The Rebirth of Print Fashion Media
Fashions is entering a new era, touching grass as it goes back to print
Print fashion media has returned, led by niche zines along with big publishers that have arisen from the ashes to keep physical media alive. This fashion print renaissance is part nostalgic, part content clapback, and completely necessary.
Hot Takes is my bullet point thoughts on fashion's hottest issues. These posts get to the heart of why people are talking about what they’re talking about, what this means, and where this could go next.
Think: what direction is fashion heading in? What’s new, innovative, and exciting? What's going on in fashion that's pissing people off?
Hot Takes ties fashion topics to a wider cultural and social context, digging into the often more significant meaning behind things.
So sit back, relax, and let's get into it. Here’s Hot Takes #25.
Let’s set the scene.
I’m always going to be a fiend for print media. There’s a side table full of my pandemic-era New Yorker subscription and a desktop full of independent titles from magazine shops in London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Tokyo that prove this exact sentiment. There’s something about the leisurely feeling of flicking through the pages of something glossy, something tangible, that can’t be replicated in digital form. Not too long ago, print titles were heading for extinction, but 2024 is the year when this sad trajectory is being undone.
Riding off the back of the intense summer of sports we’ve just had, Carine Roitfeld and her son are launching a yet unnamed biannual magazine highlighting the relationship between athleticism, style and fashion. Due to be launched next spring, Roitfeld said in an exclusive statement to WWD: “Fashion and sport are two powerful forms of expression that inspire millions around the globe. We aim to create a space that celebrates this fusion and showcases the unique stories that emerge when these worlds collide.”
Then there was the J. Crew catalogue with Demi Moore on the cover. Mailer subscribers were treated to a surprise through their letterbox when the Americana retailer brought back its print beacon of hope, which was discontinued in 2017. Circling the catalogue pages of old allowed people to imagine themselves living the J. Crew lifestyle — you know, the whole white picket fence thing. This comeback signals a shift in gears from the brand as they attempt to reconnect with people, portraying the ideal middle-class suburban life as they see fit. Bringing back this aspirational artefact from the dead is a nice, IRL touch.
Early on the bandwagon brands are re-focusing their efforts on print to outdo the superficiality of clicks and likes that besiege social media. In 2023, Patta launched a bi-annual magazine. The publication in question was chock full of interviews and aesthetically pleasing imagery. I should know, as I happened to stumble across a copy. Local Optimist, a quarterly magazine from Madhappy, also launched last year as more brands have a crack at storytelling and world-building outside of digital echo chambers. UNIQLO is focusing efforts on its free LifeWear magazine, while LVMH closed on a deal to acquire the weekly magazine Paris Match, which celebrates Parisian photography.
All of this goes to show that print media has a longer shelf life than we give it credit for. According to data from YouGov, Americans and Brits are pushing forward the print agenda with 47% of people in the United States getting more enjoyment reading magazines in print versus reading them online, a figure which rises to 58% for people in the UK.
With these figures and the relaunch and newfound interest in print titles from different corners of the globe, is it any surprise that we may be about to get a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada? Fashion kingpin Miranda Priestly will apparently be navigating the harsh reality of working at a print magazine amid budget cuts and shrinking ad revenue. We stan a relatable queen.
The future of print fashion media has become as unpredictable as the trends it once defined. Our lives may be leaning increasingly digital as algorithms tweak and tailor our feeds and as we succumb to mindless scrolling, fake news and cluttered content, while influencers set the tone for our sartorial agendas — print fashion media needs to act fast in order to stay on top before it ends up getting left behind. The question is: are you along for the ride?
Big publishers go back to print
Condé Nast’s Self, Teen Vogue and Glamour may have exited their regular print cycle years ago, but now outlets like i-D and Fashion Journal are getting back in the game, with quarterly and bi-annual issues that are said to be high in quality yet low in frequency.
Over at i-D, Thom Bettridge was named its new editor-in-chief and chief brand officer after supermodel Karlie Kloss and her billionaire husband acquired the publication through her media company, Bedford Media, with Kloss serving as CEO.
Meanwhile, titles like The Cut and Another Man are finding their footing with speciality editions that savour the slower pace of print. Dazed Media is resuming the publication of its menswear offshoot Another Man, which was merged into Another magazine in 2020, and The Cut along with New York Magazine dropped a standalone print Fall Fashion Issue, led by Lindsay Peoples.
