Mish Mash

After months of deliberation, the magazine project for my MA was handed in today-my very first experience of producing and designing a magazine. Although it's only 24 pages long (considering that your average magazine is at least 100 pages), it was really a good way to ease us into the whole process of journalism and design. Coupled with the fact that everyone had complete creative freedom as to the topic of their magazine meant that I really enjoyed doing this project.

So here is the finished product, my magazine based around street style. Obviously, the layout is double page spreads but I have placed each page under the next so as to make everything as readable as possible. 

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together :)

Image taken from http://viacomit.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/7/HM-Terry-Richardson-01.jpg

Read the full interview here

Read the full article at the bottom of this post

It's difficult to read this spread since I've put the pages one on top of the other, but this is a flow chart I found on the internet-a humorous step-by-step guide of how to get snapped by The Sartorialist blog which I thought was fitting for a street style magazine. See a bigger version of it here

For a larger version of the article, click here

Here is what the caption below says:
What happens when your street style becomes more than just a means to self-expression, when it becomes a way of life reflecting your beliefs, heritage and values? In little villages dotted among the mountains of Bulgaria, descendants of native Bulgarians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans during the 17th and 18th centuries still uphold Muslim traditions, part of which involve a certain type of everyday wear.
We journeyed to the heart of one of these villages to show you street style as defined by traditions and generations

Read the full article at the bottom of this post

Image taken from http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/4795232850_bf4f81e2d9_m.jpg

Many thanks to:

Emma Lowe, for writing her humorous contribution
Natasha Sim, for being my ever-reliable model
Baran Muhsinoglu, for being a great photographer
Nickolay Nickolovski, for helping with all things production
Ivelina, from frichic.com, for helping out on Street Style Spotlight
Tonika, Ivelina and their whole family for letting me take their pictures on a particularly cold and snowy day


And here are the larger versions of two of the articles which haven't already been linked:

Street style spotlight: Sofia, Bulgaria

To celebrate the diversity of street culture, each month we’re bringing you an insight into the unique street style of a different capital city around the world. To kick us off, we’re heading to Eastern Europe to check out what fashionistas are wearing in Sofia, Bulgaria….

A native Bulgarian such as myself might be a little biased when commenting on street style in Sofia. Yet what I think is wonderful for a newcomer visiting the capital is the way in which typical Eastern European clothing stereotypes are somewhat questioned.

As one of the poorest countries in the European Union, it is easy to think of Bulgaria as simply brimming with exotic women who, as popular belief would have it, wear their skirts high and their self-esteem even higher. A quick stroll around Sofia, combined with the recent explosion in street style fashion blogging there, would quickly prove the newcomer wrong.

In a country where women are overwhelmed with media-manipulated images of ‘pop-folk’ starlets *, it is easy to mix up the ‘try-hard’ with the ‘too-much’. Young girls here are taught and brought up to look their best whatever the occasion. Although this might come across as slutty or overdone to a foreigner, there can be no doubt that walking the streets of Sofia you will seldom see a woman looking disheveled. It is unheard of here to go out in a hoodie and jeans, or, heaven forbid, a tracksuit. Whatever the occasion, even if it is to go for coffee with friends or out for a meal, women dress to look their best. Ivelina is the author behind the popular fashion blog frichic.com, which is heavily influenced by street style in Sofia. She has her own clear explanation behind the Bulgarian cultural trends making their mark on the look of young woman in the capital: ‘Music icons in the Bulgarian pop-folk industry influence street style here heavily and so the only thing that girls know to express through their clothes is their sexuality. This accounts for the very negative press surrounding Eastern European dress sense’. Nevertheless, looking through Ivelina’s blog and the looks she shows her readers, together with other Sofia street style blogs such as sofiastreetstyle.com, we can perhaps see a gradual move towards more fashion and style-conscious looks in the capital.

Western fashion takes some time to infiltrate into the street style here, but once a certain trend sets in, most girls often wear it by interpreting it to match their own personality and tastes. Young women do not have access to the variety of stores that we are used to in London, with Sofia mainly being popular with high street brands such as Mango and Zara and some Italian brands such as Motivi and Terranova. Thrift shopping is certainly more of a necessity here due to financial reasons, but this doesn’t stop everyone from achieving a unique and polished look. ‘Most young people still shop at thrift stores and ordinary shops that import clothes from Turkey, mainly because fashion is still a luxury in Bulgaria’, explains Ivelina.

