Char and Bertie, Mushpit
A surprise highlight for many people at ModMag15 was the talk by Charlotte Roberts and Bertie Brandes, editors of Mushpit. The magazine veers from silly parodies to strongly political messages in an OTT avalanche of visual styles and references. It reflects a love-hate relationship with the teen girls mags they grew up with and the fashion world they are now a part of – Char contributes to Garage, Dazed and Wonderland, and Bertie is contributing features editor at i-D. We catch up with them as their eighth issue heads to press.
A quick file transfer at the airport
Where are you today?
We’re between countries, naturally. Mushpit is incredibly jet set as we are forced to work full-time consulting jobs for The Sun and Nestlé in order to pay for our radical magazine.
Quick city hop
What can you see from the window?
The wing of a plane, and to my left, Bertie quietly having a panic attack.
We are evening people
Are you morning or evening people?
Definitely evening, everything goes down easier with a Pisco Sour
Which magazine do you each first remember?
Bertie: The Beano and Dandy were the first things I remember religiously buying and loving, then Sabrina’s Secrets took over. The Viz annual at christmas was also a big one.
Charlotte: Bliss and Sugar, Elle Girl when I reached 13 and felt like a true grown up. Live and Kicking magazine was pretty iconic.
What’s your favourite magazine this morning?
The in-flight magazine which is distracting me from thinking about plummeting to earth. I’m reading about a 42 year-old property developer looking to expand his portfolio. This really resonates with me.
And your favourite, must-have accessory?
A #newlabia badge of course! Available on our shopify ;)
A normal office environment for us
Do you ever worry that you’ll overdo the humour and burn your bridges with the fashion world you parody?
Not at all – more so with the friends we parody and satirise. Fashion people can take a brutal beating and bounce straight back with their eyes bright and tail wagging complimenting you on how “maje” your new cover looks.
Mushpit, issue seven
What can you tell us about the new issue of Mushpit?
We have lots of our rolling features from previous issues including a Lies You Tell Your Landlord and a calculator to figure out how worthy of actual distress your Prangover should be. There are some great, bizarre fashion stories in there and our beloved long time contributor Eloise Parry shot the cover story.
On top of that we also have SO MUCH NEW STUFF. Ben Freeman from Ditto Press is now art directing Mushpit on the premise that he can “make it madder than ever” (we’re soulmates, clearly), Reba Maybury has a health-goddess column and Paul Gorman, Clive Martin and the brilliant people behind Turncoats are all contributing.
Rushed lunch at Soho House
What are you most looking forward to this week?
The end of it when we can congratulate ourselves on our moonlighting as serious adults in a working office all week by getting pissed and outrageous on cheap red wine.
Mushpit rider
What are you least looking forward to?
The hangover on Saturday morning
Off the plane and ready to work!
What will you be doing after this chat?
Freaking out to each other about whether or not we will die on the plane/ever meet our deadlines. Lots of squealing and frantic emailing.
Char and Bertie will be introducing the new issue of Mushpit at the next magCulture Meets… night, 22 March. Book tickets via Eventbrite.