Mariacarla Boscono, Lara Stone, Natalia Vodianova, Joan Smalls, Gemma Ward, Miranda Kerr, Iselin Steiro, Candice Swanepoel, Delon Smith, Alessio Pozzi, Filip Hrivnak, Alexandre Valotto, Kevin Sampaio, Diego Fragoso, Gabriel Vieira, and Antoine Lorvo—or, 16 of modeling’s most famous faces gathered next to Givenchy’s Ricardo Tisci.
Bombast for bombast’s sake. Victoria Secret’s shows are borderline mental. But then I am stunned by the creative process, professionalism, craft and creativity getting into it. And it is so New York. Take a look. Forget about the girls.
Just kiddin’.
A lot of revisiting. Showstudio revisiting the early days of Kate Moss. Me finding the perfect theme song for a new project, I can’t talk about. Though the brand and the band are from the UK.
You’ve got me dying for you
It’s you that I’m living through
You’ve got me praying to you
Saying to you
Anything you want me to
You’ve got me reaching for you
My soul’s beseeching me to
You’ve got me singing to you
Bringing to you
Anything you ask me to
“In Chains” x Depeche Mode
Simple Guys Flavio Girolami, left, and Peter Poopat, the low-key designers behind Common Projects sneakers. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
When one talks to Peter Poopat and Flavio Girolami, it is easy to forget that they are the design duo behind the label Common Projects, the super-minimalist sneaker worn by everyone seeking a hint of upscale cool, from the creative layman to Kanye West.
It’s also easy to forget because Mr. Poopat, 43, and Mr. Girolami, 42, would like you to. “It sounds silly, but we rarely tell anyone we just met what we do,” Mr. Poopat said.
He’s not exaggerating. While vacationing last July in Ibiza, Spain, with his wife and two children, Mr. Poopat was introduced to Amir Kassaei, the chief creative officer at DDB Worldwide. When Mr. Kassaei asked about his profession, Mr. Poopat answered innocently that he had a company “and we make shoes.” It was only when Mr. Kassaei pressed further that he coughed up the name of his global brand.
“Amir immediately jumped up and turned to my son and said: ‘You know who your father is? Your father is my hero. I have 50 pairs of his shoes,’ ” Mr. Poopat said with a laugh.
Such self-effacement is characteristic for the low-key sneaker duo known for a streamlined aesthetic that the Business of Fashion recently called “almost blank,” save a subtle line of gold-stamped numbers. “In a way, Common Projects doesn’t feel like ours,” Mr. Girolami said. “It feels like it has a life of its own and belongs to a lot of people.”
“A lot of people” is an understatement. The sneakers, which sell for about $400 a pair, are carried by more than 200 retailers worldwide, including department stores like Barneys and Beams International Gallery in Japan, forward-leaning emporiums such as Dover Street Market and Totokaelo, and digital hubs like Mr Porter and the Line.
And they have adorned the feet of countless cultural influencers, including Frank Ocean, Ellen DeGeneres, Nick Jonas, Alexander Skarsgard and Drake, as well as hordes of men’s magazine editors whose Common Projects-clad feet pepper the front rows of the global fashion week circuit.
“There is something about their sneakers that is a confidence booster for guys,” said Jim Moore, the creative director of GQ magazine. “I have some pairs that I’ve been wearing for over four years, and when I pull them out I still get more compliments than anything else in my closet. It’s a sneaker that everyone in the world knows about.”
That is remarkable, considering the pair’s aversion to self-aggrandizing and marketing. They have never advertised, for example. They have never hosted a party for their brand. And as of today, their Instagram account has not been updated in 31 weeks, for reasons unknown even to them.
“We try to stay quiet and let the brand speak for itself,” Mr. Girolami said with a shrug.
It seems to be paying off. According to Mr. Poopat, the brand had $10 million in revenue last year and employs six people split among two offices, in San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, and New York.
“If you grow slow, you grow right,” Mr. Girolami said. “It’s much easier to make less mistakes.”
Birth of a Luxe Sneaker
The brand got its start “sometime in the mid-1990s” over sake at the Hiro Ballroom, now shuttered, underneath the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea.
The two became close friends after repeatedly bumping into each other “generally around the downtown fashion scene,” Mr. Girolami said. They would often meet up after work (at the time, Mr. Poopat was an art director for V Magazine and Mr. Girolami was a brand consultant for Italian shoe manufacturers) to vent about not being able to find that perfect desk lamp or dress shirt that suited their rarefied tastes.
