The Business of Magazines

[Flashbang]

There's a new GQ Style in town!



magshouse.com (US GQ September)

 

[Benn98]

I want that suit!!!!

 

[Flashbang]

After Vogue last year, Thailand's adding GQ to their resume!

 

[WilliamsLe010919]

After Vogue last year, Thailand's adding GQ to their resume!

facebook/jeremiah.danhle

Thailand just published a new Numero edition called Numero Beaute too I saw it on the newsstand yesterday. It's just as bad. I think Thailand is the first country that publish a beauty edition of Numero

 

[BerlinRocks]

Is this a repost ?

A Parting of the Ways at Visionaire
By JACOB BERNSTEIN AUG. 27, 2014

Among those toying with the boundaries of fashion and art during the last 20 years, few stand out more than Stephen Gan, Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos. Roughly three times a year they released editions of Visionaire, a publication that was neither fashion magazine nor art object but something in between.

The 1998 light issue was designed by Tom Ford and Gucci and took the form of a sleek light box for viewing 24 slides by artists like Andreas Gursky and Sam Taylor-Wood. The 3,300 copies, which sold for $425 a piece, were snapped up by devotees.

A 1996 fashion issue featured 44 collaborations between designers and photographers, including Nan Goldin shooting Helmut Lang, that was packaged in a Louis Vuitton monogrammed portfolio designed expressly for Visionaire. The 2,500 editions sold out in three weeks, though a few can be bought today on Mr Porter for $6,600.

As a measure of their social influence, the parties Mr. Gan, Ms. Dean and Mr. Kaliardos gave during New York Fashion Week and at Art Basel Miami Beach were the sorts of affairs where you might see Mario Testino in the bathroom snapping photographs of models in flagrante or Kanye West making it rain with a wad of dollar bills.

The company grew: First came V, a Warholesque six-times-a-year fashion magazine. After that, a men’s offshoot, VMan. In 2012, CR Fashion Book, the thick-as-a-brick twice-a-year style manual from Carine Roitfeld, the former editor of French Vogue.

So it was something of a surprise when, earlier this summer, the three longtime partners abruptly parted ways. Without any official announcement, Mr. Kaliardos, 48, and Ms. Dean, 45, packed up their belongings while Mr. Gan, 48, was out of town and moved out of their Mercer Street offices, which had served as a kind of a circuslike clubhouse for avant-garde designers and fashionistas.

Staff members at V were left in the dark, which fueled intense speculation in the insular downtown fashion bubble. Would this be the end for Visionaire? What did this mean for the company’s other fashion titles? Were the former best friends now sworn enemies?

The story spilled into the The New York Post’s Page Six, which ran a report on Aug. 1 saying, “One casualty of their portfolio, which includes V magazine, VMan and Visionaire, could be former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld’s 2-year-old CR Fashion Book.”

The Post also suggested that V might fold and go digital.

All three said that none of that was true, and that the publications would continue. But the breakup has clearly been painful.

Is Mr. Gan still close to his two former besties?

“Not at the moment, no,” he said in a recent interview at his office shortly before he took off for a vacation in St.-Tropez with Karl Lagerfeld.

In a separate interview, Mr. Kaliardos said: “We love Stephen. He’ll always be family.”

James Kaliardos and Stephen Gan became friends in the mid-80s when they were club kids attending Parsons School of Design, living in a dorm on Union Square. Ms. Dean was in high school and earned money for college walking the runways for Jean Paul Gaultier and Maison Martin Margiela.

At night, the boys painted their faces metallic orange, slipped into ripped stockings and headed to Area, where Andy Warhol would take pictures of them.

“They wore more makeup than I did,” Ms. Dean said.

After graduation Mr. Gan went to work as a fashion editor at Details magazine, where James Truman became editor after it was purchased by Condé Nast.

“He was the most talented editor there, but the kind of stories he was interested in were 180 degrees from what we were doing,” Mr. Truman said.

Mr. Kaliardos was also seeking a creative outlet. So was Ms. Dean, who was by then enrolled at Barnard College, which she paid for with her modeling money.

Sitting with Ms. Dean in a $950-a-month apartment Mr. Gan and Mr. Kaliardos shared back then on West 11th Street, the three hatched an idea for a fashion magazine in which art would take precedence over commerce.

“The idea was to do something more free,” Mr. Kaliardos said.

Issue 1 of Visionaire came out in 1991 and was sold exclusively at Rizzoli bookstores. Mr. Gan photographed the red rose on the cover. Inside were runway photographs by The New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, a Q. and A. with the team behind Pierre et Gilles and illustrations by Ruben Toledo of couture-clad insects.

The issue, which cost $10, was not even stapled, and a mere 1,000 copies were released. But photographers like Steven Klein, Bruce Weber and Steven Meisel took notice and soon began contributing.

“They were very creative and spirited with what they gave us,” Mr. Kaliardos said. Ms. Dean added, “Because they knew we would actually run it.”

Issue 3, titled Erotica, featured nude watercolors of Mr. Kaliardos and Ms. Dean, as well as a close-up photo of a man’s posterior by Mr. Meisel. Issue 15 was a campy recasting of Cinderella, complete with the drag queen Lady Bunny as the fairy godmother and a muscle-bound prince lying on the royal bed in his skivvies, with a crown on his head.

Fashion luminaries were effusive in their praise. “It’s a far cry from the homogenization in other publications,” the designer Geoffrey Beene told Amy Spindler, who was then the fashion critic for The Times.

Paul Cavaco added: “In this world of magazines, where in the ’80s everything was demystified, from the models to the photographers, Stephen has, with his magazine, returned to the fantasy.”

While Visionaire titillated aesthetes, the three branched out to more commercial endeavors, like V (1999) and VMan (2003).

“I wanted to do a magazine that appealed to a broader audience,” said Mr. Gan, who serves as editor in chief. Instead of high-concept art books, V featured celebrities like Beyoncé, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez on the cover, often in risqué poses.

Mr. Gan’s penchant for pushing the envelope helped fuel his ascent. He got lucrative work art-directing ad campaigns for Chanel and was hired as the creative director at Harper’s Bazaar under Glenda Bailey, a job he still holds.

More recently, in 2012, Mr. Gan spearheaded the launch of CR Fashion Book with Ms. Roitfeld. By this point, Ms. Dean and Mr. Kaliardos had detached from the commercial magazines, while Mr. Gan took less of an interest in Visionaire. And over time, distance between Mr. Gan and his partners grew, not just professionally, but socially.

Sometime around 2002 Ms. Dean began dating David Selig, a restaurateur who owned the Rice chain in New York and, now, Rockaway Taco in Queens. The two moved to Red Hook, Brooklyn, put a chicken coup in their backyard and fell in with a circle of art world fixtures like Maurizio Cattelan, Marina Abramovic and Klaus Biesenbach.

“Cecilia’s a catalyst between Red Hook and the Rockaways and the art world and the fashion world,” Mr. Biesenbach said.

