While listening to a few Aerosmith songs, I felt a strong surge of nostalgia and looked up the ultimate ’90s chick, Alicia Silverstone (who appeared in several Aerosmith videos). At the time I was just starting to be introduced to pop culture in the mid-’90s, she had just starred in Clueless and was one of the prettiest things on TV. Magazines loved her.

This was my favorite cover of Alicia Silverstone. I had this issue back then and obsessively pored through every page of YM and Seventeen I could get because we had no local teen mags, and the imported ones were expensive.

When she appeared on the cover, Seventeen hit the one-million mark for the first time. And check out the references: Brad Renfro, Claire Danes, Green Day. Classic.

I miss the wide-eyed, wholesome look of female stars back in the ’90s—with the exception of Winona Ryder, girls weren’t smoky-eyed and gaunt. Claire Danes, Larisa Oleynik, and Melissa Joan Hart ruled the teen magazines, and none of them were remotely like fashionable waifs that are so popular nowadays. I admit that the girls nowadays are prettier, but the ones in the ’90s were more real.

Every generation needs a golden-haired goddess. The ’90s had Alicia. I still think she was seriously pretty at her peak, but a little on the big side by today’s standards. The female leads on current shows will probably diet themselves into oblivion if they had arms like these now, but then again, they’ll never attain her superstar status post-Clueless.

Notice that this skimpily dressed crouching position will later become a staple for future stars

2003′s answer to Alicia Silverstone was Mischa Barton of The O.C., and she was a lot skinnier when she played Marissa Cooper.

Behold the skimpily dressed 'it' girl in a crouching position.

When Gossip Girl came out a few years ago, all eyes were on the rebellious blonde, Serena van der Woodsen, played by Blake Lively. She had a little more meat on her bones than Mischa Barton. I think she’s interesting, but maybe the least pretty of the three girls.

And she's now a Chanel spokesperson.

And here's the requisite crouching shot.

Blonde trainwreck characters have a certain look.

While flipping through old issues of Metro to look for stories for our upcoming anniversary issue, I found myself suppressing a laugh on more than one occasion. It was so different from the magazine we currently turn out on a monthly basis, the staff and I marveled. Feature articles, fashion shoots—they were all so well, dated. A particular issue had me blinking in disbelief because it featured Erica, our former beauty editor, in a fashion editorial shot by her dad, Jim Paredes. “Ohmygod, where did you get that?” she squealed after I sent her an MMS with one of the photos. “I was like 20 years old at that time.”

Luckily, she was game and didn’t protest when I Tweeted the photos in succession:

Erica wearing some of 1999's trends: apron tops and shrugs

And check out the funny poses

I was a high school sophomore at the time the magazine came out in December 1999. Back then, I probably wouldn’t have seen anything wrong with it—my magazine of choice, Candy, featured similar clothes in similarly unsophisticated fashion editorials. Now, the editorials in Philippine magazines sometimes (not always) rival those that appear in their American and European counterparts. Creative directors and editors discuss upcoming looks with pages of Vogue (usually French or Italian) as their pegs. But that’s not because of a lack of sophistication of the editorial team back then: they were simply reporting the trends at that time, using whatever resources they had back then. Digital photography wasn’t readily available to magazines back then; publishing companies made the complete transition from film to digital as late as 2004-2005.

Change is an inevitable thing for a publication. Metro, which is about to celebrate its 22nd year, probably underwent through more changes than any other local magazine. It started out as a city lifestyle magazine (the current staff was surprised to discover that Fernando Zobel, and not some stylish model or celebrity, was on the first cover), and is slowly turning into a fashion-centric publication. Back when I joined the magazine in 2008, fashion wasn’t the magazine’s selling point; but three years is long enough for major changes to take place, so here we are. Check out the magazine’s more subtle changes throughout the years:

Read More…

The Devil Wears Prada.

13 Going on 30.

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

I don’t understand why so many books/films are obsessed with the magazine industry. Beyond the freebies and fashion shows, we’re just a bunch of nerds who like reading, spotting grammatical errors and looking through pretty photos.

Fine, I speak only for myself.