Mr Porter Screenshot | Source: Mr Porter

NEW YORK, United States — What began as a trickle is now starting to look more like a mass exodus. Jeremy Langmead, formerly of Esquire, is now at Mr. Porter. Andrea Linett, formerly of Lucky magazine, is now at eBay. Dennis Freedman, formerly of W, is now at Barneys. Fiona McIntosh, formerly of Grazia, is now at My Wardrobe. And the list goes on. It seems that there are almost weekly reports announcing that yet another magazine veteran has fled a traditional publishing company to take up a position at a brand or retailer. Recently, it was British Vogue that was in the headlines, when creative director Robin Derrick and fashion director Kate Phelan both announced within days of each other that they were leaving the magazine. Phelan is set to become creative director of Topshop, while Derrick’s plans have yet to be revealed.

By now, it’s a well-known fact that times are tough for traditional, ad-supported editorial outlets. For example, from 2007 through 2009, Condé Nast — publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair and others — saw about $500 million in revenue disappear, a decline from which it has yet to recover. In fact, Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townshend recently admitted to the Wall Street Journal, “My eyes are wide open. I don’t consider [the traditional ad-revenue model] to be a perennially sustainable stream of revenue.”

While the Great Recession cut traditional advertising spending dramatically, the internet has also given brands and retailers a cost-effective Clway to circumvent publishers and engage consumers directly with their own editorial content. Back in January, David Carr nailed the implications of this trend in a piece entitled “Publishing, Without Publishers.”

But while there’s been a great deal of discussion about the death of old business models, and the emergence of new ones, there has been relatively little said about the impact of this evolution on the actual content itself. In what ways — positively or negatively — will the rise of content created by brands and retailers transform what we call editorial?

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Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen | Source: Andrew Hetherington for Newsweek

Look, Ma, We’re Fashion Moguls! (Newsweek)
“With their high-end label The Row, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have such a grown-up hit on their hands that even Michelle Obama wears their clothes.”

Man Shops Net (WSJ)
“Sites like the dapper Mr Porter, an extension of Web retail pioneer Natalie Massenet’s empire; avant-garde portal Oki-ni; Southern-bred start-up Lyonstate and flash-sale favorite Gilt Man and its coming full-price site are upending the notion that acquiring cool clothes requires tedious hours spent sifting through mountains of merchandise.”

Deadline set for buy-out deal to rescue All Saints (Telegraph)
“The future of retailer All Saints hung in the balance on Saturday after it emerged its management team has been given a deadline of Tuesday evening to finalise a rescue buy-out deal.”

Fame, fortune and fashion: inside the Elie Saab story (Arabian Business)
“Today, the 46-year-old runs a truly global empire, with boutiques in Paris, London and Dubai. His clothes are on sale in 22 countries, and he has moved into bags, shoes and jewellery.”

Lunch With Vidal Sassoon (FT)
“‘All around me, things were changing: fashion, architecture, politics, and I thought hair had to change too. I thought it had to become democratic. I said to myself, ‘If I haven’t changed things in five years, I’ll stop.’ So I decided to cut hair instead of just ‘doing’ it.’”

Mr Porter, coming soon | Source: Mr Porter

Mr Porter to Test Men’s Urge to Shop Online (WSJ)
“The debut of Mr Porter, the biggest ever launch of a men’s luxury-goods website, will be closely watched by the fashion industry to see whether there are enough active male shoppers to support a fashion site… ‘We know there’s a demand for this,’ says Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet, ‘I don’t think shopping right now really appreciates the way men want to shop.’”

New Star in the Front Row (NY Times)
“Vogue editors do not come along every day, except in China and India, where Western fashion magazines are new. Anna Wintour (American Vogue) and Franca Sozzani (Italian Vogue) have each held their jobs for 22 years; Alexandra Shulman, the chief of British Vogue, a little less. If anything, the cult of the editor has exploded in the last decade.”

