The Daily Front Row by DAILY FRONT ROW INC

FEBRUARY 13–14, 2016

THE

MEDIA ISSUE

DAN PERES: THE EXIT INTERVIEW

THE

ON VOGUE RUNWAY

EXCLUSIVE: KEITH KELLY ON THE INDUSTRY MELTDOWN NATIVE IS KING!

ALEX WANG

HIS SECRET PLANS FOR

WORLD DOMINATION!

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WORLD’S No.1 FASHION MAGAZINE

*Than nearest competitor. **Women’s fashion edit. †12–24 Competitive Set: Vogue, W, Vanity Fair, Glamour, People StyleWatch, InStyle. SOURCES: GfK MRI, Fall 2015; comScore Multi-platform, Dec. 2015; Site data, Jan. 2016; Media Radar, Jan.-Dec. 2015. Ipsos Mendelsohn Affluent Survey 2012; Base: Affluent Men HHI $100,000+

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KICKOFFBash

THE DAILY X TARGET’S PARTY

ONLY THE CHIC SURVIVE Considering The Daily Front Row is the official magazine of New York Fashion Week, it’s only natural we should kick off the festivities with champagne, style, and a seriously cool collab with Target. The hot ticket on Wednesday night was our Only the Chic Survive bash, featuring Coco Rocha, Lorenzo Martone, Wilhelmina’s newly minted CEO Bill Wackermann, new face of Givenchy Isis Bataglia, and top mod Elisabeth Erm. Lensman Sebastian Faena was just back from shooting the new issue of CR Fashion Book. Target CMO Jeff Jones mingled with IMG’s Ivan Bart, InStyle EIC Ariel Foxman, and so many more. Stylist and designer Ilaria Urbinati, in town from Los Angeles, dropped by with her husband, Eric Ray Davidson, who shot Justin Bieber’s buzzy new GQ cover. Guests sipped cocktails, enjoyed canapés, and listened to beats by DJ Ana Matronic. The best action, however, happened on the back wall where, at the press of a button, guests like Alana Hadid and WeWoreWhat’s Danielle Bernstein filled up their “Only the Chic Survive” boxes with must-have products from the Target Survivalist kits. Who doesn’t need Chapstick Pixi beauty products or a backup phone charger this week?

GETTING THE LOOK!

Cipriana Quann and TK Wonder

Jeff Jones

Allison Aston and Veronica Miele Beard

WITH JOHANNES HUEBL

Ariel Foxman

John Targon and Scott Studenberg Michael Carl, Noria Morales, and Miguel Enamorado Bill Wackermann with Rossy Herrera, Galaxia Lorenzo, Esthe Cleto, Jerome Leloup, Isis Bataglia, and Elisabeth Erm

FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

N E I L R A S M U S / B FA N YC . C O M ( 1 5 ) ; G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 5 )

Who are you wearing? A Belstaff jacket, Cucinelli coat, Crockett & Jones shoes…and the rest is Ralph Lauren. What brought you out tonight? It’s the start of women’s NYFW. I’m really relaxed—I just finished Men’s Fashion Week as the CFDA ambassador, so it was a lot of running around. I took my job seriously, so now, it’s really nice for me to be a guest here and see a couple of friends. You guys always throw a really nice party that brings people together! Post–Fashion Week plans? I have a few photography jobs coming up, and I’m celebrating my wife’s 30th birthday at the end of the month. Is it an advantage to be in front or behind the camera? Both are great. Everything I’ve learned from 20 years in modeling has really helped me create a nice work environment for the entire team when I’m shooting.

CHECK-UP TIME!

WITH SOCIAL MEDIA PHENOM DR. MIKE How does it feel to be the chicest doc? It’s pretty exciting! I’ve always been into fashion. I’m not naturally a creative person, so I love seeing everyone else in their creative flow—I can learn from them. Does anyone think you’re a charlatan? When I got started on social media, some people said, “Are you really a doctor?” But now, people see me in a hospital and in magazines, so they understand. Have you gotten sick this winter? I haven’t— haven’t—I got my flu shot! I recommend everybody else gets theirs as well.

Dustee Jenkins and James LaForce

HEARD

Misha Noonoo

Ivan Bart

“I USED TO LI MODEL LIKE 100 YEARS AGO.”—fabric designer and Million Dollar Decorators star JEFFREY ALAN MARKS MARKS

Alyssa Campanella

Lisa S Salzer and Marlon M T Taylor-Wiles

Coco Rocha

HEARD

“I MET BULLSEYE AT THE OPENING OF THE CENTURY CITY TARGET IN CALIFORNIA. IT GOT A LOT OF LIKES HEARD ON INSTAGRAM. WE HAD A VERY INTENSE “THIS PARTY CONVERSATION. HE IS SO ON-BRAND KNOWS WHO WILL BE FOR BOTH THE PRESIDENT.”—CAMERON DAILY AND SILVER, on one of his many TARGET.” brushes with ultra-fame Sebastian Faena and Miles McMillan

—photographer SEBASTIAN FAENA

HEARD

“I KNOW THAT MY BAG IS LOUIS VUITTON AND MY SHOES ARE SAINT LAURENT. THE DRESS…I REALLY DON’T KNOW. I BORROWED IT FROM MY FRIEND!”—model ISIS BATAGLIA, on her outfit

Enisa nisa Nik

CRUSH ALERT! WITH NICO TORTORELLA

You’re adorable. How does it feel to be hosting this event? [Laughs] It feels right. I feel like I’m in the right place. Have you ever hosted a NYFW event? Probably…but I can’t exactly remember! What I do know is I’m going to a whole slew of shows over the next week. I’m really excited about Lacoste, because I actually walked in a Lacoste show about five years ago. How’s the acting? Things are really good—I was always an actor first and foremost, and then I got into the modeling world. I even played a model on TV. Now I’m merging the two together and loving it. We adore you and your new show, Younger. Yes! The Following got canceled last year, and we’re going into the third season of Younger this June. I love it! FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

CHICMoments

MUSICAL MOMENT! WITH CHARLIE SIEM

Congrats on writing the magazine’s theme song! Thanks! It was the first original piece I’ve ever written, thanks to Jeremy Murphy. I hope I do a lot more of that. How did you transition from music to modeling? It was pretty easy. I don’t do that much modeling, but when I do, it’s like half a day in some beautiful location with a lot of fun people, so it’s kind of like a little holiday. I see it as a way of getting exposure to an audience that wouldn’t necessarily listen to the violin. I hope that when they see me holding a violin in an ad for Dior they think, “Wow, this is something I could listen to.” Who “discovered” you as a model? Mario Testino. He saw a video of mine and hired me to play at an evening he was hosting. What’s the scoop on your shirt? I designed this for performances—it’s all open in the back, because I need full flexibility. I kind of look like an officer in the Russian Army!

Charlie Siem Ashley Cooper, Jeremy Murphy, and Warwick Brennand Wallis Currie-Wood

Patina Miller

Frank DeCaro

Gregory Jbara, Abigail Baker, and Michael Nouri Eric Rutherford

CBS WATCH! PARTY

Sami Gayle

On Tuesday, CBS Watch! celebrated its 10th anniversary with an insiders-only soirée at the Gramercy Park Hotel. The evening began with a cocktail hour for stylist Christopher Campbell, who’s responsible for outfitting the magazine’s cover stars in designer wares for their far-flung cover shoots. CBS stars abounded—the Madam Secretary crew included Keith Carradine, Patina Miller, Wallis Currie-Wood, and Evan Roe, while the Blue Bloods’ cast members included Bridget Moynahan, Sami Gayle, and Will Estes. Guests checked out the silent auction for the Watch! watch, created in partnership with Waldan International. (Proceeds benefited the Museum of Tolerance and Team Rubicon.) Violinist and model Charlie Siem treated guests to a rousing performance before the legendary Buster Poindexter finished off the evening with a raucous set, complete with a conga line.

Randy Jones and Michael Musto

Buster Poindexter

Evan Roe

Sharaya J and Enisa Nik

Keith Carradine

DJ Hesta Prynn

Robert Konjic Bridget Moynahan FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

ZAC HALSTON (7); GETTY IMAGES (11)

Michael Rizzi

SPRING R RING You’re Going To Love Our FRESH NEW LOOK!

—

ON SALE F E B RUA RY 1 2

DIGITAL FOCUS! WITH STEFANO TONCHI

blake lively and Ryan Reynolds carol Alt

Petra nemcova

SCENE

natalie ludwig

A VERY GOOD MOMENT! WITH NATASHA LYONNE lorenza izzo Adriana lima chanel iman

REDESIGN 411!

WITH EVAN CAMPISI, ELLE ’S DESIGN DIRECTOR

What was the concept behind Elle’s redesign? We went back to the original size Elle launched with in 1985, and that oversize format really lends itself to the clean look we introduced with the redesign. Everything is bigger and bolder. We wanted the new look to still feel very Elle, so we researched the entire history of the American edition and did a typographic survey of every font the magazine has ever used. Looking at 30 years of fonts really influenced the direction we decided to go in. Futura is the staple Elle font, and we worked with some innovative type designers to create a fresh version of Futura just for us.

What did you think of the show? Those black boots with the white on the heel…I’d wear those every day! I’m a big fan of stripes. How do you know Shane and Chris? I’m just a fan! I reached out to them at some point and they agreed to dress me. They sent some things to my house, and they were all f**king amazing. I love that we’re in a Freemason hall. I have a long-standing relationship with Freemasons, involving a lot of secondhand Freemason jewelry from pawnshops that have gotten me out of some tough binds.

Such as? I can’t get into details, because it’s too graphic for The Daily! You can’t handle it. Suffice is to say that I made it out alive, and here I am. Do you like coming to shows? I’m not much for general fanfare and leaving the house for no reason, but as a New Yorker, it’s a rite of passage. I don’t experience shows as just a fashion show. It ends up being so much more than just a bunch of skinny models. You’re a pistol! I’m like the Elaine Stritch of Fashion Week. Well, I hope someday to be like Elaine Stritch. I shouldn’t be so ballsy and say I am!

ONE TO KNOW:

CHAR DEFRANCESCO

Marc Jacobs has found love! His new boo is an Instagram star (35,400 followers), underwear model (well, he did it once or twice), and according to Marc, Charlie is “one of my favorite people.” They first appeared together on Instagram over the holidays, when Jacobs and besties— Lorenzo Martone, Nicolas Newbold, et al—took a PJ to St. Barths, and they were most recently spotted at the Zoolander 2 premiere. Congrats, you darling duo.

HEARD

“We meT Them A lonG Time AGo, When iT WAs jusT A sToRe.” —creatures of the Wind’s shAne GAbieR, when asked if he and chris Peters had ever met the creatures of comfort designers

cReATuRes oF The Wind FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

charlie and marc

HEARD

“The venue mAde This like A ReliGious exPeRience.” —TAvi Gevinson, musing from her front-row perch

G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 7 ) ; B FA N YC . C O M ( 9 ) ; C O U R T E S Y

amfAR PARTY

You know it’s February Fashion Week when all the models are wearing black tie in advance of the first day of shows. Yes, that’s right, amfAR’s annual gala took over Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday night to honor Harvey Weinstein and raise some serious dough to fund the fight against AIDS. • Thursday morning, bright-ish and semi-early, Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters brought the fashion. Epic venue alert: Creatures of the Wind showed at the Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons (?!) in Chelsea, and the clothes looked right at home in the soaring, grandiose space. “The last thing here that was fashion-related happened back in the ’90s,” Peters said. Nice discovery, boys. •

W just doubled its digital team? We are becoming a bit of a case study inside of the company. With our content and our size, we can take more risks than anybody else. Will you be the largest Condé Nast title digitally? That would be a fantastic thing! It’s not about the size, it’s about the quality. We’re putting a lot of weight on social channels. We’re shifting the balance between investing in the website and investing in social channels. Thoughts on the direct-to-consumer approach to Fashion Week? Burberry’s announcement changes the rules of the game. I don’t think there has been anything like this since we shifted from couture to prêt–à–porter. You have to document the show immediately. It’s going to be interesting to see how magazines react—you need time to create stories that will appear at the same time as the collections are presented on the runway. There will be some fashion shows where you see Fall/Winter and some shows where you see Spring/Summer. Everything will be on Instagram at the same time. The customer who is already confused will get even more confused!

S:10.25”

S:13”

THE DAILY Wonders… What’s the last book you read?

NYFW DEBUT!

LOOK of THE DAILY Normcore accessories and ripped jeans, as seen on blogger Rebecca Laurey.

Faux fur scarf, $9

WITH ALANA HADID

Which shows are you attending? My hope is to go to some designers who I really like, and then a few that my sisters are walking in. We’ll see what happens! Love your collab with Lou & Grey. It’s exciting because we get to show the next part of the capsule collection— clutches and sweatshirts. One of the sweatshirts says LANZYBEAR. Is that your nickname? Yes! When I made my Instagram account, everyone told me to just use a nickname. Have your sisters given you any advice? No, they actually haven’t! I should probably ask them. [Laughs] What are your NYFW essentials? A leather jacket, obviously my bandanas, good boots, vintage jeans, and a lot of comfy sweaters.

SHOE OF THE DAILY Meet STUART WEITZMAN’s Grandiose in Camel Suede, a new take on the Mod bootie. The spring spin on the runaway runway hit boasts an angular block heel for a sleek silhouette. Paired with a pointed toe and offered in a chic hue, this scene-stealer will elevate your warmweather wardrobe. $498, available in stores and at stuartweitzman.com.

