The Last Clacker Standing

The world will never again have another Andrea Saks. Devastation has fallen among many writing and journalism students who have dreamed of becoming "Clackers" themselves and working for Vogue, the fashion bible.  

While there is still hope to work for Vogue or any other of the 25 Conde Nast Magazine, there  is no hope of interning for them. Conde Nast closed their internship programs on October 24th for reasons they declined to elaborate on. 

Conde Nast Building*

One of the reasons they decided to close was because of two lawsuits filed against them from former interns of W magazine and The New Yorker for not abiding by New York State Labor and lack of appropriate compensation, one intern was compensated $12 a day for 12 hour days at the fashion magazine, according to a Forbes article. Conde Nast interns received school credit with little compensation. 

What many people forget is that while interns are receiving school credit, that school credit isn't free. A 6-credit internship can cost an intern $1,500. I've been more then lucky with two major internships, only one done for credit however part of my travel was compensated and the company worked really well with me to make sure I would be able to work part time as well, as did my previous internship without credit. 

However, for Conde Nast to allow interns to work 12 hours a day for $12 hours is not only heartless but it isn't doing the magazine any good. If this is how their interns are worked, how much do they rely on interns? I would put serious money on betting they rely heavily on interns. 

Not only are interns paying to work there and getting very little compenstaed ($12 a day won't cover a two way subway ride and a cup of coffee) and unable to work a part time job to help them pay for bills or basic necessities. There are several ways this situation can be alleviated. (1) Pay your interns, your making a more then enough to pay them $12 an hour. or (2) Pay for their credit for them and allow then to adjust hours so they can work part time and make some form of money for themselves.

The Devil Wears Prada*

This is a difficult decision to make on the interns end. Do they intern at a prestigious magazine and suffer financially or do they intern somewhere smaller where they are more likely to work with interns and their part time jobs, or do they not intern at all and hope that after graduation they will be successful at finding a job? 

Personally, based on past experience, I think interning is extremely important and valuable. I learned more about PR at my internships then I could have ever learned in the classroom. PR is hands on not textbook material. However, had I not been as lucky as i was with flexible agencies then I don't know how possible it would have been for me to have an internship especially since i pay all my own bills and I don't have the luxury, like many students my age, of having Mommy and Daddy pay for my summer at home as well paying for everything once i go back to school.  

This is a dilemma all students have to face and isn't just an issue with Conde Nast. My advice: Find an agency that is willing to work with you and part time hours, but make sure you work your tail off to make sure it was worth it for them to take you on and work with your schedule.

Intern Life*

*Images were taken from Google. Laziness took over. Sorry.

Advertising in magazines

Lately, i have had to look at multiple magazines often for research, class, pleasure and work. One thing that i notice the most is advertisements.  The national well-known magazines do them best, mainly, of course because they can afford to do them well. The advertisements blend perfectly into the content of the magazine as if it was meant to be there. Vogue, for example, blends them perfectly into the content that part of the enjoyment of reading the magazine is looking at the advertisements. However, many magazine that are new, regional and not very well-known magazines haven't mastered this yet.

Many of them use several different sizes and arrange them as if they are part of the story. This creates confusion when reading the magazine. Advertisements help carry the entire magazine, without them a magazine will fail. New magazines must master blending the advertisements to the content without confusing the reader.

There are several way to fix this issue. The first is to offer only full page advertisements like the way Do North magazine does. This will help alleviate over powering stories by inserting small advertisements throughout the issue. Another way to fix this problem is to have a "market place" chapter where all of the advertisements go. This may not be the most attractive option but as magazines grow they will have better options.

Dieting Dude

In Cosmopolitan's July 2013 issue, Cosmo brought to light the new Dieting Dude phenomenon, a new trend of male dieters who can be picker then their female counter parts. The article reveals that now, eating disorders are at a female/male ratio of 2:1, when years ago it was 9:1. The article dives relatively deep into the issue, bringing to light the different levels in which men diet and obsess about healthy eating.

