After reading the <TASTE, FASHION AND THE FRENCH FASHION MAGAZINE> edited by Sanda Miller, I was surprised to know that the inception for the emergence of the fashion magazine is early in the 1672. In the middle ages, fashion is often associated with nobility. Their noble dignity brought them the best treatment and they were the future of fashion industry at that time. They always wore the clothes with gorgeous taste. The clothing of some fashionable aristocrats, the was the dream of other nobility for the reason that fashion is people’s advocacy of something in society in a period of time and fashion is always an expression of individuality.

On the views of art criticism， I am agree with the David Hume’s proposed system which express his thought that the general principles of taste are uniform in human nature, but there still is room for a good deal of explainable variability since different works of art will appear to different temperaments or at different stages of life.

Critics face the conflict between new art works and traditional art norms and show that traditional norms do not have the self-evident correctness through their own explanation, so that to make people are intolerable to traditional norms and strangeness. I think Contemporary artists are the witness of life and the witnesses of personal experience. They reorganize and structure the people and things that have happened and exist in the name of art, and give them meaning freely. In the face of contemporary art, critics pay attention to the process of creation and analyze the psychology of creation and the thinking mode of the artist. The effect of criticism is not to point out that the art do not have the right direction of development, but try to understand what direction the artist is.

There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. It is the same to fashion. Fashion is not concrete and it is changing over time and vary from culture to culture. Large numbers of magazines appeared during the major social changes. Fashion magazines constantly adjust their content according to its target audience in different periods and the historical changes. It also carried the important functions of free speech, knowledge dissemination and ideological enlightenment, reflecting and accelerating the process of social transformation. Like the Women’s magazines reflect radical social changes. In different historical periods, fashion magazine form different female images which affects the women of that time.

With the development and change of history, magazines became an important role in our life. It shapes our lives, telling us what to wear, what to eat, what to think about ourselves and the world around us. As far as I am concerned, any magazine which want to be resonant with its target audience needs to represent the social norms and cultural values of the given society.

Reference and bibliography

[1] Margaret.Makepeace(2017) ‘Vogue’ and virtuous virgins: a reflection on the history of the fashion magazine. Available from: http://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2017/03/vogue-virtuous-virgins-a-reflection-on-the-history-of-the-fashion-magazine-.html [Accessed 30 March 2017]

[2]Nikola(2013)History of the Magazine. Available from: http://www.magazinedesigning.com/history-of-the-magazines/ [Accessed 26 March 2013]

[3]ukessays.com(2015) Vogue: Across Cultures | Analysis. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/fashion/fashion-magazines.php [Accessed 23 March 2015]