Nylon, celebrating its 25th anniversary, returned to the world of print with a commemorative issue in April 2024, marking its first physical release since going fully digital in 2017.
These moves reflect a broader trend in media, where print is re-emerging not as a weekly or even monthly fixture but as an upscale, collectable item — a cross between a magazine and a coffee table book if you will, designed to lure us mere mortals in with the kind of impact digital can’t deliver.
Welcome to the print media club, where publishers big and small are working overtime to be the name on everyone’s lips that people aren’t afraid to be seen reading in public. And it doesn’t hurt that with this shift, brands and media titles of all shapes and sizes can play the print game.
The nicheification of fashion zines
For AW24, Supreme tapped into print nostalgia for its collaboration with Martine Rose which featured a 44-page black-and-white photo zine documenting the collection, with all profits from the zine donated to St. Giles Trust — a UK-based charity helping people affected by homelessness, substance abuse or violence transform their lives. That’s what you call a zine for the greater good.
London-based skate brand Palace teamed up with punk label Vivienne Westwood and FRUiTS street style photography legend Shoichi Aoki to capture a cast of misfits — including musicians Sematary and Matt OX, model and activist Sibyl Buck, and skater Lucien Clarke — in a limited-edition zine distributed with each purchase of the brand’s collab, giving fans more than just apparel to line up for.
Meanwhile, Bottega Veneta, famously AWOL from social media, returned to the digital sphere in 2021 with Issue, a 107-page e-magazine. Flipping through artist contributions, there was everything from Biba founder Barbara Hulanicki to Missy Elliott, all dressed in Bottega’s best. In true contrarian style, none of its content is shareable. And in 2024, they continue to favour zines as a way to physically express fashion fandom.
Across the Atlantic, zines are thriving as creative hotbeds for local fashion, like Wauzine in Kenya, spotlighting homegrown talent, or the offbeat Bristol Fashion Zine, where “disaffected prom queens” and “not-so-sensible businessmen” highlight UK street style in a project led by photographer Dean Davies and students on Bristol UWE’s fashion communication course.
For the ultimate print renaissance, Acne Studios resurrected its beloved Acne Paper, paused in 2014 after 15 high-concept issues that bridged art, culture, and fashion. Now with a broader global and political scope, Acne’s revival shows that zines and indie mags have moved from niche to necessary as they redefine brand identity in the digital age.
The zines are really doing their thing and zining. Stroll into any independent magazine store in any city, and you’ll see this for yourself. Where mainstream print fashion media is at the whim of advertisers and dollar spend, zines offer a unique fashion POV that operate outside of fashion’s restrictive gilded walls.
My two cents.
In the UK, magazine brands reach 41 million adults each month which is three-quarters of the adult population. Data from PAMCo shows that while digital magazine content may be popular, with 34 million adults visiting magazine websites each month, over 20 million adults continue to read magazines in print.
While digital media is quick to load, easily digestible and accessible, many of us want to own the media we pay for. We want those hard copies. And in the digital age, none of this is guaranteed as everything could disappear with the click of a button.
This could be part of the reason why digital-only fashion media is making a return to physical newsstands. I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to shell out for a glossy magazine or zine, then I’d much rather be able to flick through it in person. It’s a nicer feeling than scrolling, and it’s a welcome break from smartphones and tablets.
Print fashion media is less about breaking news and more about curating an experience that can't be swiped away. In print, the stories aren’t just curated; they’re crafted with intent, giving room for undervalued talent and overlooked voices to find their place and be celebrated. For readers and creators alike, it’s an antidote to the fast fashion of content.
There’s room for a print revival, whether in mainstream or niche and collectable formats. In a world where content zips past at lightning speed, print fashion media invites us to slow down, savour, and truly engage.
It doesn’t matter what form of print media you are reading or where you are reading it, all that matters is that in our 24/7-fake-it-til-you-make-it-hustle-culture-toxic-productivity-society, print media is a respite from all of the noise. And once it has you hooked, it’s hard to escape its grasp.
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Yes yes yes! I’m loving where print media is headed right now—especially for the fashion girlies!! Great read xx
I didn't know I was craving this, but I was. Despite what it may seem (in terms of use of paper and other materials), print media actually helps me reduce consumption: instead of trying to read everything, see everything, and know everything that's going on at all times, with print it feels easier to only read a section of that, but engage deeper with it. Someone on here published an article about book publishers as curators, and I think magazine editors can have the same role.