Marie Claire Philippines Maiden Issue

The maiden issue of the Philippine version of Marie Claire is positioning itself to the more upscale market that also wants to be known as being politically and socially aware of issues. As Editor-in-Chief Myrza Sison wrote in her editor’s letter page, “Marie Claire’s unique mix of subjects and stories is as unique as the woman you are—socially aware yet unabashedly fashion and beauty conscious, you’re a woman of substance with an eye for style.”

With this in mind, the maiden issue tackles some sticky issues as well as more entertaining ones such as dating and fashion.

With Iza Calzado on its cover, the royal from Encantadia was observed by Mari Lim in a week long marathon of shoots and appearances, and wrote her discoveries in an empowering piece entitled ‘The Incredible Lightness of Iza.’

‘25 Incredible Women Who Rock Our World’ were presented in a lighthearted manner, although their real lives are anything but, as we see women from broadcast journalism such as Maria Ressa to mathematician Queena Lee-Chua to Muslim women’s rights advocate Yasmin Busran-Lao smiling gamely for the camera.

And the ingenious makers of the bags made from recycled foil juice packs were revealed to be from Barangay de la Paz, who are part of a cooperative headed by Venus Pizana, and further interviewed by Owen L. Santos.

Cai Mariano’s personal account of how she was thrown out of a private Catholic girls’ school for being a lesbian made me remember a time in high school when I tried to write a piece about the girl-girl relationships for my school paper. Since it was also a private Catholic girls’ school, needless to say, I was not allowed to.

And the Chinese seem to have caught on to the financial advantages of plastic surgery, as Abigail Haworth investigated the women who joined the “Miss Plastic Surgery” contest in China and how the contestants are enjoying the money windfall from the decision to change their looks.

Susan Leonardo bravely takes on 7 dates in just 7 nights, and not only that, she was the one who asked the men out!

Although I understand that Marie Claire Philippines needs to clearly position itself among the numerous locally available magazines, I hope it graduates soon to its American counterpart style of service journalism, where there is interactive reading.

For example, from 4 pictures of couples, one is asked to guess which couple has been together for several years or who has just met, or which, among a group picture of guys, are really gay, etc. It just makes for a more involved kind of reading that is totally fun at the same time.

The American Marie Claire is the only magazine that I really read from cover to cover, but that pleasure is very rare because its astronomical price prohibits me from getting it, so the alternative is to just buy the old back issues when I have the time to search.

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