1. Audience Representation – An Analysis Into Fashion Magazines
Robyn Collinson
According to industrial research, in the UK, 2600 magazines are sold every
minute, that’s 3.7 million every day and 946,430 billion each year. One of the
most prominent genres of magazine is the Fashion magazine. I have conducted a
series of analysis’ into the Fashion genre, specifically looking at Harpers Bazaar
and Fabulous. I chose to focus my research on the same person, this person being
Kim Kardashian and how each magazine focuses and portrays her.
The first magazine I analysed is Harpers Bazaar, an American fashion and style
magazine, founded by Mary Louise Booth in 1867. It is published in 29 countries
in 16 different languages, including Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Korean.
The magazine focuses on and audience of middle and upper class women, with a
classy title. The word ‘Harpers’, in black, is in lower case form at the size of 18
with serifs and ‘Bazaar’ is all upper case and bold, at the size of 60 and is also in
black. This instantly grabs your attention as it is written in a fancy and stylish
way.
The second magazine is called Fabulous and it is the free weekly insert from the
British newspaper, The Sun on Sunday. It is the biggest-read Sunday supplement
in Britain, with an estimated 3 million women reading it every week, 1.3 million
women read Fabulous and no other women’s weekly. The title of Fabulous, is
very feminine, being pink and in italics. The pink could represent gentle
emotions, such as harmony, friendship and relaxation, which is what the
magazine might want the reader to feel whilst reading the magazine. Although,
commonly the title is pink, occasionally due to the cover picture, the title is
white. The white could symbolize peace, which again is what the producers may
want the readers to feel when reading Fabulous magazine.
The Harpers Bazaar magazine cover itself is a rather classic design with detail
but not a huge amount. The colour scheme of my chosen copy is black and white
on red, which could possibly represent the qualities of the audience the

2. magazine is trying to target. For example, the white could symbolise happiness
and creativity, the black symbolizing sophistication, formality, wealth and
elegance. The red could be used as a way to promote the magazine as it makes
the more neutral colours and images stand out a lot more, it has also been
proven that using red as an accent colour stimulates the person to make a quick
decision, usually towards the said product. Red is often used to evoke erotic
feelings, which may be a reason for why Kim Kardashian is in a red dress, with
red lips. Although, what she’s wearing isn’t revealing, the red is a sign for
passion, romance and love, drawing the audience in to buy the magazine.
The cover of Fabulous magazine is Kim Kardashian alongside her sister,
Kourtney Kardashian, again is black and white. The couple are stood in front of a
sunrise, making people possibly ponder that the sunrise is suggesting slight
competition between the sisters as it is familiar to the classic cowboy fights that
took place at sunrise. The black they are wearing could suggest many things,
such as authority, power, wealth, seduction and elegance.
Overall, from my research, I think the Fashion magazines I have discussed are a
good thing. They do not seem degrading to women as they put a positive image
on Kim Kardashian, who is often seen badly in the public eye. The items of
clothing the cover star is wearing on both covers aren’t revealing, but they don’t
suggest anything provocative, other than the colour.