Books

How to become a fashion editor part 2




In 2008 I published one of my most popular blog posts ever, How To Become a Fashion Editor. It was a no holds barred guide to making it on the magazine intern circuit, inspired by my years as a magazine fashion editor. To this day, I still get comments on it and only yesterday someone tweeted me to say it was the best advice they had read. As it’s coming up to school-leaving/graduation time, I thought it was a good time to revisit some of the advice.

But wait! You can do better than read a solitary blog post, the Teen Vogue Handbook has just been published! I was very excited to be invited to the launch (yep, I still buy Teen Vogue religiously every month, even though I’m more than double the median reader age. And?). Held at the Marc by Marc Jacobs shop, it was wall-to-wall under-16s with a few grown ups of the Katie Hillier, Venetia Scott, Pixie Geldof variety thrown in. No alcohol but plenty of cupcakes and Percy Pigs.

But back to the book. The Teen Vogue Handbook – An Insider’s Guide to Careers in Fashion really is the handbook to end them all. It has sections on photography, styling, design, journalism, modelling, beauty – the lot. And it’s packed full of case studies and Q & As with the best of the best in fashion – can I interest you in Rodarte, Stella McCartney, Bruce Weber, Pat McGrath? How about Anna Wintour? As if the words of wisdom aren’t enough, the pages are then brought to life with the upbeat editorials we all know and love from Teen Vogue, as well as product-heavy still life ‘tool kit’ pages (hey, a budding editor is nothing without her Smythson notebook).





This really is a very thorough and beautiful handbook for anyone wanting to get on the first rung in fashion. But it’s even a must-buy for those already in the job. After all, lesson number one is: you never stop learning…

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Take Ivy




Attention preppie obsessives. That once-elusive bible of all things collegiate is finally, finally about to be reissued. Yes, I’m talking of Take Ivy, the holy grail of sixties menswear eye candy by Japanese photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida and co-authors Kensuke Ishizu, Toshiyuki Kurosu and Moto Hasegawa. Long out of print, Powerhouse Books is reissuing the title in the US in August and in the UK in October for a reasonable £17.99 ($25).

To whet your appetite, check out these few photos on A Continuous Lean, or if you’re a real cheapskate, check out these scans of the entire book.




As if that isn’t good enough news for those who favour a button-down shirt, ankle-grazing chino and Bass Weejun loafer, Rugby.com reports that The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology will be hosting an exhibition on the Ivy League look in 2012. Looks like preppie-chic is set to run and run…

[Pics: A Continuous Lean, The Trad]

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Space Oddity



Did anyone else watch Monday night’s spectacular space documentary For All Mankind on BBC4? The 1989 documentary told the story of Apollo 11 and showed some breathtaking footage of the lunar landing. I find myself inexplicably fascinated by imagery of space and astronauts, especially photography. (more…)

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Sketch and skates




Last week I had tea at Sketch with Sketchbook magazine – how apt. During the course of the chat, we discussed my obsession with rollerskates and tried to unravel its origins. I’ve never really thought about it but as we’d earlier been discussing my favorite novel, The Catcher in the Rye, I made the connection with a reference to rollerskates in the book*. And then – spooky – I stumbled upon these old-school skates on the Liberty’s menswear floor that evening. Very Holden-does-rollerdisco, no?

*On the other hand, it could simply have been this ‘seminal’ video…

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