The Daily Front Row

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CAR AND DRIVER | COSMOPOLITAN | COUNTRY LIVING | ELLE | ELLE DECOR | ESQUIRE | FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE | GOOD HOUSEKEEPING HARPER’S BAZAAR | HGTV MAGAZINE | HOUSE BEAUTIFUL | MARIE CLAIRE | O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE | POPULAR MECHANICS | REDBOOK ROAD & TRACK | SEVENTEEN | TOWN & COUNTRY | VERANDA | WOMAN’S DAY | ICROSSING | PLUS 25 DIGITAL BUSINESSES AND GROWING

UNBOUND E C N E L EXCEL

We congratulate our own Joanna Coles for her 2017 Media Maven Award.

Hearst joins the Fashion Media Awards in recognizing Joanna’s epic success across multiple platforms. And we applaud Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, the 2017 winners of the Best Digital Destination for Lenny. Hearst salutes their pioneering, digital platform for women’s issues.

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Where the

Palm Trees Grow.

Fashion. Food. Art

Vesey & West St

Brandusa Niro

Editor in Chief, CEO

Which of these headlines actually appeared on Goop?

The Freedom of Planning for Your Own Death

How Anyone Can Use Hypnosis to Become Unstuck

The Insidious Yeast Infection We All Have—And How to Treat It

12 (More) Reasons to Start a Jade Egg Practice

LSD As An Antidepressant + Other Stories

ANSWER: They’re all rea!

daily throwdown Madeline weeks

jeremy meeks

Known as

GQ’s resident hottie

The Internet’s “hot felon”

IG following

4,663

Philipp Plein, Carine Roitfeld, the DOJ

Signature look

Showing leg

Going shirtless

Claim to fame

Rocking fashion and Hollywood for decades

Rocking the world of Topshop heiress Chloe Green

daily doubles

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

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Mark Tevis Publisher

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1.3 million

Collaborators

Michael Thompson, Nathaniel Goldberg, Ben Watts

Bloggers in crisis! The Daily hears that Instagram has been doing a massive clean out of fake accounts, and some of your favorite influencers are losing influence by the minute. “I’m down 17 followers this morning!” bemoaned one lifestyle blogger, who begged to remain anonymous so that her sponsors won’t drop her. (Love, don’t be paranoid!) • Ever been to Bushwick? That’s about to change, thanks to Alex Wang. #Wangfest is bringing the chic set out to Brooklyn this Saturday soir, and although he’s allegedly opening up some pop-up shops along the route, we still recommend taking the subway (again).

Executive Sales Director Stephen Savage Account Manager Cristina Graham Director of Marketing & Special Events Alex Dickerson Digital Director Daniel Chivu

CARLYNE FOR THE WIN!

Publishing Manager Carey Cassidy Manufacturing Operations Michael Esposito, Amy Taylor

In case there was ever any doubt about who would look hautest in the Louis Vuitton x Supreme collab…

getty images the official photo agency of The daily front row

PROMOTION

SNAP CHAT!

With cover photog Eric Ray Davidson What was it like shooting Mario?

My greatest successes happen in the most collaborative environments. Working with someone of Mario Testino’s stature and experience requires a lot of precision. He had some fantastic ideas, and while we operate differently on set, we were able to combine our ideas and achieve great things.

What did you learn?

Mario spends a lot of time to get the exact shot that he’s envisioned. I work a little differently—I like to capture a wide range

The Daily Front Row is a Daily Front Row Inc. publication. Copyright 2017. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Requests for reprints must be submitted in writing to: The Daily, Attn: Tangie Silva, 250 West 57th Street, Ste. 301, New York, NY 10107.

of shots, and find the moment as I go.

What was it like to work with Kendall?

I’ve shot her sisters before, and so I’ve worked with her team a lot, and that creates a sense of comfort. Kendall is incredible. She and Mario had great ideas, and she brought the right intensity and range.

What else is new?

I just shot a cover for L’Officiel Hommes, and my GQ covers with Chance the Rapper and The Weeknd were really exciting. I’m also working with some new clients in Russia and China!

On the cover: Kendall Jenner and Mario Testino photographed

by Eric Ray Davidson. Makeup by Mary Phillips.

Hair by Jen Atkin. Photographed at Milk Studios in Los Angeles on August 9, 2017.

s h u tter s tock ( 6 ) ; getty i m age s ( 3 ) ; eric ray d a v i d s on ( 1 ) ; fir s t v iew ( 1 ) ; p atrick m c m u llan . co m ( 1 ) ; s tockton p olice e d p art m ent ( 1 ) ; all other s co u rte s y

SCENE

VRAI OU FAUX? Why a Routine Colonoscopy is More Essential Than Ever

Deputy Editor Eddie Roche Executive Editor Ashley Baker Managing Editor Tangie Silva Creative Director Jill Serra Wilde Fashion Editor Paige Reddinger Senior Editor Kristen Heinzinger Associate Editor Sydney Sadick Art Directors John Sheppard, Magdalena Long Contributing Photo Editor Hannah Turner-Harts Contributing Photographer Giorgio Niro Contributing Copy Editors Joseph Manghise, Teri Duerr Imaging Specialists RJ Hamilton, George Maier

Cara, Midtown, New York dvf.com

scene

Expect a bevy of beauties at The Plaza Hotel on Friday, when the worldwide editors of Harper’s Bazaar toast “Icons by Carine Roitfeld.” Natasha Poly, Doutzen Kroes, Toni Garrn, Cindy Crawford, and KKW will party alongside Selena Gomez, 50 Cent, Courtney Love, and Dionne Warwick. See you there! • New designer alert! Your Daily is loving Arias, a new collection from designer Nina Sarin Arias. She’s taking press appointments through the 22nd!

With GQ Style editor Will Welch First things first: How did you land that big Brad Pitt exclusive?

In the immediate aftermath of the election, the country was splitting at the seams. I thought, let’s try to use the humble little voice of our magazine to do something unifying rather than divisive.

So we had the idea to ask Ryan McGinley to shoot our summer cover story in three different national parks, and we took that idea to Brad Pitt. I think he loved our concept, loved Ryan’s work, and appreciated the scrappy vibe of GQ Style. He said yes very quickly.

Week of September 7–13 Obsixed: Six coveted or can’tlive-without items that make for a fashionable lifestyle. jasmine sanders

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What’s the magic formula for a perfect GQ Style story?

Our best stories are big adventures with interesting people in far-out places. Aziz [Ansari] met us in Paris for Fashion Week. We went on tour in Uganda and Ethiopia with Diplo. We shot Jared Leto at a palazzo in Milan. We got Rick Rubin to interview Kendrick Lamar at Shangri-La, the Band’s old studio in Malibu. We got Future to fly to Italy to meet Giorgio Armani.

What’s up with “Corporate Lunch”?

It’s our new weekly podcast. We’ll be talking about stuff in our world: fashion, art, magazines, music, what’s going on behind the scenes at GQ Style.

PROMOTION

ATTENTION, FMA ATTENDEES… Wondering what that gorgeous glass jar in your gift bag contains?

It’s WelleCo’s Super Elixir Alkalizing Greens, an all-natural multivitamin that boosts immunity, brightens skin, reduces inflammation, stabilizes blood sugar, and much more.

WelleCo is the brainchild of Elle Macpherson, who clearly knows a thing or two about looking and feeling utterly fab. We’re already obsessed!

CATCHING UP! With Ariel Foxman You left Time Inc. about a year ago.

How have you been spending your time?

I traveled a bit, and took tennis and dance lessons. My husband kept saying, “Why don’t you just wake up and do nothing today?”

What’s up with your new gig at Olivela?

As chief brand officer, I’m responsible for the way in which our story is being told, whether it’s to new brands we bring on, other causes we might be speaking with, and our customers. The people

here are the nicest, but they’re not pushovers.

Everyone is at the top of their game. This is truly a dream gig. I can use my expertise, I can learn, and I can help an organization make a true impact. I don’t know what else you could want.

PROMOTION

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ADDITION ELLE POPS UP! From September 11 through September 17, Addition Elle is debuting its first-ever NYC pop-up shop at 134 Fifth Avenue. Open from 11 a.m–6 p.m., it will feature runway looks, as well as pieces from Ashley Graham’s lingerie line, plus Jordyn Woods’ RTW collection. additionelle.com

daily dossier!

With Elle Decor’s Whitney Robinson

Typical indulgence Deli potato chips with caviar Décor musts “I love Federico de Vera for home items and jewelry; the home floor at Hermès; IKEA—not just for the Swedish meatballs; Hot Pink In Jaipur; and Robert Kime in London” Prized possession A first-edition copy of Valley of the Dolls Favorite Valley of the Dolls quote “Everyone has an identity—one of their own and one for show.”

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And the winners are… mario testino (Creative Director of the Year) kendall jenner (Fashion Icon of the Decade) jordan barrett (Male Model of the Year) laura brown (Best September Issue, InStyle) humberto leon & carol LIM (Fashion Innovators) erin parsons (“Make It Happen” Award, Maybelline New York)

THE 5TH ANNUAL

susan duffy (CMO of the Year) Phillip Picardi (Media Brand of the Year, TeenVogue.com) joanna coles (Media Maverick) & lena dunham & jenni konner (Best Digital Destination for LennyLetter.com)

2017

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

S I TN Photography BY

ERIC RAY DAVIDSON

E

He’s the most prolific fashion photographer working today—and one of the industry’s most game-changing creatives. No wonder Mario Testino is the mastermind behind a rapidly expanding empire.

By eddie roche

N

Super Mario

Creative DIRECTOR of the Year: Mario Testino Do you like being on the other side of the camera?

I embraced it a long time ago, because back in the ’90s, when the girls like Kate, Naomi, Claudia, Christy, and Linda were covered in every single way possible, they started looking around at who could talk about them. Most photographers didn’t want to talk, but I speak five languages and I’m quite chatty. It’s my Latin-American nature! I started getting interviewed

by TV channels after the shows, and I realized our business was changing—being in front of the camera was part of it. You can’t avoid it.

You now have a full service creative agency, MARIOTESTINO+. How did that come about?

