Carine Roitfeld and Stephen Gan Part Ways
Carine Roitfeld and Stephen Gan have terminated their partnership on CR Fashion Book, BoF can confirm.
By Tamara Abraham OCTOBER 31, 2016 05:30
NEW YORK, United States — Carine Roitfeld and Stephen Gan have ended their four-year partnership on CR Fashion Book. The license agreement between the company owned by founder and editor-in-chief Roitfeld, Confidential Design NY LLC, and Gan’s Fashion Media Group, which published CR Fashion Book and also owns V and VMan, ended on September 30, according to a statement released to BoF.
The publishing rights of CR Fashion Book have been transferred to Roitfeld, who signed a new license agreement under CR Fashion Book Ltd on October 1st. Issue 10 of the biannual title will be published by Roitfeld as scheduled in March 2017, without a new partner.
“Both parties greatly enjoyed their four years working together and are happy to support the title’s transition and future growth,” continued the statement.
The news confirms rumours that the pair had ended their collaboration on CR Fashion Book, which launched under Gan’s Fashion Media Group in 2012, after the end of Roitfeld’s decade-long tenure as editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris.
It is clear that Roitfeld and Gan worked closely on CR Fashion Book. In the 2013 documentary Mademoiselle C, which followed Roitfeld as she prepared to launch the title, Gan features prominently in editorial meetings, supporting Roitfeld’s vision.
Under Fashion Media Group, CR Fashion Book had a global circulation of 65,000 copies and featured the likes of Kate Upton, Beyoncé, Gigi Hadid and Rihanna on its covers. In an interview with BoF last year, Roitfeld said the magazine financed itself, revealing: ”We’ve been able to keep all of the advertisers we had for issue one” when the much-hyped project attracted a who's who of luxury brands.
But CR Fashion Book has faced its share of challenges. Prior to its launch, news of Roitfeld and Gan’s joint venture prompted Condé Nast International, publisher of Vogue Paris and Roitfeld’s former employer, to remind many of the industry’s most celebrated photographers that they were under exclusive contract to shoot only for Condé Nast, effectively banning them from collaborating with the title. According to reports, even those not under contractual obligation were discouraged from working with Roitfeld.
In 2014, Fashion Media Group lost another key publication when Gan parted ways with Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos, co-founders of Visionaire. The split saw Dean and Kaliardos take control of Visionaire, while Gan continued to run V magazine and VMan as part of the Fashion Media Group stable. In the midst of this reshuffling, Gan was forced to deny that CR Fashion Book was closing down, swiftly dismissing a rumour that was circulating at the time.
Roitfeld and Gan will both continue to work for Hearst Magazines’ Harper’s Bazaar, where Gan has been creative director at the US edition since 2001, and helped install Roitfeld as global fashion director in 2012.
Neither Roitfeld nor Gan were available for further comment.
Was in such shock as I read through it, anyway, the name 'John Crace' should have let off a huge red alarm though.