It was at those boozy think tanks that they decided to collaborate on a series of projects. Hence the name “Common Projects.”
The two insist that their creative process has changed little since those early days. “We couldn’t find anything we liked that matched our vision,” Mr. Poopat said in June, sitting on a distressed leather sofa at the News, their longtime showroom in SoHo. “In some ways, we still can’t.”
The sneakers sell for about $400 a pair, and are carried by more than 200 retailers. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
Mr. Girolami was more blunt. “We liked to hang together, so maybe we would like to work together,” he said. “We were probably drunk.”
Deconstructing the sneaker quickly became their main focus. At the time, sneakerheads were into candy-colored Nike Dunks, the Japanese label Bathing Ape, and over-designed high-tops from European brands like D Squared and Dolce & Gabbana.
Mr. Poopat and Mr. Flavio deemed those sneakers too cartoonish to wear to an office. At the same time, they found formal shoes too stuffy for the gallery-hopping enclaves they inhabited.
“We were wearing slimmer clothes and we needed sneakers to go with them,” Mr. Poopat said.
So they distilled the sneaker to its essence, removing any flourishes and creating a low-top monochromatic shoe that resembles a pair of Stan Smiths, as reimagined by the American minimalist artist Carl Andre. The shoe was made with high-quality leather in Italy, through Mr. Girolami’s manufacturing contacts.
Their first shoe, the Achilles, was released in 2004 and was an instant hit with the fashion tribe. “There were sports sneakers and then there were dress shoes,” said Eugene Tong, the style director of Details magazine. “They were the first brand to bridge that gap.”
“They don’t get enough credit for what they’ve done and how they’ve changed the men’s wear landscape,” said Mr. Tong, who owns about 10 pairs of Common Projects. “They were the first people to give a proposition of a truly luxe sneaker.”
Still a Best Seller
These days, Common Projects is no longer the only luxury sneaker. Walk the sixth floor of the Dover Street Market in New York and it’s apparent that Mr. Poopat and Mr. Girolami’s vision has been co-opted by a stampede of high-low collaborations from labels like Adidas, Raf Simons, Superga and Comme des Garçons.
But James Gilchrist, Dover Street New York’s general manager, said that Common Projects remains the floor’s best seller. The brand “transcends so many different types of customers and age groups,” he said.
Indeed, the label’s monastic take on high-end footwear dovetails nicely with three major fashion trends of the past decade: the rise of sportswear, the influence of sneaker-driven blogs like Styleforum and Highsnobiety, and the growth of men’s wear.
Common Projects continues to expand with small refinements, like introducing the occasional new color and branching out with unexpected styles including suede combat boots and caramel-hued high tops that resemble a grown-up version of the Converse Chuck Taylor.
The publicity shy pair have never advertised, and had not updated their Instagram account for about 30 weeks. Michael Nagle for The New York Times
The brand has also loosened its rigid aesthetic through collaborations with designers like Tim Coppens (leather and mesh running shoes), Robert Gellar (lace-up hiking boots), and the eyewear brand Moscot (sunglasses). Last year, it started a women’s shoe collection, with small feminine updates to their classic men’s styles, earthy open-toed sandals and ankle boots with a small heel.
But for the most part, Mr. Poopat and Mr. Girolami prefer to keep Common Projects grounded. “We’re O.K. not necessarily trying to be the biggest thing,” Mr. Poopat said. “Even though we probably owe it to the brand to try.”
Mr. Girolami raised his hand as if to stop his partner from getting too far ahead of himself. “Yes, we could have grown faster and become bigger,” he said. “But you know what? We’re happy exactly where we are.”
Cindy Crawford—supermodel, mom, and mogul—has led a remarkable life. From working with the biggest names in fashion to posing for countless now-iconic images, Crawford is an enduring force within the fashion industry, and ever since the late September publication of her autobiography, Becoming, she’s now become something of a font of fashion wisdom. Crawford celebrated the release at The Irvington last week, and with famous fans like Tyra Banks spotted reading the book, there feels like no better time to delve into the biographical tome.
