Spruce
Tyler Brule, Wallpaper’s creator and editorial director, has unveiled the cover and title of his new international fashion magazine.
Spruce, a £2m venture, is the biggest launch from Time Inc since In Style hit the news-stands earlier this year.
It will target male and female readers over 30 seeking an overview of the international fashion scene. It is expected to have a strong news agenda and compete against both consumer magazines and the trade press in terms of advertising and analysis.
Brule has hired a number of top contributors, including Lauren Goldstein, fashion editor of The Times, as business editor and Rebecca Lowthorpe, from The Independent on Sunday, as fashion editor. The magazine will be edited by Anne Urbauer from German newspaper Die Woche and the magazine Stern.
Brule said that existing titles had failed to capitalise on the global nature of the fashion industry and he hopes the magazine will repeat the success of Wallpaper, which is now sold in 60 countries.
"We have got the money to put people on planes and do the interviews in person, rather than having something cobbled together over the phone," he told Press Gazette.
"The only negative feedback we have had is from Vogue, which doesn’t believe a dual audience will work but that is ridiculous. Wallpaper is a clear success story and has a healthy readership. Certainly in terms of the fashion arena, men like to look at men’s clothes as much as women’s and vice versa."
Spruce is expected to steer away from the "abstract and impressionistic" photography of existing fashion titles. It will highlight new designers and businesses worldwide and BržlŽ stressed it would devote as much coverage to an item costing £5 as one which cost £5,000 – coverage would depend on its design merit.
The launch issue – out on 30 August – will feature an article on Iranian women who wear hijabs but have ‘revolutionary’ beauty operations and nose jobs, and an item on how US fashion is stuck in a rut and is turning to Europe for inspiration.
The biannual title will have a cover price of £5, a print run of 250,000 and is hoping to sell around 100,000.
By Ruth Addicott
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