''BLITZ'' was a British fashion and culture magazine published between 1980 and 1991.
Its contributors included the writers
Paul Morley
Paul Robert Morley is an English music journalist. He wrote for the ''New Musical Express'' from 1977 to 1983 and has since written for a wide range of publications as well as writing his own books. He was a co-founder of the record label ZTT R ...
,
Susannah Frankel
Susannah Frankel is a British fashion journalist and writer who, since the 1980s, has worked with a number of newspapers and publications. She was the leading journalist chosen by the Fashion Museum, Bath, to choose the defining Dress of the Year o ...
Simon Garfield
Simon Frank Garfield (born 19 March 1960) is a British journalist and non-fiction author.
Biography
Garfield was born in London in 1960.Fiona Russell Powell and Paul Mathur; photographers included Nick Knight, Russell Young, Gillian Campbell, Marcus Tomlinson, Pete Moss and Julian Simmonds; editorial staff included Tim Hulse and Bonnie Vaughan; its fashion editors were
Iain R. Webb
Iain R. Webb is a British writer, curator and academic, appointed Professor of Fashion & Design at Kingston School of Art in 2016, also an associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins and Bath Spa University.
Webb studied fashion design at St Ma ...
(from 1982 to 1987) and Kim Bowen (1987 to 1989). Jeremy Leslie was responsible for the graphic design of the magazine from 1984 to 1989.
History
''BLITZ'' was the creation of two 20-year-old Oxford University undergraduates, Carey Labovitch and Simon Tesler. They launched the first issue in A3 format at the beginning of their second year, in September 1980, selling copies through newsagents and at street markets including
Covent Garden Market
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site ...
in London. The magazine was initially quarterly. However, the third issue was accepted by
WH Smith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and ...
for national distribution, prompting a substantial increase in print run, and also won the Guardian/NUS Student Media award for Best Graphics in 1981. This encouraged Labovitch and Tesler to take BLITZ professional at the end of their final year in 1982. At the same time the format of BLITZ was slimmed down to a traditional expanded
A4 format
A4 most often refers to:
*A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm
A4 and variants may also refer to:
Science and mathematics
* British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...
to fit standard newsagents' shelves, and frequency was increased to alternate monthly, and then monthly.
Throughout its life BLITZ had a reputation for being the most "arty" of the style magazines,. Though the main thrust of its editorial content was in the populist areas of music, film and fashion, subject matter also diversified widely into politics, true crime, art theory, philosophy and graphic design. Its cover stars included
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singe ...
,
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
, Duran Duran's
Simon Le Bon
Simon John Charles Le Bon (born 27 October 1958) is a British singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the new wave band Duran Duran and its offshoot Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British ...
Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
; but also artists
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, (born 8 March 1943) is an English television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 (1 ...
and author
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir '' ...
. The magazine interviewed musicians, actors and filmmakers including Madonna,
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...
,
Siouxsie
Susan Janet Ballion (born 27 May 1957), known professionally as Siouxsie Sioux, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. She was the lead singer of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976–1996). They released 11 ...
.
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s.
Towns ...
,
Charlotte Rampling
Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model.
She was cast in the role ...
,
Paul Weller
Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/ mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul m ...
,
Daniel Day-Lewis
Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...
,
Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.
Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in '' The Le ...
and
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominat ...
; the politicians
Norman Tebbit
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit (born 29 March 1931) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Tr ...
,
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was Local Government Act 1985, abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the ...
,
Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, (born 8 March 1930) is a British Conservative Party politician who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1979 to 1995.
A career diplomat and political secretary to ...
and
Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not ...
; writers
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...
,
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century.
Specializing in English and women's literatu ...
,
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...
; the artist
Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Anthony Scarfe (born 1 June 1936) is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He has worked as editorial cartoonist for ''The Sunday Times'' and illustrator for ''The New Yorker''.
His other work includes graphics for rock group Pink Flo ...
Max Wall
Max Wall (12 March 1908 – 21 May 1990) was an English actor and comedian whose performing career covered music hall, films, television and theatre.
Early years
Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successful music hall ente ...
and travel reporter
Alan Whicker
Alan Donald Whicker (2 August 1921 – 12 July 2013) was a British journalist and Television presenter, television presenter and broadcaster. His career spanned almost 60 years, during which time he presented the documentary televisio ...
