The Perfectly Imperfect Guide to Magazines
Former guests + users tell us about their favorite magazines.
Theyāre portals to new rabbit holes, windows into subcultures and interests that For You pages long ago deemed passĆ© - like Japanese hiking culture or underground punk scenes. They stack up by your bed like little time capsules of what once mattered and refuse to disappear with a software update, curated by actual humans who geek out over paper stock and font choices.
At their best, discovering a magazine can feel like playing hooky from realityāproof that we're all craving something we can actually hold onto.
May 6, 2025
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Americaās Only Newspaper. $50/year for 6 issues and you canāt find any of the pieces featured online ā print only baby! Read about Nabokovās obsession with butterflies, Meaghan Garveyās dispatch to Texas to write about Townes Van Zandt, pro-cigarette propaganda, and more! Youāll look so sexy and mysterious at your local coffee shop.
May 12, 2024
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When I was young I loved TIGER BEAT and BIG BOPPER magazine, and now I subscribe to SLAM. Itās like the teenybopper NBA magazine. Every month, thereās a pullout poster and you have to decide who you want on your fridge, you know: Trae Young or Zion? Oh, and there are articles about all of the cool teen high school players coming up. And the best pages are League Fits, with all the NBA stars in crazy clothes. And then there are the letters to the editor, and thatās, like teens at home complaining to SLAM editors being all, āThere has been gross lack of representation of my man Jaylen Brown in League Fits!ā I love it all.
Mar 8, 2022
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The Fence is a young, smart and brutally funny London magazine in the tradition of vintage Tatler or Spy. Subscribe in print or buy the NFT we co-designed.
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I just like the way they have the simple lay out and I like their content. Itās just a culture mag and I like to read the interviews.
Mar 20, 2025
Feb 7, 2024
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they just put out their first print issue and managed to wrangle some very fun writers (from hannah baer to ed park, some deisgn by pippa garner) into writing some very interesting essays and stories. super charmed by the fact that it is printed on a kind of very thick newsprint? a unique tactile experience.
its like eight bucks and they'll ship it to your lovely little home, wherever it may be.
also this is a great question thank you for asking it.
Feb 21, 2024
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A beefy spiral-bound annual publication put out by Kaleidoscope. Serves as an archive of radical design (interior, furniture, fashion, graphic, architecture, everything) both historic and contemporary. You can choose from 3-4 different covers when purchasing an issue which is fun since itās definitely going on your coffee table.
Nov 20, 2024
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Probably biased, but my friend Isabella Burley runs the best independent bookstore happening right now. Also, in male dominated book and zine world, her amazing FEMALE perspective is great. She has substance and style and I am excited to welcome Climax to NYC when she opens a Manhattan outpost soon.
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very cool brand of 20-somethings makin whatever they want (mags, video essays, short films, etc) (pic taken from enzo issue 8)
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šŖ Cabana (amazing interiors + each issue comes covered in dead stock fabric from a luxury brand)
šø racquet mag (explores the niche of tennis and other racquet sports)
šŖ a magazine curated by (Dan thawley is my idol!!!)
šŖ the gentlewoman (Penny Martin is also my idol)
šø BLUMENHAUS (deserves its own rec tbhā the most gorgeous large-format mag all about flowers, florals, plants, and gardening)
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specifically their best performances issue. beautiful editorial photos & i always get to know the actors in awards season running a little bit better than through other methods of campaigning, like actors on actors, etc. i am particularly into this yearās because they did away with the juergen teller photos lol
Jan 16, 2025
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Found these a while back after being influenced by the fluxus art movement and holy shit theyāre amazing. Lots of interesting styles and concepts
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is a japanese magazine about art, design and travel. i mostly read the photography articles and haven't had time to check out their other stuff, but those alone are really cool :) definitely worth a read if you're into japanese culture
Sep 30, 2024
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Nothing feels as good as unsubscribing, but youāre gonna want to hold on to a physical subscription or two, if for no other reason then ambiance. Personally, I recommend American Affairs and The New Criterion, a couple of quality periodicals with good aesthetics that some may call āfascist,ā but I call respectable. Reading magazines will help you improve your attention span and cut through the wasteland of takes. God knows we could all use some of that.