Imparting advice from Crawford’s extensive career alongside legendary photographers like Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Steven Meisel, the book provides insight on everything from Crawford’s initial reaction to George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” music video to what it’s like to go toe-to-toe with Helmut Newton. Introspective, self-deprecating, and, best of all, honest, Crawford provides budding models—and model fans—with plenty of words to live by. Here, the Tao of Cindy:
1. There’s much more to modeling than a blank expression.
“I always credit [Richard] Avedon with teaching me how to do a cover. He insisted how important it was that I, as the model, always have an idea in my head when I looked into the camera. He’d tell me to have a thought, even if the thought was simply ‘Buy me. I’m $3’ (the price of Vogue at the time). He taught me how to look away from the camera between each click and come back with a fresh thought. I still do that to this day. While a young girl’s face can be pretty enough with a blank expression, Avedon didn’t want blank. If you started to zone out, thinking about your grocery list, he knew it. He wanted to see the sparkle in your eyes looking back at him under his black cloth. And he knew it when he saw it.”
2. Not everyone is impressed by your Vogue cover.
“I remember how excited I was when my first Vogue cover finally hit the newsstands. At the airport on my way back to Chicago, I picked up three copies to show my mom and excitedly approached the cashier, hoping she would recognize me. She didn’t even look up as she tallied my purchases. All she said was, ‘You know you have three of the same magazine, right, honey?’ ”
3. Models shouldn’t be afraid to say no.
“I know it’s a model’s job to try and bring the photographer’s vision to life, but I also believe it is the photographer’s job to keep the model safe. When I realized that wasn’t always the case, I understood that I had to protect myself and have a more forceful voice about what was acceptable to me. Slowly, I found ways to say no.”
4. You’re a performer—don’t forget it.
“At one point, [Helmut Newton] had me in a bathing suit and heels—the Newton ‘uniform’—standing on a street corner. He put a hat on the ground and would offer every passerby a Polaroid shot with me in exchange for 100 francs. It was a great deal—we played at this until we made enough money to buy lunch. Talk about singing for your supper!”
5. That smile is a skill, too.
“In modeling, as is the case with most jobs, your skill set improves with practice. You learn how to work your face to its best advantage and finally how to smile naturally on demand. (It took me at least 10 years—I think that’s why I didn’t smile much in photos in the beginning of my career and thus perfected my look with my mouth slightly open and teeth showing a bit.)”
6. You never know what will catch on.
“When I first saw the finished [‘Freedom! ’90’] video, I remember being slightly disappointed, feeling like my part was the least glamorous. All the other women looked so gorgeous—Naomi [Campbell] strutting her stuff in a tight leopard dress, Tatjana [Patitz] looking so cool with a cigarette—while I was stuck in a bathtub with a towel on my head. At the time I wasn’t able to see what everyone else saw. People loved it; the video became a huge hit and played nonstop on MTV.”
7. Serious about a career in fashion? Hit the books.
“I applied myself to modeling the same way I had applied myself to school. As a young model I wouldn’t have dreamed of showing up to Avedon or [Irving] Penn’s studios without familiarizing myself with their work and their style. I also paid attention and did my homework so that when the photographer or stylist referenced ‘film noir’ or ‘Jean Shrimpton,’ I could speak the same language and know what they wanted from me.”
8. Travel is more than just a job perk, it’s your very own finishing school.
“With each trip, I saw a little more. I learned about art and architecture, food and fashion. I had a fling with an Italian, danced all night at a Parisian nightclub, swam topless on countless beaches. When I started traveling I was a young girl from a small town—until, all of a sudden, I wasn’t. Traveling was the ultimate finishing school. And the greatest lesson for me was that even though there are so many distinct cultures, in the end we as humans have more in common than we have differences.”
9. The power to change fashion is in your hands.
“The pendulum always swings back and forth, from Marilyn Monroe to Twiggy, from supermodels to heroin chic. That’s how designers, photographers, and editors get inspired. Second, consumers must realize that the power is in their hands (or, rather, their wallets). If they don’t like the images they see, they have the power to stop buying the magazine or the designer’s dresses. Above all else, fashion is a business, and sometimes change can only happen when the bottom line is affected. That said, it is exciting to see the current fashion embracing a broader idea of beauty. To my mind the most important message I can promote and exemplify is one that supports diversity and health.”
10. Even supermodels sing the blues.
“I’d love to tell that hardworking girl with her nose buried in a book that it is okay to live it up a little bit. I know for sure I never would have been the girl at the nightclub dancing on a table without any underwear (that story is for a different book), but I could have let myself experience more. Life goes by quickly, and I’ve learned that decisions made from a place of confidence—rather than one of fear—are the ones that get me to the place I want to be.”
Twenty-two illustrators depict key looks from the S/S 16 runways. Curated by Ellie Grace Cumming, the artworks were exhibited at the event and are now available for purchase from the SHOWstudio / MACHINE-A e-store.
