Mastermind Magazine Revamps for Next Phase
HUSTON, WE HAVE A COVER: While many fashion magazines have recently pivoted to include pressing social and political issues, Marie-Amélie Sauvé’s Mastermind was ahead of the pack, reporting on how Gen Z scrambled old ideas about gender in her first issue four years ago, and delving into the climate crisis and women’s roles in politics in more recent issues.
“I’ve always been interested in putting fashion in the context of philosophy, cinema, music, architecture. Advertisers appreciate this approach, we offer them an original worldview,” Sauvé asserted in an interview as she readies her 10th issue, available for preorder beginning today, which will boast a new visual identity.
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The French stylist said she’s torn a page from prestigious publishers like Gallimard, which turn out different “collections” of novels, each with their own look. “While the magazine’s appearance will change, it will still be international, transversal and inclusive,” she said. “It will keep reflecting what’s going on in the world.”
The biannual, culture-focused title comes in book format, and boasts content that straddles the topical and the timeless: Anjelica Huston, who has no new film or project to trumpet, is the cover subject of the latest issue, but talks about how her famous father, director John Huston, oriented her life, while posing for photographer Colin Dodgson wearing looks from Gucci.
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“She’s a kind of a fashion icon for me,” Sauvé enthused in an interview. “Anjelica shows us that real beauty transcends age. She has made her mark on the world and lives on her own terms.”
Fatherhood is one of the themes of the issue, with Sofia Coppola and athlete Tom Daley also weighing in on the subjects. Other personalities in the issue include architect Frank Gehry, artist Bill Viola and Afghan activist Chékéba Hachemi.
Besides the revamp, Sauvé hopes to grow readership in Asia, and is leaning on her distribution partner KD Presse to achieve this. Its main markets to date are the U.S., France and the U.K.
Mastermind prints 20,000 copies and estimates its total audience at 70,000 in 19 countries. The latest issue carries 47 pages of advertising, up from 38 a year ago, with Cartier, Dior, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Paco Rabanne, Prada and Saint Laurent among long-standing supporters. (Alongside Mastermind, Sauvé continues to work with Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière and Rabanne’s Julien Dossena.)
Sauvé is also mulling a “digital life” for the title, even if she’s convinced “print will always exist, and it becomes especially valuable when it’s a collectible, a book with lots of interesting things to say about society.”
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