Big Beautiful Vogue Magazine

Vogue is my favourite franchise. Like 7/11 or McDonald’s, it exists everywhere and you can always count on it to deliver a certain, familiar comfort, while learning about the culture of the country you’re in.

A few times a year, I’ll buy a copy of Vogue – mostly French (so sue me), sometimes Australian – or open up the Ukrainian Vogue website, genuinely to find out what’s going on out there. Micro-trends move too quickly on the internet. The ones that make it into the glossy pages of a for-the-masses magazine have at least lasted long enough to go through print schedules, which is saying something these days. It’s also interesting to see which trends make it to which Vogue.

The March edition of Vogue France (they ship 3 months late to Melbourne, boo!) opens with an article about the microplastics found in teabags, and how this is ruining not only our health but the historical sanctity of tea ceremonies.

The June edition of Vogue Australia opens with a short profile piece on singer Jessica Pratt and her favourite books, albums etc. (Pratt seems to have cultural tastes I used to try to force onto myself fresh out of high school.)

And the June edition of Vogue UK opens with a profile piece on Lennon Gallagher and Isobel Richmond, who I have never heard of (except for the Gallagher bit) but I have been informed are ‘style stars’ and a couple, so I wish them all the best.

Vogue may be a basic bitch magazine, and so what? It’s the baby step into glossy magazine … or baby steps into research in global popular culture, for the academics among us.

I remember reading a line in a glossy magazine when I was teen that genuinely shaped who I am, which is embarrassing, but we’re all friends here: ‘you’re allowed to like books and lipstick’. Hey, maybe that feels obvious now, but to a 2010s teen in the throes of internalised misogyny who was ‘smart’ but also desperately wanted to be pretty, that meant something.

So, glossy magazines became a form of self-care. Whenever I feel down, or need to remind myself that that there is clever in style, I buy a magazine and skip on home to make a tea. I get to do what I love most: look at pretty things and learn something new.

I get to look at round-ups of the current handbag trends (Vogue UK), and read about the growing culture (and unwarranted controversy) of female designers creating clothing for men (Vogue France). I get to browse a listicle of the latest debut authors (Vogue France), and read about the future of AI in internet shopping (Vogue Australia).

At the moment I’m fighting the seasonal blues, so I’ve armed myself with 3 different Vogues, reading an article every time I start to feel cold and sad. And hey, it’s working! Next time you need to feel something, try popping into MagNation in Emporium and picking out a magazine; it doesn’t need to be Vogue, whatever theme piques your interest and whatever business you want to support.

Long live physical magazines! (Says the woman writing a Substack…)