Christopher Kane calls it art party. I call it Drink ‘n Draw. Coming soon to my house. Less bling and posing more art and creativity. Watch this space!
Actress and model of the moment Kiko Mizuhara is proving to have quite the staying power in the eyes of Opening Ceremony, unveiling her sixth collaboration with the brand since 2013. Having drawn inspiration from saccharine ’60s-era tennis styles in her previous collaboration, Mizuhara goes for a more demure, grown-up look in this latest collection, albeit disguising an undercurrent of rebelliousness and sex appeal that has become so characteristic of the model.
Raf Simons is leaving Dior. I admire Raf Simons. I am inspired by his thoughtfulness and lack of ego and pose, his proximity to the arts. “Simons’s tightrope walk between realness and high fashion not only felt new and directional.” Cathy Horn. The NYTimes has a very attractive run down of his accomplishments.
great branding, story and theme gives you fantastic returns. The Kooples turn originality into rapid growth. One shop for both men and women, with almost mixed collections, as shown in the slogan « A locker room for two. » Heterosexual or homosexual, young or old, all types of couples were represented. You gotta have style.
You don’t expect an article of “The New Nice” appear in the manrepeller.com. Here the notion that celebrity obsession culture is bringing us kindness.
From beaming street style stars to relatable editors, goofy models and down-to-earth bloggers, there’s this new influx of engaging individuals not only alluring in their aspirational statuses, but in their approachable ones. Fashion celebrities — in fact, most celebrities — once relegated to cold and isolated roles at the upper echelons of society have become less stoic, funnier and more chummy with their fans than ever before. More Andy, less Miranda Priestly.
I am appalled my this notion. The piece I want to refer to is called “Models Never Talk”. A performance in which a group of veteran models, wearing just black leotards and tights, use gestures and a limited number of words to impart the sense of wearing the fashions of the fashion legends of their time. Yves Saint Laurent, Madame Grès, Jean Paul Gaultier as Commes des Garcons.
might consist of Art’s and Crafts. Somebody has to pay for the “End of Jobs” though. I suggest the robots and 1%. A look at “Stichcraft”, the ateliers de Haute Couture by Cathy Horyn. The future of work.
Fashion and Art are symbiotic, it is mandatory to stay on top of both to do good work. Here is a very convenient run down of 15 up and coming artists by GOOP.
Print Media and its outlets seem to have a come back or are reflected on nostalgically. Here you see the classic NY newsstand, interpreted by Brooklyn-based artist Kimou Meyer, aka Grotesk for Juxtapoz magazine.
Grotesk brought the newsstand to life by creating a functional wood replica for the 2014 SCOPE Miami Art Show. And now, Grotesk, Victory Journal, Juxtapoz magazine, and Times Square Arts are bringing the newsstand to the heart of NYC: Times Square.
Meanwhile Monocle’s Tyler Brulé opened Kioskkafé to celebrate magazine- and Middle Europe inspired coffee shop culture.
I say it all along to editorialize your collection from the beginning to the presentation to the retail environment.
Get away with the gatekeepers, forget about seasons. Make it about themes and ideas.
Tom Ford: “I decided to try something new. Having a runway show has become so much about the creation of imagery for online and social media. I wanted to think about how to present a collection in a cinematic way that was designed from its inception to be presented online. I have always loved Soul Train which used to be on TV in the seventies; as it was as much about the clothes as the music. I asked Nile Rodgers to collaborate on a new version of one of his great hits from that time, I Want Your Love, and worked with Gaga to record the vocals. I then staged a full show in Los Angeles and filmed it with Gaga on the runway, Nick Knight directing and Benoit Delhomme as our director of photography. We pulled frames from the video that will be used for our look book, photographed the ad campaigns, and shot the beauty images all at the same time. It was a great deal of fun to do and I think that the video captures the spirit of the collection in a way that a filmed traditional show would not have.”
Though roughly 330 million deities populate the Hindu heavens, there are only a handful most people worship daily and know by name. Similarly, though there are about 330 billion images of celebrity divinities floating around the web empyrean at any given moment, when it comes down to it we seem inevitably to worship the same group of guys. This is meant in terms of style.
One hardly needs name them. Just utter the words “male style icon” and images inevitably form of celestial beings like Cary Grant, Paul Newman or Steve McQueen.
At least they do among that segment of the population that came of age before all manner of visual information was streamed directly onto the cerebral cortex by way of Instagram. That group would, of course, include most men’s wear designers, never in any case a culturally progressive group and less so when it comes to frame of reference — or, as image theft is often euphemized in fashion, “inspiration.”