A Fresh Face Behind a Comeback (NY Times)
“Carven has been pretty far off the fashion radar for the last decade, but it has quietly made a comeback under Mr. Henry, who previously worked for Givenchy and Paule Ka. He said he wanted to bring back the attitude of Mme. Carven Mallet, who founded the house in the 1940s.”

Google’s Boutiques.com Gets Analytical (WWD)
“Coinciding with [NYFW] Boutiques.com introduced two analytical tools — Designer Analytics for designers and Trend Analytics for the consumer. It also unveiled recent boutique additions Michael Kors, Jil Sander, Thakoon and Billy Reid — bringing the amount of designer partners to nearly 80, up from 30 three months ago when the fashion site launched.”

An Intellectual Fashion | Francesco Vezzoli (AnOther)
“In his column, Donatien Grau speaks to prominent thinkers and creatives about fashion and its connections to contemporary creativity. Italian-born artist Francesco Vezzoli is fascinated by the role of cultural icons in the popular psyche, of the workings of fame, power and talent.”

McQ video, posted on Vimeo, shared on Tumblr | Source: McQ

Why Fashion’s Top Brands Are Flocking to Tumblr (Mashable)
“According to Tumblr… approximately 180 of the top 1,000 Tumblr blogs are fashion-related. And fashion-related Tumblr posts are reblogged on a much greater scale than general Tumblr posts… suggesting that ‘there’s a huge capacity for fashion content to go viral on Tumblr.’”

Manish Arora Confirmed as Paco Rabanne Creative Director (Fashionologie)
“Manish Arora is the new creative director of Paco Rabanne, and will show his first collection for the label in October during Paris Fashion Week — for Spring 2012. He will also continue his colorful signature collection, which is also shown in Paris but sells mostly in his native India.”

Barneys’ New Chief Explains Those Changes (On the Runway)
“Mr. Lee stressed that his mission for the luxury retailer was to make it surprising and dynamic. ‘But,’ he added, ‘there’s never going to be a day when we say ‘ta-da’ and drop the curtain.’ The changes will be a work-in-progress over the next few years, he said.”

Arnault offers olive branch to Hermès (Reuters)
“Arnault struck a conciliatory note on Friday, arguing LVMH was best positioned to ensure the long-term survival of Hermès’ culture and business. ‘We can bring them a number of advantages both strategically and operationally without anything in return other than our presence as a shareholder.’”

Lunch with Natalie Massenet (FT)
“Net-a-Porter looks a lot like a glossy online fashion magazine but Mr Porter is largely black and white; more tabloid in tone; more vertically oriented; and features real men, role models who can also be style models, such as actor Steve McQueen and hotelier Andre Balazs, as well as lists of “essentials” every man needs.”

Natalie Massenet in her Net-a-Porter 'living room' 10 June 2010 | Source: BoF

LONDON, United Kingdom —”I’m more excited about this than anything we’ve ever done,” says Natalie Massenet about the new Mr Porter menswear shopping destination announced to the fashion world today in Women’s Wear Daily.

Just when some might have thought she was on cruise control after Richemont stepped in to acquire the majority of the Net-a-Porter business, fashion blogosphere, twittersphere and watercooler conversations were once again fixated on this remarkable woman who — lucky for us — is also our special guest for the next BoF Live Fashion Pioneers event which is already close to selling out only three days after it was announced.

As we settled into her ‘living room’ in the brand new Net-a-Porter headquarters to discuss Mr Porter — 10 years to the day since the launch of Net-a-Porter at 9pm on 10 June 2000 — bouquets of flowers were arriving from friends, colleagues and partners to congratulate Massenet on yet another big announcement.

But only BoF has the backstory on how the idea for Mr Porter was born, where the brand name came from, and who’ll be scouting the men’s shows with her this season to suss out the Spring/Summer 2011 collections.

Oh, and by the way it’s pronounced Mr Port-ER, not Mr Port-AY — a perfect masculine British riff on the feminine French Net-a-Porter. It’s no wonder that this backstory begins with a brand name.

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