It was reactive, rather than proactive. Dolce & Gabbana asked me to do [the perfume campaign] Light Blue and they wanted me to look after the whole thing. They explained the feel of the perfume, and I would film, photograph it, and deliver the project fully laid-out. The agency came from that moment. The clients were surprised by the ability to talk directly to the photographer, rather than going through an advertising agency. Then Burberry took their art direction in-house and they wanted to do it with me directly. Next came Michael Kors and Lancôme. Sue Nabi pushed me to make my agency more solid. She wanted me to come up with the concepts, do the layouts. The agency was an organic move born out of the demand from my clients to provide these extra services.

How many people are working for you now?

Almost 100! In addition to the agency, I started [MATE – Museo Mario Testino] in Peru, and it involves a lot of people. My work lives there as a platform for other artists to participate in. We also promote local artists and offer courses, and we’ve helped flood victims.

You recently opened a New York office...

America is the most understanding place for business and change. My CEO [Suki Larson] is American, and

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

she’s very pro-America. Fashion photography at the base is about art and commerce. I always like the idea of being quite clear about what I do: We make beautiful images to sell products. I’m a real fashion photographer; I’m into clothes, hair, and makeup.

America seems to be the place where things happen.

In today’s world, where everything has changed platforms, it’s important to be present and connected.

You’re a creative machine. Have you ever had a rut?

Françoise Rosenthiel, the wife of Christian Lacroix, told me years ago that when somebody has ideas, they always have ideas. Today, I was telling my team that they shouldn’t talk to me about jobs that haven’t been confirmed. The moment you tell me something, I’m thinking about it. I’m 62, and most people used to retire around this age, but I’m working more than ever. I’ve always been obsessed by youth; it’s fabulous. But at the moment, I’m really obsessed by knowledge. Something happens after 30 years of experience—if your mind is still fresh, you can put it to work and do amazing things. I’m a big admirer of Karl Lagerfeld, who has been able to take everything to another level. Years of experience, curiosity, and professionalism—it’s a fantastic combo.

You shot some fabulous models for the September cover of British Vogue. How did that come together?

I worked with Alex [Shulman] for 25 years, and she wanted to document what she had done and where her eye was still going. I once did a story on supermodels, and I brought in Edie Campbell.

She was 15 or 16 at the time, and everyone wanted to know why I wanted her in it. I said, “She will be the next one!” I like that idea of putting these girls together, because they are part of the life of the magazine and my life. Stella Tennant married my assistant. I’m godfather to her daughter. Kate Moss has been my muse and my partner. We’ve shared so

“I’ve always been obsessed by youth; it’s fabulous. But at the moment, I’m really obsessed by knowledge.

Something happens after 30 years of experience—if your mind is still fresh,you can put it to work and do amazing things.” much over the past 25 years. Edie’s mother is a friend of mine. Jean Campbell’s parents are my friends, too. Nora Attal is the new find! I quite like this idea of these girls who are intertwined in our lives.

Now that Alex has left the magazine, will you still shoot for it?

I don’t know, really. It’s early days. They’ve just taken off. The natural reaction of anybody who takes on a

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new thing is to get rid of everything that’s been there in order to make your point and get your image and ideas across. I love Edward [Enninful]. I’ve known him forever, and we haven’t worked that much together.

But the things we have done together, I’ve really enjoyed doing.

We love your new Stuart Weitzman campaign with Gigi Hadid wearing a short wig.

Sometimes, you have to shake it up. I’ve been with the brand for many seasons, and they know that I am only interested in its success—it’s not about me. I’m happy to say that it created an explosion in the press.

How long have you been collaborating with Michael Kors?

Fourteen years. He has a very precise idea of what he likes and who his woman is. I only see him through those eyes; I never sway. I like the idea that you can take the logo off a photograph, and you [still] know that the pictures are theirs. Advertising and marketing are about finding the DNA of a company, and being consistent and precise about that.

What’s the story with your Instagram towel series?

I’ve always enjoyed taking people’s clothes off! I can’t show them naked, because it’s not permitted, but I love the idea of celebrating bodies. Some have been born with a good one; others have maintained it. I don’t have a good body myself, so I’m always in awe of others. When I find them, I always like to document and share them. I was so moved when I was talking to Kendall [Jenner] about The Daily’s cover picture. I told her I wanted to push it, and she said, “Do you mean naked?” When I showed up, she said, “I should wear a towel, because that’s your thing!” Something I created out of nothing became such a strong brand.

Do you have a favorite brand of towel?

I don’t! I’m dying to do my own towels. I do have a particular taste.

What’s so special about Kendall?

She is now. She’s beautiful and has an amazing body; those are elements that attract us to models, but there’s something about her and what she represents that has changed the way we look at things today.

It’s pop! In the world before, we were filled with rules and regulations of what was good, what wasn’t good, what was chic, what wasn’t chic. In came this family, and through reality TV, they shook up the way everybody sees everything. Before they were put in Vogue, they weren’t considered the height of chic or glamour or beauty. I like people that believe in what they believe in and go for it.

Anna Wintour got a lot of heat when she put Kim Kardashian on the cover of Vogue.

We are journalists, as well as creators of an aesthetic product. We document what’s happening in the world. If Anna hadn’t done it, Vogue wouldn’t be relevant. They’d be staying with principles that are shifting constantly, instead of being the ones who create the shifts.

How would you describe yourself on a set?

I think that people forget that every second of the day is our life. I want to enjoy my life—every second of it, if I can.

New York London Milan Paris Saturn firstVIEW is everywhere fashion online. firstview.com

“The funny thing is that fun is my work. I have a great time all day long.”

courtesy

You work constantly. How many airline miles have you accrued this year?

I’m on a plane every three or four days. I love it. British Airways is my favorite airline, but I fly on them all.

How has Instagram changed the way you work?

It’s opened up the possibility of communicating with the people who follow me directly, which is priceless.

I treat Instagram more like a magazine.

What do you do for fun?

The funny thing is that fun is my work. I have a great time all day long. I was a huge party animal. Beyond!

I love dancing, and partying, and hanging out with people, and going crazy. But not anymore. My life has shifted in the past two years. My mother died a year ago, and at that moment, I stopped drinking. It was like a reaction. I identified that we are in a time of huge change in our industry and our world, and I want to be clear at this particular moment. I want to put every single element of my experience into one piece, and use it all in the next stage. For a long time, I was a photographer. Today, there are too many things I can do, and I want to make sure that I do them all. I’m finding the day much more exciting than the night. We spent 40 years of our life trashing our bodies, and then all of a sudden, we’re trying to get it all back into shape and hang onto it. Hopefully, I’m not too late.

How would you like to be remembered?

I’m not worried about that. It’s not that I don’t want to be remembered, but it’s about what I did when I was here. If I can help just a little bit, that’s what I’m concerned with now. ß

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

fashion online. firstview.com

The View from the Top MEDIA MAVERICK: JOANNA COLES There’s nobody quite like Joanna Coles, who is celebrating her first year as Hearst’s chief content officer. How is she changing the way we do business? The Daily stopped by her tony new office to dish on the benefits of print, her successful foray into television, and the big-picture issues facing the media industry, and beyond.

BY EDDIE ROCHE PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM JESS LAIRD

It’s been a year since you were named chief content officer at Hearst. What are the key duties of that role?

A lot of it is coming up with new ideas, and finding new partners to create new kinds of content with.

This time last year, I was beginning to put the team together for the first issue of Airbnbmag. I’m very excited about [the show] The Bold Type [on Freeform], and we also did So Cosmo [with E!]. And now, all those things have come to pass, which is really exciting. I’m doing a lot of internal reorganizing of the magazines, because we were producing print content the same way we had been doing it for the past 25 years, and that just didn’t make sense anymore.

Things are so much easier and faster now!

How much interaction do you have with Hearst’s editors in chief?

Amazingly, the editors didn’t really know each other, so I instigated a monthly meeting with an outside speaker. More importantly, we talk about the issues facing print editors, and how they’re thinking about

scaling up and developing projects. I’m excited to have Jon Gluck join us—he was the managing editor of Vogue. He’s going to help me iterate new ideas, and create new partnerships around our brands. Jon and I worked together at New York magazine eons ago, and I’m excited to be working with him again.

When you meet with the editors in chief, what is the No. 1 issue everyone’s talking about?

The issues change according to what’s going on. At one point, we were worrying about how much is too much when it comes to politics. Next, we might be talking about how we can best work together. We created a series of what we call “hubs,” so that Holly [Whidden, VP and head of talent and entertainment division and brand strategy] and her team are booking talent across our titles. It makes no sense for us to shoot the same celebrity three different times in two weeks for three different magazines.

We should be able to coordinate. The magazines had been operating in silos completely separate from one

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

CHARACTER STUDY The Bold Type centers around a cast of staffers at a Cosmo-inspired media brand.

another, and it made much more sense to create a central organization where we all knew what each other was up to. We don’t step on each other’s toes, but we can share resources. It’s more economical, but it also saves an endless amount of time.

Is there a fashion hub yet?

Not yet, but there’s one for women’s service brands, and a design group. Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Seventeen, Women’s Day, and Redbook come out of one hub. Then Elle Decor, Veranda, and House Beautiful come out of another.

Is there a reluctance to do it with the fashion titles?

No, it’s just more complicated because there’s so

much fashion coming in and out. We’re only going to do it where the efficiencies make sense. We’re not trying to compromise anyone’s ability to be creatively excellent. We applaud that, we want that.

It’s actually great to see editors becoming friends as opposed to colleagues who simply pass in the elevator. You discover that there are all sorts of ways of doing things, and we don’t need to be overinvested in one specific way of producing magazine content.

In this new role, do you sign off on every magazine?

Oh, God, no. I wouldn’t possibly have time to do that. Also, we are working with the best editors in

CHANNELING THE MASTER With actress Melora Hardin, who plays a Coles-like character in The Bold Type

What did you know about Joanna before you started work on the show?

Not much! I wasn’t that tapped into the world of fashion and fabulousness. I then did lots of research and was immediately smitten! I was so taken with her humor, and her intelligence, and her candid nature. Love, love, love.

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

What was your first meeting like?

We met when we were shooting the final scene of the pilot in Toronto.

I met her on set when I was wearing my shabby clothes and not in costume.