Triple component crossbody bag, $30

Mad Love’s Lala sneakers,

$25

Get the look at Target.com.

HEARD

SURVIVALIST of THE DAILY

CAROLINE ISSA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND FASHION DIRECTOR, TANK Industry tenure: About 16 years— two years of modeling, and 14 years at Tank! Why I made it: My passion for working with creative people to produce beautiful, thoughtful, and engaging content and ideas. First-ever show: Prada in 2004. Go-to look: The weather during Fashion Week is so extreme—it’s either so cold or sweltering—so you can never quite plan for it, but I invest in heavy winter coats or light summer dresses! Still fazed by: How many social media platforms I’ve had to adopt. NYFW essentials: I did SoulCycle last

—CAROLINE ISSA’s confidential message to NYFW organizers

Issa and Prabal Gurung

ROCK ON

MARISSA WEBB SPRING 2016 FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

“PHONE CHARGERS UNDER OUR SEATS WOULD BE A LIFESAVER.”

season for the first time, and it’s a new necessity. Podcasts I’m obsessed with: GirlBoss, TED Hour, Serial, and 99% Invisible. I need my Kindle for the long waits when I’ve already caught up with my seatmates, and Liz Earle hand moisturizer! Breakfast: Hotel Americano pancakes.

Here’s your cheat sheet for creating a metallic smoky eye—just the ticket for any fashion afterparty. Smudge matte eggplant and brown shades across the lid. Next, layer the golden metallic shadow on top, starting at the eyelid crease and blending outward up to the brow line. Trace the upper lash liner with Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in Eggplant with a slight cat tip for a nod to ’50s glam. BEAUTY MUST: MAYBELLINE NEW YORK The Rock Nudes Palette ($11.99), Maybelline.com.

Deputy Editor Eddie Roche Razzle Executive Editor Dazzle, by Michael Ashley Baker Riedel Managing Editor The Heart Tangie Silva Goes Last, by Margaret Design Director Atwood Jill Serra Wilde Executive Fashion Director Natasha Silva-Jelly Fashion Editor Paige Reddinger Senior Editor Kristen Heinzinger Art Director Teresa Platt Contributing Designer Magdalena Long Contributing Photographer Giorgio Niro Contributing Photo Editor Jean Borrie Contributing Copy Editors Joseph Manghise, Cynthia Puleo Imaging Specialists Neal Clayton, RJ Hamilton, George Maier Editorial Assistant 13 Hours: The Kassidy Silva Inside Account

of What Really Happened in Benghazi, by Mitchell Zuckoff

Mark Tevis Publisher

Fashion & Luxury Goods Director Chloe Worden Director of Marketing & Special Events The Life Alex Dickerson Changing Digital Director Magic of Tidying Up, by Daniel Chivu Maria Kondo Advertising Sales & Special Projects Haralux, Lottie Oakley Los Angeles Gypset & Associates, Dayna Zegarelli Midwest Kathy Burke Manufacturing Operations Michael Esposito, Amy Taylor

To advertise, call (646) 768-8102 Or e-mail: mark@dailyfrontrow.com GETTY IMAGES The Official Photo Agency of The Daily Front Row

The Daily Front Row is a Daily Front Row Inc. publication. Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Requests for reprints must b submitted in writing to: The Daily, Attn: Tangie Silva, 250 West 57th Street, Ste. 301, New York, NY 10107.

PRO TIP: Retrace the liner with a thin brush to smooth and fill any space between the pigment and lash line.

ON THE COVER:

Alexander Wang and Lexi Boling, photographed by Giorgio Niro.

S T E FA N I A C U R TO ( 1 ) ; G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 1 ) ; B FA N YC . C O M ( 1 ) ; C O U R T E S Y

Big sis Alana and little sis Gigi

Brandusa Niro

Editor in Chief, CEO

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Alexander Wang and Lexi Boling, in a look from the designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2016 Spring collection.

ALEXANDER FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

ALEXANDER WANG HAS REPLANTED HIS ROOTS IN NEW YORK AFTER A BUZZY THREE-YEAR RUN AT BALENCIAGA. WHAT’S THE LATEST ON HIS PLANS FOR WORLD DOMINATION? OVER TEA AT THE ROXY, HE LAID OUT HIS GAME.

R THE GREAT H A I R B Y J E N N I F E R M A C D O U G A L L F O R C O N TA C T N YC , M A K E U P B Y C L A U D I A L A K E F O R C O N TA C T N YC U S I N G M A R I O B A D E S C U

BY ASHLEY BAKER PHOTOGRAPHY BY GIORGIO NIRO

FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

Welcome home. I actually was just in Paris last week, but I’m back in New York most of the time. I had Men’s market and pre-Fall market there. The first two weeks after I left Balenciaga, I said to a co-worker who was working side-by-side with me in Paris, “How did we ever do that?” I’m still at the office every day from 9 till 9, and I still don’t have enough time to meet with all the teams in New York. We’re happy to have you back here full-time. It feels really good. I spent three years there; that was enough for me. I always had curiosity—I’d never worked for another brand before; I had never been an employee in that kind of capacity. I was very lucky that opportunity came. I was adamant that I wanted it to be nonbinding, and I wanted to keep my company private and take it as a learning experience. At the end of the day, my family and I own 100 percent of our company, so this is where home is, and I wanted to learn a lot and teach myself a lot of discipline and organization. Now, I’m back. So, what did you learn from Balenciaga and from your experience in France? Clarity, decision-making, and delegation. I wanted to see what my company might look like if it were to grow twofold or threefold, and to be a part of a much larger infrastructure where there’s much more retail expansion and different kinds of platforms FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

of growth that I eventually would want to venture into. I got a sneak peek of it, and exposure to other categories I haven’t done before, like jewelry and red carpet dressing. That was very big—to work with the atelier and have the resources and craftsmanship. But I didn’t know anyone in Paris, whereas in New York, I have my community, and I see my friends all the time. I find so much comfort here. I don’t speak the language [French]—I tried, it didn’t work—and so it was a lesson on how to really focus and learn to spend time with myself. Your final Balenciaga collection was gorgeous. Did you feel like you killed it? I almost killed myself—I almost tripped and fell flat. I was just so ecstatic—I knew that my team and I did an awesome job, and we felt really good about the collection. When I started working on it, I was like, Okay, this is the last collection. My team didn’t really know that. I wanted to do something that was completely unexpected, and show things that people don’t expect from me. I wanted it to be romantic and sensual—ruffles, flowers, and things that felt kind of overly feminine. When you feel like you’ve got nothing to lose, then you get very free, and there are fewer restrictions. What are you looking for when you’re designing? Each season, we ask ourselves again, What do we represent? What do people come to us for? There’s

also the dry, business side of looking at what sold and what didn’t sell, but it’s still very interesting. I encourage everyone on my design and merchandising teams to work together. The more we can learn about the other roles, and other needs, the better job we do. Then, of course, there are things that we gravitate toward creatively, like colors, fabrics, and themes. We depict pop culture, music, street, and always try to find a subversive element to make it slightly more interesting. Is it about being very near to reality, or is it about making reality more skewed and abstract? It has to tell a story—I don’t want to do a show with beautiful dresses and beautiful prints, and have people ask, What was the concept? The word modern is thrown around so casually in fashion, but what does it mean? I actually looked it up on dictionary. com—it means a mirror of what’s right in front of you. There’s an idea of everyday things that feel banal, and not overcomplicating things. Have you noticed that your customer base has grown broader? Definitely. We’re expanding globally, too. Italy is our largest international market. When I found that out, I thought it was very surprising. The more the Internet becomes accessible and people are able to navigate through it, the more they are able to find their own crew, this sort of language of interest. Has the customer evolved in terms of me growing up?

Did it make you a household name in markets that you had never been in before? Yeah, but some people love the collaborations no matter who is doing them, so I’m not giving ourselves that much credit. How’s the London store doing? London is good. We opened in Mayfair about six months ago, and it’s our biggest store to date. It houses all the categories, which has always been a dream of mine. Even in New York, I’m not able to really show the full spectrum of our collections. Are you a London guy? Love London! Love London! If I had to live anywhere in Europe, I would pick Barcelona, but London is definitely on the top of my list. But New York is my home, and that’s never going to change. I’m here to stay.

when it does become a well-oiled machine, I might be able to do some other things. But it’s probably not on the near horizon that I would take my focus off my own brand. I’m so inspired; there’s so much I want to do. You started a trend of defections and exits among top creatives in Paris. Is there something in the air? I don’t know, but it definitely makes me really value being a privately owned company and having my own brand. It’s great to work for a luxury brand that’s part of a group, but it’s hard. You’re doing a lot and not really able to absorb the benefits of that work in the end—it’s like doing all of it for someone else. What are your goals for the company within the next five to 10 years? We are very well-balanced in terms of our offering, and we are not just domestic or international, either, so that’s very well split. What I don’t like is that my pie chart looks like I’m 80 percent wholesale. I want to be direct-to-consumer and omnichannel, with control over my distribution and the stories I tell in my retail outlets. I look at Apple as an example.

“I ALWAYS THINK, OH, ONCE I HAVE THESE PEOPLE OR THAT STRUCTURE…BUT AS WE GROW, WE FIND NEW CHALLENGES.”

For sure, but deep down inside, it’s always youthfulminded. I think age is a number, and I like to feel adventurous and experiment and live vicariously through things. I feel very much connected to the street, to also have a fantasy of what that could mean in a different context. There’s all this talk about the millennials, and how they followed us—is that our true customer, or a future customer? But there’s also a much older clientele that is just finding out about us, for whatever reason, and I’m so excited about them, too. I don’t see my customers as being from age 25 to 35—it’s how different kinds of customers come to our brand that interests me. How are we able to maintain our own integrity but also speak to them all? How did H&M help you bring that tribe together globally? It goes without saying that the H&M’s reach is incomparable. They’ve created a very unique model. I had just started Balenciaga at that time, and that definitely helped me speak to a high luxury customer, but that’s not the only thing that interests me. For H&M, I didn’t want to redo our archive or rerun last season’s best looks. Performance wear and athletics really interested me, and I didn’t have my own resources to do that. It’s not like I was trying to do a fur coat for $99—I did a windbreaker that would naturally cost $99, so people feel the integrity behind that item.

Walk us through a day in your life. I usually start my day at 9, and Wednesday is the most regulatory. I do my executive meeting with my CFO, my HR person, my sister-in-law, who’s the CEO, and maybe someone on the manufacturing side. We go through all the weekly updates in terms of store openings, manufacturing updates, personnel, health benefits, shipping, deliveries. We have Hong Kong and Paris offices, too, so we go over any updates there. That usually lasts until noon. After that, I have 15 minutes to have lunch, then I usually go into a communications meeting. After that, I’ll probably go into merchandising meetings. After merchandising meetings, there’s maybe a visual or store planning meeting where I look at all the reviews of all the different stores—are they using the right materials, if expectations of budgets are right, fixtures, making sure that everything has a place. We are launching jewelry, scarves, belts, so we get all the proper displays for the pieces, make sure they ordered the right amount of mannequins, foot models, and things like that for all the stores. After the store visual meetings, I usually go into design, whether it’s men’s, accessories, or T. How many employees do you have right now? As of last week, 272 worldwide. Is working on two brands at once something you would consider doing again? Never say never, but I feel like it never gets easier. I always think, Oh, once I have these people or that structure…but as we grow, we find new challenges. New things go wrong. But maybe, one day, if or

I feel like that’s what retail will be in the future— beautiful showrooms for people to experience the brand. They’re going to go home and buy it online. E-commerce and the website need to be booming, and ours isn’t there yet. I want to put a lot of focus on our digital infrastructure. I also want to build out our supply chain and our resources, so when we expand into categories, we know exactly how we’re doing it. There’s definitely more expansion I want to get into, whether it’s athletics, beauty, or home, which we dabbled in a little bit. To be scalable is really important, especially in such a volatile time. What do you look for in models? I’m sure a lot of people say this, but it’s that “It factor.” There are so many beautiful girls out there—a lot of them I’ve used— but a model who will have a long career has personality. Girls want to look like her, guys want to sleep with her. It doesn’t mean they have to be loud and obvious. Look at Anna Ewers— she is obviously beautiful and perfect, but she’s not very outspoken. She’s coquettish and shy. What do you think of the show-now, buy-now idea of the fashion show? I’m so pissed I’m not the first one! We’ve been talking about it for so long, and unfortunately, we are locked into an old, very outdated model. Again, 80 percent of our business is wholesale, and with buyers coming into town during market week, we are locked into certain parameters. To celebrate your 10th anniversary, you partied with pole dancers and Hooters wings. What about your 20th? A music festival—Alexander Wang sponsored by Coachella? I like to celebrate. Everyone works so hard and does a great job. ß FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

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S U L C X E Y L I A Y L D H KEL T I KE

ESSENTIALIntel

ON THE STATE OF THE MEDIA

EN E B S A T H OR S I N M F LU S O R C E D A I I ED S OF INS M R U D O E I G R T N O R ST EA LT ROCKI D HIM H S ’ E T S H T O U KE IN M KP S R U E A T O W E Y A H W C W D E THE NE ING FEAR AN . WITH SO MU ABOUT TIM T RO I INSPIR ST 18 YEARS ORE, ISN’T I E? N O I G THE PA RY TO THE C OR A CHANG HY BY GIOR P T INDUS UESTIONS F PHOTOGRA Q SOME LEY BAKER BY ASH