I would have loved to see a more personal story of this issue, i think it would have brought the issue even further into the public eye as a real problem. Women aren't the only ones facing eating disorders, men are battling them as well.

An unofficial term, Orthorexia, describes a new eating disorder of obsessive healthy eating. On the surface it looks healthy and looks harmless, however, if observed closely enough it can be seen that food consumes the orthorexic. Experts believe this is a large segment of the dieting dude trend.

The article suggests the reason for this change in male behavior has to do with the changing gender roles in society. Women are becoming more independent and men aren't the power players they used to be causing insecurity which manifests into concern over ones appearance.

I think that this article is really important and will lead to a movement of bringing this trend to light and helping alleviate the orthorexia issue.

Vogue Needs a Warning Label Before You Open It

Im only half kidding when I say that Vogue needs a warning label before you open it. Each time I open up a new issue or wonder onto their website I always come out with a new obsession and I'm always devastated by my disgustingly expensive taste. My latest obsession is with mens fashion and more specially Rag & Bone, a fashion empire started by David Neville and Marcus Wainwright as a jeans company that now make clothing. 

As if the advertisements weren't effective enough to make me want to sell my soul for such spectacular clothes, the articles push me over the edge into a sea of obsession and evidently dramatics. Thank to the fabulous Vogue website I can search for Rag and Bone and get anything they have ever written about the company and the designers, supplying my current addiction. They had over 552 articles covering the brand. Naturally I just kissed my Friday night goodbye. 

I really loved an article written by Katherine Bernard which focused on a studio tour of the Rag & Bone workspace in the Meat Packing District in Manhattan. In true Vogue fashion, the article was accompanied by several photos, WooHoo! The article mainly discusses what the office looks like with some quotes from both designers. I would have loved the article to go a bit deeper but the photos helped a lot with that.

Another article that really stood out to me was "Why Rag & Bone could be the hardest working guys in Fashion", the article highlights all the hard work that Neville and Wainwright put into their collections. They have over 30 styles of jeans alone for girls. They focus on fit and fabric for their jeans.  The article also announces the official opening of their store in SoHo which started out as a a pop-up shop in 2009 on Fashion's Night Out and the pair decided to open up the shop for good.

Vogue does an excellent job of covering designers and making them not only incredible people but incredibly human.  I can't wait to see who and what will be my next Vogue-Inspired Obsession. 

Esquire's Women We Love: Amanda Seyfried

After just reading another Tom Chiarella article, about Amanda Seyfried, I'm actually a little disappointed. I'm not sure why. I think it's because I loved his article about Liam Neeson so much and I was expecting another great article. I think that if it were longer it would've been better.

The article itself was written well, I like the way he detailed the encounter with Seyfried but it didn't tell me a story. Neeson's article told the story of his accident, his late wife, it told his story. Seyfried's article didn't really do that. It explained where she was heading in her career a bit, how her role is the BFF, her roles as a teen in many movies and her journey to more adult roles but nothing deeper.

I think that if he had more time and interviews with her like he did with Neeson the article could have provided more depth to Seyfried.

The Hard Luck and Beautiful Life of Liam Neeson

Esquire really has some incredible stories so I decided to keep look at articles from Esquire. This time I didn't just stumble upon anything by accident, i very purposefully typed in my favorite actors name into the search bar. Liam Neeson. I was really excited by all of the article's that popped up. I clicked on the very first feature "The Hard Luck and Beautiful Life of  Liam Neeson".

Author Tom Chiarella did a great job with this article. He exposes one of his techniques right away, which I liked. While interviewing Neeson, Chiarella traded stories with him about his own pain which helped Neeson feel more comfortable and open up, he realized he was talking to a guy not just a reporter. This trust is important when writing a feature like this, you have to get your subject to feel comfortable and the best way to do that is to be human with them. I think alot of people have the misconception that journalists have to be objective, can't get attached or involved but that doesn't help create great stories. Human emotion helps create these great stories.



