The Revenge of the Niche Fashion Magazine

On a snowy night just before Valentine’s Day, Cultured magazine gave a party for its February-March 2025 edition. It was held at Quarters, a TriBeCa space that is both a furniture store and a wine bar. The place was packed. The cover star, the actress Cristin Milioti, was there, and partygoers took turns posing in doorways or perched on sofas for their social media feeds.

“There has been an unexpected groundswell of support,” said Sarah Harrelson, the founder of Cultured, who has worked on publications her entire career, including InStyle and Women’s Wear Daily.

The first issue of Cultured, which combines the fashion and art worlds, appeared in 2012, when Ms. Harrelson was living in Miami, where she had worked for Ocean Drive magazine and started a magazine supplement for The Miami Herald.

“I think back now, and I was 38 and creatively bored,” she said. “I wanted to do something for myself and not have to heed the rules. Publishing had gotten formulaic.”

Independently produced print magazines with an emphasis on fashion are experiencing a boomlet of sorts, making waves for their striking design and high-quality production. There is Cultured but also L’Etiquette, Konfekt and Polyester, to name a few that line the racks of Casa Magazines, the West Village periodical store, and magCulture in London.

No longer seen as disposable or a relic of a dying industry, these magazines are regarded as high-end products. “It’s a luxury experience of sitting back and getting a single viewpoint coming to you that you didn’t know you wanted,” said Penny Martin, the editor in chief of The Gentlewoman, which could be said to have pioneered an indie print resurgence when it began in 2010.