1. For women who
break the mold.
glass
LIFESTYLE. OPINION. VISUAL CULTURE. NO CEILINGS.

2. Call it fourth-wave feminism. Call it social media. Call it
economics. Women as a market, as an audience and as a
political force are writing new narratives about gender,
careers and the family. Traditional paths to success are
all in flux, as educated, connected, empowered women
pursue every option now open to them—even potentially
being elected president of the United States.
But even more change is afoot. We’re just beginning to
take stock of generation Z women, today’s teenagers, a
connected, activist, engaged group. They not only choose
Malala as a role model over Beyoncé, but they’re also
redefining all the traditional notions of gender, sexuality,
and identity.
With all this change, where does the traditional idea
of “women’s interest” media sit? The rules that once
defined men’s and women’s titles feel out of sync in a
world where gender seems increasingly nebulous and no
longer dictates how we consume, much less our interests,
horizons and aspirations.
We set out to explore all this in Glass, a new title that
holds up a mirror to the changing world of women.
Lucie Greene, worldwide director, the Innovation Group, J. Walter Thompson
Editor’sLetter
FRONT 003EDITOR’S LETTER

3. Glass No ceilings
004 005FRONT FRONTMASTHEAD
Editor in Chief
Lucie Greene
Creative Director
Emma Chiu
Managing Editor
Shepherd Laughlin
Visual Editor
Pam Grossman
Editorial Assistant
Mary Cass
Research Assistant
Jaime Eisenbraun
Writer
Jane Helpern
Design Assistant
Jay Yeo
Intern
Nayantara Dutta
J. Walter Thompson Worldwide
466 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10017
About the Innovation Group
The Innovation Group is J. Walter Thompson’s
futurism, research and innovation unit.
It charts emerging and future global trends,
consumer change and innovation patterns,
translating these into insight for brands.
jwtintelligence.com
Cover
Photography by
Brand New Images,
Nick Dolding, and
Compassionate Eye
Foundation.
Images courtesy
Getty Images.
Left image
Photography by
Tommaso Tuzj.
Courtesy Getty
Images.
Left image
Photography by
Willie B. Thomas.
Courtesy Getty
Images.
Above image
Photography by
Christina Rouse.
Courtesy Getty
Images.
Right image
Photography by
Colin Hawkins.
Courtesy Getty
Images.
For women who
break the mold.
glass
LIFESTYLE. OPINION. VISUAL CULTURE. NO CEILINGS.
A project by J. Walter Thompson’s Innovation
Group in partnership with Getty Images.
CONTRIBUTORS
Contributors
Alouette Batteau &
Amelia Chalfant
Members of Kalliope Jones
These rockers may be young, but they’ve got
a message the music industry needs to hear.
page 91
Carla Oates
The Beauty Chef
Eating her way to fresh-faced beauty.
pages 100–101
David Foster
Graphic designer
Dating app data visualizer extraordinaire.
pages 12–13
Esther Perel
Psychotherapist
A relationship expert tackles online dating—
the bad and the good.
pages 82–83
Harlan Erskine
Photographer
Behind the lens, making
beauty products look good.
pages 102–107
Johanna Agerman Ross
Founder, Disegno
Rebuilding the lost histories
of female architects.
page 86
Katja Wessling
Director of Culture, ustwo
Taking on power plays for women at work.
page 90
Kouzou Sakai
Illustrator
Breathing life into futuristic zodiac creations.
pages 78–79
Lizz Winstead
Cofounder, Lady Parts Justice
Not every woman wants to be a mom—
and that’s cool.
page 84
Luis Mendo
Illustrator
Poking fun at the “pink tax.”
pages 10–11
Madeline Di Nonno
CEO, Geena Davis Institute
on Gender in Media
Making sure every girl grows up with
role models in the media.
page 87
Nelly Gocheva
Editor, T Brand Studio
Our fearless location scout for
women traveling solo.
pages 108–113
Nina Jones
Writer
Tearing down old ideas about
what “luxury” means.
pages 54–63
Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Writer
Think you can’t predict the future?
You haven’t met our astrologer.
pages 78–79
Rebecca Traister
Author
Why “all the single ladies”
will shape the future.
pages 88–89
Sara Benincasa
Writer and comedian
Reminding us that feminism
takes both guts and self-care.
page 81
Thalia Mavros
Chief Executive, The Front
Proving that media by women is for everyone.
page 24
Tyler Ford
Writer
Inspiring others to be the best version of
themselves, through the radical act of living.
page 85
With thanks to:
Dawn Airey
CEO, Getty Images
Carefully curating the look for the
future of women.
pages 44–45
Ethel Cofie
CEO, EDEL Technology Consulting
Leading a revolution for African women
in technology.
pages 46–47
Joy Ajlouny
Creative Director, Fetchr
Bringing Silicon Valley feminism
to the Middle East.
pages 52–53
Miki Agrawal
CEO, Thinx
Fighting the patriarchy, one taboo at a time.
pages 42–43
Pearl Lam
Founder, Pearl Lam Galleries
Taking on the male-dominated
art world in style.
pages 48–49
Tamara Ingram
CEO, J. Walter Thompson Company
Raising the bar for female advertising
executives everywhere.
pages 50–51

4. 006 007FRONT FRONTCONTENTS
Contents
16–25
40–53
26–39
8–15
THE END OF
“WOMEN’S INTEREST”?
Traditional “women’s interest” publishing is
languishing—but new and innovative female-
focused oulets are filling the gap.
THE LEADERS
Business leaders—those who’ve risen
through the ranks and those who’ve struck
out on their own—tell us what drives and
sustains them.
FEM FWD
If “the future is
female,” what does
that future look like?
Beyond beauty,
future imagery will
show us what women
can do.
THE SMART
LIFE
A guide to the
best workspaces,
workouts, dating
apps and culture—
life, optimized.
Photography by
Mark Malijan. Courtesy
Getty Images
CONTENTS
54–63
64–79
108–113
92–107
UN-REALITY
In uncertain times,
women are seeking
meaning and
dreaming up new
worlds, crafting a
new visual language.
80–91
VIEWPOINT
Opinions, ideas, and battle cries for
change from writers shaping new attitudes
toward gender.
TRAVEL
Today’s travelers are opting for revitalizing
wellness retreats and action-packed solo
city breaks.
DEFINING THE
NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPE
Opulence for its own sake doesn’t fly with
today’s luxury consumers. Instead, discerning
women are after purity of design, product
quality and brands with values.
BEAUTY
From the “hair down
there” to owning
your age, new
trends in beauty
celebrate unabashed
confidence.
Photography by
Tara Moore. Courtesy
Getty Images
Photography by
Kazunori Nagashima.
Courtesy Getty Images.
Photography by Ippei Naoi.
Courtesy Getty Images.
Photography by
Scott Kleinman.
Courtesy Getty
Images.

5. THE SMART LIFE
1. Urban sweat lodge
Shape House in Los Angeles touts the
power of perspiration, training “FAR infrared
technology” on fitness enthusiasts who want
to enjoy the many health benefits of sweating
it out. These include weight loss, brighter skin,
deeper sleep and better energy, organizers
say. Enjoy it all while relaxing and catching up
on your Netflix queue.
shapehouse.com
2. Brain-body training
HeadStrong, a new workout class from luxury
fitness chain Equinox, harnesses insights
from brain science for physical wellbeing,
with exercises that promote mindfulness and
neuroplasticity. Each of four stages—focus,
adapt, willpower, and reboot—comes with
its own colored lighting to reflect changing
physical and mental challenges.
equinox.com/headstrong
3. Virtual reality fitness
Ever get tired of staring at walls or tiny
screens while doing your cardio? Companies
such as Holodia are promising to gamify your
workout using VR headsets. Bikers and rowers
can pass through virtual terrain, enjoying
the passing scenery. The product isn’t yet
available for consumers, but could be coming
soon to a fitness center near you.
holodia.com
4. Reactive gyms
The latest craze at New York gym Asphalt
Green consists of an entire room covered
with LED lights, which provide visual cues
for movement. Participants in AG6, the
45-minute high-intensity workout that uses
the technology, are pushed to their limits. “The
system’s visual cues train reaction time in a
way conventional training methods cannot,”
says a spokesperson.
asphaltgreen.org/ag6
5. Immersive workouts
Yung Club at Selfridges treated Londoners to
the “world’s first 225° immersive yoga, light
and sound experience” at a pop-up in June.
yung.club
Coworking spaces first emerged in the
mid-2000s, along with the laptop nomads
whose numbers ballooned during the Great
Recession. Since then, more and more young
businesses have set up shop in these shared
spaces, sometimes for years at a time.
The concept has grown and spread
globally, but the basic formula of strong coffee,
shared printers and community spirit hasn’t
changed much. In enclaves like the booming
tech economies of San Francisco and New
York, coworking has gone high end. The Canopy
space, designed by Yves Béhar, opened in
San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood
in September 2016, and New York startup
Spacious is turning the interiors of Michelin-
starred restaurants into deluxe daytime digs
for freelancers.
But many coworking spaces and startup
accelerators have overlooked a crucial
constituency. Conceived by footloose (and
mostly male) millennials, they largely omitted
the sort of unsexy amenities that make
it possible to be both an entrepreneur and
a parent.
Now, spaces from Brooklyn’s CoHatchery to
Singapore’s Trehaus are offering not just basic
childcare, but full early-childhood educational
programs. Trehaus, which maintains a “kids
atelier”withspaceforcrafts,drama,readingand
naps, aims “to empower every parent to obtain
self-fulfillment and financial independence
while making family a priority.”
Another new class of coworking
spaces focuses on bringing together
women entrepreneurs for mutual support.
Shecosystem in Toronto asks members to
“imagine if feminine values and sensibilities
were an asset rather than a liability in the
working world.” The space has a strong
focus on wellbeing, even offering a “self-care
weekly planner” on its website. This stands in
stark contrast to the “take one for the team”
culture of Silicon Valley, where startup culture
often glorifies all-nighters and encourages
employees to maintain punishing hours.
Atlanta coworking space Open for
Business wants to help members “tap into
the power of she” at its location in the historic
Auburn Avenue district. “It’s nice to come to a
space and be around other women and be able
to bounce ideas off each other and just have
that energy and not feel so alone,” member
Emmelie De La Cruz told a local news station.
The boutique fitness industry has exploded in the past few years—
Fast Company estimates that SoulCycle alone will rake in $175 million
in 2016. With new crazes from boxing to barre cycling in and out of
fashion, is there any room left for innovation in the fitness industry?
Most conventional concepts have already been tried, it’s true, but
advances in technology and our understanding of the body are breaking
new ground in the field.
THE SMART LIFE THE SMART LIFE008 009TOP FIVE FITNESS INNOVATIONSCOWORKING FOR THE FEMPRENEUR
TOP FIVE
FITNESS INNOVATIONS
COWORKING FOR
THE FEMPRENEUR
From neuro-training to Netflix and sweat,
here’s the latest in fitness.
As millennials become
parents, coworking spaces are
adapting to meet the needs
of ambitious women.
Top image:
Asphalt Green, New York.
Middle right image:
Shape House, Los Angeles.
Middle left and bottom
image:
Yung Club at Selfridges,
London.
Top image:
Canopy living room,
San Francisco.
Middle image:
Trehaus workspace,
Singapore.
Bottom image:
Trehaus kid’s atelier,
Singapore.
From coworking spaces to cultural offerings, today’s woman has an abundance
of options tailored to her tastes and needs. But unscrupulous brands and retailers
are all too eager to overcharge women, who have better uses for their time
than sorting the rubies from the rubble. A guide to smart living is indispensable,
and we’ve provided one so that women can navigate these choices with ease.
THE SMART LIFE

