Why Collecting Fashion Magazines Is the Real It-Girl Hobby

The It-Girl’s Quiet Obsession

Stacks of Vogue, Elle, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar, and W on your coffee table say more about you than a thousand Pinterest boards ever could. They’re not just magazines, they’re time capsules, altars of taste, and archives of culture. And collecting them? That’s the real it-girl hobby.

The Aura of Print

Print still has an aura digital can’t replicate. A September tome has a certain gravity in your hands: the ink, the gloss, the weight that makes you slow down. A Vogue Italia style spread radiates a mood in a way a screen never could. A Harper’s Bazaar headline treatment lingers in your memory longer than a Tumblr scroll. Print insists you pause, absorb, and surrender.

Training Your Eye

Flipping through magazines isn’t passive, it’s training. You start seeing how color stories unfold across pages, how layouts dance between negative space and maximal drama, how a pose nods to art history in one frame and subverts it in the next. You feel the difference between the cinematic punch of a W editorial and the dreamy rigor of a Vogue Paris spread. Even typography stops being “text” and becomes part of the image. The more you collect, the sharper your eye gets, not just for clothes, but for aesthetics as a whole.

The Thrill of Collecting

Then comes the chase. An eBay alert for a long lost September issue, a British Vogue peeking out of a second hand bin, a Spain July gem hiding in a vintage shop, each find feels like destiny. Your stack of spines becomes décor, yes, but more than that: a silent statement that you get it.

The Lazy Chaiii Starter Kit: Must Have Issues

The crown jewels to start (or strengthen) your archive, verified and iconic:

• Vogue US, September 2006: Kirsten Dunst (“Marie Antoinette”): the Versailles-dreaming cover that captured Sofia Coppola’s gilded, candy-coated vision.

• British Vogue, April 2022: Twin covers for the Platinum Jubilee: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (archive portrait) and Anya Taylor-Joy wearing a replica of the Diamond Diadem; a platinum salute in every sense (Anya’s platinum blonde and a crown). 

• Vogue España, July 2023: Grace Elizabeth (“Mermaid”): Elizaveta Porodina’s aqueous, siren coded cover: moody, saturated, collectible. 

• British Vogue, March 2024 “40 Iconic Women”: Edward Enninful’s final issue as editor in chief, a historic group cover dedicated to women.

• British Vogue, May 2022 Lila Moss: her British Vogue cover debut, styled by Joe McKenna, lensed by Steven Meisel: mother daughter dynasty officially continues. 

• Vogue Portugal, April 2020 “Freedom on Hold” (mask kiss): Branislav Simoncik’s cover of two lovers kissing through face masks, an unforgettable COVID era artifact. 

• Vogue Australia, July 2023 Lily-Rose Depp (with Troye Sivan): Daniel Jackson’s cool kid duet, Gen Z star power with editorial polish. 

Yes, collecting fashion magazines is obsessive and impractical but romantic and exactly the kind of pastime an It-girl chooses. Because some things, the right things, never go fully digital.

xxx, The Lazy Chaiii