Liam Neeson photo credit: Nigel Perry, Esquire March Issue

This article really let you get to know Neeson as a person. His concern from his families safety in Northern Ireland from the IRA was something i really like that Chiarella included. You forget how rough it can be over there and it was a good way to quietly demonstrate that.

I think it's also ironic that his son is so protective of him, in Neeson's movie Taken he was the protective one but in real life, his son is just as protective.

My favorite part of the article was when Neeson was talking about his motorcycle accident. Chiarella let Neeson tell the whole story and you got more of a glimpse into Neeson and his persona. Personally, I loved that his Irish demeanor showed. It reminds me alot of my parents, the way he says things and the way he describes them, I can picture exactly how he'd say it.

When Neeson talks about Richardson's accident, what it was like in the hospital, the chaos, you can almost feel what he feels. I think it's funny no one recognized him and when someone finally did he was grateful, it mustve been really upsetting not being able to see his wife and frustrating that no one knew who he was, if they did he wouldn't have had an issue seeing her.

Chiarella did a great job with this article, the way it was organized, the details, the window into Neeson's life was all done really well. I now have two esquire writers that i plan on following.

Where the sidewalk ends

Another article by Chris Jones, covering Manly Night at the Playboy Mansion, really exemplifies his great writing ability. Although I'm not Hugh Hefner's biggest fan, I never knew much about him other then his role in Playboy Magazine, I was able to enjoy the article a lot.

It was really endearing to be get the opportunity to be a fly on the wall at Manly Night, it gave a great look into Hefner's life. From my previous understandings nights at the Hefner mansion were full of extravagant and outrageous parties. Manly Night, I thought, would have been the same, however, clearly I was wrong.

Jones does a great job portraying the events of Manly Night for the reader. It's truly just a few old  friends having Innocent fun watching movies. It's nothing how I pictured it. It appears that Manly Night is also extremely exclusive so I think its great that Jones was able to get an insiders look to the club.

Something that I also admire about Jones is his ability to take himself out of the story although he was in the middle of it, he makes it look like he was a fly on the wall rather then a guest, a technique I have to get more familiar with.

Mr. and Mrs. Chris Jones

After talking with Chris Jones in class I was eager to kept reading more of his work. He is a very honest and interesting person. I came across an article he had written about how he met his wife and I couldn't stop laughing.

That's what makes Chris Jones such a good writer I think. That you get a feel and understanding of who he is as a person through his writing.  There are thousands of great writers out there but very few are so good that the reader feels like they know the author as a person. His personality is demonstrated throughout his writing.

This article I liked a lot, it was written very well. He gave a lot of detail so you felt like you were there when he was in a beaver costume getting the crap beaten out of him. I also liked that you didn't really know exactly why he was writing the article until the end, it was featured under a mans guide to getting married. I thought he was just telling a funny story about him and his wife but at the end he tied it all together and his advice was well hidden. Don't look for it, it will come on its own. The advice wasn't shoved in your face which i think was a nice technique.

I would love to intern for him for a summer and learn how to become a great writer like him. He breaks some of the writing "rules" and does it incredibly well. I think he is definitely one of the greatest writers I've come across in the journalism field.

CEO Mike Jeffries and his business tactics

Today, I came across an article written on Elite Daily about Abercrombie, their CEO and his marketing tactics. I felt pretty lucky finding this article. It was very informative and very well written.

In high school and middle school many kids wore Abercrombie, it was symbolic of your status, however, in junior year of high school everyone pretty much stopped wearing them since middle school  kids were essentially wearing the same thing. Abercrombie was no longer "cool".

The CEO of Abercrombie wants the people wearing his brand to be the "cool" kids and to be very good looking. This is why the brand hires "good looking" people and don't carry any sizes above a 10 in pants and don't carry sizes above large for women. Once you hit age 15 it becomes hard for the typical American girl to fit into anything Abercrombie since that's when girls develop into women.