6. THE SMART LIFE THE SMART LIFE
Women typically earn less than men for equal work—78% as much in
the United States. As if this weren’t bad enough, recent studies have
found that women are being “taxed” a second time at the register.
A December 2015 study by the New York City Department of
Consumer Affairs found that products marketed to girls and women
cost 7% more on average than similar goods marketed toward men.
OTHER PINK TAX WATCH-OUTS
1. Target skateboard helmet (+$10 in pink)
2. Black socks at CVS (+$3.50 for women)
3. Knee support brace at Target (+$7 for her)
4. Deodorant at Rite Aid (+$1.10 for ladies)
5. Skinny jeans at Levi’s (+$20 for girls)
Women’s products cost more than the men’s versions 42% of the time,
while the men’s versions cost more in only 18% of cases.
From luxury fashion to basic staples, women’s versions of products
tend to come at a premium, for little if any added value. But the solution
comes easier than closing the pay gap: women can vote with their
dollars, and buy items aimed at men or at both genders. Here’s how.
Men’s cheapest Adidas
“slide”: $20
Cheapest Gucci sunglasses
marketed to men: $240
Women’s cheapest Adidas
“slide”: $28
Cheapest Gucci sunglasses
marketed to women: $300
Women's YSL
Le Smoking
jacket via
YSL: $3,550
Maximum
Nutrition’s
Lady whey:
$37.32
Mack’s
Dreamgirl
foam ear
plugs: $4.39
Men's YSL
Le Smoking
jacket via
YSL: $2,890
Six Star Pro
whey: $18.96
Pink Penn tennis balls via
Modell's Sporting Goods: $2.99
Regular Penn tennis balls via
Modell's Sporting Goods: $2.49
Mack’s Safe
Sound soft
foam ear plugs:
$3.93
010 011THE SMART LIFE THE SMART LIFE A GUIDE TO HACKING THE PINK TAXA GUIDE TO HACKING THE PINK TAX
A GUIDE TO HACKING
THE PINK TAX
Women say no to gender-based price gouging.
Illustration: Luis Mendo

7. THE SMART LIFE THE SMART LIFE
Generally, how has the impact of dating apps been for
the following types of people?
VERY NEGATIVE
SOMEWHAT NEGATIVE
SOMEWHAT POSITIVE
VERY POSITIVE
What is the longest you have
dated someone you met on a
dating website or app?
17%
24%
15%
23%
5%
0%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
44%
50%
40%
33%
26%
17%
31%
30%
14%
9%
15%
15%
27%
11%
3%
9%
16%
18%
16%
1%
35%
16%
3%
8%
11%
11%
13%
4%
WE ARE ENGAGED/MARRIED
6+ MONTHS
2-5 MONTHS
1 MONTH
2 WEEKS
1 WEEK
ONE DATE WITH NO SECOND DATE
NEVER BEEN ON A DATE THIS WAY
For society
For men
For women
For you personally
Yes, I have used a
dating website
23%
Dating
website
only
15%
SAMPLE: MILLENNIAL WOMEN (N=552)
Have you ever used a
dating website or app?
Yes
33%
No
67%
Yes, I have
used a
dating app
18%
Both
website
and app
8%
Dating
app only
10%
How many different dating
websites or apps have you
ever used?
SAMPLE: MILLENNIAL
WOMEN WHO HAVE
USED A DATING
WEBSITE (N=129)
SAMPLE: MILLENNIAL
WOMEN WHO HAVE
USED A DATING APP
(N=101)
1.9 1.8
43% 48%
36% 31%
13% 15%
8% 7%
4 OR MORE
AVERAGE
3
2
1
Publications from Time to Vanity Fair have lamented the rise of Tinder
and the accompanying “dating apocalypse.” But how pervasive is app-
based dating, and what really happens post-swipe?
To find out, we surveyed 552 millennial women (aged 20-34) using
SONAR™, J. Walter Thompson’s proprietary consumer research tool,
drawing on a representative sample of the US population.
For starters, fewer than one in five of these women had even tried the
apps, while only one-third had tried online dating at all—quite a low
proportion, even if numbers are likely higher in large cities.
More surprising for detractors, 13% of app users had married
someone they met after swiping right. But at least one stereotype holds
true: women thought dating apps had made things better for men, overall.
POST-TINDER: Apps for the niche romantic
1. Sweatt: Dates who share your fave workout
2. Sizzl: Swipe right on other bacon lovers
3. PokeDates: Matchmaking meets Pokémon Go
4. TinDog: Meet cute dogs in your area
5. Align: Tinder, filtered by zodiac sign
012 013THE SMART LIFE THE SMART LIFE DATING IN THE APP AGEDATING IN THE APP AGE
What new data from J. Walter Thompson’s
SONAR™ reveals about dating in the app age.
Illustration: David Foster
DATING IN THE APP AGE

8. THE SMART LIFE THE SMART LIFE
With frank discussion of female sexuality no longer taboo, artists and writers are
opening up to explore their own unique experiences. From comedy to kink, here are
the latest envelope-pushing cultural offerings.
FICTION
Scary Old Sex
Arlene Heyman
February 2016
Women have sex into
their 60s, 70s and
beyond. Psychiatrist
Arlene Heyman was
73 when her debut
short story collection
Scary Old Sex was
published and she
paints a vivid picture
of the pleasures and
intricacies of these
entanglements.
Heyman’s characters
break taboos, take
Viagra and have
affairs with even
older men.
NON-FICTION
The Girl with the
Lower Back Tattoo
Amy Schumer
August 2016
Amy Schumer’s
essay collection The
Girl with the Lower
Back Tattoo hit the
shelves in August. On
the cover, a topless
Schumer fixes the
audience with a
knowing gaze. It’s
an apt pose for the
comedian, whose
work continues to
skewer society’s
attitudes toward
women’s sexuality.
amyschumer.com
MEMOIR
Sex Object
Jessica Valenti
June 2016
In Sex Object, Jessica
Valenti, writer and
founder of the
Feministing blog,
turns a critical eye on
her own experience.
Sex Object
traces a lifetime
of experiencing
sexual harassment,
beginning with
Valenti’s adolescence
in New York. From
catcalls to handsy
teachers to unnerving
subway encounters,
Valenti traces the
damages incurred
by a lifetime’s worth
of “brush it off.”
jessicavalenti.com
MEMOIR
Sex with
Shakespeare
Jillian Keenan
April 2016
“Here’s much to do
with pain, but more
with love,” reads
the subtitle of Jillian
Keenan’s memoir.
Like the rest of the
book, it’s a riff on
Shakespeare—
Romeo and Juliet,
to be exact. Keenan
uses her lifelong
affinity for the
Bard to catalog her
acceptance of a
lifelong spanking
fetish. She upends
traditional views of
kink and female pain
with style and grace.
jilliannyc.com
PHOTOGRAPHY
Untitled
Arvida Byström and
Molly Soda
Arvida Byström and
Molly Soda are two
rising stars of a new
wave of digital-
first feminist art.
Their unapologetic
aesthetic takes a
no-holds-barred
approach to periods,
pubic hair, nipples
and all other aspects
of the female
body that social
networks still deem
taboo. The two
are crowdsourcing
a book of images
that were banned
under Instagram’s
censorship terms—
celebrating the power
of the female body,
one nude selfie at
a time.
mollysoda.tumblr.
com, arvidabystrom.
tumblr.com
TV
Insecure
Issa Rae
October 2016
Issa Rae first made
her name with the
viral web series The
Misadventures of
Awkward Black Girl,
her response to the
lack of diverse black
female characters
on TV. Now Rae
brings her talents
to the small screen
in HBO’s newest
comedy, Insecure.
Written by Rae and
The Nightly Show’s
Larry Wilmore,
the pilot episode
follows two African-
American women as
they navigate sex,
dating, friendship and
race in Los Angeles.
If Rae’s 25 million
YouTube views are
any indication, it’s a
must-see.
DOCUMENTARY
The Illusionists
Elena Rossini
Sex sells, but who’s
buying? In today’s
hypercompetitive
society, nearly
everyone. Around the
world, advertisers
serve up displays
of Westernized
beauty ideals that
are unattainable for
all but a few. In The
Illusionists, director
Elena Rossini takes
the viewer across
eight countries and
four continents to
upend new beauty
myths. In a world
where beauty is
proposed as the
key to success,
happiness or
acceptance, Rossini’s
critical takedown
is a much-needed
corrective.
theillusionists.org
DOCUMENTARY
Kinky Britain
Channel 4
July 2016
Female wrestling.
Wearing a turtleneck.
Eating gummy
bears—slowly.
These are just a
few of the ways
people make money
in the online fetish
market. Channel 4’s
documentary Kinky
Britain explores the
lives of the men and
women who cater
to various niche
communities. Armed
with GoPros and
webcams, these new
entrepreneurs find
there is a surprising
amount of cash
to be made in the
fetish market. The
documentary offers a
fresh and candid look
into private lives.
channel4.com
ACTIVITY BOOK
#NSFW Totally
Naughty Coloring
Book
SheVibe
June 2016
Some prefer their
adult coloring books
to be really—
ahem—adult. Sex
toy vendor SheVibe
teamed up with Elle
Chase, founder of sex
education site Lady
Cheeky, to release
the #NSFW Totally
Naughty Coloring
Book, focusing
mainly on female
pleasure and sexual
expression.
ART
Art Basel Miami
December 1-4, 2016
At last December’s
Art Basel in Miami
Beach, feminist art
was inescapable,
from the premiere
of Robert Adanto’s
The F-Word, a
documentary about
female internet
artists, to No Man’s
Land, the all-female
art show staged by
the Rubell Family
Collection. In fact,
women so thoroughly
dominated the
conversation that
Broadly dubbed 2015
the “Feminist Basel.”
How will 2016 stack
up? All eyes are on
Miami to find out—
watch this space.
artbasel.com
PHOTOGRAPHY
Fucking New York
Nikola Tamindzic
September 2016
New York fashion
photographer Nikola
Tamindzic started
his career in 2004
ART
Georgia O’Keeffe at Tate Modern
Until October 30, 2016
“I feel there is something unexplored about
woman that only a woman can explore,”
Georgia O’Keeffe wrote to a friend in 1925.
Throughout her career, the modernist painter
delved into the subject—particularly in her
oil paintings of flowers and skulls that subtly
depict the female genitalia. Tate Modern
brings O’Keeffe’s modernist abstractions,
desert landscapes and jimson weeds
to London’s South Bank. The exhibition
explores many sides of O’Keeffe, featuring
early charcoal drawings and a selection of
watercolors. With no other O’Keeffe works in
UK public collections, this retrospective is a
rare chance to experience the artist’s work
outside the United States.
tate.org.uk
“I do realize
that one
of the best
nights of
my life was
just a one-
night stand
in Tampa.
But I felt
like Marlene
Dietrich in
Morocco.”
Amy Schumer
“All day,
every day, for
my entire life,
I’ve thought
about
spanking.
Spanking is
not part of
my sex life;
spanking
is my sex
life. (To be
honest, I
could almost
drop the
word sex
from that
sentence.)”
Jillian Keenan
as the in-house
photographer for
Gawker Media.
In September,
he released
the acclaimed
photography series
Fucking New York as
a coffee-table book.
Tamindzic’s photos
feature women in
what Paper magazine
calls “ecstatic,
orgasmic communion
with the city.”
nikolatamindzic.com
Jimson Weed/White
Flower No. 1, 1932.
Courtesy Georgia
O’Keeffee Museum/
DACS, London.
014 015THE SMART LIFE THE SMART LIFE CULTURE LISTCULTURE LIST
CULTURE LIST

