W

Kate Moss covers the March issue of W magazine, and it’s the most compelling cover we’ve seen in a long time. Shot by Steven Klein and styled by Edward Enniful, the theme is “Good vs. Bad.” Or as Will Self says in the profile of her (which you can read here) “Dark Moss and Light Moss. Bad Kate and Good Little Katie—simple dichotomizing is not what this dyad deserves.” Indeed. Read more »

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2011 did not end on a good note for magazines. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations, the industry was down an average of 10 percent, WWD is reporting.

And that’s not even the worst of it. Some fashion titles fell much harder.

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In the magazine world, 2011 has come and gone (January 2012 issues are already out). Thus, WWD has issued their annual report on the year’s best and worst selling American covers–meaning, which celebrity faces, from Lady Gaga to Kim Kardashian, achieved the highest success rate at newsstands.

The results, while largely predictable, included a few surprises.

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It happens every year: Our ever-growing pile of fashion magazines inches higher with each passing month, and by the time December rolls around, we can barely sift through the hundreds of stylish images we bookmarked for inspiration. 2011 was no exception, and in a year that celebrated retro supermodels, androgyny, vivid colors, and plenty of experimentation in the beauty department, choosing our favorites was particularly difficult.

The best editorials of the year ran the gamut from huge ensemble casts of blue-chip models styled by greats like Katie Grand and Carine Roitfeld, to intimate, one-on-one portraits of our favorite girls like Lindsey Wixson and Daria Werbowy. The acid brights that dominated the spring collections allowed for some pretty trippy trend stories last season, but the fall glossies featured much moodier imagery, with a number of gorgeous spreads in black and white.

Here are the editorials from 2011 that will stay tacked up on our walls and fill our inspiration boards well into the new year—and beyond.

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Last week, W mag premiered a new documentary by Loic Prigent and Fabien Constant called “The Client,” featuring Carine Roitfeld. The 13-minute documentary follows the inimitable Roitfeld as she attends the couture shows as a “client” and then picks out dresses and gets fitted for a Paolo Roversi shoot which appeared in W‘s October issue.

The film is utterly charming, mostly because Carine Roitfeld is utterly charming and says hilarious things. Read more »

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As we reported last week, sisters of the moment Elle and Dakota Fanning are W‘s December cover girls. Along with a less blurry image of the gorgeous, ethereal cover, we now have the full spread styled by Lori Goldstein and shot by Mario Sorrenti. There’s also a lovely interview by Lynn Hirschberg–two separate ones in fact–in which the girls dish about borrowing each other’s clothes, working at such a young age and how fashion-obsessed Elle reacted to being invited to the Chanel couture show.

Click through for the best bits from the interview and to see the “fabulous Fannings” wearing Chanel couture and looking super pretty in the editorial.

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Vogue was right: It really is the year of the sisters!

Days after Vogue‘s Best Dressed issue hit stands featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley on the cover (and heralding the year of the sisters), The Fashion Spot has posted a picture of W‘s December 2011 issue with the stylish Fanning sisters glowing on the cover. Read more »

Remember when Nicki Minaj sat next to Anna Wintour at the Carolina Herrera show? Well, she was actually flanked by two Condé editors that day. To her right was W editor-in-chief Stefano Tonchi and apparently that’s who we should have had our eye on in terms of cover speculation. Read more »

Here’s the deal: You may have seen the 22-page portfolio Steven Meisel shot for W‘s September 2011 issue. The editorial features black and white “before” and “after” shots of big-name models like Raquel Zimmermann, Jessica Stam, Karen Elson and Carolyn Murphy. The story was a big get for the mag, considering Meisel had never worked with W before. Thing is, Meisel produced a strikingly similar editorial for Vogue Italia‘s August issue.

WWD noticed the nearly identical spreads, and has it from a source that Meisel may have financed the Italian Vogue shoot on W’s dime. Neither W nor Steven Meisel has commented on the issue, however a fallout–or at least a fault line–is bound to happen soon.
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It’s not exactly a secret that Conde Nast has been a little late to the whole Internet thing. Look no further than the fact that their most famous fashion title–Vogue, in case you weren’t sure–only got a dot com a few years ago. So it makes sense the famed publisher is trying to make up for lost time.

Today Conde Nast launched new social media tool “Social Sidekick.” The in-house developed tool works as an aggregator for most-shared content from W, Style.com, Glamour, Self, Teen Vogue and Lucky. It sounds sort of fancy but all it actually means is that on those sites there will be a window at the bottom of the page, which splashes out popular content from the aforementioned sister sites–basically, it’s an aggregator like any other aggregator on any other site. It’s not a bad idea–especially from the advertising perspective–but it’s certainly not groundbreaking, or as Business Insider says, “It’s nice to look at, but it won’t make a big difference to the bottom line.”

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Kristen Stewart smolders, cat-eyed and ’60s style, on the cover of W‘s September issue, photographed by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott and styled by Edward Enninful. Inside, Stewart, who normally looks a bit scowl-ly and tomboyish, is pure smoky sexy ’60s glamor wearing Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, and Junya Watanabe. Check out the pix and highlights from Stewart’s interview with Lynn Hirschberg in which she talks about how her big break involved singing a song about a dreidl, says she’s still insecure about her “tomboy” quality, and opens up about saying goodbye to Bella Swan.
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This is one W cover we can get behind. W, like many glossies, has reported disappointing sales lately and while we’re not sure exactly what Tilda Swinton’s selling power is, we are always in support of her covering a magazine. Not to mention collaborating on a whole spread shot in Iceland with photographer Tim Walker. In “Planet Tilda,” up now on Wmagazine.com (along with a really cool video), the actress and Pringle of Scotland campaign star discusses how she got into fashion and her own style icons, which include David Bowie and her own father. She refers to the two of them as her “aesthetic North Stars,” and “the individuals with whom I share the same planetary DNA.” Read more here and check out the full spread below. It’s kind of insane.

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