Mr. Kaliardos, meanwhile, who is a highly respected makeup artist and who once dated the fashion designer Nicolas Ghesquière, takes acting classes at Trinity Lutheran Church in Morningside Heights, where students analyze their dreams from a Jungian perspective and use symbols from them to inform their character work.

“It’s not about getting famous,” said his classmate, the writer Joan Buck.

From time to time, the three would each help each other out, but with decreasing frequency. Two years ago, they began talking of a split.

“We just did it really slowly,” Mr. Kaliardos said.

On a Monday afternoon this month at the V offices, the mood was anything but somber. Music from Katy Perry and Ariana Grande blasted, while Mr. Gan sat with one of his editors, Steven Chaiken, in a conference room and went through the latest mock-ups for V, VMan and CR.

There was a fashion spread with Miley Cyrus in a furry fuchsia Jeremy Scott jersey with a plastic palm tree between her legs. And another with the football player Colin Kaepernick, shirtless.

Mr. Gan conceded that the split could have been handled better, if only to head off rumors.

“I’d compare it to three friends who started making music together in their garage,” Mr. Gan said. “It’s like a breakup.”

He stressed that there was no plan to fold any of the magazines. CR Fashion Book and V, he said, would each have nearly 160 pages of ads this September, approaching record levels.

“I think the best thing to say is that you just sort of grow up and gravitate toward a certain kind of music,” he said. “And if as a band, your friends say they want to do opera, let them do opera. Everyone should be able to create freely.”

Later that week and 40 blocks north, Ms. Dean and Mr. Kaliardos were sitting in a conference room at Creative Artists Agency, which is helping them with film projects.

As Ms. Dean told it, there was nothing terribly dramatic about their split from Mr. Gan; it was just a need to formalize things that had been the status quo for years.

“In order to make the companies flourish we need to focus on what is most interesting to us,” Ms. Dean said.

As an example, she spoke of several Visionaire projects that blurred the line between art and fashion, including a series of paintings of the model Adriana Lima by Richard Phillips that were sold through Larry Gagosian. She also pointed to a series of T-shirts featuring works by Alex Katz and Yoko Ono that were sold at the Gap and Opening Ceremony, and did extremely well for them.

“For us that was a real eye opener,” she said.

Then Ms. Dean and Mr. Kaliardos offered a peek of the next issue of Visionaire, a collaboration with John Baldessari.

“Visionaire is strange,” Mr. Kaliardos said. “It’s a miracle that as a business model it’s actually made money because it’s such a quirky artistic endeavor. But these things can work. A typical magazine isn’t the only way to make it in publishing.”

nytimes

 

[tigerrouge]

In the UK (featuresexec.com

HELLO! Fashion Monthly, a magazine focusing on style tips, beauty news, high-street and catwalk fashion as well as industry insider interviews, has launched.

The monthly magazine is edited by Juliet Herd and the team can be found tweeting @hellofashion_uk.

 

[Benn98]

In the UK (featuresexec.com

This will probably be like a Grazia version, no?

 

[loladonna]

What happened to the mid-year sales figures reports for US magazines? It seems like the past year or so reports on sales have been sketchy. I don't feel like we ever really got a full accounting of sales from last year.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^ I think its still early for those. Usually at the end of the year WWD has a report.

 

[Flashbang]

THE EXODUS AT MAN: Man of the World, the men’s fashion and art magazine, is going through major changes. Its creative director, Randall Mesdon and art director, Enrico Pirondi, have left the publication and have since formed a creative agency called Black Sun Atelier. The two plan to launch a yet-to-be named biannual publication at Art Basel that will cater to a younger audience.

“It’s a celebration on both sides,” said Mesdon of the departure. “We both are parting ways to pursue our new dreams and opportunities, which I wanted to always do. All of us worked really hard to achieve what we have at Man of the World. I thought it was finally a good time to go and move forward.”

A handful of the magazine’s writers, photographers and editors will move on from Man of the World and follow Mesdon to his new publication. The publication works off of a staff composed of mostly freelancers.

Mesdon was tapped as the magazine’s creative director when the title launched in 2012. Under his vision, the publication collaborated with photographers like Bruce Weber, artists like Tom Sachs, and booked many up-and-coming celebrities, like Scott Eastwood, to established names like Jake Gyllenhaal. His last issue, number nine, is on newsstands with Tom Brady on the cover.

Man of the World’s publisher, Alan Maleh, said he was “in talks” with naming a new creative director and still seeking talent.

“Sometimes you want to evolve and take things in a different direction,” he said of the change. “There were certain things that were becoming redundant and static and we’re always pushing for greatness.”

But the direction under a new vision will have subtle changes, he said.

Maleh, whose background is in retail, invested in Man of the World as a personal hobby. Since then, the publication has grown to a circulation of 30,000.

MAXIM’S SURPRISE: After weeks of industry speculation about who would be named Maxim magazine’s new editor in chief, WWD has learned the job will go to Kate Lanphear, who is jumping to the title from her current role as style director at T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

Lanphear, who was poached by the Times in early 2013, had been style director at Elle magazine for several years, where she became a recognizable street style star.

The move is a major shift by Maxim’s new owner, Sardar Biglari — the multimillionaire who made his fortune with the national Steak ‘n Shake restaurant chain — to make the magazine profitable. The struggling men’s monthly was purchased by Biglari, of Biglari Holdings, this past February but has continued to see a steady decline. In the first half of the year, Maxim had the biggest dip among men’s lifestyle and fashion magazine newsstand sales, falling 33 percent in single-copy newsstand sales to 99,632, according to figures from the Alliance for Audited Media.

Lanphear didn’t give too much away about her strategy for the magazine, simply telling WWD that, “I hope to cultivate and broaden Maxim’s coverage of style and culture. It’s an exciting time for this boldly confident, unapologetic brand.”

Hiring Lanphear, best known for her high-fashion styling capabilities in the women’s designer world, may come as a surprise to many. Maxim, after all, was part of the “lad mag” wave of titles imported from Britain in the Nineties and, like them, became synonymous with publishing women in sexy, bare-it-all editorials under past editors Keith Blanchard, Joe Levy and the recently resigned Dan Bova. But the magazine’s September cover featuring Jessica Alba with a more refined feel (albeit one that had her clad in a bikini with a “come hither” look) is a small hint of what’s to come, said a Maxim spokeswoman.

Lanphear’s first official issue will be March. She will work in conjunction with Paul Martinez, Maxim’s current creative director, and is expected to begin building the rest of her team soon.

Maxim currently publishes 15 international editions and is sold in 70 countries worldwide.

wwd.com

 

[Flashbang]

OMEN OR GLITCH?: Yahoo’s new Style channel headed by Joe Zee launched last week and set out to make a big splash during New York Fashion Week, which Zee termed the site’s “Super Bowl.” If so, there was a fumble Tuesday when the channel tried to live-stream for six hours from The James Hotel overlooking the Hudson River. As Zee chatted with Veronica Webb and cohost Katharine Zarrella of Style.com, the sound of wind ruffled the mikes. As for the picture — it was fine if someone was viewing the live-stream on a mobile phone or using the browsers Chrome or Firefox. Otherwise? Blackness.