9. 016 017THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”? THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”?FEATURE 1 FEATURE 1
The End of
“Women’sInterest”?
The Evolving
Relationship
between Gender
and Media
As a result, decades of women have wondered why their
“interests” seemed to revolve primarily around weight loss,
getting (or keeping) a man, marriage, childbirth, and a limited
range of appropriately feminine hobbies. Second-wave
feminist titles like Ms. magazine pointed toward broader
possibilities, but these were the exception rather than the rule.
This status quo once seemed unassailable, but women
are no longer buying it. “Women’s interest” titles have
suffered declining fortunes in recent years on both sides of
the Atlantic. In August 2016, UK media measurement body
ABC reported that women’s weeklies had registered an 8.4%
year-on-year decline in circulation for the first half of the
year. Meanwhile, US publishing trade group MagNet found
that, in 2015, newsstand revenues from women’s magazines
Whether you’re a demographer, a marketer or a high-school
sports coach, gender is one of the most convenient and
accepted ways to slice and dice humanity. Advertisers
are no exception: when brands seek to add customers,
they often devise gender-specific strategies. Handily, the
“women’s interest” section at the average newsstand or
supermarket offers a readymade outlet to get product in
front of correctly gendered pairs of eyes.
declined by around 14.5% on the previous year, outpacing
overall declines in newsstand magazine sales (13%).
It’s no surprise that publishers are struggling across the
board as consumers have shifted away from print in favor of
digital, and that trend certainly explains some of the decline.
But something more fundamental is happening: women
simply refuse to consume media in publications that reflect
the silos that are convenient for advertisers.
“There was this idea that if you’re interested in fashion, you
couldn’t also be interested in politics,” explains Sam Baker, a
former editor of Cosmopolitan and Red. “The idea was that the
people who wanted to buy lipstick were in some way stupid,
and the politics people were much too serious for lipstick.”
Fed up with such notions, Baker launched The Pool, a
multi-media site for women on the move, in 2015. Articles
cover topics from Scandinavian fashion to new UK prime
minster Theresa May, from sexism in sports to the latest
buzzworthy binge-watch on Netflix. “Obviously, we have a
targeted user who is predominantly female,” Baker continues.
“But I think the whole idea of the ‘women’s interest’ magazine
section is just gone.”
Ladybeard, a UK print title launched in 2015, has the high-
quality production values of the standard glossy but aims to
“revolutionize the content.” Coeditors Kitty Drake, Madeleine
Dunnigan and Sadhbh O’Sullivan chafe at “women’s interest”
media, finding its financial motives all too apparent. “It’s in
their interest to promote certain ‘interests’ to women, and
therefore define an idea of ‘womanhood,’ which leads to the
Words: Shepherd Laughlin
“Gender is one of the
most convenient and
accepted ways to slice and
dice humanity.”
Right image:
Photography by Carey
Kirkella. Courtesy
Getty Images.
Above images:
The Pool website.
Below images:
Cover of Ladybeard magazine, issue 2
(above) and issue 1 (below).
FEATURE 1

10. 018 019THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”? THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”?FEATURE 1 FEATURE 1
“Some experimental print outlets
draw aesthetic cues, ironically
enough, from the internet.”
kind of prescriptive, heteronormative, reductive portrayals of
women that we see today—the ‘beach body ready’ ladies,
the ‘girl squad’ feminism,” the editors tell us. “These images
of empowerment are simply commercial gimmicks—to sell
us more products and make us feel lacking.”
Print and the Modern Woman
Mainstream publishers are racking their brains as they try
to monetize the browsing habits of the mobile-first media
consumer, and the relentlessly transforming world of digital
publishing leaves less room for experimentation and error
than ever. Perhaps it’s no surprise,then,that some ofthe most
innovative women’s content is appearing in the comparatively
calm and relaxed medium of print.
The current wave of print-first
innovation in women’s media arguably
kicked off with the 2010 launch of The
Gentlewoman, a fashion magazine for
“modern women of style and purpose.”
The title’s unconventional cover
choices—the fashion photographer Inez
van Lamsweerde sporting a fake beard,
or the actress Angela Lansbury, 86 years
old at the time, in a pair of thick-rimmed
aviatorsunglasses—helped setthetone
for print titles eager to celebrate women
for their brains and achievements,
without regard for traditional male-
derived notions of sex appeal.
2013 saw the launch of Cherry Bombe, a biannual title
devoted to celebrating women and food (covering the first
issue, Fast Company invited readers to “meet two women
crazy enough to launch a print magazine”—cofounders Kerry
Diamond and Claudia Wu). Cherry Bombe doesn’t publish
articles online, but still manages to be a multimedia company:
it has a robust social media following, a radio show, and
regular “Jubilee” events. Another 2013 launch, Riposte, calls
itself a “smart magazine for women.” The magazine’s sixth
issue, released in July 2016, profiles activists from Charlie
Craggs, who is taking aim at transphobia through creative
use of nail art, to Peggy Oki, an environmental activist using
origami to draw attention to the plight of whales and dolphins.
Some of the more experimental print-only outlets draw
their aesthetic cues, ironically enough, from the internet.
Mushpit, a women’s magazine that satirizes the fashion
industry, hastapped into digital nostalgia, drawing design cues
Above images:
Mushpit magazine.
Below images:
Riposte magazine.
Photography by
Peopleimages.
Courtesy Getty Images.

11. 020 021THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”? THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”?FEATURE 1 FEATURE 1
from early clip art and vaporwave aesthetics. The editors of
Hotdog magazine, a poetry journal, pull design references
from brutalism, DIY/zine culture, QR codes, cursors and grid
lines, and New Aesthetics—a term that refers explicitly to the
emergence of digital design in the physical world.
Megan Conery and Molly Taylor, the editors of Hotdog,
created their journal as a joyful antidote to the fustiness of
most poetry publishing, and a product of women’s creativity
for everyone to enjoy. “We still see a huge discrepancy
between the number of women and men published in
journals. So by having a completely female-identifying
contributor base, we are acknowledging that fact as well
as working to rectify that,” they say. “We have more female
readers than male, but Hotdog isn’t directed at any gender—
and we would say that it’s part of the problem if male readers
aren’t interested in reading female writers.”
Digital Media Meets Online Feminism
One ofthe ironies ofthe current moment isthat at atimewhen
“women’s interest” appears to be sliding toward irrelevancy,
women’s online media is enjoying a new golden age. In the
past two to three years, longstanding female-focused sites
such as Jezebel and The Hairpin have been joined by new
voices, including the Vice Media vertical Broadly, Reductress
(a “feminist equivalent of The Onion”), and many others. The
newcomers are emerging alongside an online culture of
feminist activism that has brought issues including the so-
called “tampon tax” and campus rape further into the public
eye than ever.
Not content to disrupt traditional notions of “women’s
interest,” online platforms are also approaching specific
age cohorts in new ways. The Midult, founded in 2016,
aims to reach 35- to 55-year-old women with a voice that
recognizes their sophistication and broad range of interests.
“This generation of women are the first generation to grow
old without checking out, so there has to be a shift,” says
cofounder Emilie McMeekan. “Traditional media hasn’t caught
up with that. We’ve grown up digitally literate and hyper-
connected, and the messages that brands are sending us
don’t ring true.”
The new outlets also typically include content about
a broader range of gender identities and sexualities than
women’s titles in previous eras. Brooklyn startup The Front,
which founder Thalia Mavros describes as an outlet of “media
by women, for the world,” is planning a full launch for fall
2016. One of the company’s first projects is New Deep South,
a video series that tells the stories of young queer people,
not all female-identified, living in parts of America that rarely
celebrate or even acknowledge their LGBT communities. (For
our Q&A with Mavros, turn to page 24.)
The “women’s interest” section isn’t wholly oblivious
to inclusive approaches to gender: In
June 2016, Women’s Running magazine
featured 33-year-old Tumblr software
engineer and entrepreneur Amelia
Gapin on its cover—the first time a
trans woman had occupied the position.
At a time when transgender athletes are
struggling to claim their rightful place
in sports, the move was greeted as an
important step for trans visibility. And
yet, with fitness-related content now
so readily available online and in general
interest publications, this was one of
the few times the magazine’s name
was heard by women outside its niche,
enthusiast audience. One has to wonder: progressive or not,
does Women’s Running exist today because women want it,
or because it’s a convenient vehicle for advertisers?
Media For All Genders
For many editors of newer titles, thinking of their readership in
termsofallgenders,asopposedto“both”gendersorjustone,
is intuitive, even as this line of thinking undermines the logic of
“women’s interest” media at its most fundamental level. For
many, the future of media lies somewhere beyond “women’s
interest,” where female contributions are acknowledged, but
content and authenticity are more important.
“Ladybeard is a feminist publication but it is not just for
women; we are trying to play with gender, rather than dictate
“New magazines include content about
a broader range of gender identities and
sexualities than earlier women’s titles.”
Above images:
Hotdog magazine.
Below images:
Broadly.
Below images:
Ladybeard’s issue 1.
Above images:
The Midult.
Above images:
The Front.