He doesn't want "fat people" advertising his brand. He claims that the companies that are in trouble today market to to many people. His targeting strategy is very focused only "skinny beautiful people" allowed.

I feel really bad for the Abercrombie PR team. They have a lot of clean up to do after this mess. If this is the attitude that Abercrombie has, they'll be out of business sooner the JC Penny.

Clearly Jeffries has some serious suppressed childhood desires to be cool and popular that were never fulfilled. I bet he still sits alone at the lunch table at work, CEO or not.

Allure and Amanda Seyfried

Amanda Seyfried graces the cover of the May edition of Allure Magazine. Online, they have a photo montage of her cover with a story. The pictures were great and I enjoyed the article but I feel like the writer could have done a much better job.

You only got to see a little bit of Amanda's essence. Ideally, the article would've been longer and more personal so the reader feels like that know her as not only an actress but also as a person. They mentioned getting lunch with her so i would have thought they would've had a lot more material to use.

Not only did I feel like they could have written more, but they organization of the article also appeared to be all over the place and bouncing around. From her outfit, to her make up, her latest work and a few quotes the organization could use improvement.

When I get the magazine in the mail I'm hoping that there will be a better article that goes more in depth then the online version.

http://www.allure.com/celebrity-trends/cover-shoot/2013/amanda-seyfried#slide=1

Lean In

In Cosmo's April 2013 Issue they had an entire mini-magazine dedicated to women and careers. The mini-mag also had an exclusive look at Sheryl Sandberg's new book Lean In, which helps and encourages women to reach their full potential at work.

The excerpt talks about statistics of women in careers, and discusses 3 tips for success in the work place. I loved this mini-mag. It was incredibly interesting to see what she had to say about women getting big positions, such as CEO, which men typical go after and get. She also discusses not "Leaving before you leave" which is about women not going after a promotion because she plans on trying to have a family. She says the time to leave work is when your home on maternity leave. She encourages women to continue striving in their careers until the last possible second, this will make the transition back into work, once you decide to go back, much easier. Women who "leave early" tend to find it hard to go back to work, feel inadequate and under appreciated.

Another interesting idea that came form the book was a "Lean In" group. Essentially it is a group of people, both men and women can be a part of it, who all encourage each other to go after a promotion, take on an extra project etc. This will help the group members achieve their greatest potential at work. I really liked the idea of people encouraging each other, especially women to go after big careers. Women are becoming a much bigger part of the work force then in the past, but they are still not becoming CEO's as much as men are and are still, typically, earning less. Women should go after a big career is that's what they want.

She also talked about "Making your partner, your partner" which means that your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend etc. should be just that, a partner, someone who helps you and pushes you to succeed. Marriages where the couple spilt child rearing and house work 50/50 are 50% less likely to get a divorce. Many men now stay home with the children more often then in the past and sometimes are home more with them. They are helping around the house more as well. This makes for happier couples, there isn't just one person working 9 hours at the office and then 5 hours of house work and child caring at home, which leads to more women continuing to prosper in their career paths.

Reading the excerpt made me want to buy the book so once I'm near a Barnes and Noble I'll be buying a copy. She has a lot of really interesting things to say and how to get where you want in your career.

Pope Fashion 101

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2013/03/pope-francis-jorge-mario-bergoglio-papal-fashion_slideshow_item7_8

Vanity Fair published an article about pope fashion highlights. I really liked this article, it was a lot of pictures which was nice and then a brief explanation of the fashion choice.  I had never thought of the pope as a fashion icon or fashionable at all but looking at the different trends and articles he wears it was really interesting. the red loafers which lead to them being the most popular accessory in 2007. I also loved the "santa hat". Vanity Fair put a fun spin to the story which made me want to keep reading.

