Mags: Hey, Hey, It's Harper's BAZAAR!

Glossy Review

Hey Hey It’s Saturday isn’t the only PBL Media project that’s copped criticism this week: Harper’s BAZAAR Australia has been having a bit of a rough time of it over at The Fashion Spot. Apparently, Jennifer Hawkins isn’t a favourite, nor are crazily distracting cover fonts.

So I’m going to be the voice of dissent and admit I like it. Brushing aside the fact that it’s a convenient advertiser-pleaser (Myer and Tiffany & Co. covered in just one shot!), Harper’s has created a quintessentially Aussie image.

Some may argue it’s as 80s-anachronistic as the jokes at Hey Hey, but, nonetheless, it’s a welcome departure from the staid images of Hollywood celebrities we’ve come to accept (and endured on last month’s cover – for a reminder, see Edwina McCann’s editor’s letter, in which she has featured stills of Jennifer Aniston discussing said cover on The Ellen DeGeneres Show – way to go with generating international publicity!).

I can’t see too many Aussie girls donning a Balmain jacket for a day at the beach, but herein lies the beauty – not overly contrived or too up-itself fashiony, the bikini, wetsuit pants and the statement blazer (the most oft-referenced item at Australian Fashion Week) ensemble, along with the piling on of jewellery in an Elle Macpherson fashion and Hawkins’ toned abs, is part fantasy, part do-able reality. It’s a juxtaposition I love in fashion styling.

As for the SunSation font? I’m not so troubled by it. More worrying is the tabloidy ‘Exclusive: My heartbreak by Sarah Murdoch’ coverline. Ick. The ‘Finally! TOPSHOP is here’ coverline suggests that Harper’s is more interested in girls who shop on Saturdays (and lunch breaks, and Thursday nights) than ladies who lunch or setting the style agenda. Downmarket? Maybe. But if Harper’s wants to be the monthly complement to ACP’s weekly Grazia (no coincidence they’re both overseen by the same editor-in-chief), it may just be doing the trick. Provided you’re prepared to pay for 130 pages of advertising and advertorials when you depart with your $7.95.

The good bits:

- Now this is different: Jennifer Hawkins is usurped in the cover story by the Balmain jacket! Carrie Fisher is asked to don said jacket, “the visual equivalent of a gay elf sitting on your shoulder and singing the national anthem at a decibel level generally found at a Metallica concert”, and write home about it. The result is a self-deprecating trip into fashion’s no-man’s-land.

- Sarah Murdoch can do no wrong. She’s a supermodel saint. She writes about her show Sarah Murdoch Presents Pride of Australia, through which she’s befriended little Caleb who has had both his eyes removed because of cancer. She says, “Times are tough and people want uplifting stories, and in a country as tough as Australia, where people in the middle of nowhere have to do incredible things to survive, there’s something really unique about our heroes.”

- The little piece on Diane Pernet of ashadedviewonfashion and the two-page piece on photographer Sam Haskins, replete with some of his images.

- ‘Ten Obsessions’. Simple and effective, I like this two-page, mixed lolly bag assortment of fashion, people and pop culture picks. It’s sort of like Playlist (me = narcissist)! This month, Katrina Israel surveys cool fashion people for their current obsessions.

- Though I enjoy reading profiles of fashiony people, like Sarah Ingham, they often leave me feeling less-than… She has a cliff-top home, a walk-through wardrobe, three kids and a baby on the way (not in order of importance, of course!). Can’t begrudge a gal her good fortune. More fairytale life escapism = Silvia Venturini Fendi in ‘BAZAAR Living’.

- Sarah Bailey’s profile of Elsa Peretti, “Halston’s premier gal pal, darling of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, mentored like a little sister by Harper’s BAZAAR fashion editor Diana Vreeland… designer at Tiffany & Co.”. I do like biographical pieces.

- Susie Berge writing about the Ballet Russes and Mandy Chang’s ABC documentary on the troupe, A Thousand Encores: the Ballet Russes in Australia.

- Charlotte Gainsbourgh is always a welcome addition to a fash mag, though perhaps a little over-celebrated. She has a new film coming out in November (any excuse!).

- Perez Hilton recently quipped that when he’s in doubt he thinks, “What would Madonna do?”. This issue Eugenie Kelly asks the same thing in “Get me a Guru”. Of course, the idea that “celebrities are the new gods” rails against my personal beliefs, but I can understand why they might be beacons of hope for some.

- Kelly also flies to Marajo, a Brazilian island “about one-trillion frequent flyer points away from magazine land” to discuss ethical product ingredients with Kielh’s scientists.

The not-so-good bits:

- Josh Goot in a straight jacket (aka Messini Disimor suit). I get that ‘BAZAAR Portrait’ is about experimental photography celebrating our best designers, but in terms of reader value, I’m not so sure.

- More on Michelle Obama’s fashion icon status and fondness for J. Crew and Jason Wu? I feel I’ve read it all before. However, we helpfully learn that “she’s broad-hipped and carries her weight in her thighs. But for Michelle Obama, even not looking good is a deliberate decision.”

- Clearly, November is jewellery month in glossy land. Like this month’s Vogue Australia, Harper’s has also run a shiny, happy jewellery special (15 whole pages, plus ads throughout!) to draw in those equally shiny advertising dollars. Ka-ching! Boring!

- Harper’s devotes four fawning pages to ‘Topshop-ping’ on the eve of the label’s debut in Aussie store Incu, which is great news for Sydneysiders and visitors; not so much for other Aussie girls who’ll continue to just buy online. Does online negate the need for physical Topshop stores here, I wonder? Cute styling.

- Former Girlfriend model search winner Sarah Stephens in the nude wearing Terry Biviano heels gives me a touch of motherly concern (why are all these girls – Abbey Lee, Catherine McNeil, Sarah... getting their gear off all of a sudden?). The nude part steals away from the shoes part. Distracting.

- Those sneaky ‘BAZAAR List’ pages masquerading as editorial.

Pretty pages:

- Several single-page fashion trend “stories” (being headline + sell line + fashion credits) pepper the book, adding a dash of still-life flash and lightening the pace.

- Beauty opens with an amazing shot of Pania Rose in a black bikini and follows with three genetically gifted swimsuit models (Cheyenne Tozzi, Lara Bingle, Jessica Hart) exposing their taut midriffs and beauty/diet/exercise/fashion secrets.

- ‘Smash Hits’ is a little Lady GaGa meets quirky Annie Hall. I like smiley models.

- ‘Born in the USA’, styled by Claudia Navone, is all Ralph Lauren paired with Paspaley pearls. Happy, happy advertisers. Love the styling but is it so hard to pair Ralph Lauren with Ralph Lauren?

- ‘Cool’, styled by Christine Centenera, is, um, cool. Features a boat-bound model in Aussie labels Bassike, Zimmermann, Therese Rawsthorne, Jets, Ellery and Kirrily Johnston worked back with bits from Chanel and Alexander Wang.

- The in-house ad for Grazia magazine is very cute!

Blosses: Edwina McCann; ACP Magazines/PBL Media

Glossy ads: Chanel, Estee Lauder, Prada Eyewear, Louis Vuitton, Dior lipstick, Alberta Firetti perfume, Giorgio Armani foundation, Rolex, Paspaley

Glossy stats: November 2009; 244 pages; $7.95

Glossy rating: 3 – with more than half the book devoted to advertising and advertorial, you’re not getting a lot of bang for your buck, so it’ll be the styling and curiosity factor you’ll be sacrificing your $7.95 for.

Yours truly,

Girl With a Satchel