In an era when technology is God and everything from letters to banking options are digitalized, why should fashion not include itself in this digital realm?
Top fashion magazines like Harper's Bazaar, Self and Glamour have now released mobile versions of their websites so that people can have access to the latest issues of their magazines on their very mobiles.
Apple and may other leading tablets now have applications wherein current issues of fashion magazines can be downloaded as soon as they are released. Not just that, these tablet web pages have special features and are not the regular magazine editorials. They have links to the editor's twitter and facebook accounts, along with links to articles and behind the scene videos of the cover celebrity. What works best for users is the fact that the moment they like something they see in the magazine which is available for purchase, they can immediately buy it using their credit or debit cards.
SMU Daily Campus quoted GfK MRI, a leading producer of media research reporting that although digital fashion magazines is a very new innovation, 11 percent of the readers are already using it on a daily basis.
Says journalism professor Jake Batsell, "Too many magazines just use shovel ware to move the content over to an app with minimum added value. Today, content needs to be well done on any platform."
Mi-Sun Bae, a sophomore at SMU, finds the benefits of digital reading very attractive and convenient. "One of the reasons why I purchased an iPad was to buy books and read them via the iPad, so I probably would enjoy reading magazines on it as well," Bae said.
Contributing to the cause of "going green" is another added benefits of fashion magazines going digital. "I think it'll be eco-friendly to read it on iPad, and it wouldn't be much of a hassle to carry the heavy magazines around," says the young girl.