I found it being distributed freely at one of the most grandiose corporate events of the year, which I will write about next week.
So here we have it: LUV XXX. The first Mauritian fashion magazine. I will write my impressions as I uncover each part of the magazine.
All the photos seen below were scanned and are present in their original, unaltered form.
THE COVER
Asking for LUV XXX in the shops resulted in a couple of dirty, embarrassed looks from the staff. It may not be the best choice of a name for a magazine, but there have been stranger.
I would have mistaken it for a beauty or cosmetics magazine if I hadn't seen the cover beforehand and for good reason. The photo already positions the magazine as something more out there than say Essentielle (which, because it is not a fashion magazine but rather a woman's magazine, usually keeps a more conservative approach to their covers), and is slightly reminiscent of Terry Richardson. Yet apart from the boldness of the photo is the actual photo itself. I would have preferred a cleaner vision of the mouth and its skin bordering the lips and better teeth. And there is a thin line of spittle from her front tooth to her lip, which they should have removed.
The teeth seem distorted in a way compared to the lips. Look at the way the lips are positioned, turning almost to the right, and yet it would appear that the two front teeth (incisors), which should be perfectly positioned below the cupid's bow, are completely off. The teeth are to the left when they should have been centred.
The green glitter on the lips, with the blue outline? Beautiful. But why such a pinky skin exterior? It seems like every pore has been enlarged and somewhat pixelated,and the gums blurred. Yes, I understand that when you focus on the lips for a shot such as this one, the rest gets blurred. But why isn't the moustache area of the model blurred then?
There is a reason why no fashion magazine today would have on its cover a body part.
I am very happy that 5% of the sales go to APEIM, its a good cause and other media groups should follow suit.
I don't like that the feature articles have been highlighted though. Take for example Vogue (this was the British Vogue April 2011 cover):
To draw your attention, three different fonts (including the title) have been used, but to further make an impact the text was simply converted into bold. Highlighting would only ruin the image.
I already have a bad feeling that the magazine will read like a brochure. No-one announces a sponsor in a feature article right on the cover. "By Remington?" why not simply SOS Hair with Kitty Philips?
Furthermore, and correct me if I am wrong here, but why is it written WITH Kitty and not BY Kitty?
And..."Dress like a death eater" ?
Inside LUV
The lead up to the contents:
First page: An advertisement for a luxury car brand. This does not bode well. I was expecting a fashion magazine to have a shop or brand related to clothing or even jewellery as its introduction.
On the second page though comes ALDO, Remington, Guess (they must all be sponsors) and finally one of Samuel Yeung's dresses.What else do you expect when a designer launches a magazine?
Just after that is my favourite image so far. Samuel's wife, Netta Laor's designs.
Next is a Guess advertisement, but made in (and adapted to?) Mauritius. The image is incomprehensible. It's basically a girl in a very short animal print dress sitting on a chair, her long legs crossed together, on some rocks and sand. It isn't very artistic, and definitely not very GUESS.
Eight page: I'm not sure of the product they are advertising here. At all. After an abstract image alongside more abstract images (the type graphic design students do for their covers and stuff, you know with all the saturated colours mixed in with black) with a small JK.KOTADOO at the bottom.
Editor's Note and Table of Contents
I am very disappointed. It's in English that isn't English. Too many grammatical and punctuation errors. No editing has been done. If you launch a magazine, make sure its perfect. No flaws. Least of all in the language department.
Some of the extracts:
"The legendary cliche for generation is the resolution that are never met in January, Well!!!So much that one of many is not to have one..." that was the introductory line.
The table of contents is bland. I expect at least some photos and an introductory line, if any.
More Samuel Yeung advertisement. I have a bad feeling that all the other designers of Mauritius will never appear in here.
