HIGH PROFILE Aliona Doletskaya at Diane Von Furstenberg’s show and at the Hotel Gansevoort.
Do you think that Anna Wintour's feelings (she has them, right?) are hurt by the media's insistence on paying attention to other countries' Vogue editors, and even speculating that they might replace her?
The other day this adoring profile of Paris Vogue's Carine Roitfeld (Julia's mom) called the rumors that she might replace Anna "delicious," and today the Times introduces us to Carine's friend Aliona Doletskaya.
The "focused and formidably confident" editor of Russian Vogue, who has, of course, a "lithe physique, foxlike features and predilection for curve-skimming dresses," is also rumored to a contender for the US job.
While Doletskaya dismisses this as "fantasy," it could kick off a fun trend to replace the craze for British magazine editors: Instead of Joannas, Tinas, and Glendas, we could have Svetlanas, Olgas, and Natassias!
Let's face it, it's going to happen anyway by around 2011, when the Russians will own everything in New York and the rest of the planet.
[city file]
Here's the NYT profile of Aliona:
Why the Editor of Russian Vogue Is Getting So Much Attention
By RUTH LA FERLA
Fishing in her outsize tote, Aliona Doletskaya pulled out her iPhone. “Yes darling, fine darling, everything will go as planned,” she told her caller with the steely authority of a woman long accustomed to having her edicts followed.
In that instant she seemed a creature straight out of central casting, the lanky Slavic counterpart to Miranda Priestly of “The Devil Wears Prada.”
She is that — to a point, Ms. Doletskaya allowed. This is, after all, her 10th year as the editor of Russian Vogue, an experience, she added in a sexy whiskey tenor, that has not done much to soften her. “Fashion is a world in which everything is gorgeous, stunning, caramel on top of caramel, and cream on top of that,” she said. “But in reality you have to fire people, to say things that are not particularly nice. There is a contrast between what you do socially and what happens behind closed doors.”
Focused and formidably confident, Ms. Doletskaya, who has flitted in and out of the tents during Fashion Week, has been compared to her editorial counterparts at Vogue in Paris and New York. And her somewhat austere presence has fueled blog twittering that she is on a short list of likely successors to American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, should Ms. Wintour one day shrug off the mantle.
Lately those comparisons have placed Ms. Doletskaya under unaccustomed scrutiny. They arise in part from her impressive track record. Russian Vogue, introduced 10 years ago in a time of economic turmoil, now has a circulation estimated at 200,000. Its September issue carried some 340 pages of advertising.
Then there is her image. With her lithe physique, foxlike features and predilection for curve-skimming dresses, she appears to be cut from much the same cloth as Carine Roitfeld, the editor of Paris Vogue, whom she counts as a friend.
Seated front row center at the Diane Von Furstenberg show on Sunday, she studied the collection with an analytic eye, confiding in a whisper: “I love all the safari variations and the big tank tops. They are quite cool.” Ignoring several heads that turned in her direction, she went on blithely, “On the whole, the collection made me feel I was on holiday.”
Earlier that weekend, kicking off her Narciso platforms and resting her feet on a table at the Hotel Gansevoort, Ms. Doletskaya seemed to take the unaccustomed attention in stride. The rumors that she would one day replace Ms. Wintour are “pure fantasy, just that — someone else’s romantic notion.” And yet, in her own assessment, she is infinitely “adaptable,” so much so that one could imagine her stepping into Ms. Wintour’s towering boots.
As an editor, Ms. Doletskaya treads a fine line, hewing to the commercial demands of what is arguably the world’s most influential fashion franchise and, at the same time, catering to the tastes of her Russian readership.
An unlikely style maven, she holds a Ph.D. in comparative linguistics. And she strives to edit a magazine that reflects all that has historically defined the Russian style. The fashion pages in her September issue open with a portrait of Anna Selezneva, one of Russia’s most-sought-after models, photographed to resemble an icon — the religious kind.
That image is meant to reflect “the Byzantine past of the country,” Ms. Doletskaya said, “which, with its love of gilding, is really over he top.”
Yet in Moscow, where Vogue has its offices, tastes are shifting, as reflected by the stepped-up presence of American designers in her magazine. “The full-on extravagance, the red lipstick, the diamonds, the furs, all that is passé,” she said firmly. “The Russians are getting far more sophisticated.”
