CCR QUESTION TWO

Interviewer: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Off The Rack podcast where, Each week, I invite a publisher over to spill the ink on their magazine—its vision, vibe, and the magic behind the pages. This week we are welcoming Medeyya Al Otaiba, all the way from Abu Dhabi, UAE, talking to us about her fashion magazine, Desire. 

 

Medeyya: Thank you for having me here, I can't wait to get started!

 

Interviewer: Let's get right to it then! Why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about your magazine and what makes it different from other magazines and most importantly what was your motivation for making this.

 

Medeyya: Well my magazine ‘Desire’ is a fashion magazine, we just published our first issue last week starring Alyazya AlQubais on the front cover, an extremely influential fashion icon. Our magazine covers all sorts of topics from fashion, celebrity news and beauty tips and tricks to the latest trends and style wars. Compared to other magazines we try to remain as reliable and unbiased as possible. In terms of why Desire is better than other magazines, we aim to release the most authentic and newest information which I just don't see with other magazines anymore. I really wanted to represent different social and ethnic backgrounds to make the magazine relatable while still being high-end. We typically try to appeal to an ABC1 demographic. And as for psychographics we try to appeal to, aspirers and achievers. We offer high-quality content so that readers can read informative articles on the latest fashion news and trends. We know what our audience wants to see and who we should interview and research for our next issue because of our interactive elements, including our social media links, where they can share what they would like to see and which influencers, celebrities, and products they would like to learn more about. That engages readers in and differentiates us from other fashion magazines. One of our main focuses is to raise awareness on the negative aspects of the fashion and beauty industry. we make sure to raise awareness on the racism, misogyny and sexism that happens all over the industry where women are constantly being objectified, i want to showcase the struggles of these very talented celebrities and influencers to everyone for them to understand how much harder it is for these people to rise and to give them a safe space to share their stories. As for my motivation, being a minority myself I always struggled to have a role model that was like me as a young Emarati / palestinian as I didn't fit the typical beauty standards I would always see on social media or TV because I obviously didn't look like those girls. The colours I used and my front cover are unconventional compared to usual magazines which would attract younger audiences. However there are articles from all ethnicities and ages therefore attracting a wide audience I wanted this magazine to give young girls a chance to find their identity and have people to aspire to. Because of this I tried my best to include as many minorities as possible to make this a diverse relatable magazine without conforming to any typical stereotypes around minorities. I know I would've loved to see something like this when I was a kid. 

 

Interviewer: So you wanted to make sure everyone has a place for them when reading, that's amazing Medeyya. Can you share more about the front cover and contents pages? I'm loving the whole clean look.

 

Medeyya: Of course, so for my front cover I wanted to avoid clutter and bring attention to Alyazya. It was so much fun dressing her up and getting different poses and I think using the embellished shoe really made a statement. The reason I didn't add so many coverlines was because fashion magazines have become so generic and basic nowadays and I really wanted to have a statement piece as my cover to engage people rather than the basic outfits I keep seeing. Also by bringing the attention to her she appears as dominant and empowering which is a contributing factor to the message i want to send out about women empowerment. 

 

Interviewer: I think giving it a cleaner look and not having so many coverlines is what makes it so engaging and different to other magazines. What about your contents page? I saw you had some interesting articles as well as some very pretty photos.

 

Medeyya: For my first content page I wanted it to be clean and organised which is unconventional for a fashion magazine as they are normally really cluttered but I did this intentionally to set my magazine apart from other magazines. However, I conformed to a typical magazine convention by having my front cover model, Alyazya, on the page as the main photo. I had her on the front cover doing a more professional look and then to contrast this on my contents page she is laughing making it more relatable and lively. In terms of articles, in my first content page I had, “bombino//noora - Can Noora capture the world's fabrics and bring them to your world?”. This makes the magazine more inclusive as I am making an article about magazines from all around the world so it will appeal to more people as well as the direct mode of address when we say “your world”. We did this in an attempt to reach a wider audience and make the magazine more inclusive. 

 

Interviewer: can i ask what was your favourite article to write?

 

Medeyya: Personally my favorite article to write was “Miriam's sunset desires”. It was beautiful seeing how Miriam combines culture, fabric and style. I felt when writing this article that it would truly influence many and inspire young girls to embrace themselves and their inner beauty. Despite miriam being a beautiful girl she is also an emarati/scottish style icon who shows girls that appearance doesn't matter as much as how you express yourself. As we can see the clothing Miriam is wearing is an overdramatic costume like statement and yet she still pulls it off. We did this intentionally to show style is subjective and it doesn't matter what you're wearing as long as you present it with confidence. This shows our efforts in making our magazine as inclusive as possible. However I also was very excited about the article on Hala. Gossip culture has become so negative in magazines and I wanted to add a gossip article but to set our magazine apart from  others I wanted it to be positive. For instance Halas article is about how she was seen wearing a vintage Dior statement piece. The article discusses how she looks amazing, this challenges gossip culture and spreads positivity about style. Hala is also an older model, i tried to get models from different ages, races and ethnic backgrounds to make audiences feel as included as possible. 

 

Interviewer: That is truly inspiring medeyya thank you for sharing. Im sure our listeners would love to read your issue after hearing this, where can they find it?

 

Medeyya: In terms of distribution our magazine will be distributed by Conde Nast. Conde-nast is known for high-end, luxurious, and aspirational magazines. It is a good conglomerate for a target audience that is middle to upper middle class because of its experience with both luxurious and relatable magazines. The company is also well known in both men's and women's fashion, and its magazines have a reputation for creative, high-quality visuals. When we were first letting teasers out for our magazine and we reached out to them they were so supportive and the experience has truly been amazing. They have been extremely helpful with promotions and advertising. However so have our models, as we know many of the models we have in Desire are very influential figures in the fashion industry and have been so supportive of promoting the first issue. This whole experience has been amazing and we here at Desire would like to thank all our readers for their support, we can not thank you enough and we can't wait to release our next issue. 

 

Interviewer: Wow that was truly all so inspiring and I can't wait to see what you come up with next. Unfortunately that is all we have time for today, thank you everyone for tuning in and we hope to see you soon medeyya.