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on how specialized your content is. Mass content that you can get anywhere is very hard to get people to want to pay for. Business sites have a much better option, because of the fear and greed factor—people are afraid to not have the information. A consumer site—what the Kardashians are up to—doesn’t really impact your life. It’s interesting, and it’s a page view, but if you don’t have it, your life goes on. If you don’t know the price of oil up to a nanosecond, you could lose a fortune. What’s the solution for fashion titles? Fashion still seems to love print, because color and

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Keith, many of us are scared. Are we undergoing a seismic shift in media? Absolutely. How is that playing out? The big question is, Can content actually be made to pay? A recent survey says that 49 percent of people get their news from 10 news sites, and one of them was msn.com, which I assume is just a default browser. What that says is an extremely small number of people are making money on digital content, unfortunately. The problem is that banner ads are extremely ineffective, and their value is dropping every year. If you have the same amount of ad buying on a digital site this year as you did last year, your revenue probably dropped 10 percent. That’s a challenge. Now, brands are trying to do videos and native advertising, and that’s all quality stuff—the problem with that, of course, is that it’s very labor intensive. Is native advertising the only way people are really making money right now? It’s not the only way—the paywall works in some cases. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have paywalls; USA Today doesn’t. It depends

REPORTING FOR DUTY Above: Kelly at work in The Post newsroom. Left: Kelly with Susan Magrino at a party at the Four Seasons in 2005.

texture transfer much better to a print vehicle than a digital vehicle. Mode Media has far more traffic than Vogue.com, but Vogue.com is where [advertisers] want to be—there is an element of paying for premium content in the fashion world that they have built into their business model. Advertisers aren’t looking for the lowest common denominator—they’re looking for a showplace, the place with the most impact, the most prestige. Most ad agencies and advertisers secretly know that a banner ad is really the equivalent of the old-fashioned print junk mail. A 2 or 3 percent response rate is considered wonderful in junk mail. The reality is that’s kind of the response rate you get in banner ads, and that’s what’s driving the price of them down. What’s going on at Condé Nast? It’s the same thing for everybody—they’re hoping print will stabilize while digital revenue takes off. So far, unfortunately, the digital increase, percentage-wise, is not offsetting the print decline. What do you make of the merger between Hearst and Condé Nast for business services? Back-shop stuff. It’s a good cost-saving thing—they’ll get better pricing, they’ll lay off some people. You’re probably going to see more of that as the industry consolidates. Don’t forget, these companies have had backshop deals for years, and they’re not going to spill over into any friendliness on the editorial or advertising side. What do you make of the rumors that the Newhouses could be looking to divest of Condé Nast? It’s believable. They’ll deny all those rumors up until the day they’re no longer deniable. One thing they are clearly doing is putting a lot more emphasis on their digital venture field. They’re now looking for outside venture capitalists to join them. They recognize that the newspaper business, which once funded everything, is not going to do that anymore. Their point of view is that if the newspapers don’t make money, we’re out of the game— so we see sweeping consolidations from Michigan to New Orleans, where they’re dropping print editions. They are rumored to be doing the same thing with New Jersey newspapers. Parade magazine, which was once a cash cow for them, was sold. They have major, major problems, and I think the new generation realizes that they’re never going to be able to replicate what they did. They could, conceivably, sell. I think right now, they’re in the midst of diversifying and getting digital and tech-savvy. Could Hearst emerge as an interesting buyer for Condé Nast? I don’t know if they’d want to gobble it up en masse, because so many of the titles are head-

to-head competitors in strong strategic areas. I don’t think there’d be any anti-trust issues, but Elle and Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar—okay, you can have two of them, but if you have three of them in the same company…I don’t know. W would be in there…I don’t know how much support you would get, and how much it would blunt your competitive advantage. Do you think it’s the right time to make replacements at the top of the masthead on the edit side? Let’s talk David Granger, for example. For years, David Granger was supposedly an independent cowboy. He didn’t really like to integrate into this new way of doing stuff. If they were doing a cover story on George Clooney, he wouldn’t set up an advertising luncheon with George Clooney. He wasn’t that big into the red carpet and TV appearances, carrying the flag of Hearst and Esquire. He was a throwback to an old-school editor, where he did his job, and he did it well, but maybe he didn’t play the hierarchical corporate game as well as some of the others.

Which editors are doing a good job these days? [Cosmopolitan’s] Joanna Coles and [The Hollywood Reporter’s] Janice Min are doing a phenomenal job—they’re multiplatform, they don’t mind carrying the flag, they’re at everything. Those are two of the hottest right now. Do you expect to see the departure of a lot of print titles in the next five to 10 years? The good ones will survive, but if you were hanging in third of fourth place…in the boom time, you could have done it, but not now. At the same time, I think a

L L L A I T Y N N U E D P L U L ’ S Y R E O H M T “ SE RU EY’RE NO O H T DAY TH IABLE.” THE GER DEN LON What do you think about Jay Fielden taking over at Esquire? One of the problems with David Granger was he wasn’t a fashion-forward kind of guy; he was a man’s man—cigars, whiskey, sports. Fashion, no. He didn’t have enough. Could Esquire be a remake of Men’s Vogue? I hope it doesn’t go that far, but it will definitely migrate more in that direction. Were you bummed when Details folded? I’m sorry to see anything go. People you’ve known and covered who are now out of work— it’s worse for some of the midline reporters and staffers than it is for the editor in chief. You hope he has a good severance package and he’s put money aside for a rainy day—it happens to everybody.

lot of digital titles will go away, too. It used to be that you could put something up and just get traffic, but that’s not the case anymore— you need to have quality traffic, and results. On the ad front, which will help print, is the propensity for ad blockers on the digital side. It’s a bigger problem in Europe; it’s coming here. They’re thinking that, like, 15 percent of the ads now don’t get seen by anybody—some of them are only seen by robots. In the past year, advertisers have really stepped up the need to prove that these ads are going to be seen. That’s going to put pressure on digital. The other problem that I think a lot of digital sites and ad agencies have is that they’re all enamored with the latest technology— Snapchat and Instagram—and I think to some extent, they’ve lost track of the purpose of an ad. The purpose of an ad is to make you want to buy something—a watch, a car, a pair of shoes. A three-second view of something you’re clicking off of isn’t going to create that desire. Secretly, the ad agencies know that’s one of the problems; that’s why they’re not paying a lot for the ads.

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D E C I R P H G I H G E N I S K O S C I H K T T O S O L L L E A R D ’ , Y N L E A L H E N T S I A Y S S S A E ’ E S E W M U R O O E O C N H H “ R S W ’ , O E E Y ” T . N A R S T E S E S E H V O H O T T C N T I . F O N G I E I G N , D I I L N L O S L L O T I G I E L “W TORS W AN OU S, HE’S 20 MIL EDI UND. IF ALARIE 10 OR ARO THOSE S T RID OF AT Y TO GE WA Is there a future for the six-figure ad page? For the premium products, yes. For the also-rans, no. What’s going to happen to all these print editors who are out of work? Consultants. They’ll make a campaign: Don’t let this happen to you. Let’s talk about Allure. Is the print going away? It’s been rumored for years that that was going to happen. I think what prevents it is they realize that print still has price integrity in terms of an ad. A lot of websites don’t have price integrity—you tell [advertisers] that the ad is going to cost $50,000, and they say, “How ’bout I give you 25?” Your person says, “Okay, I’ll take it.” With print, they still regard it as, okay, you have to hire editors, there’s a manufacturing cost, a paper cost, a mailing cost, a trucking cost…even if they don’t want to advertise, they don’t try and drive the ad price into the ground as much. With digital, they do. They don’t think there’s any cost of doing business with digital. They think the content just magically appears, and they can drive the price lower and lower and it won’t make a difference. But it will make a difference—you

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can’t have good content with no producers, no writers, no editors, no videographers. You still need good, engaging content—whatever you call it. How do we get CPMs up on digital? I think they’ll come up when a lot of the crappier sites disappear, and the premium sites can survive. I think they’ll also come up when there’s more paywall integrity. You hope that your content is valuable enough to pay a nominal price—not a sky-high price, but a little bit of a toll, a gate, to get through. Anna Wintour recently did an interview with the Times, which I’m sure you saw. She mentioned a few editors by name— Graydon Carter, David Remnick—that seemed to be out of her area of focus. Yeah, they would still report directly up. She’s not going to go in and try to redo their magazines while they’re there. But it seemed like everyone else was kind of fair game. I would say so. I would expect to see some kind of elevation of Anna, off of day-to-day editor-inchief duties. Not that she would be hands-off, but she might delegate more of that. There are rumblings that Natalie Massenet is somehow coming over, not as an editor but as a chief brand officer of something…I don’t know if there are any noncompetes tangling her up for a year or so, but I would expect to see her somewhere at Condé Nast within the next year.

Do you think Anna’s there for the long-term? If she goes, it will be her choice to go. If she wants it, it’s hers to keep. Fashion being such an important part of the Condé empire, she’s the No. 1 fashion person. Bob Sauerberg is a person in a suit who worked on consumer marketing and circulation—he’s not going to impress anybody in a fashion meeting. He’s well-dressed and everything, and he’s a nice guy, but Anna’s the person they want to see. As long as that’s the case, she’s there. Or as long as the Newhouses still own Condé Nast. Well, if the Newhouses sell, all those highpriced editors will go. There’s no way they’re sticking around. If an outside investor comes in and looks at those salaries, he’s going to say, “Here’s a way to get rid of 10 or 20 million in cost.” How do you feel about the idea that a lot of people in New York media are scared of you? I think a lot of people in New York media like it when I cover their nearest competitor. Some people said that when they got to meet me in person, they were surprised that I was a nice guy. I’m like, Yeah, I have a family, I’m a Little League coach…but we’re not doing puff pieces. How many irate phone calls do you get a day? Not too many. Every now and then, you get some crackpot who’s trying to sue. Nobody’s ever landed me in court. We’ve had lawyers threaten, and whatnot, but we’re not reckless with our stuff. We sometimes take a hard edge, but we’re still journalists at heart. If we run a rumor that we believe to be true, you’ll hear about it, and you’ll have your say-so. It’s just hard-nosed, gumshoe reporting. What do you love about this beat? The sheer joy in beating the competition. When a story breaks and people say, “Did you see what Kelly or The Post is saying today?” I love it. ß

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ON THE SCENE Kelly with Betsy Burton (left) and Jada Yuan at Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People gala in 2007.

FINESTForm

THE MUSES Joan Smalls, Gigi Hadid, and Lily Aldridge in Stuart Weitzman’s signature Nudist silhouette.

BY PAIGE REDDINGER FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

THE

NUDISTS Congrats on the major new campaign! I think there are probably three words for it: sexy, sexier, and sexiest. What made you decide to go with three women this season? It’s a constant evolution for our brand that we’re trying to orchestrate. In terms of our global advertising, we raise the bar pretty high for ourselves. First we

had Kate the Great, and then we entered the age of Gieselegance—we used Gisele for three seasons. It’s pretty tough to step into those shoes and continue to evolve the brand’s story. I think we all know we’re in an era of sensory overload, so for us, it was about, How do we break through? How do we make women push the pause button to stop and take a look in this sea of fashion advertising? We spent hours and hours looking

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Stuart Weitzman’s campaigns are instantly recognizable: The clean black-and-white portraits by Mario Testino, combined with the world’s biggest supermodels, have been a winning formula for the brand. How do you follow Kate Moss and Gisele? With the next gen of fashion’s most in-demand beauties, Gigi Hadid, Lily Aldridge, and Joan Smalls, in shoes and nothing else! CMO Susan Duffy dishes on the divine inspiration.