Some might view it as an ominous start — especially for a company out to prove its chops in both content and tech.

Admittedly, it’s early days yet for Yahoo Style, which Zee said he aims to use to “democratize fashion.” Over the summer, he left his perch at Hearst Magazines’ Elle, where he served as creative director, to come to Yahoo, where he was crowned editor in chief and executive creative officer of Yahoo Style, as well as editor at large of Yahoo Beauty.

The move has allowed Zee to speak to Yahoo’s vast audience and give them access to the world of fashion that he has inhabited for more than two decades. During the live-stream — and in recurring segments on Yahoo Style — people were encouraged to submit questions via social media or tweet to the Yahoo team to join the conversation. This will actually be a large part of Zee’s overall editorial strategy, he said, explaining that he hopes to attract a new audience this way.

That could prove challenging. Coming from Elle and the entertainment world, where he has hosted various television shows, Zee has always cultivated the built-in audience that already existed in those places. Now he is faced with bringing fashion readers to Yahoo, which is largely seen as an aggregator of disparate newsy tidbits and a search engine that lags behind Google. Typical features might include denim stories, but for every budget and different body types, as well as a large component of original content for sponsors (native advertising, anyone?). During a recent pitch meeting, Zee and his team talked about doing dating-profile makeovers for a partnership with Tinder and OkCupid, for example. Rewriting dating profiles and giving women makeovers is certainly a mainstream idea that could hit with a broader audience.

Luring readers to Yahoo is exactly part of a broader challenge for the tech giant and its chief executive officer and president Marissa Mayer, who has banked a considerable amount of time and money to create content through its digital magazines. Case in point: It’s recruited a gaggle of bold-faced names, creating a masthead of what some have likened to the “Avengers” of media. Recent hires include Bobbi Brown for beauty, Paula Froelich for travel, Josh Wolk for entertainment, David Pogue for technology, Matt Bai for news, Sarah McColl for food, Michele Promaulayko for health and Katie Couric as global anchor.

Yahoo previously tried and failed at a similar endeavor, Yahoo Shine, the fashion and lifestyle site that it closed and repurposed this year. Staffers from Shine are split up among the new magazines, as Mayer gives the content game another go.

Some have put the shelf life of her digital magazine project at two years, and noted that the company is investing a lot into its future, not just with new hires, but also with technology. It’s renovating a new space on 43rd Street and 8th Avenue — The New York Times’ old building — which will become its headquarters in 2015.

The investment comes at a time when Yahoo’s earnings and revenue are slipping due to the firm’s struggle with display advertising sales. In the second quarter ended June 30, Yahoo earned $269.7 million, down from $331.2 million in the year-ago period. Revenue fell 4.7 percent to $1.08 billion from $1.14 billion. After commissions to ad partners, Yahoo’s revenue slid 3 percent and totaled $1.04 billion. Yahoo’s share price probably would have been under immense pressure if it weren’t for the fact that the company has a 22.4 percent stake in Alibaba, which is just about to embark on the road show for one of the biggest initial public offerings in history. Yahoo is reportedly selling 140 million shares, or about 27 percent of its stake, in the planned Sept. 18 IPO.

In the second-quarter conference call to investors, Mayer insisted digital magazines are one of the “driving forces” behind its display business, especially its “native ad inventory.” She noted: “Our digital magazine verticals are increasingly becoming attractive placements for brand advertisers eager to see themselves next to premium content.”

This is where Zee comes in. In his bright but small office, he talked about why he jumped from print to digital, and specifically why to Yahoo. “What was the most attractive thing to me coming here — yes, was the creative freedom — but also the audience. It’s huge,” he said. “This is sort of the ultimate in storytelling. Look at the audience. It’s free. It’s accessible to everybody and it’s accessible no matter where you are. You can look at my magazine if you just tap on your phone. It’s literally one click away.”

Despite his enthusiasm, when asked how long he has to turn Yahoo Style into a destination for content, and not just an aggregator of it, Zee’s seemingly permanent grin faded.

“Are they throwing me out?” he said. “Look, I don’t think we are going to do desperate things to get a click. People know — Marissa included — that it’s going to take a minute.”

wwd.com

 

[loladonna]

^ I think its still early for those. Usually at the end of the year WWD has a report.

I recall there being a mid-year report on sales through July.

 

[Benn98]

I wouldn't worry too much into the glitch. I really, really want Joe Zee to succeed at Yahoo! Cannot wait for Yahoo's Q4 reports, just to see how their digital mags fared.

 

[Benn98]

Not entirely sure where to post this, but the content does bear relevance to this thread. I'm only posting the parts relevant to the magazine.

Fashion Media Awards: Katie Grand, International Fashion Magazine of the Year, LOVE


Indie glossy trailblazer and visionary stylist Katie Grand—long the go-to gal for Miuccia and Marc—changed the way a fashion book could look as an editrix for Dazed & Confused, The Face, and POP. But in 2008, her impact on major runways and singular ability to launch a trend won her publishing’s brass ring: her very own Condé title, LOVE. Since then, it’s been the boundary-pushing biannual to watch. BY ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV

LOVE was launched expressly as a Katie Grand project. How did that happen?
I’d been editor at large at POP, fashion director at The Face, and I co-launched Dazed & Confused, so I was kind of on Jonathan Newhouse and Nicholas Coleridge’s radars. I kept bumping into [Jonathan’s wife] Ronnie Newhouse at Dover Street Market. One day, I ran into her by the dressing rooms, and she said to me in passing, “Would you leave POP to go launch a magazine with Condé Nast?”

What was your response?
“Absolutely. In a heartbeat.” Then, I started talking to Nicholas about it. Jonathan said he’s never launched a magazine for an editor, except for me, which is very nice.

What a compliment! How’d things progress from there?
Nicholas has been quite public about the fact that he offered to buy POP, and the publisher, Bauer, said no. When I told Bauer I was leaving to do this with Condé Nast, everyone was whooping and hollering about if Bauer would sell POP if we launched something brand-new for about a week. It was quite obvious the team would come with me, and we’d do something similar to POP. With a twice-yearly magazine, you’re always challenging yourself with the next one. Each issue is like a stand-alone project. We had a £750,000 marketing budget for LOVE. Condé Nast brought us really exciting things—like an office with windows!

Did it feel like you were transitioning to a more corporate setup?
I’ve never had any problem working for big publishing companies; POP was owned by one. But there, we had to do quite a lot of work ourselves, and sometimes it was really challenging. Condé Nast is the best there is at publishing magazines. They have structures that help you do distribution and marketing, things I find very frustrating. There was nothing but relief going to Condé Nast. I finally felt like I was in the place I was born to be.

