By Alyson Fixter
A former New York magazine editor, who won the top prize on a BBC
reality TV show with a pitch for a fashion title appealing to both men
and women, is planning to launch in September.
Huw Gwyther, who managed photographer Mario Testino’s studio before
becoming managing editor of V magazine, said his new glossy mag,
Wonderland, would be aimed at 25-40- year-olds, with the emphasis on
luxury.
On the BBC Two show Dragons’ Den, Gwyther, 28, persuaded
entrepreneur Peter Jones to invest £175,000 in the venture, the highest
investment secured by any competitor.
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Gwyther has hired two former Face employees, fashion director Grace Cobb and fashion editor Anthony Unwin, for the project.
He insisted there were no magazines Huw Gwyther: “The idea of luxury is most important”
currently in the market like Wonderland, for which he is predicting a first issue circulation of around 100,000.
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“There’s nothing out there that I find exciting or that I look forward to buying or want to subscribe to,” he said.
“I say that as a complete magaholic, and I believe that other people might feel the same way.
” Wonderland will be about fashion and visual culture and the idea of luxury is most important,” he added.
“I
see it very much as a destination rather than just a magazine, as
something that people look forward to going out and buying, something
to take you out of your everyday life and on a bit of a journey to a
fun place where you want to be.
“It’ll be a really upbeat, very
fun and sexy mag for both men and women, covering the range of fashion,
beauty, clubs, design, art, film and music.”Dragons’ Den was a six-part
series in which entrepreneurs pitched their ideas in an attempt to
secure investment finance from a panel of six business experts.
Peter
Jones, whose telecommunications firm, Phones International Group, is
worth £300m, was the only one of the six “dragons” to hear Gwyther’s
pitch through to the end.
He said the “high risk/high return
nature of the investment” intrigued him into offering the cash in
return for 40 per cent company shares.
The mag’s website can be viewed at www.wonderlandmagazine.com
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