Aug 23, 2022
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I was on the zine team for my college's local student-run magazine last year and it was so much fun! We each got assigned to make a mini-zine that captured the behind-the-scenes process for the magazine photoshoots. My zine was centered on the "Bite The Hand" shoot. The props team 3-D printed a hand to put in a punch bowl & the styling team decorated the models' hair with candy. We had a launch party for the mini-zines & everyone's turned out so good! I've linked the final issue of the larger Strike Magazine in the post here. :)
Jan 17, 2025
Nov 3, 2022
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THE OPIOID CRISIS LOOKBOOK IS THE ONLY MAGAZINE I'D HONESTLY SPEND MONEY ON AND I SAY THAT AS SOMEONE WHO GREW UP ADDICTED TO FASHION RAGS. ITS NOT A FASHION MAGAZINE OR A FASHION LOOK BOOK AT ALL. THE EDITORS DUSTIN AND DASHA ARE MAYBE THE MOST GENIUS ARTISTS I KNOW. THE ART AND THE WRITING IS ALWAYS INCREDIBLE AND NOT IN A SHOCK FACTOR BULLSHIT WAY. IT TRULY FREED MY MIND BLAH BLAH. LOOK OUT FOR MY INTERVIEW WITH THE LEGENDARY LAURA ALBERT (SOMETIMES KNOWN AS JT LEROY) IN THE UPCOMING THIRD ISSUE.
Feb 8, 2023
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Excessively hiking this year has been so fun, but the other half of the fun is the technical hiking apparel that goes with it - oh, and wearing only hiking gear even when Iām not hiking. I really appreciate Japanās love for outdoor style and culture. GO OUTās web magazine has been my daily morning check-in and my biggest outdoor gear inspiration. I recently picked up a few of their physical magazines (itās hard to come by in the US) and I really enjoy flipping through them every now and then. Contrary to typical magazines that weāre used to, GO OUT magazines are basically beefed up catalogs of goodies and collabs that make for great coffee table content.
Dec 10, 2020
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'Forever' and 'Heavy Traffic' are two standout lit magazines from New York City, each helmed by dear friends of mine. Their readings have admittedly triggered neuroses that at times makes me feel like I'm at a NASCAR event. They have really made me love writing, going to bookstores and to readings again. Truly heartwarming. However, I take issue with the recent Interview Magazine article that appeared to pit these two magazines against each other, based on their "editorial standards". The notion of comparing them simply based on their editorial standards is NOT sexist enough. I mean who can argue with the fact that these two publications have distinct aesthetic identities based on the fact that they are run by opposite sexes and should be judged on this fact alone!
Jan 16, 2025
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Open access and the preservation of digital artifacts are causes I can get behind, so Iām going to give The Internet Archive some appreciation here. I spend quite a bit of time browsing their offerings, some of which have made their way into my art projects. Youāll have to take your own trip with it, but some of my personal highlights include: a complete archive of Mondo 2000 magazines, a collection of K-Mart background music from a former employee (recently denoised by another IA user), and the Noise-Arch collection which pulls together many gigs of underground tape cassettes from the 1980s-90s. Recently I started using a ChatGPT Chrome extension and put it to work reading entire PDFs, searching for keywords, summarizing etc. Pretty awesome library school / digital hoarder / subvertainment stuff, if you like that sort of thing.
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I adore music zines. Always loved them. I donāt mean full-on glossy magazines, though I love those, too. I mean the handmade, typewritten, toner-smeared kind made out of printer paper and staples and a burning desire to participate in a tradition of creative writing, interviewing, art-making, and whatever other form of creativity one feels like stuffing into its pages. At the moment, Iām obsessed with a few: Hallogallo, which is run out of Chicago by Kai Slater (of the bands Lifeguard and Sharp Pins) which just published its 10th issue featuring an interview with Stereolabās Laetitia Sadier; Love Injection, a long-running club culture zine by NYCās Barbie Bertisch and Paul Raffaele; and Shadow Wolf, the handiwork of Holland-based electronic artist Legowelt.