12. 022 023THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”? THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”?FEATURE 1 FEATURE 1
“The next generation of readers is far less
beholden to conventional gender standards
than those who came before.”
its terms,” say editors Drake, Dunnigan and O’Sullivan. “This
is ever more urgent, as we see mainstream media move
from demonizing feminism to co-opting it.” Ladybeard’s
forthcoming second issue takes the mind as its starting point,
interrogating the idea of the gendered nature of the brain,
exploring racial discrimination in mental health, looking at how
emotions have changed across centuries, and investigating
the therapeutic potential of LSD. By looking at “a multitude
of perspectives, from different ages, races, genders, and
sexualities, we hope to offer a more holistic, organic and
radical perspective,” say the editors.
The magazine Girls Like Us features work by “an
international expanding community of women from all
genders within arts, culture and activism” with the aim of
“mapping new routes towards a feminist, post-gender future.”
A recent contribution by gender non-conforming writer and
activist Grace Dunham, for example, points out YouTube’s
role as an archive of trans visual history.
Winter Mendelson, founder and editor-in-chief of Posture
magazine, sees the next generation of readers as far less
beholden to conventional gender standards than those who
came before. “If you’re born with internet access and you have
an iPad from when you’re five years old, you’re going to see
things that help you feel more like yourself,” says Mendelson.
“Social media and Tumblr and all these creative platforms
have helped these kids even subconsciously be like, ‘Oh yeah,
I don’t relate to gender.’”
Posture is a New York–based arts and fashion magazine
that was born out of Mendelson’s frustration at the lack of
mediaspecificallyspotlightingqueervisualculture.Considering
that the whole concept of “queer” aims to blur the gender
binary, it seemed odd to them that even queer publications
typically skewed either masculine orfeminine. Instead, Posture
is about the “creative exploration of identity.” Its latest issue is
themed around the concept of ornamentation.
“I see different media outlets popping up saying we’re
the new women’s voice, treating you like an intelligent human
being that you are, and not this shell of a thing,” Mendelson
says. There’s nothing wrong with dedicated spaces for
female-identified voices, they think,
but too often this becomes an excuse
for companies and others to impose
their own definitions of womanhood
on readers.
“If we were moving toward gender
neutrality, and everyone targeted the
same and treated the same, that sounds
likeutopiaforme,”saysMendelson.“The
point of Posture is to bring together all
these people of different genders and
backgrounds into one place, because
it’s a huge statement: we all really are
in it together.”
Top image:
Posture magazine cover.
Photography by M. Sharkey.
Bottom image:
Posture magazine, from
Switch N’ Play Drag Collective feature.
Photography by Elisabeth Fuchsia.
Posture magazine. Brands
We Love: Chromat feature.
Models Mikey, Kelley McNutt,
and Garison Partusch.
Photography by Anna Bloda.
Courtesy Posture magazine.
Above images:
Girls Like Us website.
g

13. 024 025THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”? THE END OF “WOMEN’S INTEREST”?FEATURE 1 FEATURE 1
It’s been a stellar year for women’s media, with a series
of new launches set on satisfying our hunger for more
diversity, more voices, more depth and breadth. The one
difficult part has been trying to explain to people that The
Front doesn’t fall under the category of women’s media,
even though it’s created by females.
Media by women for the world
It’s a nuanced distinction and one that we believe signals
what’s to come. As media and entertainment finally begin to
represent women as the complex, unconventional, curious,
adventurous, innovative and perfectly imperfect beings
that we are, the lines between men’s and women’s interests
seem to be blurring. And in a blurred gender universe, we are
looking away from gendered topics and focusing on telling
powerful universal stories through a female lens.
The female perspective shouldn’t only be the
privilege of women
It’s a fresh, new take in a world where historically, men have
controlled the narrative. Take the recent public outcry over
sexism in the media’s Olympics coverage, for example. A
recent study by Cambridge University Press found that
in the context of sports media coverage, men were three
times more likely to be mentioned with words such as
fastest, strong, big and great, while language around female
athletes focused disproportionately on appearance, clothes
and personal lives. Cringeworthy common words for
female athletes included aged, older, pregnant, married or
unmarried. And then beyond M and F, we have gender non-
conforming athletes for whom popular language hasn’t quite
been formulated.
The origin of our name (trust me, it’s pertinent)
The Front is inspired by Kathleen Hanna, singer of the 90s
punk band Bikini Kill, founder of the feminist Riot Grrrl
movement and subject of the documentary The Punk Singer.
At Bikini Kill shows, she called for all the girls to come to the
front, by the stage, and not stand all the way in the back or
against the walls where they couldn’t see or hear because
they were afraid of the violent moshing. That notion of
making room—creating and supporting equal space at the
front for everyone—is what drives us. It’s feminism at its
best; it’s storytelling at its strongest.
Unfiltered storytelling
Our strategy includes unconventional themes and nuanced
handling of the issues, focusing on stories that are in line
with our audience’s values—challenging, aspirational,
humorous and impactful—stories that become their
social currency. From experience, we knew this approach
would speak to a millennial audience, but what we hadn’t
predicted was that our largest audience would be 13- to
17-year-old girls and women. What we’re learning about
this younger generation makes us excited for the future.
They’re the first true digital natives and they have access
to more information and people than ever before. They’re
creators with a global social circle, confident and heavily
politicized. They’re very fluid with gender, race, and ethnicity
and are ready to stand up for what they believe. They are
a complex mixture of sophisticated skepticism and bright-
eyed optimism, and possess a keen sense of nuance and an
insatiable hunger for video.
The most important insights we’ve received
Our young audience wants to make a difference and is
looking for non-traditional role models to guide them. Having
a strong entrepreneurial spirit, they demand to know The
Front’s backstory, the motivations and intentions behind the
media that we create, and that they in turn consume and
share. They see us as an extension of themselves and a way
to make a statement about the world they want to live in.
(No pressure!)
The future of leadership is ownership
As we move forward, we have the opportunity to help
reshape the digital media landscape with these new
values in mind, by creating platforms that are founded
and led by women, gender non-conforming individuals,
minorities, all the under-represented voices that have
been fighting to have their voices heard. Despite all the
changes that digital has created in media, the leadership
that is building the new 21st century media brands is still
overwhelmingly male. And even though we see a huge
disparity in ownership, we still had few potential investors
aggressively challenge the importance of investing in
female media entrepreneurs. (“Who cares if it’s owned
by a man if women are writing the articles?”) A few heated
arguments and door slams later, I am proud to say we
are founded and run by women, our investor has a female
chief executive at the helm, and even our board of directors
is all-female. We are looking forward to the day when
these achievements become unremarkable and we never
have to use the words “strong” and “empowered” as
qualifiers again. In the meantime, we’ll be here, making
space at the front.
Thalia Mavros is founder and chief executive at The Front, a female-founded, female-run
new media company based in Brooklyn. Previously, she was executive creative director
at Vice. She shares her startup’s vision for the future of media.
Thoughts on the Future As Told at
Present Through the Past
Words: Thalia Mavros
Photography by
Thomas Barwick.
Courtesy Getty Images

14. 027FEMFWDFEATURE 2026 FEMFWD FEATURE 2
emFWDF
“The future is
female”—so the saying
goes. But what does a
femcentric tomorrow
actually look like?
Pam Grossman, director
of visual trends at
Getty Images, discusses
the possibilities.
Words: Pam Grossman
Images: Courtesy Getty Images
This page:
Photography by
Tim Macpherson.
FEATURE 2

15. Collection, a curated collection of images that break
gender stereotypes and celebrate strong, dynamic
female leaders of all backgrounds, orientations, body types
and ages.
Happily, this project was not only the right thing to do, it
was one of the most successful initiatives in Getty Images’
21-year history, and we continue to boost the signal of vital
female representation by creating new imagery for it each
month. The Lean In Collection has more than tripled since
launch to over 8,000 images, and more than 6,000 of them
have been licensed in more than 65 countries, from Kuwait
to South Korea, Angola to Australia.
These images resonate because they are relevant.
They move beyond the idea that women in commercial
imagery have to be always passive or ancillary—because
the modern woman is anything but passive or ancillary.
Though the pictures are impeccably crafted, they
push us past the concept of beauty, and instead focus
Every day, it seems, there’s a new example of how female
momentum is on the rise. Hillary’s nomination. The all-
woman Ghostbusters. A new, girl-powered Star Wars
universe. Vice producing a new series helmed by Gloria
Steinem. Plans for female faces to be put—finally!—on
US paper currency. Commercial after commercial from
brands such as Always, Bodyform, Nike and Pantene
showing women being, as the poet Ted Berrigan wrote,
“feminine marvelous and tough.”
Couple this with the fact that incomes of women are
predicted to reach $18 trillion by 2018 . Or the data showing
that more females than males use social media behemoths
such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Or the oft-
quoted stat that women make up to 85% of consumer
purchasing decisions. It’s obvious: when women are in the
driver’s seat, we choose what we spend our money and,
more importantly, our time on. And we’re giving that hard-
won attention to images of women and girls who are as
interesting and powerful as we are.
Though 2016 is feeling like a tipping point, with new
female-centric ad campaigns, world leaders and cultural
narratives emerging at every turn, this is something my
creative research team at Getty Images started picking
up on years ago. In 2013, we studied our top-selling
images of women, and the evolution was staggering. The
one for 2007 was stereotypical: a naked, model-perfect
twentysomething lounging around on a bed, the sheets
covering her just so—your typical objectified woman
posing, doing not very much with her day, waiting to please
and waiting around.
Fast-forward just five years (the time period during
which, I would argue, social media, and therefore mass
female self-representation, exploded) and our 2012 best-
selling image of woman told an entirely different story:
this time, she was riding a train, gazing out the window at
what was coming up ahead. She was sitting tall, expectant
and poised, and—joy of joys—wearing clothing. She felt
like the protagonist of her own story. Someone with a
forward trajectory in her life. Someone who actively makes
things happen.
Though it became clear that our customers’ visual
demands were starting to evolve, we wanted to help
catalyze this. And so, in 2014, we joined forces with Lean
In, Sheryl Sandberg’s female empowerment non-profit
organization, and launched the Getty Images Lean In
on who women are and what women can do. They
offer alternatives to wearing pink or playing princess,
and they shine a spotlight on the power, skill and varied
experiences of females throughout the globe. They form
a pictorial microcosm of the world as it is and where it’s
going: women leading businesses, breaking barriers and
traversing boundaries; girls engaging in the STEM fields,
rocking out on drums, getting their hands dirty, and having
a ball while doing it; people of all genders supporting each
other with equal parts love and muscle.
We’re living in a time when the First Lady can be seen
rapping with Missy Elliott and giving the most powerful
speech at the Democratic National Convention in the
same week. When Serena Williams can win Grand Slams
and dance with abandon in Beyoncé’s Lemonade “visual
album.” When the first female presidential nominee is
described as having “grit and grace.” Collective culture is
finally beginning to allow for these dichotomies and for
multitudes to be rendered visible. Femaleness is becoming
bolder, brighter and more complex.
And it’s quite a vision.
028 029FEMFWD FEMFWDFEATURE 2 FEATURE 2
Top image:
Photography by
Donald Iain Smith.
Bottom image:
Photography by
Cyndi Monaghan.
“Femaleness is becoming bolder,
brighter, and more complex.”
g

16. Left image:
Photography by
Mikhaella Ismail.
Right image:
Photography by
Klaus Vedfelt.
030 031FEMFWD FEMFWDFEATURE 2 FEATURE 2

17. 032 033FEMFWD FEMFWDFEATURE 2 FEATURE 2

18. Previous page:
Photography by
Donald Iain Smith.
Left image:
Photography by
Gary John Norman.
Right image:
Photography by
David Trood.
034 035FEMFWD FEMFWDFEATURE 2 FEATURE 2

19. Top-left image:
Photography by
Christopher Malcolm.
Middle-left image:
Photography by
Harold Lee Miller.
Bottom-left image:
Photography by
Tara Moore.
Right image:
Photography by
Mark Malijan.
036 037FEMFWD FEMFWDFEATURE 2 FEATURE 2

20. Left image:
Photography by
MoMo Productions.
Right image:
Photography by
Angela Jimenez.
038 039FEMFWD FEMFWDFEATURE 2 FEATURE 2

