Mag mania

Many years ago, my mother told me that I should try and acquire the elegance and fashion statement of models in Vogue. While I am nowhere near the body type of the average toothpick – which is the approximate shape of the models in fashion magazines – I did absorb a great deal about the style itself, learning that less is always good, but if you want more, make sure it is the kitchen-sink variety of more-ness, really wonderfully over-the-top. So you waver between fairly simple, minimalist and elegant and baroque, wild and most wonderful and, when your own native good sense kicks in, something in between that is a gentle but always stylish compromise with a personal flavour. Originality makes you a fashion icon, whereas slavish copying of what the gurus advise via magazine spreads would be you being a blindly copycat fashionista.

Scathing? Well, yes. I once did a brief stint as a ‘fashion person’ for a couple of Mumbai-based publications. There was very little originality in either, but a great deal of loyalty to brands and the route chalked out by the powers-that-were, dictated to by the international fore-leaders of the magazines or, in the case of one, any international fashion publication. The job had its moments, when I made a whole lot of new friends in the design business, from stick-skinny models to creators of divine clothing to photographers who could pull beauty out of blandness with one tine dip into their camera bags. It was, in a way, the best of times for me, but also the worst of times, dealing with cranky editors, temperamental make-up artistes, models who were clueless about reading a watch and photographers who took four hours adjusting one little light that eventually was not really needed.

But it all pays off. In India alone, the number of fashion magazines has swelled alarmingly, making most media watchers wonder whether there is space for all of them in the same niche. But more keep coming in, new ones are hatched locally and every decent dresser with some money has ambitions to get into ‘publishing’ goes all out to acquire pagemaking software, has a nice office and a glamorous launch and then hires staff who may or may not be competent to produce a glossy journal. Some make the grade and stay there, while others quietly fade out of the media spotlight and then gradually out of the genre, too. Since 1996 there has been a slowly increasing acceptance of these magazines and the values and fashion ideas that they espouse. And more people, perhaps with greater earning power and open-mindedness, look at the publications as bibles, following trends and succumbing to temptations with easy élan.

It started many years ago with the age-old Femina, from the Times of India group. Once staid and very housewifely, it is now far younger and more glamorous, showing off taut bellies, toned thighs and shapely backs with no bashfulness at all. While some of the clothes featured are tagged at prices far higher than the average family household budget, others are eminently within reach, available at local stores or easily assembled at home with a little help from Granny’s closet. Eve’s Weekly ran alongside, but faded some years later for reasons I was too new in the field to understand. Women’s Era plugged stodgily on, catering to a vast audience of middle-class women more interested in reading love stories and recipes than designer garments. And then came New Woman, fronted by uber-star Hema Malini; it came, soon took on a new avatar and managed to run the middle rail of upper-middle-class glamour without offending the conservatives. Verve was distinctly of a different class, looking to the rich and famous, advertising Burberry and Dianoor, and talking of parties attended by Indians in various parts of the globe, pictures and all.

The international brigade is a staunch presence in India today. Elle arrived with much fanfare in 1996-97, closely followed by Cosmopolitan and, very recently, by Marie Claire. With these came add-ons and more glamour, with Elle Décor, Good Housekeeping and, soon a few from the Conde Nast stable, it is reported. DNA’s Me, Outlook’s new style guide and HT’s Style (in broadsheet) are also part of that vast panoply of publication available today. What stays on until tomorrow remains to be seen. For now, the style conscious have a range of choices. Halleluyah!