FJ Issue 200 is out today, read the editor’s letter

A milestone edition.

Pierced nipples. Thick side fringes. In and Out lists. Peplum dresses in blurry party photos. Fashion Journal has been around since before many of you were born.

To celebrate our 200th edition, we’ve spent the past month rummaging through the archives, tracing FJ’s lore all the way back to its first issue from 1992. Then known as Fashion Quarterly, it appeared as a 32-page insert in Beat Magazine, sporting a black pinstriped Bettina Liano suit on its tri-tone newsprint cover.

For more shoots, articles and features, head to our Fashion section.

From its inception, publisher Rob Furst had a clear vision:

“To bring together people who think about, look at, buy and wear fashion with those who design, manufacture and retail it. To give people who care what they look like a feel for who and what’s around and to have a bit of fun while we’re at it!

In this respect, Fashion Quarterly leaves the high-quality, low-circulation, national glossies for dead. Localised, on the street, free and relevant to a broad cross-section of inner urbanities. Because FQ is where you go – bars, clubs, pubs, cafes, record shops, theatres, cinemas, retailers and so on.”

Over 34 years in print, FJ has remained true to that spirit, championing emerging designers and voices with a distinctly local perspective. Free distribution also allowed its editors to take risks – you’ll see plenty of evidence of that in this issue.

Looking back through past editorials, it was a pleasure to come across familiar names who have returned to contribute to this milestone edition: Jordan Drysdale, Kirsty Barros and Lyndal Salmon, among others.

In Issue 200, we honour the legacy of Australia’s underground fashion collectives, speak to an artist in the midst of transformation and explore nostalgia, both as a source of comfort and as a force that can keep us tethered to the past.

Looking forward often requires looking back. Yet too much navel-gazing risks losing sight of the present. If anything, assembling this issue has left us feeling energised and more committed than ever to evolving the legacy of Fashion Journal.

Thanks for sticking with us, for discovering us and, most importantly, for helping shape who we are.

Thousands of copies of Fashion Journal are distributed for free across Melbourne and Sydney. You’ll find it at retail spaces, salons, studios, cinemas, cafes and bars. Keep an eye on our Instagram to see the closest stockist near you.

To browse past issues of Fashion Journal head here.