What Makes A Great Fashion Magazine Today

He’s the second-generation owner of Basheer Graphic Books that has become a haven for the local creative community for its exhaustive range of niche, rare and exclusive design-related publications, fashion periodicals included. Entering the business in his 20s (the store on the fourth floor of Bras Basah Complex has been around since 1991), he’s witnessed not just the evolution of the print trade, but also trends and tastes. So what’s in now? Keng Yang Shuen finds out.

- Keng Yang Shuen

INDIE AND SPECIALISED OVER INTERNATIONAL AND MAINSTREAM

“International mainstream titles used to be hot sellers for us in the ’90s and early ’00s, but that’s no longer the case. As you know, we stock a lot of indie publications – titles like Buffalo Zine (the cult satirical fashion magazine with Hans Ulrich Obrist as arts editor-at-large), System or Perfect Magazine (Katie Grand’s pandemic-birthed brainchild that defies traditional fashion magazine formats in look and operation model – it’s a content agency first). These tend to go for $60, $70, or $80, but they can and do sell better than the major, more conventional titles depending on the issue. My team and I have asked ourselves why. We don’t know for sure, but it’s likely to do with how most things have gone online or that customers find mainstream titles boring now.”

IF IT CAN BE FOUND ONLINE, IT SHOULDN’T BE IN A PRINTED MAGAZINE