Classic Style

I feel sorry for Classic Style magazine, publisher Michael Key's noble effort to put out a menswear magazine with the quality of earlier exemplars in the genre (notably M in the Eighties). The first three issues hit just the right tone, with pleasant articles, ads, and photo-spreads. The fourth issue sounded an ominous note by putting Jon Hamm on the cover in contemporary togs instead of one of his gorgeous Mad Men outfits, but was otherwise consistent. Then there was a long gap between the fourth and fifth issues as Key scrambled for advertiser support and was publicly subjected to subscriber pressure on his message board The Fedora Lounge. Ultimately he put out the fifth issue, which he asserted would be the magazine's best, as a gesture, still operating way in the red. He might have saved himself the trouble, because this issue is sadly the magazine's least as well as its last.

The niche is just too small, both in readers and potential advertisers, to sustain a glossy print publication in these times (although Key points out that even many of the likeliest advertisers did not ante up at his reasonable rates). The lack of advertising is felt keenly in Issue #5, which has shrunk to 66 pages from the earlier issues' 82 pages.The articles are fair, although I could have done without the excursion into Michael-Medved-land, "Hollywood's Cheating Heart" (never presume that traditionalists in dress are conservative in other ways; you'll be surprised).

But the real gap in #5 is that there is just not enough clothing. Each of the earlier issues had one or two photo-spreads; this one has none, presumably because Key couldn't afford the shoots and clothiers did not come forward with their goods. Without the clothing on display, the magazine lacks point. And so it goes down.