FAST FRIENDS Behind-the-scenes shots from the set of the ad campaign with Duffy (center).

at which girls out there were really standing out. How did you make your final decision? For us, they represent the new generation of supermodels. It was also really wonderful that Gigi and Lily are actually best friends. Gigi is pretty incredible—I think she’s up to 13 million followers on Instagram. Joan has well over a million. Lily has over three million. It’s a delightful mix of personalities and that special presence that they each bring to the campaign. Lily is a model and a mother, and she’s married to a rock star. Joan was the first Latina model to be signed as the face of Estée Lauder’s global marketing campaign, and Gigi has just done so much in her almost 21 years. Frankly, all of them are true to the Stuart Weitzman DNA in that they are all just really nice girls. Was their social media presence a big factor in casting? Absolutely. Social media has become an intrinsic part of everyone’s media mix. We wanted to be able to communicate on Instagram and Facebook and launch WeChat. We need to be everywhere that our client is today. Our marketing plan is a dynamic mix of print and core fashion publications, and the brand is visible on key billboards in the most fashionable places, like the Sunset Strip in L.A. and in Soho in New York—we’re in Paris, Milan, and Asia. How long does it take to plan a campaign like this? We started the process of who would be the face of the brand last March or April. At that time, Gigi had 4 million followers, and today, she’s already at 13 million. That’s a huge leap. For us, it’s about creating a nextgeneration brand. What Stuart has done so successfully with his iconic style is to attract a multigenerational clientele. Right now, we have clients in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and beyond who are rocking our style. The Nudist is the prefect example of this. Was it hard to coordinate schedules? You know, it wasn’t! But it wasn’t only the girls—it was trying to coordinate with Mario Testino’s schedule, too. The friendships among Gigi, Lily, and Joan really worked in our favor, because the minute Lily knew she got the campaign, she texted Gigi and said, “This is going to be the best day ever!” It was the first time that Lily and Joan had worked together, but they are also friends;

first moves was to hire Mario Testino. We really felt like he could capture our story in a visually arresting way. He’s really able to tell our brand story, which is that they’re the first thing you put on in the morning and the last thing you take off at night. When you look at our photography, you see the beautiful girls, you look at their beautiful faces and then you go to look at the incredible shoes that they’re wearing. It’s about the shoes ultimately—we’ve really stripped everything else away. To put it lightly! [Laughs] Yes, especially this season. But we have a distinct minimalist aesthetic, and it’s a powerful way of showcasing Stuart’s incredible silhouettes. What was the inspiration for the nude image? With this trio of goddesses, we really looked to Greek mythology’s Three Graces—they have been immortalized by many artists, such as Raphael and Botticelli. We looked to one artist, Antonio Canova, who portrayed them in a statue. We had a couple of different ideas, but sometimes you get on set and something really works. It’s magic, and you know it’s the one. Magic happens when you’re with Mario. How do you choose the shoes for the campaign? The process should be televised! It is the most difficult part of our job to select our favorite children from a collection of more than 500. In this case, having three models allowed us to showcase even more shoes than we would normally. We always try to have a balance between what is cutting edge, fashion-forward, and styles that represent iconic Stuart styles, but that are fresh at the moment. What are your favorite shoes this season? I like the Nearly Nude and the Grandiose bootie, and the Romanesque, which I’ll be taking to St. Barths with me in May. The funny thing about being the CMO of the brand is that ultimately, it’s not a democracy! A few of my favorites are always represented or play a prominent role. [Laughs] How will you top this campaign next season? It makes us nervous! But we’re already thinking about what’s next. ß

“WE’RE IN AN ERA OF SENSORY OVERLOAD, SO FOR US, IT WAS ABOUT, HOW DO WE BREAK THROUGH? HOW DO WE MAKE WOMEN PUSH THE PAUSE BUTTON?” they were all so excited to be doing the campaign. When everyone is 100 percent on board, it makes life so much easier. You went for a shorter heel this time. We’ve taken it from the Nudist in the stiletto that Stuart launched two years ago to different heel heights to this contemporary block heel featured in the campaign. Stuart is all about being fashion-forward and right for the time. He’s always brilliantly been able to mix high heels with flats. The 50/50 boot, which is the perfect example of that, has sold 1.5 million units worldwide. Our Lowland boot has also been seen on every single celebrity and cultural influencer worldwide, and that’s also available in a higher heel called our Highland. Stuart has really owned the over-the-knee silhouette. Are you ever tempted to stray from the black-andwhite aesthetic? While it’s tempting, I think it takes the ultimate discipline to be laser-focused and to stay on track once you’ve chosen that aesthetic. There are ways to bring freshness and innovation through other avenues in the marketing mix. When we first did the campaign, we were the only shoe brand to do a black-and-white campaign. What we’ve really been able to do is own that messaging. What is it like to work with Mario Testino? Stuart hired me five years ago in April, so one of my

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POSTMORTEM

THE EXIT INTERVIEW After what he describes as a “mourning period,” DETAILS dude Dan Peres is entirely focused on—what else?—the future. But before he delves in too deeply, we required a bit of reflection. BY ASHLEY BAKER Did you hear from Annie Flanders when the magazine closed? I didn’t. I’ve had conversations with Annie over the years, and she had been incredibly supportive. Obviously, Details has had a very rich history, and Annie is a huge part of that. Every time that she and I did connect, it was a really pleasant and FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

entertaining conversation. Were you surprised by the outpouring of support on social media? No, and I was pleased to see it. I think a lot of people—myself included, of course—were sad to see this magazine go away. No doubt that Condé Nast was sad to see it go away.

To The Wall Street Journal, Bob Sauerberg said, “Consumers love the magazine. It’s not fair or right.” Some of it was rather touching. We spent 15 years building this brand for a specific audience, and we made a very strong connection. It would have been really disappointing if they weren’t upset. Is there any way that Condé Nast or someone else could have possibly saved the Details brand? I can’t say. It’s such a tumultuous time for our business; tons of it is positive change. Condé Nast— Bob in particular, and certainly Si [Newhouse] and Chuck Townsend—have been so supportive of this brand. We were the little engine that could—we had spectacular audience development, we were growing our rate base, our digital numbers were absolutely spectacular. The support was there—I felt it every time I sat down with those guys; I really did. But you have to make tough decisions in changing times. Was this the first time you felt like the end was really coming? I felt something was coming. Listen—I’m not deaf. The rumors had been there for 15 years. We had an amazing run, we really did. What we did over the course of the 15 years—I stress what we did— is extraordinary. We entered a market that was dominated by the lad mags—FHM, Maxim, Stuff, GQ, and Esquire were the elder statesmen of this category—and we came in and shifted direction and started to build content and market to a different type of guy. And it worked. This is the guy who’s now sounding off on social media about the loss of this magazine. But we had a great run. There was incredible energy around what we were doing. I’ve heard that you were a one-man HR department for a lot of your staff. We have a lot of people out of work with a move like this—people who were incredibly loyal to the brand, and to me, but beyond that, are brilliant at what they do. I did everything I could—and still am, to some degree—to help connect them with new opportunities. Who were your longest-tenured staffers? Rockwell Harwood was our creative director; he was there from the beginning. Andrea Oliveri, also there from the beginning, was initially our entertainment director, then transitioned into other roles. In the past couple of years, Andrea had a consulting position with us but was still booking our covers. Both are incredible, and dear friends. [Fashion Director] Matthew Marden was there for a very long time. [Managing Editor] Diana Benbasset, our copy and research chiefs, they were all there from the very beginning. We’re a family. Dysfunctional, certainly, but a family nonetheless. How did you guys toast the end of the magazine? Just before Christmas, we all had cocktails with editors of Details past. We took over some bar in the East Village—James Truman came, and a number of others. It was great. What did it feel like to win those National Magazine Awards? Recognition from your peers is amazing. It was an extraordinary recognition of the hard work our team had done—Rockwell in particular, with respect to the ones that we won. There were 10 or 12 nominations, including several for General Excellence over the years. It doesn’t bring readers or advertising, but it’s a really, really nice acknowledgment of what I believed was an extraordinary effort.

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“AS I TRANSITION OUT OF JOURNALISM—I’M LOATHE TO USE THE WORD PIVOT—I WANT TO BE IN TOUCH WITH WHAT I FELL IN LOVE WITH.” Do you think that the game so many of us are playing, to court these luxury advertisers and get them into print magazines, is a losing proposition? It’s evolving. You have to take a holistic approach to the relationship with the luxury advertiser or any marketing partner, and start to sit down with them and have conversations about what their needs are. I think the old model is gone. Old rules should be broken. It used to be silo-ed—there was editorial, there was marketing, there was advertising—those barriers need to be destroyed. I’m not talking about sacrificing journalistic integrity, and I’m not talking about pay for play, but I’m talking about coming to the table with your marketing partners and figuring out the best possible way to achieve what you both want to achieve. Are you down with native advertising? I’m fine with it, but instead of saying, This is the branded content portion of our magazine, website, or social media platforms, we have to scrap that, and get smart about how we integrate what has traditionally been seen as advertising into content. We saw this with Details.com and across our social media platforms—if it was appropriate for our audience and was labeled “sponsored,” that didn’t bother people. The model is changing. I’ve had lots of conversations, both when I was at Details and certainly since leaving, with people on the brand side about what their needs are, and how they should be approaching this thinking. You want to sit down and build a 360-degree approach to creating content and integrating marketing messages. When both sides are able to come together and figure out how to build communities around a brand, the energy is greater, the opportunities are greater, and the end result to the audience is more impactful and meaningful. What was your favorite part of helming Details? Working with the team. When you’re surrounded by very smart and witty people, any conversation can become brilliant, whether we were brainstorming ideas or figuring out what we should get for lunch. Okay, it’s time for a lightening round. Favorite cover? Mike Tyson. He was on our cover in the aughts, and it was one of the riskiest ones for a variety of different reasons, not the least of it was that he had come out of prison. I went up to Harlem on a rooftop where he was wrangling pigeons. It was an extraordinary moment— we shot him breaking a piece of fake glass. At print order meetings, in which we would present the issue to Mr. Newhouse, the executive committee, and the people from circulation and consumer marketing, the room was silent. Then Si was like, “I love it.” Cover that got away? A million covers got away. When we relaunched the magazine in October 2000, we shot Robert Downey Jr.

mourning period, it’s turned out that this has become one of the most exciting times of my career. We’re at an intersection of content, commerce, and marketing, and the opportunities to build powerful brands—and communities around them—are there for all of us. It doesn’t serve me in any way to kiss their asses—I’m done, I’m out—but it bears mentioning that there was a lot of learning from people like Anna Wintour, David Remnick, Graydon Carter, and a spectacular corporate team over 15 years. I’m going to take all that and bring it to a new evolving landscape. I’m not ready to talk specifically about where I’m going, because I’m not for the cover. Not that they’re connected in any way, there yet, but the conversations are exciting. I think but like Tyson, he had just come I’m done with traditional media, but never out of jail, and had essentially say never. been doing sit-ups and push-ups If you were to write a book, what would it the whole time. He was totally be about? shredded. Steven Klein shot him I’d love to write a book about fear. I had an shirtless, and it was an incredibly amazing conversation with Tom Hardy, the impactful image. We also had a actor. He was on the cover of our magazine, terrific interview. But we could and he’s a challenging guy to work with—or at not, for some reason, get Robert least that was the perception. It bared itself out Downey Jr. to be on the cover of with respect to the photo shoot. I got on the the magazine again—and it wasn’t phone and spoke with him, and we had a very for lack of effort. nice conversation. He came back and, through Most painful interaction with his publicist, said, I want to do the interview a publicist? with the guy I talked to last night. I did not There were many. I had an want to do this interview, and there were far argument once, years ago, over more qualified people to do it, but he was fairly the telephone with Pierre Rougier insistent, so I went to Calgary, where they were that I would hope he doesn’t shooting The Revenant, and we sat down and remember. had an amazing conversation. It came up in the Your worst close? context of me saying, “You’re aware, of course, The first year was tough. I that people are terrified of you.” So we had a had very limited management conversation about moving forward despite experience when I was given the fear, which has often been a definition of job. courage. Much of the conversation didn’t make You were 28? it into the piece, but hearing from people about Something like that. This isn’t how they deal with fear is really interesting, and false humility: I should not have in many ways, empowering. gotten the job. I’m super grateful What are you reading these days? to Patrick McCarthy and Mary Right now, The Gay Talese Reader. “Frank Berner and Si Newhouse for Sinatra Has a Cold” is the classic magazine letting me have it, but I think story from perhaps the most defining era they were probably nuts to give in magazine journalism, published in one of it to me. the great magazines of all time, Esquire. As I Favorite driver, back in the transition out of journalism—I’m loathe to use town car days? the word pivot—I want to be in touch with what While I had access to, and I fell in love with. certainly did use, those cars, our The advent of mobile phones has really business model was a little leaner thwarted our powers of observation. than a lot of the other brands. There’s no question that we’re better off I was, and still am, a walker, a because of the mobile devices we’re carrying subway taker, and a Metro-North around, and there’s no question that our lives rider. That’s not to say that those will continue to be centered around them with guys who have been driving for regards to just about everything. However, the company a long time weren’t yeah—instead of sitting in a train station awesome, because they are. waiting for the 5:16 and looking around at the I’m convinced that they are also characters floating back and forth, trying to responsible, to some degree or overhear conversations, you have your nose in another, for so much gossip that your phone. We’re missing out on so much, but gets out. I was always really aware it’s a choice. I try to be very mindful of it when of what I would say out loud in one I’m around my kids, but all the content we’re of those cars. talking about is coming to your phone. Every Enough with the lightning now and then, it’s nice to take a second and round. Obvious question: observe what’s going on around you. YOU’VE GOT MALE Peres’s Details was known for its What’s next for you? Real life is pretty interesting… catchy covers, beginning with Look, this was sad; it took a minute a shirtless Robert Downey Jr. Real life is certainly the most interesting thing to turn the page. But after a in the world. ß in October 2000. FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

OFFSHOREEditrix

AUSTRALIAN

ONSLAUGHT

The Down Under edition of HARPER’S BAZAAR is a celebration of style, sunshine, and a burgeoning talent pool. Kellie Hush has helmed the title for the past three-and-a-half years, and recently thrust her fashion bible into the global spotlight when Miranda Kerr graced the cover wearing nothing but a pair of pink Louboutins.

BY NATASHA SILVA-JELLY

’m still really proud of it—it’s a beautiful image. It obviously was a risk, but I knew that when we chose it,” says Kellie Hush over coffee at Jackies, a buzzy café in Sydney’s suburb of Paddington. (Incidentally, if you’re ever in the neighborhood, Paddington’s Intersection is the place to shop.) The image of a naked Kerr, on the magazine’s January/ February 2016 cover, prompted a landslide of press and criticism; some supermarkets even pulled the publication from its shelves. “Steven Chee’s photography is amazing, and the cover garnered worldwide publicity. To have people from the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Sweden talking about what we’re doing in Australia was

KERR-POW A look from Miranda Kerr’s cover shoot, photographed by Steven Chee.