“A lot of designers latch on to the same handful of guys,” the designer Michael Bastian noted recently, declining to point any fingers, both for diplomacy and because he himself has made frequent withdrawals from the familiar image bank. “It’s Steve McQueen, it’s Paul Newman, it’s Cary Grant and Fred Astaire, all done to utter death,” Mr. Bastian said.
Cary Grant (shown in Paris in 1956) helped define the term “fashion icon.”
It is probably worth pointing out that there are good reasons why the same small group of men continues to exert a disproportionate influence on what we here at Men’s Style think of as men’s style.
Not only were Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Cary Grant uncommonly handsome humans, they were also possessed of that certain ineffable quality we categorize as cool. They looked great in clothes seemingly no matter what they wore. In part, this was because they looked as if they gave clothes and fashion not a moment’s thought.
“Perhaps the first thing I learned about style was that if something makes you feel good, chances are you look good,” Remo Rufini — the 54-year-old Italian billionaire who made his fortune by restoring cool to Moncler, a fusty and largely forgotten ski-wear label — said during the recent New York Fashion Week. “I think what makes people ‘icons’ is the confidence they give off wearing whatever it is they love to wear.”
Preternatural confidence is a signal quality of the male icons under discussion. And it is, to be sure, a highly limited group, lacking altogether in racial and social and gender diversity. “So few black leaders have been allowed to shine forth,” and find an enduring place in the style pantheon, said Horace D. Ballard Jr., an essayist on black style and curator of education at the Birmingham Museum of Art. “Where is Marvin Gaye or Paul Robeson?”
Marvin Gaye in 1970. His style has transcended generations but has been largely ignored by the fashion elite, according to Horace D. Ballard Jr., an essayist on African-American style.
The available images of each of those men, no less than those of Newman, McQueen and Grant, convey a powerful sense of the difference between wearing one’s clothes and having them wear you. And in this they are all starkly unlike the dress-up dolls turned out in borrowed tuxedos at the Emmy Awards or any of the now ubiquitous and wholly purgatorial red carpet events.
“The distinction between then and now is this idea that celebrities, the supposed role models, tend to be styled,” Josh Sims, author of “Icons of Men’s Style,” said by telephone from London. “They have assistants and their look is a professional, very deliberate creation of a team.”
That is not to suggest that the male Hollywood stars of the last century were unconcerned about image, he added. It is well established that Steve McQueen required that his bluejeans were tailored in such a way that one of his favorite assets, his behind, was well accentuated.
The care McQueen took with his off-screen appearance was also mirrored in the stylish cut of the clothes he wore in some of the films that seem to play in an infinite rerun loop in the imaginations of many men’s wear designers — classics like “Bullitt” and “The Thomas Crowne Affair.”
“Even the khakis he wears in ‘The Great Escape’ were not in any way accurate to the period,” Mr. Sims said. Standard-issue trousers for members of the Allied forces during World War II would have been wide legged and with a high-waist, ample in the rear. “McQueen had his cut to a ’60s proportion” for the film, Mr. Sims said. “They were much slenderer and much more fitted than the traditional trouser cut.”
Steve McQueen, considered one of the godfathers of modern men’s style.
The Italians have a handy term — sprezzatura — for sartorial gracefulness achieved through artful nonchalance. The concept behind sprezzatura was first codified by Baldessare Castiglione in his 1528 treatise, “The Book of the Courtier.” In it he steered young Renaissance gentlemen away from dangerous shoals of artifice and affectation, guiding them toward the safe haven of a public comportment predicated on making all a man does or wears “seem uncontrived and effortless.”
Naturally, sprezzatura is abused all the time in modern practice.
Think of a necktie deliberately knotted that slight bit wrong. Think of the absurdity of a half-tucked T-shirt. Think of shoes without laces or sneakers with suits. Think of the overwrought pocket square. The great cinematic icons would never have been caught dead betraying the amount of care that went into transforming, say, Paul Newman — a middle-class kid from suburban Shaker Heights, Ohio — into the quintessential sexy rebel or the archetypal cowboy of “Hud.”
“The personas stars created fulfilled a particular need of the times,” said G. Bruce Boyer, a men’s wear expert and the author of the recently published “True Style.” “In ’30s stars, what was needed was an overt sex appeal and an extrovert personality necessary to cope with the Depression. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was expressions of rebellion against corporate consumerism, but safely and acceptably.”