Did she give you any tips on approaching the role?

My character is inspired by her, so it wasn’t as if I was trying to do

something like a biopic.

It was more about gathering the flavor.

We talked on set, and I spent some time in the setting of the magazine.

I’ve gone to her house and she’s come to my house socially. Being in her realm was most fulfilling for me as an actor. She also happens to be a ton of fun to be around, so I don’t mind it at all!

the business. They don’t need me sitting on their shoulders, micromanaging. I would have hated that as an editor, and I would never do that. This is much more of a business development role, and helping people think strategically about using and sharing resources in the building. We’ve got a couple of projects I can’t yet announce.

What do you miss about your gigs at Cosmo and Marie Claire?

I miss having relentless millennials coming into my office and whining that their careers aren’t moving as fast as they should be. I love their sense of confidence, and I miss that noise. It’s very quiet up here. I’m always being told to pipe down, and I refuse.

Why do you think that print is so important?

Anyone who’s spent any length of time on a cell phone or a computer knows that at some point in time, you become listless and restless. It doesn’t mean that the phone isn’t the most incredibly useful way to absorb information and get information fast, but it’s not the best way to relax and decompress from a long day. Now we know from the brain science that when you hold and read a page of print, you absorb the information more effectively. [Reading] a magazine or a newspaper, you really are on a journey of discovery, and you will come across things you didn’t know you were interested in. That benefit is enormous. It stimulates you intellectually, it keeps you curious, and it keeps you informed, which we now discover, after the election, couldn’t be more important.

You’ve been a big advocate of Snapchat. Why? I love the intimacy. It’s where my real self lives online, as opposed to my curated self. It’s not performative; it’s for a friend, not for an audience. It’s just a completely different beast from anything that’s out there. When I’m on it, I’m always laughing. I think of

“Now we know from the brain science that when you hold and read a page of print,you absorb the information more effectively.”

william jess laird (1); everett collection (1); getty images (1)

Snapchat as a sanctioned play area where you can be silly and have fun.

The Bold Type is a big, smashing success.

Thrillingly, absolutely thrillingly.

What was your role as executive producer?

Well, it was a three-year process. Holly and I met David Bernad, who’s one of the executive producers, at a dinner I was holding at Soho House in L.A. We regaled him with stories. By the end of the evening, Bernad said—we call him Bernad—I have to make a show about you and Cosmo. So, long story short, we were involved in choosing the writer, we auditioned everybody, we read all the scripts. I basically dumped my notebooks and diary into the writers’ room. We’ve been involved in trying to make sure that it feels really authentic. And for me, what was important was how few effective female bosses there are on

TIME FOR LAUNCH! The first issue of Airbnbmag, one of Coles’ first projects in her new role.

women at work Whidden (left) with Coles.

JOCO’S SECRET WEAPON! Meet Holly Whidden, Hearst Magazines’ VP and head of talent and entertainment division and brand strategy

How did you start at Hearst?

I came when Elle entered the building. I worked at Paramount Pictures for seven years, where I was a film publicist and worked on Transformers, War of the Worlds, and The Hours. Mean Girls was my first

campaign, which was a joy. I had known some people at Hearst and a job opened up in the communications department. I was hired to work on the coms for Elle, Elle Decor, and Town & Country, and eventually, I was overseeing half the portfolio. The

television. It pissed me off, because you see heroic versions of male doctors, male captains of industry, joint chiefs of staff. Even the brilliant Julia LouisDreyfus in Veep is reckless almost to Trumpian levels at times in the show. The one person whom we had in fashion, Miranda Priestly [in The Devil Wears Prada], was a kind of horrid boss. We are relentlessly told about how women don’t help each other, and I wanted good representations of efficient, smart, working women on television who helped each other.

The conflict in the show takes place elsewhere—it doesn’t take place between the women.

You also have a book coming out. How do you do it all?

I get up at 5 a.m. in the morning! I did have a full-time researcher [on the book]. Thank God for Liz Welsh. She’s brilliant! And also, I have a fantastic team around me. I am extremely well supported at the company. The book is being published in April by HarperCollins, and it’s really a book about how to find love in the digital world.

Everybody’s dating online now, so how do you do it effectively? We pulled together a lot of social science, which is really interesting and still in its infancy. We don’t fully understand how these

last book to be put on my plate was Marie Claire, while Joanna was there.

Did you two hit it off from the start?

Completely. Literally the moment I met her, I knew she was someone I wanted to work with. There is an energy about her and the way that she works and thinks that is so much fun to be around. It’s inspiring.

What does your role entail?

My primary responsibilities are overseeing the entertainment division, including all cover bookings, and reimagining the way in which Hearst approaches talent and entertainment coverage. It’s proved beneficial to have spent part of my career on the other side at Paramount Pictures, because it’s provided insight as to how we can best work with studios, film, and TV talent in particular. For all things music, I rely heavily on Sergio [Kletnoy], who is a key member of the team—and knocking it out of the park with Harper’s Bazaar covers this year! In addition, I’m spearheading efforts to extend Hearst brands into television and film, as we’ve done with So Cosmo and The Bold Type.

How closely do you work with Joanna these days?

I report to her. I don’t see her day-to-day like we did at Cosmo, but I pop up to her office all the time, and she spends a ton of time on our floor. It’s fun to have her around, because she causes so much trouble!

devices have impacted us, but a lot of the early research is nerve-racking. It’s about how you use apps and make them work for you, as opposed to being controlled by them.

How do you turn off these days? What do you do for fun?

Well, I play a bit of tennis, I hang out with family and friends, and I like working—and I walk the dog!

What big-picture issues are on your mind these days?

The breakdown of trust in our culture. Half of the country doesn’t trust the president, the other half doesn’t trust the media. We don’t trust banks, we don’t really trust colleges, because it turns out they’ve been ripping us off over student loans.

People don’t trust the companies they work for, the companies don’t trust [their employees]. We have a president who claims information is fake. What’s emerging is a sense in which your very tight friend group becomes the center of your trust, and the world beyond that feels precarious, and unreliable, and untrustworthy.

How can we change that?

It could begin with a change in the White House.

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

GENERATION KENDALL fashion icon of the decade: kendall jenner The ’60s had Jane Birkin, the ’90s had Kate Moss. The 2010s have Kendall Jenner, whose rise from reality TV star to the world’s mostobsessed-about model has captivated the fashion industry, the press, and 83 million (and counting) Instagram followers. Her uncanny intuition as an imagemaker is matched by her singular approach to personal style, and even though both are heavily emulated, she is constantly pushing fashion forward, pioneering new looks, new designers, and new attitudes.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY mario testino

LEAN IN Jenner was photographed by Testino for a 2017 issue of Vogue India.

Prints of this image are available for purchase at shop.miramira.tv, with proceeds going to the organization Girl Rising India.

kendall’s COVER DOMINATION From her debut as a “Kardashian in Training” to the originator of “The Kendall Effect,” Jenner’s diverse covers are a testament to her powers of influence.

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kendall’s signature style

getty images (6); all others courtesy

Whether she’s gracing the red carpet, the city streets, or even the airport, Jenner consistently creates a fashion moment. The world at large is her runway, and on it, she combines avant-garde designer looks with the very best of streetwear, denim, and vintage. The result is a style that’s uniquely her own, and one that she is orienting toward the future.

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SHE SAID, SHE SAID Best Digital Destination: Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, Lenny Letter Girls creators and serial collaborators Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner launched Lenny Letter less than two years ago as an intimate home for long reads. The talented duo’s twice-weekly “issues” tackle a breadth of topics through a candid, intelligent, feminist lens. Dunham and Konner explain how personal stories and a commitment to an honest, empowering dialogue have made Lenny a must-read across generations.

BY ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE GROSS How’d you come up with the Lenny Letter concept?

Lena Dunham: It really started to feel very, very important that we have a platform to talk that was more than 140 characters, and a way to express ourselves that was not as short-form—and often frustrating—as Twitter.

Jenni Konner: …And not as long and fictional as Girls.

Dunham: Exactly. And there were things we couldn’t touch on on Girls, politically and personally. We also wanted to connect with, and expand on, our [Girls] audience.

Why did a newsletter feel like the right format?

Konner: It felt like the right length, and contained. We could pay enough attention and control it.

Dunham: It’s manageable and personal—we enjoyed that people could connect with it outside of the constant “refresh” culture of moving between FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

windows on a computer. We liked that you could take a moment and really absorb it.

Why does the newsletter concept, which has been around for years, resonate in 2017?

Konner: It feels really intimate. A lot of stories, 80–90 percent of them, are focused on personal narratives.

When it goes into your in-box it feels special, and like it’s from a friend.

Dunham: Jenni and I talked a lot about how we wanted it to be in the spirit of our friendship. We constantly share personal stuff, advice, and cultural documents.

Jenni has always served as the voice of reason to the Girls cast, so we wanted to create that voice for a newsletter: your older, flawed but delightful sister.

How did you want to distinguish Lenny Letter from existing media brands?

Dunham: We wanted feminism and feminist

commentary that wasn’t snarky. There’s a reason we don’t have comments, or any place for people to argue with each other.

Ever considered expanding Lenny Letter into a full-fledged site, comments and all?

Konner: I’m always terrified to say never, but this is the closest I’ll come to saying never.

Dunham: Jenni always says that my gravestone will read, “She read the comments.”

Which publications did you want Lenny’s tone and readership to emulate, to a degree?

Dunham: All my references were Sassy meets George—all from, like, 1994, pre-Internet.

Konner: We saw a hole, so there wasn’t a ton to compare it to when we launched. I mean, there were specific essays we loved in other publications, and the political ideals of Teen Vogue, something like that.

But we wanted to fill this void.

Dunham: Gwyneth Paltrow has been incredibly generous with us. Jenni and I both love Goop, and Gwyneth has given us a lot of her time and friendship in building Lenny Letter. She said something in an interview about wanting Goop to be so great that people forget she’s involved; I think about that a lot. I’d like people to forget that it came from the creators of Girls.

Why did you want Lenny to have an unapologetically feminist tone?

Dunham: We both self-identify as feminists and were raised as feminists, and feminism is the lifeblood that pumps through Lenny. A lot of T-shirts say

“we wanted feminism and feminist commentary that wasn’t snarky. there’s a reason we don’t have comments.”

