Research of websites: Elle

To develop my knowledge of fashion websites before I started to plan my own, I researched various fashion magazine websites and analysed them to identify and repeated conventions or codes.

Elle:

The first website I researched was Elle. Along the top of the page there is a large grey banner with the masthead inside of it. This is the first thing that draws the audience’s attention on this page and it does so on purpose to remind the audience of the brand and create a strong sense of brand identity. However, the grey colour used is not a stereotypical feminine colour, suggesting they are not a brand that follows stereotypes. The masthead itself is very simple and elegant using a serif font with capital letters in white, making the masthead stand out against the darker background. At the right side of the banner is an image of a model with dramatic, blown out hair. This sets the theme for the magazines website immediately as revolving around beauty, style and women. The model used represents the stereotypical woman as she is slim, pretty and has long hair. This portrays Elle as a more traditional brand.

Below the masthead there is a navigation bar which allows the user to find what they are looking for quickly and conveniently. Here the brand name is repeated, reinforcing brand identity. The first tab that the user can click on is “Fashion” clearly demonstrating that Fashion is the most important aspect of this brand. Alongside this is “Beauty”, “Culture”, “Life & Love” and “Horoscopes”. All of these options are subjects that are stereotypically feminine and cliché in women’s magazines, displaying how the brand adheres to traditional conventions. At the right of the navigation bar there is an option to “subscribe” or “follow” or search. All of these encourage the audience to engage with the website and be interactive with the brand.

Underneath the navigation bar there is a variety of articles that the user can click on to read that change continuously, further encouraging the reader to use the website fully. Each article has a small image that relates to it making the website more colourful and more entertaining to look at. As they are all different colours it implies that there is no strict colour theme used. Furthermore, as the articles relate to celebrities and makeup it shows the key interests of young women.

The next subject of the website is a large advert across the middle of the page advertising another brand, “Morgan”, a women’s fashion brand, reinforcing the idea that fashion is the main aspect of this brand. This links to Curran and Seatons theory as the magazine will "respond to the concerns of the readers" and as it is a fashion magazine the readers concerns will be fashion and buying clothes.

Down the rest of the page are links to various different articles relating to fashion, beauty, celebrities and more serious news such as politics. This contrasts the earlier theme that was set as it portrays that women too are interested in politics and not just in fashion and beauty, as the magazine will respond to the concerns of the readers, therefore these hard hitting issues are clearly important to young women of today.