tulle issue 2 review

My long time wish has come true – we have finally seen one of the new Japanese magazines that feature Lolita and other Harajuku fashions live to issue 2! And frankly, I’m not surprised that of the three we’ve had so far it’s tulle that outdid its competition. I said it from the beginning, the lower price, even at the cost of no freebie, was a strong point in tulle’s favour. So how does it compare to issue 1?

As always, I ordered via Amazon JP with direct postage to the UK. With tulle costing only ¥690 inclusive of VAT, the whole thing again came to just around or just below £10 total. By now we all know the drill, so let’s not dwell on that.

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What I’m most pleasantly surprised about is that there seems to be a bit more content in issue 2 than in issue 1. This is exactly what I had hoped would happen! There is still the exact same number of pages, however, whilst issue 1 felt very much like previews only, issue 2 seems to have a bit more substance to it. Right at the beginning you get a whole 4-page feature interview with Kamentotsu, a manga artist behind the viral Koguma no Keeki-ya-san (literally Little Patisserie Bear or Little Bear’s Patisserie). The outfit snaps pages also include one from the exclusive limited café tulle has created in collaboration with Misako Aoki with a little blurb about that project. So while altogether this is probably about the same amount of readable content as in issue 1, it’s more in depth and to me seems like a step in the right direction.

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The rest is the usual stuff: plenty of previews and hair and makeup tutorials. I like the addition of the contact lenses features and that the hair tutorials this time are more elaborate and explicitly intended for wigs. Although probably not much use for a non-East Asian reader, tulle’s domestic audience in Japan can see roughly how the various colours of the lenses might look on them, it’s a nice touch. Whilst for the editors it’s mostly product placement, for the reader it’s a nice acknowledgement of the fact that many wearers of Harajuku fashions use contacts and wigs as a fashion accessory.

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Personally I feel that issue 1 featured a couple more boystyle and edgier looks than we see in issue 2, which overall has a much softer, more feminine feel to it. This could be to do with tulle narrowing down who their audience is or simply to do with the seasonal fashion change – what was trendy in December 2017 obviously isn’t going to be trendy in May 2018. I guess it will take at least a few more issues for us to determine which one is it.

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I guess the question now is: will I continue buying tulle? I think so. Like I said before, the lower price justifies simpler content with narrower focus. Besides, as the only post-KERA/GLB publication so far to survive past issue 1 I would like to support it further to see how it will develop. Once it’s established enough for us to determine what kind of a magazine tulle wants to be, then I’ll see if I still want to purchase it. For now it has me intrigued.

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Did you purchase either issue 1 or 2 of tulle? How do you feel about it? Do you think that it will evolve and expand its content at all or is this what we’re going to regularly get from now on?