This edition of A Magazine Reader, that took place at MA Critical Fashion Practices at ArtEZ University of the Arts in collaboration with Chet Bugter and graphic designer Zuzana Kostelanská, revolves around the idea of the ‘culture of emotions’, self-help, therapy and self-transformation within the construct of fashion. Besides our constantly changing looks, that are expressions of fluid identities, our minds and ‘inner selves’ are also ever changing and the idea of transformation is pushed beyond changing clothes or moving between traditional forms of status in society. Being responsible for our own emotional state of mind as something that should be transformed to a higher sense of being, todays fashion is strongly focussed on self-care, therapy and self-transformation and has connected this to symbols, object and situations. The fashion magazine is one of the cultural formats in which this societal focus becomes clearly visible and commodified.

Type: softcover / Dimensions: 210 mm x 155 mm portrait / Pages: 162 / Art Direction: Femke de Vries and Hanka van der Voet / Authors: Alessandra Varisco, Annabelle Boer, Beau de Bruijn, Dalila de Vroom, Lianca van der Merwe, Sohyun Yoon, Wei-Chi Su, Yi-Jing Chen, Chet Bugter Femke de Vries, Hanka van der Voet/ Graphic design: Zuzana Kostelanská / Release date: Februari 2022 / Binding: elastic band / Edition: 200 / Color: green – riso printed / Printer: Kaboem / Language: English / Text editing: Femke de Vries, Hanka van der Voet, Chet Bugter and Lianca van der Merwe/ Production: Warehouse

Made possible by MA Critical Fashion Practices, ArtEZ University of the Arts

A Magazine Reader is an ongoing research trajectory and series of zines initiated by Femke de Vries and Hanka van der Voet. It revolves around the analysis of a mainstream and high-end fashion magazine and its translation into an alternative new zine to provide insight into the cultural power and forms of value production that is at the core of fashion media. In it, the reader becomes an active actor in the construct of fashion. Re-reading the magazine by dissecting it, analysing the words, images, materiality, the items shown on the pages and the strategies of the specific magazine changes the way we read fashion.

In the workshop one specific magazine is selected. This magazine is thoroughly read, dissected and critically analysed on elements such as models, topicality, advertisements, material, brands, distribution, imagery, items, narrative, monetary value, colours, words and order of pages. By not starting from the perspective of the fashion system as a whole, but from the simple act of reading a fashion magazine, the reader gains an active role. Having the material in hands, seeing the images, how brands are being represented on the pages, reading the words and tracing the page numbers, but also feeling the paper, the weight and being able to smell the magazine creates an awareness of the magazine as a material object. Something that embodies and communicates the process of value production in fashion. A material representation of fashion’s ephemerality, dream worlds and fantasies.

The readers in the workshop use the material of the original ‘source magazine’ to create a new zine that provides insight into the cultural power and forms of value production that is at the core of fashion media. The existing material is elaborated on by connecting with other material (theories, visuals, artistic explorations). As such, A Magazine Reader focuses on the reader as an active participant – someone with agency rather than a passive consumer – in the process of creating fashion. Reading becomes making.