fashionologie

fashionologie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:10:53 -0700

>> Comings and Goings: Layoffs at W, Julia Frakes Signed at Next -W editorial director Patrick McCarthy vowed that the magazine wouldn't be cutting its twelve-month run in half, but the same doesn't go for his staff: features director James Reginato, who has been working with W since the early nineties, has left the magazine; more layoffs are expected next week. Next Model Management, meanwhile, is starting to carve out a fashion blogger portfolio - they signed Fashion Toast's Rumi Neely to their LA branch in April, and just announced representation of BunnyBISOUS's Julia Frakes in New York. [FWD, Next]

Candy Pratts Price Laid Off at Style.com; More Conde Cuts Coming Today

fashionologie — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:42:34 -0700

>> It's been almost two weeks of rolling layoffs at Conde Nast - including at Vogue and W - which have mostly been done without releasing names, but now comes news that Style.com has let go two contributors: executive fashion director Candy Pratts Price, who Anna Wintour last year dubbed "Queen of the Internet," and senior features editor Laird Borrelli-Persson.

Pratts Price's Style.com contract will not be renewed after it ends in Spring 2010, though she will remain listed as a contributing editor at Vogue, where she is rumored to have spent as much time as she did at Style.com's offices. She will likely make the magazine and its counterpart her primary outlet after her Style.com contract ends; Borrelli-Persson, meanwhile, is expected to remain at Style.com through the end of the year. The layoffs may have to do with Style.com being folded into the new-and-improved Vogue.com, although there has been no confirmation of that possibility.

Unfortunately, these cuts aren't the last at Conde Nast - word is, more are coming today.

fashionologie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:13:13 -0700

>> W, Vogue Budget Cut Updates -Although it was rumored last week that W might be going bimonthly, the magazine's chairman and editorial director Patrick McCarthy says the cut in frequency won't be happening. Vogue, however, has supposedly started undergoing staffing cuts - on the business side. [The Cut, @FashionInformer]

fashionologie — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:08:11 -0700

>> W to Downsize Number of Yearly Issues? - News on how Teen Vogue, Vogue, and W are cutting their 2010 budgets by the required 25 percent was expected as early as tomorrow, but stylist Mary Alice Stephenson gives us one hint on what may be going down at W: "Oh no....hearing one of my favorite fashion bibles W is only going to come out 6 issues a year! Hope not true!!" [@MARYALICESTYLE]

Teen Vogue Said to Be Making 25 Percent Budget Cuts, Some Editors Already Moving On

fashionologie — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:14:32 -0700

>> McKinsey is in its second-to-last week of its three-month examination of the workings of Conde Nast, and the New York Observer reports that in the last few days, Conde executives, under the direction of McKinsey, asked a number of magazines - of which Teen Vogue is believed to be among - to cut their budget next year by roughly 25 percent. It's unclear if Vogue or W will be similarly instructed.

According to sources, top brass is not being specific about how the cuts should be made, but potential options could be diminishing expenses, doing away with freelance, reducing magazine frequency, or layoffs. Conde CEO Chuck Townsend told the Observer a few weeks ago: “I can boil what I say to editors and publishers down to the simplest statement in the world and that is: You, not me, you have a responsibility to run this business in a responsible way. It’s your responsibility. I want to see your proposal of how you’re going to do it.”

Is folding a possibility? »

David Bailey Joins Katie Grand, Peter Lindbergh in Reaction Against Airbrushing

fashionologie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:27:25 -0700

>> Last year, there was a huge push for more diversity in fashion, culminating in the publication of Vogue Italia's all-black July 2008 issue. Unfortunately, attention on that issue has waned this year, even though there is still much work to be done; now, the issue du jour seems to be what has become a common practice among fashion magazines: heavy retouching.

Katie Grand, who while at POP was a huge proponent of the "super glossy" look, has since reigned in her reliance on Photoshop. Of her first issue of LOVE, which came out in February, Katie told Interview, "It's not so retouched. I just wanted to take pictures of iconic people without redrawing them." And she's continuing the tradition for her second issue, out Sept. 1 - she had Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott (whose aesthetic generally lends itself to a good bit of retouching) photograph cover girl Coco Sumner as she walked in off the street, no hair or makeup. The Times UK wrote of that decision: "She is shrewdly tapping into the new spirit of the times - heavily airbrushed celebrities seem gauche and embarrassing during a recession."

David Bailey: "It’s f*cking ridiculous" »

fashionologie — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:41:47 -0700

>> Vogue Runs Editorial in September 2009 Issue Strikingly Similar to August 2007 W Editorial -Vogue's September 2009 issue boasts an editorial called "Into the Woods," photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott; curiously enough, an editorial that ran in the August 2007 issue of W - by the same photographers - has a similar concept and the same name. Both editorials feature autumnal leafy backgrounds and the models - Natalia Vodianova for Vogue (right), Doutzen Kroes for W (left) - strike similar poses. [Fashionista, Comme Artiste]

Miuccia Prada: "'Commercial' Shouldn't Be an Insult"

fashionologie — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:17:56 -0700

>> Bold as she is in the designing arena, Miuccia Prada is less than forthcoming in other areas - she won't speak her sons' names on the record, despite the fact that she'll talk about their political leanings, and she won't publicly admit to admiring any designers - “I’ve said before but not now" - or well-dressed celebrities. W grills Miuccia about all this and more - including a potentially incriminating photo of her husband and Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli which has set off gossip - in their September 2009 issue.

She's not letting the economic crisis affect her.

“The only difference that I noticed is that you have to be more and more yourself. What is really selling is what is really Prada. You can’t do some generic bullsh*t.”

Same goes for those pictures of her husband, who she calls "Bertelli," looking cozy in the subway with a blond woman.

“Gossip - gossip is everywhere, so what do you do? Of course, I pay attention, but after, what do you do? Nothing.”

She likes Marc Jacobs »

fashionologie — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:59:44 -0700

>> Kate Moss Is Sweeping the September 2009 Covers -We've known that Kate Moss is getting the September 2009 W cover - preview, by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, at left - for a while, but she's surprised us with at least a couple of other major September covers (and you never know, maybe more are on the way). Her Vogue UK cover came out last week, and now comes the news that she has the Vogue Russia cover as well, although no preview is available yet. The take-away message? Editors still feel that Kate sells, and are willing to put her on their biggest issues of the year. [TFS]

fashionologie — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:49:59 -0700

>> Linda Evangelista Recreates Religious Procession in New York, Supposedly for W -Yesterday, Linda Evangelista was captured in the midst of a religious-themed photoshoot in SoHo thought to be for W magazine. She stood on a stage, arms out and palms up, as a flock of men dressed in black feigned appearing to carry her. [Daily Mail, Socialite Life]

UPDATE: The shoot was styled by Camilla Nickerson and is for the W's November 2009 Art issue. [Ellen Christine Millinery]

*image: Wenn.com