Another thing that hits the eye: A photo of some HEAT models wearing Samuel Yeung's collection. Why on earth is the photo blurred? We need a minimum of comprehension of what is going on and the clothes shown! The feet are also blurred. Who was the photographer? All it takes is an adjustment on the speed setting. The photo suffered too many modifications via photoshop. The edges of the models clothes have been sharpened way too much, its so terribly visible. The models are orange.I can't see the clothes clearly, its all a blur.
We have arrived to page 20, where some note is given on Karl Ahnee. The font and presentation is bland, but another thing hits the eye.
Texte-Sandra Stephen.
When you sign as a journalist, the formula followed is simply to write your name at the bottom, if of course the article is lengthy enough, otherwise you would resort to your initials.
But this is nothing compared to the shock of opening the following page.
In Vogue, for example, you find that the staff involved in the production of the magazine (editor, fashion director, company etc) occupy one vertical quarter of one page at the start of the magazine itself. It's very simple, just their name and title.
Here, not only do you have a full page devoted to the people who have created LUV, you also have all of their CV. It's ridiculous. No-one cares! The only thing people care about is reading something of quality. Not your resume. They can find that on Facebook, by phone or on google.
At the bottom: Luv Xxx (not XXX as on the cover?) est une publication mensuellement. My French is far from excellent, but that's another grammar mistake, no?
Features and Articles
Why is part of the article's text placed on the photo? It makes for difficult reading!
The fist article is introduced as "Paris Portrait" (?) and this is what comes after: By Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris for Review Turn to Page. Very confusing. She probably wanted to say:
A Portrait of Paris
A review of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris
Netta Laor's English is of better quality than Samuel's but still contains numerous mistakes.
For example, in the first sentence: "-all come to life at Woody Allen's...." It's in.
"Sur cette lancee" is followed by "Woody Allen took another swing..."
The French phrase should have been in italic or simply translated.
So the first feature is a movie review. For a fashion magazine.
Next feature: ICON, where they talk of Yves Saint Laurent and the photographer Jeanloup Sieff. The photo is one of YSL's most famous, him posing naked for his perfume. The text on top contains an error, the sentence not making any sense.
There is a lack of information evident, and an abundance of spelling mistakes.
Next article: The Art of Styling. Text by Netta Laor.
Again the text by. Something else intrigues me. The text is diagonal. It unkindly stabs the eye. The ling in styling is cut out because of it. It looks dirty.
The photo of the mannequin is not of good quality. The picture on the facing page has a diagonal slant (?!), the background should have been of a paler colour because a dark blue pair of trousers on a dark blue wall is slightly indistinct, and what's with the zombie mannequin hand chopped off to the right?
Terrible art direction. I still don't understand why the images are being cut off diagonally.
The list of clothes and prices is on the facing page.
A dress from Samuel Yeung costs Rs 34, 500. That is largely above what people here offer for their most expensive product, including some of the best designers working here.
A lot of talk on GUESS and lots of features of their products. Sponsors, sponsors, you have turned this magazine into a brochure.
There is no sign of professionalism anywhere. A simple list of ALDO shoes was not written in the style of a magazine.
The photos were taken on a shop dummy (mannequin) in the shop. That's what bloggers with nothing else but a camera and a limited amount of time do. When you have a magazine for crying out loud you organize editorial spreads!
The following pages display ads of Kurazao and most surprinsingly, Oriya by Annabelle Fleury, which was misspelled. ALDO takes the whole bottom left corner of Oriya's page with its shoes. What's more, apart from the jewellery I only see the back of one dress.
A promotional feature on Remington is next,with the terrible diagonal slant of the page cutting off bits of letters and making things uncomfortably difficult when reading.
Kitty Philips' article, which now reads Remington by Kitty Philips (why then was it written with Kitty earlier?) was not corrected for mistakes either.
The next article is Beauty is art and art (no I haven't written it wrong, that's the heading). Netta's illustrations are beautiful. The picture of the arty Vespas was taken by a poor quality camera but there you go.
Even though the text is littered with spelling mistakes and difficult, stiff English at times, this is actually a very good article, talking about the relationship of fashion and art, and its evolution.
