Stellene Volandes (Editor-In-Chief, Town & Country)¶
Published on Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:00:00 +0000
In this episode, editor-in-chief of Town & Country, Stellene Volandes, sits down to talk watches, jewelry, and the joys of making magazines. Stellene is joined by host Stephen Pulvirent and Senior Editor Jon Bues.
Synopsis¶
This episode features an in-depth conversation with Stellene Volandes, editor-in-chief of Town and Country magazine. Volandes shares her journey through magazine publishing, beginning with internships at New York Magazine and Vogue in the early 1990s. She discusses her formative years working under influential editor Richard David Story at both Vogue and Departures magazine, where she developed her expertise in jewelry coverage and luxury editorial content. After a brief detour teaching high school English at LaGuardia High School, she returned to magazines and eventually joined Town and Country in 2011, becoming editor-in-chief before the magazine's 170th anniversary.
Volandes offers insights into her editorial philosophy, emphasizing that every page of Town and Country must deliver value to readers through what the magazine's founders called the mandate to "instruct, refine, and amuse." She discusses how she approaches covering the world of luxury and society with both reverence and a journalistic eye, balancing beautiful imagery with substantive reporting. The conversation covers her passion for jewelry and watches, her approach to maintaining Town and Country's distinct voice across print and digital platforms, and the importance of understanding craft and artisanship. Volandes also shares recommendations for theater, particularly productions at St. Ann's Warehouse, and discusses recent travels including her first safari in South Africa. Throughout the episode, she emphasizes the importance of curiosity, being present in the world, and the unique pleasure of reading physical magazines.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | Some people are just magazine people. You know, the kind of people who wake up on a Saturday morning, wander down to their local newsstand, pick up a stack of whatever they happen to find, and then settle in for a couple of hours with a hot cup of coffee. It's even better when those people run magazines themselves. Stelene Velandez is the editor-in-chief of Town and Country, and she is a dyed-in-the-all magazine person through and through. She's been in the industry more than 20 years, starting with an internship at Vogue, and then working with some of the biggest names in magazine publishing of all time. Stelina's one of the world's leading experts on jewelry, having even published a book on the subject back in 2016, and she also knows watches. She's someone deeply interested in makers, but she's also somebody who makes something herself, and when you pick up one of Stelene's magazines, you'll notice that no detail has been left unconsidered. Stelene's pretty busy these days traveling to every corner of the globe, but we were able to get an hour with her in the studio to sit down and chat, and I think you're really gonna like this one. I'm your host Stephen Polverant, and this is This week's episode is brought to you by Hook and Albert. Stay tuned later in the show to learn more about this global travel brand and their range of travel accessories. You can also learn more at hookandalbert.com Thanks so much for joining us, Telene. It's good to see you. Oh, it's great to see you both. Yeah, and we have uh we have John Bews here as well. Hey. So I thought we would start off by giving our our listeners kind of a little peek at at you and and in your career. So how did you first get into magazines |
| Unknown | ? I started interning at magazines when I was a sophomore in college and I had an internship at New York Magazine, and I would sort of come down from uh Poughkeepsie into the city twice a week and I worked for this woman named Bernice Canner, who um if you read New York magazine in the you know sort of early nineties, she was the advertising columnist. And they had a whole separate column for advertising. And she did these awards every year for best campaigns, best jingle, and I worked with her on that. The sort of funny thing is my first day as an intern at New York magazine was Lori Jones' Last Day, and they gave a big party for her. She had been the managing editor at New York magazine and she was going to become the managing editor at Vogue. And uh so they had a great party for her and all these people made speeches and about uh three years later I would actually interview with Lori Jones at Vogue magazine, talk about that party, and end up working uh for almost most of my career for Richard David Story, who had also been an editor at New York magazine at that party. So that was my I remember being at that party and listening to those toasts and um and meeting all these people. I mean I sort of stood in the corner, but um and thinking, okay, this is this is the life I wanna be a part of. And so I just kept interning at different magazines and at different um, you know, I interned at Hermes, I interned at Ralph Lauren Home, I interned at El Decor. I interned at all these startups that Hachette was doing one summer. And so I was quite focused even from college on being a part of the world I'm now a part of. And my first real job in magazines was as a features assistant at Vogue for Richard David Story and Michael Boudreaux. Um they both they worked in sort of the arts and features department. And it was a wonderful education. And the people I met there and the things I learned there, I still use every day. I also happened to go on to work for Richard David's story at Departures for almost nine years um before I left for Town and Countr |
| Unknown | y in twenty eleven. So you started your first kind of job in magazines, is it New York magazine? That's well it was an internship. You're an intern, but still, I mean you you really jumped kind of like right into the deep end. What was it like to to have that be kind of your first experience making a magazine? It it |
| Unknown | was a dream. And you know, I mean I think New York magazine continues to be in my view the the gold standard. I mean I just I consume that magazine in all its forms, uh constantly and it was a magazine that I grew up with. It was in my house, you know, every single week and I I remember pieces from it. And so to be an intern there for I think I can't remember if it was a semester or a full year, you're just surrounded, I mean, you know, John Taylor and Jeanette Walls and um you know, Tom Prince was there at the time and Chris Smith and I mean it was just all these people that you know I still go back and and read their pieces. I mean when I was there, the editor-in-chief was Ed Kosner, and I mean Julie Baumgold's piece of Dancing on the Lip of the Volcano still to me defines New York during that time. Um so to even be there, you know, sitting in a corner on a desk sort of doing Bernice Canner's expenses was completely right. Um it offered a glimpse into into what I wanted to be |
| Unknown | . And when you looked at that and you said this is this is what I want to be, what what was that thing to you? How did you kind of envision that |
