Just one week into commencing her position as editor of Harper’s Bazaar Australia, Kellie Hush found herself at the tail end of a documentary on the title. For six months, Sydney fashion film-maker Anthony Lau had been following its team as they traveled to the fashion capitals of the world, interviewing the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Alber Elbaz, Christopher Bailey and Kanye West along the way. By the time his lens turned to Hush, that team had all but defected to its biggest competitor Vogue Australia.
“There was a little bit of a concern about how the filming would continue because a lot of it had already been done with the old team,” Hush admits. “But Anthony is incredibly talented and he re-scripted it so I’m very much involved along with my deputy editor Eugenie Kelly. It’s not all about Harper’s Bazaar Australia; it’s very much about being a global brand.”
On the day of Being Bazaar’s official premiere, the dust had finally settled with the appointment of harpersbazaar.com.au online editor Emma Ciufo, formerly of InStyle and Grazia. By then, Hush had gathered a solid fashion team headed up by Thelma McQuillan, who also returned to the title after bouts at local and international Grazia editions.
The musical chairs first erupted in May, with a shock announcement that Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Kirstie Clements was to be replaced by Edwina McCann. McCann had been the editor of arch rival publication Harper’s Bazaar for the past three years and as the weeks progressed, Bazaar’s fashion office underwent an exodus as Jillian Davison, Christine Centenera, Georgie McCourt-Abay and Rebecca Caratti followed their leader.
Hush, who previously had a three-year stint as Harper’s Bazaar deputy editor until 2006, was poached from her existing role as editor of fashion weekly Grazia. She is refreshingly open about the homecoming, as she is about her relationship with McCann, who she became close friends with when the pair were fashion editors at two major newspapers in the noughties.
“It wasn’t easy when I got on board here, to be perfectly honest, there was no fashion team. As a magazine editor, and it happened at Grazia, you want to start with a new team, with people who are supportive of you and your vision. The fact Ed has taken her team to Vogue is not surprising and I wish her all the success. We’re great friends and I hope, if anything, we can change the culture of all that rivalry. It will be a healthy competition and I want it to be a positive thing for the industry.”
The latest set of Audit Bureau of Circulations quarterly numbers indicate a challenge ahead for Hush, with the title recording a 3.6 per cent decline in year-on-year print sales to 52,520 for the period ending June, 2012. While Vogue recorded a two per cent increase to 51,119, Hush has a competitive track record in print turnarounds. In the year she was appointed to Grazia, it had experienced the release of its worst-yet circulation figures, falling 19 per cent in 2010 to 53,511 weekly sales.
“When I left, our readership had gone up by 28 per cent,” Hush says. “The thing with a magazine like Harper’s Bazaar, it’s not like Grazia where I can do it quickly, it will be done well and it will be done slowly and it will be done perfectly. I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bath water. “It’s a beautiful product and I’m the caretaker and I want to make sure that it’s protected and looked after so I will be working at every section of the magazine and seeing how it can work better and be better for the reader.”
Hush says readers will start to see major changes from November, her first full edition as editor.
“One of the things I will be addressing immediately is that we are the Australian edition of Harper’s Bazaar and that is not reflected in the fashion pages, so there will be more Australian fashion in amongst the international labels in the magazine. I am a huge fan of Australian designers and I have always been. I think that a lot of feedback from designers themselves is that they feel as though they haven’t had that much attention in the past.
Speaking to some of my colleagues in New York, who work for American Harper’s Bazaar, they feel that too.
“I think most editions have a local identity with a global view which is important to me. It’s getting the mix right. I know that my readers want to read about Karl Lagerfeld and hear what Marc Jacobs has to say and you know, they’re obsessed with Isabel Marant. You can’t deny that, it’s just getting that balance right.”
There are major initiatives to oversee in the meantime, including the first stand-alone edition of Harper’s Bazaar Brides next month and two dedicated collections issues per year. For the first time in 2013, Harper’s Bazaar Australia will also produce a Chinese language version in partnership with the City of Sydney. The initiative was a huge success for Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, which has produced four such editions for free distribution in Dubai.
“Ours will be the Eastern Seaboard, but the focus will be on incoming Chinese tourists into Sydney,” Hush says. “The distribution lines at the moment are still being locked away, but the business model will be that it will be for tourists coming in and that it will be free. We don’t want our local Chinese readers to miss out, so it will be available is select newsagencies which will be aimed at the target market. With Australia having such a close relationship with China and tourism, it was something we thought that would be great here.”
Another major project Hush has in her sights is the 15th anniversary edition in March, 2013.
“I want it to be bloody amazing to be perfectly honest,” she says. “March is a big focus for me and it’s not that far away in terms of monthly publication cycles. The planning process for that has already started and I’ve got other editions to focus on as well. November, December, January, February, I hope that people notice some changes. Working on a daily newspaper and then a weekly magazine, I think provides you with a better sense of good journalism.”
Having come from a traditional print publishing background, Hush is aware of the challenges being posed to the sector from digital competitors and beyond. She is not concerned about the impending launch of consumer title Elle Australia next year – spearheaded by Harper’s Bazaar Australia parent company ACP – which she sees as a different beast.
“It’s much more mass,” Hush says. “To be honest, if I were [Marie Claire editor] Jackie Frank, I’d be a lot more nervous than I am. It’s a really strong international brand. I’ve got a lot of friends who are still at Fairfax and obviously, they are facing really tough times there but actually, it’s a really exciting time to be involved in the media. We don’t know where it’s going to evolve. We’ve become Jack of all Trades. Years ago, when I wrote at the Sydney Morning Herald, I knew where the parameters of my job were. Today I can do almost anything; we’re publishing in so many different forms.” Hush is similarly aware of the changing landscape for Australian fashion designers, hence her move to support the sector through increased localised coverage.
“Australian Fashion Week was really tough last season and I think that’s really reflective of where the market is right now. Part of that is supporting designers and educating our readers that yes, you can buy really great stuff online but we have some great designers here that are worth investing in. She is not reluctant to broach the subject of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia.
“There’s been discussion for many seasons that we should look at getting more on the cruise calendar for Fashion Week, so that we may attract some international designers down here too. Chanel shows collections all over the world, there’s no reason that they can’t bring cruise to Sydney. Maybe it’s looking that Australian Fashion Week is three days plus to two days of swim, which we do incredibly well.”
Hush was never sold on the proposed March date set earlier this year, despite key domestic buyers and designers pushing for the move.
“I mean it’s tricky. I can understand why [organisers are] trying to find the perfect model and experimenting but it’s just not working at the moment. Another thing we can’t deny is that the Australian dollar is really strong. International buyers used to be able to buy unbelievable fashions at incredible price points but it’s just not happening any more. When we’re strong, beyond parity now, the money doesn’t go so far. It’s tricky.”
One thing Hush is adamant about is putting local designers first, both from a publishing and industry perspective.
“I don’t want to see in my lifetime that we can’t buy Willow, Sass & Bide, some of those terrific, fantastic labels like Dion Lee and Josh Goot develop their full potential. It would be devastating if they didn’t get that opportunity. I think that for the Australian fashion industry to survive, we really do need to support local designers, really need to.”
