Monday Inspiration: Vogue

I used to read a lot of fashion magazines: Vogue was a special favorite. Yet when we moved to Amsterdam, I stopped buying it since the English-language version (either British or American) was way too expensive. Since then, I don’t pick it up when I’m in the States or England, either. Fashion magazines started to strike me as being too much about consuming—buy this, wear that, throw that out—and the models, instead of being fashion models, were most often Photoshopped actresses or surgically-altered celebrities or young women who looked depressingly cranky and ill. I just couldn’t relate. And I didn’t really want to.

But this week I made it into the hairdresser for a long-overdue appointment and picked up a recent copy of British Vogue, and fell back in love with the artistry of fashion. The clothes were candy-colored pastels with a retro vibe that I adore. The models were models, not celebrities, and the photography transformed clothing and hair and makeup into stories. It was inspiring—and it was fun.

The issue also included an article on designer Stella McCartney, and I was reminded that artists from all genres—fashion, music, mixed-media, photography, and so on—can inspire each other. In fact, I felt more inspired by reading about someone outside my field, than the artist profiles in stamping magazines.

I read a lot of magazines. I read Somerset and Craft Stamper and Stamp & Scrap Arts and Making Cards. And they’re all great. But inspiration can come from parallel disciplines as well. Sometimes I get overloaded with the craft magazines, and things start to look the same. In that case, I need a fresh jolt of inspiration—different colors, different attitudes. And fashion magazines, with their emphasis on color and photography, and shape and silhouette, can be just the trick.

(Even though this particular issue announced the “return of the midriff”. Um, no, not in my world. That’s one I’m going to have to skip. For everyone’s benefit.)

So next time you’re at the hairdresser, pick up a copy of Vogue and give it a shot. It might be just the thing to inspire you.

Happy Monday!