Ode to Viva weekblad voor vrouwen | Feminist with fun and a nice dress

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Of all the women's magazines, Viva is or was the most Amsterdam. In my opinion disbanded in favor of the Belgian and much braver Flair, she should not be forgotten. Support and inspiration for many progressive women in a time without internet. Therefore, this ode to the cradle of many a knowledgeable magazine maker and in the early 1990s also the place of my first permanent job as fashion editor, where I made friends for life. However different we were, everyone who worked there agrees: there was a special atmosphere on the editorial staff, like no other magazine. You could be yourself and there was appreciation for creativity. And we lifted each other up and were supportive and socially conscious. Feminist with fun and fun dress.

Some achievements I remember as topics where Viva was at the forefront.

Eating disorders and especially the danger and making anorexia and bulimia nervosa negotiable. Unfortunately still a major cause of death among (young) women. Unwanted intimacies at work, also still relevant (unfortunately). When MeToo erupted, I was sometimes surprised that it seemed to be a whole new topic for some people.

The Werkjournaal a regular section on newsprint that dealt with money, career and other work-related topics, was led by Ria Corveleijn. Surely other women's magazines were more about domestic life.

Viva XL fashion in the magazine and later as an annual or twice a year special. More about this later, but I want to mention Rob Plas, the legendary and longest-serving Viva fashion editor, who died in November 2023, as a great inspiration. Viva Mama, a special that assumed working mothers and where motherhood was not a big pink cloud. Which certainly did not mean that children were not intensely enjoyed and in which many an offspring of the editors were immortalized for.

And I will never forget the editorial meeting where a ribbed high-gloss gold pleasure bar danced trembling across the table. With us being asked to come up with ideas for photography. That Male & Female was the first sex store for women to open in Amsterdam was, of course, immediately apparent to Viva's sneering editors. Anita Willemars, head of the department at the time, had to go and make a selection and took a few to the editorial office. When a male freelance stylist and good friend of hers was working on Sunday and snooped in her desk drawer and turned one on, a security guard just came making his rounds. There was no time to turn the thing off, so vibrator in and drawer closed and chat like nothing was wrong. Hilarious and typical of the time. The golden vibrator was a scandalous gift with a new subscription. And it became a huge success! Which we still see the consequences of now, because at Hema and Kruidvat the
advanced sex toys (yes sex was at Viva with an X instead of that sexless KS) flying around your ears.

And of course the most heard association with the name Viva: Anybody the nude section of women and sometimes couples in their naked, headless clothes. With a brief interview about their relationship with their bodies. Hugely important, readers saw that a human body has super many variations. It was even made into a book at the 1000th episode. And yes, even at the editorial office, when a new issue comes out, we first look at our own productions, of course, and then immediately flip through to Anybody.

And so we come to what Viva has meant to me personally. My first introduction was as a prepubescent when a friend of my working mother's left her Viva after babysitting me when I was sick. And I pasted the fashion pictures from that Viva, in my girls' room on the pale pink “Sanne” wallpaper from Ikea. Still under the horse posters and then without David Bowie posters opposite. Back then, I couldn't have dreamed I would ever work there. That was preceded by another bumpy high school years. But through the MTO for fashion and clothing and the HKU (Utrecht School of the Arts) that came good again. Although I did not finish the latter, which had the funny consequence that when my old class had their final exam show, I was sitting in the front row reporting for Viva.
 

Through the HKU I first entered Viva on the editorial staff then still located on the Stadhouderskade in a building nicknamed the 'Margriet building'. Because they used to sell home-made fashion patterns from the Margriet magazine downstairs. As a child I used to go there with my mother and buy fabric on the Albert Cuyp. But at the HKU, stylist Ellen Ruwe together with photographer Johan Vigeveno gave a seminar for the fashion and photography students. My focus then was already shifting from becoming a fashion designer to becoming a photo stylist/moderator. The fact that I wasn't very good at drawing and was fond of photography did have indirectly to do with that. Ellen noticed this enthusiasm and offered that I could join her for a day. When she returned later in the year for the other students, I was able to show her a fashion production I had made with the photography students. The offer changed from a day to a week during the summer vacation and the week ended up being six months. To the HKU I did not return. Anyway Ellen was one of the regular freelancers at Viva and so in her wake I got in touch with the fashion editors through what I thought was the Valhalla of fashion, the Viva fashion loft, located in the catacombs of the Illustrated Press building. No daylight, but shelves full of clothes. Where all the fashion editors gathered their things and styled productions Nickel Didde who I would later succeed, Anita Willemars fashion editor and fashion and the already mentioned Rob Plas.

