InStyle HQ - Students meet the team
From one of the most stylish magazines whose production no doubt comes with a lot of pressure Emily Dean, deputy editor of InStyle magazine tells all.
Far from the sartorial Anna Wintour of the British fashion scene she is – Emily Dean. Personable, down-to-earth and definitely in style.
Midway through our talk the equally amiable photographic director Wendy Hinton and senior fashion editor Natalie Hartley pop in to chat.
Multi-Media Journalism and the Future of InStyle
Emily Dean is aware of the importance of the internet for print publications and says they need to do more.
‘We have to accept that the times are changing and we have to move with that in terms of the internet and our website.’
She continued to say that editors must accept and usher in the new generation of young journalists.
The focus of magazines is now very much on multimedia platforms and the fresh ideas that will continue to involve readers in magazines.
Posting behind-the-scenes footage from shoots on the website, is fast becoming routine for InStyle.
Blogging
Natalie Hartley, senior fashion editor at the magazine writes a popular blog for the magazine and she is- as Emily Dean notes- ‘very cool’.
Dressed in a black long sleeved t-shirt and a beautiful muted green maxi skirt she proceeded to talk us through the art of blogging.
Fashion writers and the magazines they write for are generally expected to blog she says, opening up their fashionable lives to the public.
Wendy Hinton added the importance of ‘sharing the love’, using online links when you blog to direct traffic your way.
For affordable fashion and style inspiration check out Natalie’s blogspot at Natalie Hartley Wears.
Retouching Celebrities
The controversial issue of retouching also came up in the meeting.
The art of editing photographs to create sleeker, smoother images is used in the industry and in the past has created some unrest.
A few bright sparks might remember the GQ shoot of Kate Winslet.
Winslet was apparently appalled in 2003 to see stick-thin legs attached to her body on her GQ cover. Hello magazine reported her response;
‘The retouching is excessive. I do not look like that and more importantly I don’t desire to look like that’.
Where is the Line?
Wendy Hinton told us that retouching is used at InStyle, but only minor changes are implemented.
She revealed that a few of the classic ‘English rose’ celebrities coming in for shoots are often covered in tattoos.
The function of retouching according to Wendy is to create a smoother image without loosing a sense of who the person in the picture is.
Natalie Hartley and Emily Dean
The path for an aspiring fashion journalist has never been easy, it was nice to hear a deputy editor admit this.
The best anecdote was offered by Emily Dean herself who once had to wrap a previous editors Christmas presents to get ahead of her competitors.
The Style Starling 