| Unknown | in your head? There was an energy at New York magazine and there was a certain level of conversation between the editors and there was a life that they lived that took advantage of everything the city had to offer. They would come in in the morning and I remember they would talk about what theater they saw the night before, or what they had read in the paper this morning, or what restaurant they had gone to see, or the who they had met on the way to that restaurant and the story ideas that came out of it. And that, you know, Richard's story always said that if an editor is doing their job correctly, at the end of the day they could empty their pockets and all their story ideas would be there. The receipt from the restaurant they think people should go to, a ticket stub from a play they think people should see, a phone number for a new writer we should assign something to. And that sense of constant curiosity of being out there in the world and meeting people and seeing things and reading things and that that was your job. Um I just thought, you know, I'm in. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Fun job to have. Yeah, I mean I think that's kind of what draws any of us. I mean this is a little inside baseball now, but like that's what draws I think most of us to this this line of work and I definitely agree with that. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I I had an editor at one point tell me that like stories don't happen in the newsroom. They happen out in the world. That's what's exciting, right? Like you're going out and synthesizing all |
| Unknown | of this for your audience. You know, and and for town and country, sometimes if I'm having you know breakfast at St. Ambrose on the Upper East Side, I think I could stand at this coffee counter and eavesdrop and get town and country ideas for the whole year. You'd be all set. Yeah, you don't need anything else. And sometimes I do. Um but it's just this sense that your job is to be like have your eyes wide open and be constantly curious. And I think that is uh it's what I love the most about this job and it's um it just I think is what what keeps us all going. Totally, |
| Unknown | yeah. Um you then you you've mentioned Richard's story. For for people who don't know who he is, can you tell us who Richard |
| Unknown | Sure. So Richard David Story was uh is my sort of most important person in my uh professional life um without a doubt. And he um I mean he worked at New York magazine, he worked at USA Today, um he worked at Vogue is which is where I met him. I was his assistant for three years. And he is widely widely known and respected as the longtime editor-in-chief of Departures magazine and really transformed that magazine. Um it won in an asthme under his tenure. And he brought all his enthusiasm and curiosity and passion um to those pages. And I worked for him there for um almost nine years. Aaron Ross Powell And |
| Unknown | what was it like transforming that magazine? Because I think a lot a lot of people may not remember kind of what it was before Richard kind of transformed it |
| Unknown | . I I don't remember what it was before. But I I do remember that when I got to Departures, it was about um let's see, I I guess two or three years into Richards' tenure there. And so he had had an impact, but we were still working on it. And I think that he always made sure that it was not what he called a dumb rich persons magazine. That it was not about gold spoons and, you know, super expensive brandy in a glass. It was speaking to this rising generation of wealth that wanted beautiful things and appreciated beautiful things, but also they were not fools and they didn't want to be spoken to like fools. And so he brought a level of journalism and of a real conversation between the the magazine and its readers. And um it was a really fantastic time to be there. A |
| Unknown | aron Powell Departures is kind of special because it had this built-in audience through through American Express and in a way that other magazines I think I think other magazines find their subscriber base or their newsstand base in a slightly different way. Do you think that impacted the ability of departures to kind of hone in on that audience? Knowing who's read |
| Unknown | ing your magazine is a great luxury. Certainly a town and country, I have that same luxury. I I know our readers intimately. Um and it's because we have such a strong and loyal subscriber base. It's also because um I go out and meet them and I do events across the country, um reader you know, reader uh uh based events and so and also through my Instagram I'm you know constantly back and forth with with readers either in comments or uh DMs and it is um it is the best research an editor can do |
| Unknown | . Yeah I think we we see that too. I mean we're we've been doing events I think basically as long as the publication's been been alive and it's so exciting when you get out there and it's it's easy to forget when you're when you're doing the writing and doing the editing |
| Unknown | that this is something that somebody's going to encounter. I think it's one of the biggest mistakes people make. I think that, you know, that sort of world of of edit that I talked about before that is such a like great world. You come into the office and you know I went to see a chorus line at City Center last night and so we came to the office and I'm talking to the culture editor and what'd you like, what didn't you like, where'd you go to dinner and and and all that is great, but you also need to remember that that conversation which could make its way into the magazine, when you're doing a story, you have to think what is a reader getting out of this? Do they have access to this? If they don't have access to it, what are you going to tell them in the story that still makes them care about it? And um, you know, I I really believe now that a magazine has to be a return on the reader's investment, their investment in the money they buy the magazine with, and also their time. Magazines need to be better than ever. Every single page needs to deliver something. And at at TNC we work really hard to make sure every page has something our readers can take away. And whether maybe sometimes it's a beautiful piece of jewelry they can buy, sometimes it's where they should go on their next vacation, sometimes it's the play they should see, sometimes it is the, you know, rare prawn they should order. But it's I always want to give them something. Maybe sometimes it's just something they should know about. Um but um I always want to give them something in return for their loyalty and for them taking the time to sort of put their phone down, open the magazine and spend |
| Unknown | time Aaron Powell Steline, you're in a really special position um running Town and Country, which is obviously such an important magazine uh in this country. And it's also I think the oldest um mag print printed magazine continuously running uh in the US, right? Yes, yeah. Um since eighteen forty six. There we go. And you took over you took over right before an important anniversary, I think. You know, when you're putting together an issue, and this is something that I often think about because I I work on the magaz |
