Lula magazine: it’s hard to miss. There’s something distinctly different about it. The pleasant mystification begins with the title. Off center, relatively small compared to industry standards. In bright pink - no, fuchsia - the kind of shade you’d expect to find smothered across the face of a young girl as she bravely experiments with the world of lady lipwear. No mind numbing 'Times New Roman' here. It is this same sense of girlish charm you feel as you flip through the kaleidoscope-coloured pages soaked with satire and dream-like liaisons. It is a sense that in the drove of nondescript fashion magazines, Lula has a distinct voice. It brings back those childhood memories, with those thick dreamy, expensively glossy looking pages.
It was started by ex-Voguettes Leith Clark and Becky Smith. Published bi-annually, it amalgamates fashion, art, film, and culture in a refreshingly unarmored manner. In a short time, its ninth issue is just hitting newsstands, the magazine has brilliantly positioned itself as the read that categorically celebrates individuality in an industry marked by - and dependant upon - sheep-like behaviour.
Remarkable is Lula’s ability to spin even the most mainstream fare into charming foible. A story on Versace? Interview the next generation, vanessa, and capture her in-flight and surprisingly un-lacquered, unpolished. How un-versace. the prada dress of the season? Superseded is the current cliche of sci-fi tendency. Instead, a model irreverently projectiles bottled water as she stands in a saharan-like desert. Fashion’s ignorance of world poverty? Not from a naive little girl like Lula, right?
If the imagery is downright breathtaking, the read is slightly underwhelming simply because of volume. that’s a compliment. Like its photos, the writing that is there is idiosyncratic, self-deprecating, and earnest. The stories are ones of inspiration and intrigue, not the 24 hour memoir of a wealthy New Yorker as she embarks on the 12-step process to achieve that ideal shade of honey - no, golden sunflower - blonde. I argue there exists opportunity to introduce more observation with its signature Q&A format. After all, the perceptions of the talented contributors are often just as relevant as your own.
With its girlish mannerisms in step, it’s no surprise Lula is as endearingly enchanting a read as any children’s fairytale; simultaneously ethereal, witty, and oh so poignant.
I purchased my first issue - issue eight - earlier this year and couldn't stop try to protect my copy from rips and tears like a mother would protect her baby from falling. Yes, the issue was £5.99, but for the shear bulk of the magazine its worth it. The pages are not like those in supposedly "high-end" magazines like Vogue and Elle, each page looks as if its been hand painted with care and ease. Such a beautiful magazine, and what makes it stand out more is that its bi-annually. Its not monthly like most common magazines, there are only two issues a year! The interviews are lovely and only the most dreamiest people grace their pages. You wont see Pamela Anderson falling out of a club at 2am gracing Lula's pages - shes not even close to what Lula typically represents. Even the Lula website is full with pastel colours and fading cuts to each page, very dreamy and angelic music fills each page - you really do feel as if you've stepped into an almost like, Alice in Wonderland, fairytale world. It's truly magical!
Issue nine shows Karen Elson gracing the cover, it is infact her second Lula cover, her first being issue #3. I imagine the editorials in the issue will be amazing (as always!), anything with Karen Elson in it could not fail to be outstanding. Below are the karen elson covers – issue #9 on the left. Issue #3 on the right.