The recently established street style blogs based around fashion in Sofia, and coinciding with the heightening awareness of events such as Sofia Fashion Week, really underline the capital’s increasing awareness of style. Blogs such as http://www.frichic.com/ and http://www.sofiastreetstyle.com/ show the enthusiasm of Sofia’s youth culture for pushing the boundaries of street style, suggesting this small capital really has an emerging fashion-conscious voice worth listening to.

*Extremely popular singers in Bulgaria, usually young females, who mix pop and traditional folk style rhythms in their songs and are sculpted through plastic surgery and styling to perfection. They usually wear skimpy and provocative clothing.

by Devora Neikova

The North South Divide

When your accent slips anywhere above no-man’s land, otherwise known as Birmingham, there are certain stigmas that are hard to shake off; the Northern liking for chips ‘n’ gravy, our own Lancashire hot pot and the assumption that everyone apparently says ‘garlic bread’ like Peter Kay. Our only beauty ambassador is the lovely Cheryl Cole, pet, and even she has learnt to use her Geordie side for public appeal and her inner Londoner for her fashion and wardrobe. With this stigma comes the opposition: the South. Amusingly, at the heart of the North-South divide there is always this notion that ‘nothing quite works out of London’, that we up North are slow moving or behind the times. It is often argued that a place can define the way a person looks as well as sounds. So could you spot a Londoner from a Northern lass or lad based on his or her attire?

I was once chatting to a boy who told me he couldn’t wait to get out of London when it came to tights-wearing Southern folk: ‘In August’, he said, ‘30 degrees and they still wear black tights! The further up the M6 you go’, he stated, ‘the shorter the skirts get…come rain or shine, plus or minus, bare flesh conquers all’. But is it so? Is there really that big a gap between each end of our very small island that is Britain? Is walking down the streets of Liverpool or Newcastle really any different, fashion-wise, to taking a stroll down Oxford Street? After all, we are all surrounded by the same high street shops, the same style magazines and all receive the same television fashion jargon daily. So why is it, in all honesty, that a gap still seems to appear?

Whenever I journey to the great capital that is London city, it never ceases to shock me: the price of beer, the cost of living and the need to spend all the time just to survive. You can’t pee without paying for it. Is styling in London a survival technique? Perhaps that is where we differ; a Yorkshireman is renowned for always being the tightest man in Britain, so do we save the pennies because spending isn’t a necessity, or is that just a poor excuse to lag behind when it comes to fashion?

You know you’re in Liverpool instantly when you walk up the high street, the whole place has a Mediterranean glow straight out of a Rimmel bottle or half an hour on a sun bed. It is a defining image of a city, meaning you know where you are instantly. But it’s dated, it’s a bit tacky, and, however iconic it is, dare I say it lacks the finish of ‘the London look.’

The social factor of a lot of fashion is reflective of the place. I can stand at the train station Oxenholme, in the North-West and spot the lads heading back down to London, all pointy brogues and skinny jeans. This is a look that is perhaps repeated throughout the country but in the countryside it reverberates as alien. This street style, even in the most cosmopolitan of countrysides, is where we really see the divide of the north and south. Rural Kent or Surrey is very different to Rural Cumbria or Lancashire.

Is it the fast pace and vibrant colour of the big smoke that allows fashion tips and styles to flourish at a faster rate? In London, what with the catwalks on your doorstep, you can pick up on the pros and woes of the latest trends from the top designers and say yay or nay before we in Manchester have even got them up on YouTube or Facebook.

I would argue, from a fashion-conscious (or ever so slightly Northern) mind that we aren’t loitering behind, we are just waiting for the fireworks to start. That boom in the sky that tells us what’s next. London gives fashion a test drive. The South can flitter in and out of trends in the time it takes to burn your toast. Yet we in the North soak up the information and our style remains constant. However, that does not make London more fashionable than the Northern quarters, just braver and faster in fashion. It may take longer to reach us but the keepers decided in the South get there in the end and we skip the ‘try-ons’ in the middle. Note: How can we possibly win a fashion war when the designers and creative brains of fashion migrate South to join in at the heart of the action?

Pushing individual style aside, we may be slightly behind but we are still fashionable. Nothing is vintage by the time it reaches us. Every place setting on our table of Northern cities are different and exciting. Always remember, Southern folk, the innovative thing that London doesn’t have is that nobody in the capital can rock Primark better than a Scouser.

by Emma Lowe (contributor)