| Unknown | Aaron Powell Sure. I took over right before the hundred and seventyth anniversary, but I had been working there. So I joined TNC in 2011 when Jay Fieldon was named editor-in-chief. He hired me. And those first few years, um the team really worked on bringing town and country to where it actually had been in the 60s and 70s. If you look at TNC in the 60s and 70s, it is there's a sort of archness to it, there is humor, there is great journalism, gorgeous photography, but it covered a world in a way that both it covered its the greatness of it and also the foibles of it. So it it knew what to celebrate about the world it covered and also what to gently criticize. And I think that what we've done with town and country is cover that Tancy world in a way that is much more journalistic. It's still gorgeous, it still delivers all the service our readers expect. But if something is happening in that world that needs to be investigated, we do that too. And so the first editor's letter of Town and Country ever, the two founders who were these two young journalists said that this magazine is being put together to instruct, refine, and amuse. And I would say the essential components of every single issue of town and country have those there. So it it both sort of instructs on you know where to go in twenty nineteen, what's a natural pearl, uh what's a scarlet prawn. Um it is a sense of there's a sense of refine in what is the modern etiquette of a you know marathon birthday weekend. Who pays, who doesn't pay, do you have to accept the invitation? Um and a muse is a really, really important part of the new TNC. It um it has um a humor in its its writing and its tone as as serious as some stories are and certain investigations are, there is a wink of an eye always on a few of the pages in the magazine. And it's a wink of sort of knowing and understanding between the editors and the readers, and also a sense that the world we are covering is a world of beauty and um and of joy. And we want the whole experience of reading the magazine to be that. You should sort of think, you should sort of rip the page out and and sort of write it down and make plans, but you should also laugh during um some of some during some of the pages |
| Unknown | . One of the stories that I remember it was maybe it was less than six months I think after after Jay had taken over. And I remember there being a story thinking on the kind of humorous side of things, uh in which uh a travel writer had basically said there there are only two things a good a real old school luxury hotel needs, and that's to be able to make you a good bloody merry and a good club sandwich. Yeah. Uh and it's essential. It was like a twenty page feature of going through all of these grand old luxury hotels and literally taste testing club sandwiches and bloody Marys. And it was written with this perfect mix of sort of seriousness and and archness. Ye.ah. Yeah And it stuck with me. I mean, it must have been, you know, eight eight or nine years ago. And I probably still have the magazine somewhere, but I I just it really stuck with me as this kind of like perfect little bit of service journalism that was made to be something so much more than what it could have been. Right |
| Unknown | . And you know, a piece like that is is the result of really also understanding your reader. The truth is we all go to hotels and that's we all just want a bloody married in a club sandwich. I mean it's right. I never think to order anything other than a bread tries. And somehow like no matter like what program or diet you're on, like a club sandwich does not, you know. It's the calories don't count in the hotel. And so to take that and think how do you do that in a s an elevated way that provides you know again, instruct, refine and amuse, provides service, like where can you find a good club sandwich and a good bloody Mary, but also just the experience of reading that piece um was a a journey. It was it was beautifully written, but it was very funny. Yeah, exact |
| Unknown | ly. Do you do you find that the history of the magazine weighs on you or or elevates you? Do you see it as something you have to live up to or something that lifts you up? I think |
| Unknown | all of the above. Okay. Uh do I feel like I'm a steward of something and do I feel great responsibility in that this magazine has survived almost two hundred years and I better not mess it up. Um, absolutely. Do I feel every time I meet a reader and they tell me how much this magazine means to them and how one time, you know, ten years ago they were in town and country and that their neighbors still bring it up all the time. You know, yes. And I feel also a responsibility that our readers trust the magazine so much that if I put a $50,000 Right. So um I need to make sure that necklace is is worth that reader's investment. So um so the responsibility is is real. Um do I love that I can go on the twenty-fourth floor of Hearst Tower and walk into a room and there's, you know, a hundred and seventy-two years of history that I can go through if I'm sort of stuck on like, you know, what what should the December issue sort of theme be that I can go back and look and see what we did. It's a joy. And to know so clearly what your magazine fundamentally is about, um uh it is uh it's an enormous luxury and and I I thrive on it because once you know what it's about, then you can surprise. Um because the core is so it's so clear and the point of view is so strong that you sort of deliver that and then you you throw some curveballs in there. Yeah, I mean how how much do you actually use the archive? How much are you like actively looking at what's going on? And it is we use that page to connect something that is happening right now with something that is in our archives. And it is amazing what is in there. Amazing. So you you know if someone is in the paper, generally you can find the time they were in town and country. Okay. And that goes for across the board. Um and you know it's it's wonderful also all these you know if you look at Instagram and you look at all like the Slim Aaron's images that are regrammed constantly. Most of them are from TNC. He worked at TNC for over 20 years. He was the really the staff photographer. And so thinking about those iconic images and going into the archive room of town and country and seeing them first printed and in their con the original context is uh it's it's so much fun. It's so much fun. And I have to tell you the cover lines, you know, I love cover lines. I know now sort of the the trend in magazines is much, you know, sort of fewer cover lines, but um I think that's more about sort of what looks good on Instagram. But um I love good cover lines and oh did TNC have good cover lines in the 60s and 70s? Um I post them all the time on my Instagram, all the time, and now I can't think of any, but they were just so arch and so tongue-in-cheek and so just like unabashedly town and country. Um so they're they're a lot of fun. And I do I post them almost every Friday. I do like a cover lines Friday. |
| Unknown | And I mean you're you're clearly a like dyed in the wool magazine person and that's definitely a type that like any of us who work in this industry know well. You actually left magazines for a little while, didn't you? I did. |
