The Rublishing Industry

Future Shock photographed by Raymond Meier for US VOGUE, February 2011.
Fashion editor: Elissa Santisi. Click to view the full story.

Is print media dead? The answer is very exciting! 


One of my favourite fashion people (who shall remain unnamed) forwarded me a very interesting article recently. It’s an answer to a question I’ve gotten many times: When I tell people I’m aiming to become a fashion editor and I want to study print production, many squint their eyes at me and turn their heads to the side in suspicion. Print production? Are magazines not dead?

(Note: These squinters are usually in the film industry.)

Magazines are not dead. Far from it. Just like films are advancing technologically with 3D, magazines are jumping onto iPads and the sort. But wait, there’s more…

Fashion editorials and retail are becoming
stylish bedfellows.  Click to see the process
in action at Mr Price.

The article from British publication The Evening Standard talks about the new trend in the fashion industry that sees fashion editors of magazines moving away to jobs in retail. Of course, the trend originated at British VOGUE when Fashion Director Kate Phelan shot her last shoot and left to become Creative Director of TopShop.

This trend is fantastic for major retailers. Phelan, as the article states, is an expert at predicting what women want to wear – her editing skills are an invaluable asset to the TopShop team.

Retail stores are becoming much more like fashion magazines. You can see this in South Africa as well: log onto the Mr Price website and you won’t simply find a list of clothes to buy. Rather, a fashion story you can shop.

All of this is doing nothing for my “magazines aren’t dead” argument. So try this fun fact on for size: the American Grazia iPad edition is “shoppable”. Like an item? Click to buy or share with your friends. It’s hugely successful: The Evening Standard reports that certain items will sell out on the day they appear in the magazine.

So let’s be forward-thinking and bring these two ideas together. As the fashion retail and publishing industry evolves, they will no longer be separate. These worlds are quickly colliding to form one hell-of-a-stylish… let’s call it Rublishing Industry.

And there you have it. In twenty years time women will be sitting at a Starbucks on 5^th Avenue in their Christopher Kane Spring 2033 dresses, reading the iPad edition of VOGUE. If she sees a pair of Prada’s she simply must have, she’ll tap to buy. That afternoon when she returns home, there will be a package waiting with the doorman. She’ll take the package, nostalgically smiling to herself as she realises that the days of carrying your shopping bags home are long gone. 

Click to read the full story from The Evening Standard.