How did you pick your very first LOVE cover girl?
I’d worked with Beth Ditto on a POP shoot, with Steven Klein, and I just really loved her energy. I was also very fond of her as a person. When you’re surrounded by new things, you rely on your gut instincts and familiarity. It would’ve been easy to put a very A-list, established movie star, like a Nicole Kidman or Katie Holmes, on the cover. That didn’t feel like the right precedent to set. It needed to be someone different and out-of-the-box. For me, the answer was always Beth—and always her naked. Beth was happy with that! When Nicholas saw the cover, he said “Oh, God, Katie, are you sure?” I’d never been more sure of anything in my life.

How fast did the inaugural LOVE issue come together?
We finished up POP in October 2008, and we put LOVE out in January 2009. It was quick—about three months.

Were there any near-catastrophe moments in LOVE’s early days?
Not really. Condé Nast is really supportive, and very good at production. It was a bit like being on holiday, actually! [Laughs] There were all these people helping, rather than us doing everything ourselves. When we sent the issue off to print, I remember thinking, “Now we’re going to be judged.” Up until that point, it was all jolly, and I’d felt pretty secure about the issue. But there were big expectations.

Ever worried about not having enough creative freedom at big publishing houses?
It’s never been an issue anywhere that I’ve worked. I’m aware that we have the biggest circulation of all the bi-annuals. You have to know how far to push, and how far to pull back. I like being as mass-market as we can be for something that’s creative.

Let’s discuss your staff.
I’ve worked with our senior editor, Murray Healy, for 15 years—at The Face, POP, and LOVE. He and our publisher, Catherine Russell, have been constants in my career; Catherine was also The Face’s publisher. I also worked with our art director, Matt Roach, at Dazed & Confused. Otherwise, the team is pretty young and new.

Which mod has graced the pages of LOVE the longest?
Cara Delevingne. We shot her for our second issue—before she did anything, really. She’d done some child modeling for Bruce Weber, but we used her very early on.

How did you discover Cara?
Victoria Young, our fashion director at the time, brought Cara’s pictures in. She also said, “…and she’s Nicholas Coleridge’s goddaughter, so let’s shoot her.” Vic shot her with Dan Jackson, and she’s been in every issue since. Now, she’s a megastar.

Any other beauties who’ve been in the mix for awhile?
Edie Campbell’s been a constant. Mario Testino shot her for us in 2010, when she still had long blonde hair, before she’d done that Burberry campaign with Romeo Beckham. Kate Moss has been in most of our issues, too. I keep coming back to those three.

What about photographers?
I tend to like the same photographers, and use them all the time! I’ve worked with Mert & Marcus on every LOVE cover. Toby McFarlan Pond has done every issue of every magazine I’ve ever worked on—I’ve worked with him since 1993. Tim Walker worked on our past six issues. Mert & Marcus have worked with us for a while, too.

Any photogs you’d love to get into LOVE?
Steven Meisel. He’s probably the only photographer I haven’t worked with.

What’s your most memorable cover to date?
Tim Walker shot Karen Elson and Edie with a lion, and it was the most memorable shoot of my career. We were all so terrified! You think having a lion on the shoot is going to be a really good idea…and then when it’s there, it’s completely uncontrollable. The lion went berserk and started stampeding around, knocking things over. Karen was literally hiding in a cupboard, three flights up, because the lion charged toward her. Talk about being taken out of your comfort zone.

Any other standout cover memories?
I really love the Miley Cyrus cover. She was a complete joy to work with—she’s really smart and interesting. She left me with the same feeling as when I met Beth Ditto for the first time. You don’t meet that many celebrities who are that special. Normally, there’s a whole set of rules and problems that you go through before you get to the shoot. All that stuff bores me senseless! Miley was just one of those really easy delights: She’d do anything, and is completely fearless.

What’s the riskiest shoot you’ve done at LOVE?
I’m usually pretty careful. In six years, I’ve only pulled two images before going to print.

Why did you ax those photos?
One was of a guy wetting himself in a pair of pink tracksuit bottoms. I felt uncomfortable with it. I sent it to Nicholas, and he felt very uncomfortable with it. In the last issue, there was a photo with a costume that had echoes of a Nazi uniform. It sat on the wall for a long time. No one else had a problem with it, but I pulled it at the very last minute. It was very, very, very tenuous. It wasn’t worth the fallout if anyone had said anything.

Two nixed images in that many years is a pretty good track record.
There is a strength to the women I put in the magazine. I don’t ever support women looking vulnerable. I’m very sensitive to that.

Why’d you put Kendall Jenner on your latest cover?
The way she’s gone about being a model, and her motives, are really interesting. I’m sure she could’ve picked up a L’Oréal contract quite easily if she’d gone the celebrity route. She’s made quite a strong, brave decision to be judged the same as all the other girls who do editorial. That’s very interesting considering her background. She’s very ambitious. She wants to be judged at face value, for how she looks, rather than for her family.

What’s up with the name LOVE?
Because my first name choice, Bubble, wasn’t available. Then, I wanted to call it Fame, but that wasn’t available. Then, we actually trademarked Starlet, and I panicked about that, saying, “Oh, God, what if we put a guy on the cover? It’s so movie star.” We went through all these names. Then I sat down with the then-art director, Lee Swillingham, and we looked at an old cover of POP, with Courtney Love on the cover, and the word “love” across her chest in big type. I said, “Can you just move the type? Let’s see how the word LOVE looks.” Sometimes you have to really see type on a page to know how you feel about it. We drove Condé Nast’s legal department absolutely insane. They must’ve been thinking, “Oh, God, we’ve got a handful with this one.”

On the frequency front, ever thought about giving us LOVE more than twice a year?
Ooh, that’s a good one! No. Seven years ago, when I was at POP we went to three issues a year, at the request of advertisers. It was really tough, and it wasn’t particularly successful in any way. It’d be really hard to do a magazine with contributors I like, putting out issues more than twice a year.

How about doing just one issue annually?
It never came up. That’d be hard for both advertisers and readers. You can’t have something on the shelves for longer than six months. But at one point, we did talk about doing an annual issue as an extra thing, which would be really fun to do.

You’re renowned for your aesthetic abilities. Are you a wordsmith, too?
When I write, it’s like an iPhone that’s got a glitch. I can write, it’s just not my natural forte. I don’t particularly like doing it. There are people who do it much better than me!

What kind of writing fits LOVE?
I don’t particularly like flowery fashion speak in my magazine; it doesn’t seem appropriate. It doesn’t fit comfortably next to the images. That’s why I’ve worked for so many years with Murray Healey: We have the same reference points. We liked the same magazines growing up.

What is LOVE’s closest competition?
Probably Interview. I don’t think the magazines are similar, per se, but they’re also a cool, interesting commercial magazine. We’ve both got really good circulation numbers, and similar contributors. I absolutely love Fabien [Baron], and Interview’s one of the better magazines out there. I don’t mean bad competition!

