Lula love

My feverish love affair with fashion magazines started when I was extremely young. I would sometimes steal copies of French Vogue, Jardin des Modes, Elle and l’Officiel from my mother’s office, even relishing this bad behaviour just as long as I could turn my attention to supermodels, extravagant fashion shoots, trends and the spectacle of glossy fantasy and dreams. My interest is roughly at the same level now but there is one crucial difference: I have firmly expounded my convictions and am no longer a slave to a myriad of fashion magazines. I have read plenty of publications and I have a lot of experience. I have spent much of the past 20 years talking, thinking and practicing fashion. The need to distil my list of titles emerged when I realised that my weakness fundamentally consisted of huge quantities of modern crap featuring articles like “How to look like Kate Moss”, “The return of the eyeliner” or “Update your style”! These are intended to serve the majority of the population and entertain girls or women on their way to work and during their lunch breaks. They’re certainly not supposed to be subjected to intensive investigations and interpretations. No need to be clear eyed or even attentive. They’re the straight in the recycling bin kind. They have no legacy, don’t achieve very much and all share a common thread – the conjoined obsession with celebrities and dramatic or grotesque buzzwords. Today, I still want my share of fashion gossipy pleasures and confessions but I tend to get it on the Internet (essentially Twitter). When it comes to fashion magazines I’ve moved towards more extensively researched publications, created with freshness of detail and perception, evoking a sense of expectation and wonder through a vivid and descriptive mood and atmosphere. Encens, Self Service, Fantastic Man, the newly revitalized Pop, Jalouse and Lula are all gracing my bookshelves. Lula is the most inimitable of the lot and I still can’t help thinking that each issue is a stylistic treasure. It has an ineradicable distinctiveness and its sultry, mysterious, magical and romantic voice is iconic. Since its first issue, Lula has been evolving in its very own dimension under the careful supervision of Leith Clark. All 9 published issues have enjoyed the contribution of the most fascinating photographers, stylists, models, illustrators, writers and clothes. Reading this magazine is a strong and emotional experience, absorbing and sometimes even poetic. A unique genre.

All photos courtesy of Lula