Is Colures Magazine an answered prayer?

The short answer is YES!

Like a few of you I've been stalking magazine stands waiting in vain to get my own copy of Vogue Italia. While hanging out at the bookstore last weekend I noticed that they were carrying Colures Magazine. I'd first heard about it from a poster on Racialicious but stopped short or ordering a few copies because the price was a bit steep at $20 an isse (the magazine in printed in the UK.)

Barnes & Noble had it for $7.99 so I scooped it up (along with the new issue of BITCH) immediately. I half way expected it to read like another UK magazine Black Pride that I've picked up on occassion but found Colures to be more of what I was looking for in a black fashion and lifestyle magazine. Really, it is worth every penny. The extremely high quality magazine looks and feels like Flaunt or Black Book but for brown people. It's printed on heavy magazine stock and the overwhelming majority of the content is original (photo spreads included.)

What caught my eye immediately is that in spite of an article with Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child, the cover features the gorgeous model Jessica White who appears in a sultry multipage spread that would put Essence Magazine to shame. Visually, the magazine is very appealling. One complaint I always had about the dearly departed Suede Magazine was that the layout was often cluttered like someone in the editing department had gone mad with clipart application. Not so here where the lines are very clean and eyecatching. There are a few celebrity features but the magazine isn't overtaken with them which for me is a plus. I hate reading a fashion magazine and seeing pictures or references that I read on the Internet months before. 

The overall editorial content is very strong with articles on everything from bridal lingerie and bell hooks, to travel, food intolerance and of course fashion - pages and pages of it. I loved the profile on Sandra Teichman which proved that someone can be beautiful and have a career that doesn't involve taking a puppy shopping in your oversized handgbag. Which isn't to say that there isn't also a page or two devoted to those bags and where to get them. 

Really it's that good, not perfect, but as close as any effort in recent memory has come.

One somewhat disturbing note is that aside from a few haircare and travel ads, there isn't a lot of advertising. In spite of the high price tag clothing worn by Jessica and some of the other models, none of those designers bought any space which is troublesome in a magazine of this quality...because it sure as hell wasn't produced on the cheap. 

I really implore you to call around and see if your local bookstore carries the title and please buy it. I would hate to see something like this not get a chance to really find its voice or its audience.

You can also order from the Colures website here.