Mag Love

As mused upon here, I love fashion magazines. I am, quite frankly, an addict. I adore the photography, the glamour, the bright acid colours winking at me from those glossy thick pages. The other day I was meandering down Ponsonby Rd after an appointment and was lured by the siren call of one of my favourite stores, Mag Nation. I stood transfixed by the glossies for at least 10 minutes until I finally made the reckless decision to forgo waiting for the cheaper sea freight issue and buy the brand spankers LOVE magazine. I didn't go for the Kate & Lea T cover which I blogged about here previously - I really loved the Kate cover above shot by Mert and Marcus, so I snaffled it up. Whilst there I had to restrain myself from buying one of more of the following latest issues whose covers seduced me.

Cover me

Oooh, my new obsession is a site I found on my sister's Blog, banana meet-cute. I've long been obsessed with mags. My Mum used to get British Vogue & ELLE when I was a kid and I ate them up. I knew what days they were delivered to the local shop and I still get excited when I pick up a latest issue, all shiny and smelling all papery. Then as a teen I got a subscription to Cleo mag for my birthday, which was fantastic. And I loved Dolly. But pretty soon it was back to Vogue & ELLE.
So as that I can pay my rent, I had to cull a lot of the mags so now the only regular ones I get are British Vogue & ELLE, Grazia, NW, Who, LOVE magazine and NO magazine, plus the sadly defunct Pavement. Although I recently wanted to buy a NO mag sub for a friend so emailed the editor of NO - who'd I'd met in passing years ago, and passed on my praise of this fab local mag - to a big NO reply! Very disappointing. Anyway....I digress. I keep my eye out for any spesh issues of W, V, Another Magazine, Nylon, Interview, ID, Details, GQ, Frankie, Russh, Remix and other country's Vogue & ELLEs - mainly Australian Vogue.
Sooo many covers are still etched into my brain and through these glossy little portals, I discovered a world of glossy, glitter-laden glamour. Dolly introduced me to Wheels and Dollbaby at age 13, and I'm still a fan and visit their store every time I visit Sydney. Shots by luminaries such as Mario Testino, David LaChapelle, Stephen MiseselEllen Von Unwerth, Steven Meisel, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott and Sante D'Orazio adorned my walls and goddesses such as Helena Christensen, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Nadja Auermann, Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford bore down on me. For almost the last 18 years, I've kept a file of crumpled favorite pictures ripped from fashion mags that have adorned my bedrooms in Auckland, London, Sydney, then back again. I still have them. I still get excited when pick up a new fashion mag, it's an obsession. An addiction. It's intoxicating! I could go on and on about my love of the mags, but shall cut myself off now here and share with you but a few of my fave past & present mag covers!
For your mag fix, check out Mag Nation!

Britpop Cool

Reading the latest RUSSH magazine at Christmas time, I stumbled across this article which totally took me back to be obsession with Justine Frischmann, how much I LOVE her style, and all things Britpop - especially those cool Britpop band-girls.



I was living in London at the tail end of the Britpop explosion in 1997 - 1999, and loved every minute of it. (I was Team Blur). My cohorts & I submerged ourselves in the Indie scene (- and a lot of Stella). We hung out in Camden, hoping to spot Alex James or Jarvis Cocker, met the young unknown boys from Travis at the Dog Star in Brixton & subsequently saw them at some University gig (Fran Healy has the most beautiful voice), saw Blur at the Brixton Academy (where Damon performed with a broken ankle), Muffin Spencer from Brassy at Barfly & Idlewild at a Uni gig, saw the Manic Street Preachers at Wembley Arena and - on a very unfortunate night in - subsequently missed meeting Graham Coxon, when my flatmates bumped into him out on the town.





The Blur gig @ the iconic Brixton Academy (December 11, 1997) was one of my faves. Damon was on form (despite said broke ankle) and Alex was the epitome of a sexy, swaggering rock God, fag in mouth throughout the duration of the show. Check out their new doco, No Distance left to Run.



