Fusian Magazine

FUSIAN magazine launched this month, promising to be "the magazine made for the British Asian woman of today". I got my copy the day after it launched and here's my review!

Front Cover
There's just 4 colours used on the front cover, and the combination of red, white, black and grey makes for a very bold looking image.

Articles/Features
This mag isn't all about the pictures, it's full of articles. These aren't the usual articles you'd find in the other Asian magazines on the market, in fact they're the type of thing you're more accustomed to seeing in a mainstream/English magazine (but with a twist for the British Asian woman obviously!)
A lot of the articles have a focus on relationships, such as:

- how to make him run a mile
- the guys you have to date before you meet Mr. Right
- how to tell he's cheating on you
- datng deal breakers
- is he the one?
- signs he's really into you

As a settled married woman, these articles were a bit lost on me, but I know for a fact there are plenty of single/dating asian girls out there who will probably get a good read out of these.

In addition to those, there's bits and pieces on Bollywood, entertainment, careers...and of course fashion and beauty!

Fashion and Beauty
Fusian's ethos is to have less of a "catalogue" feel and not be full of ads, but there's no way it was going to be completely ad-free! However I think they managed to get the right balance, so that fashion lovers will still get their kicks from this mag too.
Aside from the ads, the fashion section mainly features 3 designers/boutiques - Mimi, Coconut and Sharon's Couture. What I like about their fashion editorials is that they mix up their designers' outfits with high street pieces so you can recreate the looks yourself. They also have 4 pages of "best buys" from £50-£200 which I think is a fab feature, one of my criticisms of the other Asian mags is that they don't feature enough affordable clothes, that's not the case with Fusian.

The Final Verdict
Are there too many Asian magazines out there now? Do we really need another one? Well I think it's great that there's more of a choice for Asian women when it comes to magazines. Fusian really does offer something different, it's not just the way it looks but it's the way it's written. Unlike all the other London-based Asian mags, Fusian is based in Birmingham and that makes them more accessible to designers outside of London, and all the beautiful aspiring models who aren't in London too! It's also worth mentioning that with a cover price of £2.50 Fusian is slightly cheaper than the quarterly mags.


For more info on Fusian, check out the Fusian Facebook Group