''Monthly Classy Magazine'' is a Japanese women's magazine. Its title, ''Classy'', is derived from the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...

'' classy''. It is estimated that the average reader of ''Classy'' magazine is between the age of 24 and 28. The magazine is known to be popular with office ladies (widely known as OL in Japan). It is also famous among university students as a magazine for fashion.

History

''Classy'' was first published in 1984. The magazine is published by

Kobunsha Kobunsha ( ja, 光文社 ''Kōbunsha'') is a Japanese publishing company. It publishes literature, manga novels, and women's magazines. Company history Kobunsha was established on October 1, 1945, and belongs to the Kodansha group. The company h ...

. The magazine targets women in their 20s. It is a sister magazine of '' JJ'', and has been published since 1984 by the same company. The two magazines are closely linked, and often, models who posed for ''JJ'' magazine in their youth will return a few years later to model for ''Classy''.

Models

In the beginning, most of the models were American

supermodels A supermodel, also spelled super-model or super model, is a highly paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in ''haute couture'' and commercial modeling. The term ''supermodel'' became prominent in the po ...

, however changes in the policy led to the inclusion of more and more local models. Famous Japanese supermodels, namely and started their modeling careers by appearing as

cover girl A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a maga ...

s in the magazine. Several well-known models are working for the magazine.

Hiroko Hatano (born November 23, 1975) is a Japanese model and actress. As an 18-year-old, she made her model debut on Japanese fashion magazine '' JJ'' in March 1994. She was one of the top models for the magazine until 2001, when she temporarily quit mode ...

, who used to work for ''JJ'' magazine, started to work as a model here in 2005. Jessica Michibata,

Sayo Aizawa is a Japanese model and TV personality. Biography She was born in Hiroshima, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bor ...

and Ryoko Tanami are also popular.

References

External links

- Publishers website (in Japanese language, Japanese) {{Japanese fashion magazines 1984 establishments in Japan Classy Kobunsha Magazines established in 1984 Magazines published in Tokyo Monthly magazines published in Japan Classy Classy