Ever consider doing a U.S. edition of LOVE?
We’re such an international title. Our distribution is half in the U.K., and half in the rest of the world. It’s easily available in the U.S. I suppose if someone came to Nicholas and Jonathan about that, maybe they’d think differently, but I think they’re pretty happy. Currently, we’ve got a split cover— Kendall Jenner, Amy Adams, and Christy Turlington—and it’s a very America-friendly issue.

Ha! Tell us more…
Amy looks so brave in the pictures, because she’s not portrayed as a movie star. There isn’t the glamour and gloss of a celebrity portrait sitting. It looks like an art project. Also, David Sims shot Raquel Zimmerman for the recent issue, which I’m really pleased with. I don’t have much bad stuff to say about my time editing LOVE, to be honest.

How do you juggle LOVE with your styling gigs?
It’s tough. This season I did two men’s shows, and I hadn’t done men’s shows in a long time. We were in production on the magazine at the same time. But people are pretty considerate of LOVE’s production schedule. Marc [Jacobs] understands that at particular times of the year I have to do the magazine, and that it’s a really important part of my life. If you say, “Oh, we’re in production,” everyone leaves you alone.

What do you get from styling that you don’t get from doing LOVE?[/B]
Working with really amazing embroiderers, craftsmen, looking through fabric archives, and helping design a pair of shoes that you really want to wear; that’s all really exciting. Finding a new way to say something that’s been said a million times before.

How early on did you decide you wanted to be a mag editrix?
When I was 17. I first became aware of magazines when I was 13, when I was sick and my dad came home at lunchtime and brought me copies of British Vogue, i-D, and The Face. Soon after, I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.

What did you get out of going to Central Saint Martins?
I didn’t learn very much at Saint Martins, I have to say. It was good fun socially—though they should tell you on your first day, “Be nice to everyone, because you’re still going to be in the same circle in 20 years’ time.” But it wasn’t a great college for me. It suits some people, and it doesn’t suit others. I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I just didn’t really know how to do it, and college wasn’t helping me do it.

What did help you out?
By chance, I met Rankin and Jefferson [Hack] in a bar; they were setting up a magazine. I just thought, “Well, I should start living my life now.” So that was what I did while still at school on and off for another six months.

Apparently, you’re quite the glossy collector.
I’ve got Vogue since ’84. I’ve got a big library at home, and everything is bound. The room is now overflowing; I need to think of a room to put some more shelves in. It’s just for personal pleasure—I’m incapable of throwing stuff away. It’s the same with clothes, shoes, handbags. I have a mountain of stuff. It just is getting bigger. It never gets smaller.

PLUS! Marc Jacobs weighs in…
What has Katie done for the fashion industry with LOVE?
It’s a great extension of her, and her sensibilities: It’s really young, cool, and it doesn’t fit this commercial idea of what a fashion magazine should be. When I look at LOVE, I hear Katie’s funny, adorable laugh. It puts a smile on my face.

Source: Fashionweekdaily.com

 

[Benn98]

Fashion Media Awards: Stefano Tonchi, Magazine Of The Year, W

BY ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV

What does it mean for W to nab the Magazine of the Year title?
I’m pleased! W has been around for more than 40 years, and that deserves attention. It’s a magazine that takes risks and presents celebrities before people have even discovered them. Our photographers push the envelope—that’s not the norm in our industry. W has been connecting the dots of contemporary culture—celebrities, art, cinema, and fashion—in a logical context. That’s always been the mission of my career.

What was the maglike when you arrived?
I think W was suffering. It had become so fashion-obsessed, it was even difficult for fashion-obsessed people. Somebody once said to me that it had become so snobby that even a snob did not want to pick it up. It was so extreme, they had lost their audience. There was a need for an enlarged point of view.

Why do you think you got the gig?
From my first interview with Si Newhouse, who was really the person who hired me, it was always about bringing my vision that I showed at the Times—giving fashion a larger context. The mission was to reach more people—to be more inclusive and open to what was happening in culture at large.

How did you move beyond that extreme, snobby era of W?
My big contribution has been making W much more relevant in the art world and in the movie industry We’ve successfully created three pillars: fashion and fashion photography, which is W’s core; contemporary art, as a form of entertainment and as a form of social currency; and a really strong presence in the cinema culture.

Are there artists you were surprised to nab?
Someone like Urs Fischer? Not easy. It was so incredible to work with Ai Weiwei, because he was under house arrest. He couldn’t leave China. I thought, “How are we going to do this thing?”

And how did you?
We were going to shoot in China, and then were told we couldn’t. We ended up shooting on Rikers Island, with Ai Weiwei on Skype, so we had to shoot at night. He only had Internet access from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Beijing time. He directed the shoot, he approved it; it was historic. He narrated through a model how he was arrested, interrogated, put in the shower naked, all of that. Each picture was a really big process.

Incredible. Did these artist relationships kick off at W?
All of these collaborations started at T. In fact, there is a big painting in Jeff Koons’ current exhibit —Gretchen Mol as Bettie Page on a dolphin—that was created after a project commissioned by me.

Who’s helped you most on the Hollywood front?
My relationship with Lynn Hirschberg, one of the most respected film industry journalists, has been important. She knows all the players—the talent agents and managers, producers, directors. She’s one of the best writers, if not the best. Everyone thinks we’re married! It is a true work marriage. I trust her completely.

What kinds of stars have had a real moment in W?
We were the first to put Jennifer Lawrence and Rooney Mara on the cover; we discovered them. We also transform people, like that cover with Kristen Stewart. That picture completely sold her to the fashion world; it was transformational. Miley Cyrus, too.

What’s the feedback been like?
Very positive. We kept getting letters from people, saying they liked that we were doing more culture. I tried not to take away anything that was already there. I was reminded that our mission is fashion—we couldn’t be confused with Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, or New York. You must know your space in the market, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build around it.

What’s the riskiest cover you’ve ever done?
Kim Kardashian. But at the time, I didn’t really think about it as risky, because everybody was aware of her role as a pop icon. Our cover was not about endorsement; it was actually a critical approach. I didn’t put her on the cover in a beautiful dress to glamorize her, and I didn’t try to normalize her, either. We pushed her to the extreme of being naked, and then collaborated with artist Barbara Kruger and put a really strong, critical message on her body: “It’s all about me, it’s all about you, it’s all about me.” I thought it was almost predictable, but it wasn’t.

That was quite the cover. Any others that felt particularly ballsy at the time?
In a certain way, the “Good Kate, Bad Kate” cover was so dark and different from anything else out there on the newsstand. I would say that my covers are a little bit different from what W used to do. The previous administration had very provocative pictures inside, but the covers were quite commercial and classic.

Any underrated covers you’d like to bring to our attention?
People don’t remember the black Marie Antoinette cover of Nicki Minaj as much. It was with Francesco Vezzoli; we didn’t have to convince him. He’s one of my best friends.

