Kirstie Clements - Editor

[AL92]

Very sad! I hope she left on her accord and resigned rather being sacked! She's been such a force in the Aus fashion industry!

 

[samoanceleb]

I am so sad, she was one of my fave editors of any magazine and I think she did an incredible job of Vogue during her tenure. It was my favourite Australian fashion mag.

 

[inwhiterooms]

I'm actually quite happy to see her go. There were no real innovative ideas to the magazine, and as many have said, they reprinted so many editorials.

Sadly the best part was always the cover.

 

[samoanceleb]

Kristie was my favourite editor in Australia. What she did for Vogue was bring much needed consistency and maturity after a tumultuous slew of editors at the beginning of her tenure. But most of all she celebrated Australian fashion and sensibility. Instead of imitating what was happening overseas only, she was able to give language and validity to unpretentious Australian fashion and consumers. In other words, she was real - from watching TV (her Voice tweets) to body and image issues in her Sunday columns. Her support of local models is second to none out of any magazine anywhere in the world. No other edition of Vogue probably has as many homegrown nationals on their covers like Vogue Australia did under Clements’s tenure from Gemma Ward – Catherine McNeil – Samantha Harris – Codie Young - Alice Burdeu and Nicole Trufino to name a few. And when she featured them, they were not all superstars already. Her covers this year in particular have had fashionistas the world over excitedly blogging and posting on forums, effusive in their praise of her and the magazine. She was always classy but never pretentious. I will miss her at Vogue. She was one of the main reasons I continued to purchase Vogue Australia from time to time. In my opinion no other Australian women’s fashion magazine came close. I hope she will go to better things and I hope Vogue doesn’t turn a tabloid or predictable publication under the also very talented McCann.

 

[*Bianca*]

I liked her realness too.

Her support of local models is second to none out of any magazine anywhere in the world. No other edition of Vogue probably has as many homegrown nationals on their covers like Vogue Australia did under Clements’s tenure from Gemma Ward – Catherine McNeil – Samantha Harris – Codie Young - Alice Burdeu and Nicole Trufino to name a few.

To add to your list, Abbey Lee Kershaw (4), Rosie Tupper (2), Julia Nobis, Valerija Erohkina, Myf Shepherd, Elyse Taylor (2), Katie Braatved (a New Zealander, but still, completely unknown with whom Kiristie took a chance).

I'm quite scared that under new direction, and the need to increase the poor sales, it will go the way of purely celebrity covers.

 

[AL92]

I'm quite scared that under new direction, and the need to increase the poor sales, it will go the way of purely celebrity covers.

I'm worried too. I would be so disappointed if Edwina went the Bazaar route and went all celebrity! What set VA apart was the constant use of models!

 

[samoanceleb]

I'm worried too. I would be so disappointed if Edwina went the Bazaar route and went all celebrity! What set VA apart was the constant use of models!

I'm worried Three! In a great interview (link below) with Clements 48 hours before her departure, she notes that one of their strengths have been their covers and that 10 of their 12 covers would normally be models not celebrities and even then, Australian celebs only.

To be honest, I don't want to like VA under Mcann just because I respected Clements so much, however I really hope that Macaan doesn't change it all up and go down the Bazaar celeb route, and just predictable safe, nice edgy looking edits that IMO lack originality, substance and heart, looking like any mag anywhere in the world. I liked VA for its distinct Australian feel.

I hope Clements ends up somewhere wonderful as SMH reported that in the weeks leading up to it, she was looking at possible Consultant positions at some luxury houses.

http://www.pedestrian.tv/fashion/features/exclusive-kirstie-clements-last-words-as-editor-of/76104.htm

 

[Cicciolina]

The way editors are let go really are so terrible.

 

[samoanceleb]

I liked her realness too.

To add to your list, Abbey Lee Kershaw (4), Rosie Tupper (2), Julia Nobis, Valerija Erohkina, Myf Shepherd, Elyse Taylor (2), Katie Braatved (a New Zealander, but still, completely unknown with whom Kiristie took a chance).

I'm quite scared that under new direction, and the need to increase the poor sales, it will go the way of purely celebrity covers.

YES absolutely about all the Antipodean models including Katie who I love. The thing is although HB has always killed VA in advertising, the circulations for both magazines is not that different. I was surprised to see that HB only have relatively not much more readers than VA. Which would've brought on Mia Freedman's blog yesterday about magazines loosing their relevance.

 

[samoanceleb]

The way editors are let go really are so terrible.

Exactly! Reminds me of when Grace Mirabella at American Vogue was ousted at Conde Nast in 1988 to make way for Anna Wintour. Apparently she found out while watching TV at home. Thankfully Rupert Murdoch called her and offered to give her, her own magazine which became Mirabella, a mag I used to really like especially some of their covers.

