L-A: I’m pretty sure you’ve caught on to the fact that we here at FPQT love our magazines. Especially our Vogue.  It’s hard not to.  I mean, there’s an entire documentary devoted to just one issue of Vogue and it has an editor who strikes fear into the hearts of grown men just with the thought of her fierce haircut (need to get a thesaurus. Am bored with the word fierce).

But with the Vogue getting it’s own documentary, I don’t really need to spend an entire post chatting about it. Instead, I’m going to talk about all the other fashion magazines I love.  Because if I had a million dollars, I’d probably have almost that many magazine subscriptions and most of them would be of the fashion variety. I’m not kidding. This is a life long love affair. My first magazine subscription (after the shared subscription to Highlights for Kids that my bro and I had) was to Flare when I was the ripe old age of nine. I was a little scandalized by the boobs you’d sometimes see on runways, but it was 1987 and I was in magazine heaven (ooh! unintentional rhyme!).

And honestly, it breaks my heart just a little bit when I see mags struggling to stay afloat. Which is why I recently subscribed to a couple. Because if I’m not putting my money where my mouth is, how can I complain if they go under?

And now here are (just) a few of my favourites (that I’ve subscribed to in the past/currently subscribe to/will most likely subscribe to in the future):

W

I was going to keep this list all Canadian, but I need to throw this one in there. It’s just damn pretty. And it can feature some amazing photo shoots (I suppose they can afford the best). That’s the thing about a good magazine – it’s like art in your mailbox. Sure it may not be archival quality and ready to go up on the wall, but it is exposure to photographers you may never have heard of before seeing that magazine. That’s why W is on the list. Because without it, I would never have seen the April 2007 issue with it’s 26-page spread of photos by Alec Soth featuring Minnesota teens in couture.

(I swear that almost everyone ever interviewed at home by the CBC supper hour news in Nfld when I was a teen owned this couch. I began to wonder if it was a set. Apparently it’s popular in Minnesota as well).

Sorry about the horrible scans. It’s from my copy of the magazine. That I’ve kept. For two years. That’s how much I loved the spread. I love it so much that I want to buy Soth’s book/magazine Fashion Magazine: Paris Minnesota.

Better quality, from Alec Soth’s site (so copyright is totally his).  But seriously. If you think fashion mags are all fluff and no substance, then you are missing out on some really artsy fashion shoots.

But as pretty as W is, it’s a little too rich for my budget. I can’t afford the subscription and I could never afford the pretty things that grace its pages. But I like to treat myself to a copy every now and then and just ogle the pretty.

Fashion

Canadian and awesome. Sometimes a little heavy on stuff from Holts (no good for us east-of-Montrealers), but they do feature enough fashion that is accessible to (most) Canadians. Enough to keep me satisfied.  If I could afford to live in Toronto for nothing, I would totally apply for one of their internships. They’ve got great online content – like Fashion Loves, which is delivered to my inbox, and their blogs.  And while the print copy doesn’t always give me enough Halifax, I can count on the aforementioned blogs to get the goods on Halifax style. I liked Fashion enough to subscribe to it, so that should be endorsement enough (p.s. that subscription is totally paid for by me with my own cash money, so it’s an honest endorsement). Oh, and this month they are having crazy giveaways.  I almost didn’t share that last bit with you because the more people entering, the worse my chances of winning things are.

As a supplement to enjoying Fashion, you can read the hilarious review of 30 years of Fashion covers by Auntie Fashion. Because let’s face it, even the Queen of all fashion magazines has had it’s share of bad covers. Not every month can look this good:

When  you need to come up with a cover every month, sometimes you end up with this:

um, what? No Jeri Hall, I don’t know what Vogue was thinking either. But I’m glad to know that bathing caps are good for keeping the phone to my ear during marathon phone sessions.

Worn

And now for something completely different….a fashion magazine that bucks the trends, but is still crazy stylish.  Because as much as I love my big glossy September Issue, I like that fashion is so much more than what you see on the pages of Vogue. Only published twice a year, this Canadian magazine is a different take on the fashion industry. I have yet to get my hands on a paper copy of this one, but I do love their online content, particularly their Worn Crushes. And how can you not love a magazine that has devoted an entire issue to shoes?  Unlike the bigger, glossier magazines, this one needs readers to survive. So if you’re looking for a new magazine to subscribe to, maybe this is one for you. And again, if I could live in Toronto for nothing, I would want to intern here (maybe I should just take one of my uHaul boxes and head to T-dot for a few months. There must be an empty alley somewhere I can pitch my box home).

And that’s today’s roundup of magazines I love.  I think we’ll make this a semi-regular feature, because I could go on for days about the magazines I love. And that’s before we get Ally in on the fun. Maybe we’ll even focus on specific issues as they come out (and not just September).