| Unknown | I left for so I worked at Vogue for three years and then I had been an English major and I decided that um my life was in the classroom and so I taught high school English at LaGuardia High School, the fame school. Um I'm also sort of a 100% like theater nerd and uh was a total high school drama geek, so I thought I would like go meet my people at LaGuardia. Um and and I loved it. And I I miss really being in front of the classroom. It was uh came really naturally to me and um I felt like I was, you know, making a real impact. Um but, you know, public school teachers in New York have a three year burnout rate and so I'm a statistic. Um and uh you know, sort of at the time where I was starting to feel like maybe I had um sort of done my time there. Richard uh was hiring an editor at departures and so I I left. But um but I I love teaching and I still keep in touch with some of my some of my students. |
| Unknown | Do you do you ever think about what what would have been had you stayed and and continued on teaching |
| Unknown | ? I do. Oh yeah, all the time. I mean I think it'd be a totally different life. Um, but I do I mean I I think about you know, I speak a lot in public and I don't get nervous uh at all really and I think that teaching it, you know, people sort of say like how, do you not get nervous? And I think if you stand up and like try and make thirty five, uh, fifteen year olds try and get interested in Huck Finn, like once you can do that you can do anything. Yeah. Yeah. Things are okay. Yeah, you're you're yeah. Talking about jewelry at the ninety second street Y is, you know, it's not that hard. It's a cake, yeah. So |
| Unknown | I'm sorry, I was gonna say, you know, jewelry has come up a few times um in St. Um kind of can you tell us a little bit about your interest in jewelry and how you got into covering it |
| Unknown | ? Sure. I um I mean I jewelry has always been something sort of in my life. So I you know I have a mother who loves jewelry and like always expects jewelry as a gift. Um so that you know sort of w s seeped into me and I shopped with my dad for her presence all the time. But I think what hooked me on jewelry really was um so I became the jewelry editor at Departures, and Departures in Town and Country at that point were really the only two magazines covering jewelry. The the jewelry market then was so small. And I think now when you go to a fair like the tour show in Vegas or a Basel or SHH, you forget that jewelry and watches too were that it was such a small sort of cloistered industry. Everyone knew everybody. There were you know, I mean, now there are more there's more talent um in the jewelry market than I ever, you know, remember. Um so I was very much welcomed into what was a very small world and jewelers like watchmakers, they're artisans. They want to share how they made this piece, where they found the stone, how they put it together. And I was this willing student. And what also happened and what I think really continues to fascinate me about jewelry is I met a few people that taught me to ask questions about jewelry that I would ask about a piece of literature or a piece of art. So, you know, when was it made? What was happening in the world when it was made? Why were these stones available to the jeweler rather than those stones? Um, you know, what is you know, where does this fit into the other sort of art that's being created at the time. And making jewelry part of this larger cultural conversation is what uh I think sort of hooked me intellectually and how I approach jewelry now always. Um I never want jewelry to be seen as just a pretty shiny thing. And I'm I'm really adamant and focused on making people see jewelry. You know, almost the way sort of food is now, you know, written about so seriously and and um talked about so seriously. You know, jewelry because it's expensive and because it is sort of sparkly, I think some people find it harder to understand that you can look at it and appreciate it. You never have to buy it. You can love jewelry even if you're not able to buy it. I want everyone to buy it. Let's be clear. But um I I wish people would feel like they could walk into Fred Leighton or Cartier and and try on pieces and ask about them the same way they would walk into a gallery or walk into the Met. Um you know I I don't I I see it as as something to to learn about and appreciate as much as to wear. |
| Unknown | Yeah. I mean that's that's a very there's a storied tradition of that at Town and Country as well. I mean the way that what comes to mind for me is is I got into journalism through writing about menswear and the stuff that Bruce Boyer was writing for Town and Country in the 80s was essentially social criticism couched as stories about Brooks Brother suits. And I think Town and Country has it has sort of always been the magazine that kind of mediates that, like the sort of cultural and consumer kind of barrier. Right |
| Unknown | . And I I think it's you know, and I think you all have done that with watches. It's I want people to read a jewelry piece even if they have no interest in jewelry or think they don't. And I want the opening lines of every jewelry piece I write to hook them in a way that they see where jewelry fits in. So there are these amazing David Webb totem necklaces that are, I mean, they're like one of my holy grails. And I wrote about them not too long ago, and I thought, okay, I could write about the fact that they're like lap So I talked about the power breakfast at the Regency and how you know what what good things came out of the recession of the nineteen seventies. The power breakfast at the Regency and the David Webb Totem Necklace. And so any man reading town and country, if you see power regency at the breakfast, a power breakfast of the regency, you sort of think, okay, well I know that. Um and you sort of then go into the fact that David Webb um started to get all these requests from his clients that they didn't want to wear di wanted to wear big jewelry, but they didn't want to wear anything too shiny or showy. And so he began to take hard stones like Malachite and Tiger's Eye and Rock Crystal and put them all together. And so the necklaces are not cheap. But if you don't really know what all the materials are, you don't really know the value. And so it was sort of this secret signal that um all these all his clients were giving to each other. Yeah, that's a that's another that |
| Unknown | makes me think of another sort of TNC signature, which is this this sort of like knowingness, right? That that by reading the magazine, you are both showing that you're already a a member of kind of this this club, but you're also learning what it takes to actually be a member of that club, kind of at the at the same time, right? Yeah. No, I think |
| Unknown | that um it is there's a shared language, and I think we try and create that sense of this um knowingness through I mean everything from like a headline to a a caption. Um and and all of it matters very, very much. I mean that's part of sort of what I said before that every single page has to deliver. And I think if you asked any TNC editor what I'm most obsessed about, it's display copy. Um and that's what goes back um to editors for revise uh more than anything else. And it is I was just doing headlines with Adam Wrath before I came here. It is for me the most fun part of the job is doing a headline. Um and especially a town and country where you really have to think like what's a town and country headline rather than just, you know, it's like don't give me a page about, you know, gray shoes and call it the gray lady because it's not gonna fly. Yeah, that's not gonna fly |
