Fashion's Favorite Foodies on Starting a Magazine from Scratch - Racked National

The front cover of Cherry Bombe's first issue, featuring Karlie Kloss.

In an age where the print media business seems less and less stable, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu are willing to take a chance. The two New Yorkers are the masterminds behind Cherry Bombe , a biannual woman-focused food magazine that launched last year.

The two met years ago while working at Harper's Bazaar, and after going their separate ways—Diamond landed at Coach before meeting a chef and opening a few restaurants with him; Wu started a graphic design firm—decided to start a magazine of their own on the side. Why? Because they didn't think there was enough content showcasing women in the food industry. They raised $42,000 through Kickstarter to fund the publication, which is already on its third issue, a 200-page masterpiece printed in color on heavy paper with beautiful original photography and minimal ads. Cherry Bombe has landed some impressive interviews with the likes of Julia Roberts, Karlie Kloss, Chloe Sevigny and Sofia Coppola, and Diamond and Wu also created an all-woman food conference, Jubilee, which enjoyed a sold-out audience in March.

The Cherry Bombe girls spoke with Racked about their decision to launch a print publication without a website, why the fashion and food industries are so connected, and the things they wish they had known before creating a magazine from scratch.

What were you guys doing when you decided to start Cherry Bombe?

Claudia: "I've had a creative agency with a friend of mine, working in fashion advertising and branding, for about five years."

Kerry: "I was working at Coach and had just opened a restaurant, Seersucker, with my boyfriend in Carroll Gardens."

Why did you start the magazine?

Claudia: "Kerry actually approached me about doing a magazine. I had mentioned a cookbook, but she thought there were too many cookbooks out there. I had done my own little independent magazine called Me Magazine in 2004."

Kerry: "Claudia and I are both magazine junkies, so the first goal was to create a beautiful one. Second was feeling that there were so many interesting women out there in and around the food space that just weren't getting their due.

So many stories came out last year that were just like, 'Where are all the female chefs, where are all the women in food?' and we were like, 'Are you kidding? Just open your eyes—they're all around you.' We wanted to spotlight those women."

Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu, the women behind the biannual magazine.

Were you always interested in the food landscape?

Kerry: "I had a lot of friends who worked in the food world, either as chefs or PR people or restaurant owners, but it really wasn't until I started dating a chef and he asked me to open a restaurant that I got dragged into the world."

Claudia: "I've always had this weird obsession with food. I loved watching Top Chef, and I did kind of follow chefs in New York."

Do you think that the food world is male-dominated?

Kerry: "It's not, but the perception is that it is. I think when you look at a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles, it's not even an issue because there are so many women doing things. It's just because the magazine world is centered in New York and the spotlight is focused on something else, it gives the impression that there weren't women in the industry and that's something we're trying to fix."

Your magazine showcases a lot of fashion personalities. Why do you think fashion and food have become so intertwined?

Claudia: "Fashion brands at some point want to be lifestyle brands, so food is an extension of that. People have these amazing, picturesque, inspirational lives, and it's surprising how many fashion people have interest in food too."

Kerry: "I think for the longest time there was this perception that fashion people didn't eat. I think you had a few skinny individuals and everyone just assumed the fashion world was food-phobic! It's not true today, as the food world has exploded, fashion people have been able to come out of the closet a little bit and say, 'Hey, we do love food, we eat, we cook, we bake.'"

How do you fund the magazine?

Claudia: "We started with a Kickstarter, which raised enough money to print the first issue and pay for our costs. Now we kind of survive—we definitely are trying to increase the advertising in the magazine, and we do get a lot of support from subscribers and people who order from the website and the independent stores we work with directly."

Kerry: "The magazine is too young to be profitable yet. We've only come out with three issues so far."

Cherry Bombe showcases women in the food industry.

Why did you decide on a magazine in what seems like a perilous time for print publications?

Kerry: "We love reading print. It makes me sad when I'm on the subway and I see people either not reading anything or reading a Kindle. I miss those days when you could sit across from someone who was reading a magazine or a book and it revealed so much about that individual. If you want to get into the media business to make money, don't launch a magazine! It's not the most profitable way to go these days. Claudia and I do believe that we can turn this into a business for the long run, and we're in the process of figuring out how to turn this into a real business. But we didn't get into this to make a quick buck; we got into this because it was meaningful to us."

You don't have a website. What's the reasoning behind that choice?

Claudia: "We're only two people, so we wanted to do a print magazine. I think it's just so much work to have a digital presence, so much planning on the backend, and we just didn't have the brainpower or enough bodies to focus on that."

Kerry: "I also think it's more compelling. I think if you're a photographer these days, there's something really meaningful about seeing your work in this beautiful print magazine with this incredible matte paper and beautiful ink. It's very different from seeing it online. And at the same time, everyone thinks they need a website, and I don't think every website is super compelling! So Claudia and I are also waiting until we have something really compelling that we can contribute to the digital world. Until then we're just happy to focus on the things we do find compelling, and that's just the offline things right now."

Tell us about the Jubilee conference.

Kerry: "Last year it sort of came to light that there were all these interesting happenings in the food world and a lot of them were excluding female chefs and food world participants. We just decided, 'Hey, if we don't like it, let's change things and throw our own conference.' We had no experience doing it and were so in over our heads, you have no idea. We put together a one-day conference with all these great speakers and really meaningful content. It talked about everything from being a mom to the challenges of having your own business."

The magazines ready to go out for shipment. Image via Facebook.

Was it scary to start in fashion and then make so many career jumps?

Kerry: "Yes, my life is very different today. But I can definitely say I'm the happiest I've ever been today because I have so much creative freedom and I'm in charge of my own schedule. At the same time, it's terrifying. You say goodbye to that paycheck, you say goodbye to having an assistant and a million interns. I feel like I'm part CEO, part intern because Claudia and I are working on these high-level things and trying to figure out how to make this a business and that's super exciting, but at the same time we are so hands-on that it's exhausting."

Claudia: "I worked at many, many offices and you just start to realize that no one you meet is very happy, so I think that reinforced my lifestyle where I was never in one space for very long. It's not for everyone. I know people who can't give up that paycheck, so it just takes a certain personality."

Kerry: "I would say, if you do have a corporate job and you're reading this, don't quit. Because you definitely can do your creative pursuits on your own time. But also, save as much money as you can. If you have a job and a paycheck just sock away money, even if you don't think you want to launch a magazine some day. It's a lesson I learned later in life, and I wish someone had sat me down and physically took money away from me and put it in the bank. I was a big shopper, traveler and person who would eat out all the time, and I wish I was a bit more of a saver. It would have made life easier today."

What's the hardest part about running the magazine?

Claudia: "I think since we're a print magazine, putting it together was fairly easy but actually getting it out—distributing, all that stuff—was a bit of a challenge."

Kerry: "Carrying boxes to the post office! It seems like that's been our full-time job. The distribution and shipping is the hardest part. The post office isn't really set up to help indie magazines, so it's been a challenge navigating that."

Did your experience and interest in fashion affect the end result at all?

Kerry: "I think our personal style is reflected in the magazine. When I think of the things that inspire me and that inspire what I bring to the magazine, I think about people like Dries Van Noten, Maria Cornejo, Stella McCartney. I wear their clothes, and at the same time I think they definitely inspire me by their approach to business, their aesthetic, just how they seem to care about art and bigger picture things than just making a dollar."

Claudia: "I think your style has to do a lot with your taste level, and I feel like it does show in our work and the choices we make. I tend to wear designers that have kind of done it themselves, like Thakoon, Phillip Lim and Rachel Comey. People who are more independent and show their work ethic. It's very inspirational."

Inside the mag.

Were there any lessons you had to learn the hard way?

Kerry: "I think maybe we should have done things in reverse. Maybe started with a business plan and figured out our digital play. At the same time, I think we have a beautiful product that people really love and that does a great job of shining the spotlight on these interesting, important women. To have this quality product is so meaningful."

What's next for Cherry Bombe?

Kerry: "We do need to start to selling more advertising. That's just a reality. I don't think a magazine can exist without advertising today. We'd like to do it our own way and have a combination of actual advertising, native advertising and sponsored content. I think that's something our reader would really respond to. We're already planning the conference for 2015, and that's an area we would love to expand, maybe do it in other cities or hold different types of conferences. We also just started a radio show earlier this spring called Radio Cherry Bombe that we're doing through the Heritage Radio Network. Again, not an industry you should go into if you want to make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's a great brand extension for us and something we really believe in."

