Published
Sep 7, 2020
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Katie Grand leaving Love Magazine

Published
Sep 7, 2020

Katie Grand, the single most influential UK fashion stylist of the past 20 years, is leaving the magazine she founded, Love, a title within Condé Nast.


Love Magazin Issue One - Instagram (@kegrand)



Grand announced her departure via social media on Friday, bringing down the curtain after 12 years at Condé Nast. Her decision will underline the continued disruption at Condé Nast, and the glossy magazine publisher that continues to scramble to reinvent itself as a player in the digital media.

“The world has changed, and I have changed, and what is important is now so clear. Telling beautiful and important stories will never change. But it’s time for something new, it’s time for something different. Thank you to every single person who has collaborated, who has created and who has supported us. It’s been an incredible, unforgettable and life-changing journey. Now, we are on to the next… And it’s exciting. LOVE Katie,” wrote Grand on her Instagram account revealing her departure.

Known for its progressive political stance and tradition of anti-establishment approach to issues like race and gender, Love has arguably been Britain’s most admired fashion title since its launch. Its current home page is crammed full of features by models, photographers, writers and stylists on dealing with the lock-down and turning the camera onto oneself in this hyper introspective moment.

“Where to begin (and what a way to end)? At the beginning, I suppose. It started with a few notes and a few phone calls (probably on landlines). Our first cover was of my longtime friend Beth Ditto and us dyeing her hair orange and photographing her in the presidential suite at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles with Mert and Marcus. The clothes were specially made by Gareth Pugh, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton and many others. We didn’t think about making a statement or being controversial – it was a gut instinct of loving Beth and her music and wanting to take strong, sexy pictures of her. Fast-forward 12 years and I’m just as proud of the new covers of LOVE as I was of Beth’s. The social and media landscape is a million miles away from 2009 – I think back then our social presence was MySpace and we barely had a website,” continued Grand, who posted a photo of that debut cover with her news.

“From COVID to the #BLM protests, the team and I sought to listen to our contributors and give them the space they deserved. #lovediaries was not a fashion magazine, it was a book of photography and words that reflected this year’s chaos, soul-searching, heartbreak and – although sometimes it was hard to see – positivity and hope. This issue is the most important magazine I have ever produced. It is the one I am most proud of, it is the one that means the most; it is the one that I can’t improve on,” added Grand, bringing down the curtain on a remarkable creative run.

Grand now plans to work with Sarabande, the Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation in London, and with the Red Cross.

 

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