I’m wondering what really put me over the edge today. Maybe it was my inability to find CR Fashion Book #27, preferably the Jennie cover, cause duh. This comes after unsuccessfully trying to track down Issue #26, the Addison Rae cover, which now sells on ebay for an upwards of $200. Maybe this stems from CR’s website which lists several retailers around the great city of Los Angeles. Skylight Books, Book Soup, Kosher News, MOCA and Hauser + Wirth (the museums, both of which no longer carry magazines) are all places I’ve visited asking for this specific object. Each and every customer service representative says back to me, ‘We haven’t carried it in years actually.’ It’s always in a tone that makes me want to question if, all of a sudden, book retailers are the hottest new commercial property occupier in America. I could care less about the lack of eye contact or basic pleasantries *cough* Skylight Annex *cough*. No one seems to want my money.
Maybe it was the fact that all four of CR Fashion book’s contact emails (fashion@, advertising@, editorial@ or press@crfashionbook.com) all come back as inactive email addresses. I will follow up with an instagram message but I would probably have better luck with a courier pigeon. Maybe what set me off on this beautifully functioning 74 degree day was that I know for a fact that there’s a copy sitting at Avril 50 in West Philadelphia, where I moved from last year. I would figure that a very niche thing such as a specific New York based fashion magazine would be more easily accessible here than in such a small market town. Maybe what set me off on this illustrious, 18% humidity Sunday was that, if I decided to give up the search and instead buy it online, it would cost more than 2x the cover price. The $40 magazine only ships from the UK. A perfect place to ship a bi-annual print magazine headquartered in New York City!!!!!!! A quick surf over to the store page has the price translate to $53 after conversion and then jumps another £31 to a total of £71.75 or $96.34. Oh, and the Jennie cover is already sold out.
My hunt for a fashion magazine shouldn’t feel like archaeology. But maybe that’s the state of 'private label' print media now. Let’s talk about print media for a moment. Newspapers. When’s the last time you picked up one to find something out? In the last twenty years over 3,200 unique newspapers have closed doors. That’s 1/3rd of all newspapers in the same time period. Daily circulations including weekends are down to 20.9 million, a 10% decrease from 2021. This is down overall from the peak of 62 million in 1990.
Now let’s talk magazines. According to one data provider, since 2019, overall magazine subscriptions are down 56%. In the same time frame overall sales of magazines are down 76%. Advertising revenues are following similar trends as brands are looking else where to promote. Vogue recently announced dropping monthly issues down to 8 per year. Phrases like “thematic editions” and “premium issues” are being thrown around while anyone who’s ever had a stint in comic books sees “variant covers” starting to dominate the stands. The shelves at these bookstores aren’t empty. In fact, it’s hard not to jump to a new publication that’s not manufacturing exclusively. Just in the last few months I’ve bought ‘Heroine’ and ‘Snuff’ both for Sophie Thatcher and “AnOther” and “Harper’s Bazaar” for Lisa and Dua Lipa respectively.
If you’ve made it this far, for some fucking reason, I’ll answer the question ‘Why CR?’. CR, or Carine Roitfeld, was started in 2012 and has since put out 27 issues. Carine Roitfeld was the editor in chief of Vogue Paris from 2001 - 2011, starting her own book the next year. Roitfeld has been a cultural force in print media, styling most of the Vogue shoots during her tenure herself. She’s been known to cause controversies such as the pregnancy ‘no smoking’ campaign and a little bit of black face. In the years before Vogue she styled for Tom Ford’s Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, was global fashion director at Harper’s Bazaar, and debuted in fashion editorials for Elle France.
Since 2012, CR Fashion book, calling themselves ‘fashion’s bible’, prints twice a year, boasting 350+ pages mostly focusing on fashion shoots and art direction. Cover stars have included the Kardashians, Sydney Sweeney, Kate Upton, Rhianna, and more. Posts on reddit dating back two years ago have comments from users saying they’ve looked for this magazine and have ‘never seen it in person.’ Reports from 2012 have stated that 50,000 copies were printed for Issue #1 followed by a second printing of 15,000. Seems the 76% sales downturn industry wide only apply to some.
You can read the latest interview with Jennie, although arguably much less fun, right here, all while I start compiling phone numbers for the rest of the newsstands in LA County.
