St. Joseph Media’s Fashion magazine has officially turned 40.
The magazine’s milestone birthday was celebrated with a high-end party in Toronto’s high-fashion Yorkville neighbourhood Tuesday night, ahead of the Oct. 9 release of its anniversary issue.
The issue’s cover is a four-page gatefold featuring Canadian model Amber Witcomb on the inside in a look from Chanel. Fashion has produced a number of specialty covers this year for clients including Joe Fresh (which was featured in a “peel to reveal” cover in the summer) and a customizable “flip-book” cover for L’Oreal in the spring.
Jacqueline Loch, VP and group publisher of women’s brands at St. Joseph Communications, said the brand is working with advertisers to create more strategic editorial integrations across print, digital and social platforms as the brand moves forward. In fact, customized brand integrations will be a growing part of St. Joseph’s media strategy going forward — new company president Doug Kelly told MiC when he took the helm in August that the company’s Strategic Content Labs custom content division is increasingly shaping the way the company does business.
“The SCL brand is really becoming the standard way we approach the market,” he said. “That’s an approach that all our brands, be it Toronto Life, Fashion, all of them are increasingly embracing.”
According to the latest Vividata Q1 topline readership study, Fashion boasts a total monthly reach of 1.37 million viewers, with 1.11 million of those being print readers. This represents a slight decline from Q4, when total reach was 1.65 million (1.35 million of that being from print).
The cover of the anniversary issue feature a portrait of Witcomb sculpted out of a fabric called tulle. The image was created by British artist Benjamin Shine, whose fabric portrait, valued at more than $30,000, will be auctioned at an upcoming private event, with proceeds establishing a fund for emerging fashion design talent at Ryerson University.
Turning past the special cover, the anniversary issue includes a 20-page feature with archival images and interviews from past contributors.