A young Amber Valletta

Micheala Bercu who ironically was the first cover girl that Anna Wintour choose on her first cover

Source both pics: http://www.topmodelsoftheworld.com Photographers: unknown

 

[YourMonster]

I was so shocked and so saddened by the news when I heard about Kirstie. Vogue is her Baby and she's been with the magazine for pretty much her entire Fashion career and so to hear that She's been kicked out and replaced by Edwina McCann....of all people! Makes me upset. I have nothing against Edwinna personally, however though She hasn't done much with Harper's Bazaar since she took over from Jamie Huckbody and despite his short tenure at the top, I thought he did a much better job Editing the magazine than she did. Under her leadership I'm expecting a very commercial magazine, and not in the way that American Vogue is commercial, but in the way that Marie Claire is commercial.

If anything I thought Alison Veness-McGourty would have been offered the position at Vogue, she was an incredible Editor when she was in the top at Harper's Bazaar before she left to Edit Grazia (Why on earth?). But with the news of ACP working on the Re-launch of Elle back here in Australia, I'm excited to see whom will take the top position. I'd be so happy if Kirstie ended up Editing Elle. Her laidbackness and her Realness and just her overall personality, I personally believe would sit well within the Elle Family. Good luck Kirstie!!!

 

[AL92]

I was so shocked and so saddened by the news when I heard about Kirstie. Vogue is her Baby and she's been with the magazine for pretty much her entire Fashion career and so to hear that She's been kicked out and replaced by Edwina McCann....of all people! Makes me upset. I have nothing against Edwinna personally, however though She hasn't done much with Harper's Bazaar since she took over from Jamie Huckbody and despite his short tenure at the top, I thought he did a much better job Editing the magazine than she did. Under her leadership I'm expecting a very commercial magazine, and not in the way that American Vogue is commercial, but in the way that Marie Claire is commercial.

If anything I thought Alison Veness-McGourty would have been offered the position at Vogue, she was an incredible Editor when she was in the top at Harper's Bazaar before she left to Edit Grazia (Why on earth?). But with the news of ACP working on the Re-launch of Elle back here in Australia, I'm excited to see whom will take the top position. I'd be so happy if Kirstie ended up Editing Elle. Her laidbackness and her Realness and just her overall personality, I personally believe would sit well within the Elle Family. Good luck Kirstie!!!

I was so shocked and saddened too! It was so undeserving for Kirstie to be treated like that after all she's done for VA!
The thing is though I don't mind Edwina being the new EIC! I'm kind of opposite with your views YourMonster in that HB was so lacklustre and generic under Veness-McGourty/Huckbody...lots of reprints...just flat all round but when Edwina came around I think she totally lifted the magazine with beautiful eds but not too commercial either. My hope is now that she will edit the magazine within the Vogue framework and have models as cover girls and not be linked to at all with the HB style. I also hope Christine jumps ship!

 

[samoanceleb]

top, I thought he did a much better job Editing the magazine than she did. Under her leadership I'm expecting a very commercial magazine, and not in the way that American Vogue is commercial, but in the way that Marie Claire is commercial.

If anything I thought Alison Veness-McGourty would have been offered the position at Vogue, she was an incredible Editor when she was in the top at Harper's Bazaar before she left to Edit Grazia (Why on earth?). But with the news of ACP working on the Re-launch of Elle back here in Australia, I'm excited to see whom will take the top position. I'd be so happy if Kirstie ended up Editing Elle. Her laidbackness and her Realness and just her overall personality, I personally believe would sit well within the Elle Family. Good luck Kirstie!!!

Couldn't agree more with you on all your statements. I fear the same thing for Vogue under McCann that it be commercial in the way you state ... sometimes you can't tell a great deal of difference between HB & Grazia, which is great for Grazia but not so much for HB!

And it would be AMAZING if Kirstie got Elle, that would make me very happy and I'd hope that she'd (or whoever) would be able to reinject the fresh & energetic spirit of ELLE when it was first launched in the USA back in the mid-late 80s that is so lacking in all magazines including the American edition!

 

[Cicciolina]

I was so shocked and saddened too! It was so undeserving for Kirstie to be treated like that after all she's done for VA!
The thing is though I don't mind Edwina being the new EIC! I'm kind of opposite with your views YourMonster in that HB was so lacklustre and generic under Veness-McGourty/Huckbody...lots of reprints...just flat all round but when Edwina came around I think she totally lifted the magazine with beautiful eds but not too commercial either. My hope is now that she will edit the magazine within the Vogue framework and have models as cover girls and not be linked to at all with the HB style. I also hope Christine jumps ship!

I'm with you too.