Claudia: "We've also had a lot of interest in people pitching us to do books. I think it's something that we have to figure out because there are a lot of food books out there and what do we do that won't seem like everything else? How do we create something that you are going to love for the long haul and that you're going to take it with you when you move from place to place to place? That's the kind of stuff that we want to do."

· Cherry Bombe [Official site]

· The Law Student Putting Fashion Brands in Their Place [Racked]

· From Closet Porn to Big-Time Success: The Tale of The Coveteur [Racked]

via fashion - Google News http://ift.tt/1zAeg3e

Fashion's Favorite Foodies on Starting a Magazine from Scratch - Racked National

The front cover of Cherry Bombe's first issue, featuring Karlie Kloss.

In an age where the print media business seems less and less stable, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu are willing to take a chance. The two New Yorkers are the masterminds behind Cherry Bombe , a biannual woman-focused food magazine that launched last year.

The two met years ago while working at Harper's Bazaar, and after going their separate ways—Diamond landed at Coach before meeting a chef and opening a few restaurants with him; Wu started a graphic design firm—decided to start a magazine of their own on the side. Why? Because they didn't think there was enough content showcasing women in the food industry. They raised $42,000 through Kickstarter to fund the publication, which is already on its third issue, a 200-page masterpiece printed in color on heavy paper with beautiful original photography and minimal ads. Cherry Bombe has landed some impressive interviews with the likes of Julia Roberts, Karlie Kloss, Chloe Sevigny and Sofia Coppola, and Diamond and Wu also created an all-woman food conference, Jubilee, which enjoyed a sold-out audience in March.

The Cherry Bombe girls spoke with Racked about their decision to launch a print publication without a website, why the fashion and food industries are so connected, and the things they wish they had known before creating a magazine from scratch.

What were you guys doing when you decided to start Cherry Bombe?

Claudia: "I've had a creative agency with a friend of mine, working in fashion advertising and branding, for about five years."

Kerry: "I was working at Coach and had just opened a restaurant, Seersucker, with my boyfriend in Carroll Gardens."

Why did you start the magazine?

Claudia: "Kerry actually approached me about doing a magazine. I had mentioned a cookbook, but she thought there were too many cookbooks out there. I had done my own little independent magazine called Me Magazine in 2004."

Kerry: "Claudia and I are both magazine junkies, so the first goal was to create a beautiful one. Second was feeling that there were so many interesting women out there in and around the food space that just weren't getting their due.

So many stories came out last year that were just like, 'Where are all the female chefs, where are all the women in food?' and we were like, 'Are you kidding? Just open your eyes—they're all around you.' We wanted to spotlight those women."

Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu, the women behind the biannual magazine.

Were you always interested in the food landscape?

Kerry: "I had a lot of friends who worked in the food world, either as chefs or PR people or restaurant owners, but it really wasn't until I started dating a chef and he asked me to open a restaurant that I got dragged into the world."

Claudia: "I've always had this weird obsession with food. I loved watching Top Chef, and I did kind of follow chefs in New York."

Do you think that the food world is male-dominated?

Kerry: "It's not, but the perception is that it is. I think when you look at a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles, it's not even an issue because there are so many women doing things. It's just because the magazine world is centered in New York and the spotlight is focused on something else, it gives the impression that there weren't women in the industry and that's something we're trying to fix."

Your magazine showcases a lot of fashion personalities. Why do you think fashion and food have become so intertwined?

Claudia: "Fashion brands at some point want to be lifestyle brands, so food is an extension of that. People have these amazing, picturesque, inspirational lives, and it's surprising how many fashion people have interest in food too."

Kerry: "I think for the longest time there was this perception that fashion people didn't eat. I think you had a few skinny individuals and everyone just assumed the fashion world was food-phobic! It's not true today, as the food world has exploded, fashion people have been able to come out of the closet a little bit and say, 'Hey, we do love food, we eat, we cook, we bake.'"

How do you fund the magazine?

Claudia: "We started with a Kickstarter, which raised enough money to print the first issue and pay for our costs. Now we kind of survive—we definitely are trying to increase the advertising in the magazine, and we do get a lot of support from subscribers and people who order from the website and the independent stores we work with directly."

Kerry: "The magazine is too young to be profitable yet. We've only come out with three issues so far."

Cherry Bombe showcases women in the food industry.

Why did you decide on a magazine in what seems like a perilous time for print publications?

Kerry: "We love reading print. It makes me sad when I'm on the subway and I see people either not reading anything or reading a Kindle. I miss those days when you could sit across from someone who was reading a magazine or a book and it revealed so much about that individual. If you want to get into the media business to make money, don't launch a magazine! It's not the most profitable way to go these days. Claudia and I do believe that we can turn this into a business for the long run, and we're in the process of figuring out how to turn this into a real business. But we didn't get into this to make a quick buck; we got into this because it was meaningful to us."

You don't have a website. What's the reasoning behind that choice?

Claudia: "We're only two people, so we wanted to do a print magazine. I think it's just so much work to have a digital presence, so much planning on the backend, and we just didn't have the brainpower or enough bodies to focus on that."

Kerry: "I also think it's more compelling. I think if you're a photographer these days, there's something really meaningful about seeing your work in this beautiful print magazine with this incredible matte paper and beautiful ink. It's very different from seeing it online. And at the same time, everyone thinks they need a website, and I don't think every website is super compelling! So Claudia and I are also waiting until we have something really compelling that we can contribute to the digital world. Until then we're just happy to focus on the things we do find compelling, and that's just the offline things right now."

Tell us about the Jubilee conference.

Kerry: "Last year it sort of came to light that there were all these interesting happenings in the food world and a lot of them were excluding female chefs and food world participants. We just decided, 'Hey, if we don't like it, let's change things and throw our own conference.' We had no experience doing it and were so in over our heads, you have no idea. We put together a one-day conference with all these great speakers and really meaningful content. It talked about everything from being a mom to the challenges of having your own business."

The magazines ready to go out for shipment. Image via Facebook.

Was it scary to start in fashion and then make so many career jumps?

Kerry: "Yes, my life is very different today. But I can definitely say I'm the happiest I've ever been today because I have so much creative freedom and I'm in charge of my own schedule. At the same time, it's terrifying. You say goodbye to that paycheck, you say goodbye to having an assistant and a million interns. I feel like I'm part CEO, part intern because Claudia and I are working on these high-level things and trying to figure out how to make this a business and that's super exciting, but at the same time we are so hands-on that it's exhausting."

Claudia: "I worked at many, many offices and you just start to realize that no one you meet is very happy, so I think that reinforced my lifestyle where I was never in one space for very long. It's not for everyone. I know people who can't give up that paycheck, so it just takes a certain personality."

Kerry: "I would say, if you do have a corporate job and you're reading this, don't quit. Because you definitely can do your creative pursuits on your own time. But also, save as much money as you can. If you have a job and a paycheck just sock away money, even if you don't think you want to launch a magazine some day. It's a lesson I learned later in life, and I wish someone had sat me down and physically took money away from me and put it in the bank. I was a big shopper, traveler and person who would eat out all the time, and I wish I was a bit more of a saver. It would have made life easier today."

What's the hardest part about running the magazine?

Claudia: "I think since we're a print magazine, putting it together was fairly easy but actually getting it out—distributing, all that stuff—was a bit of a challenge."

Kerry: "Carrying boxes to the post office! It seems like that's been our full-time job. The distribution and shipping is the hardest part. The post office isn't really set up to help indie magazines, so it's been a challenge navigating that."

Did your experience and interest in fashion affect the end result at all?

Kerry: "I think our personal style is reflected in the magazine. When I think of the things that inspire me and that inspire what I bring to the magazine, I think about people like Dries Van Noten, Maria Cornejo, Stella McCartney. I wear their clothes, and at the same time I think they definitely inspire me by their approach to business, their aesthetic, just how they seem to care about art and bigger picture things than just making a dollar."

Claudia: "I think your style has to do a lot with your taste level, and I feel like it does show in our work and the choices we make. I tend to wear designers that have kind of done it themselves, like Thakoon, Phillip Lim and Rachel Comey. People who are more independent and show their work ethic. It's very inspirational."

