As an avid reader of the broad spectrum of women’s magazines, I was
doubtful that I would find anything I hadn’t seen before in Frank, the
new publication from Wagadon. Frank aims to appeal to the British woman
who ’stands alone in her sense of humour, her eclectic sense of style
and her intelligent, irreverent approach to life’. (Great, so why am I
reviewing it?) Frank invites its readers to love it or hate it - the
most damning thing would be to call it ’nice’.
From the moment I saw the cover, I realised this magazine was
different. Rather than the usual grinning lovely, it featured a model
whose expression looked rather like that of a rabbit caught in the
headlights of an oncoming car. First opinion - I hated the front cover.
The model looked vulnerable; I would rather she looked strong and in
control.
Frank is well written and stuffed with articles but, for me, that was
part of the problem. Six consecutive interviews in the opening pages of
the magazine made it hard going initially.
The highlight of the publication was the fashion. It was so totally
different from anything I’d seen before. The various photo shoots must
have been riotous. The photographs of a heavily pregnant model with her
not-very-neat bump proudly protruding between a see-through top and a
flimsy skirt made me laugh out loud - I loved it.
If you want to see pages offering any kind of practical or emotional
advice, Frank is not the place to look. If, on the other hand, you want
to have a good read and are prepared to persevere with some of the more
obscure articles (I thought the picture of a dead bird in a state of
advanced decay was a tad distasteful) then give it a try.
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