Gwyther goes from the Dragon’s Den to Wonderland

By Alyson Fixter

A former New York magazine editor, who won the top prize on a BBC
reality TV show with a pitch for a fashion title appealing to both men
and women, is planning to launch in September.

Huw Gwyther, who managed photographer Mario Testino’s studio before
becoming managing editor of V magazine, said his new glossy mag,
Wonderland, would be aimed at 25-40- year-olds, with the emphasis on
luxury.

On the BBC Two show Dragons’ Den, Gwyther, 28, persuaded
entrepreneur Peter Jones to invest £175,000 in the venture, the highest
investment secured by any competitor.

Gwyther has hired two former Face employees, fashion director Grace Cobb and fashion editor Anthony Unwin, for the project.

He insisted there were no magazines Huw Gwyther: “The idea of luxury is most important”

currently in the market like Wonderland, for which he is predicting a first issue circulation of around 100,000.

“There’s nothing out there that I find exciting or that I look forward to buying or want to subscribe to,” he said.

“I say that as a complete magaholic, and I believe that other people might feel the same way.

” Wonderland will be about fashion and visual culture and the idea of luxury is most important,” he added.

“I
see it very much as a destination rather than just a magazine, as
something that people look forward to going out and buying, something
to take you out of your everyday life and on a bit of a journey to a
fun place where you want to be.

“It’ll be a really upbeat, very
fun and sexy mag for both men and women, covering the range of fashion,
beauty, clubs, design, art, film and music.”Dragons’ Den was a six-part
series in which entrepreneurs pitched their ideas in an attempt to
secure investment finance from a panel of six business experts.

Peter
Jones, whose telecommunications firm, Phones International Group, is
worth £300m, was the only one of the six “dragons” to hear Gwyther’s
pitch through to the end.

He said the “high risk/high return
nature of the investment” intrigued him into offering the cash in
return for 40 per cent company shares.

The mag’s website can be viewed at www.wonderlandmagazine.com