Inside the mag.

Were there any lessons you had to learn the hard way?

Kerry: "I think maybe we should have done things in reverse. Maybe started with a business plan and figured out our digital play. At the same time, I think we have a beautiful product that people really love and that does a great job of shining the spotlight on these interesting, important women. To have this quality product is so meaningful."

What's next for Cherry Bombe?

Kerry: "We do need to start to selling more advertising. That's just a reality. I don't think a magazine can exist without advertising today. We'd like to do it our own way and have a combination of actual advertising, native advertising and sponsored content. I think that's something our reader would really respond to. We're already planning the conference for 2015, and that's an area we would love to expand, maybe do it in other cities or hold different types of conferences. We also just started a radio show earlier this spring called Radio Cherry Bombe that we're doing through the Heritage Radio Network. Again, not an industry you should go into if you want to make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's a great brand extension for us and something we really believe in."

Claudia: "We've also had a lot of interest in people pitching us to do books. I think it's something that we have to figure out because there are a lot of food books out there and what do we do that won't seem like everything else? How do we create something that you are going to love for the long haul and that you're going to take it with you when you move from place to place to place? That's the kind of stuff that we want to do."

· Cherry Bombe [Official site]

· The Law Student Putting Fashion Brands in Their Place [Racked]

· From Closet Porn to Big-Time Success: The Tale of The Coveteur [Racked]

via fashion - Google News http://ift.tt/Xl24pc

Fashion's Favorite Foodies on Starting a Magazine from Scratch - Racked National

The front cover of Cherry Bombe's first issue, featuring Karlie Kloss.

In an age where the print media business seems less and less stable, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu are willing to take a chance. The two New Yorkers are the masterminds behind Cherry Bombe , a biannual woman-focused food magazine that launched last year.

The two met years ago while working at Harper's Bazaar, and after going their separate ways—Diamond landed at Coach before meeting a chef and opening a few restaurants with him; Wu started a graphic design firm—decided to start a magazine of their own on the side. Why? Because they didn't think there was enough content showcasing women in the food industry. They raised $42,000 through Kickstarter to fund the publication, which is already on its third issue, a 200-page masterpiece printed in color on heavy paper with beautiful original photography and minimal ads. Cherry Bombe has landed some impressive interviews with the likes of Julia Roberts, Karlie Kloss, Chloe Sevigny and Sofia Coppola, and Diamond and Wu also created an all-woman food conference, Jubilee, which enjoyed a sold-out audience in March.

The Cherry Bombe girls spoke with Racked about their decision to launch a print publication without a website, why the fashion and food industries are so connected, and the things they wish they had known before creating a magazine from scratch.

What were you guys doing when you decided to start Cherry Bombe?

Claudia: "I've had a creative agency with a friend of mine, working in fashion advertising and branding, for about five years."

Kerry: "I was working at Coach and had just opened a restaurant, Seersucker, with my boyfriend in Carroll Gardens."

Why did you start the magazine?

Claudia: "Kerry actually approached me about doing a magazine. I had mentioned a cookbook, but she thought there were too many cookbooks out there. I had done my own little independent magazine called Me Magazine in 2004."

Kerry: "Claudia and I are both magazine junkies, so the first goal was to create a beautiful one. Second was feeling that there were so many interesting women out there in and around the food space that just weren't getting their due.

So many stories came out last year that were just like, 'Where are all the female chefs, where are all the women in food?' and we were like, 'Are you kidding? Just open your eyes—they're all around you.' We wanted to spotlight those women."

Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu, the women behind the biannual magazine.

Were you always interested in the food landscape?

Kerry: "I had a lot of friends who worked in the food world, either as chefs or PR people or restaurant owners, but it really wasn't until I started dating a chef and he asked me to open a restaurant that I got dragged into the world."

Claudia: "I've always had this weird obsession with food. I loved watching Top Chef, and I did kind of follow chefs in New York."

Do you think that the food world is male-dominated?

Kerry: "It's not, but the perception is that it is. I think when you look at a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles, it's not even an issue because there are so many women doing things. It's just because the magazine world is centered in New York and the spotlight is focused on something else, it gives the impression that there weren't women in the industry and that's something we're trying to fix."

Your magazine showcases a lot of fashion personalities. Why do you think fashion and food have become so intertwined?

Claudia: "Fashion brands at some point want to be lifestyle brands, so food is an extension of that. People have these amazing, picturesque, inspirational lives, and it's surprising how many fashion people have interest in food too."

Kerry: "I think for the longest time there was this perception that fashion people didn't eat. I think you had a few skinny individuals and everyone just assumed the fashion world was food-phobic! It's not true today, as the food world has exploded, fashion people have been able to come out of the closet a little bit and say, 'Hey, we do love food, we eat, we cook, we bake.'"

How do you fund the magazine?

Claudia: "We started with a Kickstarter, which raised enough money to print the first issue and pay for our costs. Now we kind of survive—we definitely are trying to increase the advertising in the magazine, and we do get a lot of support from subscribers and people who order from the website and the independent stores we work with directly."

Kerry: "The magazine is too young to be profitable yet. We've only come out with three issues so far."

Cherry Bombe showcases women in the food industry.

Why did you decide on a magazine in what seems like a perilous time for print publications?

Kerry: "We love reading print. It makes me sad when I'm on the subway and I see people either not reading anything or reading a Kindle. I miss those days when you could sit across from someone who was reading a magazine or a book and it revealed so much about that individual. If you want to get into the media business to make money, don't launch a magazine! It's not the most profitable way to go these days. Claudia and I do believe that we can turn this into a business for the long run, and we're in the process of figuring out how to turn this into a real business. But we didn't get into this to make a quick buck; we got into this because it was meaningful to us."

You don't have a website. What's the reasoning behind that choice?

Claudia: "We're only two people, so we wanted to do a print magazine. I think it's just so much work to have a digital presence, so much planning on the backend, and we just didn't have the brainpower or enough bodies to focus on that."

Kerry: "I also think it's more compelling. I think if you're a photographer these days, there's something really meaningful about seeing your work in this beautiful print magazine with this incredible matte paper and beautiful ink. It's very different from seeing it online. And at the same time, everyone thinks they need a website, and I don't think every website is super compelling! So Claudia and I are also waiting until we have something really compelling that we can contribute to the digital world. Until then we're just happy to focus on the things we do find compelling, and that's just the offline things right now."

Tell us about the Jubilee conference.

Kerry: "Last year it sort of came to light that there were all these interesting happenings in the food world and a lot of them were excluding female chefs and food world participants. We just decided, 'Hey, if we don't like it, let's change things and throw our own conference.' We had no experience doing it and were so in over our heads, you have no idea. We put together a one-day conference with all these great speakers and really meaningful content. It talked about everything from being a mom to the challenges of having your own business."

The magazines ready to go out for shipment. Image via Facebook.

Was it scary to start in fashion and then make so many career jumps?

Kerry: "Yes, my life is very different today. But I can definitely say I'm the happiest I've ever been today because I have so much creative freedom and I'm in charge of my own schedule. At the same time, it's terrifying. You say goodbye to that paycheck, you say goodbye to having an assistant and a million interns. I feel like I'm part CEO, part intern because Claudia and I are working on these high-level things and trying to figure out how to make this a business and that's super exciting, but at the same time we are so hands-on that it's exhausting."

Claudia: "I worked at many, many offices and you just start to realize that no one you meet is very happy, so I think that reinforced my lifestyle where I was never in one space for very long. It's not for everyone. I know people who can't give up that paycheck, so it just takes a certain personality."

Kerry: "I would say, if you do have a corporate job and you're reading this, don't quit. Because you definitely can do your creative pursuits on your own time. But also, save as much money as you can. If you have a job and a paycheck just sock away money, even if you don't think you want to launch a magazine some day. It's a lesson I learned later in life, and I wish someone had sat me down and physically took money away from me and put it in the bank. I was a big shopper, traveler and person who would eat out all the time, and I wish I was a bit more of a saver. It would have made life easier today."

What's the hardest part about running the magazine?

Claudia: "I think since we're a print magazine, putting it together was fairly easy but actually getting it out—distributing, all that stuff—was a bit of a challenge."

Kerry: "Carrying boxes to the post office! It seems like that's been our full-time job. The distribution and shipping is the hardest part. The post office isn't really set up to help indie magazines, so it's been a challenge navigating that."

Did your experience and interest in fashion affect the end result at all?

Kerry: "I think our personal style is reflected in the magazine. When I think of the things that inspire me and that inspire what I bring to the magazine, I think about people like Dries Van Noten, Maria Cornejo, Stella McCartney. I wear their clothes, and at the same time I think they definitely inspire me by their approach to business, their aesthetic, just how they seem to care about art and bigger picture things than just making a dollar."

Claudia: "I think your style has to do a lot with your taste level, and I feel like it does show in our work and the choices we make. I tend to wear designers that have kind of done it themselves, like Thakoon, Phillip Lim and Rachel Comey. People who are more independent and show their work ethic. It's very inspirational."

Inside the mag.

Were there any lessons you had to learn the hard way?

Kerry: "I think maybe we should have done things in reverse. Maybe started with a business plan and figured out our digital play. At the same time, I think we have a beautiful product that people really love and that does a great job of shining the spotlight on these interesting, important women. To have this quality product is so meaningful."

What's next for Cherry Bombe?

Kerry: "We do need to start to selling more advertising. That's just a reality. I don't think a magazine can exist without advertising today. We'd like to do it our own way and have a combination of actual advertising, native advertising and sponsored content. I think that's something our reader would really respond to. We're already planning the conference for 2015, and that's an area we would love to expand, maybe do it in other cities or hold different types of conferences. We also just started a radio show earlier this spring called Radio Cherry Bombe that we're doing through the Heritage Radio Network. Again, not an industry you should go into if you want to make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's a great brand extension for us and something we really believe in."

Claudia: "We've also had a lot of interest in people pitching us to do books. I think it's something that we have to figure out because there are a lot of food books out there and what do we do that won't seem like everything else? How do we create something that you are going to love for the long haul and that you're going to take it with you when you move from place to place to place? That's the kind of stuff that we want to do."

· Cherry Bombe [Official site]

· The Law Student Putting Fashion Brands in Their Place [Racked]

· From Closet Porn to Big-Time Success: The Tale of The Coveteur [Racked]

via fashion - Google News http://ift.tt/1oRUb57

Fashion's Favorite Foodies on Starting a Magazine from Scratch - Racked National

The front cover of Cherry Bombe's first issue, featuring Karlie Kloss.

In an age where the print media business seems less and less stable, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu are willing to take a chance. The two New Yorkers are the masterminds behind Cherry Bombe , a biannual woman-focused food magazine that launched last year.

The two met years ago while working at Harper's Bazaar, and after going their separate ways—Diamond landed at Coach before meeting a chef and opening a few restaurants with him; Wu started a graphic design firm—decided to start a magazine of their own on the side. Why? Because they didn't think there was enough content showcasing women in the food industry. They raised $42,000 through Kickstarter to fund the publication, which is already on its third issue, a 200-page masterpiece printed in color on heavy paper with beautiful original photography and minimal ads. Cherry Bombe has landed some impressive interviews with the likes of Julia Roberts, Karlie Kloss, Chloe Sevigny and Sofia Coppola, and Diamond and Wu also created an all-woman food conference, Jubilee, which enjoyed a sold-out audience in March.

The Cherry Bombe girls spoke with Racked about their decision to launch a print publication without a website, why the fashion and food industries are so connected, and the things they wish they had known before creating a magazine from scratch.

What were you guys doing when you decided to start Cherry Bombe?

Claudia: "I've had a creative agency with a friend of mine, working in fashion advertising and branding, for about five years."

Kerry: "I was working at Coach and had just opened a restaurant, Seersucker, with my boyfriend in Carroll Gardens."

Why did you start the magazine?

Claudia: "Kerry actually approached me about doing a magazine. I had mentioned a cookbook, but she thought there were too many cookbooks out there. I had done my own little independent magazine called Me Magazine in 2004."

Kerry: "Claudia and I are both magazine junkies, so the first goal was to create a beautiful one. Second was feeling that there were so many interesting women out there in and around the food space that just weren't getting their due.

So many stories came out last year that were just like, 'Where are all the female chefs, where are all the women in food?' and we were like, 'Are you kidding? Just open your eyes—they're all around you.' We wanted to spotlight those women."

Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu, the women behind the biannual magazine.

Were you always interested in the food landscape?

Kerry: "I had a lot of friends who worked in the food world, either as chefs or PR people or restaurant owners, but it really wasn't until I started dating a chef and he asked me to open a restaurant that I got dragged into the world."

Claudia: "I've always had this weird obsession with food. I loved watching Top Chef, and I did kind of follow chefs in New York."

Do you think that the food world is male-dominated?

Kerry: "It's not, but the perception is that it is. I think when you look at a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles, it's not even an issue because there are so many women doing things. It's just because the magazine world is centered in New York and the spotlight is focused on something else, it gives the impression that there weren't women in the industry and that's something we're trying to fix."

Your magazine showcases a lot of fashion personalities. Why do you think fashion and food have become so intertwined?

Claudia: "Fashion brands at some point want to be lifestyle brands, so food is an extension of that. People have these amazing, picturesque, inspirational lives, and it's surprising how many fashion people have interest in food too."

Kerry: "I think for the longest time there was this perception that fashion people didn't eat. I think you had a few skinny individuals and everyone just assumed the fashion world was food-phobic! It's not true today, as the food world has exploded, fashion people have been able to come out of the closet a little bit and say, 'Hey, we do love food, we eat, we cook, we bake.'"

How do you fund the magazine?

Claudia: "We started with a Kickstarter, which raised enough money to print the first issue and pay for our costs. Now we kind of survive—we definitely are trying to increase the advertising in the magazine, and we do get a lot of support from subscribers and people who order from the website and the independent stores we work with directly."

Kerry: "The magazine is too young to be profitable yet. We've only come out with three issues so far."

Cherry Bombe showcases women in the food industry.

Why did you decide on a magazine in what seems like a perilous time for print publications?

Kerry: "We love reading print. It makes me sad when I'm on the subway and I see people either not reading anything or reading a Kindle. I miss those days when you could sit across from someone who was reading a magazine or a book and it revealed so much about that individual. If you want to get into the media business to make money, don't launch a magazine! It's not the most profitable way to go these days. Claudia and I do believe that we can turn this into a business for the long run, and we're in the process of figuring out how to turn this into a real business. But we didn't get into this to make a quick buck; we got into this because it was meaningful to us."

You don't have a website. What's the reasoning behind that choice?

Claudia: "We're only two people, so we wanted to do a print magazine. I think it's just so much work to have a digital presence, so much planning on the backend, and we just didn't have the brainpower or enough bodies to focus on that."

Kerry: "I also think it's more compelling. I think if you're a photographer these days, there's something really meaningful about seeing your work in this beautiful print magazine with this incredible matte paper and beautiful ink. It's very different from seeing it online. And at the same time, everyone thinks they need a website, and I don't think every website is super compelling! So Claudia and I are also waiting until we have something really compelling that we can contribute to the digital world. Until then we're just happy to focus on the things we do find compelling, and that's just the offline things right now."

Tell us about the Jubilee conference.

Kerry: "Last year it sort of came to light that there were all these interesting happenings in the food world and a lot of them were excluding female chefs and food world participants. We just decided, 'Hey, if we don't like it, let's change things and throw our own conference.' We had no experience doing it and were so in over our heads, you have no idea. We put together a one-day conference with all these great speakers and really meaningful content. It talked about everything from being a mom to the challenges of having your own business."

The magazines ready to go out for shipment. Image via Facebook.

Was it scary to start in fashion and then make so many career jumps?

Kerry: "Yes, my life is very different today. But I can definitely say I'm the happiest I've ever been today because I have so much creative freedom and I'm in charge of my own schedule. At the same time, it's terrifying. You say goodbye to that paycheck, you say goodbye to having an assistant and a million interns. I feel like I'm part CEO, part intern because Claudia and I are working on these high-level things and trying to figure out how to make this a business and that's super exciting, but at the same time we are so hands-on that it's exhausting."

Claudia: "I worked at many, many offices and you just start to realize that no one you meet is very happy, so I think that reinforced my lifestyle where I was never in one space for very long. It's not for everyone. I know people who can't give up that paycheck, so it just takes a certain personality."