21. 040 041THE LEADERS THE LEADERS
Introducing the
women changing
the way we see
leadership around
the world.
The
Leaders
Meet

22. Who’s afraid to take on the $15 billion
feminine care industry? Not Thinx cofounder
Miki Agrawal, the former investment banker
turned restaurateur and social entrepreneur
who’s tackling period stigma.
MikiAgrawal, cofounder, Thinx
With their radically disruptive line of period-
proof underwear, Miki Agrawal and her twin
sister Radha have invented impeccably chic
undergarments that let people (not just
women) bleed without fretting about leaks
or stains. We spoke with her about debunking
taboos, fighting the patriarchy, and trans
inclusivity in advertising.
Howdid you getThinxstarted afterrecognizing
the need for period-proof underwear?
We first got the idea in 2005, when I was
launching my restaurant. We didn’t start
working on the concept again until 2011, after
coming back from South Africa and realizing
the huge issues that girls were facing in the
developing world. We spent the next few years
working on the technology and patenting it.
A lot of people have tried to make period
underwear in the past and failed, because
the designs were too bulky or unsexy or ugly
or felt like diapers. It just never hit the mark.
We developed the first product that anyone
would actually want to wear—a product that
was super-considered design-wise, and that
addressed periods in a way that wasn’t scary.
Was it apparent from the beginning that
getting a period-centric business funded and
off the ground was going to be an uphill battle?
Yes. A lot of people were saying: “Bleed into
my underwear? That sounds disgusting. I
would never do that.” We got a lot of different
responses from a lot of different people,
and had to sift through what made sense and
what didn’t.
Thinx’s advertising has been closely
scrutinized. Can you explain some of the
controversy there and how the surge of media
attention has impacted your business?
We were fighting the patriarchy from day
one. A great example was when we tried to
put our ad campaign in the NYC subways. We
made very sure that we didn’t violate any of
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
guidelines, and produced really artful, tasteful
imagery. Still, we got huge pushback saying the
ads were suggestive and offensive, and that
we needed to change everything. They said
our grapefruit was offensive. We said, “Well,
interesting, because you use the exact same
grapefruit to represent augmented breasts
and that’s okay?” They didn’t have a much of
a comment. They said, “Go to press, we don’t
care.” So we did.
We didn’t know what would happen,
but the story got picked up and went viral
internationally. Ultimately, it put us on the
map and really helped us. We were thinking
of sending flowers to the MTA afterward, but
decided against it.
The recent ad campaign starring trans model
SawyerDeVuyst is one ofthe best examples of
trans inclusivity in advertising. What inspired
you to feature a trans male in the campaign?
One of the key components to building a lasting
company is active listening. If you really listen
to what people are saying, without taking it
personally, then you can always improve your
business. One of the things we kept hearing
was that women are not the only ones who
have their periods. Our tagline is “underwear
for women with periods” and we kept on being
reminded that women are not the only ones
with periods.
At first, we didn’t understand, but then
we realized trans men also get their periods.
There are 900,000 trans people in this country,
half of whom have transitioned from women
to men and have uteruses. We want to show
our support to the trans community. So we
developed the boy short, specifically with
the trans man in mind, and changed our
“OneofourcorevaluesatThinxis
‘letyourfreakflagfly.’”
tagline for that particular style to “for people
with periods.”
We celebrate people being absolutely,
exactly, authentically who they are. In fact, one
of our core values at Thinx is “let your freak flag
fly.” We celebrate and admire anyone who is
brave enough to step out of the skin sack that
they’re born into and say, “Actually, this skin
sack isn’t who I am and I’m going to do what I
can to make sure who I really am is reflected.”
What steps did you take to be sure that the ads
portrayed the trans community in a respectful
and accurate light?
Our team organized an ask-me-anything
session with Sawyer before we worked
with him. Everyone asked their burning
questions, and he answered as many as he felt
comfortable answering. The more you know
about something, the more authentically you
can tell the truth and create a story around
it. The purpose of the subway campaign we
launched with Sawyer was to offer a different
perspective as people think about periods,
period solutions, and who has a period. By
depicting people upside down or on their
sides, it shows that you might have an initial
idea about something, but it actually turns
out to be something else. People are like,
“Wait, why is there a guy in your ad?” Change
your perspective! That’s a trans male who
has a period. It’s education through changing
of mindset.
MIKI AGRAWAL: CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2001–03
Works as an investment banking analyst at
Deutsche Bank
2005
Founds Wild, a farm-to-table gluten-free
pizza eatery in Brooklyn
2013
Publishes Do Cool Sh*t, a book about
entrepreneurship and lifestyle design that
later evolves into a network of “DOers”
2015
Cofounds Thinx, a startup that aims
to disrupt and reimagine the feminine
hygiene space
2015
Founds Tushy, a company that makes
bidet toilet attachments and pledges
to offer access to a clean toilet for one
family in the developing world for each
product sold
042 043THE LEADERS THE LEADERS MIKI AGRAWALMIKI AGRAWAL
Miki
Agrawal

23. “Theideathatmenaremoreambitiousthan
womenisabsolutebollocks.Womenareasambitious,
ifnotmoreambitious,thanmen.”
After a 30-year career in British media that saw
in the industry, Dawn Airey became CEO of
from London to New York. We caught up
her become one of the most powerful women
Getty Images in September 2015, relocating
with her on gender and leadership.
DawnAirey CEO, Getty Images
In your view, what does it mean to be a leader
today, and what does it mean to be a leader
today as a woman?
WhenIstartedmycareer,youdidwhatthe boss
told you, because they were the boss. Today,
if you have another point of view, there’s a far
healthier relationship. The best organizations
are so much more collaborative than they ever
were—to be effective, leaders today need to
be more emotionally intelligent than in the past.
In terms of what it means to be a leader
today as a woman, women are still, of course,
a minority. At Getty, we’re in a pretty good
position. If I look at my leaders, 40% of them
are women—a decent figure, but not the 50%
I would like it to be. But whether you’re male or
female, the leadership requirements certainly
have changed.
The proportion of Fortune 500 companies led
by women hovers around 5%—why is this? Do
you think men and women aspire to different
kinds of power?
The idea that men are more ambitious than
women is absolute bollocks. Women are as
ambitious, if not more ambitious, than men—
and that power and influence is as important in
the home as it is in the workplace.
So why are there so few women CEOs? If
you look at the new companies being started,
women are founding a lot more of them,
rather than necessarily going in and running
big established institutions. People also don’t
often give up being CEO of an organization
unless they’re pushed or retire, so change can
take longer to manifest itself.
As more women are recognized, you will
see those numbers change. And really, they
should change, because we know there’s
so much research that’s out there that
says that companies that have balanced
workforces and women in leadership
positions perform better.
You have a media background at Channel 5,
BSkyB and elsewhere. What are the biggest
challenges for women in that field?
When I worked in UK broadcasting, there
were a lot of women in senior creative and
commissioning roles—they had the ability
to greenlight production. I would argue these
are the most influential roles. After all, you
might have the most brilliant script or the
most brilliant idea, but if someone doesn’t say
“that’s the idea I want to go with,” it’s not going
to see the light of day.
In my 30 years, I’ve seen lots of women move
into those commissioning roles, which is why
I think you’re seeing the creative industries
in really rude health. But I would love to see
the day when there is a female director-
general of the BBC—then you know the world
has changed.
What is Getty’s impact on the gender
conversation happening in society now, and
what can it be in the future?
It’s the old adage that if you can’t see it, you
as confident, active, and entrepreneurial,
alongside some of the traditional caring roles.
But we also created images with men in the
role of carer, reflecting the complexities of
modern families.
You’ve had a long and successful career, and
yet, in interviews like this, people keep coming
back to this gender question. Does that
frustrate you at all?
Good question—I would say that it is
Groundhog Day sometimes. However, I can
can’t be it. It’s a cliché, but it’s true—imagery
can be an agent for change. If we create images
that depict authentic representations of the
complex and multifaceted lives that women
lead, then we are going to change behavior.
The most tangible example is our work
on the Lean In Collection, which we produced
with Sheryl Sandberg’s organization. As
part of that, we created and art-directed
images where women were represented
also say that in the 30-odd years that I’ve been
working, I have seen profound change for the
better. Television in the 80s in the UK was an
unreconstructed, male-dominated industry.
Where it is now, it’s like a world apart—you
cannot get away with the things that you used
to, and also you wouldn’t want to, you wouldn’t
dream of it. I put that down to education. I
remain very optimistic that the 21st century will
belong to women.
DAWN AIREY: CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
1993
Moves to London to become the first
controller of children’s and daytime
programs at ITV
2000
Appointed chief executive of Channel 5,
the UK entertainment network
2003
Becomes managing director of
telecommunications company BSkyB
2007
Joins the board of the British Library
2013
Joins Yahoo! as the company’s chief in
Europe, the Middle East and Africa
2015
Appointed CEO of Getty Images
044 045THE LEADERS THE LEADERS DAWN AIREYDAWN AIREY
DAWN AIREY

