Dazed
Dazed & Confused is a British style magazine, set up in 1991 and published monthly. Its founding editors were Jefferson Hack and Rankin. Topics covered include music, fashion, film, art and literature.
With the demise of both The Face and Sleazenation, it now exists alongside old rivali-D. However both titles now face strong competition from newer British style publications such as Super Super magazine, Marmalade Magazine and Amelia's Magazine, whilst US competitors include Nylon magazine and V magazine amongst others.
Beginning as black & white folded poster published sporadically the magazine soon turned full colour, promoted with London club nights. The combination of Jefferson Hack's eye for emerging scenes and talent, Rankin's growing reputation for celebrity portraiture, inventive graphic design and an inspirational fashion team brought a reputation that belied the magazine's small distribution.
This reputation attracted cover stars such as Richard E. Grant (issue #11), Jarvis Cocker (issue #15) long-time collaborator Björk (#16) and in a coup for the magazine, Radiohead's Thom Yorke interviewing himself in issue #19.
Throughout the 90s the magazine's influence grew as its format evolved and the reputations of those it had championed early in their careers blossomed. Among its many international magazine cover firsts Dazed counts Alicia Keys (June 2001, #78; view it here [1] on page 6), Jake Gyllenhaal (#98), Hilary Swank (#64), Eminem (#66) and Pharrell Williams (#101), all of whom have gone on to huge international success.
Liz Tilberis (former editor of Harper's Bazaar) accused Dazed & Confused of promoting anorexia and negative images of women in her autobiography [citation needed], with favouritism towards skeletal young women (and men) appearing in its fashion shoots being one of the primary factors.
The magazine has also supported social causes and encouraged debate with issues such as its 1998 Fashion-Able issue (#46) and 2004's South Africa Issue (#115), the former dealing with perceptions of beauty and disability and the latter with the state of the country ten years after apartheid and the AIDS crisis throughout Africa.
The world of style magazines is often derided for its shallow pretence, as evidenced by satires such as Nathan Barley (which featured the fictitious Sugar Ape magazine).
Looking to move beyond the printed page in 1999 Dazed Film & TV was founded, a production company that would produce the first mast-head television broadcast ever, the 1 hour special Renegade TV Gets Dazed, for Channel 4. In 2001 the Dazed Group, as it styled itself, launched the luxury bi-annual Another Magazine. In 2005 the Group launched AnOther Man, a bi-annual fashion title for men.
In November 2006 Dazed launched a new web based strand of the magazine entitled DazedDigital.com, an Ideas Sharing Network that delivers fashion, film, music and art news and special online events.