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HUSH: GEORGES ANTONI ; GETTY IMAGES (2); ALL OTHERS COURTESY

pretty incredible," Hush says. As for the haters? “We received lots of positive feedback and, of course, some negative. A few people thought it was inappropriate, and I took that on board.” This is not the first time Hush has featured an iconic and scantily clad supermodel on the cover— Elle Macpherson celebrated her 50th birthday by re-creating her famous Playboy cover from 1995 (in which she wears only panty hose) on the August 2013 issue of Australian Bazaar. “It was one of our highestselling issues—Elle is always a hit,” says Hush, a petite blonde with a chic bob and penchant for Prada. She served as editor-in-chief of Grazia (which folded in Australia in 2013 due to dwindling circulation following a five-year run and $7-million launch) and fashion editor of The Sydney Morning Herald before stepping into her well-heeled Harper’s Bazaar post. Which is not exactly an easy gig when you consider the country’s small population, evershrinking advertising budgets, and the ongoing threat from Australian Vogue—her rival is actually predecessor and friend Edwina McCann, who was plucked from Bazaar in 2012 to replace Vogue’s longtime editor Kirstie Clements. McCann responded to the Kerr coup by bringing out renowned snapper Mario Testino to guest-edit the April issue, but it was Hush and her team at Harper’s Bazaar who prevailed as the winner of Fashion Magazine of the Year at the Australian Magazine Awards, run by the Association of Magazine Publishers of Australia, an industry body formed in 1995 to recognize innovation in magazine publishing. “This was the first time we have won, so it’s pretty exciting. It’s a very competitive market down here and there are some great editors,” says Hush, who describes her vision for Bazaar as “unapologetic luxury.” “If you look at Bazaar, it’s absolutely a fashion magazine—we’re not anything else,” concedes Hush, who admits the 2013 launch of Elle was a testing time that saw her resharpen her focus. Fans of the magazine will attest to its refreshing and distinctly Australian point of view—A-listers like Naomi Watts, Cate Blanchett, and Nicole Kidman, along with models Jessica Hart, Kerr, and Macpherson, regularly front the cover. The title has also long been a supporter and champion of emerging and established fashion brands, which, Hush says, “is not the case for some of our competitors.” “I think people across the globe would know it’s the Australian version of Harper’s Bazaar, and that is something I discussed with Glenda Bailey in New York when I was appointed. Her criticism at the time was that you didn’t know that it was Harper’s Bazaar Australia. Stylist Brana Wolf said the same.” With that in mind, Hush celebrates the magazine’s Australian-ness by employing creative teams made up entirely of local talent. “We have some incredible creatives and photographers, and we love to promote and nurture them,” says Hush, who regularly works with Steven Chee, Georges Antoni, Simon Lekias, and David Mandelberg. Her current model favorites: Kerr, Hart, Bridget Malcolm, Shanina Shaik, Gabby Westbrook, and Montana Cox. On the designer front, Hush cites Kym Ellery as the one who’s hitting the global radar. “Toni Maticevski, who has been in the business for 10 years now, is also one to keep your eye on,” she says. “Dion Lee is really talented and exploring new things, and I’m really proud of Kit Willow, who lost her business and then reinvented herself with the launch of KITX, which is beautiful and also has an ethical element.” Lifestyle brands like Zimmermann, which has

stores in New York and East Hampton, and most recently, added a store in Los Angeles, are also killing it in Hush’s eyes. “They’re smart, they know their market, and are a really great, beautiful representation of Australian fashion,” she says. Ah, yes, Aussie fashion. Where once the very notion would have had us conjuring up images of bright bikinis, shrimp on the barbie, and an endless sea of sportswear, Australia has in recent years emerged as a serious style player. “Everyone always says that we’re laid-back, and that’s true, but Australian women are also incredibly stylish. Obviously, the athleisure trend is huge because of our lifestyle and climate, but we also know fashion,” Hush affirms. Indeed, the $1.2-billiondollar renovation of Westfield Sydney in the city’s central business district, unveiled in 2011, saw luxury brands Prada, Miu Miu, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton open new mega flagships; Dior set up shop for the first time; and Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, and Cos moved into the buoyant retail market. Add to that the explosion of social media, which has spurred blogger and Instagram sensations like Nicole Warne, Margaret Zhang, Pip Edwards, and Zanita Whittington, and it’s safe to say Australia is now a bona fide fashion capital. As for her own personal style, Hush confesses she is firmly a dress girl. “I wear a lot of international brands, because as editor of Bazaar, that’s one of the privileges of the job,” she says, citing Burberry,

Prada, and Miu Miu as favorites. “Australian designerwise, I’m wearing a lot of Ellery now. I love what Kym’s doing. When she first started out, it was a big silhouette, but she’s pulled that in and it’s great, as I’m quite petite.” When not running one of the country’s most respected style mags, you’ll find Hush, as one may expect of a proud sydneysider, at the beach. “I am about to spend a week at my house in Mollymook [a coastal town three hours south of Sydney]. It’s heaven down there; I go barefoot down to the beach and spend my time reading and relaxing.” What is on the editor of a famous fash mag’s reading list? “I’m a massive fan of Porter. I think what Lucy Yeomans is doing is incredible. As an editor, it makes me incredibly jealous that she has access to that talent and, obviously, the big budgets as well. I really think it’s one of best magazines in the world right now.” But don’t expect to see Hush’s name pop up on a U.K. or U.S. masthead anytime soon. “I was offered a job in New York before I got married and had children,” she says. “My nowhusband and I sat down and wrote a list of pros and cons and it became very clear that lifestyle, family, and friends were all incredibly important to us. We live 800 meters from the beach, and my husband surfs three times a week; I am lucky that I now travel the world with my job. So it’s the perfect work/life balance.” ß

MEET THE COMPETITION Kellie Hush and Edwina McCann were colleagues and friends at the same publishing house. Then overnight, they were pitted against each other at rival fashion titles.

KELLIE HUSH

EDWINA McCANN

InStyle, The Sydney Morning Herald, Grazia, Harper’s Bazaar

BONA FIDES

Vogue, The Australian, Grazia, Harper’s Bazaar

Kind, collaborative, loyal, and down-to-earth

WORK ETHIC

Strategic, political, loyal, and warm

BIG WIN

McCann established the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to support the local industry (she is chairman, Hush co-chair). She also brought Mario Testino to Australia in association with the local government.

PERSONALITY POINTS

She started as a fashion assistant, but don’t underestimate her business savvy. “I describe myself as a businesswoman over an editor,” said McCann, who took top spot on the 30 Most Powerful Women in Australian Media list for 2015.

DIGITAL-SAVVY

“Digital is very much a focus—it is the long-term future,” says McCann, who has made Vogue.com.au a top priority.

Bazaar named Julie Bishop (now Deputy Prime Minister) its 2014 Woman of the Year and was inundated by media, readers, and opposition. “I was chuffed to receive a text message from Julie saying she loved the story,” Hush says. Hush’s straightforward Aussie charm opens doors. She also keeps it real. “I believe staff who have a work/ life balance are happier and more productive. Great leaders treat everyone with the same level of respect.” “Like it or hate, we are all in the digital age,” says Hush, who hosts digital-themed Bazaar at Work forums.

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NEWBIEFiles

INSTYLE recently ditched Rock Center for a swanky space downtown and welcomed a new publisher to boot. Enter Patrick Connors, a name you surely know from his tenures at GLAMOUR, LUCKY, and MEN’S FITNESS. BY KRISTEN HEINZINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN LIU

FRESH IMAGE Patrick Connors, InStyle’s new publisher, has big plans; Shailene Woodley fronts the redesigned March issue.

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You joined back in August. How’s it going so far? Really well! It’s an exciting time to be at the brand. I’m so happy to be working closely with [editor in chief] Ariel [Foxman], especially on our March redesign. We’re translating this into a great opportunity—LVMH is running a 14-page cover unit. This is the first time we’re doing anything of that nature. Was there a learning curve? Now that I’m at InStyle, people say, “But you’re from Men’s Fitness!” Actually, I worked at Glamour and Lucky, and I was in the women’s field for so long, so Men’s Fitness was almost the anomaly. But I was surprised to learn how affluent the InStyle reader is— we have the largest number of female readers with a household income of $100K or more—which makes us such a powerful force. What’s your relationship with Ariel like? When you have to talk to someone multiple times a day, you get to know each other quickly—it was speed dating! We’re true collaborators; he knows what our 27 million readers are talking about, and I translate that into advertiser opportunities. How many times do you interact each day? We’re e-mailing, texting…next, we’ll have to Snapchat. It’s nonstop! What does Fashion Week look like for you? After New York, we hit up London, Milan, and Paris… sometimes it feels like I’m my own satellite office. The new collections keep me energized, especially when so many top designers are changing or being replaced. How is the magazine tackling awards season? We’ve gotten through the Golden Globes and our annual party, which were both firsts for me. Our annual Oscars viewing party is coming up, and we’re doing a “Girls’ Night In” party with Jimmy Choo. How has your role as publisher transformed? Now it’s different from just going on sales calls; it’s finding new opportunities, working with our video team at Time Inc., and creating new licensing agreements. What’s your secret to staying in the game? I look at the future. Before, we were always trying to chase the past, thinking, This advertiser used to run

this many ad pages, how do we get them to do that? Instead, I’m thinking about how my brand is a solution to whatever challenges an advertiser has. Any plans to expand into commerce? It’s definitely on the horizon; we can’t go into too much detail. The InStyle reader has so much purchasing power, why wouldn’t we tap into that? We hear the November issue was part of something new… We launched virtual reality! We sent a virtual finder with the issue to our subscribers, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at the cover shoot with Drew Barrymore. We took that to the Golden Globes, filming our party, the red carpet, and inside. That launches February 18 on instyle.com. What other ways are you expanding into digital? We’ve had amazing growth in 2015, and we’re at 5.1 million uniques. We’re also looking into how to build native, or sponsored—whatever word is being used today. And we’re focusing on our InStyle studios, where our in-house team writes the script, does the filming, for customized marketing opportunities. And social media—do you have a favorite app? I love Instagram! For the shows, Twitter is better because you can update constantly. It’s like having a bunch of kids—one week, one is a favorite and the next it’s another! What’s your sense of style? My outfit is pretty simple—I’m a Prada kind of guy, so I don’t veer much from my uniform. And how about the new office on Liberty Street? I love the open space. I wouldn’t say it was an easy adjustment…people weren’t used to noise. But it’s a great way to collaborate. And we have beautiful sunsets—New Jersey never looked so good! Any other news to report? With our November issue, we launched the InStyle Awards at the Getty in L.A. We had celebrity guests, including Kim Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow. It was a great way for me to start. The tricky part is how to succeed that next year. We’re continuing to build several franchises as we move forward. ß

COURTESY

STYLE BY NUMBERS

CLICKBait

RUNWAY HIT With the media world constantly looking for ways to increase digital traffic, Vogue Runway’s Nicole Phelps is a seasoned veteran at winning the game. After building Style.com into a powerhouse, she’s now showing everyone how to work that runway. BY EDDIE ROCHE

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the fashion shows in Berlin get the same traffic as Paris? No, but there is just as much interest in what the Seoul Fashion Week–goers are wearing as what they are in London or Paris. The traffic for street style is through the roof. People like to see how other people interpret and wear and love fashion in their real lives. What do you look for in young editors? Obsession. You need to really love this, because we are totally living and breathing it. This is the Internet we’re talking about, so editors need to be fairly tireless. During the shows, it feels like a 24-hour-a-day operation, and Twitter and Instagram have changed the nature of our jobs. What time do you start your day? I don’t wake up that early, not compared to some of the famous people in the Vogue universe. [Laughs] I’m up between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. I have a young son, so I have to get his breakfast going and make his lunch and get him dressed in a timely fashion. I drop my son off [at school] at 8:30, so I’m one of the first people here. I love a quiet office to pound out some copy and do some editing before the distractions start coming. What do you like to write about? In this moment, there’s so much moving around, and so much instability. I like to cast an analytical eye on what’s happening. I also really enjoy talking to designers and other players in the industry. One thing that’s great about the Internet is that it really loves a Q&A. There was a time when I was in journalism before the explosion of the Internet where there was a sense that the Q&A was the easy way—although you have to be a good interviewer— but people love hearing from important people speaking in their own voice. What’s it like working for Sally Singer? She was sort of an icon of mine from my earliest days in fashion. When I was at Elle, I always admired what she did at Vogue. She knows so much about fashion, but her interests really extend beyond it. What qualifications are required of a fashion critic? It definitely doesn’t hurt to have a breadth of fashion knowledge—to remember a Marc Jacobs show from 10 or 15 years ago, for example. The perspective of time is

“YOU NEED TO REALLY LOVE THIS, BECAUSE WE ARE TOTALLY LIVING AND BREATHING IT.” more fun to work alongside. He’s always saying something hysterical. I’m tight with Meenal Mistry from The Wall Street Journal, and Laurie Trott, who works at Goop in L.A. If I do have time for a nonwork dinner, those would be the three people I would call first. What would you like to see changed in fashion? Bring down the prices! Fashion is really expensive now, and while I respect the crazy amount of work that goes into designer clothes, a lot needs to change with retail. Everyone’s frustrated when they’re trying to buy a coat in December and you go to the store and bathing suits are showing up. Vice versa in July—when you want to buy a great summer dress, stores are already putting in winter coats. Retail needs a pretty massive rethink. What do you do for fun when you’re not at shows? I hang out with my husband and son, who are endlessly fun. ß