Ms. Doletskaya herself is intent on fostering those newly cosmopolitan tendencies. “What I want to say now to my readers is that we are part of the world,” she said, “no longer wild unfriendly creatures sitting behind a wall.”
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[city file]
Here's the NYT profile of Aliona:
Why the Editor of Russian Vogue Is Getting So Much Attention
By RUTH LA FERLA
Fishing in her outsize tote, Aliona Doletskaya pulled out her iPhone. “Yes darling, fine darling, everything will go as planned,” she told her caller with the steely authority of a woman long accustomed to having her edicts followed.
In that instant she seemed a creature straight out of central casting, the lanky Slavic counterpart to Miranda Priestly of “The Devil Wears Prada.”
She is that — to a point, Ms. Doletskaya allowed. This is, after all, her 10th year as the editor of Russian Vogue, an experience, she added in a sexy whiskey tenor, that has not done much to soften her. “Fashion is a world in which everything is gorgeous, stunning, caramel on top of caramel, and cream on top of that,” she said. “But in reality you have to fire people, to say things that are not particularly nice. There is a contrast between what you do socially and what happens behind closed doors.”
Focused and formidably confident, Ms. Doletskaya, who has flitted in and out of the tents during Fashion Week, has been compared to her editorial counterparts at Vogue in Paris and New York. And her somewhat austere presence has fueled blog twittering that she is on a short list of likely successors to American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, should Ms. Wintour one day shrug off the mantle.
Lately those comparisons have placed Ms. Doletskaya under unaccustomed scrutiny. They arise in part from her impressive track record. Russian Vogue, introduced 10 years ago in a time of economic turmoil, now has a circulation estimated at 200,000. Its September issue carried some 340 pages of advertising.
Then there is her image. With her lithe physique, foxlike features and predilection for curve-skimming dresses, she appears to be cut from much the same cloth as Carine Roitfeld, the editor of Paris Vogue, whom she counts as a friend.
Seated front row center at the Diane Von Furstenberg show on Sunday, she studied the collection with an analytic eye, confiding in a whisper: “I love all the safari variations and the big tank tops. They are quite cool.” Ignoring several heads that turned in her direction, she went on blithely, “On the whole, the collection made me feel I was on holiday.”
Earlier that weekend, kicking off her Narciso platforms and resting her feet on a table at the Hotel Gansevoort, Ms. Doletskaya seemed to take the unaccustomed attention in stride. The rumors that she would one day replace Ms. Wintour are “pure fantasy, just that — someone else’s romantic notion.” And yet, in her own assessment, she is infinitely “adaptable,” so much so that one could imagine her stepping into Ms. Wintour’s towering boots.
As an editor, Ms. Doletskaya treads a fine line, hewing to the commercial demands of what is arguably the world’s most influential fashion franchise and, at the same time, catering to the tastes of her Russian readership.
An unlikely style maven, she holds a Ph.D. in comparative linguistics. And she strives to edit a magazine that reflects all that has historically defined the Russian style. The fashion pages in her September issue open with a portrait of Anna Selezneva, one of Russia’s most-sought-after models, photographed to resemble an icon — the religious kind.
That image is meant to reflect “the Byzantine past of the country,” Ms. Doletskaya said, “which, with its love of gilding, is really over he top.”
Yet in Moscow, where Vogue has its offices, tastes are shifting, as reflected by the stepped-up presence of American designers in her magazine. “The full-on extravagance, the red lipstick, the diamonds, the furs, all that is passé,” she said firmly. “The Russians are getting far more sophisticated.”
Ms. Doletskaya herself is intent on fostering those newly cosmopolitan tendencies. “What I want to say now to my readers is that we are part of the world,” she said, “no longer wild unfriendly creatures sitting behind a wall.”
If you enjoyed this post, other posts and enjoy reading LA*SURFPUNK THE MENS STORE--Please take a moment to make a donation to keep this blog alive!!! You can click the donate button at the top right of the page. We thank you!!
Read more of my blog by clicking the title or subject listings on the right.
Email friends of my postings with the EMAIL icon at the bottom of each post.
And as always, feel free to comment.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
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