24. What originally drew you to technology when
you were young? Did people around you
support your ambitions?
My story with technology started with an old
Windows 2000 computer that my dad bought
for me after secondary school. I discovered my
love for computers quite late—I was almost
18. So my father enrolled me in a diploma
programming and coding course, which was
my first introduction to the inner workings of
a computer.
One of the lecturers made a statement that
would make me decide to go into computing:
“The computer is dumb and the computer
is only as smart as the one who writes its
logic.” That simple line led me to do a degree
in computer science, and then a master’s
degree in distributed computing on scholarship
in the UK, where I was the only woman in my
specialization.
I got a job during my second year in
university studying computer science, and 90%
of my jobs since then have been in technology.
I’ve worked in the UK, Ghana, Nigeria and
Sierra Leone on projects including an initiative
for mobile technology and health funded by
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a
Ford Foundation project monitoring Nigerian
elections. My last corporate job was head of
commercial solutions for Vodafone Ghana.
In 2010, I started EDEL Technology
Consulting to enable organizations to use
technology to stay ahead of the competition,
create products that differentiate, and grow
exponentially. I have been lucky to have a family
that has supported my dreams and goals, but
not everyone has understood my ambition.
What has entrepreneurship allowed you to do
that you couldn’t have done in an established
company? Does entrepreneurship offer
particular advantages for ambitious women?
I am passionate about technology and would
like to see it become a strategic advantage
for organizations and businesses. The right
application of technology can transform a
business into an industry leader, as well as
solve difficult or complex social challenges
such as access to health and reduction of
maternal mortality. I wanted to work for an
organization that was focused on that, and
since I did not find one, I built one myself.
Entrepreneurship is an effective way
for ambitious women to take control of
their careers. It allows us to carve out an
organization we would like to work for and
leapfrog the leadership queues that might exist
in more established companies.
What experiences led you to found Women
in Tech Africa, and how has the organization
evolved in the past few years?
In June 2014, I was selected to be part of
President Obama’s Mandela Washington
Fellowship for Young African Leaders, which
brought 500 of Africa’s best and brightest
to the US to interact with business and
government organizations. As part of the
fellowship, I got to spend some time with Rosa
DeLauro, a congresswoman from Connecticut,
and she said something that struck me:
“As a woman, before I get up to speak
amongst my colleagues, I have to make sure I
know what I am saying and am well versed in
the topic I am speaking about, because they
are not as forgiving of women as they are of my
male colleagues.”
I think this sums up the stumbling block
for any minority group in any industry—it is
assumed we are not as good as the average.
What are the main challenges for women
working in tech in Africa? Do women face
cultural pressures to pursue other paths,
and what are the best ways that women can
respond to this?
Afew years ago, I was hired as a lead consultant
for a project. After my first meeting with the
team, a male team member refused to shake
my hand because he did not understand why a
woman should be his boss. Many more things
like this have happened to me throughout my
career, and I believe I am one of the lucky ones,
because some of the stories are horrendous.
However, I must say things are changing.
Groups such as my foundation, Women in Tech
Africa, are showing examples of successful
women in technology, and this helps us create
a generation determined to beat the odds.
I find that mentorship has really helped
support African women in technology, but
not everything can be taught in an MBA or
a business book. Simple things like learning
from someone who has been there herself,
knowing how to deal with being interrupted in a
boardroom meeting, and choosing an advocate
or mentor in your organization without raising
concerns of inappropriate relationships—
these steps go a long way.
What are your plans for the future?
My company EDEL Technology Consulting
was recently named IT consulting firm of the
year by the Ghana Information Technology &
Telecom Awards (GITTA). We are planning to
expand to Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa,
and we are excited about the enormous
possibilities that lie ahead and the endless
opportunities that this will give many young
people around the world.
Women in Tech Africa is the largest group
on the continent for women in technology, with
members in over 30 African countries. This
September, we will be running Africa’s largest
and first-ever women in tech event—we are
really excited and looking forward to it.
“Entrepreneurshipis
aneffectivewayfor
womentotakecontrol
oftheircareers.”
Ethel Cofie has three passions: technology,
entrepreneurship, and supporting female
leadership. She was born in Ghana and now
works across the UK and the African continent,
pursuing all three as CEO of EDEL Technology
Consulting and founder of the networking and
advocacy organization Women in Tech Africa.
EthelCofie, technology entrepreneur and women’s advocate
Ethel
Cofie
ETHEL COFIE: CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2010
Founds Edel Technology Consulting,
working in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria
and the United Kingdom
2013
Founds Women in Tech Africa, Africa’s
largest group for women in technology
2014
Travels to the US as a Mandela Fellow for
the Obama Administration’s Young African
Leaders Initiative
2015
Recognized as one of the top five
women building Africa’s IT landscape by
Ventures Africa
046 047THE LEADERS THE LEADERS ETHEL COFIEETHEL COFIE

25. When you entered the contemporary art
scene, how did the art world respond to what
you were doing at that time?
When I stepped into the Chinese art world, I
didn’t know anything about Chinese art. I was
actually dispatched by my parents to become a
property developer. I wanted to open a gallery
in Hong Kong, but my father said that he would
not support this career path, and then he cut
off all my credit cards. He said my golden
opportunity was to go to Shanghai to become
a property developer, and then I could make
enough money to do whatever I liked.
So I was sent to China to learn about
property development, and I was very lucky
because with my first month’s salary, I went
and bought a Shanghai artist’s work. From
then onwards, that artist brought me into the
art world and showed me around. At the time,
there wasn’t any market at all. The artists were
very passionate, and if they were lucky they
would have a teaching job. If not, they were
usually very poor.
Did you experience any difference in being a
woman in that scene versus now?
At the time, because it was so new, I never
felt any discrimination related to being a
woman. First of all, in the ‘90s, nobody had
opportunities. You had to find opportunities;
you had to be aggressive. It was something
new, and you had to open the way. I started
in Hong Kong doing three pop-up shows per
year, and no one in Hong Kong knew what I was
doing. You need to have passion, work hard and
dare to be different to push boundaries and
break away from the norm. However, I did not
feel any gender-based discrimination then and
I do not feel any now.
Do you feel that Chinese female contemporary
artists are fairly represented in galleries and
in shows?
China is still about personal relationships
more than anything. But in China now, more
directors and curators are women. I think the
older generation of women artists do feel that
they’ve been discriminated against. But the
younger generation, not at all. They’re very
strong. They are all competing with each other.
Historically, Mao Zedong said, “Women
hold up half the sky.” Basically, he meant that
women and men are equal. But one of the
curators actually told me the reason Mao said
that was because all the men had been killed
in wars, so they were left with only women
to do hard labor. If a man could carry 50kg,
they wanted a woman to carry 50kg as well.
But with the traditional mindset of the time,
after work these women still had to cook for
their husbands and in-laws, and look after the
children. It didn’t change.
If you look at today, the price point of a
woman’s art and a man’s art, there’s a big
difference: The male artists’ prices are much
higher. Today, these female artists will say to
me, if they are going to have babies, then they
don’t have time to build up their careers. So
often enough they have to give this up.
What advice would you give to young women
today who are aspiring gallerists?
I think every gallerist needs to be global. It’s
not about just staying inside your gallery. You
have to go out, and you have to integrate. And
actually, being a woman gallerist I think is better
than being a man.
If you asked me to choose, in my next life
I would want to be a woman again. You can be
soft and you can be strong, and you usually
don’t have the same ego problem as men.
I think women are less egotistical. They are
more analytical. To have a gallery means you
have to deal with artists that have huge egos,
collectors that have huge egos, museums that
have huge egos. I think women do this better.
What has been the biggest challenge so far in
your career?
The biggest challenge is being in cities or being
in environments where people have limited
exposure to art and culture. When you are
in a city where cars and diamonds, jewelry,
watches, and labels on clothes often dominate
conversations, you have to build the market;
you have to build the interest. How am I going to
entice them, and also to make them realize the
importance of art and culture? That’s always
been the big challenge.
Can you talk about what success means to
you, and what it means to be successful as
a woman?
I can’t speak for all women, because I am not
married and I have no children. And I never
wanted to get married, and I never wanted to
have children. So I’m not a typical woman. A
typical female has all these obligations.
So for me, to be successful is first of all
the fact that I don’t see work as work. I see
my work as what I love, and I am very lucky
that my career is like my hobby. It’s like my
lifestyle. With me, success is that I can make a
difference in everything. If I can use my gallery
to communicate a different perception of
Chinese art to the West, it will be great. I see
myself as a bridge, that I can bring this cultural
exchange together.
And also, of course, to be successful is to
have time—the most marvelous thing!
PEARL LAM: CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
1992
Returns to Hong Kong after being
educated in Britain and the United States
1993
Begins organizing pop-up art exhibitions
in Hong Kong. Invites Western designers to
come to Shanghai and design objects to
be made by Chinese craftsmen
2005
Opens her first permanent gallery space
in Shanghai
2012
Stages “Mindmap” in her new
gallery in Hong Kong. A New York Times
critic declares it the “best gallery
show this year”
“Ifyouaskedmetochoose,inmynextlife
Iwouldwanttobeawomanagain.”
048 049THE LEADERS THE LEADERSPEARL LAM PEARL LAM
PEARL
LAM
PearlLam, founder, Pearl Lam Galleries
Pearl Lam is the founder of
Pearl Lam Galleries, a driving
force in Asia’s contemporary
art scene with locations in Hong
Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.
For over 20 years, she has
workedtobuildbridgesbetween
the Chinese and international
art worlds. She shares thoughts
on how she got started and the
challenges facing women artists
and gallerists today.

26. Brands and advertisers are targeting female
consumers now more than ever. How does
having a woman at the top of an agency shape
the creative work?
Fundamentally, we are in the business of
helping our clients’ brands connect with
people. You simply can’t do that successfully
unless you have people who represent all
communities, so we want make sure that the
people inside the organization reflect as much
as possible the diverse audiences that we want
to reach with our work.
I believe that having different perspectives
in leadership, including women’s perspectives,
is essential to this. I’ve seen that when you
have a more diverse workforce, people ask
questions, add perspective and demand things
of the creative work that might not have even
been mentioned before. As a result, the more
points of view you have in one room, or one
office, the more inclusive and dynamic the
work will be.
And as a woman in leadership, I feel very
strongly that I have a responsibility to pay it
forward, and to be for other women the kind of
mentor and champion and sponsor that I would
have wanted throughout my career.
There’s a push in the ad world towards
“femvertising”—or at least campaigns that
aim to champion female empowerment. What
are your thoughts on that movement?
TamaraIngram,worldwide chief executive officer, J. Walter Thompson Company
“Femvertising” does exactly what marketing
should do. It shows that brands are tuned
into what consumers are saying. In the case
of “femvertising,” brands are listening to
our frustration, as women, about not being
accurately represented in media. So brands are
offering creative work that seems to portray us
in a way that we feel is truer to who we are.
“Femvertising” is a bit of a buzzword but
there’s a larger, lasting impact when you really
tune into what people feel and engage them in a
much more meaningful way. When you elevate
your product beyond just its intended use
and give it a purpose, a message that solves
a problem or addresses something they have
real feelings about, then you’ve really unlocked
the key to becoming a brand that consumers
will really care about. That’s what we did, for
example, with the #HowWeFamily campaign
for Tylenol, which celebrated the diversity of
modern American families.
Female empowerment, though, is much
more than a marketing tool. There is a clear
correlation between female empowerment
and economic growth, economic stability.
An investment in female empowerment is an
investment in the greater good.
How have things in the industry changed from
earlier in your career to now?
Ithascompletelychanged.WhenIwaspregnant
with my first child, I hid it for six months. When
I told my boss, he said to me, “Tamara, you’ve
ruined your career.”
It was a moment that was emblematic of
the challenging climate of advertising at the
time. It was hard to succeed in that world, but
it was also quite character-shaping. It made me
more determined to prove people wrong and
made me more motivated to succeed despite
being told that I wouldn’t or couldn’t.
Now at J. Walter Thompson, I’m fortunate
enough to lead a company that truly values
diversity and that is really committed to
ensuringthat everyone in ourglobal community
has a fulfilling and enriching experience. We’re
doing a lot of hard work making sure that that’s
our reality. We are hungry to lead by example
in an industry that continues to struggle with
those issues.
As a CEO, what is your philosophyfor managing
agency culture?
Culture,ofcourse,driveseverything.AstheCEO,
I believe I have to embody the kind of culture
“Fundamentally,weareinthebusinessofhelpingourclients’brandsconnect
withpeople.Yousimplycan’tdothatsuccessfullyunlessyouhavepeoplewho
representallcommunities.”
I want to see from everyone in our network.
Modeling what you expect from people is
incredibly important. You can’t say “I want a
hungry culture” and not be hungry yourself.
I want a culture where people are energized
and absolutely committed to delivering quality
solutions for our clients. I also believe in a
culture that enables everyone to flourish.
In creating that kind of environment, it’s
important to rally every corner of the network
aroundthisunifiedcultureandcreatemeasures
that allow you to self-evaluate and really
hold yourself and your teams accountable in
assessing how close or how distant you are
from that cultural ideal.
What have you learned that you wish you had
known earlier in your career?
When I was younger, I thought it was a great
weakness to ask for anyone’s help at all. I didn’t
have networks. I didn’t believe in mentors.
I wish I had given myself the advice I give my
daughternow.Youdon’thavetodoeverythingon
your own. Take notice of the people around you
and build a cohort of friendships, mentorships,
partnerships that unlock your growth.
Sometimes the best way to help yourself is
by allowing yourself to receive help.
What do you credit as the personality trait
that is the biggest key to your success?
Ihavetheresilienceandenergyofastreetfighter.
When Tamara Ingram joined the
J. Walter Thompson Company as CEO this year
she was already one of the ad industry’s most
seasoned executives, female or otherwise.
She was appointed co-CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi
in 1995 at the age of just 34 and continued to take
on leadership roles thereafter.
050 051THE LEADERS THE LEADERS TAMARA INGRAMTAMARA INGRAM
Tamara
Ingram
TAMARA INGRAM: CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
1995
Becomes joint chief executive officer
of Saatchi & Saatchi at age 34
2003
Joins WPP to preside over the
company’s insight group
2005-08
Becomes president and CEO of
Team P&G, managing Procter & Gamble’s
business across all WPP agencies
2011
Awarded OBE for services to tourism
2016
Appointed CEO of
J. Walter Thompson Company