How about that sublime polka dot–festooned Clooney cover?
It was a collaboration with Yayoi Kusama, who did the background and clothes. We aim very high, and then you have to go from there. Kusama was so high that we thought she would never do it! She lives in Tokyo, has a studio and a mental-health-assisted living-care center she goes back and forth between. George only wears Armani, so we had to get a custom Armani suit for him. We mailed it to her and she hand-painted everything and then mailed it back. Including the shoes and the bow tie and everything.

Is it challenging to do edgy covers at a mag owned by Condé?
Before my time the magazine was more independent because it was part of Fairchild. But in my time here, I haven’t had any kind of [corporate] critiques about the cover. Also we’re mostly subscription-based—our numbers at the newsstand indicate how people react to one cover versus another, but they really don’t determine anything.

Must be nice to not have to constantly stress over newsstand stats.
Absolutely! I’ve always been very lucky with that. At T, I didn’t have to deal with the pressure of the newsstand. I never accuse colleagues of mine who are putting out very commercial covers of not doing a good job, because it depends on where you’re working, who your audience is, and what your market is.

Visuals reign supreme in W’s pages.
Photography is our trademark. It’s in the DNA of the magazine. It’s what we’re constantly known for, awarded for, recognized for. Mr. [John] Fairchild was obsessive about fashion—it was that part of the DNA of the magazine. Then, in 1994, when they went to the large format, they decided to re-push photography. Steven Klein, Juergen Teller, Craig McDean, and Mert & Marcus were all discovered in W.

Who are your own favorite photographers of the moment?
I love the work of Juergen and Craig, Steven Klein and Steven Meisel, Paolo Roversi, as well as Inez and Vinoodh—they just shot the cover and most of the October issue. I’m also very happy to carry on that tradition with a new generation, bringing people like Tim Walker, Willy Vanderperre, and Alasdair McLellan to a wider audience.

What’s your relationship with Tim like?
Tim Walker had very little presence in the American market. I really believe in him. I think he’s done his best work for W in the past three or four years—we’ve won most of our ASME awards with his work. We’ve been very important in his career, by giving him a stronger point of view, the freedom to express it, and a place to publish it. We’ve helped make him better known to a larger community. Even his commercial work has gotten a lot better.

Who else has been key on the photog front?
I’ve developed great relationships with Mert & Marcus and Steven Klein. They’re really part of W’s DNA. Getting Steven back was very important; it took two years. Steven took time off, then he did our 40th-anniversary issue cover, that Kate cover…some very memorable covers I’ve done have been his! I’ve been very happy to have Steven Meisel, too. We’ve given him a space that’s very different from other Condé Nast publications.

Is it essential to be really strong visually to be a great EIC today?
Yes, you need a strong visual point of view. That was very important in T, too. Besides, we live in a very visual culture; we communicate much more with images than with words at this point. Nobody’s sending any more text messages, it’s all about Instagram. I’m a big fan of telling it with a picture!

Let’s go back a bit. How did you know it was the right time to leave T?
It was an opportunity. I had other opportunities before, different conversations. I felt I’d done a lot with T in my years there. I’d reached a certain plateau. I actually wanted to go further in the company, and I don’t think they understood that. And I didn’t agree with two or three of their choices in particular.

What kinds of choices?
One was when they decided to eliminate the style pages from the weekly magazine—that was a mistake. Two, when they decided to cut the size of the magazine. I fought for that, but I lost the battle, and I was not happy about that. I mean, clearly I was right about that one, because they brought the original size back! I never saw T as its own brand. I always saw T as part of The New York Times brand. The real opportunity with W was to create a monthly with a lot of style and energy. T didn’t believe in that. Also, the separation between the Sunday Magazine and T—that was not right. Now, it’s clear that one is killing the other.

How about some highlights from your time at T?
I was very proud to be part of The New York Times. It was an incredible opportunity—I hadn’t worked at a company that has better business power. Truly, you can show up anywhere with a Times business card, and people know who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. One of the best things about those days is the people I worked with. I found some of the most talented and undervalued people at The New York Times. They were geniuses, and they were totally undervalued. It was very sad.

How did you end up at the Gray Lady?
I was recruited by Adam Moss. When I was at Esquire, I met him socially. The fashion critic at the Times was Amy Spindler, and she’d talked to Adam about me. I don’t know how he hired me, but he believed in me. Then he left. We overlapped less than six months.

Why do you think you got the gig?
It was Adam’s vision—I didn’t apply for the job, they just asked me to interview. I made a plan, presented it, and I must have been impressive. They were interviewing many fashion writers, who often don’t know what happens on set, or how to deal with photographers. They think you can order something and you’re going to get it—it doesn’t work that way. I sent a box instead of a résumé, filled with a bunch of magazines and books, and I think that’s what got me the job.I was brought in as the Sunday Times Magazine’s fashion editor. I was reworking what fashion was at the Times.

Quite a lot changed in your six years helming T.
It could have been a disaster. Nobody ever looked at it—until it started making millions. Then suddenly, we were heroes. We went from six to eight issues, then to 12, then to 15…we were a machine. We went from one room to a whole floor.

What did you get out of Esquire?
Esquire was a great experience, though when I took the job, I had to take a really big pay cut because I was coming from J.Crew, but I believed in working for the most prestigious men’s magazine. There was very strong drinking culture there. When I was there, this female assistant’s specific job was to provide the cocktail hour every day: fresh olives, lime juice, orange juice. She was an excellent editor, by the way.

What did you bring to the table?
I always said that Esquire’s enemy was its past, because its tradition was so incredible. One of my big jobs there was to make it more memorable for the images. I did a lot of research into the history of the magazine. Few people remember that GQ was a supplement of Esquire!

How did you make Esquire a spiffier read?
The idea was to sell readers fashion, while they thought they were looking at pictures. David [Granger] was very receptive to that—my biggest idea there was to create something called “Men Across America.” It became this platform, and we carried it on for a couple of years. Every month, we visited a different U.S. state and created a visual essay—lobstermen in Maine, cowboys in New Mexico, farmers in Ohio, the Cuban community in Miami. I brought unconventional photographers, too, like Bob Richardson, the father of Terry!

Any other memorable Esquire moments?
We dressed some representatives at the Democratic National Convention when it was in L.A., at the Staples Center; the election Gore lost. Steven Sebring photographed the reps while they were interacting on the floor with the vice president’s entourage. It was really special. We took risks.

How did you end up as creative director at Self?
This profession is all about personal relationships. I went to Self because of Alexandra Penney, one of the magazine’s founders. It was really her creation and her vision. I’m still honored to be a friend of hers. I always call her my mentor—she was the person who really taught me everything about American magazines. I needed a job in the U.S. that would pay me in dollars, and I had already moved here as an editor-at-large for the Italian Condé Nast titles, particularly for L’Uomo Vogue.

What was that stint like?
It was really strange. I got to know the American woman! I discovered the world of focus groups and market research. Doing Self was not so different from doing J.Crew in that sense. At J.Crew, it was just more direct: If they liked it, they bought it; if they didn’t like it, they wouldn’t buy it.

