I have a thing with magazines.

 It's an obsession I've had since I was a young girl, carefully cutting out pictures of celebrities to be artfully placed in a collage on my bedroom wall. In fact, back then you couldn't even see what color the wall was, all that was left was overlapping glossy photographs of Aaron Carter and Britney Spears with pore less faces and flawless grins. Now as I grew older, this quickly turned into designer advertising campaigns and feature spreads, both with equally flawless faces as I reached my tween years. Yes, I was reading Vogue and Lucky at ten years old and trying to emulate high fashion. I remember the first time I got Vogue's September Issue, I was in the fourth grade, I had just gotten very ill and my mom had started this tradition of getting me a new magazine every time I was sick. She came home with a box of tissues, some medicine and then handed me this massive magazine. I could barely even lift it to read it but within those pages were the most unique looking people and styles I've ever seen. This felt like a whole new kind of fantasy to me, like a fairytale come to life. Everything looked so lovely and glamorous, it was a whole different world between those pages compared to the drab small town I lived in. It was beautiful and wondrous and well, I've been in love with fashion and magazines ever since. 

While I still have my favorite magazine, NYLON that I read religiously, most other publications I've switched to the online version or just browsing in them when I'm in line at the local drugstore, this is mostly due to having to spend my college budget on more important things like green tea and bagels.  But every once in a while, I treat myself. 

The chosen magazines for this day were ALLURE and VOGUE.

Now with the exception of The September Issue, I'm not a huge Vogue reader, mostly because it just depresses me how at this time in my life I'll never be able to afford anything in the magazine and I should read something more practical that doesn't leave me feeling depressed and calculating just how long I'd have to work off a pair of Jimmy Choos if I started saving now.

 (Which is about 2 years, in case you were wondering.)

As for ALLURE, I'm a fashion girl, not a makeup girl. I keep things simple. With the exception of watching a few tutorials on youtube and asking makeup artists for tips while they're working, I don't desire much more knowledge than that. Makeup has never interested me the way fashion did. Although I have all the respect in the world for someone that can do it, it is an art to its own degree but it's just never been for me. 

For these choices, it was the covers celebrities that really sold me and if you know me, that's an odd thing for me to say. I'm a firm believer that models should be on magazine covers, not celebrities. But these editorials were too stunning to not take a second glance at. 

Zooey Deschanel Allure February 2012 

Photographed by Norman Jean Roy

Taylor Swift Vogue February 2012

Photographed by Mario Testino

In particular, I'm in love with the western styled look on the Taylor Swift photos, I'm hoping it's foreshadowing a western inspired trend for the spring because I would be all for that. 

Thoughts on either shoot? Favorite magazine from when you were a kid? Or now?

xx