| Unknown | . So you're you're you're getting into kind of like the nuts and bolts of of what you do, and I I think that's something we should we should talk about a bit. I feel like people I I know outside the publishing world don't really know what a lot of these jobs entail. And especially when they see editor in chief of town and country, there are definitely people out there who probably assume that you you spend your mornings going to lovely breakfasts and your evenings going to cocktail parties. And I do that too. Which I'm sure you do. I do that too. But you also make a |
| Unknown | magazine, right? Yeah. And I think um you know I have this conversation a lot because I am um I am a sort of devoted Instagram poster and what's your what's your Instagram handle? Perfect. We'll link that up in the show notes so that everybody can follow you. So I think what Instagram does is present you know, I mean, what am I going to post? I mean sometimes I post from the office, but most of the time I'll post if I'm out at night or if I'm on a trip. So now you get these comments like, Well, are you ever here? And I think if you only knew how much I'm here. And so I um I read every single page of the magazine. So yes, I I do go to breakfast to meet with clients, to meet with new designers, to meet with readers who who I feel like might have great ideas and with contributors. Um but then I go into the office and and read copy and give feedback and also, you know, meet with our publisher and and work on new ideas for events and different programs at town and country. Um and you know, I am I am out almost every night uh doing something either for the magazine or seeing theater that I think could work in the magazine. Um so it is it is an all encompassing job. I am lucky because everything we cover is something that I love to do anyway. So I feel like yes I'm I'm out all the time and but I've been working in this industry also for you know, over twenty years. So the idea of a work friend um is sort of weird to me. These are my friends and my family. Um but yeah, w I mean the nuts and bolts of being an editor in chief now I think um people don't realize that we're making the the the stories. I mean we sort of go through lineups with an editor and and decide what's going into the magazine. We decide sort of the order of the stories in the magazine. We select images for the magazine. And while we're doing one we're thinking about the next. Um and we also, you know, a modern editor is is on social media promoting the magazine and also is is working with the business side to bring the magazine to life |
| Unknown | and now a message from this week's sponsor. Hookin' Albert is a modern travel brand, and I'm here with CEO Adam Schoenberg. Last week we talked about the design ethos of the brand, and Adam's back now to tell us how Hookin' Albert is solving problems for the modern business traveler. Thanks for being here, Adam. Thanks for having me. You guys don't create products for just anyone. You kind of have a particular traveler in mind, somebody you call the sprint traveler, right |
| Unknown | ? That's correct. For us, the sprint traveler is defined as a male or a female that travels from one to three days. We're in and out of a city. In fact, north of eighty-five percent of business travelers in the US fit within that category |
| Unknown | . And your experiences traveling for business have informed how you've developed products over the years, right? Absolutely |
| Unknown | . Take our garment weekender bag, our number one selling product, that really came to life with my frustrations of having three different bags for a two-day trip. I wanted to simplify that journey, put everything together into one product, and I wanted that product to fit the life stage where I'm at. I just want a beautiful leather product that's really functional and has a spot to fit my cords and my laptop and maybe a dop kit or a sweater, but I want something that's wrapped in beautiful functional materials. Do you have any sneak peeks at maybe what's coming next from Hook and Albert? Absolutely. 2019 is going to be an incredible year on the women's side of our business. We're launching a full range of products for the sprint traveling female. Really excited to have beautiful work bags, tote bags, extensions of the garment weakender. On the men's side, you will see from us the most luxurious collection of products playing with suedes for the first time, that coupled with beautiful leathers. And then for both male and female, we're getting into the rolling luggage space on the back half of the year with a product that the marketplace has not seen before. It's something that fits our DNA and something we're really, really excited about. Sounds like exciting stuff. |
| Unknown | I think we're gonna have to have you back sometime soon. My pleasure. Let's get back to the show. So one big story that you guys covered recently uh was Ralph Lauren's fiftieth anniversary. Yeah. And when I say you covered it, I mean also literally everybody covered it. It was kind of the only story that anybody was covering for a little while. But you covered it in a slightly different way. It was very personal, it was very focused on his him, family, kind of his life. It was less about the brand and the clothing and the kind of empire. How do you approach a story like that in general where you know it's going to get a lot of attention, but you want to cover it in your way. You don't want to just write the same story that twenty other magazines are writing. Aaron Ross Powell |
| Unknown | Um Well, I think any story that we are going to do where we know that it's such an important story that other magazines are going to cover it. What we always ask is where's the T and C? And I mean we ask that almost of every story that we do, even if we're doing a trend roundup, where on the page is the TNC? Sometimes it comes in an image of a person that is so TNC, sometimes it comes in a headline. But the the really great ones come in an angle that we take on a story that is singularly ours. And um Ralph Lauren and Town and Country have a long and wonderful history. He's been on our cover with his family several times. Kind of the perfect pairing. So for our November families issue, we knew we wanted to cover Ralph Lauren in the 50th anniversary. And we were lucky enough to work with them and be able to get all three generations of the Ralph Lauren family in the magazine. And that was uh it was a real privilege. Pamela Hansen took the images, Paul Goldberger did the interview, and it is uh uh it is just a very special story that I know, you know, in twenty years someone is going to look in the archive for that story, witho |
| Unknown | ut a doubt. Aaron Powell Yeah, we'll link that up in the show notes too. If if people listening, if you haven't seen this story, I highly recommend it. The images alone are and Paul's interview is also amazing. But the seeing three generations of this family kind of embody everything that you think of when you think of Ralph Lauren is a really |