CONTENT IS QUEEN From digestive health to politicians, Lenny Letter’s stories often feature personality-driven writing as seen through a feminist worldview.

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—Lena dunham

today, “Feminism is the radical belief that women are people,” and it’s much more complex and simple than people give it credit for. It informs what we talk about and what we do, just the way feminism informed Girls on a deeper level, even when it wasn’t overt.

How big is the Lenny Letter team currently?

Dunham: People often think there are 15 or 20 people on our team, but we currently have six employees, including us and a CEO. We wanted people who shared our goal, of creating a wealth of personal and political content that makes life feel a little more manageable, but also brought something totally new to our vision.

We’re constantly learning from the people we hire.

Has the readership changed since you started Lenny Letter? Any surprise fans?

Dunham: We’re both excited whenever a man tells us he likes something, since we’re so women-focused.

How about unexpected celebrity Lenny loyalists?

Dunham: I got a compliment from Bono; he loves Lenny—it shouldn’t surprise us, because he’s somehow in every country, doing aid while on tour and reading Proust, so, of course, he has time to read everything on the Internet. At first I was like, okay, someone briefed him [on Lenny Letter], but then he referenced a specific article, and I was like, “Well, well, well, Bono!”

How did you get involved with Hearst, and did you have any reservations about working with a huge, corporate publishing company?

Dunham: We really wanted as much reach as we could, that was our dream. Whether it’s connecting with ad or publishing partners, working with big corporations doesn’t scare us because we have confidence in our voice and confidence that these partnerships can bring more to women.

You two have collaborated on many different projects. How is working on Lenny Letter different than, say, Girls?

Konner: Our relationship remains the same, but what’s amazing about Lenny is we really don’t have to micromanage everything. Because of our editors and CEO, it’s incredibly independent. We have a call once a week, but then we can check out and leave them to mind the store.

Dunham: I remember one week when we were working on Girls, I was acting and directing the entire time, and it was just too much, so I decided not to look at the newsletter. It was sent out into the world and I read it at the same time as everybody else, and I was like, “I should do this more often!”

Which particular pieces on Lenny Letter are you proudest of?

Dunham: Jessica Knoll, the author of Luckiest Girl Alive, a great thriller everyone should read, disclosed her experiences as a sexual assault survivor and how it influenced her book [in Lenny Letter]. It’s an incredibly beautiful piece, and The New York Times then profiled her about her experience and what it meant to other survivors. As a sexual assault survivor and a lover of beautiful personal essays, I’m just in awe that we had anything to do with bringing that into the world.

Konner: I loved our Hillary Clinton interview. She showed such a fun playfulness, and she had a really good time doing it.

Dunham: I remember looking at Jenni as we were waiting to meet with Hillary, and I was so scared to go on camera, and I said, “I can’t believe we’re getting to do this together.”

Which contributors are you particularly surprised and excited to have featured?

Dunham: It’s been sort of a surreal list—Jane Fonda, Michelle Obama, Gabourey Sidibe, Alicia Keys, Brie Larson. These amazing women, constantly being so generous with us, is pretty wild.

Who’s on your dream list of future contributors?

Konner: I really want Mary J. Blige. I saw her in concert years ago, and she stopped in the middle of the show to tell women to get their own bank accounts. So I really want her to write about money in the newsletter. That’s a work in progress.

Dunham: If we could get someone into Joni Mitchell’s house to have a conversation, that would be the greatest thing in world. If you want to know what I want for my birthday, Jenni, I would love an invitation to Joni Mitchell’s house.

Konner: I’m already working on your birthday present, and it’s really good.

Dunham: What?! My birthday is really far away, and Jenni always gives great gifts.

Any topics you want Lenny Letter to tackle that haven’t been addressed yet?

Konner: We’re open to everything.

Dunham: We want it to be a full dictionary of experience of what it’s like to be a female-identifying person—that’s why we love historical pieces, fiction pieces, personal pieces, because it’s going to become this awesome encyclopedia of voices.

Have you toyed with the idea of compiling Lenny Letter’s greatest hits into a book?

Konner: Maybe! That’s a good idea.

Dunham: That is. We have our book imprint with Random House, and we just published our first book, Sour Heart, by Jenny Zhang. We have a few books in the works, and some that we’re chasing now. To us, it’s almost like a Lenny Letter library.

How did the idea for a book imprint come about?

Dunham: We were working on Lenny Letter for six months when we started talking about a book imprint. I talked to my editor at Random House, Andy Ward, about how great it would be to do the longest form content—a book—and to champion writers who matter to us.

Have you heard any great anecdotes about how Lenny Letter has impacted readers?

Dunham: I had a really meaningful experience when a woman came up to me on the street to tell me our endometriosis [a disorder where uterus lining tissue grows outside the uterus] newsletter allowed her to self-diagnose. She’d been suffering for years without a name, and how it had given her her life back.

Have you dealt with much criticism, and if so, has any of it surprised you?

Konner: If we have, we don’t know, because we don’t have a comments section, and that’s the whole point of not having a comments section.

Dunham: Every time I do hear criticism of Lenny Letter, it’s usually someone who hasn’t read it, and has opinions about it because I’m involved, or because of Girls. But I’ve had a lot of people tweeting at me, “I hate you, but I like Lenny Letter,” which I always love. ß FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

“i was so obsessed with the idea THAT a different shaped eyebrow or a red lip could change a person’s face.”

EDGE FACTOR

Maybelline New York’s “MAKE IT HAPPEN” AWARD: Erin Parsons How does a small-town girl who covered her bedroom walls with beauty shots ripped from library books and magazines become Gigi Hadid’s go-to beauty guru? Erin Parsons, Maybelline’s global makeup artist, explains how she made it happen.

BY KRISTEN HEINZINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM JESS LAIRD

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What’s your backstory?

I grew up mainly in Ohio, but I also lived in Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and Texas. During my last few years in high school, I lived in a small town in Ohio, and I just wanted to escape. I never had dreams of New York—I mean, I watched a lot of movies about it, but I didn’t realize this world really existed. I always did my makeup like the old movie stars. I shouldn’t say this, but I’d get biographies from the library and tear out pages and keep them! [Laughs] I grew up very poor and I needed these pictures—anything of Marilyn Monroe or Joan Crawford or Jean Harlow.

I was so obsessed with the idea that a different shaped eyebrow or a red lip could change a person’s face. I grew up insecure, too, about my own looks.

Experimenting with makeup made me feel better about myself.

When did you first start doing makeup professionally?

I worked in retail for 10 years, first at the Lancôme counter and then the M.A.C. counter. Finally, I decided to move to New York in 2008 with a dime in my pocket and a dream in my head, and it was not easy!

I was dragging my kit everywhere on the subway, trying to get as many pictures as I could for my book.

My goal was to assist somebody. I started assisting top artists—Gucci Westman, Mark Carrasquillo—and three months in, I got with Pat McGrath.

When did you decide to branch out on your own?

I worked with Pat for about six years. It was fun and a lot of work, and I did makeup on the supermodels of the world. We did experimental looks, like a Margiela or Dior show when John Galliano was there. I only left when I felt that I finally learned everything I could learn and I had gained confidence. The hardest thing is to overcome feeling inferior.

When did Gigi Hadid come calling?

I met Gigi in about 2014. She was really quiet and had a baby face. I did her makeup and she just transformed. I could sense that she liked it, and I could feel a difference in her attitude. I ended up working with her on a lot of shoots and shows while I was assisting Pat. I’m a Capricorn—Gigi has a saying, something about how all her friends are Capricorns. We just clicked. I genuinely like her as a human being…and I also love putting makeup on her.

[Laughs] She’s so gorgeous. She recommended me to

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Inspiration on the outside. Hydration on the inside.

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GORGEOUSNESS, PERSONIFIED Parsons transformed Gigi Hadid for the cover of the June/July 2017 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

“i didn’t grow up in a great household.... my outlet was looking at magazines. i remember tearing out the pages and hanging them all over my walls— it was kind of crazy.” courtesy

Maybelline, and one of the pictures we did together got Maybelline’s highest number of likes at the time.

So they kept calling me. I had already put my notice in with Pat, but it was scary to leave!

What are some of your favorite Gigi looks?

I love the mermaid eye, which is what the look was named on social media. I had no idea the impact it was going to have. It wasn’t necessarily a highfashion image—it was something more fun that the general public could enjoy. I love what we did more recently—the two different colored eyes with a wing and liner and the short hair. I think she likes becoming a character and playing dress-up. Every time I work with her, even with really natural makeup, she makes it look amazing.

What are some of the techniques you use?

I used to heavily contour her, almost to the mouth. I loved what it did on the runway. I fill in her brows by making them a little longer and drawing them out.

I put individual lashes on her—she never likes too many. It’s kind of basic, but you find what works.

Who are some of the other models you work with?

Because of Maybelline, I work with Adriana Lima, Jourdan Dunn, Emily DiDonato, Herieth Paul…. I got to know a lot of great girls as an assistant, but it’s not like anyone was like, “I must have Erin on a shoot!”

Gigi kind of did. She pushed for me, which was incredible.

Which products are your current favorites?

Nude lip liner, mascara, always an eyelash curler, and Maybelline’s Dream Cushion Foundation. It’s a cream with a puff and a little mirror, which is great, because I’m always putting on makeup in a cab.

Congrats on the award! Have you ever won anything before?

When I was in high school, I drew a picture of Christy Turlington in pencil. I won second place at some big art show. This all feels so strange! I think part of this is owed to my ketchup soup story.

Pardon?

About two years after moving to New York, I had no money, I couldn’t pay rent, and I literally only had ketchup packets in the fridge. So I squeezed out ketchup and made soup. It didn’t taste that bad, to be honest. [Laughs] I did a post on Instagram about it, which I ended up taking down, because I felt vulnerable, but it got so many likes and comments about how it helped others through tough times.

Maybelline was like, “What’s this ketchup soup thing?” I’m not good at getting personal on social media. I haven’t really shared this much, but I didn’t grow up in a great household. We were very poor. It was a struggle just to dream. My outlet was looking at magazines. I remember tearing out the pages and hanging them all over my walls—it was kind of crazy.

