The little dot com that could: Lucire sponsors Fashion Week

An online fashion title resisted the webmania of the 1990s and now finds that its careful spending and market positioning have paid off. This year, it is doing what far more established print titles are doing: sponsoring L'Oréal New Zealand Fashion Week.

Last week's announcement of the designers showing at L'Oréal New Zealand Fashion Week saw a rare phenomenon: a dot com riding high in 2002. Lucire is one of the support sponsors of the country's premier fashion event, which begins one day after it celebrates its fifth anniversary.

Although not as well known as Google and others that have weathered the falls of 2001 and 2002, Lucire is still a rare breed: one of the web's leading pure-play fashion magazines, surviving through a rejection of snobbery and a mixture of cost-watching and prudent advances.

It likes to think that its claim to fame is its international mixture, with an editor-in-chief stationed in London, a prolific editor–photographer in New York and a roving publisher who spends half a year Down Under and other months travelling.

‘We are certainly not a Patsy and Eddie title, said editor-in-chief Simone Knol, who joined the magazine a year after its inception. ‘We are working closely with LOréal and the New Zealand Fashion Week organization in the way we like: one of cooperation and finding win-wins. As at LOréal and NZFW, there are no egos needing gratification.

She continued, ‘Were still one of the few webzines that refuse to become geocentric. If a story breaks in Malta and we have someone there, we'll cover it.

This lack of snobbery about any one nation found favour with many netizens, ready to embrace the one-world promise of the internet.

It can also be found in the magazine's coverage, which ranges from established names to new talent. New York editor Richard Spiegel said, ‘Lucire has often acted as a lightning-rod for the industry. We would often introduce a new designer and within weeks, other services would claim to have made a new discovery. Its as though Lucire legitimized them.

Founding publisher Jack Yan credits Lucire's growth to its fairness and its resistance to fads. ‘Lucire never jumped on the many bandwagons of the last five years, he said. ‘We have seen Flash, videos and other new media, but in most cases, readers want thought-out and accessible information. We provide that.

He acknowledges that there is room for these new technologies, hence Lucire's continued experimentation with other new media.

In keeping with its culture, the magazine plans to have a low-key fifth anniversary dinner in New Zealand, where its formula was originally decided in 1997.