Inside New York Magazine’s First Standalone Men’s Style Issue

New York magazine’s first standalone men’s style issue doesn’t aspire to say something deep about what masculinity means today, like men’s titles such as GQ, editor-in-chief David Haskell said.

Instead, the inaugural issue, which hits newsstands on Monday and spans 89 pages — not counting ads — leans into the narrative storytelling New York is known for. Articles include everything from an in-depth profile of the late Giorgio Armani’s business partner, Pantaleo “Leo” Dell’Orco, to an insidery look at this month’s off-calendar New York Fashion Week debut of The Society Archive — the brand from vintage-collector-turned-designer Marcus Allen.

Other features include a photo editorial of TikTok fashion star Wisdom Kaye that he styled himself, a deep dive into the lucrative Chrome Hearts resale industry and an opinion piece by critic Cathy Horyn on designer Dario Vitale’s appointment as creative director of Emporio Armani.

The men’s style issue is currently a one-off; there are no concrete plans to put out another — at least not yet. Even so, it represents a bet by New York that the growing cohort of guys interested in fashion today is big enough — and interested enough in a print title — to make a dedicated edition worthwhile. That’s far from guaranteed. When New York transitioned its former fashion blog The Cut into a standalone vertical dedicated to women’s issues in the 2010s, it was a part of a broader digital media strategy to address print declines, he said.

But Haskell described New York as a diverse media business with a “flexible toolbox” that covers print, digital, social, newsletters and podcasts, which puts its advertising and subscription business in a healthy position to produce more print issues, even amidst headwinds. The magazine confirmed it currently has over 400,000 subscribers.

“We’ve been living for six years now in a scenario where we have a lot more flexibility and ability to put things out at the scale that we see fit,” said Haskell.

The centrepiece of the issue — highlighted with four different covers — is a 20-page portfolio spotlighting New York men, rather than the typical male celebrity of the moment. Shot at the historic Russian & Turkish Baths in Lower Manhattan by photographer Ryan McGinley, and styled by Miyako Bellizzi, the costume designer behind movies like “Marty Supreme,” it profiles 19 subjects, covering both New York locals alongside celebrities like Troye Sivan and novelists such as Marlon James.

The title reads less like thick fashion publications sold at shops like Iconic and more true to the bi-weekly issues New York has consistently placed on newsstands for the last 58 years. Instead of being printed on heavier matte paper stock, like The Cut’s standalone spring and fall fashion issues, it’s positioned more like a “bonus issue” of the standard glossy — similar to recent New York editions dedicated solely to the Hamptons.

“It feels like a men’s style issue, but it doesn’t really look like what other men’s style titles are doing,” said Samuel Hine, the veteran men’s fashion journalist hired by New York in May as its first-ever men’s style editor. “It really feels like a New York magazine product, in every respect: it’s ambitious, telling big stories, but is also very niche and tells small stories that we find really interesting.”

The idea to create a dedicated men’s style magazine had been discussed internally at New York for years, Haskell said, but the publication had only occasionally dedicated significant space to the topic, such as one issue in 2007 that covered both men’s and women’s fall fashion.

For its first-ever foray into a standalone men’s style magazine, Hine and Haskell said New York partnered with both large and small menswear brands to promote the issue’s launch. This week, it will host an invite-only dinner with Canada Goose, give out a subscriber promotion for free haircuts by Fellow Barber and distribute issues at menswear retailers in New York City, such as Ven Space, Bode, C’H’C’M’ and Nordstrom Men’s.

Haskell said advertisers have responded positively to the title, with many men’s-focused advertisers engaging with New York for the first time because of it. More generally, he said Hine’s hiring and sign-ups for his freshly minted “New York Look” newsletter have “exceeded expectations.”

He’s confident the issue will also be received positively.

“I know it’s successful even before going out,” said Haskell. “Editorially we’re proud of it, and the advertiser response was everything we wanted, with a hunger for more next year, so we’ll be back sooner rather than later.”

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