I was obsessed even then. Since I was 13, I’ve never not had a job. Working in retail and getting a taste of working with makeup, then coming here, meeting Pat, and now, this…. It’s kind of a bit surreal. The whole “make it happen” thing? I feel like I’ve done that. ß

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boy wonder

MALE MODEL of the year: JORDAN BARRETT With his once-in-a-generation face, Australia native Jordan Barrett has captivated the hearts of the industry’s top star-makers. Right before he headed off to Burning Man for some R&R (ha!), The Daily caught up with the ultimate free spirit to talk about life through rose-colored glasses.

By EDDIE ROCHE PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS COLLS What have you been up to this summer?

I went to Australia to see friends and family and then I went to Bali. Now I’m on my way to Burning Man. Carine Roitfeld is one of your biggest champions—she’s presenting your award.

What’s your relationship like?

I love her. She’s everything. I was in love with her from the moment that I met her. She’s fantastic to work with, and she’s an industry icon. She has been so kind to me and invited me to her amfAR events, which are so important and super fun. Carine is so inspiring to me, and I’m thrilled every time she books me. Love! Love!

Have you ever won anything before?

I was awarded the GQ Australia Man of Style award in 2015, which meant a lot to me.

Who are you going to be thanking in your acceptance speech?

Right now, that’s a surprise—even to me!

You’re an amateur photographer. What do you enjoy shooting?

Naked people, crazy people in New York…I’m not really one to take photos of landscapes. I have hundreds of Polaroids from my travels. I keep some in a big box at home, and I stick others on the wall.

They remind me of really fun memories.

Which photographers do you admire?

Mario Sorrenti is definitely one of my favorites. I also like Cass Bird—she’s awesome. I also really like Hans Feurer. Mario’s pics are always dirty, crazy; Cass’s are always alive; and Hans always has that pop of color.

You’ve worked with a lot of heavyweight photographers—any others that you’d like to work with?

Steven Meisel. I haven’t worked with Mark Borthwick, either.

British GQ Style shot a cover of you that’s an homage to George Michael.

They came up with the idea—they wanted to do a tribute to him. I didn’t really know who he was

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

“I don’t really have many family photos or photos of myself as a kid.

It’s weird! But in the ones I do have, I’m always completely grinning.”

Are you more of a dramatic or comedic actor?

I hate comedy. I like psychological thrillers. I wouldn’t mind playing an action hero.

Which actors do you admire?

My favorite actor was Heath Ledger. His performance in [the Australian film] Candy was amazing. I also loved Abbie Cornish in that film. The other actor I love is also dead—River Phoenix. while he was alive. I was once on my way to meet You have a River-like quality to you. [my manager] Jen at Kate [Moss’s] house to go to I get that a lot. I like every one of his movies. dinner in London and the taxi driver asked if I was We hear that you want to open a hotel. going to George Michael’s house. [Kate and George That’s the goal. When my mom used to ask me were neighbors.] I didn’t know who he was or if I what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would say, was in the right area, and I called Jen and told her “I’m going to be rich and I want to open a hotel.” what the driver asked, and she laughed. I asked if But the hotel I want to open would be more like I should Google him. Now it’s like an ongoing joke a healthy retreat in Costa Rica. There’s one in between us. I recognize his music, but I didn’t grow Mexico I like that’s like a tree house. It doesn’t use up listening to him. electricity and they work to save turtles. I want a Before you were professionally modeling, were you comfortable in front of the camera? sanctuary, not a hotel…a big sanctuary for everyone I don’t really have many family photos or photos of to come to. myself as a kid. It’s weird! But in the ones I do have, When will it open?

When I have enough money!

I’m always completely grinning.

Do you follow astrology?

Is acting still a passion?

I bought a book about it but haven’t opened it It is. I’m studying and working with dialect and acting coaches in New York and Los Angeles. It took yet. I’ve started spending a lot of time at The Alchemist’s Kitchen in Manhattan. I sit there for me about a year to start feeling comfortable, and literally three hours a day and try oils. Downstairs, now I’m really starting to enjoy it. there are infrared saunas, a mediation room, and GOTTA HAVE FAITH Thor Elias photographed Barrett for a 2011 cover of Carbon Copy; cryotherapy.

Giampaolo Sgura shot him for British GQ Style’s tribute to George Michael cover.

What’s next for you?

I want to take more photos and make things.

I’m also collaborating with Frame on a collection, which comes out in spring 2018.

And you’re also making glasses?

My friend [photographer] Alana O’Herlihy and I started a label of fashion goggles called Heavily Sedated that you can wear any time of the day. Everyone’s going to realize that the world is better in really tinted color. ß

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“Everyone’s going to realize that the world is better in really tinted color.”

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Since taking the helm at InStyle last August after an 11-year run at Harper’s Bazaar, the positively effervescent dynamo that is Laura Brown has thoroughly refreshed the Time Inc. title’s pages. For her inaugural September issue of the glossy, Brown surprised and delighted with an unexpected cast of cover stars—from Selena Gomez to Marc Jacobs flanked by Salt-N-Pepa and LL Cool J to Stephen Colbert (yes, really). Over lunch at Barbuto, she explains how it all came together.

BY ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV photography by sasha israel

POSITIVELY CHIC Best September Issue: Laura Brown, InStyle

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

How did you conceptualize your first InStyle September issue?

I wish I had more of a master plan, but I didn’t! My overarching philosophy at InStyle is inclusion— everyone’s welcome. For September, obviously Selena [Gomez] is our newsstand cover star, our big girl. I know commerce when I see it, and I treat her as the star she is. But as I started seeing art come in for the issue, I was thinking, “What if we put Stephen Colbert on the cover, because he’s of such value right now, and [it would be] unexpected for him to be on InStyle. Why can’t we do that?”

How did that epic Marc Jacobs, Salt-N-Pepa, and LL Cool J cover come about?

Poor Eric Wilson [InStyle’s fashion news director]!

I was like, “Let’s do Marc like Sgt. Pepper, with all these hip-hop legends!” I still get a kick when anyone actually agrees to what I want to do and turns up on a set. Probably, my best day putting the September issue together was coming from Stephen Colbert’s great interview—he’d just gotten back from Russia, he’s so thoughtful, smart, reads more books than I ever will, just a really, really great conversation—to the Marc Jacobs’ shoot. Salt-NPepa are there; they’ve got champagne flowing at 11 a.m. It’s so raucous; they haven’t seen each other for years. It was night and day, but the fact that I got to go to those two shoots in the same day for one magazine was a thrill. That’s why I do it.

Talk us through the issue’s other covers.

Carolyn Murphy is such a beauty, and a great, grown-up girl; such a lovely, beautiful image for a cover. And then there’s [model] Dilone, who I’m obsessed with. I’d seen her on the runways in Europe over the past few seasons, and she just walked like she knew something was up, like she knew a secret, like she was in on the joke. I followed her on Instagram, and she’s so funny, has such personality. It’s great to see someone with such character and presence in [the modeling] world. It all came together incrementally. I’m a victim of my own enthusiasm sometimes! I’m certainly aware of the mix, and it worked really well together. These covers are so representative of what I want InStyle to be: It’s about the attitude, “We are you, whatever you’re into.” You don’t finish the magazine and feel worse—you feel better.

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FEATURE FOCUS Brown has infused the pages of InStyle with a mix of irreverent and weighty subject matter.

think I was pretty sure of what I wanted to do, and I templated that in the March issue. The minute someone says “Yes!” to an idea you want to do, it gives you a sense of security. To the degree you can control things as an editor in chief, you can attempt to control the level of drama. When I make a decision, it’s done; I don’t vacillate. You get more decisive as you get more experience, but I think I’ve always known what a good idea looks like, and have earned a certain degree of equity after a long time.

People think, “Laura does cool, fun stuff, and she’s never screwed anyone over, so we’ll go with it.” We even shipped the September issue to the printer early!

Any upcoming tweaks you have in the pipeline?

There’s a beauty page we’re starting up called “Secret Weapon.” I want to know what people use, and there’s a way to make that more personality driven. I’m starting a new franchise called “Badass

“back in the day, the idea of celebrity in instyle was very cashmere and malibu.”

Women,” which will launch in the November issue.

We’re political when it comes to women, and plenty of things have been happening lately that work against women. The idea came about because I was so incensed about [the U.S. military] trans ban, so pissed off, all sorts of expletives. I wanted to get a profile on a trans person in the military in an upcoming issue—the idea for the franchise came out of that to feature a different badass woman every week online and every month in print. I’ll be developing it a lot next year.

How is your celebrity content evolving?

I’m enhancing the idea of celebrity as contributor, so it’s not just a traditional best-dressed red carpet, where everyone is posing with a hand on the hip.

It’s about having video adjuncts, and having a 360-degree view on a story.

Are stars and their publicists pretty game?

Yes. Once you book time with a celebrity, it’s not a problem. I think our September issue, and its covers, enforces this—your client can have their glory, and promote what they need to promote, and there can be other cover stars, and it doesn’t take away from your client’s success.

What's so holy about the September issues?

I love the ceremony of it. It’s its own little movie. You put out your best and brightest, designers have new seasons in store, everyone comes back from the summer, you’re buying your boots, and picking up that September issue. There are some lovely fashion rituals like this that will stick around. Anything on the page has six to eight digital adjuncts, video or otherwise, but these celebrities want the covers of magazines, and to use InStyle for what we’re good for—that’s not to be underestimated. I don’t want to scroll [online] all the time! I want to sit down with a September issue, the satisfying thud of the thing. ß

courtesy

What’s significant about giving a young talent like Dilone a cover coup?

Oh, I love her. Look, she’s on her way. I think it’s important to show models as human beings. InStyle didn’t shoot models before I arrived, and we’ve had success doing so. Dilone appealed to me because she’s a cool girl, not because she’s a model. She’s got great character that I think will be behind her organic success, and if I happen to be one of her little moments on her way to that, I’m thrilled.

Was anyone questioning such an eclectic mix?

