Best Fashion News 2018
Where fashion news actually lived in 2018 — the magazines, the newspaper desks and the digital natives
'No news is good news' is a myth. Reading fashion news is always good. Let's review the best fashion news resources of 2018 — and if you don't agree with our list, please let us know; maybe we will listen to your suggestion for next year.
Some of the typical favorites are on the list for 2018. Yes, popular fashion magazines still generally provide a great deal of daily fashion news. Fortunately, we no longer have to wait for the monthly editions to hit the newsstands: although many companies still publish monthly fashion magazines, they also have websites that display style-relevant news on a more frequent schedule. Here are some of the leading resources for fashion news in 2018.
The Magazines: Monthly in Print, Daily Online
The magazine group is the list's backbone. Elle and Vogue lead it — the two titles whose fashion coverage sets the agenda the rest of the list reacts to — with Harper's Bazaar, Glamour and InStyle completing the glossy bench. By 2018 each of them was really two publications: a monthly print magazine, edited months ahead, and a website publishing fashion news, celebrity style and shopping coverage every day.
That doubling is the real story of fashion media in 2018. The print magazine had become the brand's flagship — the cover, the September issue, the photographer's portfolio — while the website did the daily work of news. A reader who only knew these titles from the newsstand was missing most of what they published, which is why a news list, rather than a magazine list, is the honest format for the year.
The Newspaper Desks and the General Press
Fashion is also covered, seriously and daily, by the general press. The New York Times fashion section and its Runway blog bring a newspaper's reporting standards to the collections; The Guardian's fashion coverage does the same from London, with a critic's independence the glossies rarely match. The Wall Street Journal's fashion and style industry page covers the business end, and HuffPost Style rounds up the day's talking points at blog speed.
Read together, the newspaper desks are the fact-check on the magazine world: they report store closures, executive moves, labor and trade stories the glossies leave alone, and their critics review collections as journalism rather than as celebration. A 2018 reading habit that paired one glossy with one newspaper desk covered both halves of fashion — the fantasy and the industry that manufactures it.
The Digital Natives
The third group never had a print schedule to escape. The Cut, New York magazine's fashion and culture site, pairs fashion news with the sharpest voice in the group. Refinery29 built its audience on service journalism for young women — fashion news written as advice. Fashionista covers the industry itself, careers and business included, for readers who want to work in fashion as much as wear it. Lookbook.nu is the community entry — street style uploaded by its members — and The Blonde Salad represents the influencer line, a personal blog grown into a publication. Our own fashion blog belongs on any honest version of this list we write.
What unites the group is metabolism: these sites publish in hours, argue in public, and treat comments and social feeds as part of the article. In 2018 that was no longer the alternative model of fashion news — for readers under thirty it was simply what fashion news meant, and the magazines' websites had adopted the same rhythm to compete.
The Trade Press: WWD, Business of Fashion, The Fashion Spot
Sure, there are many other amazing fashion news resources to choose from in 2018 — so here are a few more, because we can see that you are anxious to do a bit more reading. WWD — Women's Wear Daily — is the industry's paper of record, the place executive news, retail results and collection reviews appear first for the trade. Business of Fashion analyzes the same industry for a global professional audience, and The Fashion Spot adds the community's running commentary, forums and all.
Hopefully you are looking for an overview of the best fashion websites, with trends, news, information, photos and more — which is what this roster, magazines to trade press, adds up to. For fashion books and magazine subscriptions gathered in one marketplace guide, the Apparel Search Amazon clothing and fashion guide is where those links are kept. Thank you for using the Apparel Search website.
Common Questions
Do fashion magazines still matter for news if they publish monthly?
Yes — because by 2018 the monthly print magazine was only half of each title. Elle, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour and InStyle all published fashion news daily on their websites; the print edition had become the flagship, the website the newsroom.
What is the difference between the trade press and the consumer sites on this list?
Audience and subject. WWD and the Business of Fashion write for people who work in fashion — executive moves, retail results, industry analysis — while the magazines and digital natives write for people who wear it. The Fashion Spot adds community commentary on both.
Which newspaper fashion coverage does the 2018 list include?
The New York Times fashion section and its Runway blog, The Guardian's fashion pages, the Wall Street Journal's fashion and style industry page, and HuffPost Style.