There are two types of change: the changes you make, and the uncontrollable changes that happen which you must learn to live with. The first five days of January have already brought catastrophic change to my life. While this reconfiguring has been against my will to say the least, it is always good to make some of your own changes in January to start the New Year off with a reinvigorated routine and a fresh outlook.
One of the changes I’ll be making to Melancholic Magpie is replacing the weekly installment of “From the Editor’s Desk.” The first Monday of every month expect a “Letter from the Editor,” followed each week by the “Beauty List,” “Fashion List,” and “Lifestyle List.” In the rest of the month, expect interviews with Mary Helen Bowers, founder of Ballet Beautiful, and Michael Eudy, contemporary artist, as well as features on how to hang a gallery wall and how to successfully shop for vintage clothing. While these interviews and features might inspire you to make some changes later in the month, for now, consider making some beauty resolutions!
In this first Letter from the Editor, let me at long last explain to you the Melancholic Magpie Manifesto…
The story begins in 2009 when I took my first internship at D Magazine as the Style Intern. Even as an 18-year-old I wanted to be in the magazine editorial realm and was desperate for a Devil Wears Prada experience. Fast forward to 2013 – I finally got that experience, and then some, at Harper’s Bazaar. Tasks included wrapping a Christmas present for Tom Ford and, my favorite, pouring a few Red Bulls over ice, sticking straws in them (with 1/5th of the wrapper still on), and delivering them to the editors’ daily meeting. Sure, some of these stupid intern tasks were to be expected, but at the end of the day I realized that this world that I had dreamed of for so long unfortunately promoted all of the things I utterly despise.
From the outside, the editors were everything I hoped they’d be: totally glamorous with high standards, authoritative voices, and an amazing knack for uncovering insider knowledge. Turns out that magazine editors rival seasoned academics in the research realm. Yet while this quality was particularly impressive to me, and useful to learn, it was disappointing what they were researching and what they ultimately chose to feature in the publication.
Many of the big fashion magazine titles, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, have faced declining numbers in the digital age. But I think the reason for their imminent extinction goes beyond the hardcopy vs. digital dilemma, and is instead because of the underlying exploitative nature of the content. While the alignment with powerhouse designers, massive beauty corporations, and influential photographers is a magazine’s marker of status in the publishing world, it seems these inflexible alliances will ultimately lead to the demise of the classic fashion magazine. After all, I know I’m not the only one who is uncomfortable being told to wear real fur, buy animal-tested makeup, and look at photographs of vamped up teenagers taken by predator Terry Richardson. Not only have these three themes in particular become tired and un-cool, but they also feel morally wrong to engage with.
Thus Melancholic Magpie was born at the intersection of the old and new approaches to fashion, beauty, and lifestyle writing. Melancholic Magpie seeks to maintain the high standards of research and writing that lie at the heart of all the aforementioned publications that inspire me (despite their shortcomings). Yet at the same time, I hope to refresh and modernize the escapist content of the classic women’s magazine through this blog – making the entries smarter, more observant, and better curated, with some components that are attainable, and others that are aspirational. After all, a girl’s got to have a pair of ridiculous shoes to lust after.
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