What did you get out of your Self stint?
Alexandra taught me so much: strategies on how to put together magazines, covers and coverlines, deks, writing, and American journalism. She’s a great teacher and person. She’s still a very close friend; we have dinner every other month. She was so ahead of her time. I remember one issue was all about the web—and this was in the mid ’90s. It was her idea of social media: “Call me, write me, e-mail me.” We brought talent that was unknown to Self. I hired a design director from Holland. We had great writing, and I tried to book photographers who were of the moment and less predictable. We were the first magazine to publish Inez and Vinoodh’s pictures in the U.S. It was not the most commercial choice!

Source: Fashionweekdaily.com

 

[Benn98]

Fashion Media Awards: Graydon Carter, September Issue Of The Year, Vanity Fair

Between that smokin’ Natalia Vodianova cover shoot, the Isabella Blow/Lee McQueen excerpt, and that hotly debated best-dressed list, Vanity Fair’s September issue was a feast of fashion delights. Editor Graydon Carter talks us through his recipe. BY EDDIE ROCHE

How do you pack a comprehensive look at fashion into one issue?
We focus in large part on people who have an enduring sense of style. Natalia Vodianova, whose sense of style goes right to the heart of how she lives her life, is a perfect example. She’s got an incredible story, only parts of which I knew. It’s been a long journey from where she came from in Russia to where she is now, and I like that story. It’s very uplifting. The people that Mario Testino shot for the best-dressed list are people who have developed their sense of style over the years, often in the public eye. It’s not easy, but I have a strong team behind me.

Why was Natalia so intriguing?
I’ve known her on and off for the past 10 or 12 years—we donate invitations to the Oscar party to her charity—and had a dinner earlier this year for her and Antoine [Arnault] when they opened the first Berluti store in New York. She’s just an incredible and engaging woman. She’ll have an important career way beyond modeling. We always look for a person who has a story behind them—not everybody has one—and also somebody who is attractive, both visually and emotionally. She certainly fit the bill.

You’ve said in the past that you’re not much of a fashion guy. Did you learn anything putting the issue together?
A few things. That I should be wearing hats more, for starters. They’re doing wonders for Pharrell Williams. The smart people choose a few things each season to compose something for themselves that will endure. I don’t change the look of my clothes that much from decade to decade, but I’m not young. I have great admiration for designers. With the amount of staggering images flooding the Internet every day, it’s very hard to keep abreast and stay original.

What kind of hats?
Actually, scratch that. I look crappy in hats.

Do you make suggestions for the best-dressed list?
Oh, yeah! I see it right through to the end. A large part of it is a secret meeting with a lot of mystique, but a part of it is very open to the public as well, now that people can vote online.

Do you ever kick people off?
Oh, yeah. I don’t kick them off the list. I kick them off the proposed list.

Why?
Some get on there through politics in one form or another, and you look at them and think, “This person has absolutely no style.”

How has the list evolved?
In the past, there were a lot of socialites and people who did not live in the public eye. Increasingly, the list includes people the readers relate to, and those are often in the film or music business. You don’t see a lot of writers on the best-dressed list, because they’re more private individuals and not part of the ongoing parade.

Do people try and schmooze you to get on the list?
They don’t do it to me, but there are some people who will try and politic for themselves and talk to the other members. I get almost no coercion during the year.

That surprises us.
Me too.

Who came up with the idea to shoot the portfolio subjects in daytime looks?
Mario Testino and Jessica [Diehl]. We did something similar last year and thought it was a fresh way of shooting people in a contemporary setting. The readers are used to seeing paparazzi images instead of highly styled fashion photographs. Most of these people are not models, and we put them in a rough approximation of their element. I think it works quite well.

Does anyone ever ask to be taken off the list?
Occasionally, but that’s rare. When I was on it in the ’80s, a friend of mine called me from Madrid and they had read about it in The International Herald Tribune. I was at Spy at the time, and I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, but secretly, I was quite tickled.

Edward Menicheschi is leaving the magazine to head up his own sales division. How do you feel about that?
I feel terrible. He’s a phenomenal publisher, and I loved having him as a partner. He’s the fourth Vanity Fair publisher to go on to run group sales, in fact. I guess it was only a matter of time before it happened. If it had to happen, the last couple of weeks of August was the best time because it’s quiet. I’m not going to rush into anything with the next publisher. We’ll announce soon.

Page Six suggested that Vanity Fair commissioned a controversial story about Dolce & Gabbana. Was that intended for the September issue?
It would have been perfect for September, but it wasn’t fully scheduled. It was going to run sometime this fall. I wanted to wait and see what the judge said about their future, so it’s on hold for now. We have probably 30 or 40 different stories on hold at any given time.

Were you annoyed it was leaked to Page Six?
Of course. I think the Dolce & Gabbana people leaked it.

How would your describe your personal style?
Boring and conservative. I wear the same clothes to work every day: a pair of gray flannels and a blazer of some sort.

Thoughts on shorts to the office?
I love shorts! If you’re a man and you’ve got the legs, go for it.

What about the no-socks look? We hear you’re not a fan.
Those guys at GQ have lovely ankles and I think they should show them off. My particular bugaboo is actually open-toed shoes for women. There are some women who can do it, and some who, well, shouldn’t.

What’s your favorite issue to put together?
That’s like talking about your favorite child. The October issue is a particular favorite of mine, because it’s about the New Establishment and business. But each issue has its own challenges. Thin issues are more challenging because you have fewer pages to try to tell all the stories. Thick issues are a challenge because they’re filled, and it’s a big issue to close!

Do you read any September issues aside from your own?
I’ll probably leaf through most of them soon. Vogue is the grand mommy of all of them, but they all do a highly ambitious job.

Thoughts on Condé Nast’s impending move?
Love it. I spend about eight seconds in Times Square every day, so it’s not like I’m going to miss anything there. I live downtown and I can see the [One World Trade Center] building from the end of my block. The new downtown area is going to be like Rockefeller Center for the next century. It’s quite something.

Will you have a bigger office?
It’s about the same size, but I’ll have a view of the harbor, which will be pretty exhilarating. It’s a whole new world. The building I do miss is 350 Madison. The Oyster Bar was down the block, with Brooks Brothers on one side and Paul Stuart on the other. It was perfect.

Source: Fashionweekdaily.com

 

[Benn98]

Fashion Media Awards: Carine Roitfeld, Fashion Creative Of The Year

In 2014, the establishment’s leading rabble-rouser held sway over the closets of the cognoscenti (via CR Fashion Book) and the fashion-mad masses (via Harper’s Bazaar) like never before. She’s always game to reminisce about her salade days with Tom Ford, but it’s her obsession with the future that’s cemented her reign. BY ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV

What’s the biggest surprise about running your very own glossy?
I have the freedom to do anything I like! You never know when you’re leaving a title like Vogue how people are going to be with you afterward. I wondered, “Where are they going to seat me at the fashion shows?” It is difficult. You know your position in the fashion world from where you sit at shows. So now, even though I’m not Vogue editor in chief, I get very good seats; I am very happy. It gives me strength. I loved my years at Vogue, but this is a new life. It’s a new adventure. I still get big recognition from the fashion world, and it warms my heart.