I loooooved was Elastica! I them back in the day, and thought that Justine Frischmann was the coolest chick ever. She showed how sexy you could be in just jeans, docs and a hoodie. As much as I love getting blinged up with make-up and 6 inch heels, I also love and live in jeans and Tees. With her tomboyish mod-style look, floppy black fringe, black leathers and slightly plumby accent, Justine was the epitome of Brit Indie cool. Her look aped her boyfriends Brett Anderson and Damon Albarn - cropped asymmetrical haircuts with the long fringe in face, stovepipe jeans, skinny tees, leather jackets - edgy, pale, British, cool. Very Hedi Slimane...





OK maybe not ALL of her boyfriends - "I did briefly see Guy Ritchie at college (he was a useless little sod - a layabout - I didn't feel he'd ever be anything)" The Independent, 14 June 2000





Justine helped found another fave band, Suede, with her then boyfriend Brett Anderson. Justine left Suede when their relationship crumbled - and she took up with indie darling Damon from Blur. The split with Damon was the inspiration for the beautiful Blur album 13, written about their breakup. 'Tender', still being one of my favourite love songs - listen to it here.



A rare, non-tomboyish shot:





Justine pics from Last FM



I must say, 'Animal Nitrate' but Suede is still one of my favorite songs from that era. How cool was Brett, sauntering about in those skinny pants and tight black shirts. Russell Brand must have been taking notes. Funny how you get lyrics mixed up, I always thought he was singing "Only twenty ooooone, oooone". Is actually "Oh it turns you oooon, oooooon".



But nothing beat Elastica's guttural, pulsating hit, 'Connection' - a riff ripped off from the Wire's 'Three Girl Rumba" - but awesome none the less!







Love this pic of Donna from Elastica too. Rock star cool.





I read Pearl Lowe's fab book 'All That Glitters', a fascinating peek into her Britpoppin' world of bands, musos, models, gigs, drigs, partying & generally running amok in London in the early 90's, with a few famous names thrown in to boot. She was in a band called Powder, looking very cute here, like a little Goth China Girl.







Pearl married Danny Goffey from Supergrass (natch), beat her drug habit and now has a successful fashion range of gorgeous Victorian-style lace dresses, lace curtains and soft furnishings. Check out her beautiful website here.



Pearl & Danny's lush country manors are frequently showcased in the likes of Hello! magazine. They are happily ensconced in country-manor life, and pregnant with number FIVE! An addition to Daisy 21, Alfie, 13, Frankie, 10 and four-year-old Betty. I love how Pearl has gone from absolute crazy party girl hanging out with musos on the path to oblivion, to stylish Mum living in the country, with a successful career and marriage. see - you CAN have it all! What a life.



"Her office, in one of the three ground-floor receptions, is impeccably neat. Elsewhere, however, things are more rock’n’roll. In a ground-floor bathroom there are snapshots of Kate Moss, lolling over her then boyfriend Jefferson Hack, a youthful Rhys Ifans, the snake-hipped Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie and Supergrass on stage at Glastonbury"

From Pearl Lowe: From wild child to earth mother, The Sunday Times, October 11, 2009



"Despite the move to the country, and Lowe cleaning up, they haven't quite dropped the hi-octane lifestyle: during one of Lowe's clean periods in 2002, Carl Barat and Pete Doherty came to stay with them when they were still living in north London. Surely not the ideal post-rehab guests? "Aww, it was fun looking after them," she says maternally."

The Guardian, July 9, 2007



I adore Pearl's house - 'Biba modern' style. These pics are from New Woman magazine:







Pearl's stunning daughter Daisy (to Gavin Rossdale from Bush - now known as Mr Gwen Stefani) is doing remarkably well with modeling, due to sultry, doe-eyed good looks and curvaceous figure.







Pearl Lowe pics from thh Daily Mail & Hullo UK



Daisy pics from W Magazine March 2001

Agent Provocateur RTW 2008

Steven Klein for Vogue Italia 2007

Wheels and Dollbaby campaign , 2008