Saturday, March 7, 2009

Super Nova


Here at Black we like to remember and respect good magazines from days gone by - call it research. One that has popped up somewhat ubiquitously for us lately is Nova Magazine. In the 1960s Nova was the number one style bible in Britain with a fashion-leading brand legacy that lasted well into the '70s and beyond. Nova wasn't just your average light-as-Twiggy mini-skirt mag though. Nova had a voice and tackled some of the 'issues' of the time head-on. Feminism, homosexuality and racism were all addressed with serious and sometimes controversial features and if that isn't one of the best cover lines of all time (above), to illustrate the fact, then we don't know what is.

The magazine ran its natural course for 10 years until its closure in 1975. Unfortunately, IPC the publishers and owners of the masthead decided in a moment of confusion to resurrect the title in 2000. Large publishers it seems often mis-read the market, timing or even validity of magazines they launch and Nova 2000 died a year later. Best let sleeping mags lie...