Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Freebie: Anti-Fashion Zine

I've been having a bit of a clearout this week and last night I found a whole folder full of clippings from women's magazines and beauty columns and was totally at a loss as to why I'd kept them... until at the back of the folder I found some half-finished anti-fashion zines.

Before I had a blog, I used to write lots of zines (including one called Bugs and Fishes which I published at irregular intervals for about 6 years, hence the name of this blog!). I wrote about all sorts of weird stuff, stuck it down on a bit of paper with pritt stick, photocopied it and handed it out to friends, and later sold a few copies through my fledgling Etsy shop.

As I don't sell my zines anymore, I thought it might be nice to share one here instead: issue #3 of my anti-fashion zine This Season's Must Have (yes I know sharing issue #1 would make more sense, but I can't find the files on my computer and my scanner needs replacing, so shh).

I love clothes, but fashion (and fashion journalism) drives me crazy! This Season was inspired by endless articles about the new "must have" jeans and how not wearing them would be social death. It's packed with clippings that made me either fall on the floor laughing or grind my teeth in a vaguely feminist, and distinctly anti-fashion rage. Hope you enjoy it :)
Creative Commons Licence
This Season's Must Have by Laura Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Click on the images to view full size and print (each page prints to A4 size)

6 comments:

Mimi said...

I still have a few of your zines somewhere which I bought through Etsy years ago - I remember coming across them in a draw a few weeks ago and having a flick through them.

I have a real issue with the fashion media. I think it stems from my personal dislike of designer fashion labels and my absolute #1 pet hate of seeing babies and young children dressed up in designer fashion labels.

the pre-blog world, eh?

Rebekah said...

Utterly brilliant. This is exactly how I read fashion magazines -- with an eye for the ridiculous. On a recent visit to the aesthetician for laser hair removal I was flipping through the latest issue of Elle, or some other such thing, and came across a full page spread on the current popularity of MUSTACHES for women, which included a photo of two cheeky models with pasted-on mustaches sitting at an outdoor cafe. Oh, the irony!

Things Hand Made said...

I am a bit of a lurker! Not sure I have commented here before but just had to say how much I love the idea of an anti fasfion zine... just love it.

Anonymous said...

I loved it! This is exactly why I never read fashion magazines. But I read every word in your anti-fashion zine. And I loved it!

I also love the whole idea of a 'zine' so creative!

Emma Cowley said...

Oh gaaaaawd, the number of times I have railed against hateful fashion journalism - though I'll expand that to include a lot of the popular rot aimed at women. I still have yet to find a mag that speaks to me as a woman but doesn't assume I'm a moron/shoe addict.

The patronising, egocentric tone of girl's mags like Mizz and Sugar used to make me foam at the mouth as a teenager. Doesn't seem to get any better from there unfortunately! Who reads this crap?

Bugs and Fishes said...

Thanks guys! x

Emma - it's all a mystery to me!