I've been wanting to write about this for the longest time. The subject of today's post, which has been living in my green Ikea box and has not been given its due recognition till today, is the world's first 'culture of fashion' magazine. Industrie, they call it. I got this magazine a month ago, but was only able to write about it today after I felt that I've read everything I should have read. This is because Industrie really isn't like any other magazine on the market right now. It is a text-heavy magazine and when I say text-heavy, I mean the ratio of pictures to words are 1:100. And a month of reading definitely does mean something. The magazine features lengthy interviews from many of the industry insiders, who can be grouped into 3 categories: 1) The influential stylists (Karl Templer, Katie Grand, Marie Amelie Sauve and Panos Yiapanis)  2) The stores (Natalie Massenet of Net-a-Porter, Jan Nord of H&M)  3) The Magazine People and The Future of Publishing (Patrick Demarchelier, Tom Florio of Conde Nast, Luis Venegas). One interview alone spans a few pages, eats into 30 minutes of my homework time and reveals what no other magazines has ever revealed about the industry. The magazine doesn't have much editorials, nor many ads nor does it showcases the season's latest clothes. In fact, this magazine isn't here to sell clothes, nor is it here to dictate trends, it is here to sell print.

There was this recurring question that seemed to infiltrate almost every other interview. The famous debate of print vs media, bloggers vs editors, democracy vs hierarchy. To be honest, I do find this debate redundant and almost to the brink of annoyance. It may seem funny for me (as a blogger) to be saying this, but I think print is in many ways much more superior than blogs and twitter and what not. I basically live my life for the sake of buying a Vogue every month. My so-called luxury item (especially when I can't afford anything really that great YET) is a fashion magazine. I look forward to the day when I would head down to the bookstore and grab COLD HARD LIVING compilations of glossy paper. Even before any bookstore trip, there would be another moment of excitement and infinite numbers of 'editorial-daydreams'. I could live my life without blogs but I can't say the same for magazines. After all, to put it in computer technical terms, a magazine is a 'hard copy' and blogs are merely 'soft copies'. It always feels good to know that what you're holding is something that can last a long time. And that one day you would be able to take Vogue out of your already-rotting ikea box and say to your grandchild, "Do you know there exists days that I would secretly lock my bedroom door so as to read POP or Dazed behind my parent's backs? And the days of Anna Winotur. God be with her soul in heaven."

Then again, the smell of magazine pages is enough to make me all giddy with joy and go "Bryanboy WHO? Tavi WHO?"

I think the editor's letter could sum up what I would like to say but didn't have the ability to say:

"Then came the explosive popularity of fashion blogs, Twitter and fashion as entertainment across all media channels.  In the wake of all of that, it is easy to think that things have moved on, that fashion is now a product of a broader consensus; that today, because of sheer volume and accessibility of information, you and I shape the trends.  In fact the change is merely cosmetic.  More people simply report the same things.  True, the broader reach and faster transmission of news has certainly created a business problem in print publishing.  But when it comes to setting the fashion agenda, things have barely moved an inch."

Sorry for the digression. And so here I am, leaving you with a few more quotes from this issue.

Katie Grand says, "Authority is knowledge.  If someone goes onto the Fashion Spot and writes that a certain magazine is dreadful, that's different from Cathy Horyn saying it is dreadful because there is an authoritative and experienced voice behind the latter point of view.  I don't know what I think about the whole idea of blog culture yet.  The internet is very much like snow blindness; there is so much information available but after a certain point I just can't look at it any more.  There is no real kind of beauty."

Katie Grand says, "When Marc and I were backstage at Vuitton with 54 girls lined up in huge afro wigs, we did look at each other for a second and go, "What the fuck have we done?" But at the end of the day, you know why you make those decisions."

Katie Grand (who is a genius by now) says, "Fashion may have previously been a working-class profession but over the years it has shifted to become quite middle or upper class.  There are a lot of privileged people working in the industry now and sometimes it's frustrating because it seems there might not be any hunger or need to be somewhere."

Patrick Demarchelier says, "When models are 14, 15, they come to New York to work. They are too young. The agencies bring so many models to New York now that they kill the old ones-and with that, their whole business."

Patrick Demarchelier speaks, "To become a supermodel, magazines need to help the girl. Right now, magazine don't do cover modes. When they are on covers, models become supermodels, they rise."

Panos Yiapanis giving great words of wisdom, "That idea that stylists have assumed this position where what they wear to Fashion Week is more important than their work is kind of comical. I hope that changes....The front row, the entrance to the shows-it has become a bit of a circus."

Tommy Ton makes some funny comments,"After the whole blogging massacre happened last fall, when people saw that me, Scott and BryanBoy were on the front row, I think there must have been thousands of people who thought, "You know, I could do that too." That must have been hell for all the PR companies this past season, getting all those requests. I have a friend who represents a designer and he said to me, "Look what you've done, my inbox is full with all these bloggers."

LONG LIVE PRINT AND ANNA WINTOUR AND KATIE GRAND AND PANOS YIAPANIS AND JAK&JIL & KARL TEMPLER.........