| Unknown | special thing. It's multi-generational. It is it is about an American style and an American elegance. And um I i it it's it's like miraculous that story |
| Unknown | . So you mentioned that that's a story you think people are gonna go back and look for in the archives. Is that something you think about when you're when you're making stories? |
| Unknown | Not at all. No. I don't. Because I think what I want every issue to be is to feel like it belongs in town and country, but every single issue needs to feel like it belongs in the world right now. And I think you know, where where a magazine like Town and Country with such a rich history can get into trouble is if you think too much about history. And you you need to think that this, yes, this is a real sort of town and country moment, but what about the actual moment we're living in? Where where is the T and C there? And so when you pick up town and country now, you see things that are beautiful that you expect to see in town and country, but you also see people in places that you saw in the New York Times this morning. And it is it's always done through a town and country lens in a way that matters to the reader, but it is it is a magazine that is of the moment. It is timeless, but it's of the moment |
| Unknown | . And and in our particular moment, kind of notions of of luxury and of sort of society with a capital S uh are changing or have been changing, I would say. Um how how do you incorporate that while still kind of holding true to this this kind of guiding vision of of the magazine? Aaron Powell Sure. I think that |
| Unknown | you know the society capital S, I think less about more than just society and sort of the society we're living in. And I think that every member of society cares about quality, they care about good taste, they care about decency, they care about civility. And so and they care about family and and legacy. And I I think those are the foundations of town and country. So I think that, you know, when I when you talk about luxury for me always, and this is something that I have been, you know, sort of taught by Richard story, and I I sort of believe in it so much, luxury is is not about a gold a gold spoon. Luxury is about something that is beautifully made by someone who really cares about how it is made. And um it could be a a beautiful simple wood chair made by, you know, someone who sought out the most beautiful slab of wood and um and sort of made it to exacting proportions. And um you know, uh a gold band can be as luxurious as a gold conda diamond. |
| Unknown | So to to pivot a little bit, I w I want to kind of go back to to jewelry and and watches a little bit. Um and you no problem. Perfect. Um you had to know that was coming. Um you know John mentioned it earlier that that you're kind of in this this orbit and we've we've you know met at at many, many events and and conferences and things. Um and the watch world is not known for being necessarily the friendliest place to female consumers or women kind of in the industry. And I wanna know as as you know, the editor in chief of town and country, when you go to sit down with somebody who's a a watch executive or at one of these trade shows, do you find that kind of the atmosphere that's created is is |
| Unknown | different or not necessarily I think it's hard for me to answer that just because I have been in this world for so long and I think that have been so consistent in my devotion, I mean, to jewelry and have written about it so seriously that I think there is sort of more of an understanding um in the watch world than maybe other other writers might have. Um so I I I I don't feel it, but I know that uh |
| Unknown | other editors do. Okay. Do you do you think that the watch industry could do a better job or maybe a different job of addressing what kind of contemporary female consumers are looking for? I I do I mean I think |
| Unknown | you all have done a great job. I mean, even the fact that there is a hodinky podcast and a radio. I mean it's it's sort of what I was talking about before with jewelry. Making watches conversational is it's the key for any consumer. I mean it',s the same way when I talk about how do I sort of make a man who, you know, says, uh, I don't want I don't want to hear about jewelry or um you know talk to my wife about it, how do I get him interested? And I think that um you sort of bring watches or jewelry out of the that sort of like you know cult world that we're all in and connect it to something that um that they're more interested in. I mean, you know, just the idea of like the fact that wearing a watch wasn't considered ladylike. Right. Right. I mean even like when women hear that, now wearing a watch is suddenly a power statement, right? 'Cause you weren't supposed to even have any concern. What did you have to do that you had a needed a watch If you sort of explain that to a woman, I think that um I think that is uh really uh influential. I also think that anytime you show someone, man or woman, how something is made and the care that's put into it and how long it takes to make these things, I I can't imagine anyone who is not impressed with that. Um you know, I remember last year when Cartier opened the mansion and they did that top floor and I brought lots of people and I made more jewelry and watch converts um that week And when you realize that one man is sitting there doing that, you know, I always say like you don't ask why the Cartier Panther costs so much, you wonder why it doesn't cost more. Right. Right. I mean it's once you see how a watch is made, uh I I think you just you wanna in. You just want a part of it. Aaron P |
| Unknown | owell And do you think coming into watches kind of through jewelry changed how you looked at watches initially and kind of how it's it's evolved over the years for you |
| Unknown | ? Sure. I think it I was always um because I always wrote about jewelry, didn't just photograph it. I always had to sort of search for something underneath the the glitz, really. And I think so I visited a lot of workshops, which I know you guys do too. Um and and so that I think helped me understand the watch world in a way from the very beginning. Yeah, and you're you're |
| Unknown | uh a nerd in that regard also, if I can if I can say that. Yes, I am proud world. Somebody who loves going to workshops and like seeing how stuff is made. What what is it about that experience of being in a workshop or being in a factory that, you know, to some people might seem unglamorous, but to to people like I think all of us sitting here is exciting |
| Unknown | . Or making a piece of jewelry is, um, it it transforms the way you see the final product. And I interviewed a jeweler once who told me that if one of her workers was in a bad mood. did Snhe't work let them on the jewelry that day because she felt like their mood sort of would seep into the jewelry. And um and it I mean, someone's hands, right, are is they're on that piece and then you wear it on your hand. And it it's it's such an intimate connection between the artisan or the workman and then the the person who buys it and wears it that then passes it down to someone else and they wear it. So it's this I mean, it sounds so corny, but it's like a story of human connection really. And when you watch the the people who take such pride in in putting a a piece in a watch or you know polishing a stone, you look at jewelry in a vitrine and all you can think about are are the people who actually made it. And and for me that the intimacy and the craft is really what um what I love most about jewelry and about watches. |