I think it's horrible how Kirstie was treated (just as Grace Mirabella and Diana Vreeland were treated earlier at US Vogue - Mirabella took Vreeland's job in just as terrible of circumstances as Wintour took Mirabella's) but I am interested to see how Edwina shapes Vogue. Kirsten had been at Vogue for a while after all. I like what Edwina has done for HB - she's made it more accessible but still luxurious and just attractive to look at. I felt Huckbody and Alison Veness-McGourty were too high gloss and shiny and it was a very inaccessible magazine.

 

[HeatherAnne]

But most of all she celebrated Australian fashion and sensibility. Instead of imitating what was happening overseas only, she was able to give language and validity to unpretentious Australian fashion and consumers ....... Her support of local models is second to none out of any magazine anywhere in the world.

Not much can be added, or said better, than your sentiments on this matter

I too love the way she embraced her own country's aesthetic, culture, artists, models, and by doing so gave the magazine such a clear and harmonious identity. I think she is extremely under-appreciated for this fact. It's a tricky thing to conquer in a way that is not cliched or predictable, but Clements commandeered and ultimately achieved it with great success. In doing so she gave Vogue Australia a coherent vision, that many of the sister Vogues sorely lack. I'll miss her vision.

 

[samoanceleb]

Blood red in for fashionistas
THEY employ some of the most glamorous women in Australia but the bloodletting going on inside the Sydney offices of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar has left several terribly chic ladies in one almighty tizz.
A fortnight after the Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Kirstie Clements was suddenly shown the door after 30 years' service to the style bible, replaced by her former rival at Harper's Bazaar, Edwina McCann, a tectonic shift in Australia's fashion publishing landscape is under way.
Several big names have already packed their Gucci bags, strapped on their Louboutins and are about to teeter into what was enemy territory just a fortnight ago.
Powerful allies are making their feelings clear. Sarah Murdoch, whose father-in-law, Rupert Murdoch, owns the Vogue brand in Australia, has given her imprimatur on the appointment of close friend McCann, embracing her affectionately as they celebrated Murdoch's 40th birthday over lunch in Darlinghurst this week. While she plays no active role in the company, Murdoch was among the first to welcome McCann into the family business.
This week, management at Harper's Bazaar publisher ACP has been frantically trying to plug the hole left following McCann's departure, with a shortlist of four contenders for the editor's chair. Names being bandied about include the editor of Australian Gourmet Traveller, Anthea Loucas, the editor of InStyle, Kerrie McCallum, and the editor of Grazia, Kellie Hush. But the most delicious rumour circulating yesterday was that Clements had emerged as a dark horse for the job at the 11th hour - having lunched with ACP stalwart Deborah Thomas just days after her spectacular exit.
The contenders are in the midst of a corporate beauty parade, as they try to impress prospective bosses and those at the Harper's New York headquarters via a never-ending round of late-night conference calls, heavily-styled Skype sessions and interminable streams of emails.
When a new editor is found, they can expect to be whisked off to New York to attend Harper's Bazaar ''finishing school'', where editors of various international editions are schooled in all things Bazaar.
Interestingly, McCann never underwent a formal indoctrination in the three years she edited the magazine.
McCann has been placed on ''gardening leave'' and is no longer working inside ACP's Park Street ''tower of power''.
Several big guns have followed her out the Harper's door, including the deputy editor Georgie McCourt, the fashion director Jillian Davison and the magazine's painfully cool fashion mascot Christine Centenera, who also doubles as a celebrity stylist for big-name stars including rapper Kanye West.
PS hears those left behind from the once close-knit McCann team have been huddled in the tea room wondering ''what's wrong with us?''. But there is also considerable angst over at Vogue's Alexandria offices pending the imminent arrival of the new regime.
Vogue's fashion director, Naomi Smith, is on safari in South Africa for a fashion shoot with models Jennifer Hawkins and Jess Hart. With Davison about to take over her old job, it is not clear what the future holds for Smith at Vogue.
As one bewildered colleague told PS: ''Maybe she should stay with the lions in Africa … it's probably safer than swimming with the sharks back here.''


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lif...ee-dinnigan-20120601-1zn8l.html#ixzz1wzTMR9EH

Wow, if Clements ends up at HB, that would be CRAZY! and the new Vogue sounds actually very exciting! I wonder where Naomi Smith, Leigh Ann Pow & Kimberley Walsh will end up?

Source: Brisbane Times

 

[samoanceleb]

Interestingly today's Australian and a number of other news sources report that the Audit Bureau of Circulations audit in Aug for the period ending June 2012 reveal that Vogue Australia was the only major title in its category to show an increase where all other titles including Bazaar, InStyle, Madison & Marie Claire all showed decreases for the same period, and this was all under the tenure of Clements as EIC. It makes sense given her incredible covers and FNO etc.

Further reading at RagTrader & Crikey who say Clements "was fired for being a winner"

 

[HeatherAnne]

I have to give credit where it's due and say McCann has done an amazing job since Clements left, I would expect their sales to continue to rise.