About

a cloth-covered button is the brainchild of two relatively gin-soaked Melbourne editors (and fashion tragics), who were sick of reading advertorial disguised as analysis. They got together one night in a South Yarra apartment and decided to make a magazine that reflected the intellectual curiosity of their peers – people whose interest in art, culture, music and design was reflected in the independent magazine market, but whose love of clothing was for some reason ignored. You know – a fashion magazine that wasn’t completely condescending and shit.

The magazine, as well as being an outlet for intelligent and provoking fashion writing, was conceived as a community project of sorts, a venue for underground and emerging writers and artists to comment on the design culture of their city. The vast majority of contributors are Melbourne based; a few are published for the first time, while others publish or exhibit widely. What they all have in common is a deep understanding of Melbourne’s design subculture, and an interest in the ethical, political, cultural and environmental implications of clothing.

a cloth-covered button is keen to maintain its editorial independence, and as such does not publish advertorial or solicit advertising from companies it sees as being in conflict with its ethos. It does not use models or airbrush or otherwise distort photographs, believing that holding readers captive to an unattainable beauty standard is counterproductive to its values.

It is printed using recycled paper and environmentally sustainable inks, and being a biannual publication, is designed to stay in circulation for longer than the archetypal, trend-driven, disposable fashion magazine. Most of all, its point of difference is in that its only trade is in ideas – and the only thing it is designed to sell is good writing and illustration.