Being Fabulous! Aspirational living! This is the lifestyle Vogue and other Conde Nast publications put in our faces. That $1500 bag matched with a $900 linen top. Advice; Pay the rent before heading to Bloomingdales.
Once again the magazines find themselves in the headlines, but for the wrong reason,,AGAIN! Six years ago Conde Nast debased from Mid Manhattan to the World Trade Center. Fast Forward to the 2020 Pandemic, ad revenue flat lined. Suddenly, those palatial 1.2 million square feet became a brick tied to an ankle in a sea storm.
Fashion magazines have been in a denial stage for a decade. Bloggers and social media elbowed in once exclusive territory. Brand advertising splintered. But to the heads of Conde Nast, this was a bump on a Champagne Boulevard. They had become victims of a movement they help create, “Living In A Fake Reality”.
Nothing says success than new digs. Trading up, moving to 1 World Trade in lower downtown New York represented the future, optimism. Anna Wintour and staff sat on top of the world. August 4th 2020, reports started circulating Advance Publications, parent company of Conde Nast, is scouting for a new office. I had to do a double take. Suddenly, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, Teen Vogue’s 21 floors lost its appeal or a need to “trade down”. Six months ago I saw Vogue editors coming in and out of the Bristol and Hotel de Crillon hotels in Paris.
One Minute This, Then,
In April requesting government a bailout, today negotiating cheaper rent. No more fashion week teas in “Le Boudoir”. Have the company credit cards been cut? No worries, if a Vogue Staffer is reading this, send me a message. I know a few affordable places in Paris and Milan.
Looking over the magazines social media channels, I could see problems. Access to the best writers and photographers in the world, yet, a lack of original content replaced by recycled stories. How many pictures can be from the archives? Or Vogue Challenges every week? HMMM!
All smokes and mirrors, denial is a fabulous way to live until a “reality brick” hits the face.