The Problem With Fashion Magazines, Or More Specifically, The Swimsuit Issue

Despite my love of blogs (one does get instant fashion instantly), I adore magazines: the texture, the ads, the glossy pages, the spreads...There is nothing quite like the experience of reading through a magazine, which I do with great care. With excitement, I espied my June issue of Elle magazine in the mail. Eagerly waiting until after dinner, I sat on my bed, pulled up the covers, and carefully leafed through the magazine as I normally do, from cover to cover. Then, with disappointment, I noted that it was "the swimsuit issue."

June is an awkward time for fashion magazines. Most of the spring items have been exhausted (how many times must I see those Dolce and Gabbana booties?), and an over-zealous Fall spread leaves little for the many cold winter months that follow. Pre-fall items are slowly trickling in, but they don't receive the same kind of coverage as the traditional Spring and Fall runway shows. Hence, the dreaded swimsuit issue.

While I am not completely bashing the need for a swimsuit spread (after all, we do need swimsuits in the hot summer months), I am lamenting the constant bombardment of swimsuit after swimsuit. Instead of a gorgeous fashion spread, we get beach wear in all incarnations: the beachy accessories (sunglasses, the tacky nylon, canvas, or plastic beach bag, the logo towel), the swimsuit for all body types, the Glamazon cover-ups (the tunic, the sheer maxi-dress, the floppy hats). Enough! And while I do enjoy reading about politics and literature, I don't find fashion editorials about them particularly enlightening or superior to the Times or a scholarly literary journal. When I read a fashion magazine, I want fashion, pure and simple.