EXCLUSIVE: Document Journal Is Launching a Beauty Biannual
MORE THAN A PRETTY FACE: Biannual American fashion title Document Journal is launching a spinoff beauty publication that promises to be the opposite of skin-deep.
“Thinking about beauty as identity, and who we can transform into,” mused Nick Vogelson, editor in chief and creative director of Document, and also of the new Notes on Beauty, launching on Valentine’s Day in New York City. “It’s more like an academic journal than, say, a traditional commercial beauty title.”
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Also formatted as a biannual, like Document, the debut, 400-page issue boasts an original artwork by Francesco Vezzoli on one of its three covers; a profile of German biomedical scientist Augustinus Bader; a spotlight on ancient wellness rituals, and an essay by French scholar, writer and Louvre executive Donatien Grau, who describes beauty as “the achievement of individual conceptuality.”
Amid all that heady stuff is a 40-page photo portfolio by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin spotlighting 20 creatives from New York’s burgeoning downtown scene, and a Julianne Moore cover, her mouth stuffed with red rose petals, one drifting over her bare, freckled shoulders.
Revealing the project exclusively to WWD, Vogelson said the magazine is intended to spark a dialogue around “beauty and self-representation as experimentation and radical transformation.”
Or not. The issue also includes an essay from New York writer Natasha Stagg, who has so far resisted Botox, cortisone shots, fillers, threading lifts or vampire facials, and explores how “our minds are wired to imagine people as their younger selves…not as a spectrum of physicality projected along a timeline.”
Other contributors include poet Ocean Vuong, actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, novelist Michael Cunningham, actress and TV director Lena Dunham and makeup artist Yadim, beauty director at Notes on Beauty.
Founded in 2012, Document Journal usually runs at least one beauty story in each issue, “but I really wanted to create something that was singularly focused on beauty and also exploring new ideas and definitions of beauty,” Vogelson said.
Marquee beauty and fragrance advertisers that signed on for the first two issues include Hermès Beauty, Prada Beauty, Valentino Beauty, YSL Beauty, Loewe Parfumes, Dior Beauty, Vuitton Fragrance and Frederic Malle.
Additional launch events are planned during Paris Fashion Week, with the first physical copies landing on newsstands around Feb. 25.
The media kit for Notes on Beauty lists circulation as 44,000 and readership as 132,000, with 45 percent of the audience in the U.S., 45 percent in Europe and U.K., and the balance in the rest of the world. The cover price is $25.
Vogelson plans to launch a dedicated digital platform and social media accounts for Notes on Beauty, too. “Our hope is to become a thought leader in the beauty space, both through events, partnerships and supporting the brands that we work with, as well as younger, up-and-coming talent that we want to give a platform to,” he said.
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