'AS LIVE' PRODUCTION: (Research) Fashion Magazines

Following the 1-2-1 feedback session with Helen, I decided to do some research into fashion magazines.

Magazine Research

I already had a collection of magazines; 2 Company Magazines, a Topshop magazine and several NME magazines. I also picked up Vogue, Cosmopolitan and a fashion book written by Stephen Jones.

I wanted to have a look at a wide range of magazines as they all have slightly different target audiences. As our aim to produce a show targeted towards everyone - we need to know what older and younger people want to see.

I decided to focus on Vogue, Company and Esquire as these cover a lot of the potential target audience for our show.

Vogue Magazine is targeted towards 20-40 year olds with 34% of its readers falling into the 25-34 year old age bracket. The majority of the readers are women (77%) and are also of high or above average income (74%). [1]

Company Magazine is targeted towards 16-24 year old females. [2]

Esquire Magazine is targeted towards 25-45 year old males. [3]

In order to see what sort of format the magazines delivered the content in, I decided to have a look at the contents pages. Each magazine was split into sections - many of the magazines covered a variety of topics e.g. fashion, makeup, lifestyle, homeware etc. I want our show to be more focused towards fashion, however, the variety in the magazines shows that we definitely need a variety of topics within fashion if the audience is to stay interested. It may be a good idea to bring in other areas of style when they compliment the fashion being displayed (such as makeup) to keep the content interesting. If we do a current trends section we can include current makeup trends with the current fashion trends.

I then had a look through the sections and pulled out ideas that we could potentially use as a segment in our show. Vogue included some behind the scenes of the issue - I thought we could include something like this in the promo material for the show or as something that could be played whilst the credits are rolling. This allows complete transparency as the audience are able to see how the show was made - this may also lead to a more trusting audience as it shows that there is nothing to hide - this is key to our show as we need the audience to trust the style advice we are providing them with. Vogue also has a 'checklist for the new season' section. This outlines the new trends coming in and how to build them into your wardrobe. This gave me the idea of have a 'trends of the week' section in our show. We could take the current trends that have been introduced in the season and discuss the different ways they can be styled. The presenters could then ask the audience whether they have worn any of the trends / whether they would like to buy any of these trends - this allows for some audience participation. I then had the idea that there could be a VT for this section - a reporter could go around the stores currently stocking the trends and show the audience where they can buy these trends for the best price. When it cuts back to the studio, the audience could then rate the trend 'hot' or 'not' on a Top Gear cool wall style board - this again allows for audience participation.

Vogue also included a Vogue trends section where they explore some trends in more depth. I liked the idea of their 'the joy of socks' section - this gave me the idea of potentially having a 'forgotten fashion' section where the presenters discuss and display some aspects of fashion which people often forget about. E.g. they can talk about how different patterned socks could compliment an outfit and how to style them.

Vogue also included a Vogue darlings section - this is where they interview one specific person. We could use this in one of our segments - pick an interesting person and ask them about their fashion and what makes them wear what they do - what are their influences? Where do they buy their clothes? What style advice would they have for someone? Vogue also had a jewellery, living, travel and an arts and culture section - showing that they cover more than just fashion.

Company Magazine has a much more 'scrap book' sort of feel - things are scattered over the page. Included in the magazine is a section called 'fashion five' where 5 fashionable trends / experiences are listed. Number 5 for this issue was Vintage shopping in New York. It displays what vintage things can be bought and where from. This inspired the idea of having a vintage section in our show called 'Very Vintage' - the presenters could give their tips to finding on trend pieces in a vintage market - and then the VT could be a challenge between the presenters to find an outfit for each other in the vintage market using the tips they just provided.

Company also has a section called bloggers wear the trends. This goes through the fashion of different bloggers and picks apart what they wear and where the reader can buy similar items to piece together the look. We could use this in our show by taking celebrities outfits, picking them apart and then showing the audience where they can get the look at high street prices.

Both Vogue and Company magazine were made up of trend sections, style advice, picking apart outfits, interviews, places to shop and other non fashion sections. Their formats differed in the sense that Vogue was more structured whilst Company had a more informal layout - however, they both covered similar topics in a similar order. They both looked at fashion and then moved into other areas such as makeup, jewellery and lifestyle. They start with their most popular / most important section - therefore we should do something similar with our show.

I also decided to look at Esquire magazine as this is targeted towards men. I wanted to see what fashion they featured but also how they delivered the information to appeal to men.

I found that with Esquire the information was much more to the point. In Vogue and Company, more context was given to the outfits featured i.e. they explained why things were in trend and why the pieces would be styled the way they were. However, in Esquire the trend is not explained in much depth - the trends are listed and then the reader is told where they can buy the pieces. As our show is targeted towards both males and females, we need to find a way to deliver the information so that both can relate to the information. This may mean being a bit more direct with the styling advice for the females and a bit more in depth for the male audience so that the information balances out.

Other articles featured in the magazine include:
- The 4 Coats Every Man Needs In His Winter Wardrobe
- 6 Ways To Pimp Your G&T
- How To Switch Up Your Watch Game For Each Occassion
- 6 Pieces Of Tech That Will Make You Spend More Time In Your Kitchen

This displays how this magazine also focuses on much more than fashion - it may be a good idea for our show to include little bits of advice about other areas such as lifestyle / homeware. Esquire's articles about watches also fits with my 'forgotten fashion' idea where the presenters can talk about these little accessories and how they can make a big difference to the outfit.

Looking into these magazines has been very useful. I have been able to establish their tone, style, how they deliver the content so that it is appropriate for their target audience and what sort of topics they cover. This has given me ideas for our show such as:
- trends of the week
- forgotten fashion
- very vintage
- an interview section
- blogger / celebrity trends

I will now look into existing fashion TV programmes to establish how they deliver their content and also what their content includes.

Sources:

[1] https://www.condenast.ru/en/portfolio/magazines/vogue/circulation/
[2] http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/08/14/company-magazine-go-online-only-support-desires-its-target-audience
[3] http://www.hearst.co.uk/brands/esquire