheveled London locks wears looks from key designers (YSL, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Lanvin, Moschino, Cavalli…). Simple, chic and shot in the studio, it’s a great showcase for the clothes without the need for obscuring/obscure styling or photography. In fact, the looks are almost pared back to street-worthy, Kate-Mossian effect. This is one of the things I like about British Glamour’s fashion and styling. It acknowldges how we might wear something in the real world! That, or it's just totally in line with my subjective aesthetic preferences.

• ‘Bow wow wow’ gives us headless models with handbags, doggies, booties and red polish; ‘The right trousers’ is another studio shoot with some wind machine whipping the model into action; ‘Uptown or downtown?’ has a Gossip Girl feel, though I’m loving the simple styling and location shots. Clothes in a city context just look so right.

• The health story is ‘We’ve all dropped a dress size” in which three real women talk about their weight-loss journeys.

The glossary: nearlyweds, cohab rehab

The score
Overall excitement factor: 7
Feel-good factor: 6/7
Eye-candy rating: 4/5

The stats
Issue: September 2008
Book size: 366 pages
FOB ads: Lancome, Chanel, D&G, DKNY, Gucci, VJC, Just Cavalli, Moschino...
Editor: Jo Elvin
Website: www.glamour.com

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel