Latest news with #SarahHarrelson
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
100 Names You'll Name Drop All Year According To The Cult100
Chloe Fineman, Photo Credit: Arrivals - Madison McGaw for BFA Lists are everywhere. But Cultured magazine's 'CULT100' reads less like a trend report, and more like a cultural edit. As the tagline promises, these are '100 names you'll name drop all year.' Beneath its mission lies a deeper goal: to inspire not just cultural relevance, but cultural resonance. The name itself — CULT100 — hints at more than just hype. From cult classics to cult followings, the word 'cult' also means sparking obsession and signals being ahead of the curve. For Sarah Harrelson, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Cultured, the CULT100 is an intellectual and emotional undertaking. 'These lists are huge undertakings,' she says. 'For this year's CULT100, our mission was to look beyond the obvious, to allow for discovery, to let intellectual curiosity guide us.' Released in the last week of April to coincide with Cultured's April/May issue, the CULT100 event was held on the first Thursday in May, kicking off New York's unofficial 'social week.' The timing, as Harrelson notes, was unintentional. 'There is certainly overlap,' she says, 'but we have carved out a very different voice, niche, path, and intention from the Met Gala.' That intention was made clear at this year's CULT100 celebration, hosted at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in partnership with Maison Valentino. Rather than a typical industry party, the evening unfolded as a mashup of genres and generations: opening remarks from Sarah Jessica Parker (a CULT100 honoree) and a monologue by Saturday Night Live's Chloe Fineman (also on the list), which featured a cameo from Walton Goggins, who is hosting SNL this coming weekend. The night continued with a reading by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a performance by Laufey, and a DJ set by Julia Fox. 'I wanted to put together an unexpected range of cultural programming,' Harrelson says. (Goal, very much achieved.) The broad spectrum also reflects the range of the CULT100 list itself, by striking a balance of globally recognized names like Parker, Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams alongside lesser-known individuals 'doing remarkable work across a range of creative disciplines, sometimes behind the scenes.' 'With the CULT100, the dynamism and range of the list is its differentiator," Harrelson explains. 'The balance is simply in the numbers. The list represents just as many emerging disruptors as iconic names.' 'We have A-List film stars alongside artists, museum curators, a civil rights attorney, and more rising talents across creative disciplines." It also includes digital voices like Feed Me creator Emily Sundberg, whom Cultured dubs 'the millennial Carrie Bradshaw — but instead of writing about sex, she writes about money — and how a certain set of New Yorkers is getting and spending it.' Sundberg has proven that a sharp Substack can shape the conversation just as powerfully as a red carpet appearance. 'We wanted to recognize the full spectrum of influence — macro or micro — and find the people who are shaping and challenging cultural conversations in their own unique ways,' Harrelson says. In an era when cultural relevance is often confused with social visibility, how does Cultured look at 'making noise' and creating buzz? 'It feels more competitive than ever to 'make noise' with the speed in which content cycles through,' Harrelson says. 'You have to do something that feels singular and authentic to who you are and what your brand is.' For Cultured, that means intentionally replacing what's trending in favor of what's lasting. 'We work very hard to examine what matters now,' Harrelson says, 'but we don't spend much time on what is trending.' While other lists often imply a hierarchy, or offer a 'you made it' stamp, the CULT100 vibes on a different frequency. 'The dynamism and range of the list is its differentiator,' Harrelson explains. 'Our honorees are leveled in a different way. We aim for the curation to bring gravitas to creatives who may be lesser-known but have work that is just as culturally significant.' More than a list, the CULT100 is a statement. A tribute to those who ask for forgiveness, not permission; who shift conversations instead of following them; who move culture because they move differently.
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Revenge of the Niche Fashion Magazine
On a snowy night just before Valentine's Day, Cultured magazine gave a party for its February-March 2025 edition. It was held at Quarters, a TriBeCa space that is both a furniture store and a wine bar. The place was packed. The cover star, the actress Cristin Milioti, was there, and partygoers took turns posing in doorways or perched on sofas for their social media feeds. 'There has been an unexpected groundswell of support,' said Sarah Harrelson, the founder of Cultured, who has worked on publications her entire career, including InStyle and Women's Wear Daily. The first issue of Cultured, which combines the fashion and art worlds, appeared in 2012, when Ms. Harrelson was living in Miami, where she had worked for Ocean Drive magazine and started a magazine supplement for The Miami Herald. 'I think back now, and I was 38 and creatively bored,' she said. 'I wanted to do something for myself and not have to heed the rules. Publishing had gotten formulaic.' Independently produced print magazines with an emphasis on fashion are experiencing a boomlet of sorts, making waves for their striking design and high-quality production. There is Cultured but also L'Etiquette, Konfekt and Polyester, to name a few that line the racks of Casa Magazines, the West Village periodical store, and magCulture in London. No longer seen as disposable or a relic of a dying industry, these magazines are regarded as high-end products. 'It's a luxury experience of sitting back and getting a single viewpoint coming to you that you didn't know you wanted,' said Penny Martin, the editor in chief of The Gentlewoman, which could be said to have pioneered an indie print resurgence when it began in 2010. Búzio Saraiva is the associate publisher of nine independent magazines, including Holiday and Luncheon, and the founder of Nutshell & Co., a company in Paris that works with other similar magazines. 'People behind independent magazines create material meant to last,' he said. 'Someone will collect them, and then someone else will buy one at a flea market and make a moodboard out of it.' Mr. Saraiva thinks of these magazines as vehicles for stylists, photographers, celebrities and writers to show off creativity in a way they might not be able to do in mainstream magazines. 'It's a lab,' he said. 'It's R&D for the creative industry. I see people taking pictures now that we shot 10 years ago. Not everyone is triple-checking to see if they've offended or please everyone.' At first glance, independent magazines use a lot of the same celebrities that magazines owned by Hearst or Condé Nast work with. 'A lot of time it's the same cover and talents, but the interviewer or the photographer can be completely different,' said Joshua Glass, who started the food and fashion magazine Family Style in 2023. The spring 2025 issue has Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover interviewed by the curator Klaus Biesenbach and photographed by Brianna Capozzi. A major difference, Mr. Glass said, was creative independence. Like many other indies, Family Style is majority self-financed. 'I'm beholden to my own moral integrity, my peers and the people I employ,' he said. 'We are in the black,' Mr. Glass added. 'We're not flying private jets or taking town cars. We are extremely lean, and we do things in ways that are modest.' Magazines like Cultured and Family Style generally rely on ways to stay afloat that are quite similar to those of mainstream print publications. They have advertisers who are happy to pay a cheaper rate for a smaller magazine with a younger audience. 'The tide has shifted,' said Nick Vogelson, who founded the culture, arts and fashion magazine Document in 2012. 'Every brand sees the value of print media. Every season for 13 years, the advertising has grown.' This spring, Mr. Vogelson is adding a new magazine, Notes on Beauty. 'In my line of work, you don't call them advertisers, you call them supporters,' Ms. Martin said, laughing. 'It's not just about display advertising, it's about special projects, as they're called. There are other ways to work with those partners who are looking for culturally engaged or high-net-worth readers.' The Gentlewoman has hosted an architecture tour in Los Angeles with Cos and a tour of the Chelsea Physic Garden in London with Vince, for example. Here, a field guide to 10 of the new crop of fashion-leaning print magazines. Notes on Beauty For the first issue, spring 2025, Inez and Vinoodh photographed Julianne Moore for the cover with red rose petals stuffed in her mouth. There are stories on ancient wellness rituals and an essay about a writer deciding to forgo cosmetic treatments. AFM The A is for 'A,' the 'M' is for 'Magazine,' and the 'F' stands for something unprintable. Issue 001, with the theme 'pursuits of happiness,' came out last fall, produced by the dating app Feeld, which proudly declared that more than half of its contributors were on the app. Feeld is one of a number of companies, including Mubi, the movie platform, and Metrograph, the movie theater, producing print spinoffs for their companies. Heroine What if a fashion magazine was almost entirely photos of fashion? The fall 2024 issue of Heroine has short interviews with the actors Finn Bennett and Noah Jupe, but the highlight is the model Alice McGrath, photographed by Fabien Kruszelnicki and wearing a great deal of Celine. Cultured The most recent issue has several covers, including one with Cristin Milioti holding a lit cigarette, photographed by Chris Colls. The theme is art and film, and it has interviews with the director Luca Guadagnino, the Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres and the painter Torkwase Dyson. Konfekt Konfekt bills itself as 'the magazine for sharp dressing, drinking, dining, travel and design.' It's based in Zurich and often has a middle-European bent. Issue 17 includes profiles of a chef in Georgia (the country) and a calligrapher in Paris, and an interview with the Serbian-born fashion designer Dusan Paunovic. L'Etiquette Based in Paris, L'Etiquette puts an emphasis on personal style and the art of getting dressed. There are separate editions for men and women, and they're perennially sold out on newsstands. Online, panels of fashion world denizens choose their favorite It bags, which turn out to be delightfully quirky and under the radar: an L.L. Bean suede tote, say, or a tiny Balenciaga shaped like a croissant. Polyester Polyester has a playful energy and a pop visual aesthetic reminiscent of 1990s magazines. Heroes to a certain kind of fashionable feminist are covered, like the winter 2024/2025 cover star Sofia Coppola or Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni, the hosts of the 'Every Outfit' podcast. Patta The namesake magazine of an Amsterdam shop, Patta has gained a cult following for its coverage of music and streetwear. The magazine takes a global view of culture with an emphasis on African-European connections. Its spring-summer issue has an interview with the Congolese-born director Baloji and an article on the rising EDM scene in Lagos. Holiday Every edition of the midcentury magazine Holiday was dedicated to a different city. Writers included Truman Capote and Joan Didion. Fast-forward to spring 2014, and the design studio Atelier Franck Durand was given the go-ahead by the French publisher Lagardère to bring the magazine back, so strictly speaking, Holiday is not independently published. It still picks a city for each issue, the fall-winter one being New York. There is a vintage flavor in a reprint of the Joan Didion essay 'Goodbye to All That,' but it also has Tommy Dorfman and Marc Jacobs in conversation. Unconditional 'Made by Women, for Women,' Unconditional says, and the female gaze is apparent. Articles include a piece on lymphatic drainage practitioners in Paris and a profile of the designer Rachel Scott of the fashion line Diotima.
