THE METROSEXUAL MALE IS COMING TO A STORE NEAR YOU

Condé Nast is doing for men what it did for women: Glamorizing the beauty of cloth. The first issue of Men’s Vogue was such a success that we had a hard time finding it on the bookstore shelf. It was announced that the trial issue was such a hit it will be going into full-time production, but not before ’07. The next issue will be out for April ’06. According to the New York Times, The pilot issue had 164 pages of advertising, a number that Jay Fielden, the editor in chief said surpassed the number of ad pages in any other premiere issue of a Condé Nast publication. Over 150,000 people paid the $4.95 cover price to pick it up on newsstands (we were one of them). They wanted at least 100,000 people to buy it before giving it the green light, although they sent out 200,000 free issues to preferred customers.

According to execs at the magazine, their readers are an “unserved market of over-35 professional men who are successful, emotionally connected and lived a life of privilege…they have been left behind by the other magazines.”

We agree, the first issue of Men’s Vogue is absolutely beautiful and will be a great place for headwear to shine. It is not only a great place to advertise (ouch ….rates most be high), or to be picked up for headwear editorial coverage and photo ops. The fashion market editor is Alvaro Salazar and we will contact him to find out requirements for sending samples to be picked for their pages. There are interviews with actors such as Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, beautiful glossy ads from the likes of Ralph Lauren (so what else is new?) and Faconnable, chit chat about debutante males and their escorts and interviews with the likes of George Clooney. There are irreverent ads from companies like Penguin by Munsingwear that feature a young fellow wearing a plaid bucket hat.

Men’s Vogue could very well end up becoming to women what Playboy was for Men in the 60’s. Let’s just say these pages are enough to make any female drool. Could this be fantasy, men this good don’t cross my path very often. Only in New York folks… only in New York.