Image Vivante by Karl Ahnee
Very rich and full of colour. The make-up is perfect, and has been applied with precision. Very vibrant.
Opinions are divided on this one. Some people say that it is tasteless and vulgar, the images of the tongue are blatantly made to be erotic and just too much. Another one said that they made him feel sick. Others adore the concept and say that its a welcome change from all the tired, worn out concepts seen before.
I don't like the granulated skin around the lip area, nor the bleached facial hair, nor the dental plaque visible between the teeth. That shocked me. And yes, there has been a mistake on the cover. Here you can see the model's front teeth are perfectly placed below the cupid's bow. On the cover it was all wonky.
Below the front teeth are not perpendicular to the model's cupid bow. I tried several facial expressions and still can't see how that is possible apart from bad photoshop.
You can unfortunately also see the dental plaque.
LUV Continued
Oriya by Annabelle Fleury makes another appearance in the magazine, but she is the only other Mauritian designer besides Samuel to do so.
More sponsors, Le Sofitel this time. The text is still diagonal.
The photos are good though. Yet one thing escapes me: This is a fashion magazine. I have never seen the travel section of any fashion magazine extend to more than three pages, normally filled with writing and small pictures. Here, the pictures take centre stage,like it was to appear in a travel magazine.
The ingredients for a recipe are given, but the actual recipe is not given.
An entire 18 pages are allotted to the promotion of a hotel. For a supposed fashion magazine this is pitiful and gives off the impression that the owners of the magazine are desperate.
They have included a music and film review section, but why then did the Midnight in Paris review come before everything else? The diagonal text is still irritatingly present.
Next was an interesting article (but the grammar was still abhorrent) on Gui Pei, a Chinese fashion designer. The photos were on Gui Pei's "Journey of Childish Dreams", where he showcased his designs in miniature on dolls. Even if the English was terrible, the article would have been redeemed if the photos were of good quality, but unfortunately they were overexposed, perhaps because of the lighting on the inside of the box. In any case, you couldn't make out much of the collection apart from the rather obvious silhouette and some detail, which was a pity.
If I'm not mistaken, I have read very, very few articles so far that are not signed by Netta Laor.
Next there was a selection of pictures taken for the Maserati (written in the magazine as Maseratti) Night, but this again was a disappointment. Just head shots of some of the who's who, nothing on the clothes. What's the point?
Dress like Death Eaters came afterwards. I understand why an article like that was written even though it isn't Halloween. It was to show the Gothic inspiration of designers, like the good versus evil battle that raged in Harry Potter. It would have been a better article if three quarters wasn't devoted to Harry Potter (where Ron became Roy, by the way) and more on fashion and how it creates and evokes the darker Gothic aesthetic. But although all the photos on the facing page were of black outfits, that doesn't necessarily mean that they represent a darker aesthetic. I saw a cool, minimal edge in Givenchy and a warrior in Ann Demeulemeester. But isn't it late to write about a film that came out a year ago?
Extract:
"While we watch Hermione, Roy and Harry battle against the evil Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, we can't help but remember the young wizard boy who was unsure and struggling to fit in. For 10 years we grew alongside this fantasy world, watching Harry and his friends hitting puberty."
Extract:
"While we watch Hermione, Roy and Harry battle against the evil Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, we can't help but remember the young wizard boy who was unsure and struggling to fit in. For 10 years we grew alongside this fantasy world, watching Harry and his friends hitting puberty."
Looking at the pictures, something else hit me. They [the images] must have been of good quality to have been enlarged to this point. Did Samuel Yeung buy a license at one of the stock photography agencies? That is a prerequisite after all-you can't use an image for commercial use without paying for it, whether it be in art or in fashion.
Editorial Spread
Nothing given on the theme of the spread, until a couple of pages afterwards, with the ominous exception of a Go Sport advertisement.
You remember my criteria as to models in Mauritius? Obviously we can't expect 32-24-32 (86 - 60 -86 cm) or less here, so I had made slight modifications to set a standard.