| Unknown | Yeah, I I think that's really interesting also in light of of what you do. Um making a magazine is kind of the same thing, right? Like you're making a physical object that a person gets once a month and then carries around with them, whether it's to work or to the coffee shop or to show their friend. I mean there there really is something about making a physical magazine that's just different, right? Ye |
| Unknown | ah. And I think there's something different about reading a physical magazine. And I mean I'm on my phone, you know, all the time. I can't I can't relate to that at all. I mean my teenage niece yells at me for being on my phone too much. Okay. That's next level. Okay. So um and and I love it. And I love that it gives me this way of communicating with people or if I see a story, see something I love, sort of communicating it right away. But when I sit down with a magazine or I sit down with a newspaper, I read it, I read differently. I consume the information differently. I I do rip out pages. And you also I think see there's a reason pages are laid out. There's a hierarchy of information that is on the page in a physical magazine or in a physical newspaper that that that can't be really communicated on the phone. Something else is communicated on the phone. But I think the the luxury of of sitting down with a magazine is something you know, I have a magazine store in seventy first and lacks that I go to like once a weekend and they greet me with like open arms. We actually all live around there so we're and because they have every foreign magazine and so to go in there and buy, you know, go in like right now all the new December issues are there. So to go in and buy those and go home with like a cup of coffee and sit on the couch and just you know, read and look at these beautiful images um is um is is just it's a it's a pleasure like in this crazy world. So what what are you picking up when you go into the newsstand at 70 First and Lex? I mean I pick up so all you know, I pick up El Decor, of course, because um I'm c very close to Whitney and always want to see um what he's doing. Um I pick up Vogue, I pick up Elle. Um you know, we're on the same floor as Elle and Nina and her team, and so we all work really closely together. Um you know if it's a Saturday when tea is out, I definitely pick that up because I want to see what Hanya is doing. Um and then I, you know, pick up New York and the New Yorker because I want to sit down and and read those magazines you know in print. I I want to sort of be able to to spend time with them. And then I pick |
| Unknown | It's changed my life. John, do you have any magazines you've been you've been really uh diving into lately? Other than ours, which you've been spending for anyone who doesn't know, John spends an insane amount of time making our magazine good. And it's gorgeous. Well I |
| Unknown | mean for me really uh the New Yorker. Yeah. Um I'll pick up always. Uh New York magazine, like you said. Um serial I enjoy. Yeah. Um I have the the new copy of that at home. I picked it up uh about a week ago. And um |
| Unknown | , you know, some others.. Ye Yeahah. I have to say one magazine that has been just getting better and better and I keep thinking they've gotten it to like where it can't get better and it keeps getting better is uh what Adam Rappaport's done with Bone Appet |
| Unknown | it. Well Bone App I always say I do not cook and I read Bone App because it's such a fun read. It's amazing. Yeah. You don't have to care about food at all. At all. It helps. It's great. And I know people that do cook, you know, but uh that that love it. But I read it because it's I love the language in it. It is so funny and the voice is so strong and that voice carries through all their social media also, which I love. You know, I mean you know what that magazine is about. |
| Unknown | Yeah. How do you think about that for town and country, to to kind of make sure that that voice carries through everything you all are doing, not just the the book? Well we work really closely. I me |
| Unknown | an, you know, obviously my Instagram, I can control that. And then we have a wonderful uh site director, Liz Angel, and our website is, I mean it has has had record growth and record numbers for the last year. It's remarkable. And she understands very much sort of what works for town and country online. And our our Instagram um the main town and country Instagram really reflects the the fantasy of town and country. Do you think that fantasy is is a key part of what you're doing? Kind of keeping that alive |
| Unknown | ? I think it's an important part of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You you had mentioned Instagram and digital kind of how how does that live uh uh with respect to to print at town and country? Or how do you think about it |
| Unknown | ? Um I think about you know, I mean, how I think about the website and social media is it's another way to speak to our readers. And I know that they have an insatiable appetite for town and country, and the fact that now we can speak to them everywhere they are on their phone, you know, on their different apps. Um I know they can't get enough of it. So for me, and it's also there are so many stories you want to share out there to be able to share it on the site or on your feed and then in the magazine. It's just um for me, any way we can speak to our readers is I'll I love it. Um so um for me they all work towards the same goal, which is um bringing the world of town and country to the people that love it and also to the people that are discovering it for the first time. And I think the site and the social media feed does a really wonderful job in bringing town and country to an audience that might not be familiar with it. Great. So we'll do a a little plug right now. So the December issue is is out. The December issue is out. We broke it yesterday. Um Rosa Mund Pike is on the cover. And it looks it looks amazing. I have not had a chance to dive in yet. Yeah, she looks really beautiful. She was styled by our creative director, Nicoletta Santoro. Um she's wearing Cartier and Dior. And it's a a really great profile written by Janine Di Giovanni, who was a war correspondent with Marie Colvin. Great. So it has our gift guide, which is done by Will Kahn and um it has a wonderful travel package on where to go in twenty nineteen by Clara Glauchesca. Um there is a uh fantastic profile of Chris Wallace by Andrew Goldman, who is interviewing the president on Sunday, which was a surprise. But I think everyone is eager to see that interview. Chris Wallace is known as being sort of one of the toughest um interviewers out there. Yeah. Um and we have a really fun piece by Marshall Heyman on these marathon uh birthday parties and the modern etiquette of it. Um I wrote a piece on Reed Krakoff's uh first blue book um collection for Tiffany. Great. Um which is is wonderful. And um and he took portraits of people d very different people wearing his first collection. Cool. Um so it is, you know, like every issue of town and country, it is it is rich and varied and and uh it's a magazine that I I sincerely hope you want to spend time with. And when you do spend time with it, I hope you are happy that you did. |