Ellen was also commissioned at that time, or perhaps she herself had suggested it to Viva because of my lush presence, to do an XL fashion production. For which I was a model and photographed by Johan Vigeveno at cinema the Movies. Super fun of course, I, who used to be bullied precisely because of my curves, now got to model in Viva, the cutest magazine there was.

The fact that Rob Plas introduced me to his colleague from a newspaper at a press presentation where I was alone and didn't really know anyone but him, as one of those “girls” who threatened their existence, may have had something to do with that production? After all, Rob had long been the uncrowned king of XL fashion in Viva. I never asked him about this incident again. And later he was a very nice colleague with whom I developed a fine relationship. The fact that we were both from Amsterdam certainly played a role. But how he came to be an editor of large sizes did. Because credit where credit is due. The reason was somewhat prosaic-he wanted to work at Viva and there was no one yet who stood out with large-size fashion. So no fat mother, sister or friend who sighed at the lack of role models and inspiration. The great thing about Rob was that his fashion productions for small and large sizes were equally flamboyant. Especially with the large size clothing offerings no mean feat. I gladly took over that baton from him. Every season there was a large size fashion production. And that was certainly an inspiration for me to make XL-fashion productions at other magazines where I started working, and later to specialize completely in large-size fashion and image of fat women. As I said, Viva was at the cradle of my career.
At the time, it was still difficult to find large-size models. So we were the first magazine to launch a modeling contest for large sizes. The three winners were captured, again by Johan Vigeveno, at an amazing location, a real circus tent. A nod to the traditional image of fat ladies as curiosity and circus and fairground attraction....
Finding really nice clothes in large sizes was still difficult back then, a lot was quite corny and frumpy and therefore not Viva! Moreover, we had the rather strict requirement that clothes in Viva had to be affordable. But despite this, we almost always got a positive reader response to the large-size fashion productions, yes still by mail so that was special. Articles received more reactions, but fashion productions did not.

Despite the insistence of my colleague and boss Anita Willemars, I did not want to model in XL fashion productions anymore, because I found it unprofessional. Until I started working for another magazine after more than three years. My last production for Viva happened to be an XL fashion production. Then, fortunately, I changed my mind and modeled in Viva one more time. Because I found it a bit strange to style myself, regular freelance stylist and now dear friend Saskia Schmitz joined me. Together with make-up artist Lydia Leloux and photographer Paul van Raalte, we made it a memorable production and day. I believe we even made the cover. A worthy farewell to Viva, but not to the many friends for life (till death do us part rip Saskia Schmitz) Anita, Thecla and Johanna in particular, but certainly not the only ones!

No, this was not the end of my career as a (fashion) editor with a love for XL fashion and proper representation of fat women. At every magazine I worked at after that, I also conceived and created XL fashion productions and even became editor-in-chief of a glossy for fat ladies. And also in what I do now there is still a piece of Viva history that should not be missed in this ode to Viva.

As a teenager I already suffered from chafing upper legs. As the only one of my friends and without proper solutions, I suffered in silence and felt so alone and full of shame. Until I brought up this subject at the Viva editorial office. It turned out that a lot of colleagues suffered from this. What a relief and liberation not to be the only one and to be able to discuss it openly. I was even allowed to write a piece about it for Anita's fashion column. And now, for fourteen years, I have had a collection of panties with legs designed entirely to remedy this problem. I started as a large size brand, but now also have them in small sizes. Which of course look nice, because frumpy and corny a Viva girl can never get!

This text has been automatically translated by AI and may contain errors.