Kerry: "I would say, if you do have a corporate job and you're reading this, don't quit. Because you definitely can do your creative pursuits on your own time. But also, save as much money as you can. If you have a job and a paycheck just sock away money, even if you don't think you want to launch a magazine some day. It's a lesson I learned later in life, and I wish someone had sat me down and physically took money away from me and put it in the bank. I was a big shopper, traveler and person who would eat out all the time, and I wish I was a bit more of a saver. It would have made life easier today."

What's the hardest part about running the magazine?

Claudia: "I think since we're a print magazine, putting it together was fairly easy but actually getting it out—distributing, all that stuff—was a bit of a challenge."

Kerry: "Carrying boxes to the post office! It seems like that's been our full-time job. The distribution and shipping is the hardest part. The post office isn't really set up to help indie magazines, so it's been a challenge navigating that."

Did your experience and interest in fashion affect the end result at all?

Kerry: "I think our personal style is reflected in the magazine. When I think of the things that inspire me and that inspire what I bring to the magazine, I think about people like Dries Van Noten, Maria Cornejo, Stella McCartney. I wear their clothes, and at the same time I think they definitely inspire me by their approach to business, their aesthetic, just how they seem to care about art and bigger picture things than just making a dollar."

Claudia: "I think your style has to do a lot with your taste level, and I feel like it does show in our work and the choices we make. I tend to wear designers that have kind of done it themselves, like Thakoon, Phillip Lim and Rachel Comey. People who are more independent and show their work ethic. It's very inspirational."

Inside the mag.

Were there any lessons you had to learn the hard way?

Kerry: "I think maybe we should have done things in reverse. Maybe started with a business plan and figured out our digital play. At the same time, I think we have a beautiful product that people really love and that does a great job of shining the spotlight on these interesting, important women. To have this quality product is so meaningful."

What's next for Cherry Bombe?

Kerry: "We do need to start to selling more advertising. That's just a reality. I don't think a magazine can exist without advertising today. We'd like to do it our own way and have a combination of actual advertising, native advertising and sponsored content. I think that's something our reader would really respond to. We're already planning the conference for 2015, and that's an area we would love to expand, maybe do it in other cities or hold different types of conferences. We also just started a radio show earlier this spring called Radio Cherry Bombe that we're doing through the Heritage Radio Network. Again, not an industry you should go into if you want to make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's a great brand extension for us and something we really believe in."

Claudia: "We've also had a lot of interest in people pitching us to do books. I think it's something that we have to figure out because there are a lot of food books out there and what do we do that won't seem like everything else? How do we create something that you are going to love for the long haul and that you're going to take it with you when you move from place to place to place? That's the kind of stuff that we want to do."

· Cherry Bombe [Official site]

· The Law Student Putting Fashion Brands in Their Place [Racked]

· From Closet Porn to Big-Time Success: The Tale of The Coveteur [Racked]

via fashion - Google News http://ift.tt/1rN6P4q

Fashion's Favorite Foodies on Starting a Magazine from Scratch - Racked National

The front cover of Cherry Bombe's first issue, featuring Karlie Kloss.

In an age where the print media business seems less and less stable, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu are willing to take a chance. The two New Yorkers are the masterminds behind Cherry Bombe , a biannual woman-focused food magazine that launched last year.

The two met years ago while working at Harper's Bazaar, and after going their separate ways—Diamond landed at Coach before meeting a chef and opening a few restaurants with him; Wu started a graphic design firm—decided to start a magazine of their own on the side. Why? Because they didn't think there was enough content showcasing women in the food industry. They raised $42,000 through Kickstarter to fund the publication, which is already on its third issue, a 200-page masterpiece printed in color on heavy paper with beautiful original photography and minimal ads. Cherry Bombe has landed some impressive interviews with the likes of Julia Roberts, Karlie Kloss, Chloe Sevigny and Sofia Coppola, and Diamond and Wu also created an all-woman food conference, Jubilee, which enjoyed a sold-out audience in March.

The Cherry Bombe girls spoke with Racked about their decision to launch a print publication without a website, why the fashion and food industries are so connected, and the things they wish they had known before creating a magazine from scratch.

What were you guys doing when you decided to start Cherry Bombe?

Claudia: "I've had a creative agency with a friend of mine, working in fashion advertising and branding, for about five years."

Kerry: "I was working at Coach and had just opened a restaurant, Seersucker, with my boyfriend in Carroll Gardens."

Why did you start the magazine?

Claudia: "Kerry actually approached me about doing a magazine. I had mentioned a cookbook, but she thought there were too many cookbooks out there. I had done my own little independent magazine called Me Magazine in 2004."

Kerry: "Claudia and I are both magazine junkies, so the first goal was to create a beautiful one. Second was feeling that there were so many interesting women out there in and around the food space that just weren't getting their due.

So many stories came out last year that were just like, 'Where are all the female chefs, where are all the women in food?' and we were like, 'Are you kidding? Just open your eyes—they're all around you.' We wanted to spotlight those women."

Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu, the women behind the biannual magazine.

Were you always interested in the food landscape?

Kerry: "I had a lot of friends who worked in the food world, either as chefs or PR people or restaurant owners, but it really wasn't until I started dating a chef and he asked me to open a restaurant that I got dragged into the world."

Claudia: "I've always had this weird obsession with food. I loved watching Top Chef, and I did kind of follow chefs in New York."

Do you think that the food world is male-dominated?

Kerry: "It's not, but the perception is that it is. I think when you look at a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles, it's not even an issue because there are so many women doing things. It's just because the magazine world is centered in New York and the spotlight is focused on something else, it gives the impression that there weren't women in the industry and that's something we're trying to fix."

Your magazine showcases a lot of fashion personalities. Why do you think fashion and food have become so intertwined?

Claudia: "Fashion brands at some point want to be lifestyle brands, so food is an extension of that. People have these amazing, picturesque, inspirational lives, and it's surprising how many fashion people have interest in food too."

Kerry: "I think for the longest time there was this perception that fashion people didn't eat. I think you had a few skinny individuals and everyone just assumed the fashion world was food-phobic! It's not true today, as the food world has exploded, fashion people have been able to come out of the closet a little bit and say, 'Hey, we do love food, we eat, we cook, we bake.'"

How do you fund the magazine?

Claudia: "We started with a Kickstarter, which raised enough money to print the first issue and pay for our costs. Now we kind of survive—we definitely are trying to increase the advertising in the magazine, and we do get a lot of support from subscribers and people who order from the website and the independent stores we work with directly."

Kerry: "The magazine is too young to be profitable yet. We've only come out with three issues so far."

Cherry Bombe showcases women in the food industry.

Why did you decide on a magazine in what seems like a perilous time for print publications?

Kerry: "We love reading print. It makes me sad when I'm on the subway and I see people either not reading anything or reading a Kindle. I miss those days when you could sit across from someone who was reading a magazine or a book and it revealed so much about that individual. If you want to get into the media business to make money, don't launch a magazine! It's not the most profitable way to go these days. Claudia and I do believe that we can turn this into a business for the long run, and we're in the process of figuring out how to turn this into a real business. But we didn't get into this to make a quick buck; we got into this because it was meaningful to us."

You don't have a website. What's the reasoning behind that choice?

Claudia: "We're only two people, so we wanted to do a print magazine. I think it's just so much work to have a digital presence, so much planning on the backend, and we just didn't have the brainpower or enough bodies to focus on that."

Kerry: "I also think it's more compelling. I think if you're a photographer these days, there's something really meaningful about seeing your work in this beautiful print magazine with this incredible matte paper and beautiful ink. It's very different from seeing it online. And at the same time, everyone thinks they need a website, and I don't think every website is super compelling! So Claudia and I are also waiting until we have something really compelling that we can contribute to the digital world. Until then we're just happy to focus on the things we do find compelling, and that's just the offline things right now."

Tell us about the Jubilee conference.

Kerry: "Last year it sort of came to light that there were all these interesting happenings in the food world and a lot of them were excluding female chefs and food world participants. We just decided, 'Hey, if we don't like it, let's change things and throw our own conference.' We had no experience doing it and were so in over our heads, you have no idea. We put together a one-day conference with all these great speakers and really meaningful content. It talked about everything from being a mom to the challenges of having your own business."

The magazines ready to go out for shipment. Image via Facebook.

Was it scary to start in fashion and then make so many career jumps?

