Besides being part of my final year project at Birmingham City University, creating my own online fashion magazine was something I always had my mind set on doing at some point in my life, and when the opportunity arose, I decided to take it.
Merely viewing my endless towering piles of fashion magazines, slight addiction to Instagram and vast streams of fashion content in my internet history, would be enough to see why. And so, several moodboards, a dash of web development and a cup of imagination later birthed Street Chic Magazine.
Street Chic Magazine is an online destination for all your fashion inspiration and style needs. Based in Birmingham, it provides solely high-street fashion content; aimed towards the forward-thinking modern-day woman, with an enthusiastic interest in feeding her inner Street Chic etiquette and leading a visually captivating life.
Launched in February of this year, the whole process of Street Chic Magazine, from pre-production to post-production, took a total of seven months. Beginning with market research, followed by quantitative and qualitative audience research, the online magazine was founded by discovering a gap in the market.
Facebook post: Street Chic Magazine Spring Lookbook montage | Visit SS16 Lookbook here
A gap that could be filled with a West Midlands based publication that owns a niche edge of producing solely fashion content regarding the high-street only (hence the name), while being of interest to a mass audience with a friendly, informative, intelligent and relatable in-house writing and visual style.
There are many publications existing already, whether that be print or online, which focus on upmarket fashion or a mixture of both upmarket and high-street. Yet, there lacked a presence of a publication that concentrates on just high-street fashion, for more affordable prices, and ways to style it to look just as classy and head-turning as the more high-end attire; your own personal burst of outfit inspiration, fashion news and style tips readily available online for whenever you may need it.
Street Chic Magazine flyer | Business card mock up | April Email Newsletter | Athleisure and 90’s fashion outfit inspiration collages | Experiments with potential logo designs
The creation of the magazine was all led by myself, including the web layout, planning and composition of articles, management of its various social media accounts and building of contacts via networking, all of which were – and still are – driven by my skills gained from past university modules, first-hand experience of the industry and own creative knowledge and ambitions.
Several fellow students contributed to what the magazine is today in the form of photography for lookbook photoshoots, modelling outfits and additional writers for various articles. While most of the editorial content was constructed through my use of following leads, interviewing local stylists, designers and store owners, my enthusiastic fashion awareness and media law understanding.
Behind the scenes of our SS16 lookbook (Geek Chic outfit shoot) | Instagram flat lay for How to style jeans edit
As well as this publication encapsulating all that I have learnt these past three years in higher education as a journalism specialist, it also showcases the direction I would like to follow in the future as a graduate and what I can offer.
Throughout the whole process I believe I’ve demonstrated a variety of technical, journalistic and research skills to generate a sustainable online magazine that fills an interesting and worthwhile gap. The opportunity to create such a publication was something I always anticipated on doing, initially I wanted to set up my own fashion blog, but specialising in journalism at Birmingham City University has inspired me to absolutely take up online fashion journalism as a career.
Creating Street Chic Magazine has also helped me with my plans beyond graduation – besides choosing to carry on establishing SCM, as I believe it has potential – but to aim towards working at a fashion magazine (Hello! Fashion, Grazia or Glamour would be really quite nice) and to be a journalist for a leading city news publication, where my enthusiasm and creativity would allow me to progress.
You can see more of Street Chic Magazine by following us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, see you there!
CHARLOTTE SMITH 
