Wednesday 19 March 2014

Early Fashion Magazines

Source: www.harpersbazaar.com
Technology in Fashion is usually associated with contemporary issues, developing future concepts and aesthetic world improvement (Leninhan 2012). The question is what do we know about the very beginning of tech performance in fashion? Therefore, technological evolution can be captured in early fashion magazines. Hughes (2008) reported for The Guardian that through the centuries particularly every woman who was interested in journal reading was also delighted about the quality (printing technology, development) and content of fashion magazines responding to their needs: needlework patterns, detailed problem pages, fashionable items and valuable emotions too. In February 1693, the first women’s journal in British history called Ladie’s Mercury made a huge influence for upcoming publications worldwide. It was taken as an example with more supplements: interesting themes and issues about women’s environment, behaviour, appearance, etc. (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/20/women-pressandpublishing).

In addition, it is necessary to mention that Moeran (2012) observed that fashion magazines are both cultural and technological products. The production includes readers, advertisers and the fashion world itself. These enable magazines to link cultural production to the reception of fashion. Firstly, helping to form a collective concept of what fashion is, and secondly, transforming fashion as an abstract idea and aesthetic discourse into everyday and cultural production in terms of the different values (technical, appreciative and social). For instance, Ladie’s Mercury created a ground idea for further magazines but many other factors also developed more improved publications: political, art, technological streamlines. One of the most famous fashion magazines in the world called Harper’s Bazaar has been evolving since 1867. Here are some samples of Harper’s covers evolution, where printing technologies and garment trends transformations are clearly visible.

Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

According to Breward (1994), the noted changes in technology and society had a part to play in preparing the base for a huge expansion in the 1870s and 1880s. Therefore, production throughout the first half of the nineteenth century was certainly responding to market conditions: an increased and literate audience that implied a high reversal of products in technology and communication progression. The nature of fashion journals enhanced variations so that printed material came to the development of other expanding: fashion, travelling and other popular entertainment in operating novelties (http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1316078uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103802496443).


Moreover, Glasgow, Beetham and Boardman (2002) observed Victorian women‘s magazines improvement in respect of wider absorption and technological intervention. After 1850 Victorian fashion magazines have improved, in challenge of women interests in the early fashion magazines. These were followed by magazines specifically intended to cover serious fiction, poetry and fashion combination as well. Evidently, therefore, the scope of fashion magazines gradually enlarged, reaching its influential prosperity in both technological and informational aspects. In other words, the last decade of the nineteenth century in fashionable journals was covering a wide range of different areas related to fashion and modern well being. (http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.rgu.ac.uk/journals.htm?issn=0024-2535&volume=51&issue=2&articleid=1492733&show=html#sthash.xRvQplDW.dpuf)





Sources: Journal Citation Reports, Journal of Design History, Emerald Journal, The Guardian, Harper‘s Bazaar. 

Visual sources: www.harpersbazaar.com
Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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