No, Time Inc. has been very good about things; they knew the kind of spirit I have before hiring me, and I think they’d say that’s part of the reason why they hired me. There’s something to be said for the PR value of giving people a go and ownership of these covers—and they end up promoting and pushing out these covers, too. It’s a fabulous army of models, actors, and comedians publicizing us. It’s a weird win.

What are your favorite stories?

The first piece I commissioned for the issue, a while ago, was by [burlesque artist] Dita Von Teese on the topic of ageism. She and I had a drink a few months ago, and she was talking about people saying to her, “Really? You’re 45 years old and you’re still doing this [career-wise]?” “Eff them,” she said. So we did a funny shoot where she’s on her giant martini glass, but dressed in a more “appropriate” way.

There’s also a piece by Katie Couric—I asked her to write about the importance of asking questions, and what that means to someone who’s breaking news in the [political] environment we’re in right now.

Laura Dern wanted to write a letter to her 12-yearold daughter for the issue, which went gangbusters [traffic-wise]. Any mother read it and thought, “I want those things for my daughter, too.” There’s also a great piece by Julie Klausner about not being happy all the time, and how there’s no failure in sometimes feeling like s**t. She has this great line about how when you’re sad, you really get s**t done, which made me laugh.

It’s a much more relatable way to cover famous folks, especially for a magazine steeped in doing intimate celeb content before it was de rigueur.

Having “shiny people” talk about real, grounding problems—depression, eating too much, eating not enough—is so important. Back in the day, the idea of celebrity in InStyle was very cashmere and Malibu.

But the definition of celebrity has changed. With Instagram and models like Kendall, Gigi, and Bella, designers like Marc and Riccardo Tisci, they have become celebrities themselves. There will always be the counterweight and rhythm of the amazing, accomplished actress, like a Nicole Kidman, and a model who’s big on Instagram. I’ve seen celebrities in a lot of incarnations, and I always tell young people to envy no one: Celebrities may have nicer dresses, bigger houses, and more photographs taken of them, but that’s kind of it.

Sounds like your first InStyle September issue was a smashing success.

I don’t want to sound high on my own supply, but I

game changers Fashion Innovators: Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, Opening Ceremony

Since its inception in 2002, Opening Ceremony has been New York’s preeminent purveyor of independent fashion. What began as a relatively obscure shop on Howard Street has become a global powerhouse, churning out ready-to-wear collections and influence with equal aplomb. Fifteen years later, OC’s founders Humberto Leon and Carol Lim remain at the epicenter of cool.

BY PAIGE REDDINGER Back to the very beginning. How did you meet?

Humberto Leon: We know each other from UC Berkeley. I took painting class with Carol’s roommate, Cynthia, who introduced us.

Carol Lim: We shared the same approach, and he was good at convincing me to go out and do things.

You both had impressive careers in fashion before the genesis of OC. How did the store concept come together?

Lim: While Humberto and I were working in NYC, we decided to go to Hong Kong to visit Cynthia. We hadn’t taken a vacation in about two years. When we were there, we went shopping, discovering young designers and amazing brands. We were super inspired and also kind of naïve. A lot of our friends in New York were doing amazing creative things, but there wasn’t an outlet to support them. We thought having a store would allow us to house all that creative energy, travel the world, and pick different countries to feature.

What was your strategy?

Lim: We built the business and the store around how the merchandise performed. We bought merchandise that we thought would last six months, and it lasted three weeks, so we bought more. We called our friends in Hong Kong, the first city we featured, and they were able to make more.

Any favorite memories from those early days?

Lim: Smoking indoors was still okay, so it wasn’t uncommon for friends to stop by and catch up over a cigarette and coffee. We wanted to create an environment where people could look at everything FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

at their own leisure and weren’t pressured to purchase something. We eventually learned that we could connect with customers in a way that was authentic to us, asking them where they lived and what they did.

Who was the first person who you were shocked to see walk in the door?

Lim: Michael Stipe. Carol and I get so excited

“we never felt like a fashion company or a brand; we felt like a town square of culture.” whenever someone we really admire comes in: Cindy Sherman, Leonard Nimoy, Beyoncé, Solange Knowles, Björk. We’ve made some great friends from the store, like Yoko Ono, Spike Jonze, Jason Schwartzman, Claire Danes, Jessica Alba. We never felt like a fashion company or brand; we felt like a town square of culture where dancers, filmmakers, and videographers could come in. Baz Luhrmann was in the store, and I mentioned the anniversary of Romeo + Juliet, one of my favorite films, and suggested we do an exhibition with his memorabilia.

So we did! When Rihanna launched her River Island collection, she asked if she could debut it at our store. We also picked 20 of our favorite outfits of hers throughout the years for a mini exhibition.

How did the Opening Ceremony collection come together?

Leon: We opened the doors with our own brand. We wanted to design the things that would fill in the blanks. Within our first year, all the things we bought and made did really well. Then buyers asked to buy some of the Opening Ceremony stuff. That was so crazy—we never intended for it to be sold outside of our store. We got just enough requests so that we could do it. We started selling to some Japanese stores, then Barneys New York, and slowly but surely, we were in every major place. But we were always very selective—because we had both the retail and our own collection, we were able to decide who we wanted to have ours.

Many of the brands you’ve adopted have found phenomenal success. What’s the secret?

Leon: They’ve all had an authentic and genuine point of view. It’s a feeling you get when you see their collection. When you see consistency, that’s another big plus, meaning they aren’t a one-season wonder.

It’s one thing to show something, but to produce and get the fits right…that’s a whole different ball game.

Which creatives do you find interesting right now?

Leon: Solange, Angela Dimayuga, Rowan Blanchard, Ali Wong, Jessica Williams, Margaret Qualley, and Ashton Sanders are a few people that we love. Rowan, Ali, and Jessica were part of our “Pageant of the People” show. Margaret is an amazing dancer and actress who starred in our first KENZO World perfume campaign film, directed by Spike Jonze. And we just worked on a mini movie with Natasha Lyonne.

You’ve developed some cool alternatives to the typical runway show. When did that begin?

Leon: Our first OC show in 2012 was based on street car gangs in L.A. It was like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, but in real life. We had 25 cars full of models coming out onto the pier, and there was smoke and lights. We both look back and think it was a pretty cool-ass show. For Spring/Summer 2015, we did “100% Lost Cotton,” a one-act play

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written by Jonah Hill. Our “Pageant of the People” show had comedians talking about voting. We got a lot of slack in the early days for doing out-of-the-box shows. People would tell us that the shows were fun, but they couldn’t see the clothes. Our whole point was that you could see the clothes online, and the show was an immersive experience. Ten shows later, it’s kind of the norm.

What does it take to pull off a show like that?

Leon: It’s insane. The craziest part is that Carol and I are doing so much of it ourselves. You would think we had a team of 100 people working on this project.

Was that the most challenging concept?

Leon: They are all difficult in their own sense. For “Pageant of the People,” we were dealing with something touchy, and it could’ve gone really badly.

But the audience had fun, and the message felt right. The ballet took a lot out of us. We weren’t doing the production, but we fought hard for all the elements to be there. The outcome was amazing.

When things seem easy, it’s never easy.

Did you get any slack for showing off-calendar in January with the Justin Peck ballet, The Times Are Racing?

Leon: We somehow get a pass on everything. On one hand, we are a big sponsor and advocate of every New York designer, and on the other, we’ve always been different, so people tend to expect that.

What are your thoughts on the closing of the Colette store in Paris?

Leon: It’s sad for everybody. Colette was a trailblazer in so many ways. To say [Sarah

fashion heaven Thanks to Leon and Lim’s inventive approach to retail, shopping at Opening Ceremony is an immersive, addictive experience of discovery.

Andelman] didn’t have an influence on every retailer would be a joke.

It’s a challenging time for retail. How do you keep Opening Ceremony feeling fresh?

Leon: From the very beginning, we built in a yearly refresh button. When we first started, we were living in the days of cookie-cutter shops, and a lot of people felt like we weren’t being consistent. The refresh button allowed us to rethink what we were doing, what we wanted from the store, what we wanted to buy, what brands we were excited about, how we were going to buy these brands differently, and how we were going to find new brands that no

one has heard about. We’re not afraid to carry a brand that no one has ever heard about. In fact, we thrive on that. Fast-forward 15 years, and it’s the name of the game. The people who haven’t caught on to that are the people who are not allowing retail to thrive.

Is it a challenge to find totally new brands?

Leon: We’ve become an authority on launching new brands. When a brand or designer is thinking about ideas, they’ll come to us first and say, “Hey, I have this idea. I’m excited about it and I want to launch it with you.” We still do a lot of digging, but a lot of people come to us with amazing ideas. ß FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

FEARLESS LEADER CMO OF THE YEAR: SUSAN DUFFY

Six years ago, Susan Duffy decamped from Chanel to join Stuart Weitzman as its chief marketing officer. She has masterfully evolved the brand’s image, positioning it as a multigenerational powerhouse that appeals as much to millennial Gigi Hadid acolytes as it does to their stylish mothers (and grandmothers). Duffy explains what it takes to create a campaign that generates millions of media impressions on launch day, and fills us in on the secrets to her success.

By PAIGE REDDINGER What makes an effective CMO in 2017?

First, you have to surround yourself with the best and the brightest. A strong team that you can trust is key. I want people who will be good partners, who collaborate and challenge me and one another respectfully. I don’t want to hear, “This is how we do it.” I want to hear, “This is how no one else is doing it right now.” As an effective CMO, you have to be a firestarter. You have to create the spark that allows your team to create the heat. And without a match, there is no heat. In the fashion world, learning to deal with change is key. You must keep a long-term focus while being able to pivot. You need the intellectual ability to deal with situations that aren’t in the playbook. Intellectual curiosity, active learning, and the ability to mine a wide network of information in the decision-making process are essential.

How has the role evolved over the course of your career?

Change has become a constant. We are living in a multicultural, global economy that is consuming content 24/7 on a multitude of channels. There’s no such thing as a five-year marketing plan. Strategy is fluid. You have to be extremely agile to survive and thrive. Also, on a personal note, there used to be a concept called “vacation.” Today, we’re living in an “always-on” world.

How do you teach leadership to the members of your team?

