The shift toward political engagement

Fashion magazines have historically been viewed purely as entertainment media, focused on escapism rather than politics. However, recent years have seen a change. In the US, Vogue has featured political figures such as Kamala Harris and Jill Biden (while notoriously avoiding Melania Trump). Indian fashion magazines have publicly advocated for women’s rights and Russian fashion publications began to openly criticise the state (before such criticism was outlawed and became impossible).

Solomatina: ‘In the three countries I studied, lifestyle media have developed in very different ways, under very different historical and cultural circumstances, but what is characteristic in all three countries is the current prominence of political divisiveness, polarisation and hostility within society and that is coming to be reflected in the content of these magazines.’

Politics as spectacle

Solomatina posits that part of the reason for the shift is that politics itself has also changed. The rise of digital and social media has blurred the lines between activism, entertainment, and political discourse. Viral content amplifies political messages, making political gestures more about spectacle than substantive debate. In tandem with this, entertainment media have grown more politicised, as the boundaries between celebrity, politics and spectacle have begun to disappear.

Advertisers use well-known faces and co-opt political ideas to sell products. Celebrities act as spokespeople for political and humanitarian causes, activism itself has been branded. ‘Given this, it was inevitable that women’s lifestyle magazines wouldn’t be able to continue to make the distinction between what they traditionally covered and the political realm. The current conflation of politics, visibility and celebrity is one reason research like mine was so necessary at this moment,’ says Solomatina.

Fashion magazines as political players

The political engagement Solomatina revealed in the magazines covered a wide variety of topics. Teen Vogue in the US began to incorporate serious political journalism alongside traditional fashion coverage. Before state censorship, Russian magazines like The Blueprint and Vogue Russia challenged government narratives. In India, Verve resisted Hindu nationalist ideology by amplifying diverse voices.

US-based movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter were also influential across global fashion media, Solomatina showed. With the US being home to a number of international publishing houses – notably, the headquarters of Condé Nast and Hearst are in New York – the international impact of American socio-cultural and political trends is amplified around the world.

At the heart of contemporary culture

‘My research captures a crucial moment in fashion media, as magazines navigate the complexities of political engagement,’ Solomatina says. ‘They currently feel compelled to discuss politics but remain unsure how they feel about approaching it.’

One reason for that reticence is that advertising still forms the backbone of how fashion magazines operate. This means they need to cater to the interests of the companies and labels who advertise with them, who may be wary of losing customers by being associated with hot-button cultural issues.

‘Deep analysis of contemporary political issues will never be the core business of these magazines, anyway,’ says Solomatina. ‘So their current dynamic is between trying to come up with a new language that is informed by all these emancipatory movements while also working within the limitations of their previously much stricter genre. I feel that this ambiguity puts them at the heart of some of the big questions in our culture today, where politics has become entertainment and entertainment has been politicised.’

Defence details

Ira Solomatina: Politics and the political in women´s fashion magazines: Perspectives from India, Russia and the USA. Supervisor is Prof. R.W. Boomkens. The co-supervisor is Dr C.A.J.C. Delhaye.

Time and location en locatie 

Thursday, 27 March, 13:00, Agnietenkapel.