The front page of Styles will appear inside Metro, along with several of the Styles features. Color, which was introduced to the Styles section in February, will also be eliminated, which will allow for later deadlines. The Metro section isn’t printed until Saturday night. Styles had been printed Wednesday night.
In addition to early deadlines, the high cost of publishing Styles as a separate section was cited as a reason behind the move. Eric Asimov, the fourth editor of Styles of the Times, will continue to edit Styles features. Michael Oreskes is editor of the Metro Report.
Here’s what some observers thought about Styles, and this latest development.
Neil Kraft, senior vice president, advertising and creative services, at Calvin Klein: “I’m a fan of the section. They actually told me there wasn’t enough advertising support. I’m happy it’s going back to black and white. Color made it look like USA Today. It was one of the first sections I turned to each week. It was uneven, but I did read it.” Ronnie Cooke, creative director, Barneys New York: “It will probably go back to the way it used to be. It never came up to what my expectation was. There was an absence of a lot of things that make New York so great. My favorite part of it was Bill Cunningham’s photographs. I actually had very good success with it with our illustrated cosmetic ads that ran every other Sunday for the past few months.”
Cooke wasn’t thrilled with the color. “A lot of time it ended up looking like tattoos on paper. Color is a funny thing. It could look really mass or really interesting. It was never elevated to interesting. The Gap used it well. They were the only ones who made it graphically interesting.”
Ellin Saltzman, senior vice president, fashion director, Bergdorf Goodman: “I think the section was still trying to find itself. It was one of the first things I looked at. Making it all black and white makes it more timely. I found some of Bill Cunningham’s photographs running 10 days after the event because of the color. I think it’s probably a good move.”
Related Galleries
Sheri Wilson-Gray, senior vice president of marketing, Saks Fifth Avenue: “We’re disappointed. We had high hopes for the section. We’ll miss having that special position on the inside cover. Frankly, there were some issues with it. The editorial was getting a little thin, and there were times the stories seemed less than relevant. But we liked the idea there was a section devoted to style. We’ll be going with all our positions in the main news.”
MORE FRENCH VOGUE CHANGES: It’s official. Brigitte Langevin, fashion and beauty editor of French Glamour, has been appointed fashion director of French Vogue, under the editorship of Joan Juliet Buck. Jenny Capitan, who became French Vogue’s fashion editor last year, becomes fashion editor in chief.
BEEFING UP GLAMOUR: Deborah Fine is returning to Glamour as ad director, taking over some of the duties handled by Susan Blank, who relinquishes the title of ad director and remains associate publisher. Fine had been vice president/associate publisher of Mary Emmerling’s Country, and before that held the same title at Family Circle. Earlier she held ad posts at Fame, Vanity Fair and Glamour.