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I’ve got issues – issue one

Does anybody else have issues…? Magazine issues that is, of course you do, if you didn’t places like Magazine Brighton wouldn’t exist. Maybe it’s my age? I mean what’s the average age of a serial magazine buyer these days? I guess I should google it… With the likes of Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and a billion blogs is it really worth chopping down trees and spending all those £££’s to create this low tech commodity?

I’ve heard over the last ten years that the days of print are numbered but are they really??? Didn’t “they” say that about vinyl…
The religion of going to your favourite magazine merchant to purchase your regular or to browse the covers and have a flick through to decide what is worth your money is, in itself, a joy .

I would love to have my blood pressure and heart monitored as I enter Magazine Brighton to see what it is actually doing to me. Is my heart beating faster or slower…? I’m really not sure!

Maybe my current love for magazines is nostalgia – I still remember getting my first copy of Buttons in the early 80’s, I recall where I was and how I felt, I could only have been two or three years old. I still have the free giant yellow button from the cover locked away in my safe!

I have been “cutting and sticking” magazines since the mid ’90’s when I was fully immersed in small town middle England education. Intrigued by the heroine chic images of Kate and her gaunt compadres, I remember viewing the folds of Issy Miyake garments in Nova, jewels with too many zeros in Style, chic bags, chic hair and super stylised photoshoots. I guess it was the bridge between me and high fashion, London seemed such a distant place, another world, magazines were a place to dream, feel and learn. I cut and stuck my way through art college and university and finally moved to London in 2000.

During my first post grad job at a South Kensington Jewellery store the owner bought a monthly box of Craft Magazines, I’m not sure why as he wasn’t that big on craft, I think it was actually out of pity but that’s a different story. I love to stay busy and organising is a great way to avoid boredom, so one slow day I decided to clear out the basement cupboard, amidst the dust and spiders I found box after unopened box of Craft Magazine. With his permission I took one copy of each and called the craft council to come and reclaim their now vintage boxes of magazines – it was pre Ebay! We can randomly dip into a few throughout these blog posts…

In London my go to store used to be Magma, conveniently situated off Hatton Garden* I could get my regular mag fix whilst collecting diamonds and metal for the jewellers. I’d get my copy of Amelia’s Magazine along with Dazed and Confused, the obligatory copy of Vogue and any other long since folded publications that took my fancy. There were bundles of magazines sent my way in the second high fashion jewellers that I worked in. I’d take home the copies that were surplus to demand, French Vogue, Italian Vogue, Tank, W, Numero… you get the idea. Language didn’t and still doesn’t matter to me, you can just hold and look to capture the feeling of each issue, the paper texture and quality, foiling or embossing on the cover – a new magazine has that fresh printed smell.

I find that every magazine has an aura, an atmosphere that draws you in and changes the way you feel. Each one has a texture, smell and weight, it is a sensory experience – from the high gloss glamorous publications to the low down dirty Jeremy Kyle-esque gossip mags, they all export you to a different place. Time slows down, you’re not tempted to hurry and flick your way through images and information in the way you do on digital apps – magazines can be savoured along with the mandatory cup of tea.

Throughout this series of “I’ve got issues” I will be deconstructing my favourite and some random magazines, old and new to see what they provoke, little capsules of time, months, moments and era’s. I’m waiting for Face magazine to be reinstated – now wouldn’t that be something.

If you have any comments or suggestions please follow along and share as we go, oh and if you have a vintage copy of Buttons mag I’ll happily take it off your hands…

*Where I was probably served by Ruth from iamacrylic!

27/03/2018
Posted in: I've got issues