You’ve been a real champion of young talents post-Vogue Paris.
Some are faithful, some are not, which I have learned. But it’s okay. I found Sebastian Faena, Michael Avedon…I’m very happy with the ones who still follow me. I have a certain talent for discovering new people!

Gigi Hadid, for example.
I gave her the cover of CR, I gave her a try in Tom Ford, I gave her [a spot in] amfAR, I put her in my Bazaar spread between Iman and Claudia Schiffer and Lady Gaga. When I like someone, I really like someone! I am a courageous person to not work with the same people everyone else is working with. This is my talent. To put Kim Kardashian on the cover? It’s a talent. It’s a risk.

You were an early champion of Lara Stone.
She had something different; you cannot describe it. It’s an instinct. She was once the sort of girl you take for the show fittings, for the hair and makeup trials, but never to book for the show. Can you imagine? I pushed her. I gave her so many covers, so much visibility. Now she is one of the biggest girls in the world. She’s huge. At times she was a bit huge—you could not zip up a skirt on her. I didn’t care if she was a bit above the regular size; it made her more beautiful to me. Other people didn’t book her because they would think she was a bit too curvy. For me, it’s not a problem. We can cut the skirt!

Queen B is on your latest CR cover. That’s quite the coup!
Beyoncé asked me. I don’t know why: Maybe she liked the way Kim looked different on CR. Beyoncé is dressed in Comme des Garçons in the shoot; this is huge. I think this picture will stay in fashion photography archives forever. Honestly, it’s the picture I’m most proud of in my career.

Stephen Gan has been such an important part of your career, too.
It’s very strange because I’ve known Stephen maybe 20 years, and through CR and the documentary [Mademoiselle C], I’ve discovered a new person. Not exactly the one I thought he was before. Before, we had a lot of fun, went to parties, but didn’t work hard together.

What’s changed?
I didn’t know he would be such a hard worker—almost all his life is dedicated to work. He is a very discreet person, too. He never talks about himself. He gives a lot to everything, and he has the best education in fashion, and he knows everything visually, but he has to keep something for himself. I’ve learned so much from Stephen. And I’m not always easy to work with: I live in Paris, I change my mind a lot, I have my craziness…

Let’s discuss your global fashion director gig at Bazaar.
After two years, still most people don’t really understand what I’ve been doing for Bazaar! I’m not just working for American Bazaar; I’m working with no one above me. I have total freedom for [editions in] 30 countries. It’s such power. The job was not my idea; it was the idea of David Carey. I had lunch with him at the top of the Hearst Tower, and it was like, wow! What they proposed to me had never existed before. I didn’t know right away if I was going to do it, but I knew the idea was a genius one.

What felt so genius about it?
It’s very interesting to be visible in so many countries. It brings other editions things they would not have—I’m not sure they would have Gaga on the cover! For me, it’s big. You put one dress on the cover, and 40 million people see that dress. The message has to be very clear.

Do you have to play it a bit safe since it’s such a vast audience?
Of course, but each time I’m a little bit more wild. A bit more fashion. I’m lucky, because I have CR, which gives a strong vision of fashion for people who understand and love fashion. I hope Bazaar gives the pleasure of fashion to women who are maybe not as well educated in fashion. I try to make it a bit easier for them.

What kind of other projects have you gotten more invested in recently?
Now, all the models want to be there in the amfAR show—and it raises a lot of money! Three and a half million Euros just for 42 dresses is a lot of money, I think. I am very proud of all these big projects—the Pirelli calendar, too.

Why are you dabbling in perfume next?
Because it’s something I didn’t do before! I dreamed of a perfume because a perfume is not just for one season—it has a heritage. Maybe mine will be like Chanel, you never know! We have to dream. I’ve spent two years working on it.

What can we expect?
I’m hoping it will launch in September 2015. I’m doing seven different scents! With perfume, you need a story behind it, and my story is quite great.

Where do you see yourself in a decade?
See, that’s the problem: I don’t see myself aging. You get bitter—your body is not the same, you’re more tired—but I look at Karl, and in 20 years I must have the same energy as him. He sets the standard. I cannot say I’m tired or that I have too many projects. Karl can do everything, so I can, too! I’m not as chic as him, you know. I have a cold right now, and I’m complaining a lot. But I try not to do that too much, because I think that’s such a s**t attitude. As I said to Gigi, “You have to be happy every day.”

Do you live by that advice?
Of course, it’s not a perfect world, but comparatively I think I’m quite lucky. I’m Russian, so there’s the sadness in me, always, but I try to be happy, always. Being down and up all the time? That’s the Russian mentality!

You’re a model fairy godmother of sorts, non?
In a way, yes. Models I work with write me very nice cards. But sometimes with models and young photographers, I can be very mean. Not mean, but very tough, I guess. I’ll say, “You need to do this… stop complaining…”

Does your own experience modeling make you more empathetic?
Yes. I know that being naked in front of people is not very nice. So, immediately I will say, “Come on, give her a robe, she is not going to stay naked, she is going to be cold,” or “Give her something to eat!” I work a lot with Steven Meisel, and he’s the nicest person with models! He asks, “Do you want to drink?”, “Do you want to rest a bit?”, “Do you like this song?” He gives them the best to be more beautiful. It’s very important.

Source: Fashionweekdaily.com

 

[Benn98]

Quote:

Francoise-Marie Santucci to Helm French Elle

By Laure Guilbault

THE ELLE REPORT: Francoise-Marie Santucci has been named editorial director at French Elle, effective Sept. 25.

Santucci, who had resigned from Libération’s Next magazine earlier this month, is to succeed Valérie Toranian, who had been editorial director at the weekly fashion magazine for 13 years.

Lagardère Active, the multimedia division of Lagardère that owns French Elle, said Santucci embodies the “necessary critical distance and sensitivity to the zeitgeist at the heart of the magazine’s values ​​and cardinal points: society and fashion.”

It added that “Toranian managed to reinvent the magazine: it undeniably remained the reference of women's magazines, and made its voice heard in the public debate.”

The change in editorial leadership comes amidst a major restructuring at the French media group. Lagardère sold 10 publications earlier this year, including French women's magazine Be.

In 2013, paid circulation of Elle in France was 369,965, down from 383,905 in 2012, according to France’s Audit Bureau.

Source: WWD.com

 

[Benn98]

I'm very sceptic about this move. The few ELLE Fr issues I've picked up over the years has been very good, and the material consistent. I imagine since they address such a large demographic there wont be any sudden changes just yet.

 

[Flashbang]

There's going to be a Russian edition of Numero Homme

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