Mar 19, 2024
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This biannual publication is summed up wonderfully as "an indispensable resource for individuals who are passionate about the way they live." This issue in particular (#33) is such a banger. Mixed between short essays, each interview (and its associated interior portraits) is honest, intimate and inspiring, often conducted by a close friend of the subject. As a reader, I feel like I'm hanging out in their living room.
Issue #33 includes: Hari Nef, Franz Erhard Walther, Madelon Vriesendorp, Lloyd Kahn, Eric N. Mack, John Wurdeman, Antonia Marsh, Enrique Olvera, Ron Arad, Motoyuki Daifu, Jimmy Wright, Najla El Zein, Hans-Walter MĆ¼ller and Rachel Roddy.
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the most cozy newspaper delivered once a month, itās basically centered around infusing life with meaning by living in tune with the seasons. each monthās issue acts as a love letter to the present that expresses the themes at hand through musings on mindfulness, slow living, art, astrology, mythology, mysticism, history, health, spirituality, philosophy, AH. ITS JUST SO AMAZING
Nov 21, 2024
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A lot of work goes into the lifestyle/streetwear features in this magazine. Even though I canāt read Japanese, I like to flip through the photos and translate the pages one by one for outfit and travel inspiration
Jan 19, 2025
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Looks like youāre reading the sports section but itās actually an article about the glamor-butch aesthetic
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Believer rising from the ashes back to near the height of its power is amazing. Artforum still is generally good, tho I'll prob pivot to a different mag once my subscription is up.
Jan 16, 2025
Apr 18, 2024
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such a cool fashion/beauty/culture mag. I just wrote a piece for them and had suuuch a great time working with the EIC. Id highly recommend pitching them! Great experience
Dec 13, 2023
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Itās from Berlin/Vienna, but published in English.
The mix of visually splashy art and poetic essays is total brain food.
Spiek Art mag also dives into the philsophical "what does this even mean?!" of the art world. Perfect if youāre into deep deep dives and not just surface-level stuff.
It always fires up my imagination!
Nov 20, 2024
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So Iāve been debating which is more annoying: including this pretentious literary magazine which I authentically love OR excluding it and going with a more ārelatableā choice. Performative relatability is my favorite thing to make fun of in my videos so I opted for the former! Iāve loved it since reading this piece (The Unravlers) by the amazing Stephanie Danler. Itās impossible to love the Paris Review without getting shit on for it though. My friend Rebecca saw it peeking out of my purse when we were getting drinks recently and accused me of planting it. My other friend, Michael, accused me of only liking it because it contains the word āParisā which aids in my quest to appear chic and not from Idaho (which I am). And I said, āMichael, thatās absolutely ridiculous and also correct.ā
Sep 1, 2023
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Also: macguffin, dissent, Blau, interview
and: Just picked up a copy of the first shadowbanned magazine (pictured) at secret riso in Bushwick and she is GORGEOUS
Mar 20, 2025
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Simply the best publication ever ever ever for the lovers of everything gross and sexy and porous and sweaty and hot and funny
Unfortunately comes out whenever they put an issue together last one was more than 3 years ago :~( but its The absolute best chef kiss
Jan 16, 2025
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Love that over exaggerated style of the mag and itās a huge spread! Worth every penny imo
Jan 16, 2025
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i bought this issue (not my picture) some months ago and I still havenāt gotten through it. i enjoy looking at the ads and what people back then were talking about leisurely.
i feel like people think playboy is just smut but it really was just a menās magazine. the playmate photos are tasteful and lively, and even their interviews can tell you a lot
Jan 17, 2025
