Michael Belluomo's 'In Fashion.' - Magazine People

Michael Belluomo's In Fashion

Marilyn Monroe, larger than life and purple, pouts on the office wall while a gilded mermaid clock doesn't keep time. A Chinese pagoda perches on the windowsill. Michael Belluomo sits amid the tacky decorations and talks fashion.

The objects d'art are gag gifts--"I think"--from a staff whose business is to know what's what in apparel. In, out, chic or tacky. He and his band of rag-trade editors produce two slick magazines on the subject, Sportswear International and now In Fashion. The titles are mirror images of each other; Sportswear International for the trade and In Fashion for the consumer. Belluomo, 40, is editor and associate publisher of both.

In Fashion is part of an emerging trend on the American fashion magazine scene. The reigning queens--Vogue, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar--are being challenged by a group of feisty upstarts, often of European origin and led by the instantly successful Elle. Crowding the runway are Taxi, launched here in July by Italian publisher Gruppo Editoriale Crochet; Details and New York Talk, two Manhattan-based monthlies that went national in September; and Scene, a new supplement to powerful Women's Wear Daily with designs to become a stand-alone title. The newcomers have radical differences, but they tend to embody a more freewheeling, youthful, less dictatorial approach to fashion and style than does the status quo.

Inspired by advertisers

The inspiration for In Fashion came directly from the advertisers and retailers who support Sportswear International. Sportswear was brought to the United States five years ago by its German owner, Peter Schindler, who established VSI Publishing Corp. in Manhattan to produce it. Belluomo, a former executive editor at California Fashions Publications Inc., joined Schindler soon after. It was Belluomo's first stint as a publisher. A glossy bimonthly tabloid, Sportswear covers the men's and women's sportswear markets, but with a presentation more typical of a consumer magazine. Belluomo describes it as a "consumer-style book for the trade."

The trade soon noticed something peculiar; Retail customers pored over Sportswear. Its advertisers soon suggested that VSI launch a magazine for the Sportswear consumer. In August 1985, In Fashion was born as a quarterly with a 200,000 press run. Last September, when it went bimonthly, i ts circulation had doubled to about 400,000, primarily through newsstand sales. The title boasts an average sell-through of 75 percent, according to Curtis Circulation, its national distributor. The early support from Sportswear's advertisers, who pledged pages without seeing a prototype, was a key to In Fashion's quick success. It has been profitable, according to Belluomo,M from day one.

What's its niche in the increasingly crowded fashion field? Like its sister publication, In Fashion features mostly moderately priced sportswear presented in highly stylized layouts--the type typically seen in magazines devoted to haute couture. Fashion for the masses. "We'll take fringe elements, art elements, avant garde elements and make them accessible," says executive editor Laren Stover.

In Fashion also shows clothes for both men and women--a dual-audience approach that strengthens its desired positioning as a "lifestyle" magazine. Rather than "how-to" service articles, it opts for profiles of up-and-comers, the young and hot from the entertainment, arts and sports arenas. "Our emphasis is on style, interesting people with style," explains managing editor Camille Soriano. Belluomo calls it a "people-fashion" approach.

Dumbfounded staff

Belluomo is tall, lanky, with the guarded air and accent of a born New Yorker. His confidence is low-key. When he told his staff they would launch In Fashion--the same staff that was then producing Sportswear--they looked at him "somewhat dumbfounded," he says. But Belluomo pointed out that without realizing it they were already doing much of the work for the new title. The editors visit apparel markets and interpret fashion trends for retailers reading Sportswear; their interpretation could be reslanted to the consumer's perspective. The fashion photography done for Sportswear could be reused for a consumer magazine. And if editors could write for the trade, why not for the consumer?

It has worked much that way. Virtually all of the fashion photography is shot for Sportswear and then repackaged for In Fashion. Certain editorial features, such as one on new designers done recently for Sportswear, are re-worked for the In Fashion reader. But a great deal of editorial is still created specifically for one or the other. The same core of some 15 editors and artists produce both titles.

Belluomo credits his small staff's enthusiasm and initiative for the launch's success. VSI operates without much political hierarchy, he says--certainly without a "lone ranger" mentality at the top. He believes in developing the skills on hand. Few of the editors had any experience on a consumer magazine before starting In Fashion. And everyone, from the messenger up, contributes concepts for layouts and stories.

"We're a relatively young company. Most of the people here could very well be readers of the book--24, 25," he explains. "They're all plugged into the world we're covering."

Stover and Soriano, number one and two under Belluomo on both mastheads, say that he is a boss with a strong vision, but one who allows them freedom to execute it without interference.

"He puts a lot of trust in the people who work for him," Soriano says. "He pushes people to do things they might not do otherwise." Adds Stover, "He has found the best possible people for the right positions."

Where to?

Belluomo plans to take In Fashion monthly by mid to late 1987 and hopes by then to have built circulation to a million. Learning the fine art of distribution for a national consumer magazine, he says, has been one of his hardest lessons to date. "We didn't fully understand--and I'm thankful we didn't--what distribution ... would entail when we talked about a meaningful publication, one with a national scope. Had we known, we probably would have been a lot more intimidated."

Belluomo's greatest challenge now is conquering advertisers outside the traditional fashion/apparel sphere. "Those types of companies all have agencies, of course, and agencies have certain ways of doing business that can be very challenging for the new magazine," he says delicately.

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