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The Revenge of the Niche Fashion Magazine

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The Revenge of the Niche Fashion Magazine

On a snowy night just before Valentine’s Day, Cultured magazine gave a party for its February-March 2025 edition. It was held at Quarters, a TriBeCa space that is both a furniture store and a wine bar. The place was packed. The cover star, the actress Cristin Milioti, was there, and partygoers took turns posing in doorways or perched on sofas for their social media feeds.

“There has been an unexpected groundswell of support,” said Sarah Harrelson, the founder of Cultured, who has worked on publications her entire career, including InStyle and Women’s Wear Daily.

The first issue of Cultured, which combines the fashion and art worlds, appeared in 2012, when Ms. Harrelson was living in Miami, where she had worked for Ocean Drive magazine and started a magazine supplement for The Miami Herald.

“I think back now, and I was 38 and creatively bored,” she said. “I wanted to do something for myself and not have to heed the rules. Publishing had gotten formulaic.”

Independently produced print magazines with an emphasis on fashion are experiencing a boomlet of sorts, making waves for their striking design and high-quality production. There is Cultured but also L’Etiquette, Konfekt and Polyester, to name a few that line the racks of Casa Magazines, the West Village periodical store, and magCulture in London.

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No longer seen as disposable or a relic of a dying industry, these magazines are regarded as high-end products. “It’s a luxury experience of sitting back and getting a single viewpoint coming to you that you didn’t know you wanted,” said Penny Martin, the editor in chief of The Gentlewoman, which could be said to have pioneered an indie print resurgence when it began in 2010.

Búzio Saraiva is the associate publisher of nine independent magazines, including Holiday and Luncheon, and the founder of Nutshell & Co., a company in Paris that works with other similar magazines.

“People behind independent magazines create material meant to last,” he said. “Someone will collect them, and then someone else will buy one at a flea market and make a moodboard out of it.”

Mr. Saraiva thinks of these magazines as vehicles for stylists, photographers, celebrities and writers to show off creativity in a way they might not be able to do in mainstream magazines. “It’s a lab,” he said. “It’s R&D for the creative industry. I see people taking pictures now that we shot 10 years ago. Not everyone is triple-checking to see if they’ve offended or please everyone.”

At first glance, independent magazines use a lot of the same celebrities that magazines owned by Hearst or Condé Nast work with. “A lot of time it’s the same cover and talents, but the interviewer or the photographer can be completely different,” said Joshua Glass, who started the food and fashion magazine Family Style in 2023. The spring 2025 issue has Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover interviewed by the curator Klaus Biesenbach and photographed by Brianna Capozzi.

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A major difference, Mr. Glass said, was creative independence. Like many other indies, Family Style is majority self-financed. “I’m beholden to my own moral integrity, my peers and the people I employ,” he said.

“We are in the black,” Mr. Glass added. “We’re not flying private jets or taking town cars. We are extremely lean, and we do things in ways that are modest.”

Magazines like Cultured and Family Style generally rely on ways to stay afloat that are quite similar to those of mainstream print publications. They have advertisers who are happy to pay a cheaper rate for a smaller magazine with a younger audience.

“The tide has shifted,” said Nick Vogelson, who founded the culture, arts and fashion magazine Document in 2012. “Every brand sees the value of print media. Every season for 13 years, the advertising has grown.” This spring, Mr. Vogelson is adding a new magazine, Notes on Beauty.

“In my line of work, you don’t call them advertisers, you call them supporters,” Ms. Martin said, laughing. “It’s not just about display advertising, it’s about special projects, as they’re called. There are other ways to work with those partners who are looking for culturally engaged or high-net-worth readers.” The Gentlewoman has hosted an architecture tour in Los Angeles with Cos and a tour of the Chelsea Physic Garden in London with Vince, for example.

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Here, a field guide to 10 of the new crop of fashion-leaning print magazines.

For the first issue, spring 2025, Inez and Vinoodh photographed Julianne Moore for the cover with red rose petals stuffed in her mouth. There are stories on ancient wellness rituals and an essay about a writer deciding to forgo cosmetic treatments.

The A is for “A,” the “M” is for “Magazine,” and the “F” stands for something unprintable. Issue 001, with the theme “pursuits of happiness,” came out last fall, produced by the dating app Feeld, which proudly declared that more than half of its contributors were on the app. Feeld is one of a number of companies, including Mubi, the movie platform, and Metrograph, the movie theater, producing print spinoffs for their companies.

