After reading Franca Sozzani's interview for Industrie magazine it all made sense. All these conversations about the situation of the market, the economy, the world... And those conversations that fashion is going this way, or the fashion world is going that way and no one knows where it goes and what is going to be tomorrow... It's so exhausting! And all that stuff about the world is changing so fast, we need to do something... Blah, blah, blah. We need to find a solution! Blah. We need to do something fast! Blah. But do what? Something clicked in my head. We need to go couture! Yes, that's right. Couture is the solution of the fashion world. Get it? Wait, I can explain.
We got to a point where fashion is on a cross path. Not only fashion, everything. Technology changed the world. What will happen to print? What will happen to brands when we live in a world where you can buy at H&M your favorite designers? What happened to exclusivity? These questions are everywhere, I've seen and read enough about it. We need to go couture! That is the solution.
As Franca was saying, the magazine itself is a vision of fashion (that was the first click). The magazine should be visionary (second click). Visionarie is (more than) a magazine created by Stephen Gan, Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos in the 90's. It's a vision. Magazines need to be more than magazines. We can see everything on-line for free so why buy? Most of us can't afford to collect all the magazines, and they are so many and so good and bad at the same time it hurts. Why keep doing the magazines the way we do if that is not working? Now is the time to maximize everything. Make it memorable. Make it timeless. Make it epic. We have to make magazine interesting enough to be bought by people. People need to want to buy magazines. People need to want to collect magazines. But why buy or collect something that is merely paper? Why buy a GQ? Why buy Vogue US? Why collect something that is not a timeless piece of work and art? Magazines need to have things that we cannot have on-line. Magazines must offer a different experience than the on-line world gives. They need to change and they need to change now.
I remember once reading one of the many interviews Carine Roitfeld gave after leaving Vogue Paris and everyone was wondering and asking what will she do next. Her answer was what I'm trying to say in this post. She is putting together a dream team and she is creating more than a magazine. She is creating an artistic object.
Magazines should be like haute couture. They have to stop pleasing the whole world and focus on a small group of people who are extremely interested in that precise magazine. They have to create in order to satisfy those specific clients. They have to fit the client just like a glove.
We have enough magazines to please every single person in the world. The problem is that all magazines are trying to please everyone. And that is major chaos. There are too many images being made. There is too much information. It's just nonsense. Stop everything. You're blinding me with so many images. Focus!
I don't think printed magazines will ever end. But they have to adapt. They have to choose their audience, their specific audience. We live in a era that almost every magazine has a specific image, that pleases a specific group. So forget about everything else. I know this has consequences, you can't simply make a magazine just for ten people, otherwise it will go broke, blah, blah, blah. This different groups of people are growing faster. For example, I buy a lot of magazines. I mean a lot. Like myself there are millions who do that. And by being in a specific group that doesn't mean I'm not in any other group. In other words, I buy Italian Vogue and I buy V Magazine. Two completely different magazines.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that we're stepping in on a new era. New things will happen. New thing are happening! Some things won't survive and other things will adapt and evolve, just like everything else in life. The consequences of this new era we're facing are serious. We're talking extinction. We must change the way we do things. Magazines have to stop being magazines and become objects. Magazines must be timeless, collectible, epic objects. Because they're not anymore. There's far too many magazines in the world. (I'd never thought I'd say this but) there is far too much information in the world. Everything must become haute couture. Everything and now.