Taking Care, Vogue March 2013

This month Vogue featured a story about a mother whose son is terminally ill with Tay-Sachs. I was unfamiliar with the disease, but the article made it easy to understand, it wasn't full of medical jargon which I really liked.

I used to read Vogue religiously when i was in high school but once I got to college I had to take a break from things I wanted to read and read things I HAD to. Luckily, this weekend I was able to buy a copy of this months Vogue and re-immerse myself in one of my favorite magazines.

The glossy advertisements and the pages filled with the latest fashion trends is what attracts me to the magazine but this month was different. As i flipped through the pages i came across a three page feature about a strong mother about to lose her son. It really made me love the magazine even more. This women wasn't a model or a fashion designer, just a women with a sick baby. Many other magazines focus on this as well, strong independent women and their story, however, i don't remember vogue taking this angle when i used to tread it all the time. It was really refreshing and inspiring.

The article itself was written in the mothers perspective, Emily Rapp, and was actually an excerpt from her book The Still Point of the Turing World. The way she describes her feelings and her actions made me feel them as well. They were incredibly descriptive and really highlighted her exact emotions. She describes cowering in a corner with him trying to protect him from the disease as if it were a predator, she tells about how she stumbled over a moment of happiness occasionally. Rapp is a great writer. I would love to read the full book and hopefully when I have time I can add it to my long list of books I want to read.

I think its great that vogue would cover a story like this in their magazine, it makes the magazine more relatable. Very few people can afford the clothes and designers the magazine feature, it's part of why I love the magazine, it's an escape from reality, a fantasy, covering  such a real and relatable story makes the magazine even better.

I was unable to find the article "Taking Care" online, it is in the March 2013 copy of Vogue.

Allure October 2012

Allure is one of my favorite magazines for several reasons. I love the layout, the content and I really love to read their articles. Their advertisements are another reason I love the magazine,  they advertise for high fashion companies such as Chanel and then smaller companies like Essie. It's a really great girly-girl magazine.

In the October 2012 Allure published an essay by Jennifer Weiner called "The F word." It was a three page spread about one women who was over weight who heard her daughter call a friend from camp "fat". I usually hate these kind of articles, as a girl the F word is one of the scariest words in the english language. The first page had a huge picture of girls being measure at a weightless camp in the catskills in 2001. The girls couldn't be more then 13 or 14. It made me really upset to think that even at such a young and impressionable age weight plays such a big part of a girls life.

I continued to read on, nearly brought to tears about the daughter Lucy using the F word and then the mothers childhood experience as an over weight child. "I was bigger then the other girls and that is what matters; that is all that matters." She's right, as a girl if you're thinner then another girl thats all that matters, the media has girls as young as 7 thinking that nothing but weight matters, whose smarter, kinder, better at kickball doesn't come close to how much weight means to girls. It's really sad and it's something that this generation needs to change for the next generation. It should be about being healthy, not thin. Weight shouldn't define a girl.

This article was truly incredible and inspiring. I'm really glad i read it and i think that more magazines and media outlets should publish stories like this one, it's a step in the right direction to combat and change societies beliefs about weight and beauty.

Girl, Uninterruptible by Jim Windolf from Vanity Fair

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/02/jennifer-lawrence-cover-story

I usually get bored with reading easily. I love to read but I get bored easily. With this article I didn't look away from it once. It was incredible. Windolf is a fantastic writer. He really captured Jennifer Lawrence perfectly. It felt like you were there with them in the interview. He portrays her in a good light, she's the girl next door or your best friend. Its very rare to find that quality in an actress.

I think the article was done so well because he spent the day with her. They went to a museum and to lunch. This allows the writer to get in touch with their subject on a personal level and get to know them really well compared to just sitting down and doing the interview.

I really loved how he opened up the article. It captures who she is and hows she's so different compared to other hollywood scarlets. I will be keeping an eye out for other articles written by Windolf, I think I can get really into his writing and learn from him as well.

Photographs by Ellen von Unwerth