RESEARCHING ZINES (POLYESTER & MUSHPIT)

To get me started in the direction of creating a fashion-based final product, I researched zines: A 'mini magazine' that offers something different to the reader. They're usually A5 in size and around 50 pages long. I researched Polyester and Mushpit. Polyester was the one that stood out the most to me so I purchased a copy to look at the entire thing for analysis, I took scans of my favourite pages in terms of layout and photography to help me with my production of my zine. 

I liked Polyester the most because it's a zine for girls with predominantly feminist and liberal views, and offers this type of reader an alternative to fashion magazines that might promote gender roles and unhealthy, unrealistic body image. Polyester uses models of all shapes and sizes and mainly has bright, colourful and girly photo-shoots accompanied by girly and sometime 'kitschy' pixel images. I really liked the aesthetics in Polyester and the flow of the editorials. I love how the editorials and photo-shoots are all different yet keep the same running aesthetics, which gives the zine an overall brand and recognizable look that their readers will identify with. This aspect of giving the zine a collective aesthetics that keeps the theme running throughout is definitely something I will want to use in my zine in terms of colours. 

I also researched Mushpit, but didn't purchase a physical copy as I did with Polyester. Mushpit has a somewhat similar aesthetic and agenda to Polyester, but the in-your-face feminine colours and themes is a little more toned down. Mushpit is also a zine for a mainly female target audience who want something with more substance when it comes to fashion.  The layout of Mushpit is similar to Polyester, and I really like the use of editing and graphics within the editorial's shoots. I like the bordering of the scans from Mushpit I found online below, and the choices of colour are carefully thought out so that the whole thing ties up well and flows. 

Researching these zines suggested to me by my tutor John has definitely helped me to envision what I will create, and has given me a good head start in planning my shoots and how I will lay them out when constructing my zine. I also like the thought of offering something different to just fashion imagery. I will offer my audience a narrative to follow from two models or characters, and I need to make sure that my layout tells the story in the right way to get my message clear, consistent and beautiful.