| Unknown | Great. Well, we tend to finish every episode with a quick little lightning round and then some uh cultural recommendations. So just a couple quick questions for you. What is a watch or a piece of jewelry that has caught your eye recently? Oh |
| Unknown | this is like the hardest thing. This is the hardest thing. My personal gift guide. Um I saw yesterday actually a jeweler from Venice named Antonia Molletto came to visit me and I wrote about her in my book and she's you know she's one of my favorites also because she has such a singular point of view. She works a lot with wood and so she has taken um these old brooches and um these diamond brooches and put them on wood pendants and hung them from cords. And um I I definitely have my eye on one of those. Amazing. Yeah. So we didn't actually get to talk about your book, but can you give a quick plug for your book? Oh sure. So uh about a year and a half ago I wrote a book called Jeweler by Ritz uh published by Rizzoli, and it is a profile of seventeen contemporary jewelers, um, under the radar jewelers, who uh have made their mark through a very consistent and recognizable aesthetic. So Antonia is one, Hammerley, James DeJevanthe, who I just interviewed at the 92nd Street Y, Laura Nadriana, Nicholas Varney, some really, really remarkable jewelers. Great. So we'll link that up too so people can go check that out |
| Unknown | . So what is the best place you've traveled in the last year |
| Unknown | ? I oh god this year I traveled so much. Um but I am just back from South Africa and it was my first safari. And um I went there an organization called Roar Africa um helped me organize it and I I mean it's a big trip and it took me a long time to get there. But I I just loved it. And I the schedule of of a safari of like going out at 5 30 in the morning and coming back and then going out again in the afternoon and you come back at like 8 o'clock and you're like tired and you go to sleep and wake up at five thirty again the next morning. It just feels like this um almost like a farmer's schedule, but it felt very um I'm definitely not a farmer. But um it uh there was something really um like it felt like a very natural uh rhythm and just uh you know, I mean we saw unbelievable um, you know, sort of zebras and giraffes and you know, eighteen lions and um we did see a hippo and um and a rhino. And um it it was just uh you know uh seeing that landscape that was so dramatically and drastically different from you know being on the upper side or even going to a European city. Um it was just so new. Um it was like a mental detox for me. I just had the best time. Perfect. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received and who gave that advice to you? Um Richard's story when I got this job told me that um I will notice that people laugh much more loudly at my jokes now and to remember that I'm really not that funny. Okay, we'll keep our laughs muted muted on that one. And you know, I mean it's really his way of just saying stay humble, simmer down, and you know. And I think that is um it it's how I try and do everything. Great. Yeah. So And what's your guilty pleasure? Oh my God. I have many, many. Um I mean obviously, you know, I mean jewelry's I don't find it a guilty pleasure. I would say my guilty pleasure are the Chicago shows on NBC. Okay. I love them. Great. Yeah |
| Unknown | . All right. And uh to wrap things up, we'll do uh cultural recommendation. Is there something you've seen or heard or somet |
| Unknown | hing what I want one one of the things I want for uh Christmas is a subscription to St. Ann's Warehouse because I saw Oklahoma there and it was one of the best things I have seen in a long time. Great. Um and anything that they do is uh uh like sells out before you know there was a show last year, People Places and Things that sold out. I couldn't get tickets anyplace. I tried on StubHub. There was no nothing. I swear I tried everything. And for Oklahoma too, tried everything. And it was only um one of the editor's boyfriends got sick. And so I got lucky and got a ticket. So I'm buying St. Ann's Warehouse. Um you know I'm a sort of a theater um I think um the ferryman is one of uh the you know mussies of the season um and I also I think um the jewelry show at the Met is you, know s,ort of what I spoke about before, this sense of jewelry as being part of a larger cultural conversation is really beautifully presented in that show. Amazing. So a little three for one |
| Unknown | there. That's perfect. Well uh that's great. That's great. That's great. |
| Unknown | John, what are you uh what are you recommending this week? I've been listening so much uh to this album on my commutes uh by Kurt Weil. Okay. Uh called Bottle It In. Um I think Kurt Weil is a uh he's a singer uh and songwriter who has like a really distinct voice that I think is very it's very uncommon to hear someone on the radio these days and instantly know who it is. Okay. Um the style is I guess it's hard to describe, it's like a psychedelic folk. Okay. So a little bit unusual maybe for some people, but give it a try. It's streaming on Spotify. Cool |
| Unknown | . I'm also gonna go with an album. I recently discovered uh the National put out a live version of Boxer recorded at like a small venue in Brussels. It's unbelievable. That's one of my favorite records of all time. And I've been listening, I've probably listened to it 30 or 40 times all the way through in the last week. Um it's unbelievable. It's like listening to a whole new record. You guys have |
| Unknown | such highbrow musical taste. I've been listening to like The Shallow from a star sport |
| Unknown | . I have also been listening to that to be fair. Uh that's another cultural recommendation. If you haven't seen that movie, go see that movie right now. I feel like everyone has seen it |
| Unknown | though, don't you think? Hey, occasionally this weekend. And then download and do yeah, you'll be playing that later. |
| Unknown | Gaga and Bradley Cooper kill it. Yeah. It |
| Unknown | 's it's incredible. Well my wife has already seen it, but maybe she'll go back and see what she shares |
| Unknown | . Yeah, and w if you |
| Unknown | see Bradley Cooper, you'll make it. Alright so the real takeaway from this week is go see a star is born. Well and also I mean like let's bring it up now again too. Uh the Maria Cowl's documentary at the Paris Theater. Oh, great. So a little Greek plug. Perfect. Thank you so much for joining us this week. This has been super fun. I feel like |
| Unknown | we only ever see each other at like cocktail parties, say hello and walk away |
| Unknown | . Yeah, exactly. A calm a mellow Friday afternoon. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much |
| Unknown | . Thank you to Steline and John for joining us. This week's episode was recorded in Mirror Tone Studios in New York City and was produced and edited by Grayson Korhonen. Please remember to subscribe and rate the show, it really does make a difference. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week. |