What to Expect From Grazia USA
As Grazia USA’s new editor in chief and chief creative officer David Thielebeule develops his vision for the publication, don’t expect it to be a mirror image of its popular British counterpart.
“I love Grazia U.K., but I think what we’re doing will be a bit different. Myself and Jillian [Maxwell, Grazia USA’s chief revenue officer and senior vice president] come from WSJ. [the monthly fashion and luxury-focused insert of the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal] and I think we’re going to play a bit more in the luxury lifestyle space. We will of course feature celebrities, but ours might be through a different lens,” Thielebeule said over Zoom.
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“It will be focused on runway fashion and we will continue to work with the amazing photographers that we started with for these digital covers to create really beautiful, luxury-minded images.”
He’s referring to a trio of digital covers Grazia USA is releasing this week, officially launching the brand to coincide with the largely virtual American Collections.
Keke Palmer was featured on the first as part of a collaboration with TikTok, while Elizabeth Olsen is the second cover face released Thursday and she will also be featured in Grazia’s USA’s first virtual event Thursday evening. The third cover will be released Friday.
“I want everything we do at Grazia to be joyful and optimistic and these women are certainly that,” he added. “The team we selected to actualize these images, including photographer Texas Isaiah and stylist Chris Horan, are bold, young, diverse and represent the artists I want to define the Grazia USA brand.”
While this week marks the official digital launch and Thielebeule only came on board at the very end of last year, the website has been running since October, and amassed 2.2 million users in January, up almost 50 percent from when the site made its debut with a collaboration with Kim Kardashian-West. It’s published under a licensing agreement with Pantheon Media Group.
More recently, Thielebeule has been filling out the masthead as he puts his stamp on the brand, appointing Zoe Ruffner as fashion and beauty features director; Gabrielle Prescod as market director; Channing Hargrove as culture editor, and Casey Brennan as editor at large.
As well as the website, they’ll be working toward the first 400-plus page print magazine that is scheduled for September. After that, it will be quarterly. In contrast, the British version has a weekly print publication.
“Grazia is 83 years old and is such an iconic luxury brand. It’s a unique and exciting time to bring it to the United States,” said Thielebeule. “What’s interesting to me is that millions of women were already going to the Grazia international sites within our country. It’s kind of like they invited us here to launch in the U.S. and start creating content that isn’t just on the U.K. site or on the Australian site or wherever they were getting it from. We can now speak to them and create stuff immediately for them.”
For more, see:
EXCLUSIVE: Grazia Magazine to Unveil U.S. Edition
Grazia USA Fills Out Its Masthead, Adding New Fashion, Beauty and Culture Editors
Grazia USA Taps David Thielebeule as Editor in Chief
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