Of Fonts and Fashion

In the editing class I teach, we focus on newspapers, so it’s always a treat when I can bring in a fashion magazine. Last week we were analyzing fonts, and how fonts are carefully chosen to appeal to a certain audience; indeed, to resemble that audience in each letter.

One of the magazines I selected was Harper’s Bazaar, which has undergone two significant redesigns in the not-so-distant past.

We considered Bazaar’s Alexey Brodovitch–designed nameplate, as presented on a Liz Tilberis–edited cover. We discussed the serif on the letters, the weight of the letters, their height, and agreed that this Bazaar was designed for an elegant, slender lady.

And Tilberis did a fantastic job, from her first cover with Linda Evangelista, through her December cover with Kate Moss and a snow globe, if I remember correctly, and beyond, applying her keen editorial eye to fashion and written stories.

But then, when Kate Betts took over after Tilberis’s untimely death, I was in thrall, from the change in font on the nameplate to the relocation of the folio—page numbers now appeared on the sides of the pages, which I thought were much easier to find.

The somewhat futuristic font that Betts’s designer employed announced a new Bazaar (and indeed, the word Harper’s was greatly reduced to running inside the “B”), one that was more youthful and energetic. Betts filled her pages with bold photography and thoughtful articles that I really wanted to read—not puff pieces.

Of course, not everyone shared my opinion, and Betts’s tenure at Bazaar was disappointingly short.

Now the original font is back, and has been for many a year. One of the early pieces in the new old Bazaar had Joan Collins reminiscing vacuously about fashion; I couldn’t take it. I cancelled my subscription, deeming Bazaar worthy of a peek only at the doctor’s office or for browsing in a bookstore.

I miss the substance, the sense of daring that both Tilberis and Betts brought, each in her own way. I like to read magazines that are in dialogue with each other, and right now, aside from grudgingly buying Vogue each month (I am so tired of actresses being heralded as design inspirations), I read British publications: Vogue, Harper’s UK, Selvedge.

I think it’s time that U.S. Vogue had a formidable competitor again. What do you think?