It hardly matters that often the great style gods portraying rebels and adventurers and sportsmen were putting on a performance. What counts is that they kept us from noticing it all was an act.
“The best thing in style is a man who pulls off wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt perfectly,” Gert Jonkers, the co-editor of the influential men’s wear bible, Fantastic Man, said by phone from Amsterdam.. “That is almost the ambition everybody has. Every fashion designer you ever speak to says: ‘Oh, men shouldn’t wear fashion. Men should wear just jeans and a crew neck sweater.’ These style icons are the ones that did that first.”
And the gorgeously offhand photographs of them racing sports cars or riding motorcycles or popping open a beer were not necessarily the products of a candid camera. Almost all but the semi-nudes and stoner snapshots the photographer William Claxton took of his good friend Mr. McQueen were to some extent staged.
The photographic quality and rarity of those images adds to their potency and timelessness, Mr. Jonkers said. “It’s not like today’s celebrities, where there are so many bad images of them,” he said. “It’s great to look at Ryan Gosling until you see that picture of him running to the supermarket to get a carton of milk.”
We were thrilled this week when both Stephen Colbert and Snoop Doggy Dog announced they were joining us in the lifestyle space. We know we speak for everyone when we say, it’s about time someone brought a sausage or two to this clam bake. The lifestyle space, however, is not as easy as it looks, so in the spirit of sisterhood, here are some ideas for a successful launch.
1. All eyes are on you now, so pull it together at all costs.
It’s said that we here at goop subsist solely on seaweed, air, and Tracy Anderson DVDs, but when all else fails, we have some tricks up our sleeves. After all, hipsters—and the dad bods that dress like them—know there’s only one bulge that belongs under your skinny suit. We hear that aerial yoga is really good for those moobs and not-so-manly muffin tops, but failing that, there’s always Spanx for Men. Perhaps a waist trainer for guys should be the first offering from your own-label product line.
2. Find legitimacy by latching onto obscure trends.
Our bet is that men with perfectly curated lifestyles will soon be swapping their kombucha for the next artisan wellness mocktail—Up Mountain Switchel: An American Heritage Beverage. This historic recipe has been passed down through generations of Vermont farmers, only to be resurrected in the alleys of Bushwick by two brothers who hand-craft every batch from meticulously sourced ginger, organic apple cider vinegar (raw, of course), and the highest-grade maple syrup. So high in grade, in fact, Snoop can probably smoke it. Trend-spotting makes you look like you actually leave your little celebrity bubble, and more importantly, you get to take all the credit when these little companies make it big.
3. Get good at telling people what to do.
Our how-to, evergreen beauty content is SEO gold—and you can link-bait the shit out of it. Take, for example, achieving the perfectly imperfect man bun—subject line: The Panty Dropper of Hairstyles—which you can easily stretch into a six-part slideshow (six times the pageviews!), complete with product integration. Goop tip: We style ours with Psssssst Dry Shampoo and Abilene oil from sharks.
4. If something is expensive, front like you own it.
You need to get out there and quickly establish that you don’t use run-of-the-mill appliances—at least in public. For example, our readers think the best green juice comes from gold-plated juicers; likewise, you want your readers to believe you actually have the one ring to rule them all. Not the one from Etsy. The one from Middle Earth.
5. As content kings, set up your kingdom in the kitchen.
Every lifestyle brand worth its salt has a food section, so you’ll need to set up a state-of-the-art test kitchen right away. Goop readers go particularly crazy for our yearly detox recipes, but with the modern-day male audience in mind, we recommend a Paleo approach. Stephen, why not try to shark some of Snoop Dogg’s readers? After all, the media world will be eagerly awaiting a cat fight from you two lifestyle doyennes! Take that first Page Six-worthy blow with some everyday edible recipes: We’re thinking pot-infused compound butter to melt over grilled grass-fed ribeyes and weed-based protein powder for breakfast shakes. Extra points if you grow your own organic grass!
6. Embrace your babymaker.
Everyone goes WILD for content about genitals, so we suggest you get ahead of the curve and write about a growing craze among men, anal bleaching. Colbert, we think this is one that will really hit home for you, both personally and professionally. We test all of our recommendations ourselves before we publish, and any content site worth its weight must do the same. Head to Face to Face, the men’s day spa in NYC and sign yourself up for the “New Ringtone.” Gentle fruit acids will be applied to your balloon tie to lighten you up! You just might cause a sensation in the media (great for growing your subscriber base) and you certainly will cause one in your pants.
