Jezebel: Portfolio

Three Ways To Not Solve Sexism, By Former Portfolio Editor

Anna North — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:40:00 EDT

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In Saturday's NY Times, former Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman attempted to critique the stalling of feminism in America. The result was so ham-handed and contradictory, it read like a tutorial on How Not to Talk About Sexism. More »

5 Possible Reasons Why Women's Magazine Sales Are Plummeting

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Over on Portƒolio's site today, Jeff Bercovici reports that many of the major women's magazines sales are down for the first half of the year. And not just by a little bit: We're talking double-digit numbers. The newsstand average of Glamour dropped 10%; Marie Claire fell 11%, Vogue and Teen Vogue both slumped 15% and poor O, The Oprah Magazine tumbled 16%. We can't claim to know why these publications aren't doing well and losing hundreds of thousands of readers. But we can venture an educated guess! Some theories, after the jump. More »

Watching Women Talk About Sexism In The Workplace Is Sort Of Like Sexism In The Workplace

Moe — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:30:00 EDT

Joanne Lipman, the editor of Portfolio, went on CNBC this morning to discuss that story about how women have altogether stopped making progress on the "gender parity" front in corporate America and I was keen to watch since I knew that she used to actually work with two of the anchors, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla, at the Wall Street Journal. My thoughts: Shit, Joanne looks good. Almost as good as Becky. Has she had work done? Probs. What time do you think she had to get up to look that good? Oh look, now Carl is talking, about how some problems (ahem) are "more challenging" than sexism. (How much time did you spend getting ready this morning, Carl?) And Joe Kernen, the jokey shlub in the corner who is usually my total fave: why does it not surprise me that you have nothing to say about this, Joe? More »

Women Are Underrepresented In Corporate America. Corporate America Is A Laughingstock. Coincidence?

Moe — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:00:52 EDT

Why don't women have more power in corporate America? This month's Portfolio wrings its manicured hands over just that! The number of female board officers of Fortune 500 companies has been steadily falling over the past few years. As is the number of female lawyers! Zoe Cruz and Carly Fiorina, two of capitalism's highest profile females, have left leadership altogether! But it's such a sore subject, no one wants to talk about it. (Oh, also, when the Wall Street Journal did its annual section about "50 Women To Watch," all the ladies looked kinda butch. And then there was that Hillary Clinton Vogue debacle. Why do none of the women in power really want to appear very womanly?) And amidst all this there is this new book coming out called Warren Buffet Invests Like A Girl? It just doesn't make sense! Oh, but it does! Stop skirting the issue! Women don't run shit in corporate America because corporate America holds up high everything we hate about dudes. Obsessed with short-term thrills. Driven by them. Too often wholly lacking in any sort of long-term exit strategy. Competitive to the point of lunacy, arrogant to the point of self-immolation. More »

Tokyo Fashion Godfather Hates It When "Ugly People" Of Rural America Wear Japanese Clothes

Moe — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:30:11 EDT

If you or someone you've fucked has ever suffered from multicolored-sneaker addiction, it will not probs not surprise you that a story about Nigo, the Pharell-partnering Japanese "street fashion" i.e. sneakers/T-shirts entrepreneur who founded A Bathing Ape, has spent weeks tearing up the "Most Emailed List" of the website of the very-substantial mogul-targeted business magazine Portfolio. Bathing Ape is responsible for popularizing those weird multicolored "Whoa crap OVERLOAD!" printed hoodies worn by dudes way too old to be spending their money on that shit which is what makes it sort of cute, and he is also, because he is Japenese, an obsessive collector of pretty much everything too ridiculous for girls to collect (Sample quote: "And when I touch this stuff"—he carefully picks up a Colonel Sanders doll—"I feel good. I feel very alive.") Anyway, Nigo is perhaps the most important man in that realm of "fashion" beloved by guys who don't have to wear collared shirts to work, but he has some haters. More »

'Jane' Ex-Eds Plead With Ex-Subscribers To Maybe Look Into 'Portfolio' Instead

Moe — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:00:04 EDT

Ah, poor exiles of the timber-wasting empire that is Conde Nast. Subscribers to its now-shuttered ladymag for people who don't read ladymags Jane are now getting Glamour, which is sort of to Jane what Jane is to .... The Paris Review... and old Jane staffers are pissed that readers have yet to call up and complain en masse about the fact that, duh, the existence of Glamour is what made them appreciate Jane in the first place, as ex-EIC Brandon Holley points out:

"Glamour is not at all like Jane," says Holley. "It's the exact opposite. They preach fake empowerment of 'loving your flaws.' Jane doesn't point out flaws."

