The Lion, the Newt and the Wardrobe
George magazine brings it all together -- stars, politics and now . . . fashion!
by ZEV BOROW
I think it was Shakespeare who said: "What tangled, contrived, pandering webs we weave when we wish to expand upon otherwise confining and distinctly unsexy magazine formats, while simultaneously luring deep-pocketed high fashion advertisers."
Ah, The Bard. No doubt he would've been a charter subscriber to George.
As its trademarked coverline states, John Kennedy Jr.'s just-gone-monthly magazine is "not just politics as usual." But judging from its August issue, it is, apparently, most definitely magazine content as usual. No, not because Newt Gingrich graces the cover with -- ooh! -- a lion, or because supermodels Vendela and Linda Evangelista are featured in a breezy up-front piece. What really sets George alike this month is its foray into fashion, or at least fashionatorial -- that murky delta where editorial rivers empty into the vast ocean of fashion advertising.
While most magazines are quick to squeeze the teat of that fattest of publishing cash cows, the fashion industry, by falling back on any number of staple segues to glossy spreads (Back to School! Hot Summer Fashion! Clothes We Gave Celebrities To Wear!), George's political slant should have made it a tad more difficult to appease the style overlords. This is, after all, a publication that fancies itself a political journal with some measure of integrity. Sure, it may allow psychic friend Linda Georgian to offer predictions for the '96 campaign (page 122), but it also won't hesitate to use Latin in its editor's note (page 16).
But you don't get to be the son-of-a-famous-dead-President celebrity editor for nothing, and damning the skeptics, John-John and his team whipped up a high-concept fashion spread faster than you can say Double-Issue Extravaganza. The result is on display in the mag's August issue, a ten-page spread titled "Classroom Couture: A fashionable response to President Clinton's call for school uniforms."
Seizing upon the president's call for the Department of Education to supply the nation's 16,000 public schools with manuals for implementing a school uniform policy, George asked 15 well-known designers to come up with their "best-dressed ideas" for uniforms that kids would be happy to wear.
The President would no doubt be pleased with the results, which are modeled by a group of customarily bored-yet-still-sexy, barely post-pubescent and slightly androgynous models. He would surely enjoy Richard Tyler's fitted shirt and slim tie in cotton cashmere blend with cordovan leather boot-cut hip jeans and ankle boots by Charles David. He would have a hard time resisting John Barlett's red cotton windbreaker with reflective wool/nylon navy trousers and tri-color Hush Puppies. But perhaps he would settle on Donna Karan's inspired offering: stretch wool crepe navy zipped jacket with matching skirt, white T-shirt, burgundy loafers, leather satchel, and everybody's schoolgirl favorite -- kneesocks!
And Congress? Congress would swoon over uniforms by Tommy Hilfiger (navy wool blazer, silk blue-and-gold-striped tie, white cotton button-down shirt and pleated khaki trousers) and Giorgio Armani (four-button single-breasted jacket with embroidered school crest on sleeve, cropped white silk blouse, short [very short] black wool skirt, black lace-up shoes). Of course, it's hard not to wonder what the more conservative legislators would say about the shot of the two models erotically entwined in the girls' bathroom. Oh well -- they just got carried away in the infectious spirit of haute couture!
The photos are sandwiched around three faintly ironic columns of text that attempt to tether the spread to the magazine's socio-political bent with loosely related references to Clinton's "wearable" re-election platform, department stores reporting a "dramatic upswing" in school uniform sales, fashion designers' search for "summer's perfect uniform," and what is obviously the most pertinent question: "Which will Chelsea wear?"
In his first outing, JFK Jr. already knows how the fashion advertorial game works. If you advertise, like Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss did, you get your clothes in the fashion spread. If you get your clothes in the fashion spread but don't advertise -- like Donna Karan, Nautica, and Marc Jacob -- the favor is expected to be returned. That George is working the fashion angle is not surprising. What's surprising is that they didn't do it sooner.
Never mind that the nominal reason Clinton advocated school uniforms was to prevent the social stratification and violence that can result from kids wearing gang colors and trying to outdo each other with expensive clothes and shoes. Never mind that the intention was to deemphasize image-consciousness so that kids could concentrate on their studies. Never mind the crassness of having millionaire New York couturiers design clothes that cost more than most kids could ever afford. And especially, never mind the nausea-inducing thought of grey-haired legislators breathing heavily over photos of pouty jailbait models.
Who cares about all that? What's really important is that the grand, mutually parasitic relationship between magazine and retailer continued, that George proved itself dexterous enough to swim in the smooth waters of fashion's wake, and that the models were attractive. Because as JKF Jr. and nearly everyone else already knows, it's better to look good than to feel, or in this case actually be, good.
Zev Borow is a San Francisco writer whose work has appeared in Details, Esquire and New York magazine. He is a senior editor at Might magazine.