The Face

You know processed cheese...cliched symbol of consumerism that you love really...well 'The Face' is exactly that for me. It stands for everything that is morally corrupt in society, parading itself as a taste-making institution that has the power to influence the way people see the world. And it does, if it runs a fashion piece then it is guranteed that the whole of Hoxton will be wering the style faster than you can say 'sucker'. One week customised denim is the thing...so you go out and spend your well earned media money on a £159 on a pair of Helmut Lang jeans and then the next week they're at the bottom of their barometer which tells people ...  Read the complete review

Not the current one with that bloke from gladiator on the cover. The one before that. I stopped reading The Face over a year ago (around the same time they stopped printing Grab the Freebies) but, faced with a long train journey (colchester to london, about three hours these days...) and heving read everything else I was interested in in WH Smiths that month, decided to give it another go. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The sex feature was interesting and original, and just about every page in the news section contained something which I found thought provoking or clever. When I've blagged another few 20p's off passing strangers I'll invest in the most recent ...  Read the complete review

I have bought The Face in the past because of its up-to-the-minute coverage of music, films, clubs and youth culture. Occassionally the magazine contains very perceptive coverage of current events. However what has put me off is the self-conscious trend-hopping that the magazine seems to engage in. One month somethings "in" and the next its all but forgotten. I know that in a sense this is the nature of popular culture but nevertheless I think that the publication is too extreme in its desire to be "with it". Ultimately I feel intimidated by the aspirational lifestyle that the magazine pushes (evidenced by the ludicrous quantity of ...  Read the complete review

Lured by the cute free button badges on the shrinkwrapped cover, I got the latest copy of The Face (September issue)and wondered if it had improved since the tragic downward spiral it had taken the last time I got it (a couple of years ago). It's all pretty much the same standard fare of 'style' mags - lots of arty pictures, unusual fonts and weird ways of laying out text on the page. It's hardly cutting edge. Having said that, I did enjoy the fashion spreads. I may never be able to afford (or, indeed, want to spend) several hundred pounds on a ripped t-shirt, but it does give you some interesting ideas, especially for hair and makeup. ...  Read the complete review

I used to regularly buy this mag in the late eighties and early nineties, perhaps because during that period youth culture as a whole was going through a major upheaval with the advent of underground dance music and free parties, and The Face did a very good job in reflecting this progression. Maybe it's because youth culture itself has become so homogenised and mainstream, but The Face now seems to be totally irrelevant despite a recent shake up at the company formerly known as Wagadon (now emap elan east -just rolls of the tongue, doesn't it ?) Anyway, a new editor and some pretentious fashion spreads aren't going to save this once mighty ...  Read the complete review