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Category Archives: W Magazine
Five Minutes With Scent Artist Jo Malone
Five years after leaving her eponymous fragrance brand in the hands of Estée Lauder, Jo Malone is back with another venture every bit as beguiling as her first. Grace Timothy chats with the perfumer about her second run at the sweet smell of success.
How did starting Jo Loves compare with Jo Malone’s early days?
The only thing that’s similar is how my decisions revolve around my gut instinct and the relationships I form. So although a lot of the [retail] enquiries come from people who have seen us do it once before, I don’t want to just follow the same vein again—I want to do it differently. After all, it’s a different world now.
What was your ambition upon leaving Jo Malone?
I had fought cancer and was terrified of it coming back, so I wanted to spend my time with my family and my son. I opened the Madison Avenue store just eight weeks after getting the all-clear, and I remember thinking, I don’t belong here anymore. But as time went on I realized I had to pick up my life again. I was still thinking about fragrance every day, creating notes in my head. Creative people need to be around creative things—I felt such sadness without that.
Did you consider changes industries?
I just couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Creating fragrance is the thing that makes me feel fulfilled as a human being. I have a very bad form of dyslexia so writing is difficult—fragrance is my way of communicating. Every color, emotion and memory always goes back to a note.
What happens when a new idea for a fragrance pops into your head. How do you lock it down?
I sit on my own, play, and think. This morning, I’ve been working on a really different and unique project, which started with a walk around the park. I had walked past some Mahonia [a flowering shrub] and just stood there smelling it. Now I’m trying to pin it down—it’s like putting your foot on your car’s accelerator, you need that moment of bite. Like Goldilocks and The Three Bears, it’s got to be just right. That could take five minutes or five years! I guess I’m still a perfectionist.
The Jo Loves iPhone app encourages others to share their favorite scents in pictures. What do you especially love about the app?
I love the woman who said her favorite smell was her grandson, who was born the day before. To get people to share something emotional, a memory, is such a precious thing. There’s such a wonderful array of color when you look at the moodboards, too—whether it’s bacon, a pair of shoes, a glass of wine on a shelf. I always think up the stories behind the scents. I can smell dinner cooking in the background, sense the rain coming, think of who was in the other room, why it’s such a treasured memory. I’ve always worked on my own – it’s a personal thing – so this is the first time I’ve ever reached out and tapped into other people’s thoughts. It’s been humbling and magical.
Which upcoming project excites you most?
I’m approaching fragrance in three very different ways this year. The candles will come at the end of the year, and the summer will see a new fragrance that I’m working on right now. Then I’m branching out into food. Each new launch will be about taking something, twisting it, and looking at it in a different way.
5 Creative Ways To Wrap Your Magazine Gift Subscription
Magazine subscription makes great gifts but can be a hard to present to the recipient. But not with these five ideas for cleverly unveiling your gift.
Magazine subscriptions can be one of the toughest gifts to physically present. What exactly do you wrap? You can’t put an email under the tree, but here are five creative ways to present your gift subscription so you still have something to stuff in the stocking or place beneath the pine this year.
1. Show off your style. Use a stylish scarf and a copy of the magazine from your local newsstand. Roll the magazine with the cover facing out, and tie it with the scarf. You can also wrap the rolled scarf and magazine in a wine-bottle gift bag with tissue paper.
2. Stuff a tiny stocking. Pick up a miniature stocking in the Christmas wrapping section at your local discount or gifts store. Print the magazine cover from Magazines.com and attach the image to card stock, trimmed to fit into the stocking. You can always write a thoughtful note announcing your gift on the back of the card.
3. Fits like a glove. Buy a pair of garden or work gloves and some small tools like garden shears, weeding tools, a screwdriver, etc. Then pick up a copy of the magazine you’ve given at your local magazine newsstand. Place the tools together in one glove and roll up the magazine in the other. Use the gloves as the gift bag, or place them into a gift bag surrounded by tissue paper.
4. Spread some holiday spirit. Buy a festive cookie cutter or set of cookie cutters at the store. Print the cover of your gift magazine from Magazines.com and glue it to cardstock. Trim to size and punch a hole in one end. Use twine or ribbon to tie the tag announcing your gift to the cookie cutter, and wrap in a small gift bag.
5. Create a subscription ornament. On a color printer, print the cover of your gift subscription and tape the image to a new ornament. Then, you can hang the ornament on the tree or wrap it up like a present.
Magazine subscriptions are an affordable and much appreciated gift, so be sure to find the best magazines for your friends and loved ones this season. Then, grab some scissors and tape and set to work presenting the gift with your own personal style.
We Salute You Nicki – W Magazine
W is a monthly American fashion magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, who purchased original owner Fairchild Publications in 1999. It was created in 1971 by the publisher of sister magazine Woman’s Wear Daily, James Brady. The magazine is an oversize format – ten inches wide and thirteen inches tall. Stefano Tonchi is the editor of W; Nina Lawrence is the vice president and publisher. W magazine has a reader base of nearly half a million, 469,000 of which are annual subscribers. 80 percent of the magazine’s readers are female and have an average household income of $135,840.
Often the subject of controversy, W magazine has featured stories and covers which have provoked mixed responses from its intended audience. In July 2005, W produced a 60-page Steven Klein portfolio of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt entitled “Domestic Bliss”. The shoot was based upon Pitt’s idea of the irony of the perfect American family; set in 1963, the photographs mirror the era when 1960s disillusionment was boiling under the facade of pristine 1950s suburbia.
Other controversial issues include Steven Meisel’s shoot entitled “A Sexual Revolution,” in which male and female models (including Jessica Stam and Karen Elson) are depicted in gender-bending styles and provocative poses. In addition, Tom Ford’s racy shoot with Steven Klein and the accompanying article on sexuality in fashion came as a shock to some loyal readers. During the interview, Ford is quoted as saying “I’ve always been about pansexuality. Whether I’m sleeping with girls or not at this point in my life, the clothes have often been androgynous, which is very much my standard of beauty.” Steven Klein also was the photographer for the racy photo shoot featured in the August 2007 issue, showcasing David and Victoria Beckham. Bruce Weber produced a 60-page tribute to New Orleans in the April 2008 issue, and shot a 36-page story on the newest fashion designers in Miami for the July 2008 issue. Most of W’s most memorable covers are featured on the W Classics page on the magazine’s website.
W is also known for its coverage of American and European society. Many of these society luminaries, as well as the elite of the entertainment and fashion industries, have allowed W into their homes for the magazine’s W House Tours feature, including Marc Jacobs, Sir Evelyn Rothschild and Imelda Marcos.
In 2011, Steven Meisel created controversy again by promoting fake advertisements throughout the November issue of the magazine. Celebrities endorsing these fake ads included RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 3/NY Socialite Carmen Carrera, and model Linda Evangelista.
Add yet another crazy out of the box shoot to Nicki’s resume of great magazine shoots. This has been the year of the Black woman music artist on mainstream magazines. We salute you Nicki!