B FA N YC . C O M ; C O U R T E S Y

What are the differences between Vogue.com and Vogue Runway? Vogue Runway is a vertical of Vogue.com where we are focused on fashion and fashion shows. The difference between the fashion vertical and the runway vertical is that on the fashion vertical, you’ll find a celebrity du jour at the airport, whereas the runway vertical is less interested in the lifestyle aspect of fashion than it is in news and newsmakers. How much content are you posting each day? The site itself puts up gobs and gobs of content. I work closely with [Vogue.com fashion news director] Chioma Nnadi, who is in charge of the fashion vertical. Between our two verticals, our goal is 20 posts a day. During the shows it’s obviously much more than that. During the New York shows in September, there were over 50 reviews and articles posted each day. What does your job entail? The most important thing is to be aware of everything that’s going on in fashion, to the best of my ability. I read a lot of other outlets to make sure that Vogue Runway is covering the news. Day to day, I’m working with the editors on the fashion team and helping them plan out stories and curate their content over the week. We like hard news, and we have a sensational archive of 16 solid years of runway shows and beyond, so we’re constantly dreaming up ways that we can put the archive to use on a regular basis. Beyond that, I write occasionally, although not as much as I would like to. And then there are the shows! They now happen almost every month of the year, except for in August and April. Earlier this year, Alexander Fury, a writer for The Independent, joined the Vogue Runway men’s team. I’m hiring and assigning reviewers for all the shows—London, Milan, New York, and Paris. We are also turning an eye to international Fashion Weeks. We did between 10 and 12 or so for the Spring ’16 season—Seoul, São Paulo, Stockholm, Berlin, Copenhagen, Australia, and Russia. We’re thinking about fashion in a global way. Are American readers interested in those lessknown Fashion Weeks? One thing that is universally successful is street style. Do

quite important in order to be a strong and important voice. It also helps if you’re fearless, and it’s wise in general to remember that you’re friendly with designers, but they’re not your friends. It’s the same for any field— if you’re writing about movies, you can have friendly relationships with directors and actors, but they can’t really be your friends. Which sorts of reviews are the most challenging? The hardest reviews to write are the ones where it’s somewhere in the middle. A great show tends to be an easy review; same goes for a bad show. When something feels really cut-and-dried to me, that can be trickier. We’re so image-focused these days. Do reviews still matter to readers? I hope so. From designers, we hear, “The retailer won’t book an appointment if it’s not reviewed on Vogue Runway,” or, “They don’t take me seriously.” Fave designers? I’m a huge Maria Cornejo fan. I wear a lot of her clothes. Bouchra Jarrar is really undersung, and should have a much bigger business and probably will somewhere down the line. I’ve definitely been thinking about vintage more since I got here. Who is your posse in Europe? Tim Blanks, of course, who was my colleague at Style.com for many years. You couldn’t ask for someone

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EDITRIXToWatch

THE LAURA SHOW In the New York magazine world, Laura Brown is a known quantity. The longtime executive editor of HARPER’S BAZAAR, who is the creative force behind many of the magazine's coups, celebrates a decade at the title this year. BY NATASHA SILVA-JELLY PHOTOGRAPHY BY GIORGIO NIRO

n today’s 360-degree media world, Laura Brown has emerged as a new breed of editor. Her highly addictive Instagram feed is a voyeuristic view of life among fashion’s cognoscenti, not that she takes it or herself too seriously. The 41-year-old also recently launched her own series on Apple TV, In and Out of Fashion. And she’s nothing if not connected—Brown’s glamour posse includes Christy Turlington (or “Turls”), Carolyn Murphy, Rose Byrne, and Brooke Shields. Ask any of the aforementioned (or any of her army of fashion friends) and they’ll be quick to testify that no dinner party is complete without Brown—her raw, uninhibited humor, acerbic wit, and those jazz hands, which she regularly puts into action around the Bazaar office.

INSTA GIRL Brown nominates three of her favorite posts: Rihanna lounges in the jaws of a shark for the cover of Bazaar; contemplating a tipple in the office; and hanging with her friend, supermodel Christy “Turls” Turlington. FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

COURTESY

BRAND BROWN To underestimate her savvy would be a monumental mistake. How else do you think a girl from a farm in Sydney’s rural suburbs rose to the top of fashion’s echelons, building her own brand along the way? “One would describe me as precocious child,” Brown says. “I had delusions of grandeur at a young age, and wanted to be in fashion. One of my most seminal memories of the industry was a big runway show at the Sydney Opera House with Claude Montana, the Missonis, and Karl Lagerfeld. I remember watching it on the telly and being bedazzled.” In true Brown style, she promptly set the wheels of her future in motion, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in arts and communications in her homeland and rising swiftly through the ranks of the Australian media, first at Mode magazine (a local W-esque publication) and later as features editor at Harper’s Bazaar before deciding it was time to go global. “I remember one day at Australian Bazaar, writing a review of a Helmut Lang show and thinking, I want to see this thing with my own eyes,” she says. Brown took herself to Paris and bluffed her way into the shows. “I was so far back, in like row J, that the models didn’t even have faces, they were just floating torsos,” she recalls. The hardest part of Brown’s mission to infiltrate fashion’s elite was having only waiters to talk to for a week. Anyone who knows Brown would appreciate the torture that must have inflicted. Talking to people—or rather talking people into stuff—is now all part of a day’s work for Brown, whose role it is to negotiate and produce the magazine’s covers. That includes flying to Paris to set Drew Barrymore’s hair on fire alongside the great artist and photographer Jean-Paul Goude. She arrives at concepts by fusing style, culture, and art, a nice little niche she has carved out for herself. “I could never make up my mind,” Brown admits. “I like movies, I like art, I like skirts. But I don’t want to write, ‘It’s all about culottes!’ Who cares? And I don’t want to sit at a film festival and watch 35 movies. It’s become something I’m known for, and I think the magazine does well. It's also something Glenda does well, and if she likes an idea, she will give you the freedom to go and produce it. What do they say, when ideas attack?” Brown, who was hired by Bazaar’s editor in chief Glenda Bailey from Details, started initially as articles director. “I though I was just going to edit some essays, and then I took on the covers, and then I started having these creative ideas.” Of her career highlights, Brown cites fashion portfolios with conceptual artist John Baldessari and the cast of The Simpsons as favorites. “The Simpsons is just glorious,” she says. “I know Marc Jacobs has a tattoo of himself as a Simpson on his arm, which I thought was fake until he told me it was real. I’ve also done three first ladies—Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton. Actually, Hillary was Secretary of State when I interviewed her. I sat down

The lowdown on life at Bazaar, her chic friends, and being the ultimate print/digital hybrid.

ON WORKING WITH GLENDA “My favorite thing is when we’re brainstorming and scribbling down shot lists. I can walk into Glenda’s office waving an image around, blurt out a concept, and she’ll say, ‘Go for it.’ When she’s bursting with an idea or news, she’ll knock on my office window. She never stops, is indefatigable, and always inspired.”

ON BEING PROUDLY AUSSIE “The longer I’ve been living away, the more patriotic I get. I have an inflatable kangaroo called Reg in my office. He is my muse.”

ON KEEPING IT REAL IN THE OFFICE “We’re all here to do a job, so we should be excited about it, inspired, and productive. There doesn’t need to be any drama. I quite honestly don’t have time for it.”

ON KARL LAGERFELD “He’s a privilege to know, and patient. Last time I saw him, I was going on about something and he said, ‘Don’t be so dramatic.’ In Karl’s world, time is elastic. I want him to live forever, and if anyone can, it will be him.”

ON THE MODELS WHO ROCK “I love Mica Arganaraz and Lineisy Montero; it was wonderful to see them in the Chanel campaign. Also, how refreshing to see models hired for their look and character, rather than their Instagram followers. Epic.”

ON HER STRATEGY TO BECOME AN INSTAGRAM STAR “What strategy? If you look at the amount of Australian marsupials in my feed, you can’t possibly think this person has a strategy. If anything, I guess I have a rhythm to my posts—Bazaar content, fashion, humor, celebrity, great photography…quokkas.”

and somehow went out of my body and became somebody who knew what she was talking about for half an hour. Hillary is awesome. I wish she was more publicly awesome, and I hope she becomes president. Michelle Obama is also so lovely and personable that I found myself picking lint off her.” Does orbiting such a rarefied world not leave her a little starstruck now and then? “When it’s people I really respect, yes,” Brown admits. “I do get a little thing with Karl, because he was the guy on the TV when I was 8. I’ve got tiny little dolls of him in my office. When I first went to meet him I was in the back of the car and I kept going [labored breathing] and my driver said [heavy French accent], ‘Laura, are you in stress?’ I also get a little like that with [Jean Paul] Gaultier and Cindy Sherman. They’re exceptionally creative, but they’re just people. I’ve been working with celebrities on this magazine for 10 years, so if I haven’t made the odd friend, it wouldn’t say much about my social skills.” Maturity and proving herself through her work has also gone a long way to securing subjects for her daring creative concepts—like, say, putting Rihanna inside the grip of a Jaws-like shark. Humor is also firmly part of the Brown DNA. “People still think so poorly of us fashion folk—they seem perpetually shocked that a fashion editor can have a sense of humor,” she says. “I can post a funny kangaroo with a comment and they are like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re so funny.’ I’m proud of that, because with the exception of Simon Doonan, Leandra [Medine], and Michael Kors, very few fashion types are publicly funny.” Still, Brown admits that she is always mindful of the brand she represents. “I can goof around, but I still have to go to the Dior show,” she says. “I think people know that I’m a nice and fun person but that I have a senior role here, and they appear to respect that. I don’t have to live up to some ridiculous movie cliché. It’s kind of funny, though, when you are executive editor, which is such an American title, you have to wear an executive jacket.” The secret to being a good editor today—in addition to a fabulous jacket, which is Chanel, in Brown’s case—is the ability to exist in different spheres. “It’s great the way an idea can now play out in print, plus social media, plus whatever.” Which brings us right back to that Instagram account. Did she have a solid blueprint going in? “No, and I’m hesitant to say my Instagram is huge, because I’m not Kendall Jenner,” Brown says. “Two of my friends were into it and told me to do it. I remember my first post was of a cheese sandwich on the set of Downton Abbey. It was a really good cheddar cheese with a really good pickle.” As for what to expect next from “Brand Brown,” she says, “You can’t just get hungry to be the editor in chief for the sake of it. You have to ask yourself, Would I want that? Am I good at that? Can I work on great images that make people think? I’ve worked really hard, and I’ve still got a lot to learn. But yes, I am proud of myself.” ß FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

OUTSIDEAgent

BEST IN THE WEST

Media planner Ashley West manages the purse strings at some of the most coveted brands in the business. From her salad days at Laird to her successful solo operation, West is known for her straight talk, detailed action plans, and solid relationships with editors, publishers, CEOs, and designers. These days, her power-brokering is truly the only game in town—Austin, Texas, that is. BY ASHLEY BAKER PHOTOGRAPHY BY GIORGIO NIRO You were born in Lawrence, Kansas, and grew up in Austin. How did you end up in New York? After college, I was lucky enough to get a Condé Nast internship. I originally thought I would do ad sales, but I wound up on the client side. Eight years ago, I left Laird and moved to Austin. I’m in New York about once a month, and I travel a lot internationally. My experience is very global—a lot of my background has been spent in luxury goods. For Donna Karan, I was both a client and an agency. I spent three years on Hermès, and for Bottega Veneta, where I spent nine years, I worked on the daily management of the budget in 25 countries. Currently, I’m working on DVF, Maiyet, Topshop/Topman, and Milly. Is it scary to spend all that client money? Not if you know what you’re doing. I have to remind new or potential clients that I’ve dealt with budgets that are tens of millions of dollars, as well as budgets that are less than one million. Sometimes clients come to me because they don’t want a 25-year-old

FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

media planner on their account—they want someone really senior and reliable. When you hire me, I’m your person. I’m there 24/7. I can work with the ad agency, make media decisions, know what you should or shouldn’t pay and what the deal should include. When you’re dealing with your clients, how many cooks are in the kitchen? A lot. I deal with CEOs and designers—I prefer to have as much exposure at the top as I can, because it helps me get things done—but there’s often a big team of marketing and communications people, as well. We used to talk about the media-planning calendar as fairly straightforward. Is that still true? It used to be very predictable. There were two or three cycles throughout the year dictated by print. Now, with digital, you’re going to see more activity that is always “on,” as they say, or different types of media pushes happening throughout the year. Does a terrible campaign affect your ad buy? My clients know me well enough that if they ask my

opinion, I’m going to give it to them. I’m definitely not known for being shy; I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am if I wasn’t totally honest. On the creative side, I’ve been lucky. The brands I’ve worked on are all awesome. What’s your favorite kind of publisher? Hard as nails. What’s your favorite part of the job? I love the dealmaking. Who wants to do Excel spreadsheets all day? I’m always looking to broker a win-win. That’s when the client is paying a fair price while the media partner is getting a chance to really shine, and doing what they do with their audience to help the brand get to where it’s going. Do you believe in native advertising? Absolutely. A few years ago, fashion clients were doing a big splashy, beautiful unit on the home page. Now, it’s about custom content. Have you worked with Condé Nast’s 38 Stories yet? 23 Stories. [Laughs] I have not, because the price point in working with that specific group is pretty high. As much as I love them, when I started asking hard questions about how much money it was going to take, I almost fell out of my chair. Let’s say a client only cares about driving sales—they don’t care about image. But they do. [Laughs] But if that’s their first priority, what do you recommend? I like to see a multipronged approach, where you’re hitting on all cylinders, with different types of media working at once. That’s when people come up to me and say, “I see it everywhere. It’s working everywhere.” That always makes me smile, because I’m like, “Oh, wow, we only spent X!” How does a client with a tiny budget get the most bang for its buck? By trying not to do too much at once. Sometimes you can’t afford multiple platforms or media—you just need to do one thing, and do it really well. Does anyone intimidate you? No. In high school, I was captain of the debate team. My mom is a college professor who teaches sales and marketing—she has a phrase: “Tournament tough.” In this business, you need to have a thick skin. If you’re not tournament tough, you’re going to be eaten alive. I’m tough but fair, and I think most people would agree with that. I have to deliver on what clients need, but I can’t do that at the expense of my media relationships. Those are one of my core assets. How much time do you spend on digital? I feel like I’m working on it all day long, and doing print and other things during my night shift. Is anyone still paying six figures for an ad page? Oh, yeah. And you’re cool with that? Condé Nast has been tricky territory the past couple of years: Do they negotiate or do they not? I think they’re trying to figure that out among themselves, and every publisher approaches it differently. Is there a future for the six-figure ad page? No. I think that rates are going to continue to come down, but there are some properties out there that are big enough to support it. What do you like to read? I’m a home girl. I wanted to cry the day that Domino closed. You’re going to catch me with Elle Décor and a lot of classics. Vanity Fair? The New Yorker? Bring it on. The New York Times is probably my favorite digital property. I read WhoWhatWear, The Coveteur…and it’s unhealthy the amount of time I spend on OneKingsLane and 1stDibs. If given the chance of spending money on a shoe or a lamp, I’m going to choose the lamp every time. ß

