African American magazines are a great way to stay informed about what's happening in the black community. Whether you're interested in politics, entertainment, or just want to keep up with the latest trends, there's a magazine subscription for you. Mainstream Fashion magazines are doing a great job at featuring us on their covers. BRAVO! It's the premier space for magazines to introduce the point of view to readers by tapping into creativity, fashion, art, and photography. As the world lifted Covid masks and vaccination mandates, the creatives who work on these sets contributed to some of the best magazine covers we've seen in years. And out of the best, the cream of that crop are the covers from black-owned media that presented top-tier fashion, glam, and talent.
I think it's important for me to share my Top Black fashion magazines that have always shared the beauty of black people. While growing up, I loved flipping through magazines that featured people that looked like me (and I still do). I find that I naturally gravitate towards anything that resembles what I see in the mirror.
Today that traditional thin-papered glossy has either stuttered its operations completely, shifted to digital-only content, or decreased its publishing frequency for print to focus on digital content. These shifts made room for new media, including beautiful coffee table-style fashion magazines made from quality paper and filled with original photography, media groups with iconic subsidiaries, and digital focus outlets born from editors who left conventional print magazines. These different media platforms have transformed the world of publishing content, but one thing remains true for all of them, the most powerful tool a magazine wield is the coveted spot on its covers!
Let's delve into some of the most influential and impactful African American fashion magazines:
ESSENCE
When I read Essence, I feel welcomed! It’s such a community of sisterhood that it’s hard not to feel embraced as a black woman.
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Essence was the brainchild of Jonathon Blount, a young black salesman. At the time, most of the profitable Black magazines were being produced by activist social organizations, with religious denominations and academics producing smaller magazines. Blount saw an opening for a magazine aimed specifically at Black women, and in 1970 he joined forces with another salesman, Cecil Hollingsworth, as well as the financial planner Edward Lewis and the printing expert Cyril Hill to produce Essence, with the photographer Gordon Parks as their editorial director. They were ambitious, as the initial press run of 175,000 copies indicated, and their ambition was rewarded with success. Like Ebony, while not opposed to Black nationalism per se, the magazine was intended to be “more woman and less black,” with an early editorial declaring “We do not intend to go through the ‘Mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-blackest-of-them-all?’ syndrome.
EBONY
Ebony magazine is the first black fashion magazine to be circulated nationally. Since it was created in 1945, the focus of the publication has always been black people and they are making a comeback.
CRWN MAG
Because Hair is fashion, we included this black owned publication: CRWM Mag delivers such great hair storytelling.
QUINTESSENTIAL GENTLEMAN
The Quintessential Gentleman is a Black men magazine that shows how Black men are just as good as their counterparts.
THE NEW AFRICAN WOMAN MAGAZINE
- Daring
- Inspiring
- Discerning
𝐓𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞; 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞 & 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭! Powered By Black Women.
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KOLOR MAGAZINE
Kolor Magazine was created a couple of years ago and its beautiful to see what Nigel Isaiah has accomplished with the publication! Our first subscribers signed up this week - a small start with big meaning. Starting this week, Stylists Suite moves behind a paywall not to gatekeep, but to grow.
Historical Context and the "Black is Beautiful" Movement
A cultural dimension of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s was the slogan that “Black is Beautiful.” The slogan and its associated movement arose out of resistance to racist ideals of beauty that focused on whiteness. By contrast, Black is Beautiful emphasized the aesthetic value of Black bodies. Taken together with the demonstrated success of magazines like Ebony and Jet, which focused on Black consumers, it seems inevitable that we would see new magazines on Black beauty and Black fashions arise at this time. These magazines’ engagement with explicit questions of Black empowerment would vary, but especially in the beginning, the very act of thematizing Black beauty was a political act. Like all Black magazines, these magazines had to balance political concerns with economic ones: they were businesses aiming to sell a product and so explicit politicization was risky.
Other Notable Magazines
Did you know there were eight African-American Women’s publications before Essence?
- Our Women and Children: A magazine published in Louisville, Kentucky, by William J. Simmons.
- Women’s Era: Black women’s first national newspaper, published by and for African-American women in Boston. The editor and civil rights leader, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin.
- The Colored American Magazine: Boston’s first monthly publication covering African-American culture.
- Half-Century Magazine: Published in Chicago, it took its name from the fifty years since the Emancipation Proclamation freed African Americans from enslavement. The first issue contained about twenty pages, with roughly one-third of the publication for advertisements-the remaining content for short fiction, biographical sketches, and serialized novels, editorials and several column discussions on etiquette, domestic science, and life in Chicago.
- Aframerican Woman’s Journal: In the spring of 1940, Mary McLeod Bethune’s National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) introduced the first issue. The quarter publication focused on current events, important issues, and NCNW programming.
- Tan Confessions: Chicago-based John Johnson, editor, owner, and publisher of Ebony Magazine, founded Tan Confessions in November 1950.
Élan
Élan was a black women’s magazine founded by Cecile D. Barker and Jonathan Blount, who had previously co-founded Essence. The magazine focused on women who in the 25 to 54 age range with more emphasis on how to make money than makeup or matrimony. While the editorial staff was confident that the magazine would fill a niche for professional women whose needs were not being met by Ebony, the magazine got off to a rough start, being suspended after three issues and then falling by the wayside. Both its premiere and its hiatus (which turned permanent) were covered in the New York Times. This first issue of the magazine is clearly tailored for the older demographic: it features advice on choosing an investment broker, the pros and cons of sending children to summer camp, and funding college for one’s children (with a prediction that within a few years, college may cost $25,000 per year).
Black Elegance Presents
Black Elegance Presents is a kind of anthology magazine: each issue covers a different topic. The magazine’s parent publication was Black Elegance, also called BE, which was founded in 1986 and continued into the 21st century. This first issue of the magazine focuses on weddings with a subtitle of Elegant Bride; issue two would focus on Elegant Fashion. As might be expected, a large percentage of the magazine is taken up with photographs of wedding dresses and jewelry. Most of the dresses and suits are clearly heavily influenced by European and North American fashions, though there are a few based on African styles.
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Hairstyling Trends
As long as Black people have been in the United States, hair and hairstyles have played into their social status: slaves with straight hair were sometimes afforded places of privilege. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, Black hairstyles that emphasized natural looks and African heritage came to the forefront, and hairstyles became increasingly politicized. This first issue of Hairstyling Trends, a magazine that debuted in spring 1998, focuses almost exclusively on Black hair despite its general name. (An alternate title for the magazine, visible only on the inside cover with the publication information, was Black Hairstyles.) It offers advice on emulating the hairstyles of a list of 1990s celebrities, mainly singers: Brandy, Mary J. Blige, the singers of the band Brownstone, Janet Jackson, Lela Rochon, Iman, Rachel Stuart, the band Changing Faces, Aayliah, and Tyra Banks.
