Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Feb 28, 2015 20:34:37 GMT -6
variety.com/2015/biz/news/john-fairchild-womens-wear-daily-editor-dead-1201443961/
John Fairchild, Women’s Wear Daily Editor, Dies at 87
John Fairchild, who transformed his family’s fashion trade, Women’s Wear Daily, into an international force to be reckoned with, died on Friday at his Manhattan home after a long illness. He was 87.
He headed Fairchild Publications Inc., with publications that included Jane and Details magazines, for more than 30 years. In addition to being the longstanding editor-in-chief of WWD, Fairchild was also the founding editor of W magazine.
Conde Nast sold WWD to Penske Media Corp. — Variety‘s parent company — last year. Fairchild remained a contributing editor.
Since starting at Women’s Wear in 1960, he catalyzed the evolution of the fashion industry, making designers, including Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta and Yves Saint Laurent, as famous as the celebrities who donned their clothes.
Fairchild, who thought the industry was inherently dull — “Fashion is a bunch of blah blah,” he was prone to saying — was more interested in the personalities behind the ateliers and the social climbers that surrounded them.
When he did write for WWD and W, Fairchild used the pen name Louise J. Esterhazy. A shrewd and acerbic critic who never minced words, Fairchild was considered both a ruthless writer, editor and friend. He even graded designer collections.
“It is difficult at this most democratic moment in the history of fashion journalism to understand the power John Fairchild wielded and the fear he commanded,” Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour said in a statement. “Designers literally quivered in his wake. I remember him, however, as a delightful and wickedly funny lunch companion, a devoted husband and father, and an unrepentant Anglophile who loved to discuss all things English. I will miss him.”
Fairchild wrote several books, including memoirs, such as 1989’s “Chic Savages.” He received the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s lifetime recognition award in 1997 and retired that same year.
He is survived by his wife, Jill, three sons and daughter.
John Fairchild, Women’s Wear Daily Editor, Dies at 87
John Fairchild, who transformed his family’s fashion trade, Women’s Wear Daily, into an international force to be reckoned with, died on Friday at his Manhattan home after a long illness. He was 87.
He headed Fairchild Publications Inc., with publications that included Jane and Details magazines, for more than 30 years. In addition to being the longstanding editor-in-chief of WWD, Fairchild was also the founding editor of W magazine.
Conde Nast sold WWD to Penske Media Corp. — Variety‘s parent company — last year. Fairchild remained a contributing editor.
Since starting at Women’s Wear in 1960, he catalyzed the evolution of the fashion industry, making designers, including Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta and Yves Saint Laurent, as famous as the celebrities who donned their clothes.
Fairchild, who thought the industry was inherently dull — “Fashion is a bunch of blah blah,” he was prone to saying — was more interested in the personalities behind the ateliers and the social climbers that surrounded them.
When he did write for WWD and W, Fairchild used the pen name Louise J. Esterhazy. A shrewd and acerbic critic who never minced words, Fairchild was considered both a ruthless writer, editor and friend. He even graded designer collections.
“It is difficult at this most democratic moment in the history of fashion journalism to understand the power John Fairchild wielded and the fear he commanded,” Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour said in a statement. “Designers literally quivered in his wake. I remember him, however, as a delightful and wickedly funny lunch companion, a devoted husband and father, and an unrepentant Anglophile who loved to discuss all things English. I will miss him.”
Fairchild wrote several books, including memoirs, such as 1989’s “Chic Savages.” He received the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s lifetime recognition award in 1997 and retired that same year.
He is survived by his wife, Jill, three sons and daughter.