Portrait of a consumer in a fashionable publication of the XIX century and its reflection on modern editorial policy

The substantive part of the first issue of the “Vestnik of fashion” fashion magazine, dated 1885, has been studied. The mechanism of consumer formation and further transformation into a buyer from the potential readership of the magazine, consisting of representatives of the noble class, has been revealed. The analysis of the text materials and the commercial component of the magazine made it possible to form an image of a potential female reader, including her values and social characteristics, as well as to highlight the linear editorial policy concept, which the author proposes to implement into scientific circulation. Based on the linear editorial policy, modern independent Russian fashion publications have been studied for their commitment to forming a certain readership based on social characteristics. The analysis showed that the historical approach of applying linear editorial policy in such fashion publications is reflected fragmentally and heterogeneously, due to the lack of differentiation of the readership by gender or any other social characteristics. The instillation of the need to comply with established norms in the world of French fashion in the 1885 edition has been observed in the modern publications in the context of the expediency of matching the reader’s lifestyle mainly related to the premium class. The gender characteristics of the readership in the second half of the XIX century shifted towards professional and socio-cultural characteristics at the present time, which defines the portrait of a fashion periodical consumer.

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