What if a fashion magazine was almost entirely photos of fashion? The fall 2024 issue of Heroine has short interviews with the actors Finn Bennett and Noah Jupe, but the highlight is the model Alice McGrath, photographed by Fabien Kruszelnicki and wearing a great deal of Celine.

The most recent issue has several covers, including one with Cristin Milioti holding a lit cigarette, photographed by Chris Colls. The theme is art and film, and it has interviews with the director Luca Guadagnino, the Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres and the painter Torkwase Dyson.

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Konfekt bills itself as “the magazine for sharp dressing, drinking, dining, travel and design.” It’s based in Zurich and often has a middle-European bent. Issue 17 includes profiles of a chef in Georgia (the country) and a calligrapher in Paris, and an interview with the Serbian-born fashion designer Dusan Paunovic.

Based in Paris, L’Etiquette puts an emphasis on personal style and the art of getting dressed. There are separate editions for men and women, and they’re perennially sold out on newsstands. Online, panels of fashion world denizens choose their favorite It bags, which turn out to be delightfully quirky and under the radar: an L.L. Bean suede tote, say, or a tiny Balenciaga shaped like a croissant.

Polyester has a playful energy and a pop visual aesthetic reminiscent of 1990s magazines. Heroes to a certain kind of fashionable feminist are covered, like the winter 2024/2025 cover star Sofia Coppola or Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni, the hosts of the “Every Outfit” podcast.

The namesake magazine of an Amsterdam shop, Patta has gained a cult following for its coverage of music and streetwear. The magazine takes a global view of culture with an emphasis on African-European connections. Its spring-summer issue has an interview with the Congolese-born director Baloji and an article on the rising EDM scene in Lagos.

Every edition of the midcentury magazine Holiday was dedicated to a different city. Writers included Truman Capote and Joan Didion. Fast-forward to spring 2014, and the design studio Atelier Franck Durand was given the go-ahead by the French publisher Lagardère to bring the magazine back, so strictly speaking, Holiday is not independently published. It still picks a city for each issue, the fall-winter one being New York. There is a vintage flavor in a reprint of the Joan Didion essay “Goodbye to All That,” but it also has Tommy Dorfman and Marc Jacobs in conversation.

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“Made by Women, for Women,” Unconditional says, and the female gaze is apparent. Articles include a piece on lymphatic drainage practitioners in Paris and a profile of the designer Rachel Scott of the fashion line Diotima.

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‘The Running Man,’ a new ‘Now You See Me,’ and George Clooney are in theaters

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‘The Running Man,’ a new ‘Now You See Me,’ and George Clooney are in theaters

Dave Franco as Jack Wilder, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, and Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.

Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate


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Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate

There’s yet another Now You See Me in theaters this weekend, along with yet another Stephen King adaptation. George Clooney plays a charming Hollywood star in Jay Kelly, while a warm, funny and goosebump-raising documentary streams on Apple TV. Here’s what to watch.

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

In theaters Friday 

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The cast keeps expanding in this magic-centric rob-from-the-rich-give-to-the-poor heist franchise, as if the writers saw Ocean’s Eleven through Thirteen and thought, “we could do that.” New kids Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt join original Horsemen (and hangers-on) Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman and Isla Fisher in pursuit of a priceless diamond held by a money-laundering arms dealer (Rosamund Pike). That fits the aesthetic of the first two Now You See Me’s (shouldn’t this one really be called Now You Three Me?) — but where the earlier films seemed to want you to believe the on-screen magicians were pulling off their tricks, this one mostly settles for CGI and cinematic trickery, so that even card tricks fall slightly flat. Eisenberg’s prickly snark is still fun, but with the tricks getting less convincing and the scripts more exhausting, it might be time for this franchise to go up in a puff of smoke. — Bob Mondello 

The Running Man 

In theaters Friday 

This trailer includes instances of vulgar language. 

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One tricky thing about writing dystopian fiction with staying power is that the future eventually catches up with you. Stephen King’s 1982 novel The Running Man takes place in 2025. In his vision of, well, now, there is widespread poverty, rule by giant corporations, and exploitative entertainment that takes advantage of people who are suffering and tries to force ordinary people to despise each other. There is environmental destruction, mass surveillance, and even the resurgence of polio. Just imagine.

The story follows a man named Ben Richards, who tries to provide for his family and his sick kid by going on a game show also called The Running Man. On the show, he has to survive on the streets for 30 days while professional assassins pursue him. If he makes it, he wins a billion dollars. But, of course, nobody has ever survived. In the new adaptation, directed by Edgar Wright, Richards (played by Glen Powell) auditions for the game shows run by the megacorporation known as The Network because his daughter has the flu, and Richards and his wife can’t afford a doctor for her without a big prize.