; writers
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for novels about a barrister named Horace Rumpole.
Early life
Mortimer was born in Hampstead, Londo ...
and
Keith Waterhouse
Keith Spencer Waterhouse (6 February 1929 – 4 September 2009) was a British novelist and newspaper columnist and the writer of many television series.
Biography
Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. ...
; sportsmen such as darts champion
Eric Bristow
Eric John Bristow, (25 April 1957 – 5 April 2018), nicknamed "The Crafty Cockney", was an English professional darts player.
He was ranked World No. 1 by the World Darts Federation a record five times, in 1980, 1981 and 1983–1985. He was ...
and cricketer
Ian Botham
Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham, (born 24 November 1955) is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser.
Hailed as on ...
; and the criminals
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
and
Reggie Kray
Ronald Kray (24 October 193317 March 1995) and Reginald Kray (24 October 19331 October 2000) were identical twin brothers, gangsters and convicted criminals. They were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in the East End of London, Engl ...
.
In 1986, fashion editor Iain R Webb commissioned twenty designers to customise a
Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, ...
denim jacket in their own style. Among those who agreed to create a jacket were Jean Muir, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, Katharine Hamnett, Joseph, Betty Jackson, John Galliano, Hermes' Eric Bergere and performance artist Leigh Bowery. This was originally conceived as purely a magazine feature, but the finished jackets formed the centrepiece of an event at the
Albery Theatre Albery is a name. It may refer to:
;People by given name
* Albery Allson Whitman (1851−1901), African American poet, minister and orator
;People by surname:
*A. S. Albery, British politician
* Bronson Albery (1881−1971), English theatre direct ...
in London, with appearances by Boy George, actress
Miranda Richardson
Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress. She made her film debut playing Ruth Ellis in '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985) and went on to receive Academy Award nominations for '' Damage'' (1992) and '' Tom & Viv'' (1994). ...
, singers
Nick Heyward
Nicholas Heyward (born 20 May 1961) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He came to international attention in the early 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter for Haircut One Hundred. He and the band parted ways after their first al ...
and
Adam Faith
Terence Nelhams Wright (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), known as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. A teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK Singles Chart with " What Do You Want?" (1959) and " ...
, models
Marie Helvin
Marie Helvin (born August 13, 1952) is a British-based American former fashion model, who worked extensively with David Bailey—to whom she was married between 1975 and 1985. In the 1970s and 1980s, she appeared in many fashion stories for Br ...
and
Margaux Hemingway
Margaux Louise Hemingway (born Margot Louise Hemingway; February 16, 1954 – July 1, 1996) was an American fashion model and actress. She gained success as a supermodel in the mid-1970s, appearing on the covers of magazines including ''Cosmopo ...
, and the band
Curiosity Killed the Cat
Curiosity Killed the Cat was a British pop band that achieved success in the UK in the late 1980s, with hit singles such as " Down to Earth", " Misfit" and " Ordinary Day", from their No. 1 debut album, ''Keep Your Distance''. This was follow ...
. The jackets then went on show to the public in a three-month summer exhibition at the
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
. Proceeds from the Albery Theatre show and the subsequent auction of all 22 jackets were donated to the
Prince's Trust
The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...
.
Another offshoot from the main magazine was the publication by Ebury Press in 1987 of Exposure!, a book of black and white portrait and fashion photographs from the first seven years of Blitz, accompanied by an exhibition of prints from the book in the 20th Century Gallery of the V&A.
The economic boom period of the later 1980s saw the magazine at its peak both commercially and creatively. However, it was ill-prepared for the recession which followed in 1990. Unlike its two main rivals, who had by then secured financial backing from larger publishers, Labovitch and Tesler had chosen to remain wholly independent. The sudden and precipitous downturn in advertising proved disastrous for the magazine and it was forced to close in May 1991 after its 103rd issue.
A large quantity of its photographic and other content is now held in the archive of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
A resurgence of interest in the fashion and design of the 1980s led to a series of retrospective events in the summer of 2013. These included the publication of a hardback book by Iain R Webb of his work for the magazine, As Seen In Blitz (ACC Publishing Group); followed by a weekend of events and talks at the ICA in London. Six of the Blitz Designer Jackets from 1986, which had been purchased by the V&A, formed part of that museum's summer 2013 exhibition Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s.Exhibitions /ref>