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.
On the Outside
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Issue One Front Cover
This was the model’s first job; might have been her last too…
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Issue One Back Cover
For the first and not the last time, we didn’t sell the back cover to an advertiser; business acumen wasn’t our strong point, but it’s helpful to know that this issue came out in Spring 1993.
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Issue Two Front Cover
RuPaul had just released the single Supermodel (You’d Better Work); like much of the magazine at this stage the cover was a cut and paste job.
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Issue Three Front Cover
The photographer Rankin shot this all-black model cover as a counterpoint to Vogue magazine’s supermodel one shot by Peter Lindbergh in 1990.
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Issue Four Front Cover
Our friend Jenny agreed to this one while drunk and stoned late one night and fortunately didn’t renege on the deal in the clear light of day.
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Issue Five Front Cover
Michael had recently bought a large framed version of Tretchikoff’s Blue Lady in a car boot sale and we were all obsessed by her.
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Issue Six Front Cover
A great example of how we endeared ourselves to the rest of the fashion world. Loved us. They absolutely loved us.
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Issue Seven Front Cover
Perhaps my favourite BLOW cover, this was shot by Fiona Freund and was an updated spoof of the Nova magazine cover from September 1968. The cardboard pistol and handbag were made by Nina Chakrabarti.
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Issue Seven Back Cover
Although we’d sold some back covers to advertisers by this point, we must have been the only editors who were glad we hadn’t on this occasion. Fiona Freund reshot the model from behind and this was the rather stunning result.
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Issue Seven Back and Front covers
We may not have sold the back cover, but we’d managed to sell the spine to Sauza Tequila.
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Issue Eight Front Cover
This was our take-off of the iconic Charlie’s Angels logo, and our first cover in colour; the rest of the magazine remained in black and white.
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Issue Nine Front Cover
Another favourite of mine, and not only because along with Fiona Freund and Samson Soboye, I made clothes for a series of toilet dollies based on current couture collections.
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Issue Ten Front Cover
New logo and now perfect bound, we were attempting to take the magazine more mainstream. Colour pages and double-sided too.
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Issue Eleven Front Cover
As with the previous issue, the magazine’s logo was die-cut into the front cover. Great idea, but for the fact that a) it tore very easily and b) we couldn’t really sell the inside front cover.
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Issue Twelve Front Cover
An issue all about travel, I think it’s fair to say that by this time we’d lost our way a little. This was the last issue of BLOW to be produced.
Some of the Insides
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An OUT Page
From the iconic IN and OUT pages with which each issue began. Typically tongue in cheek, these were often the last pages to be created and designed. Normally Michael and me the night before production with a supply of joints and Häagen-Dazs.
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IN and OUT
Princess Margaret’s shoes were IN while the Queen Mother’s teeth were OUT. Obviously…
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Superwaif
Strip cartoon created by Chris Tappenden, who happens to be my cousin. No nepotism, though. Promise.
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Superwaif Concludes
An utterly BLOW ending to Chris Tappenden’s cartoon strip.
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Calvin Klein Ad; Sort Of...
Artist Duggie Fields (1945-2021) corrupted a series of adverts for us in his trademark manner by removing slices of heads and other body parts. The blood red shapes were the only colour in the whole of this issue.
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The Men Don't Escape
Duggie Fields wielded the axe with a sense of fairness and equal opportunity as can be seen from this take on Chanel’s Antaeus advert.
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On the Blower
Part of a series of pieces where we telephoned people to ask them the burning fashion question of the day - or at least we pretended we’d phoned people. The interpretation of Vivienne Westwood’s logo demonstrates the punk aesthetic of early BLOW’s graphic design.
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Moss Side
We loved Kate Moss at BLOW, and in this fashion shoot, David Bob (actually David Humphreys, but his hair was bobbed, and this was what we always called him) pissed off the people at Vogue magazine by another of his glorious collages.
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HELLO BOYS
The first part of a double page spread spoof of 1994’s Eva Herzigová Wonderbra ad. Photograph by Fiona Freund.
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HELLO BOYS
I telephoned Leigh Bowery and asked him if he’d like to take Eva Herzigová’s place and he was so keen to do it that he went to Marks & Spencer and bought his own bra and pant set. This image features in Tate Modern’s Leigh Bowery exhibition.
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Yours Sincerely, Doris Blow
Doris was my alter ego and she wrote letters of query and complaint to companies and the well-known. Here’s one of my favourite ones, her letter to Dame Barbara Cartland.
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Dear Mrs Blow
And here is Dame Barbara Cartland’s response which she sent along with…
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My Dog And I
… her poem, My Dog And I and…
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Love Barbara Cartland
A sub-Pierre et Gilles portrait of herself.
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SMACK Yes, Stars Love It
Another spoof advert, this time of Yves Saint Laurent’s perfume Opium; ours shot and designed by Fiona Freund and Taren McCallan respectively.
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I Suppose I am Vulnerable
David Bob at it again with his wonderful collage, this time putting Ivana Trump on the back of a scooter as part of our BLOW goes Hello! issue.
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LINDA Wears Top by Hanes
Linda Evangelista stars in a Pop Art illustrated fashion shoot by Louise Hilton (I think… we could be very lax when it came to crediting our contributors).