Kerry: "Yes, my life is very different today. But I can definitely say I'm the happiest I've ever been today because I have so much creative freedom and I'm in charge of my own schedule. At the same time, it's terrifying. You say goodbye to that paycheck, you say goodbye to having an assistant and a million interns. I feel like I'm part CEO, part intern because Claudia and I are working on these high-level things and trying to figure out how to make this a business and that's super exciting, but at the same time we are so hands-on that it's exhausting."

Claudia: "I worked at many, many offices and you just start to realize that no one you meet is very happy, so I think that reinforced my lifestyle where I was never in one space for very long. It's not for everyone. I know people who can't give up that paycheck, so it just takes a certain personality."

Kerry: "I would say, if you do have a corporate job and you're reading this, don't quit. Because you definitely can do your creative pursuits on your own time. But also, save as much money as you can. If you have a job and a paycheck just sock away money, even if you don't think you want to launch a magazine some day. It's a lesson I learned later in life, and I wish someone had sat me down and physically took money away from me and put it in the bank. I was a big shopper, traveler and person who would eat out all the time, and I wish I was a bit more of a saver. It would have made life easier today."

What's the hardest part about running the magazine?

Claudia: "I think since we're a print magazine, putting it together was fairly easy but actually getting it out—distributing, all that stuff—was a bit of a challenge."

Kerry: "Carrying boxes to the post office! It seems like that's been our full-time job. The distribution and shipping is the hardest part. The post office isn't really set up to help indie magazines, so it's been a challenge navigating that."

Did your experience and interest in fashion affect the end result at all?

Kerry: "I think our personal style is reflected in the magazine. When I think of the things that inspire me and that inspire what I bring to the magazine, I think about people like Dries Van Noten, Maria Cornejo, Stella McCartney. I wear their clothes, and at the same time I think they definitely inspire me by their approach to business, their aesthetic, just how they seem to care about art and bigger picture things than just making a dollar."

Claudia: "I think your style has to do a lot with your taste level, and I feel like it does show in our work and the choices we make. I tend to wear designers that have kind of done it themselves, like Thakoon, Phillip Lim and Rachel Comey. People who are more independent and show their work ethic. It's very inspirational."

Inside the mag.

Were there any lessons you had to learn the hard way?

Kerry: "I think maybe we should have done things in reverse. Maybe started with a business plan and figured out our digital play. At the same time, I think we have a beautiful product that people really love and that does a great job of shining the spotlight on these interesting, important women. To have this quality product is so meaningful."

What's next for Cherry Bombe?

Kerry: "We do need to start to selling more advertising. That's just a reality. I don't think a magazine can exist without advertising today. We'd like to do it our own way and have a combination of actual advertising, native advertising and sponsored content. I think that's something our reader would really respond to. We're already planning the conference for 2015, and that's an area we would love to expand, maybe do it in other cities or hold different types of conferences. We also just started a radio show earlier this spring called Radio Cherry Bombe that we're doing through the Heritage Radio Network. Again, not an industry you should go into if you want to make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's a great brand extension for us and something we really believe in."

Claudia: "We've also had a lot of interest in people pitching us to do books. I think it's something that we have to figure out because there are a lot of food books out there and what do we do that won't seem like everything else? How do we create something that you are going to love for the long haul and that you're going to take it with you when you move from place to place to place? That's the kind of stuff that we want to do."

· Cherry Bombe [Official site]

· The Law Student Putting Fashion Brands in Their Place [Racked]

· From Closet Porn to Big-Time Success: The Tale of The Coveteur [Racked]

via fashion - Google News http://ift.tt/1o9EmpA

Fashion's Favorite Foodies on Starting a Magazine from Scratch - Racked National

The front cover of Cherry Bombe's first issue, featuring Karlie Kloss.

In an age where the print media business seems less and less stable, Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu are willing to take a chance. The two New Yorkers are the masterminds behind Cherry Bombe , a biannual woman-focused food magazine that launched last year.

The two met years ago while working at Harper's Bazaar, and after going their separate ways—Diamond landed at Coach before meeting a chef and opening a few restaurants with him; Wu started a graphic design firm—decided to start a magazine of their own on the side. Why? Because they didn't think there was enough content showcasing women in the food industry. They raised $42,000 through Kickstarter to fund the publication, which is already on its third issue, a 200-page masterpiece printed in color on heavy paper with beautiful original photography and minimal ads. Cherry Bombe has landed some impressive interviews with the likes of Julia Roberts, Karlie Kloss, Chloe Sevigny and Sofia Coppola, and Diamond and Wu also created an all-woman food conference, Jubilee, which enjoyed a sold-out audience in March.

The Cherry Bombe girls spoke with Racked about their decision to launch a print publication without a website, why the fashion and food industries are so connected, and the things they wish they had known before creating a magazine from scratch.

What were you guys doing when you decided to start Cherry Bombe?

Claudia: "I've had a creative agency with a friend of mine, working in fashion advertising and branding, for about five years."

Kerry: "I was working at Coach and had just opened a restaurant, Seersucker, with my boyfriend in Carroll Gardens."

Why did you start the magazine?

Claudia: "Kerry actually approached me about doing a magazine. I had mentioned a cookbook, but she thought there were too many cookbooks out there. I had done my own little independent magazine called Me Magazine in 2004."

Kerry: "Claudia and I are both magazine junkies, so the first goal was to create a beautiful one. Second was feeling that there were so many interesting women out there in and around the food space that just weren't getting their due.

So many stories came out last year that were just like, 'Where are all the female chefs, where are all the women in food?' and we were like, 'Are you kidding? Just open your eyes—they're all around you.' We wanted to spotlight those women."

Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu, the women behind the biannual magazine.

Were you always interested in the food landscape?

Kerry: "I had a lot of friends who worked in the food world, either as chefs or PR people or restaurant owners, but it really wasn't until I started dating a chef and he asked me to open a restaurant that I got dragged into the world."

Claudia: "I've always had this weird obsession with food. I loved watching Top Chef, and I did kind of follow chefs in New York."

Do you think that the food world is male-dominated?

Kerry: "It's not, but the perception is that it is. I think when you look at a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles, it's not even an issue because there are so many women doing things. It's just because the magazine world is centered in New York and the spotlight is focused on something else, it gives the impression that there weren't women in the industry and that's something we're trying to fix."

Your magazine showcases a lot of fashion personalities. Why do you think fashion and food have become so intertwined?

Claudia: "Fashion brands at some point want to be lifestyle brands, so food is an extension of that. People have these amazing, picturesque, inspirational lives, and it's surprising how many fashion people have interest in food too."

Kerry: "I think for the longest time there was this perception that fashion people didn't eat. I think you had a few skinny individuals and everyone just assumed the fashion world was food-phobic! It's not true today, as the food world has exploded, fashion people have been able to come out of the closet a little bit and say, 'Hey, we do love food, we eat, we cook, we bake.'"

How do you fund the magazine?

Claudia: "We started with a Kickstarter, which raised enough money to print the first issue and pay for our costs. Now we kind of survive—we definitely are trying to increase the advertising in the magazine, and we do get a lot of support from subscribers and people who order from the website and the independent stores we work with directly."

Kerry: "The magazine is too young to be profitable yet. We've only come out with three issues so far."

Cherry Bombe showcases women in the food industry.

Why did you decide on a magazine in what seems like a perilous time for print publications?

Kerry: "We love reading print. It makes me sad when I'm on the subway and I see people either not reading anything or reading a Kindle. I miss those days when you could sit across from someone who was reading a magazine or a book and it revealed so much about that individual. If you want to get into the media business to make money, don't launch a magazine! It's not the most profitable way to go these days. Claudia and I do believe that we can turn this into a business for the long run, and we're in the process of figuring out how to turn this into a real business. But we didn't get into this to make a quick buck; we got into this because it was meaningful to us."

You don't have a website. What's the reasoning behind that choice?

Claudia: "We're only two people, so we wanted to do a print magazine. I think it's just so much work to have a digital presence, so much planning on the backend, and we just didn't have the brainpower or enough bodies to focus on that."

Kerry: "I also think it's more compelling. I think if you're a photographer these days, there's something really meaningful about seeing your work in this beautiful print magazine with this incredible matte paper and beautiful ink. It's very different from seeing it online. And at the same time, everyone thinks they need a website, and I don't think every website is super compelling! So Claudia and I are also waiting until we have something really compelling that we can contribute to the digital world. Until then we're just happy to focus on the things we do find compelling, and that's just the offline things right now."

