Talk about a grand marketing plan!
 
Last weekend, Love magazine, run by former Pop! Magazine Editor (and fashion industry icon) Katie Grand, started releasing their Issue #3 covers. The nude shots of Lara Stone, Kristen McMenamy, Daria Werbowy and Jeneil Williams were let loose on the internet, and didn't the bloggers have a field day! I blogged about it. I got emails from friends to blog about it. I saw it on at least three other websites all marvelling over how we were getting to see these girls practically in their birthday suits. Fashion blogging land was in an excitable hoo hah (naked supermodel? You've got to be kidding me! I've never seen that before).
 
You can imagine then, the absolute palaver it caused when Love Magazine released to their database four more covers last night: Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Natalia Vodianova, Amber Valetta. Cue more blogging, more hype, more anticipation for the onsale date of a magazine. I haven't looked forward to buying a mag so much since the launch of Madison five years ago.
 
Did I mention the mag's not out yet? Goes on sale tomorrow.
 
This is a great way for magazines to use the internet - the very medium which is one of the major causes of mags dropping circ - to actually drive sales. Australian magazines take note. Hype builds hype. Hype drives sales. Hell, I'll be dropping everything to scour the city for a copy of Love and I'll probably buy a few (again, naked supermodel? Collector’s item).
 
But the nakedness. On a fashion magazine. It's a little ... out of place, isn't it? Fashion is essentially about the clothes, right? What one is wearing. That's what fashion mags use to sell their magazines and it’s what women worldwide are obsessed with.
 
Clearly, that's not enough anymore. As the prima donna of fashion mags, Katie Grand is proving, even the fashion magazines need some help from that old sexual chestnut, nudity.
 
I don't think there's anything wrong with it. When Kate Moss sells her fashion range in Top Shop, it's usually with no bra on. Miranda Kerr hasn't been shot for a magazine with clothes on in what, five months now? And even pre-pubescent-looking Aussie superstar model, Abbey Lee, is all over photographer Terry Richardson's website sans top.
 
Clothes, it seems, have had their day. For now.