My name is Isabelle, i'm a 18 year old student from Amsterdam. I study Media, Information & Communication- Editorial & Mediaproduction. Every month i am going to compare the Dutch and English ELLE on my blog to get a better insight in the differences and similarities between the two.
I love fashion and have a major obsession with magazines. I am pursuing my dream of becoming an editor at a fashion magazine. I know it is a long road and hard work and i am prepared to do all that.
My love for editing and creating started at a young age when i would make collages by cutting up old magazines and designing lay-outs for letters and non-excisting magazines.
By age 13 i had an subscription to TEEN magazine, SEVENTEEN magazine, Cosmogirl and ELLEgirl.
Sadly, ELLEgirl doesn't exist anymore. I loved the fashion and the articles in it, all revolving around fashion and being creative with all the DIY-pieces. ELLEgirl inspired my love for fashion.
That's when i discovered the ELLE and VOGUE.
ELLE is the world's largest fashion magazine, with 42 editors in over 60 countries. I have been subscribed to American ELLE for a few years now and it is my favorite edition out of the ELLE family. Roberta Meyers is the editor-in-chief of the US magazine.
Although fashion royalty swear by VOGUE, and i absolutely respect VOGUE and it's influence, i personally enjoy reading ELLE more. I know for many people ELLE means a paper organ filled with the latest fashion and runway news, but i spend most attention studying the lay-outs and calligraphy. (thats not to say i don't look at the fashion first!)
ELLE has a very clean-cut, clear and chique style. The outlining of articles and columns, the typography, the limited use of colours (white backround black text) and here and there a little use of red.
Now i know VOGUE's layout is very similar. Also tight, clean-cut, same use of colour and similar font, but to me the two magazines have two very different feelings. VOGUE to me (although i enjoy reading it) can sometimes be a bit harder on the eyes due to the huge amount of advertisements in the magazine. You have to keep your eyes open for the articles because they can be hidden in between pages of advertisements and continue halfway down the next page. I find ELLE's lay-out more inviting to read.
ELLE just matches with my personal style. If i were to be the art-director of a magazine it would look very similar to the pages of ELLE magazine.
I also find ELLE articles easier to read, due to the point of view the magazine has. The magazine is accessible and makes fashion fun, recognizing the difference between looking at a design for its artistic beauty and actually trying to wear the 2010 Alexander McQueen 10" (25 cm) lobster claw stillettos. The magazine also posts great new suggestions on undiscovered quality finds, whether its about fashion, art or literature.
ELLE makes fashion more fun.
Ofcourse i have to express my love and admiration for ELLE's wonderful relationship advice columnist E. Jean with her column 'Ask E. Jean.' Always funny, straight to the point and engaging, once arranging a job interview for a hopeless reader who had just been laid-of by the company she had been working for the past 5 years.
Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE is also a big inspiration to me. I love his column 'Style A to Zee.' He has great taste and is good at what he does.
Because of my love for American ELLE i started thinking about Dutch ELLE. I have ofcourse read and flipped through it lots of times but never found it so appealing as the American issue. The Dutch issue is ofcourse smaller that the American version, seeing as everything is bigger and better in the US. Dutch ELLE has a lot of the same elements you find in the American version, which is obvious, like a personal page filled with short biographies of a few of the staffmembers who helped work on that particular issue and columns. However, last week i was reading the Dutch ELLE and came across an article about high heels and what it is about high heels that is so alluring and make woman want to torture themselves by wearing them al day. I started reading and noticed i had already read this exact same article in the American ELLE. I find it lazy to copy an article out of another magazine and placing it in another. I see that happening alot. In GLAMOUR for example, i am subscribed to both Dutch and English GLAMOUR. I get the UK version before the Dutch issue and always find the same articles and photographs in the Dutch issue as in the English. Not always in the same month but often one or two months later, and it makes me wonder:
Why do we have to follow the Americans? Can't we make our own content? Instead of copying it from the english speaking siblings?
I understand that inside the GLAMOUR family it is allowed to copy content and look to eachother for inspiration. I also understand that articles published in English GLAMOUR are also interesting for the Dutch readers, but it has inspired me to write this blog.
Every month i am going to compare the Dutch and English ELLE to get a better insight in the differences and similarities between the two. It will all be published on my blog including photographs.
xox