27. 052 053THE LEADERS THE LEADERSJOY AJLOUNY JOY AJLOUNY
Joy
Ajlouny
Joy Ajlouny and cofounder Idriss Al Rifai
created the Dubai-based startup, Fetchr,
which uses GPS to deliver items directly to the
location of a customer’s smartphone. In 2015,
Fetchrraised $11 million in SiliconValleyventure
capital, including New Enterprise Associates’
first Middle Eastern investment. Now creative
director of Fetchr, Joy Ajlouny discusses her
experience as a pioneer in bringing Silicon
Valley culture to the Middle East.
How did you get started with Fetchr?
I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I opened up
my first bricks-and-mortar store when I was
25 years old. I’ve always been a person who
likes to take risks and rolls the dice and puts
everything on the line. It’s in my DNA to be
defiant and break the rules.
In the United States, you’ve got a postman
who shows up at the door. But the notion of
putting a stamp on a letter and a guy showing
up at your door with an envelope is missing
in emerging markets. The United Nations
estimates that there are as many as four billion
people living in places where there are no
street names or numbers, and those are largely
in emerging markets. There are no addresses
in parts of Brazil, India, China, and the Middle
East, so it’s a problem.
In India,Amazon delivers a million packages
every day and 250,000 get returned because
the customer can’t be located. There’s a big
world out there of people who are hungry for
product and can’t get the product because
they have no addresses. The way that they
deliver in emerging markets is they literally pick
up the phone and say, “Hi, Joy. Where do you
live?” And I have to say, “You know the grocery
store that sells lemons and olives?” And you
stay on the phone to give directions. Fetchr
solves the problem of no addresses.
How does Fetchr work?
Fetchr is, in a way, Uber for delivery. We use
GPS coordinates to find you, so you press a
button and we know where you are. We don’t
need an address—we deliver to your phone.
So we’ve completely eliminated the need for
annoying phone calls asking where you live.
In the United States, people buy bubble
gumwith a credit card, but in emerging markets,
it’s cash. At Fetchr, 93% of our deliveries are
cash on delivery. Imagine how important it is to
“IthinkthenumberonethingthatIcantell
womenentrepreneursistohavethickskin,
anddon’ttakenoforananswer.”
find the customer, because if you don’t find the
customer, the transaction doesn’t take place.
Locating the customer and collecting the cash
is essential in India, Brazil, Dubai and Saudi
Arabia—it’s all COD.
What has drawn investors to Fetchr when
many Middle East companies struggle to
get funding?
We have the real solution, and that’s why we
got the investors that we did. They see what
we’re doing as a solution to a global problem.
As a woman, I’m so interested to see what
will be next. I’m really proud of all the funding
we’ve gotten in Silicon Valley. Only 2.7% of
venture capital-funded companies had a
woman on the executive team, and I’ve been
able to do this not just once with Fetchr, but
also with my previous company Bonfaire. To be
in the 2.7% is a huge accomplishment, but to be
able to do it twice probably puts me in the 1%.
I’m very proud of that.
Can you talk about spending time in both
Silicon Valley and Dubai—the similarities and
differences that you’ve encountered?
I think it is a hell of a lot easier to start a
company in the United States than in the
Middle East. Simply put, the infrastructure
is not here. There’s a lot of licenses and
regulations that need to be done. There’s a lot
of bureaucracy—in the United States, you can
set up wifi in a garage, and start a company by
applying for a license online, and you’re done.
Here in Dubai, there’s a lot of red tape.
How does industry there respond to women?
It’s changing, and more and more women are
getting involved in business. I think it’s getting
better—we’re not there yet, but more women
are coming up with successful businesses and
putting this stake in the ground. It’s evolving.
What advice would you give to other women
who want to follow in your footsteps?
My biggest piece of advice is if you care what
anyone thinks, then step off. I cannot tell you
how many doors have been slammed in my
face. I think the number one thing that I can tell
women entrepreneurs is to have thick skin, and
don’t take no for an answer.
I don’t think that success comes to the
smartest person, I think it’s the woman who’s
the most determined. I tell people all the
time—I don’t have a PhD, I didn’t go to MIT, and
I didn’t go to Harvard. At the end of the day, I’m
just relentless. I think relentlessness is what
causes you to succeed, and I believe that if you
ask any other entrepreneurs, they will tell you
the same.
JOY AJLOUNY: CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
1991
Opens Joy’s, a local New York chain of
women’s off-price designer clothing
2011
Founds Bonfaire, a discovery platform for
luxury footwear and accessories based in
San Francisco
2013
Bonfaire is acquired by luxury
e-commerce company Moda Operandi,
owned by LVMH and Condé Nast
2013
Relocates to Dubai and cofounds Fetchr,
a company aimed at solving shipping
logistics in emerging markets
2015
Fetchr becomes the first startup in the
Middle East to be funded by a top Silicon
Valley venture capital firm
JoyAjlouny,cofounder and creative director, Fetchr
As mobile phones become ubiquitous,
e-commerce giants hope to make inroads in the
developing world. But how can they reach their
customers when billions of people lack a fixed
street address? With her company Fetchr, serial
entrepreneur Joy Ajlouny has an answer.

28. 054 055DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPE DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPEFEATURE 3 FEATURE 3
DEFINING
THE
NEW LUXURY
LANDSCAPE
—
WOMEN’S VALUES
ARE EVOLVING.
IS LUXURY READY?
—Words: Nina Jones
Photography by
Kazunori Nagashima.
Courtesy Getty Images.
FEATURE 3

29. 056 057DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPE DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPEFEATURE 3 FEATURE 3
Luxury used to be characterized by bold logos, labels
and obvious excess. But today, a new generation of
women is placing a premium on a different set of cues.
Purity of design, product quality, transparent production
processes and brand commitment to sustainability all
trump opulence for the sake of opulence. And in response
to this, the luxury landscape is changing.
This mood is being driven partly by a younger, ethically
motivated generation of women becoming luxury
consumers. Indeed, a 2016 study from Positive Luxury,
an organization that aims to highlight luxury brands
with sustainable credentials, cites data from Morgan
Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing, which found
that millennials are twice as likely to support brands
with strong management of environmental and social
issues, and twice as likely to check product packaging for
sustainability performance.
Diana Verde Nieto, the co-founder of Positive Luxury,
says that women of all ages tend to be more conscious
shoppers. “The way we shop is influencing brands and
retailers, as we want more transparency and are more
interested in how and where things are made,” Nieto
says. “The most innovative and forward-thinking leaders
know that transparency and sustainability will impact
their bottom line now and in the future, so it only makes
business sense for brands” to integrate these values,
she adds.
The economic uncertainties of the past decade
have also played their part in this move away from all-
out opulence. Ed Burstell, the managing director of
department store Liberty in London, contends that after
the 2008 recession, “customers felt slightly foolish having
spent thousands on a one-season handbag or shoe, and
their buying patterns changed.” Instead, Burstell says,
“the items they sought out had to be more considered,
less disposable, genuine in heritage and legitimate to their
lifestyle and aesthetics—and not defined by price. This
has led to the blurring of the luxury and premium and fast-
fashion categories into a modern way of shopping that
reflects how a consumer actually lives.”
Evidence of this shift can be seen as haute brands
such as Givenchy open up their worlds—members of the
public were able to register for free tickets to the label’s
spring 2016 show during New York Fashion Week. At the
same time, brands with more accessible price points are
elevating their offering to a premium level.
The COS label, launched by the H&M group in
2007 and known for the clean, architectural lines of its
clothing, cemented its aspirational credentials early on
by collaborating closely with the art and design worlds.
More recently, the brand worked with London’s Serpentine
Gallery to sponsor its 2016 Park Nights series of events,
held in the gallery’s angular pavilion designed by the
Bjarke Ingels Group. Last year, the label collaborated with
Snarkitecture, the experimental New York design studio, to
create a striking installation in its Los Angeles store, made
up of huge panels with the shapes of garments cut out.
It represented an investment in the store’s environment
that wouldn’t look out of place in a luxury brand’s
marketing plan.
“CUSTOMERS FELT
SLIGHTLY FOOLISH
HAVING SPENT
THOUSANDS ONA
ONE-SEASON
HANDBAG OR SHOE,
AND THEIR BUYING
PATTERNS CHANGED.”
Left and bottom
images: COS pop-up
store in LA, designed
by Snarkitecture.
Photography by Robin
Lynne Gibson.
Courtesy Getty Images.