Tell us about the Jubilee conference.

Kerry: "Last year it sort of came to light that there were all these interesting happenings in the food world and a lot of them were excluding female chefs and food world participants. We just decided, 'Hey, if we don't like it, let's change things and throw our own conference.' We had no experience doing it and were so in over our heads, you have no idea. We put together a one-day conference with all these great speakers and really meaningful content. It talked about everything from being a mom to the challenges of having your own business."

The magazines ready to go out for shipment. Image via Facebook.

Was it scary to start in fashion and then make so many career jumps?

Kerry: "Yes, my life is very different today. But I can definitely say I'm the happiest I've ever been today because I have so much creative freedom and I'm in charge of my own schedule. At the same time, it's terrifying. You say goodbye to that paycheck, you say goodbye to having an assistant and a million interns. I feel like I'm part CEO, part intern because Claudia and I are working on these high-level things and trying to figure out how to make this a business and that's super exciting, but at the same time we are so hands-on that it's exhausting."

Claudia: "I worked at many, many offices and you just start to realize that no one you meet is very happy, so I think that reinforced my lifestyle where I was never in one space for very long. It's not for everyone. I know people who can't give up that paycheck, so it just takes a certain personality."

Kerry: "I would say, if you do have a corporate job and you're reading this, don't quit. Because you definitely can do your creative pursuits on your own time. But also, save as much money as you can. If you have a job and a paycheck just sock away money, even if you don't think you want to launch a magazine some day. It's a lesson I learned later in life, and I wish someone had sat me down and physically took money away from me and put it in the bank. I was a big shopper, traveler and person who would eat out all the time, and I wish I was a bit more of a saver. It would have made life easier today."

What's the hardest part about running the magazine?

Claudia: "I think since we're a print magazine, putting it together was fairly easy but actually getting it out—distributing, all that stuff—was a bit of a challenge."

Kerry: "Carrying boxes to the post office! It seems like that's been our full-time job. The distribution and shipping is the hardest part. The post office isn't really set up to help indie magazines, so it's been a challenge navigating that."

Did your experience and interest in fashion affect the end result at all?

Kerry: "I think our personal style is reflected in the magazine. When I think of the things that inspire me and that inspire what I bring to the magazine, I think about people like Dries Van Noten, Maria Cornejo, Stella McCartney. I wear their clothes, and at the same time I think they definitely inspire me by their approach to business, their aesthetic, just how they seem to care about art and bigger picture things than just making a dollar."

Claudia: "I think your style has to do a lot with your taste level, and I feel like it does show in our work and the choices we make. I tend to wear designers that have kind of done it themselves, like Thakoon, Phillip Lim and Rachel Comey. People who are more independent and show their work ethic. It's very inspirational."

Inside the mag.

Were there any lessons you had to learn the hard way?

Kerry: "I think maybe we should have done things in reverse. Maybe started with a business plan and figured out our digital play. At the same time, I think we have a beautiful product that people really love and that does a great job of shining the spotlight on these interesting, important women. To have this quality product is so meaningful."

What's next for Cherry Bombe?

Kerry: "We do need to start to selling more advertising. That's just a reality. I don't think a magazine can exist without advertising today. We'd like to do it our own way and have a combination of actual advertising, native advertising and sponsored content. I think that's something our reader would really respond to. We're already planning the conference for 2015, and that's an area we would love to expand, maybe do it in other cities or hold different types of conferences. We also just started a radio show earlier this spring called Radio Cherry Bombe that we're doing through the Heritage Radio Network. Again, not an industry you should go into if you want to make a lot of money, but at the same time, it's a great brand extension for us and something we really believe in."

Claudia: "We've also had a lot of interest in people pitching us to do books. I think it's something that we have to figure out because there are a lot of food books out there and what do we do that won't seem like everything else? How do we create something that you are going to love for the long haul and that you're going to take it with you when you move from place to place to place? That's the kind of stuff that we want to do."

· Cherry Bombe [Official site]

· The Law Student Putting Fashion Brands in Their Place [Racked]

· From Closet Porn to Big-Time Success: The Tale of The Coveteur [Racked]

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Greenville native launches fashion line - Greenville News

Angelia Davis, The Greenville News 9:26 a.m. EDT July 30, 2014

Growing up in Greenville, Morgan Grandy Hunt’s creative juices flowed into fashions she’d design and stitch together with her grandmother.

When Hunt left Greenville for Dallas after high school graduation, she set aside that creativity.

She earned a business administration degree in finance and went to work as a financial analyst.

This month, Hunt officially returned to her creative roots by launching her own clothing line, Morgan James.

The 2004 graduate of Christ Church Episcopal School will formally introduce that line on Aug. 9, at a Southeast Launch Trunk Show in Atlanta.

Hunt, now married and a mother, told The Greenville News in a phone interview from her Dallas home that she’s doing what has come natural.

But to get where she is today, an entrepreneur living her passion, has been “a pretty neat ascent over the past year and a half,” she said.

“I definitely doubted myself a lot and wondered why am I doing this?,” Hunt said. “Once I was in the process and seeing it all come together, I was proud of what I was doing.”

Hunt’s Morgan James line features “menswear inspired jackets, leather leggings, flirty dresses and maxis, breezy blouses, and tailored basics.”

For now, the items are for purchase primarily through the web site http://ift.tt/1k7izzw.

“Hopefully, we will get a good result and be able to keep going,” Hunt said. “Who knows if going into retail stores is in our future? We’ll see how it unfolds.”

As a youth, she would be the one to “find a cool scarf” to make new sleeves for a plain T-shirt.

She was also “always that person” who would have in her head what she wanted her prom dress to look like, but could never find it in the stores.

So, she’d sit down with her mother, Megan Turbeville, who now lives in Charleston, and grandmother, Patricia Hartley, “a wonderful seamstress,” to draw the dress, pick out the fabric, and make it.

She was also influenced by her father, Matthew Grandy of Greenville. He ran the family-owned, Greenville-based business that produced the Michael Thomas and Snake Eyes golf apparel lines.

Hunt considers it “kind of random” that she ended up in finance after her 2008 graduation from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

In 2011, she married Casey Hunt, who works in the oil and gas industry.

Pregnancy sparked her passion for children and re-ignited Hunt’s flame of creativity.

She quit her corporate job and became a nanny. After her son was born, she became a stay-at-home-mom.

“I was able to devote myself not only to my son, but to thinking about what I wanted to do,” she said.

She started sketching and found someone in Dallas with a design background “to help me get it all out on paper. Then, I found contacts in New York. All of a sudden, a clothing line was born.”

The clothing line bears Hartley’s maiden name is Morgan and the first name of her first son, 22-month-old, James.

“The two of them were my inspiration and fueled my creativity, so it felt only fitting for the name to be in honor of them,” said Hunt, who is eight months pregnant with her second son.

Hunt’s dream is to someday see someone in a restaurant or some place wearing her articles of clothing.

“You’re always a little nervous when you put yourself out there, especially when it’s something creative because while I think it’s pretty and I like it, who knows if the rest of the world is going to think that,” she said.

“So, it’s definitely a little nerve wracking. But the process has been fun and fulfilling, said Hunt, 27. “Seeing it all go from from a sketch on the back of a receipt to a made garment that someone can actually purchase is pretty neat. It certainly has been fun and a dream come true.”

.

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Snoopy and Belle: Back in the Fashion Spotlight - Women's Wear Daily

Snoopy, the beloved companion of Charlie Brown, has always been more of an accessories type than a true fashion hound — er, beagle. As imagined by “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz, Snoopy was rendered mainly in a slim black collar and nothing else, though he dabbled in thematic ensembles such as a flight cap and goggles as the World War I Flying Ace, and sunglasses as Joe Cool.

Then in 1984, in what could be dubbed comics-meet-couture, the beagle and his kid sister Belle got the Cinderella treatment courtesy of an impressive list of designers, including Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Gianni Versace, Thierry Mugler, Jean Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld, all of whom created custom outfits for the duo based on the fashions of the time. The resulting collection of Snoopy and Belle dolls went on to exhibit at the Louvre, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and throughout Europe and Asia. The whole thing was a silly stroke of marketing genius.