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The biggest problem with this adaptation is that if you read the book, you probably know there are a couple of things about the ending that a major studio movie released in 2025 is unlikely to replicate. As an action movie that hits the gas, gets the running man running, and doesn’t let up, it works quite well, and it’s a lot of fun. But some of King’s sharper-elbowed commentary about what it might take to escape this kind of oppressive society is blunted a bit, making it a less effective critique of its world than the book was. — Linda Holmes 

Jay Kelly

In limited theaters Friday; on Netflix Dec. 5

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Hollywood star Jay Kelly — handsome, affable, debonaire, sixty-something … in short, George Clooney — reconsiders his life choices on a trip to Tuscany in Noah Baumbach’s bland mid-life crisis dramedy. Estranged from one daughter (Riley Keough), and distressed by the growing distance of another (Grace Edwards) who’s off on a trip to Europe before college, he’s feeling alone in a crowd of paid companions, including his faithful manager (Adam Sandler, excellent) and publicist (Laura Dern, whose talents are mostly wasted). After a public altercation with a college buddy, he opts to avoid the PR blowup and possibly find some catch-up time with his daughter by taking an impromptu trip to Italy for a career tribute he’d previously turned down.

Minor misadventures ensue — a train trip punctuated by a purse snatching incident, a reunion with his coarse dad (Stacy Keach), a fight with his increasingly put-upon manager. Not sure I was feeling anyone’s pain about the loneliness of stardom, the heartbreak of success, the … whatever the hell else this was about. Baumbach has wandered into the territory of and Stardust Memories and he gets a bit lost in the woods, but Clooney’s magnetism goes a decent way to making things palatable, the cinematography is pretty and Sandler dominates whenever he’s on screen. — Bob Mondello 

The Things You Kill

In limited theaters Friday 

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Iranian-Canadian director Alireza Khatami’s Turkish-language thriller follows Ali, a university professor, as his life unravels. His mother’s sick, his father’s a bully, his wife wants a child (he hasn’t told her his sperm count is low), and his only safe place is an arid farm (“garden”) to which he retreats whenever possible. The arrival of Reza, a stranger who is game to do the things Ali won’t (bribe bureaucrats to deepen his well, maybe even kill his father) complicates things, and also, in a sense, solves them. The filmmaker’s first name provides a not-insignificant clue as to what’s going on, as his filmmaking deconstructs the story and his protagonist in initially confusing, and then riveting ways. — Bob Mondello

Come See Me In the Good Light

Streaming on Apple TV starting Friday

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There’s no way to make this documentary sound like the upbeat, rousing and often downright hilarious romp it is, but here goes: At the urging of comedian Tig Notaro, poet and spoken-word star Andrea Gibson and life partner and fellow poet Megan Falley invited filmmaker Ryan White and his crew into their home in 2021. It was mid-pandemic, and the crew was allowed full access to the couple’s every thought and action as they dealt with turtledove love, mailbox madness, and – here’s the part where you say, “no, this does not sound like a good time” — Gibson’s Stage 4 ovarian cancer journey. At the Middleburg Film Festival screening I attended in October — three months after Gibson’s death — the director spoke beforehand, giving the audience “permission to laugh,” which it definitely did. It also sniffled a bit, but less than you might expect, because Gibson’s vibrant, assertively affirmative outlook doesn’t really brook tears, and the filmmaker’s warmth and humor, even in times of despair, gives the story a radiance that makes mundane moments feel precious, while allowing hopeful moments to raise goosebumps. — Bob Mondello 

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Jimmy Kimmel’s Band Leader Cleto Escobedo III Cause of Death Released

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Jimmy Kimmel’s Band Leader Cleto Escobedo III Cause of Death Released

‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’
Band Leader Cleto Escobedo III Cause of Death Revealed

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Glen Powell is ‘The Running Man’ in the latest Stephen King adaptation : Pop Culture Happy Hour

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Glen Powell is ‘The Running Man’ in the latest Stephen King adaptation : Pop Culture Happy Hour

Glen Powell in The Running Man.

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The Running Man is a new dystopian thriller starring Glen Powell as a man so desperate for money to care for his family that he volunteers to run for his life. As a contestant on a TV game show, he must survive for 30 days while being hunted by a group of highly skilled assassins and by his fellow citizens. Based on a Stephen King novel, director Edgar Wright brings in an all-star cast including Lee Pace, Colman Domingo, William H. Macy and Michael Cera.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

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