A Study in Fashion MagazineMoonji Cultural Institute Saii, Summer Course 2009 Class
Lecturer Introduction: Hong Suk woo
Currently active as a freelance fashion journalist, he runs a photo-documentary project about Seoul, Your boyhood, (yourboyhood.com) since 2006. He speaks out about fashion through various media and projects.
Article contributions and Interviews ELLE Korea, NYLON Korea, GQ Korea, DAZED&CONFUSED Korea, ANAN, DESIGN JUNGLE, VOGUE GIRL Korea, ELLE GIRL Korea, DAZED&CONFUSED Korea, ANAN, DESIGN JUNGLE, SisaIN, Hankyoreh Newspaper, THEME MAGAZINE(US), EVIL MONITO(US), ELLE Singapore, ELLE Italy, NYLON Japan, VOGUE Taiwan etc.
Curator WorksBE@RBRICK EXHIBITION, AT LIFUL STORE (2007) – Exhibition for design toy bearbrick
INDEPENDENT NOW, AT DAILY PROJECTS (2008) – Exhibition of local/international independent publication
LecturesFashion Now In Korea: Subculture to High fashion (2009) –Moonji Culture Institute Saii
Work Experience2007~2008 Daily Projects(www.dailyprojects.kr), culture complex, Cheongdam-dong
Outfit and publication buyer, curator
2004~2007 GQ Korea, online editor
2004~2006 Fashion Portal Musinsa(www.musinsa.com), fashion columnist
Course IntroductionIn "Fashion Now In Korea: Subculture to High fashion"
, spring course 2009 presented by Moonji Culture Institute Saii, we had a chance to hear from the creative minds behind the fashion scene. This semester we will look deeper into the world of Fashion Magazines.
Fashion magazines cannot be left out when discussing the 20th century fashion upheaval. Now, in the early 21st century it is still morphing, expanding, and advancing. There are major magazines with great influence like Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar. On the other hand there are magazines like i-D, Dazed&Confused, Purple Fashion, He Magazine that touch on mainstream fashion but manage to strike out their own colors by mixing it with subculture, independent music, and youth culture.
It will be interesting to talk about the distinct locality of Korean magazines, also called licensed magazines, in comparison with magazines from abroad; Harper’s Bazaar’s love towards new designers and independent culture, GQ Korea’s feature team’s colorful arguments that created a fan base, etc. We can never leave out the small magazines that started to blossom in and out of Korea, or On-line magazines. Also, a constructive discussion on fashion critique, lacking in most magazines, will be interesting.
The purpose of this course
The main of this course will be to discuss major trend-setting international magazines according to a given subject. We will have fashion editors, photographers, stylists come in to talk about working in the magazine field. Magazines with headquarters outside of Korea will be contacted via e-mail and phone call interviews. This will give us a scope of their attitude towards making magazines.
In order for fashion to become an independent cultural genre like theatre, art, and music there must be ‘a warm but accurate critique.’ The lecturer and participants will have a chance expressing their view on fashion, which will be made into an independent publication about fashion. As a result by the end of the semester all participants will have a fashion magazine(or at least a ground plan) of their own.
Specific Progress Plans
1st week High Fashion Magazines _VOGUE and HARPER’S BAZAAR
VOGUE and HARPER’S BAZAAR was first published in 1892 and 1867, both 2centuries old. They are the core of fashion magazines and are published in 20 different countries all around the world, including Korea.
Their every move has become a footprint in fashion history. They both branched out of the United States but each country has a distinct style, whether it is from France, Italy, Korea, and all a great influence in the fashion scene.
In this class participants will have a chance to hear the stories of editors from both magazines.
2nd week High Fashion + Subculture Magazines _i-D / DAZED&CONFUSED / SUPER SUPER
All three magazines were first published in the UK in the 80’s, 90’s and in the new millennia. They each have different taste and direction but a crossing point does exist. Although a lot of the pages are dedicated to advertisements and high fashion they were the ones who helped up and coming subculture heroes from slipping out of the mainstream.
Korean magazines should look through from their endless support and love toward their ‘locality’. The result of their effort we can see star designers such as John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, and Gareth Pugh.
We will review the history of the three magazines and go through the differences.
3rd week Alternative Fashion Magazines – PURPLE and PURPLE FASHION / FANTASTIC MAN / MONOCLE / SELF SERVICE
There were new attempts to challenge the common form of fashion magazines in the 90’s and new millennia. Based in major European cities, some hardy published 10 magazines, while others celebrate their 10th anniversary.
Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm’s PURPLE, Gert Jonker’s BUTT and RE-MAGAZINE, Tyler Brûlé’s MONOCLE(also the creator of WALLPAPER), Ezra Petronio’s SELF SERVICE(head of Work in Progress design studio) are all innovative magazines that debut in the early 90’s.
Their work was ‘anti-fashion,’ featuring creators from genre’s never explored by other fashion magazines. By differentiating themselves from pre-existing magazines, not only creators but also they themselves became part of mainstream. The total number of publications may be few, but their attempt to explore the fashion magazine’s limits is a great accomplishment.
We will see look into these four alternative magazines.
4th week Independent Fashion Magazines – DOINGBIRD / E&A(EDITOR&ART DIRECTOR) THE GLOSSY ZINE / FAILY TALE / HERE AND THERE / NAZINE MAGAZINE / MONTHLY VAMPIRE
Not all magazines are published by major companies. Like graphic design and fine art there are independent publications with a more personal touch.
DOINGBIRD(Australia), E&A THE GLOSSY ZINE(U.S.), FAILY TALE(France), HERE AND THERE(Japan), NAZINE MAGAZINE(Korea, originally a webzine), MONTHLY VAMPIRE (a mix of music, graphic design, photography, fashion) are all magazines that are created by people involved in various fields; advertisement, graphic design, independent journalist, photographers, etc. They are experimental, unique and revolutionary.
In this session we will talk about these five magazines from around the world and discuss about making a personal magazine, which is our goal in this semester.
5th week Japanese and Korean Fashion Magazines – MR. HIGH FASHION / RYUKO TSUSHIN / HUGE / MEN’S NON-NO / STREET, FRUITS, TUNE (from JAPAN) / VOGUE GIRL / NYLON KOREA / GQ KOREA / ELLE KOREA (from KOREA)
What are the right words to express Japan? Among many, one would be ‘magazine heaven.’ There are many different kinds of magazines in Japan. It is easy to find fashion magazines anywhere, not only in book stores but also in convenience stores. They are especially good at choosing and introducing a special theme. The accumulated database may be the power behind Japan’s fashion industry. Following the fashion magazine boom in the 90’s, there are various magazines in Korea today.
This session we will compare publications from both countries with two objectives. First, we will look at the magazines according to genre, second take a closer look at the ones that stand out.
6th week Fashion Magazine + Fashion Company: magazines made by fashion companies - LE MONDE D' HERMES by HERMES / COLORS by BENETTON / ACNE PAPER by ACNE STUDIO / KAI-AAKMANN MAGAZINE by KAI-AAKMANN
Fashion magazines are indispensible for the fashion industry. There is a win-win relationship between the two; fashion brands and magazines cooperate through advertisements and promotions.
We think these two genre take part in different way in fashion field, but some fashion companies choose to make their own magazine. LE MONDE D' HERMES by HERMES, COLORS by BENETTON, ACNE PAPER by creative agency ACNE STUDIO are difficult to call a fashion magazine. Instead of obvious self-promotion, they created a magazine with contents such as fashion, humanities, environment, and philosophy. This kind of magazines can be found within Korea.
This session will discuss and compare about these magazines and its movements.
7th week Fashion Beyond the Border – PIN-UP / WERK MAGAZINE / 032C …and more
Nowadays we can often see fashion merging with outside fields; the boundaries that set them apart gets thinner every day. There are fashion magazines that have contents that have nothing to do with fashion, as well as fashion magazines that are created by people who do not have a background in the area.
Pin-up, Werk, 032C are each based in the U.S., Singapore, and Germany. The contents include architecture, design, contemporary art and culture with fashion as the main theme. Some may disagree on calling them fashion magazines, but most of its advertisements are fashion such as Tom Ford, American Apparel, Comme Des Garcons etc.
This session we will take a close look into each magazine and the creator’s articles, interviews and discuss about fashion magazines that cover areas outside fashion.
8th week My Own Fashion Magazine – PUBLISHING MY OWN FASHION MAGAZINE
This semester we focused on investigating the possibilities of making a magazine that has positive critique about fashion within Korea. Based on the discussion for the last 7 sessions on planning my own magazine, this session we will have a chance to share our ideas on how to make the final production. I hope the participants were able to construct their own critical view towards fashion.
Special thanks to:
Korean-English translation by Bee Joo
Editorial supervision by Lee Sun ju
Written by Hong Sukwoo (yourboyhood@gmail.com)
fashion journalist / photographer of yourboyhood.com
www.saii.or.kr/academy/read.php?type=&flag=414
www.saii.or.kr
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