Case Study- Vogue

After much debate and constant trailing back and forth on ideas, I decided to do a fashion/ beauty/ lifestyle magazine. This magazine would be centered towards middle class women, ages 18-25. The people I am targeting with this demographic are most likely in college, or starting their professional careers. I need to do further research on trends associated with this group of people, but as of right now, I'm looking at other women-centered magazines for inspiration.

The first magazine I did research on was Vogue, by going on their website and reading some of their issues. First thing that I noticed is that they don't only distribute their American edition across the world. They have British, Chinese, Indian, Italian, French, Middle Eastern, men, and teen editions available. This allows them to reach out to multiple people across the world because the brand realizes that not all countries have the same beauty standards. Based on the American edition, I realized that most of the fashion styles they focus on tend to be high-end clothing, made by exclusive designers. Recently they have placed greater emphasis on fashion runaway do to NYC, London, Milan, and Paris fashion weeks that have been occurring this past month. As I looked at different editions that came out last year, I noticed most of the trends, styles of the week, and season fashion editions were also focused on popular designers and expensive clothing. However, due to the fact that my target audience for the most part isn't economically independent yet, I don't think I'm going to go the same route.

 When it comes to celebrities, they don't really focus on gossip or rumors, except for when they do celebrity editions that usually involve an interview and a photo spread. As far as beauty is concerned, the magazine also likes to discuss topics such as makeup, skin care, hair, nail care, and health & fitness. However, there is far greater emphasis on clothing.


Recently, Vogue has been heavily criticized for its ethnic representation methods and attempts to promote diversity. Their March issue that celebrated "The Modern American Woman", was heavily criticized by social media and other news outlets for failing to promote differences between women. The cover featured mostly Caucasian models being placed at the center, and featured only one plus sized model. In that same issue, another problem exploded when model Karlie Kloss was featured in a traditional Japanese Photoshoot. People were outraged that the magazine did not choose Asian model, Liu Wen, for the shoot, and Kloss faced a lot of yellowface allegations. These events make it clear that accurate representation is extremely important when releasing an edition since it can upset a lot of audiences.
                                                               

                

               

However, Vogue does place a lot of emphasis on female empowerment. They often feature a variety of articles that focus on powerful women across the world. They discuss topics such as: what it's like to be a refugee, women in the military, and the life of female Native Americans, and women in powerful places, such as NASA. This is something that intrigues me because it shows that the magazine is aware of the social issues that women face , and wants to spread a message
about it to their audience.



Larkin, A. (n.d.). Vogue's 'diverse' cover slammed as not diverse. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/09/us/vogue-diverse-cover-trnd/

Lang, C. (2017, February 10). Vogue 2017: Karlie Kloss Controversial Japan Shoot Response. Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://time.com/4671287/karlie-kloss-vogue-backlash/

Fashion, Beauty, Celebrity, Fashion Shows. (1969, December 31). Retrieved March 9, 2017, from http://www.vogue.com/