Leading by example. Helping each business leader to find the courage to have the tough conversations and mentor their direct reports. It’s about putting in the time with your people. Not every leader is the same, so I try to be a good coach and adapt my communications to inspire each person individually.

Leadership is a combination of many talents, but especially emotional intelligence.

What’s your management style?

My personal motto is, “Be bold. Be brave. Be courageous.

And always be kind.” I live in the moment with an eye to FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

the future, but remember the past so as not to repeat errors. I am very open-minded and am not afraid to ask questions and engage every team member, regardless of their position. My door is always open, and I keep a bowl of chocolate in my office, which encourages everyone to wander in and talk. I’m inclusive; good ideas come from all corners of the room. I strive to create a climate where everyone wants to do their best work while motivating and engaging a variety of personalities. Everyone on my team has a voice, but not necessarily a vote. I want to be challenged and presented with new ideas, concepts, and perspectives.

But I’m not looking for consensus because that doesn’t always lead to creativity or the really big ideas. I also believe in sharing and involving others. I communicate across channels and keep everyone in the loop. I’m very transparent. I’m always honest. I’m not a “yes” person, and I definitely have a point of view. I tend to be unfiltered.

What are your secrets for dealing with the strong personalities that many fashion creatives are so known for?

I use the 24-hour rule. I don’t make rash decisions.

I share my first reaction, but I’m open to listening, and I consider alternative points of view. That being said, I’m fairly relentless. When I believe in an idea or concept, I don’t give up. I have been blessed to work with a management team that trusts my instincts, and I work with really great people. We don’t always agree, but we can agree to disagree and move on. The focus is always on what is best for the brand.

What are your biggest accomplishments as the CMO of Stuart Weitzman?

I am proud of the incredible global marketing team that I have built over the past six years. All my direct reports are friends. We have a lot of fun together. We enjoy being together, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have tough conversations. It actually makes it easier. Together, we have helped to shape a brand with tremendous name recognition that is positioned to

enter new product categories under the leadership of our new creative director, Giovanni Morelli. The best is yet to come!

What qualities do you look for when hiring?

Passion. Pride in past work. I want people who refuse to be average. I look for people who can be groomed to be superstars, and want to be part of a team.

Innate intelligence and creativity are important, but ultimately, it’s about a cultural fit. Will you do the work? Are you left-brained or right-brained? Will you get voted off the island or succeed and contribute in a big way?

And why do you believe in the power of print to communicate a brand’s message?

That’s a leading question! The main question is, where does your consumer want to interact? We have a multigenerational client, and where we communicate depends on the demographic. To get engagement and emotional resonance we need to tell a complete story across every channel—print, social, digital, etc.

Print is an integral part of the marketing mix because it provides undivided attention and a pass-along value.

Fabulous creative can really stand out in print and can help to reinforce a brand identity in an elevated way. And clients actually shop our boutiques with tear sheets of our ads and editorial credits, so we know that print is still effective.

What is the pressure like to create such largescale, highly visible campaigns?

I’m very, very blessed because I have an incredible team. They’re my inner circle: my head of PR, my head of VIP, my head of creative services, and Sarajane Hoare, my stylist and creative consultant.

We are constantly ideating and challenging ourselves to think of the brand in different ways. And quite frankly, fear is a great motivator, so the minute a shoot is finished, I start thinking about what can we possibly do next. We never really allow ourselves to rest on our laurels. It’s a constant challenge as to how do we reveal additional aspects of the brand, not only through these global campaigns, but also through our social media, through videos, and all the brand communication that we’re challenged to create.

What were your social media impressions like for your latest Gigi Hadid campaign?

I happen to have this right in front of me! On launch day, a reach of 27 million was generated across social platforms and broadcast media. We had 21 million Instagram users reached via @gigihadid. She posted twice for us. Then [photographer] Mario [Testino] posted on @mariotestino, generating 1 million Instagram views. We also had a fabulous segment on Access Hollywood that generated 2.7 million impressions.

I guess we don’t need to ask why you love Gigi!

[Laughs] Well, one of the other reasons we love Gigi is that, quite honestly, she has just organically embraced the Stuart Weitzman brand. She wears us both on set and off!

How’s life with Giovanni?

The whole team is so excited. He brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and expertise. His pedigree is just impeccable: He was recently at Loewe, but he also designed “it” bags for Prada and Chloé, and he has also worked with Marc Jacobs. He’s joining us at a really important time: I call us a 31-year-young brand, and he has an incredible respect for the history and DNA. We are really looking forward to seeing him infuse it with his creative vision for the future, and building on the success that we have.

What’s your favorite Weitzman shoe of all time?

That’s like asking me to choose my favorite daughter! ß

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“Good ideaS come from all corners of the room.... everyone on my team has a voice, but not necessarily a vote.�

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ONLINE, REDEFINED MEDIA BRAND OF THE YEAR: Phillip Picardi, TeenVogue.com

Phillip Picardi has utterly transformed TeenVogue.com since becoming digital director at the Condé Nast brand in April 2015. Last March, he started overseeing Allure.com, too, revamping the beauty mag’s site with a similar mix of the woke, politically charged content that’s proven so fruitful for TeenVogue.com. Ahead, Picardi decodes the “healthy diet” of one of Condé Nast’s biggest digital success stories.

BY ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM JESS LAIRD What was your vision for TeenVogue.com when you tackled the director role?

I was 23 when I was coming in for this job, and I was asked, “How do you take TeenVogue.com from 2 million to 10 million unique visitors a month?” The thesis of the presentation I gave to Amy Astley [then Teen Vogue editor in chief] was, “We need to give her more.” We were assuming by omission that our readers weren’t interested in things like politics, or gender and sexuality, or the general news cycle at large. It was important to figure out how we could cover the news in the way that was relevant to young people.

How did you go about doing that?

We mapped out a strategy of launching wellness and then politics sections, and also have the mantras or mission statements of those sections infiltrate our fashion, beauty, and celebrity sections—we needed to have the way we talked about gender reflected across the site. For example, you can’t have a “Who wore it best” story pitting women against each other in fashion coverage, but then talk about the importance of gender equality and women supporting women in politics. We had to make sure the site was tonally consistent.

Did that approach gain traction initially with readers?

With news, it took a lot longer for us to hit our stride and figure out what was working—and it took longer for the audience to understand our new mission. Early on, before we had a features editor on board, I worked on a piece about Freddie Gray and the importance of protest in terms of how we convey emotion, especially against our government. We needed to educate our readers about why people were protesting in the first place, why protests sometimes turn violent, and why we can’t be reductive about how people express themselves. The comments were not very warm or friendly; we stood by our decision FA S H I O N W E E K D A I L Y. C O M

to publish the piece, and we leaned into it even more.

Eventually, the comments turned positive for the most part, and were supportive of our coverage.

Have these types of stories been traffic wins?

I always say it’s all about a healthy diet and perfect balance, so every vertical has played a role in contributing to overall site traffic. Around the election, politics was beating entertainment month over month; since then, entertainment has had some of its best months ever and reclaimed its throne.

Sometimes, it’s beauty. You never really know—it just depends on who published the thing that had the most resonance. A fashion piece called “Dear White Women,” published during Coachella, was one of our best performers ever; wellness has had its moments, too. Before, it was just celebrity, celebrity, celebrity, celebrity.

How have you staffed up?

It hasn’t always been a perfect transition, I will say.

The team has grown a lot since I first started. The implementation of our new style guide—how we talk about topics like gender identity, wellness, suicide— was important, and having one copy and research person looking at every single story initially was key to tonal consistency. But it was also about hiring people already familiar with, and sensitive to, talking about those things. A lot of new hires didn’t come from traditional women’s magazine backgrounds: our social media editor came from Gawker, our deputy editor came from Yahoo Health, our wellness editor came from Vice, our politics editor came from The New York Times. They don’t have this expectation about what we “should” be doing.

Was it a hard sell for any hires you were courting?

It was so challenging. Especially with wellness and politics, it was hard to get people to understand.

I used to talk to editors or freelancers we were recruiting on the phone to sell them on the new

mission—especially more established, progressive voices, who were unsure they could trust their work with us. The response now whenever we post about a job opening—and the number of résumés I get in my in-box every single day—is so overwhelming. When I first started, it was the opposite.

Any talents in particular that have really shaped the new TeenVogue.com?

The impact that our wellness editor, Vera Papisova, has had on the website is immeasurable. She’s been recognized by the Institute on Reproductive Health, local and national chapters of Planned Parenthood, [PP President] Cecile Richards herself. Our news and politics editor, Alli Maloney, came over earlier this year from [The New York Times] Women in the World, so a lot of her work has been about refining our coverage, producing fewer stories, but making more of an impact with the things we do cover.

Have you gotten negative feedback for tackling weightier topics?

Oh, yeah, it was expected. I’ve been hearing that since I started this job. There’s an inherently sexist predisposition for people to not trust or believe in teenage girls. As employees of a teen publication, we’re well aware of the stigmas surrounding teenage girls, but we work here because we believe in them.

What’s your growth strategy for TeenVogue.com, and how has it shifted?

Corporate sets our goals, but when I first started, it was really about production: mass quantity, how we could build an audience by producing more and more posts. Growth was first and foremost for us; we needed to grow, and fast. But I certainly wasn’t expecting our growth to happen so fast, and I don’t think our friends in corporate were expecting that, either. The goal of growing from 2 to 10 million uniques didn’t have a set timeline; it was a pie-inthe-sky thing, and it ended up happening really quickly. This year has been more about pivoting away from producing so much and focusing on what we’re passionate about. We’ve scaled way back on production numbers, and then we’ve scaled back up again, based on how our numbers are doing, but we’re at a good place now.

Are you concerned about devolving into clickbait?

We use a Slack [group messaging platform] channel, so every story has to get a hed and dek approved before it goes live; there’s peer editing, so it’s not just me and the deputies approving. If someone suggests a super clickbait-y hed, usually another editor will say, “Come on, we’re not doing that!” The [staffers] don’t want to be the types of writers or editors associated with clickbait.

Has the demographic changed since you’ve been helming TeenVogue.com?

The median age on our site is 18, according to internal analytics, and that’s definitely older than when I started, when it was mid-teens. So, 18–24 is our sweet spot now, which is a definite shift. I think it’s because of the depth we bring to a lot of topics.

