Huckbody's in fashion
September 27th 2008 00:09
It's enough to make you think the fight for gender equality is being won. Hooray! I thought when I saw the news. A small step for journalism, a giant leap for ... men. Yes, a man has just been named editor of Harper's Bazaar magazine for the first time.
Jamie Huckbody now occupies the desk formerly occupied by Alison Veness-McGourty and, before her, Karin Upton-Baker. It says much for Huckbody that, not only has he broken a gender barrier, he has reached these dizzy heights of fashion publishing leadership with only a single-barrelled surname.
Harper's Bazaar has been presenting its female-led glossiness for 10 years, making it a newcomer alongside the competition, the 50-year-old Vogue. No man has yet to darken the editor's office of Vogue.
Huckbody is impressively qualified for the job (a reminder of the many women that have trail-blazed paths into private and public sector leadership positions by virtue of being, say, twice as qualified as any man on the short list). He started in journalism at the Evening Standard in London, then became fashion features editor at Elle magazine, fashion and features writer at The Independent newspaper, and fashion and features writer for i-D magazine.
His byline has appeared in the US and British editions of Vogue above stories about everything and everybody in fashion, including up-close and in-depth interviews with Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace ... oh, let's just say he knows everyone.
It's a long way from the village in Yorkshire where he grew up.
Despite all that, there have been plenty of raised eyebrows and catty comments. Which led Huckbody, in his first editor's letter in the June edition of Harper's, to write, "Some have been quick to ask, 'What does a man know about women's fashion?'
"Well, the names Karl, Giorgio and Viktor and Rolf ... resonate just as much as Donatella, Frida and Stella."
He'll do well.
Jamie Huckbody now occupies the desk formerly occupied by Alison Veness-McGourty and, before her, Karin Upton-Baker. It says much for Huckbody that, not only has he broken a gender barrier, he has reached these dizzy heights of fashion publishing leadership with only a single-barrelled surname.
Harper's Bazaar has been presenting its female-led glossiness for 10 years, making it a newcomer alongside the competition, the 50-year-old Vogue. No man has yet to darken the editor's office of Vogue.
Huckbody is impressively qualified for the job (a reminder of the many women that have trail-blazed paths into private and public sector leadership positions by virtue of being, say, twice as qualified as any man on the short list). He started in journalism at the Evening Standard in London, then became fashion features editor at Elle magazine, fashion and features writer at The Independent newspaper, and fashion and features writer for i-D magazine.
His byline has appeared in the US and British editions of Vogue above stories about everything and everybody in fashion, including up-close and in-depth interviews with Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace ... oh, let's just say he knows everyone.
It's a long way from the village in Yorkshire where he grew up.
Despite all that, there have been plenty of raised eyebrows and catty comments. Which led Huckbody, in his first editor's letter in the June edition of Harper's, to write, "Some have been quick to ask, 'What does a man know about women's fashion?'
"Well, the names Karl, Giorgio and Viktor and Rolf ... resonate just as much as Donatella, Frida and Stella."
He'll do well.
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