Picking up Yeomans's theme, Macleod-Smith says that Vogue, Elle and Grazia are Bazaar's competition, especially now that it is part of a global brand with 23 international editions. "What we've wanted to do is position ourselves as a very strong alternative to Vogue and Elle, and that's paying off now. For a long, long time Vogue hasn't had any competition."
How worried Vogue will be about this threat is another matter. According to Peter York, the style commentator who wrote for Harpers in the Eighties, there is still a lot of distance between the two magazines. He calls Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue, "the automatic high-fashion pundit of choice on everything, and you don't see anything comparable with Harper's. When you talk to women you don't hear them quoting it, you don't hear them talking about it."
Yeomans would argue that York is not among her target audience. Asked why a fashion-obsessed young woman might buy Bazaar over Vogue, the two women pause before suggesting that Shulman's title would not run the "Vanity Fair-style" features that will sometimes be found in Bazaar – for example, a piece penned by Yeomans after accompanying Imran Khan on an election tour in Pakistan.
It is easier to identify the points of difference with Grazia. "Because they are a weekly, they haven't got the time to do the kind of work we do, the showcase pieces, the beautifully written 3,000-word articles," says Macleod-Smith. "They have not got the kind of substance we have. I love Grazia but it's a 10-minute read. I quite happily leave my Grazia, I give it away, I leave it on the tube."
As Yeomans leafs through her own magazine, the first thing she picks out is a photo-led story following the parallel careers of David Bailey and Don McCullin. "They've both been married four times and they ended up marrying Catherines as the final love of their lives." (Catherine Fairweather, McCullin's wife, is travel editor of Harper's Bazaar.)
To emphasise the difference between the British Bazaar and the American Bazaar (which also sells in the UK, but only at around 1,000 copies per issue), this first collector's edition has a very patriotic feel: Georgia Frost, the 17-year-old new face of Burberry, is on the cover; inside, the lead feature is a "ones to watch" article on Britain's "40 Under 40". Those nominated, including Samantha Cameron, are photographed in Paul Smith T-shirts "which he did at a day's notice".
Yeomans may not court the aristocracy, but like most editors she craves the big names – the meritocracy, as she would have it. Matthew Williamson, the designer, guest-edited a recent edition, and Sam Taylor-Wood and Manolo Blahnik have both written for Yeomans.
She once told these pages that her dream was to sit around a Glastonbury campfire with Kate Moss and Damien Hirst. At this year's festival she had to be content with wading through the mud with Giles Deacon, another designer friend and Harper's Bazaar guest writer. She is planning a big party in November, a Moet-sponsored bash at which an eclectic mix of musical talent has been invited to perform.
Asked whether Bazaar is intrigued by Victoria Beckham's attempts to make a reputation in the world of fashion, Macleod-Smith instantly shakes her head, saying "I don't think our readers are interested in her", though Yeomans acknowledges she "has a look".
For Macleod-Smith, the success of the repositioning of Harper's Bazaar is very much a business proposition. Merely placing the small "Bazaar" above the masthead 18 months ago immediately provoked a surge of interest among advertisers, and an extra 250 ad pages since – doubling the magazine's profits.
She thinks the latest redesign, which has been overseen by Tom Usher after he was recruited from Arena magazine, will bring in a wealth of fresh advertising. She starts pointing out the new arrivals in the ad pages of the September issue. "Marks & Spencers – the first time we've ever had them. We've been chasing Stuart Rose for a while. And Topshop! We have Topshop, Monsoon, Whistles – all our growth has been in fashion brands, top end and the high street as well."
There was a time when readers of Harpers would have turned up their noses at advertisements for Topshop on the luxurious pages of their favourite magazine. Macleod-Smith says that the distance between the two brands has evaporated, and that NatMags has long been courting the influential high-street fashion outlet. "We would have loved to have had ads from Topshop in Harpers & Queen, but there's no way they would have ever done so, because it would have been wrong for Topshop to be associated with a brand that was so exclusive."
The Swarovski crystal issue (described as "tacky" by one female fashion commentator) will be accompanied by reams of point-of-sale advertising to let readers know that this is the revised Harper's Bazaar, not some entirely new magazine. Trials of the new logo in the traditionally conservative market of the North-west of England have suggested that the name change will not drive down sales, says the publisher.
Later in the year, a new Bazaar website will launch, more than a decade after British Vogue established itself online. By linking the digital and print propositions in a joint brand-based strategy, and offering readers the chance to buy online the pieces they fall in love with on the glossy pages, NatMags hopes to offer something different.
Macleod-Smith is a shrewd operator, who formerly worked at rival Conde Nast and who makes frequent references to Stephen Quinn, her opposite number at Vogue. She claims Quinn does not enjoy as cosy a relationship with his American counterpart as she does with American Bazaar, and that he does not appreciate the importance of rolling out a brand. "Stephen, who I adore, and who is my ex-boss, doesn't like anything 'brand Vogue'. He finds that a most repulsive way of looking at it."
Yeomans too worked at Conde Nast, though quit after just one day at Vogue when she was offered the editor's chair at Harpers. To her embarrassment, she had to give Shulman news of her departure by mobile phone, as the Vogue editor was attending London Fashion Week. Now she is hoping once again to loom large in Shulman's rear-view mirror, having finally positioned her own magazine where she wants it. "Next year it's going to be called Baz," she says, laughing and holding her hand over the last three letters of the famous Dido-font masthead. "No, I promise it isn't."
its different and her hairstyle is works here.
