The Teen Vogue Handbook

Pages: 257

Published: Razorbill, 2009

Have you always dreamed of modeling? Do you hope to have a future in fashion design? Is photography your passion? If you're interested in a career in fashion (covering everything from stylists to magazine editors), The Teen Vogue Handbook is your go-to guide! Going in-depth via interviews and glossy spreads of photographs, it describes exactly how you can pursue your fashion dreams--providing advice, resources, and inspiration.

Being a huge fan of the magazine, I was expecting a big 257-page issue out of the handbook. Instead, the book is the perfect resource for the fashion-obsessed. Divided into 7 sections, the handbook goes into great detail.

Section 1, the "designer" part, is chock-full of photographs and interviews with top designers (Thakoon, Tory Burch, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, etc) on how they achieved their goals in the fashion industry. I loved reading all the success stories--the designers provided helpful tips, as well as mistakes not to make in the industry!

The second section of the handbook, "editors", describes the lives and work of those in the fashion magazine world: what editors do, what an average day is like for a fashion director, how a fashion market editor contributes to "the book". A very insightful look into the world not many of us see--that magazine you read each month is the result of hard work!

The "stylists" and "beauty" sections were enlightening--I loved seeing how their contributions affect the overall image in a magazine. As well as this, I especially liked the "models" section--it was interesting to see how they were selected, what talent scouts are looking for, and just exactly how tall you have to be to make a good model (5'9"-5'11" for women). I also enjoyed reading supermodel Chanel Iman's fashion week diary--it was super cool seeing what a day in the life of a busy model is like!

My favorite section was perhaps the photography section--maybe one of the most important professions in the fashion business. It is truly amazing to see how fashion photographers can portray a certain message about clothing through their pictures.

Overall, this Handbook is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the business. Packed chock full with examples, interesting graphics, pictures, and feedback, (all perfectly aimed at and appealing to teenagers) the only way that I think the book (complete with an index of fashion terms and design schools) could be improved is if it had a longer section about fashion bloggers. Fashion bloggers, like Jane of Sea of Shoes or English Rose are an important part of the fashion/style world these days--I want to see more of them!