Both genders must have a very fit physique, very toned, athletic body shapes-you can't simply be thin and have muscle jiggling around. Everything must be firm. Good teeth, good skin, good hair that can withstand damage from use and abuse of product.
Female:
Internationally, the set standards are around (chest/waist/hips): 86-60-86.
Here though, I think the following measurements are appropriate:
Height: Around and greater than 1m70
Bust: Around 89cm
Waist: Around 65cm
Hips:Around 89cm
Male:
Height: Above 1m85
Waist: Around 76 cm
Chest: Around 95cm
Inseam: Around 81cm
This was not to the standard. The accessories were out of place. There was no artistic direction, that much was evident. They tried an oversexualised image of a model in the middle of the male model's legs, which was tasteless. I couldn't understand the photos, especially the one where the model lays over the man's body.
The Cover
The models are posing awkwardly, like some sort of lame attempt to show emotion or the clothes. At the back are tons of jeans. The text part engulfs half of the cover: already announcing the sponsors : Guess, Karl Kaiser combined with much abused punctuation.
Inside LUV Homme
Again, the front page on the inside is on a car. Next, thankfully, is Cerruti, then Karl Kaiser.
There was also a small spread concerning the latter, and that was of much better quality than what was seen in the woman's section.
Funnily enough, after that you have an article on what they call 'telework'. A couple of pages afterwards was an article on the kitchen.
Before that though, there is an editorial spread with the M & M shop as sponsor. Now this I really did not like. At all.
Modelling is not about making the model look good, its about showing the clothes in the best possible light. The suit was tucked in under a bed sheet, with the model wearing sunglasses (?!), talking on his phone...the implausibility of it all was ludicrous.
On the facing page, the same outfit (?!), this time with the model handling not only a Mac, but an iPad. Wrong, so wrong, yet so funny!
Some trainers (sport shoes) were on a two page spread, assembled rather well together until you see that bits of shoes on the two extremities are missing. That's a no-no.
After that just some photos of footballs and sports equipment. But where is the fashion?
That finally happened in an article devoted to denim. This too was in poor English but if corrected would be of good quality. Netta Laor knows her stuff, but she just has to express it better.
Then comes a "Serrez vos Jeans" article, written in poorer English by Samuel Yeung. They wrote James Dean as James Deane. The words "Dress Brand" come up often, though I cannot understand their meaning, perhaps he simply meant label?
Extract:
"So how to accessorise our jeans? How far do we have to look? Can we brand dress?Denim nowadays is one of the most loved garments and an essential piece in our wardrobe, whether as Lazy Sunday gown, to go to work, or even as smart as going to a date in a mission."
Extract:
"So how to accessorise our jeans? How far do we have to look? Can we brand dress?Denim nowadays is one of the most loved garments and an essential piece in our wardrobe, whether as Lazy Sunday gown, to go to work, or even as smart as going to a date in a mission."
In any case, I know that the following words are harsh, but if you are good at fashion design, stick to that. Find other ways to advertise your own label. Not everyone can write, the same way as not everyone can become a successful designer. High definition photos will not make the magazine work, unless one simply counts on making the magazine a brochure, a way to propel one's own brand and receive money through sponsorships.
This gives a very laisser-aller feel. The language employed is so loaded with errors its barely readable. The photos were edited in a rushed manner-how could so obvious mistakes just slip by?
More importantly: The magazine seems to have only been created thanks to sponsors. It strangles any artistic vision that it may have originally been created in. The concepts were built around the product being endorsed, that is obvious to all. Worse yet, it is blatant that there was no artistic direction in any of those spreads, except perhaps that of the Image Vivante. But why then, such a huge mistake-on the cover?
Next week, a very special article on the best corporate event I have ever been to and what's more, all the latest on the end of Fashion Week.
Have an awesome week and weekend!
xoxo
Alex
Twitter: @StyleMauritius
Email: Stylemauritius@live.com
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