TWO WORLDS. ONE PASSION. PROUD PARTNER OF NYFW: THE SHOWS AND MADE FASHION WEEK Design inspires. It provokes. It challenges. Together with NYFW: The Shows and MADE Fashion Week, Lexus proudly supports those who disrupt, defy and transcend convention in the pursuit of creating the next big thing. See what inspires us at sendthemasignal.tumblr.com. lexus.com | #DesignDisrupted

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FASHIONPlay

BY EDDIE ROCHE

BEDFELLOWS How does one get a job at Grindr? I’m a creative director and photographer—I was brought in in September. It wasn’t something I’d necessarily expected to do, but the challenge was pretty amazing. Grindr pitched themselves as a successful tech company with a ton of active captive users on an incredibly high frequency, and we have the opportunity to give them more. Yes, we connect people on one level, but research shows that users also connect through friendships, and they use Grindr when traveling to find out what to do. We started going back and forth, and then when I joined, it was with the intent of, How do we form something different here? How do we use this access we have globally to all these men and provide them with things they wouldn’t expect? And fashion it is! How did you get into bed with PR Consulting? One of the things we looked at first was a desire to work with people who are top of the class and have a lot of ideas and to challenge Grindr and what the brand means. [Founder] Pierre Rougier is definitely one of those men. I was eager to see if there was a click, and there was. They have a lot of connections, but they push us further. FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

Did you anticipate people would have an OMG!? reaction at a fashion PR firm signing Grindr? We did. I’m not naive—it’s the combination of the sexualized nature of this brand and the sometimes pearl-clutching nature of the fashion industry that caused the buzz. I’d rather people be interested and intrigued than horrified. How can Grindr help designers? It’s no big secret that the gay community is extremely diverse, and there’s a large section of that community that is interested in the arts and fashion. For some segment of the population, fashion is almost like a team sport—following who’s going from one house to the next, name-checking shoes. Given that there is a higher level of interest, it’s kind of obvious to share gamechanging designers with our users. We provide access to probably more instantaneous eyeballs than almost any platform you can think of. I think of it as turning on the faucet for our users. We’re doing it across fashion, and also looking into sports and other areas. You did a livestream of the J.W. Anderson show in London. How did that conversation begin? We didn’t have a specific designer in mind—just a desire to do something during Men’s Fashion Week. I was open to any city and any designer, but I did want

GRINDR FOR ALL In case you haven’t had the pleasure…

JA K E ROS E N B E RG/CO U RT ESY G R I N D R ( 1 ) ; CO U RT ESY

When tony public relations firm PR Consulting signed Grindr, everybody had an opinion. Landis Smithers, the networking app’s recently appointed VP of marketing, explains the hookup.

someone who was a little bit unexpected. It would’ve been predictable for us to do an underwear show. PR Consulting said, “Can you do a livestream?” And we said, “Can you give us a few days?” Jonathan Anderson was interested in being a part of it. He was a dream collaborator. I liked that he didn’t make a terribly big deal out of it—he treated this opportunity as, we’re doing something fun and new, and that was it. Was it successful? Yes! Livestreams are tricky. Not a lot of people see them unless they are actually obsessed with the individual event, but we had really good numbers. We had 40,000 views during the actual show; then we posted it for a repeat, since we have a global audience of people who weren’t even awake when it happened. By the end of the week, we hit about 150,000 views. Before, his shows got about 5,000 views on YouTube. That’s a pretty exponential leap. Are you open to doing livestreaming shows from the women’s collections? I never say no to opportunities, although I’m not sure if that’s much of a sweet spot for our audience. Diesel is advertising on Grindr. We have quite a few mainstream advertisers— everyone from Airbnb to Uber to Live Nation to Madonna, who sold her concert tickets on the app. We have both predictable and unpredictable advertisers. I believe Diesel is the most recent fashion entry. [Artistic director] Nicola Formichetti is brilliant, and it’s always exciting to see what he does. How do people react when you talk about your job? There’s a generational split. When you get above a certain age range, whether it’s Playboy, where I worked before, or Grindr, there’s a curiosity factor. Nobody is shocked, but they might have visions in their head of an office full of go-go boys. It’s not that at all. If I talk to the younger generation about my job, it’s a little bit more matter of fact. Do you have to be on Grindr to work there? No! It’s a really diverse work atmosphere. We’ve got straight, gay, male, female, and every ethnicity on the planet in the office. Everyone here does open an account so they can see how it works, and it’s a really easy way to message one another when you’re sitting across the room. Is the fashion industry more heavily represented on Grindr than, say, accounting? To be honest, every gay I’ve ever met in my life is on Grindr, so I’m not sure if it’s specific to an industry. I live in L.A., so it’s a little bit skewed, I suppose. But fashion is always a first adopter. Thanks to all my fashion people! I love having them on the app. I should’ve started this interview by saying, “Sup?” You should have. It’s very appropriate. You also could’ve said, “Into?,” but that would’ve been very inappropriate. Into? Nice try. ß

RETAILReport

BARNEYS: THE NEXT CHAPTER

The iconic department store will throw open the doors to its new downtown digs at the retailers’ original Chelsea location on Monday. Barneys New York’s COO Daniella Vitale is the woman charged with taking the luxury fashion retailer into the future, which means learning from its glorious—and turbulent—past. BY NATASHA SILVA-JELLY

What’s the vision for the future? The strategy is to look at our offering, not open too many stores, and focus on digital, for which we were very late. Without criticizing anyone in the past, we are a specialty retailer, so how many stores do we need to open? It’s also great to evoke a little magic of our history, but we have to reflect today’s retail landscape. The customer is different. So why open in Chelsea? We had two small downtown Co-ops in Soho and Chelsea, and neither delivered the experience we

expected. We do know there are a smaller percentage of customers than expected shopping in our Madison Avenue flagship coming from downtown. There is really not much in the area the caliber of Barneys, so we realized that we could have a neighborhood store without cannibalizing our current business, and serendipitously, that location became available. Is it the death of the Co-op? The Co-op is not over, but the concept was dated. We kept the ones that made sense, but rebranded them Barneys and refocused our offering to include a

great range of contemporary products at price points associated with the Co-op concept. We’ve actually never been more successful and technically have a smaller footprint. It’s about understanding the market and where we belong. Barneys filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and narrowly avoided it in 2012, so it’s safe to say you’ve had your fair share of financial issues. I feel we have been given a gift as we are one of the best specialty stores in the world, and many things were a complete success. The Pressman family era

THE BARNEYS TIMELINE

Take a trip down fashion’s memory lane. Warning: It could be a bumpy ride!

1970s 1923 Barney Pressman pawns his wife’s engagement ring for $500 to open a menswear store at West 17th Street and Seventh Avenue in Chelsea. FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

Store is expanded. It stocks 60K suits from Pierre Cardin, Christian Dior, et al. Giorgio Armani and womenswear is introduced.

1980s A womenswear store opens adjacent and runway shows follow. A beauty salon, restaurant, and accessories department are included.

1990s Barneys moves to its Madison Ave location— the largest store built since the Depression. Stores open nationally. Founder Barney Pressman dies. In 1996, the company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

FLASHBACK #1

G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 7 ) ; F I R S T V I E W ( 2 ) ; B FA N YC . C O M ( 1 ) ; S H U T T E R S TO C K ; C O U R T E S Y

Flamboyant heir Gene Pressman is lauded as much for landing the store’s hottest labels as landing it in financial trouble. was mired in financial issues, as that vision got a little muddy. It’s not about adding new brands to fill the store. And you can take chances on certain brands that may not be on everyone’s radar without being fiscally irresponsible. What is the fashion focus for the future? It’s about an edit and celebrating our historical brands. I’m proud we have the top luxury brands, while offering that eclectic mix we are famous for. One of our strengths is that we really know the customer; they are discerning, and want a really unique and special experience and great service online and in the physical store. Is digital the major focus? We weren’t even in the game five years ago. Our customer today is shopping both; the idea they are shifting to online only is just not true. When we set up our website we did it in a thoughtful way; we didn’t just throw on as much product as possible and attach a discount. We are also bringing digital into the physical stores. The new downtown space will have iPads and we are converting registers into mobile POS, so we don’t have to walk away to process the transaction. We have also developed an app that you can opt into that provides push notifications while you are shopping. If you are standing next to Joseph Altuzarra, you will get an interactive narrative to help you learn more about the brand. Do you have a clear advertising strategy? [Barneys Creative Director] Dennis Freedman has done an incredible job maintaining the past spirit of Barneys, which was to work with the best photographers and creative in the world. We collaborated with Bruce Weber again on our latest campaign, which is a narrative of New York, Barneys’ birthplace. Our campaigns tell a story, like our transgender campaign cast by Carine Roitfeld, and that feeds into our advertising strategy. What about Barneys’ famous windows? Our editorial property “The Window” is a play on our in-store window, and we did it online to start and then put it into print as it’s been enormously successful. Our store windows are still important, and Dennis has been amazing at balancing art and commerce. Sometimes there isn’t even any product in our windows at all. Tell us about the new store opening bash on Sunday. It’s a very small preview party. We have invited a few customers, designers, and journalists to get to know the store. There will be a big party in March/April. ß

Pressman with Anna Wintour, circa 1989

What do you think of Barneys today? I don’t think anybody is doing retail well. When the family owned Barneys, it had a personal touch and that was unique. We also had wonderfully creative people like Simon Doonan [Barneys longtime creative director] and the buying staff headed up by Julie Gilhart. My mother picked every single piece in the Chelsea store. What was your biggest contribution? It all starts with the product, because back when it was downtown, Chelsea was a low-income depressed area, so many people wouldn’t go below 42nd Street, as they were worried about getting mugged. I was responsible for women’s and started the Co-op to introduce contemporary fashion, and my father took care of men’s. We brought a tremendous amount of product to this country. My father bought Zegna and Armani and had them exclusively for 10 years. I started womenswear and introduced Dries Van Noten, Versace, Helmut Lang, Azzedine Alaïa, Manolo Blahnik, and Christian Louboutin. We also worked with a great advertising agency and amazing art directors, like Fabien Baron. Would you do anything differently? We had our financial difficulties. It wasn’t about expansion; we purposely built the stores small so they wouldn’t be a risk. Back then, there wasn’t a lot of high-end fashion or the Internet, so you had to connect the dots. What are your thoughts on the fashion industry today? The fashion industry is in a sorry state, because it’s owned by three people, so it’s very difficult to break through and have any lasting power. Because of that there is less risk-taking, so everything feels watered down.

FLASHBACK #2

Fashion and retail consultant, Julie Gilhart led the buying team during Barneys ’90s expansion. What was the fashion plan? We were always on the search for new talent, that was a big part of Gene Pressman’s criteria. We had a knack for recognizing the next big thing, which wasn’t easy as there was no Internet or Google, so you had to be really close to everyone in fashion. I would go through so many magazines and pull out tear sheets. I remember everyone talking about this new London designer called Lee McQueen who I’d seen in i-D magazine, so I called the editor. I also found Rick Owens in i-D; he had this tank T-shirt with all these holes in it. We weren’t afraid of Comme des Garçons doing a jacket with three arms. Which other big designers did you land? I feel very lucky to have been part of introducing Alber Elbaz, Azzedine Alaïa, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Olivier Theyskens, Martin Margiela, Jil Sander, and Junya Watanabe into Barneys. You could take the time to grow and develop them in those days. Do you think the fashion retail mix is as exciting today? We all have the same information, so it homogenizes. Things need to be more specialized and authentic to draw you in; retail has lost that feeling of walking into something really amazing. It must have been such a fun time. I remember the Madison Avenue store opening. Barry White sang and all his backup singers were dressed in Isabel Toledo. We had lots of fun doing window displays, events, and whatever ideas we could execute. How was it working with Gene and the Pressman family? Gene hired me for the Madison Avenue opening, and I made it very clear it was only for a year and I stayed 18. There’s something very magical about doing business with a family, but we were like a family, so it was joyful and it was awful. It could be a movie. I saw Gene throw a football across the room once. Will we see another great designer? There will never be another Margiela or Karl Lagerfeld. It’s a different time, but there is still plenty of space for talent. I am on the board at Parsons and every student wants to be the next Jack [McCollough] and Lazaro [Hernandez] of Proenza Schouler.