How have you revamped Allure.com?

I had a similar philosophy for Allure.com—to address that it was maybe reaching a singular consumer, and had a singular point of view. So we wanted to remove anything prescriptive or corrective in terms of how we talk about beauty, and we needed to staff accordingly. We made great hires, like Sam Escobar, Sable Yong, and Hayley MacMillen. We recently made the decision to ban the phrase “anti-aging” from the lexicon. It was a digital-led initiative, unveiled in the September issue with Helen Mirren on the cover.

The Allure.com and TeenVogue.com teams sit right next to each other, and having the social media and

audience development teams working so closely has been awesome; there are a lot of shared insights.

What was your biggest takeaway from your Refinery29 stint?

I met Mikki Halpin [now Lenny Letter’s editor at large] while I was at Refinery29, and she’s my mentor and often my compass in forming content and making editorial decisions. Meeting Mikki changed my life; her approach to media and creating content changed everything I’d been taught. A lot of the strategy here closely mirrors what Mikki’s done her entire career, and that’s not an accident. Mikki is all about fighting the man, so she’s about digging in and not backing down. At certain moments in my career, I’ve gotten spooked and let controversy get to me, and Mikki is always the first person I can rely on.

Do you ever get fatigued by the pace of digital media?

Who doesn’t? It’s my biggest concern for my employees. Working in digital is exhausting. My boyfriend is a doctor, and he says, “You work more than I do!” We’re all going to have to come to a reckoning point about what’s expected of digital talent, and how we nurture and foster it. There’s an expectation that an editor can write eight stories a day. It can be totally normal for a year or two, but then it stops happening. It’s not our simple, 150-word news piece about what a celebrity did that moves to the top in terms of traffic or brand image anymore; it’s almost always a piece we’ve spent tender loving care on. Having two years of data to prove we can grow with quality content, we’re more comfortable taking risks and allocating resources toward feature pieces. Expectations and quality of life can both be high.

How have you implemented that?

We have an awesome summer Friday program—half the team gets the day off each Friday. We’re flexible with working from home or coming in late if you need to get up your first story.

That’s eased the pressure a bit.

How do you wind down or shut off from the consuming digital landscape?

At the beginning of the summer, there was definitely an element of burnout.

I had to make rules for myself: on the weekends I turn off Slack, and if employees text me, I don’t respond right away. My boyfriend wants us to sleep with our phones outside the bedroom, but I don’t think I’d ever get there. [Laughs] I’ve also been traveling a lot more, and saying yes to more opportunities, for both work and pleasure. ß

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Greetings to our 2017 Fashion Media Awards emcee! Is this a new type of gig for you?

I’m excited. It’s going to be so much fun. I’ve never emceed on my own, but I did host Miss Universe with Steve Harvey.

Hopefully that was good training!

Not hopefully! I’m cut out for the job. I’ve been on TV so much. I love having conversations with people, and any time you are onstage, nobody wants to be talked at, they want to be talked with. Fashion people can be a tough crowd sometimes. It will be interesting to talk to some of my idols out there.

I’ll be sweating bullets. Holy crap!

I’m going to look them in the eye and ask them, “Why haven’t you booked me yet?” It will be the perfect opportunity! [Laughs] Where did you find this confidence? When you were younger, did you do school plays?

I did, but I was never cast as the lead. I wasn’t as boisterous as I am now. I played C-3PO in a Star Wars play in middle school. I was really good in speech, too. I was thrown into the modeling industry at age 12, and I wore a see-through bra on my first job. If that doesn’t jolt you into finding confidence, I don’t know what does.

What was your dream theater role?

I saw Cats on Broadway when I was a teenager, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to be in it. They are so sexy, and I’m a cat person!

Thanks to Instagram, we know that you spent part of the summer in Bali. What brought you there?

I went for an event for The Mulia

AMERICAN IDOL FMA EMCEE: ASHLEY GRAHAM

Ashley Graham is now officially idolized by every woman—and man!—who has ever experienced her positive energy and overall gorgeousness. No wonder we’ve succumbed to her charms.

By EDDIE ROCHE PHOTOGRAPHY BY cass bird

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into a woman, got into the fashion industry, and what it was like to be a fat girl in a skinny world. I was open about my relationship with food, and the highs and lows of that. I also talk about my husband [Justin Ervin] and how we waited until we were married to have sex. I talk money. I knew I had to be honest and open, otherwise my fans would know I’m leaving stuff out or bulls**tting them.

Why did you and your husband wait until you were married to have sex?

I wasn’t a virgin—I dated half of New York City before I met him. But I knew he was the one. He was just different. After a bad relationship, I had to find my womanhood and power again. I was raised very Christian, and I thought, “Let me just try this!” And boom—it worked! I dated a few guys and told them I wasn’t having sex with them, and they were like, “What?” and it didn’t last. Justin lasted.

What kind of feedback did you get from the book tour?

Oh, my God. I had women crying in my arms. If you are my age and care about what you look like in the morning or what you want to wear, you have never had an icon to look up to. Now we have bloggers, actresses, models, and others who are embracing their cellulite and their bulge. If we would have had those when we were younger, I would have looked at my body in a different way.

How did all that admiration feel?

It was incredible, but I knew why they were crying. The book was a big therapy session for me.

What did the American Vogue cover mean to you?

I had no idea that Sports Illustrated was going to happen, but I freaked out with the Vogue cover. The shoot was so relaxing.

Inez & Vinoodh are a great couple, and so easy breezy. All the models were all great, too.

Obviously!

Your recent New York magazine cover for the fall fashion issue was major. Discuss!

It felt so obvious to do a retro Dolce & Gabbana look and throw a Marilyn Monroe wig on me, but nobody had done it. It was fantastic!

You’re turning 30 next month. How are you feeling about that?

Excited! I’m walking into my thirties feeling really successful and doing what I’m supposed to be doing. ß

getty images (1); all others courtesy

hotel in Bali, and I took my mom along with me.

She usually tags along on my work trips, and I thought it would be nice to vacation together. She’s never traveled that far across the world. We did everything—we went to a monkey sanctuary where the monkeys climb on you and eat out of your hand, we went to rice fields, we ate traditional Balinese food. We were obnoxious tourists who drank piña coladas on the beach!

Did the monkeys freak you out?

Yes! The monkeys are ridiculous. You’re not supposed to look them in the eye, show them your teeth, or wiggle anything in front of them, because they find it very aggressive and offensive. Of course, I felt the need to put them on social media! I tried to get a Boomerang [looping Instagram video], and the next thing you know, the monkey lashed out at me, screamed, and nipped my fingers. But I got the best Boomerang ever.

What are your plans for New York Fashion Week?

We’re having a runway show on September 11 of my lingerie line, and this is my third time. We’re in Macy’s, Nordstrom, all over Europe, and in Australia.

I’ll be walking and showing off the latest collection.

What will the collection look like?

The Essentials are what every girl needs in her closet. My motto is a great outfit starts with a great bra. I’m excited because there are all different kinds of body shapes walking [the runway].

What are the conversations like to get the models to wear lingerie?

It’s really hard. Some of the newer girls have never, ever walked in a show. When they are in casting, I give them direction, and you can see the girls are very hungry and want it. But they aren’t given the opportunity to walk in runway shows often. I can’t even say I’ve walked in a lot of runway shows. It’s about finding girls who fit it perfectly, have the confidence that we’re looking for, but also walk confidently. That’s a really big part of the show.

You walked in the Michael Kors show in February. What was it like?

It was phenomenal. I still thank Michael every time I see him, and then we sing Broadway together, because we’re both Broadway fans. He’s so awesome.

What have been the highlights of the year for you so far?

I was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people! My book, A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like, came out, and that was phenomenal. I just approved the paperback cover and that should be out soon.

You can also get it at audible.com.

What’s the genesis of the book?

It’s a memoir. I’m 29, but I have a lot to say. I talk about what life was like being raised by a mom and dad who both loved me but had different ideas of what it was like to raise a young woman in this world. I talk about being diagnosed with dyslexia and ADD, and some of the highs and lows of having an ultra-curvy body at a young age, and what my relationship with men was like. It’s about how I grew

[We read them so you don’t have to!]

The increasingly detailed and specific signifiers of the burgeoning tribes of the new economy blow up the idea of a single reigning aesthetic, effectively eliminating the tyranny of “in” and “out” lists.

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In almost 25 years of working in magazines, I’ve seen and done a lot. But I’ve really never been affected outright by sexism in the workplace.

Sure, an offhand comment here or there, maybe one inappropriate hand on my knee.

We’re not much given to looking backward, reasoning that life only goes in one direction— forward—and therefore, so should we.

I am a Jewish girl from the East Coast, but in my twenties I dated a Presbyterian minister from rural Ohio. Whenever I visited him, I stayed with a lovely family on a dairy farm (there was no shacking up in the manse, people), which is how I came to find myself in a barn delivering a calf one morning at 5 a.m.—although that is a story for another column.

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After seeing the painstaking care, skill, and frankly, love that went into each engraving, I thought not about how much the results might cost but about the fact that they should really cost more.

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B. STELLENE VOLANDES TOWN & COUNTRY

C. ROBBIE MYERS ELLE

Israel introduced Eli to Bill and Maria Bell, two of the most important art patrons in the country, and, just like that, the couple’s Tadao Ando– designed home overlooking the Pacific Ocean became the setting for a futuristic tale in which a hominoid explorer is sent back to post-apocalpyptic Earth in search of artistic treasures.

But my favorite moment of the night came when Reese Witherspoon introduced me to her husband, Jim Toth, as “the woman who put me on the Empire State Building.”

A. GLENDA BAILEY

HARPER’S BAZAAR

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D. ANNA WINTOUR VOGUE

E. STEFANO TONCHI W

F. ANNE FULENWIDER MARIE CLAIRE

G. CINDI LEIVE GLAMOUR

ge t t y i m ages ( 6 ) ; s h u t t ers t o c k ( 5 ) ; p a t r i c k m c m u l l an . c o m ( 2 )

MATCH THE ED TO THE letter

THE editors

ANSWERS: 1. C; 2. F; 3. B; 4. E; 5. D; 6. G; 7. A

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