11 April, 2012

On Carine Roitfeld’s new magazine, Hearst’s YouTube channel and the future of fashion magazines

My take on The Future Of Fashion Magazines is generally that the collectable bi-annuals will continue and the commercial monthlies will eventually migrate to online-only. My Self Service magazines with their endless photo-editorials and long-form interviews have stood the test of time because they’re not topical (there’s no news or celeb interviews promoting their latest film-slash-beauty contracts), so the content is more ‘pure’. All the attention right now is on Carine Roitfeld’s forthcoming ‘fashion book’, CR Fashion Book (which is really a bi-annual magazine) and from this WWD article, the format looks to follow my theory. Only spreads and long form articles will be featured while the gaps between the twice yearly issued will be filled with more immediate, newsy online content.

Obviously, this switch won’t happen overnight. There’s still a huge market for print mags (evidenced by my own monthly tower of glossies), but the generation in its early teens now most likely won’t have the nostalgic connections to print magazines as we know them, so won’t continue to buy the Glamours and Grazias as we do.

And there’s another big development in magazines coming very soon indeed. Hearst’s tie-up with Youtube, a fashion channel called Hello Style launches on Saturday. I imagine these weekly digital TV shows from the likes of US Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan will have far reaching implications for the editorial industry as we know it, so I’ll be watching closely. Will you?

Disneyrollergirl 1 Comment Business of fashion, Magazines, News, Technology Carine Roitfeld, fashion TV, Harper's Bazaar, Hearst, magazines, Youtube

6 March, 2010

Equipment: The ultimate boyfriend shirt part II

Back in November, following a month of press days, I posted this story on Equipment, the classic shirt line originated by Christian ‘partner of Carine’ Roitfeld. I had spotted the relaunched line during my rounds and thought nothing of sharing the few pictures I had taken. Unbeknown to me, my story was linked via a few different blogs including Fashionologie.

A couple of weeks later, the PR emailed me to say that my post had caused her problems as the Equipment relaunch story had been promised as an exclusive to a major international publication in March. I could have been uncooperative but the PR was so nice and apologetic that I was happy to comply and took the post down. Yesterday, I bought March US Vogue and there was the story. Whoops, sorry Anna!

Now the story is ‘out there’ I have been given the green light to put the post back up. The update is that when Carine Roitfeld took the Paris Vogue job, Christian Roitfeld decided to step down from Equipment. But fast forward a few years and his good friend Serge Azria has decided to relaunch it. Serge (brother of Max) also owns Current/Elliot and JOIE so has excellent credentials. Restoin remains connected to the brand which is jolly handy considering he still has all 3,500 original Equipment designs in his archive. According to Vogue, the ‘just shirts’ essence of the brand will stay the same but there are plans for more directional things too.

Disneyrollergirl 7 Comments Brands, Business of fashion, Design, Designers, News, Trends Business of Fashion, Carine Roitfeld, Equipment, magazines, trends

12 November, 2009

Equipment: The ultimate boyfriend shirt

There are boyfriend shirts and there are boyfriend shirts. On the one hand, you get the girl who throws on her boyfriend’s old Gap plaid shirt, half-tucked into her Current Elliots, with sleeves rolled up for Sunday afternoon slouching. On the other you have Carine Roitfeld.

The editor of French Vogue brings a whole new meaning to boyfriend shirt as she can literally wear her boyfriend’s shirts. Her boyfriend is Christian Restoin, the original creator of Equipment shirts (trademark style – loose cut, soft fabric, patch pockets) and soon we can wear Carine’s boyfriend’s shirts too as Equipment has now been relaunched for SS10.

Here’s a sneak peak of what to expect…

Equipment sheer blue leopard-print