2013–2015 2000–2010 Gene Pressman launches the Co-op. The Pressmans sell their ownership to equity firm Istithmar World for $937.4 million, which includes $500 million debt. Sales slip 14 percent under the new owners; the CEO resigns and a new one is not appointed for two years until Mark Lee of Gucci Group takes the reins.

2011–2012 Barneys is no longer allowed to sell Prada RTW. “The Windows” site launches. The store avoids bankruptcy by selling a majority share to Perry Capital; its $590 million debt is reduced to $50 million.

Barneys announces Chelsea store. New cosmetic halls unveiled at flagship. Transgender models star in campaign.

2016 Chelsea store opens in February with a cooler downtown vibe and exclusive capsule collections by Alexander Wang and Proenza Schouler. The SS16 campaign “Our Town,” shot by Bruce Weber on the streets of New York, features Yoko Ono, Lady Gaga, and Cyndi Lauper.

FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

FACEOff

THE EDITOR OF THE FUTURE IS HERE! Remember your shock when Condé Nast named the relatively unknown Michelle Lee as the replacement for founding Allure editrix Linda Wells? Well, the ex-NYLON editor with a penchant for the publisher role just may be the model for the new guard of top types. Let’s compare and contrast!

LINDA WELLS

MICHELLE LEE

BONA FIDES

B.A. in English from Trinity College

B.A. in Journalism from University of South Florida

QUALIFICATIONS

Vogue, The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine

BEST KNOWN FOR…

QUALIFICATIONS

WORK ETHIC

Obsessive and exacting

Injecting hard-hitting reporting into beauty-centric journalism

WORK ETHIC

Diligent and entrepreneurial

MARKETING MATERIALS

BEST KNOWN FOR…

Being the only person in town who wanted the NYLON job after founding EIC was locked out of his office during a scandalous takeover

LITERARY LEANINGS

Authored Fashion Victim: Our Love-Hate Relationship With Dressing, Shopping, and the Cost of Style in 2003

Read novels in the front-row of Chanel (on her iPad)

On a first-name basis with every major beauty executive

NYLON, InTouch, Hollywood.com, User Friendly Computer News

PURPORTED EARNINGS

MARKETING MATERIALS

Negotiated a CMO title at NYLON as the title faced a mass exodus of advertisers

Somewhere in the low seven figures

PURPORTED EARNINGS

Between $250 and $300K, tops

PUBLIC PERSONA

The world’s youngest-looking 56-year-old, thanks, in part, to the late Dr. Frederic Brandt

PUBLIC PERSONA

Exists mostly on LinkedIn

BEAUTY SIGNATURES

Gel nails from someone known on Insta as “Miss Pop”

CAREER COUP Founded Allure

OFF-DUTY ACTIVITIES

Sweating through a Stacey sesh at SoulCycle in Bridgehampton; hosting the Hamptons A-list at her clambakes on Fowler Beach

SELFIE MENTALITY

“I’d almost rather do a TED Talk in a bikini than take a photo of myself and show it to other people.”—December 2015 editor’s letter

FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

CAREER COUP

Broke the news about Sandra Bullock’s cheating husband during her time at InTouch

OFF-DUTY ACTIVITIES

Hanging with the fam in New Jersey

SELFIE MENTALITY

Averages three per week on her Instagram account

G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 6 ) ; B FA N YC . C O M ( 1 ) ; A L L OT H E R S C O U R T E S Y

Subtle manicures, flawless skin, pro blow-out

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New York Fashion Week Fall 2016 Collections

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488344282, Mike Coppola

488504588, JP Yim

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TOTALParody

PAPER TRAIL

NATIVE ADVERTISING EDITION

With so many advertiser-sponsored stories infiltrating magazine pages, how does one distinguish the content from the…content? PEOPLE ARE

BY ASHLEY BAKER

THINKING ABOUT

ASK B. DREAM Dear Auntie Bee, You’re probably going to find me ridiculous for even thinking this thought, but I am so over my monthly visitor from Aunt Flo! (If you get my drift.) I get that it’s part of being a woman, but I’m tempted to go on one of those pills that makes it go away altogether. Help? Yours, Sick of Seeing Red

Dear Red, Ye gawds! Of course I get your drift, girlie. But before you take drastic measures that would surely be endorsed by the pharmaceutical community, remember: It may seem like you’ve been an eternal slave to Tampax, but one day, when you’re in the elevator at Bergdorf Goodman and are nearly overcome by a hot flash that would surely rival the hottest summer day on a tropical island bordering the equator, you’re going to be a little nostalgic for darling Flo! (Not like I’m speaking from experience.) I suspect what’s really going on is that you’re sick of all the accoutrements and lifestyle changes that accompany this blessed ritual. For your entire

adult life, you’ve been subsisting on personal-care products that are borderline embarrassing to purchase at the drugstore, with a somewhat dubious impact on the planet, not to mention toxic shock syndrome, which is just as frightful as it sounds. Before you impact your biology, have you ever heard of a little product called THINX? These “underwear for women with periods” (you lucky things!) are just that—darling little panties (Chic! Seamless! And only $34!) that happen to absorb two tampons full of uterine lining. Just give a rinse and throw them in the washer with the rest of your laundry, and voilà—you’ll barely notice what fresh hell you’re enduring. And isn’t that always the goal, my sweet?

SLIM PICKINS

It’s not exactly a secret that the fashion world is always onto the next thing, diet-wise. But when the charming DJ (and Vogue’s one-time Girl of the Moment) Marley Sierra-Lewton stepped

on the scale after the holidays and found that she’d gained an astonishing three pounds, she immediately took action. “Working out and eating superclean is my entire lifestyle,” she says. “The challenge is taking things to the next level.” Which is when she discovered Pro Clinical Hydroxycut, America’s #1 Selling Weight Loss Brand that has helped over 25 million people lose weight. “They have so many different types of products,” she enthuses. “I love the drops for a quick pick-meup, and I start every morning with an Instant Drink Mix.” After three weeks on the regime, Sierra-Lewton is swimming in sample sizes, just in time for Fashion Week. “Hydroxycut has been around for ages, and I like that it’s so affordable for so many people,” she explains. “Democracy is always in fashion.”

My Things SHAMIRA

Does everything that Shamira touches seem to sparkle? The Colombian singer, songwriter, producer, model, choreographer, and dancer has been topping the charts and dominating the airwaves for the past 20 years. Her latest project, a partnership with Crest 3D White Whitestrips™, is enabling her to bring her signature look to the masses. “Everyone deserves a dazzling smile,” she says. Herewith, her favorite things…from Procter & Gamble.

BEAUTY MOUTHWASH:

Crest ProHealth Tartar Protection

NECESSARY EXTRAVAGANCE “My complete oral health regime, backstage at every show venue.” FAVORITE CHARITY Operation Smile

FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

WHO INSPIRES YOU? David S. Taylor. “He shows me how to be a more effective leader.”

GETTY IMAGES (2); SHUTTERSTOCK; COURTESY

EYEWEAR Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Eye Cream and Lash Serum Duo

FAVORITE DISCOVERY Crest Tartar Protection. “I had cavities as a child. It was unbearable. But when my dentist turned me on to Crest, my mouth completely changed. Zero cavities ever since.”

Real-world education means value-added employees. Berkeley College graduates enter the workforce with more than a typical classroom education. Programs developed with input from industry experts. Outstanding faculty. Access to top fashion industry resources. That’s what the Fashion Marketing and Management program at Berkeley College is all about. In fact, our time-tested approach to education is so effective that leading companies and organizations hire Berkeley grads year after year.

Call 800-446-5400 ext. BFF, visit BerkeleyCollege.edu or email info@BerkeleyCollege.edu

Find us @BerkeleyCollege • #BerkeleyCollege

Berkeley College reserves the right to add, discontinue, or modify its programs and policies at any time. Modifications subsequent to the original publication of this information may not be reflected here. For the most up-to-date information, please visit BerkeleyCollege.edu. For more information about Berkeley College graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed programs, and other important disclosures, please visit BerkeleyCollege.edu/disclosures.

“I knew from the beginning that Berkeley College was the perfect fit for me. In fact, it was the only college I applied to! My professors have been exceptional. Their experiences have helped me learn every aspect of the fashion industry, including the business side. When I graduate in 2016, I know that I’ll have the skills and the confidence to begin my career.” —Zita Quezada P4597-8.2014

FINALVerdict

ASK OUR NEWSSTAND GUY! Magazine Café’s very own Manish Golchha loves magazines more than anybody we know. THE DAILY made our biannual visit to his West 37th Street store to dish on the industry— and get his take on Alessandro Michele, of course. BY EDDIE ROCHE PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEFANIA CURTO

FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

going on. Though I don’t think lace is ever going to be popular with men. The lottery was a huge deal. Were you affected? It was crazy in here. We always had 10 people lined up. It was initially fun, but afterward, annoying. People would get impatient and start arguing with each other if someone was taking a long time. We noticed you’re selling Valentine’s Day cards. We have a sale going on our website—5 percent off! Will you read us a card? “To my husband, magic happened when I met you and it grew into something more amazing and wonderful than anything I could have imagined.” It’s a bit cheesy, but we have to please all our customers. We understand you don’t want to be referred to as our “newsstand guy." Any alternatives? How about the magazine mogul? That sounds better. My store doesn’t look like a newsstand. You’ll always be the newsstand guy to me. Let’s see what your readers think. Let’s do a poll! ß

FINAL TALLY What’s really flying off the stands at Magazine Café? (Average number of copies sold per month)

VOGUE U.K: VOGUE PARIS NUMERO V VOGUE U.S: MONOCLE HARPER’S BAZAAR U.K: GQ O THE OPRAH MAGAZINE FAMILY CIRCLE HARPER’S BAZAAR CHINA

400 250 150 150 150 120 75–80 40 25 10 10

COURTESY

Always fun to catch up. Personal question first: How’s the kid? She’s going to be 4 in April. She’s growing up fast. It’s fun. She doesn’t read magazines yet—she doesn’t even read. There’s a long way to go before I let her read Teen Vogue or Cosmo. My heart will skip a beat when that happens. And who are you wearing today? My shirt is from Zara, jeans, and the same D&G belt that I always wear. Perhaps your readers will do a fund-raiser to get me a new belt. So, what’s new? We’ve been slammed with new magazines. The March issues are rolling in, so we’re excited. Today, I had an order for 500 copies of Bazaar and Vanity Fair. Wow! Is someone selling them on the black market? I don’t think so. It’s for a company who gives the issues to their employees and clients. I’d like to work

for a company like that! Same. What’s selling these days? Our best sellers are still Vogue U.K. and Elle. I’m waiting to see how thick the March issue of Vogue is. We still have the September issues for sale—we keep them on hand because people still ask for them. This is the first year we’re doing that. How did the Zoolander cover of Vogue sell? Well, but not more than any other issue. Ben Stiller looks good. I’m pretty excited about the movie. Not everybody loved that movie, but this fashion district is the crowd for it. Thoughts on InStyle’s redesign? This new look is liked. It reminds me of U.K. InStyle. We also have the new Glamour in with Gwyneth Paltrow. Covers love her. The cover line says Gwyneth “owns her own mistakes.” Do you own yours? I wouldn’t say I’m there, but I’m trying to work on that. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. GQ’s issue is very sexy. Is Cristiano Ronaldo wearing a Speedo? Men are very excited and motivated about improving themselves and their bodies. It’s a European style of underwear on him. Guys should be inspired to pick up a copy of something like this. I know I would be. You’re selling Vanity Teen! Should we be calling the cops about the people picking this up? We haven’t sold too many copies. Is that a creepy old man reader? It’s a fashion reader, but it sounds a little…you know what I mean. We know what you mean. How do you feel about Details folding? I’m not very happy about it. We did pretty well with Details. I won’t say it was the best-selling magazine for men, but after GQ and Esquire, Details was pretty popular. I wasn’t happy when I learned about it going out of business. If we can stop this loss of good magazines going out of business, places like Magazine Café can also stay in business. Do you have a digital strategy? Not really. We feel pretty confident that print is not going to all turn into digital. We want it to survive. We want to be best at print. We’re currently not thinking about digital. I like the feel of holding a magazine. It feels much better than swiping. We look at screens from the beginning of the day at our computer to the TV at night. Magazines break up the monotony. What did you think of Alessandro Michele’s looks for Gucci? It looked classy. A lot of prints. It’s a very classic look

What happens when class ends? For us, it’s where opportunity begins. We give our students the skills and resources they need—an expert faculty, internships with top companies, and a constantly growing myriad of connections built on our rock-solid reputation—to turn real experiences into real careers. When they enter the workforce, it’s with a confidence that distinguishes them from their peers. We think BEYOND THE CLASSROOM to prepare our students for success beyond graduation.

LEARN MORE AT LIMCOLLEGE.EDU/BEYOND

Victoria Dipiazza ‘16 Fashion Merchandising Interned at Anthropologie, Marc Jacobs, John Varvatos, CollegeFashionista

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1/27/16 9:40 AM

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