Posh people: Inside Tatler

 

 

 

Tatler is a magazine company based on news that is stirring up the upper class only. Every issue features the country homes of the British elite. Even though there are only a small amount of readers (around 160,000), Tatler still has the richest readers within the United Kingdom. This shows when looking through the pages, and seeing the world’s most expensive fashion and jewellery.  The upper class always want to follow the dress code without having to compromise on style.

Most of the Tatler team were privately educated and well versed in the intricacies of upper class life. Matthew Bell is of a middle class background as his mother was a teacher and his father was a doctor. Whenever someone first joins Tatler they are given a book called ‘Debretts new guide to etiquette and modern manners’. For the employees of the upper class background this is easier for them to pick up almost immediately as they have an elaborated code, whereas if you are not from an upper class background this book can be quite confusing, as you haven’t grown up around these norms and may have a more restricted code. Matthew is considered a ‘middle class intruder’ as he is working with and in an upper class magazine company, but he is middle class.  The staging and personal style were important within this as the team were helping him fit into the upper class culture, by making him wear clothes from place such as Marks and Spencer’s instead of high street brands. It also helps us see that even where the magazine is produced is in a posh area of London.

Whilst watching the documentary we can see that semiotics is very important in the way you use it, For example where on the magazine cover you put the headers. On the cover of the Tatler magazine was a close up of Kate Middleton’s face. While the header which was in line with her eyes was a question of ‘are you a slut?’ The magazines publishing director read the sign as suggesting that the header was asking Kate Middleton if she was a slut. Everyone interprets signs differently meaning when the editors first printed the magazine cover they didn’t see anything wrong with it, but when it was pointed out they could see how other people may interpret the question. The ideology of the magazine employees was set upon the beliefs within the upper class culture. Helping us to see that they belonged to a certain group within society as the way in which they spoke revealed how they all felt on the same topics.