BLOW magazine

My journalism career started in the 1990s with a swift rise to pre-eminence—or so it appeared—when I was finalist in the writing section of the Vogue talent contest two years running. Following this I spent a month doing work experience on the magazine. The glittery daydreams of a career spent in Vogue House tarnished when I managed to insult Lord Snowdon twice in quick succession. However, these incidents helped me to see that I might not have to take fashion quite so seriously.

In fact, these weeks were the spur I needed in order to join forces with Michael Oliveira-Salac to create, run and edit the satirical fashion magazine, BLOW. Nobody was more surprised than we were when it swiftly became a cult hit, famous for the iconic ‘in’ and ‘out’ lists which topped it, for the letters from Doris Blow (Mrs) which tailed it, and for much in between.

All of its pages were used to take the piss out of the fashionable world, from the fake issue of Hello! magazine to an all-black version of British Vogue’s five supermodels cover; from a quiz called Match the Tranny with the Granny to adulterated fashion shoots in which body hair would be added to supermodels (or weight would, or a smoking joint hanging from Kate Moss’s lips); from a reshoot of the Wonderbra Hello Boys advert in which we replaced Eva Herzigova with Leigh Bowery to a visit to Croatia where we reported on the many delights of the first post-Balkan-war fashion weeks, BLOW magazine slaughtered many of fashion’s sacred cows.

Copies of the magazine are now rare collectables, occasionally appearing for sale online and often selling for three figure sums.