“It allowed artists who liked the characters to take them out of the comic page and make them — I don’t know whether you’d call them sassy or just funny,” said Schulz’s widow, Jean. “Everything about Snoopy is funny — the costumes are funny, they make you laugh.”



Flashback to Fabulous: Click Here for a Slideshow of Looks for Snoopy and Belle From the Eighties >>

Now the project is being reprised for the “Peanuts” comic strip’s 65th anniversary, which falls on the 30th anniversary of the original “Snoopy in Fashion,” and roughly a year before the first major “Peanuts” motion picture hits the screen, to be released in 100 countries and 40 languages.

“It’s this huge, amazing tidal wave of marketing and enthusiasm,” said Leigh Anne Brodsky, managing director of Peanuts Worldwide. “Our timing is really working well with the momentum and also with these huge milestones.”

Among the designers and labels outfitting Snoopy and Belle this time are Dries Van Noten, Calvin Klein Collection, Isabel Marant, Rodarte, as well as Betsey Johnson and Diane von Furstenberg, both of whom participated in the first go-round of “Snoopy in Fashion.” (Here, sketches and mock-ups of the looks.)

“We are so excited to celebrate again 30 years later with Snoopy and Belle in fashion,” said von Furstenberg. “We designed some pajamas for Snoopy and a wrap dress for Belle, both in our signature chain link.”

Asked if Schulz, who died in 2000, thought about fashion, Jean replied, “No, not at all! We always say he was a boy from the Midwest. Although, I have to say, he loved his sweaters and he had the most beautiful selection of sweaters.…It was flattering to him that the designers, who were attracting attention of royalty and stars and so forth, would want to join in the project. I think he pointed out that it’s just fun. It brings people together on a level that really sort of transcends their snootiness, if you want.”

The 2014 iteration of “Snoopy and Belle in Fashion,” which features vinyl beagle dolls wearing the designer looks, will launch Sept. 8 at the New Museum during New York Fashion Week. From there, the exhibition will travel to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Moscow and Milan.

Iconix Brand Group owns 80 percent of Peanuts Worldwide, with the Schulz family retaining the other 20 percent. This confluence of marketing initiatives, along with the forthcoming film, seeks to introduce “Peanuts” to a new generation.

“The next 12 months are pretty critical for the brand, with this major motion picture coming out with 20th Century Fox,” said Neil Cole, ceo of Iconix. “One of our big goals is elevating the fashion part of the business.”

There is a significant “Peanuts” apparel business, with approximately $300 million to $400 million in sales volume, which Iconix plans to grown to over $500 million in the next year. “Peanuts” merchandise is available in 100 countries — Europe and Asia, particularly Japan (go figure) are the biggest markets. There are 500 Snoopy Time shops-in-shop in Asia, as well as Charlie Brown cafés.

“Snoopy in Fashion” isn’t the only haute moment for “Peanuts.” There was a recent collaboration with Colette in Paris; a Woodstock-centric collection with the Italian label Fay is launching for fall; Lladro is creating Charlie Brown and Snoopy figurines to launch in early 2015. As Jean Schulz put it, “We’re taking it beyond the T-shirt.”

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Back to School Fashion Trends for Kids - Huffington Post

Back to school sales are revving up. For many families, that means buying their kids a whole new wardrobe, or at least a new pair of jeans or two. These days, many young kids are just as much into fashion as the teens. So we've rounded up the top trending school outfit styles for kids. Now kids K-12 can enter that classroom door in fun, affordable fashion.

Plaid: In tribute to 90s fashion, plaid is back in. From skirts to shirts, shoes to accessories, you'll see plaid showing up everywhere. And it's not the only 90s trend to be in style, yet again. High-top sneakers, Mary Janes, knee socks and rock'n'roll graphic tees are also back.

Faux Leather: What could be cuter than a kid-sized mini moto jacket? Look for faux leather accents showing up everywhere. This trend is about a touch of leather here and there, like leather shoulder pads or a waistband.

High-Waisted Jeans: This trend goes hand-in-hand with crop tops, so be sure to stock up on camisoles. Tuck a solid color cami into a pair of high-waisted jeans and pair it with a crop sweater so your girls can rock this trend.

Straight-Legged Jeans: Boys will be diverging from the skinny jean look to rock the slightly wider straight leg. Can't get your kid in denim? That's okay. The sporty look is in. You'll see many colorblock athletic pants and basketball shorts that are not only comfortable, but are actually fashion forward this season.

Athletic Wear: This trend goes beyond basketball shorts and you don't have to be an athlete to pull off the sporty look this season. Look for varsity jackets and graphic tees with sports-inspired images. Jogger pants are in for the girls and they're coming in just about every print you can imagine, making athleticwear fashionable and functional this season.

Colorful Sneakers: When it comes to kicks, the brighter the better! Multi-color sneakers are all the rage.

Slip-On Sneakers: Tween girls will be rocking embellished slip-on sneakers this year. Adorned with leopard prints, rhinestones, camo or covered in sparkles, these shoes are sure to make a major fashion statement.

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Greenville native launches fashion line - Greenville News

Angelia Davis, The Greenville News 9:26 a.m. EDT July 30, 2014

Growing up in Greenville, Morgan Grandy Hunt’s creative juices flowed into fashions she’d design and stitch together with her grandmother.

When Hunt left Greenville for Dallas after high school graduation, she set aside that creativity.

She earned a business administration degree in finance and went to work as a financial analyst.

This month, Hunt officially returned to her creative roots by launching her own clothing line, Morgan James.

The 2004 graduate of Christ Church Episcopal School will formally introduce that line on Aug. 9, at a Southeast Launch Trunk Show in Atlanta.

Hunt, now married and a mother, told The Greenville News in a phone interview from her Dallas home that she’s doing what has come natural.

But to get where she is today, an entrepreneur living her passion, has been “a pretty neat ascent over the past year and a half,” she said.

“I definitely doubted myself a lot and wondered why am I doing this?,” Hunt said. “Once I was in the process and seeing it all come together, I was proud of what I was doing.”

Hunt’s Morgan James line features “menswear inspired jackets, leather leggings, flirty dresses and maxis, breezy blouses, and tailored basics.”

For now, the items are for purchase primarily through the web site http://ift.tt/1k7izzw.

“Hopefully, we will get a good result and be able to keep going,” Hunt said. “Who knows if going into retail stores is in our future? We’ll see how it unfolds.”

As a youth, she would be the one to “find a cool scarf” to make new sleeves for a plain T-shirt.

She was also “always that person” who would have in her head what she wanted her prom dress to look like, but could never find it in the stores.

So, she’d sit down with her mother, Megan Turbeville, who now lives in Charleston, and grandmother, Patricia Hartley, “a wonderful seamstress,” to draw the dress, pick out the fabric, and make it.

She was also influenced by her father, Matthew Grandy of Greenville. He ran the family-owned, Greenville-based business that produced the Michael Thomas and Snake Eyes golf apparel lines.

Hunt considers it “kind of random” that she ended up in finance after her 2008 graduation from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

In 2011, she married Casey Hunt, who works in the oil and gas industry.

Pregnancy sparked her passion for children and re-ignited Hunt’s flame of creativity.

She quit her corporate job and became a nanny. After her son was born, she became a stay-at-home-mom.

“I was able to devote myself not only to my son, but to thinking about what I wanted to do,” she said.

She started sketching and found someone in Dallas with a design background “to help me get it all out on paper. Then, I found contacts in New York. All of a sudden, a clothing line was born.”

The clothing line bears Hartley’s maiden name is Morgan and the first name of her first son, 22-month-old, James.

“The two of them were my inspiration and fueled my creativity, so it felt only fitting for the name to be in honor of them,” said Hunt, who is eight months pregnant with her second son.

Hunt’s dream is to someday see someone in a restaurant or some place wearing her articles of clothing.

“You’re always a little nervous when you put yourself out there, especially when it’s something creative because while I think it’s pretty and I like it, who knows if the rest of the world is going to think that,” she said.

“So, it’s definitely a little nerve wracking. But the process has been fun and fulfilling, said Hunt, 27. “Seeing it all go from from a sketch on the back of a receipt to a made garment that someone can actually purchase is pretty neat. It certainly has been fun and a dream come true.”

.

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