Creativity & Commerce by Justine Picardie

Left ► The McLaren P1. The company's ethos is 'nothing without reason' – an iteration of the classic idiom – 'form follows function'.

Justine Picardie

Justine Picardie is editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country. She was formerly a journalist for the Sunday Times, features director of Vogue, editor of The Observer magazine and a columnist for The Telegraph. She is the author of six books, including her critically acclaimed memoir If the Spirit Moves You, and her Sunday Times bestselling biography Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life.

The ‘C’ Word

by Justine Picardie

Creativity & Commerce

If you are taking the time to read this, and continue to do so – which I very much hope is the case – then we are already creating something together. For every writer needs a reader, and in the act of reading a story may take on a life of its own. There’s a lot of talk in the luxury sector nowadays about the power of storytelling to build a brand; and naturally, that’s something I’m pleased to hear. But as I’m sure you already know, storytelling is an integral part of what makes us human, and has been for thousands of years; the sharing of experiences, in order to shape the narrative of our lives, whether through prehistoric cave paintings, or the epic poems of ancient Mesopotamia, carved onto clay tablets.

This might seem embarrassingly obvious, but it sometimes surprises me when bureaucrats ignore our innate creativity, and seek answers in algorithms instead. It’s not that I’m a technophobe about the digital revolution – I am aware of its myriad possibilities and benefits – yet the extraordinary power of the imagination continues to inspire and delight me. I am privileged to work with a brilliant editorial team whose originality shapes Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country in ever-evolving ways; and it is our conversations with each other, and with our contributors and readers, that are at the heart of what makes these magazines so distinctive. Both titles are possessed of magnificent literary and artistic legacies – Bazaar has published stories by a dazzling array of writers including Virginia Woolf and Nancy Mitford, and commissioned Man Ray, Marc Chagall and Andy Warhol, among others; while Town & Country has an equally distinguished heritage, introducing Evelyn Waugh’s first version of Brideshead Revisited, alongside trailblazing illustrators. We continue in this great tradition today, with new work by brilliant contemporary authors (Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters) and covers by world-class artists (from Tracey Emin to Yayoi Kusama).