I-D Parade
I used to buy I-D magazine and the Face (before it folded) when I was at school, mostly to cut out the pictures but also to prove to myself that I knew what was ‘cool’ on the inside, even if I looked like Harry Potter on the outside. But then I discovered other lame props that can be obtained to promote an air of ice-cool and make people think you’re ‘ok’ to invite to parties like smoking fags and drinking booze and being a bit more like everyone else. It also dawned that perhaps cutting things out of magazines was actually probably a lot less cool than looking like a child-wizard. Anyway, the booze thing worked out pretty well, I got some friends and gave up the magazines. I haven’t stopped looking at fashion magazines but I’m certainly less obsessive and can handle throwing them away once they’ve been drained of their contents. However, the last time I picked up I-D was when they did an ‘Icon’ issue about Agyness Deyn, which smacked of a bandwagon being mounted and I lost interest. Anyway, I read I-D for the first time in a while the other day and was suitably impressed again. The shoots and styling were quite stunning, I loved the old-school supermodel cover and there was a strong relationship in the fashion stories between high fashion and influential looks from ‘the street’ without either losing its authenticity. My collecting days are over, but the ghost of the Deyn issue can at least be laid to rest.