30. 058 059DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPE DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPEFEATURE 3 FEATURE 3
Even stalwarts of the British high street (the UK
equivalent of American mass-market retailers) are
taking a premium approach to their product. This fall,
British department store chain John Lewis will launch
Modern Rarity, a ready-to-wear line that it describes
as offering “a move away from disposable fast fashion,”
instead presenting “an ethos of fewer, better pieces.”
The collection is designed by Iain Ewing, head of design
at John Lewis, together with Jo Bennett, the store’s head
of buying. Rendered in hushed, subtle tones of gray, blush
and cream, the debut collection centers on polished yet
laid-back silhouettes, with pleat-front pants, oversized
knit sweaters, and enveloping camel coats in the mix.
Ed Connolly, fashion buying director for John Lewis,
describes the launch as a response to women’s shifting
priorities in buying fashion. “The trend for fast fashion is
fading, and today’s customers desire beautiful design and
great quality pieces that transcend seasons,” Connolly
says, adding that in eschewing the relentless cycle of
fashion trends, he believes the Modern Rarity collection
will “change the dynamic on the British high street. The
label offers a new way of shopping for women, moving
away from the two-gear dynamic of spring/summer and
autumn/winter to focus on timeless style, providing them
with a collection and palette to work from that they can
style to become their own.”
This idea of women having the confidence to shape
their own style, rather than a label dictating their total look,
also motivates twin sisters Hardeep and Mandeep Kaur,
who this summer debuted their label Per Se. The brand
produces a single coat, called the Nebula, whose cocoon-
like shape is designed to be both chic and practical, with
hidden pockets for an iPhone and credit card. “Our ethos
has always been less is more. As you grow older, you
realize what your tastes are, and you realize you probably
just need to find the right single design for each piece
you’re interested in,” says Mandeep Kaur.
Kaur says that designing only one coat “allows the
piece to be a lot more considered, and means longevity
is built into the piece as well.” For its launch, Per Se has
collaborated with Danish fabric firm Kvadrat, which created
the coat’s textured pale pink fabric. The label will release
a new version of the coat every two months, and plans
to collaborate with different creatives for future editions.
While Hardeep Kaur notes that she and her sister have
abeliefinthe“purerefinement”ofdesigningonlyonepiece,
she acknowledges that the approach isn’t for everybody.
Mainstream fashion, she observes, “is built on the idea that
more is better. I think brands have to be super-confident
to have this belief that what they are creating can stand
up to this rigor of less, but it won’t be for everyone. I think
it’s a fantastic belief to have, that you’re creating less, that
you’re not filling landfill sites.” However, she adds, “I think
that not every customer would understand, because we
have been told that more is always better, and changing
often is the best thing.”
However, the sisters say their early adopter customers
are enthusiastically embracing this movement. “I think our
customers are very much aware of their [environmental]
impact—it could be regarding travel, it could be regarding
where their food is coming from,” says Mandeep Kaur.
“They live consciously.”
And brands steeped in the luxury world are finding that
quality to be true of their customers, too.
Take Kering, whose famed brands include Gucci, Stella
McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Saint Laurent. In
May 2016, the luxury conglomerate put sustainability and
ethics at the forefront of its brand when it released its first
Sustainability Targets Report, after initially setting goals
“TODAY’SCUSTOMERS
DESIREBEAUTIFUL
DESIGNANDGREAT
QUALITYPIECES
THATTRANSCEND
SEASONS.”
Left image:
Modern Rarity by
John Lewis.
Right image:
Per Se.
Photography by
Kazunori Nagashima.
Courtesy Getty Images.

31. 060 061DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPE DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPEFEATURE 3 FEATURE 3
for sustainability in 2012. Its various achievements include
making 99% of its products free of PVC (with a target
of totally eliminating the material this year), replacing it
with more sustainable plastic materials; increasing the
traceability of the farming of its “precious skins,” such as
crocodile; and creating the Kering Ethical Gold Framework
to ensure its brands are buying responsibly produced gold.
“We can really combine luxury and sustainability,” says
Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering’s chief sustainability officer,
speaking during a presentation of the report.
And, in a trend that arguably kicked off back in 2004
with H&M’s collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld, luxury brands
and designers are taking a democratic approach when it
comes to brand partnerships, breaking down boundaries
between designer and mainstream fashion. Indeed, these
collaborations with high street brands are seen by women
as just as covetable as “traditional” luxury goods. When
H&M’s collaboration with Balmain launched in 2015, hordes
gathered outside H&M’s stores around the globe to snap
up the pieces, as has been the case with its collaborations
with designers such as Alexander Wang, Stella McCartney
and Lanvin. (Incidentally, H&M is increasingly making
sustainability a focus, too—it launched its Conscious
Collection in 2011—aiming to prove that fast fashion and
ethics aren’t mutually exclusive.)
Uniqlo has gotten in on the action, too. It has worked
with Jil Sander in the past, and earlier this year launched
a line that spotlights Liberty’s archive prints, with down
jackets in delicate Liberty florals, along with camisoles and
tea dresses. Liberty’s customers “got it right away,” says
Burstell, adding that they acknowledge that Uniqlo is the
expert in fabric innovation and Liberty is the expert in print.
“It simply didn’t matter at what ends of the market we both
traded—it was always and only about the product—and
that is the great leveler in today’s world,” he says.
Interior design brands are also tapping into this spirit
of egalitarian luxury. Over the summer, Ikea launched
three collaborations, with fashion designers Katie Eary
and Walter van Beirendonck, and textile specialist Martin
Bergström. Eary, who is known for her colorful palette and
playful prints, designed Giltig, a collection of tableware
and home textiles. She believes that an accessible brand
gives just as much a luxury experience as her mainline
collections. “I don’t ever dilute my ideas, so customers are
buying into something as well thought-out as any of my
collections,” she says.
However, Catherine McDermott, professor at the
Design School at London’s Kingston University, argues
that these collaborative lines have a less lofty purpose at
their heart, representing “high street retailers doing what
they do best, trying to sell as much as they can for the
highest profit margin.” Instead, McDermott contends that
to convey a sense of luxury creative agencies are now
looking to align luxury values with customers’ lifestyles.
“That pressure to signal your priorities in terms of lifestyle
is so strong. You ride a bike not because that is all you
can afford, but because you are green, sustainable and
understand the style of a Brompton bike,” she says,
referring to the cult folding bikes targeted at city dwellers.
That women are drawn to an unobtrusive luxury that
reflects the way they live is apparent in store design,
too. When London firm Campaign designed the 3.1 Phillip
Lim stores in cities including New York, Hong Kong and
Beijing, its mission, Campaign associate Jenny Ford says,
was to create “a feeling of inclusiveness rather than
exclusiveness,” and not to confront the visitor with “luxury
materials.” Campaign, whose clients include Selfridges,
Burberry and Nike, worked with what it calls both “luxury
and pragmatic materials,” in the design of Lim’s stores,
Above image:
Giltig collection. Ikea
in collaboration with
Katie Eary.
“WECANREALLY
COMBINELUXURYAND
SUSTAINABILITY.”
Photography by Holloway.
Courtesy Getty Images.

32. 062 063DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPE DEFINING THE NEW LUXURY LANDSCAPEFEATURE 3 FEATURE 3
including MDF, plywood and plasterboard, contrasted with
haute accents, such as gold metal rails and marble and
onyx plinths.
And Campaign’s design for Selfridges’ new Designer
Studio at its London store again places the emphasis on
customer experience, rather than overt branding. There
are raw brick walls and exposed metal pipes, and the
gallery-like space has a spare, simple mood. Ford says that
the design allows labels to “fly below the radar—a model
that has given many luxury brands the longevity they have
enjoyed in comparison to their ‘louder’ contemporaries.”
This subtlety is also in evidence in audio brand Sonos’s
strategy, with its sleek speakers intended to enhance a
customer’s existing surroundings, rather than dominate
them. Errin Cecil-Smith, director of global strategic
communications at the company, says they are designed
so that “no matter what your house or apartment looks
like, our products and our technology will disappear,
and the experience of listening to music out loud will
be foremost.”
While Cecil-Smith acknowledges that Sonos’s
“intentional design language” and “strong brand advocacy
from owners” has led its products to be seen as a new
form of luxury, the firm rejects this label. Cecil-Smith says
Sonos believes that “music isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity,”
and adds that its entry price point stands at $199 for its
Play: 1 speaker.
But, others argue, the pure enjoyment of such
experiences is what makes women now perceive such
simple pleasures as a luxury. Or, as Ford at Campaign
defines the concept: “What we now desire is an enjoyment
of the best that life has to offer us through art, beauty,
knowledge and, of course, experience.”
“OURTECHNOLOGY
WILLDISAPPEAR,AND
THEEXPERIENCE...
WILLBEFOREMOST.”
“In the past, my answers would have
involved the cultural facets of status—
the need to be part of the exclusive
elite, the pleasure acquired from using
a superior product or service and
achieving a level of self-actualization
that showcases our accomplishments.
My answer today departs from this
notion. Although we all still look to
attain beautiful things, we have seen a
shift in our wants that has developed
into a need to attain experiences.”
—
JENNY FORD
designer, Campaign
WHAT IS LUXURY?
“The Liberty consumer prizes true
heritage, real craftsmanship, and
expertise over marketing spin. And
they will, in fact, reject attempts
to sell them luxury on a message
that is clearly manufactured. As
for the next generation raised on
social media, with no loyalty? I
feel confident that the 15-year-old
buying the Kylie Lip Kit will evolve
their tastes as they mature and
come to appreciate ‘realness.’”
—
ED BURSTELL
managing director, Liberty
“I still define luxury in the same terms
as I did when I was a teenager. Then,
it seemed to me as if a golden tan
was the ultimate luxury. In theory,
sunshine was a free gift available to
everyone—but in practice, that tan
signaled a lifestyle that was out of my
reach. It was my first lesson that luxury
was defined less in terms of what you
bought and more in terms of how you
spent. In 2016, luxury for me is having
home-baked and carefully handcrafted
bread for lunch with designer friends.”
—
CATHERINE MCDERMOTT
professor and design curator,
Kingston University
g
Photography by
Martin Barraud.
Courtesy Getty Images.

33. 064 065UNREALITY UNREALITYFEATURE 4 FEATURE 4
THE NEW NEW AGE:
SPECULATIVE
VISIONS FOR THE
NEW WOMAN REALITYUN
When humans are faced with times of extreme uncertainty, they tend to gravitate
toward the transcendent, the otherworldly, the spiritual—not out of a desire to
escape, but due to an urge to seek meaning and dream up potent alternatives.
Women in particular are migrating to New Age philosophy and imagery as consumers
in general embrace spiritualism.
For an always-on generation, the desire to switch off means finding an alternative
reality. As the Innovation Group and Getty Images have identified, consumers, in
particular women, are increasingly gravitating toward spiritualism, astrology, crystals,
New Age practices and the unknown.
This is part of a bigger shift among millennials and generation Z, who are known
for being precociously tech-savvy and connected. With so much information available
to them, “unknowing” is becoming increasingly attractive. Unreality is the natural
antidote to the increasingly clichéd themes of honesty and authenticity, and it appeals
to those who want something beyond the evident and explainable.
Especially among millennials, there’s a distinct yearning for a belief system that
doesn’t rely on traditional religion or known theisms. The Pew Research Center has
documented these shifts, finding that only 27% of US millennials attend religious
services weekly or more often, compared with 51% of Americans over 70 and 38%
of boomers. However, similar percentages of all age groups say they feel a sense of
wonder about the universe. Among all Americans, those saying they regularly feel a
deep sense of “spiritual peace and wellbeing” rose from 52% to 59%.
This is being played out in a next-wave New Age, with a post-digital generation
seeking spirituality through astrology, sound baths and mindfulness. Crystals are
showing up everywhere from spiritual retreat centers to skincare products to water
“charged” with lapis lazuli. These alternative beliefs and practices are now considered
serious, irony-free and credible—not to mention Instagram-friendly.
Our picture searches reveal as much about us as they do about the world, and
can even help bridge the gap between aesthetics and sociology. The prevalent social-
media visual realism of recent years has reached saturation point. The time has come
for images that have a sheen of the fantastical, the surreal, or the speculative.
Women are bombarded with messages of self-acceptance from every angle: Be
real, be authentic, be you. But the self is more than just a body. Unreality celebrates
the multitude of worlds each woman contains: dream realms, imaginal spaces,
limitless creative dimensions.
Photography by
Mads Perch.
Words: Pam Grossman and
Shepherd Laughlin
Images: Courtesy Getty Images
g
FEATURE 4

34. 066 067UNREALITY UNREALITYFEATURE 4 FEATURE 4
Females have traditionally
been connected to magic
and metamorphosis.
Priestesses, healers,
witches, mediums—women
have long been considered
conduits for change.
Photography by
Tara Moore.