One of my favourite Canadian magazines has returned yet again with their issue 10. As always, it's full of insightful articles on fashion and culture while avoiding the usual pitfall of trendiness. A really unique magazine. I sent over a few questions to their editor-in-chief, Serah-Marie, to find out what goes on behind the scenes.
When asked about how she got interested in fashion Serah-Marie states "I don’t know if I can pin point a moment, but I remember playing with Barbies that belonged to my grandmother’s friends’ children. They were all from the 60s and 70s, many home sewn. The styles seemed so much more beautiful than the current cheap looking clothes that lined the toy store shelves at the time. I’m also fairly certain that Jem and the Holograms, Katy Keene, and Miss America Pagants had a good hand in the whole thing as well." Definitely not the typical integration but creative as always. Worn Journal came together while Serah-Marie was finishing up her degree at Concordia University in Montreal. She credits three books for sparking the idea for her to 'do it yourself' "I had recently read three books that I directly credit for WORN: Mike, Spike, Slackers and Dykes by John Pierson; Thirty Watts From Nowhere: A Journey into Pirate Radio by Sue Carpenter; and Thrift Score by Al Hoff. All three of these books where about people who had no experience in their fields but charged ahead regardless. Big inspirations!"
But what makes Worn different from other magazines? As Serah-Marie tells us "Content wise, we don’t report on trends or deal with products. Instead we focus on the concepts and ideas about clothing. Articles focus on history, politics, culture, practical and personal stories. Structure wise, we differ from mainstream fashion magazines in that since we don’t focus on news we make our issues relevant at any time and therefore we can sell our back issues on a regular basis. As well, we don’t focus on advertising as our main source of revenue, so we don’t need to please advertisers to survive, only our readers." If you're looking for quality, look no future. To get the goods click here.
