Candy... not so dandy?

Candy is a new fashion magazine "completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, transexuality, cross dressing and androgyny, in all its manifestations."

The first issue is a limited edition print run of 1000 copies, so I doubt if I will have an opportunity to see the magazine, but here is the contents of its first issue (the Fall/Winter 2009/2010 issue):

"Candy Darling" by Kimball Hastings and Bruce Weber
"Lypsinka, Andre J and Joey Arias" by Bruce Weber
"Smart Style" by Tim Walker
"Tribute to Nico" by Benjamin Alexander Huseby
"Bianca Exotica" by Marcelo Krasilcic and Antonio Frajado
"Rodarte" by David Armstrong
"La Crawford" by Popy Blasco and Daniel Riera
"Kim Ann Foxmann" by Silvia Prada and Daniel Riera
"Casa Susanna" by Dean Mayo Davies
"Tribute to Casa Susanna" by Brett Lloyd and Kim Jones
"Johnny Depp style" by Kira Bunse and Jos van Heel
"Angel Marlowe" by Ariadna Pedret and Terry Richardson
"Christian Lacroix" by Karim Sadli and Robbie Spencer

It's just a list of the contents, so it is hard to tell what the list really represents, but the list itself does not seem very exciting or groundbreaking. Candy Darling, Nico, Casa Susanna? Yes, those are trans fashion icons, but they are ancient history.

And what's with the limited 1000 copy print run?

And worse, what's with the biannual publication schedule?

Nice cover, but I just dunno if this magazine will be successful.

do the dont's

The September issue of Harper's Bazaar arrived in today's mail. It is the "Fall Fashion Issue" and contains 484 pages.

I flipped threw the magazine as I walked from the curbside mailbox to my home and as I did, I spotted an advertisement from Juicy Couture (above) with a male (left) semi-femulating with long hair, pink tulle skirt, leopard skin cropped jacket, and pocketbook.

The caption of the advertisement reads "Do the Dont's" and seems to be encouraging the fashions that the ad displays.

cover girl boy

Remember National Lampoon, the humor magazine that was popular during the 1970s and 1980s? I was a regular reader of National Lampoon and recently obtained a DVD containing all its back issues.

Using the DVD to reacquaint myself with the magazine, I began recalling trans-related references and items that occasionally appeared in its pages over the years.

One trans-related item that was not apparent to most readers was the cover of the October 1974 issue. The theme of that issue was "Pubescence" and the cover featured a young teenage girl displaying a cherry that she plucked from the top of an ice cream sundae.

As I recall, the National Lampoon editors were unhappy with the original cover because the model looked too old, so they enlisted a young male model to play the pubescent cover girl and he, crossdressed as a she, graced the magazine cover that month.

Harper's Bazaar, July 2008

Gwyneth Paltrow... Wow! On newsstands now!

Christopher Morley

One thing leads to another. My blog entry on Friday resulted in a series of comments initiated by Kathryn Cleve about actor Christopher Morley, who femulated in films, television shows, and even the pages of Playboy during the last half of the last century.

Morley passed and definitely was not a guy in a dress like some of the femulators you see in films and on television. He was thin, pretty, and had one of the best femulated voices I have ever heard.

You can view an illustrated list of his film and television appearances on Jaye Kaye's Transgender Movie Guide. That page includes video clips so you can see for yourself how well he femulated.

(The photo on the right is from the May 1975 issue of Playboy. In that issue, Morley appeared in a series of photos in which he exchanged clothing with a woman. The photo here depicts the results of the clothing exchange.)

25 to 1

This interesting advertisement appears in this week's issue of New York magazine. It is an ad for a singles dating service.

I wonder where they came up with the odds that 1 out of 25 women in singles bars are really dudes. Are those odds only applicable to the New York City area or are they applicable everywhere?

Personally, I think those odds are too low, but you never know.

Annapolis "drag" redux

It did not take much Googling to find out that Annapolis "drag" has nothing to do with crossdressing.

According to an article in the November 29, 1948 issue of Time, "drag" was the Naval cadet nickname for a date, i.e., the girls the cadets dated were called "drags."

I guess if a cadet dated a crossdresser, his date would be a "drag in drag."

Annapolis "drag"

I have seen the January 6, 1947 issue of Life magazine on eBay numerous times and I always wondered about the caption on the cover (Annapolis "Drag").

I assume that "Annapolis" refers to the US Naval Academy in that city, but does "Drag" refer to a crossdressing event at the academy. Is that a Naval cadet in drag on the cover?

If anyone can enlighten me, I would appreciate it.

2008 spring fashions

Perusing the January 2008 issue of Harper's Bazaar last night, I fell in love with some of the 2008 spring fashions previewed in the magazine.



I love this outfit that appeared in the "Trends From New York" feature. (Click on any image in this blog to enlarge it.)



I also loved these shoes. The pair on the left appeared in the "Runway Report" story, while the pair on the right appeared in the "Fabulous At Every Age" article. The later was actually in the section of the article that featured fashions for women in their 50's, which fits me to a tee.

magazines

I have a variety of hobbies and interests. To keep up with what is going on, I subscribe to magazines that cover my areas of interest.

Over the years, I subscribed to a variety of trans-oriented magazines. I seldom renewed a subscription to a trans mag because I found them trashy, boring, and/or lacking information that I wanted. I gave up on them and I don't subscribe to any trans mags today. (Please recommend any that you feel are worthwhile.)

On the other hand, I do keep up with what is going on in the femulation world by subscribing to woman's fashion magazines.

Years ago, I subscribed to Allure when it was a skinny magazine, but packed with useful information for the crossdressing fashionista. After a few years, I let my Allure subscription expire during a femulation lull.

I resubscribed to Allure about a year ago and was surprised when the first issue showed up in my mailbox. The skinny magazine had become a bloated tome of 200 to 300 pages, chock full of advertisements and little useful information. Whenever a new issue arrived, I perused it once and put it in the recycling pile.

I let my Allure subscription expire and recently subscribed to Harper's Bazaar. My first issue arrived yesterday and it was a pleasant surprise! It was full of ads*, but it also was full of useful articles. I think it is more sophisticated than Allure and I will be returning to it often.

* One good thing about the proliferation of ads in fashion magazines is that they pay for the magazine, so subscriptions are cheap, usually about $1 per issue or less. For example, go here and you can get a one-year subscription to Harper's Bazaar for $10 or two years for $15.