Which brings us, obvi, back to Jane's fatal flaw that will now haunt it for the entirety of this whole shiva-sitting thing we're doing right now. Magazine subscriptions are so oversubsidized by the purveyors of salves for your flaws — you know, how you're bipolar, small-chested, smelly and grossly in need of a right handed diamond to exhibit your sense of "independence" or whatever — that no one gives a shit about that $9.99 they spent on the magazine that failed because its readers have already fucking figured out the "best jeans for their bodies." Anyway, our plea to Jane subscribers is this: More »

Will Your Semitism (Or Lack Thereof) Impact Your Barneys Shopping?

Jennifer — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:48:22 EDT

So now that Barneys New York is owned by a Dubai-based investment firm, some (er, Lauren Goldstein Crowe of Portfolio's 'Fashion, Inc'. blog) are convinced that luxury-minded Jews are going to take their business to other luxury department stores because no way in hell will they fund something owned by, you know, Arabs. (Oh wait, Jews don't believe in hell!). But is it really an issue? After all, Saks Fifth Avenue was once owned by like a flock of Saudi princes, and Harrods is owned by the al-Fayeds. And both companies are not only doing fine but surely enjoy the continued support of their Jewish brethren. So Jennifer Gerson (the token Jewish Jezebel, and the one responsible for the above graphic, which she thinks is funny and Anna thinks is horrific) decided to investigate this matter all on her own with a most urgent question: Will your Jewishness (or lack thereof) impact your Barneys shopping experience? Her really non-stereotypical poll, after the jump. More »

Lauren Goldstein Crowe Joins Righteous Struggle Against Fake Fendis

Moe — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:17:12 EDT

You know what? After our last post, we thought we were going to take a break from hating 'Portfolio' fashion blogger Lauren Goldstein Crowe. We can't, for one thing, get a decent picture of her, because the people who run WireImage won't give us an account, apparently because we are "mean." Also: We are really not that mean! But today Lauren takes on the Fendi/Wal Mart legal scuffle over the pirated bags. And by "take on" as usual we mean, "use as an opportunity to lick the billionaire anuses of fashion industry executives." Below, she describes the detestable practice wherein Chinese manufacturers make fake jeans that look exactly like real Levi's, and keep all the money themselves!

An executive from a major jeans brand told me that shortly after they opened their first factory in China, another factory opened nearby. It had the same machines that his factory had, and bought materials from the same supplier. The jeans they produced had the same brand name on their label as the one on his.

Major scandal! I wonder how they might avoid?! Oh wait, by manufacturing somewhere other than China? But it gets better! More »

And the Winner of the First Lauren Goldstein Crowe Award Is... Lauren Goldstein Crowe!

Moe — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:22:43 EDT

Portfolio "Fashion Inc." blogger Lauren Goldstein Crowe has a post today about how Manolo Blahnik's discovery of the internet reminds her of a day when "the internet" in the fashion industry was as dirty a word as, you know, "Cleveland." We were totally going to use this opportunity to muse on whether the eBay-ification of fashion has actually made us more or less depressed about humanity: On one hand, there is something sort of uplifting about seeing a status handbag on eBay, removed from the undulating walls of its Peter Marino-designed shrine and exposed for all its 55 grand absurdity. On the other hand, seeing how many people — in perfectly reasonable places like Maryland — who will bid vast sums even without the absurd proximity-based social pressure to do so: A little less uplifting! More »

'Portfolio' Fashion Blogger Laurie Goldstein Crowe Pities Poor Newly Rich In China

Moe — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:30:05 EDT

H&M is opening in Shanghai, meaning legions of Chinese consumers will now have access to knockoffs made in, er, Bucharest. You probably don't care, but this is kind of mind-blowing from an economic implications/world-being-flat perspective, not that Portfolio fashion blogger Laurie Goldstein Crowe sees it that way: More »

Year Of The Living Dolls

Anna Holmes — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:18:59 EDT

New business magazine Portfolio has just published a Q&A with "Barbie fashion designer" Kim Culmone, who says that designing for the 11.5-inch, high-heeled plastic blonde is way preferable to designing for real people (maybe because they can't talk back!). "There's a sense here that anything is possible, which we might not get in the adult marketplace," Culmone tells writer S.E. Kramer. "The garment industry is extremely difficult to work in. The hours are grueling. Some people don't get paid at all." More »

Conde Nast 'Portfolio' Editor As Thin, Beholden To Advertisers As Other Conde Nast Editors

Moe — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:59:39 EDT

Two years ago, Si Newhouse, the publisher of Vogue and Glamour tapped a female Wall Street Journal editor for an intriguing new job — start a new business magazine! This was a risky proposition, namely because while the readers of business magazines (ourselves notwithstanding, natch) generally have boatloads of cash, they're either way too smart to fall victim to advertisements for "mineral" foundation and "anti-aging" serum or they're the people trying to sell these things in the first place. But Mr. Newhouse and his beloved Conde Nast bucked the conventional wisdom, pouring a nine-figure investment into Conde Nast Portfolio, which hits newsstands today amid something of a media firestorm, thanks in part to the fact that Portfolio Editor In Chief Joanne Lipman has said she "relates" to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, only, you know, thinner. More »