Portfolio

DAMON ALBARN, THE FACE MAGAZINE, MAY 1994

Who was on the cover of the first issue you bought? Annie Lennox? Sade? The Spice Girls? Or were you there from the beginning and Jerry Dammers of the Specials?

For nearly a quarter of a century the Face was required reading for anyone who was interested in music and fashion and culture in general. Launched in 1980 by Nick Logan, it was perfectly placed to chart the style-conscious decade that followed.

In fact, as Paul Gorman’s extensive new history of the magazine reminds us, the Face did more than most to raise that consciousness.

“It was like Wikipedia to me,” says British fashion editor Ashley Heath. “Every month I’d pick up a copy and understand two things but come across 200 more which I would investigate and then join the dots between them.”

The magazine introduced readers to new acts such as Sade and Neneh Cherry and, through the work of stylists like Ray Petri and Judy Blame (both members of the Buffalo Collective) reshaped our ideas of men’s fashion and, indeed, masculinity. It never sold in huge numbers but its influence was huge.

“That the Face revolutionised both the production and consumption of media is indisputable,” Gorman writes in his preface. But revolutions don’t last and when the magazine became part of the Emap group in 1999 it struggled to retain its mojo. The last issue was dated April 2004.

Earlier this year Mixmag Media announced that they had acquired the rights to publish an online version of the magazine. Do we need the Face in 2017? That remains to be seen. In 1987 and 1997 it was pretty near essential.

Taken from The Story of the Face by Paul Gorman, published by Thames & Hudson, priced £34.95