Editors leave magazines to launch fashion brands

When Lauren Chan joined Glamor as a fashion writer in 2015, she was thrilled to be able to write feature stories and attend market meetings. After three years at the magazine, she has worked her way up to being a fashion feature editor, but beneath the layers of her dream job lies an ominous truth.

“I’m surrounded by life-size straight peers who can actually wear the designer outfits we all report on,” she said. Frustrated by the growing lack of upscale plus size clothing options, Chan decided to leave Glamor at the end of 2017 to launch Henning, a plus size clothing line of stylish staples that includes oversized blazers, slinky slip skirts, and soft knit bodycon dresses. (Prices are in the contemporary range: cashmere jumpers $249, leggings $269.)

At the time, Glossier founder Emily Weiss was well on her way to transforming her editorial background into a billion-dollar beauty brand, but the number of editors leaving publishing to design clothing or beauty products remained negligible. (Betsey Johnson and Vera Wang, who hold editorial degrees at Mademoiselle and Vogue, respectively, are notable exceptions.) An investor once told Chan that he was learning to build airplanes at the same time he flew them.

But the trickle of journalists and editors leaving the industry to form their own brands has now become a steady stream. The same year Chan launched Henning, former British Vogue editor Lucinda Chambers co-founded the colorful and eccentric Colville Official with former design director Marni Molly Molloy. In the last two years, Coveteur co-founder Erin Kleinberg debuted Sidia, a line of work-from-home-friendly caftans; Canadian fashion journalist Anya Georgijevic introduces Anushka Studio’s luxury “slow fashion” line, and former Vogue writer/editor Jane Herman releases the jumpsuit brand The Only Jane. This summer, Isabel Wilkinson, former digital director of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, launched Attersee, a relaxed line of elegant basics that resembles a slightly simpler version of The Row, and Kristen Bateman, a fashion journalist for Vogue and New The York Times, introduces Dollchunk, a cute plastic jewelery line.

“When you are an editor and an entrepreneur, you are in this constant phase of market research,” says Kleinberg. “Editors are really like investigative journalists who are able to identify what’s missing in the zeitgeist. It’s their job to listen to feedback, explore what readers want, what they don’t want.”

After leaving The Coveteur, he went on to establish the brand agency Métier Creative, which counts Ouai Haircare, Playboy, and Disney among its clients. With Sidia, Kleinberg fully intends to create a modern global heritage brand — his role models are Canadian megabrands Canada Goose, Lululemon and Mejuri. Initial sales paint a promising picture. All of Sidia’s major product launches were sold out within a week, and customer returns were up to 40 percent. “It’s about creating a legacy,” he said.

Fashion journalism has a much stronger visual component than other beats, so it’s perhaps not surprising that many of its practitioners have other forms of creativity that require different channels to express. As editor at T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Wilkinson’s greatest joy involves sharing stories that take readers into different worlds. “At Attersee, it’s a very similar idea, although the medium is different,” he said.

There is also the matter of building a business. The once-glamorous publishing industry has undoubtedly lost its luster and relatively small salaries, once backed by perks like car service and clothing budgets, have remained flat for decades.

Starting a brand offers an opportunity to not only earn more from a previous career but also to regain social capital. “There is a certain sexiness and allure that comes with being the founder of a successful start-up,” says Susanna Kislenko, a researcher at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. “We give the founders a higher status in society as a whole. On the one hand, it makes sense to me that people who are experts at crafting stories and narratives would be interested in creating an outward-facing brand.”

Already having a public facing career can be a huge advantage when it comes to brand building. Many of these journalists have a built-in audience that they can turn into subscribers. “Literally 100 percent of my sales come directly from my Instagram and TikTok, where I build a following based on my work,” says Bateman. Chan agrees that his time as an editor gives him the credibility he needs to build a brand. “Our first customers are people who have read my page on Glamor. I would say that the success of this business is largely based on the fact that I had the opportunity to be a public-facing fashion editor whose content focuses on plus-size fashion.”

While risking one’s public platform to become a successful brand may be the balm for low salaries in publishing, it’s a risk for those who don’t have the family money to back the venture. “I tried to get comfortable with the idea of ​​being in the red,” Kleinberg said. “Running a business in the past, I have always focused on profitability, but the whole idea [with Sidia] is to grow and develop.” Georgijevic, who is self-funded, made back 80 percent of his initial investment after releasing his first collection and expects to break even next year.

There may not be a single factor that drives editors to put down a red pen and pick up pink scissors, but it helps that the barriers to entry for starting an apparel company have never been lower. “You can hire someone who is very talented in digital marketing and create your customer base that way,” says Chan. “Much easier to get started.”

Fashion itself has also become fragmented to the point where the grand and overarching trends that once shaped the way people dress have been replaced by micro-trends (low pants) and specialized aesthetic subcultures (“cottagecore”). Even the smallest brands can succeed if they can connect with an audience that values ​​them. And the more niche a brand is, the more loyal its customers will be.

As saturated as the market is, there always seems to be room for something more.

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