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A GRACE-FULL DEBUT

BY CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ

race Mirabella received a
tempting offer from a
wealthy man. It was ut-
terly irresistible, she says.
The offer: To start a
fashion magazine named
after herself.
The wealthy man:
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
The proposition is well deserved.
Grace Mirabella is a prominent force in
the fashion industry, having worked for
Vogue magazine for 37 years, the last
17 years as editor-in-chief. Her name, as
well as her persona, has now moved
from the masthead at Vogue to the
cover of the magazine Mirabella, which
debuted in June 1989.
It's no secret how she jumped ship
or, rather, how she was thrown over-
board at Vogue. Along with millions of
New York television viewers, Mirabella
first heard of her dismissal from
Vogue when gossip columnist Liz
Smith reported it on the news.
Mirabella managed to handle this
shabby treatment with aplomb. "I was
relieved to be out of there. And they did
it in such a poor way. I took it as a
break. Suddenly, I had the summer off,"
she says.
But she neither had the time to relax
nor the need to pamper her ego. In-
stantly there were other job offers, and

106

STYLE

Grace Mirabella,
former editor of
Vogue, plans to
redefine terms in her
new fashion magazine.

she was seen lunching with Rupert
Murdoch. Within four months, she was
working for Murdoch Magazines as the
publication director on a new magazine
named after herself.
"It's awesome," says Mirabella about
having a magazine namesake. "I'm not
quite sure when one gets used to it,"
she admits. When the staff answers the
phone by saying "Mirabella," she still
thinks they are calling her personally.
The launching of a new magazine is
a tough task in a competitive market.
According to Samir Husni, a magazine
analyst at the University of Mississippi,
there are aobut 16,000 magazines be-
ing published in the United States, with
49 new magazines introduced last year.
The failure rate for start-up magazines
is high — Husni estimates that only 18.5
percent reach the fourth year of
publication.
Magazines named after people, like

Mirabella, are not a new concept.
McCall's and Lear's are two other ex-
amples, Husni mentions. "Thank
goodness her name has a stylish ring.
Can you imagine a magazine named
Husni?" he asks.
The name Mirabella can be translated
from the Italian to mean "beautiful look-
ing." And at age 60, Grace Mirabella
does look beautiful. She has not-quite-
shoulder-length blonde hair, and just
the right amount of wrinkles to denote
experience and not age.
The fashion doyenne wears an ivory-
colored blouse, black slacks, gold flats
and a few bangle bracelets. No glitz, no
frills—just casually elegant. She looks
like an older version of Ivana Trump but
with the style of Grace Kelly.
And style is what Grace Mirabella
believes her magazine is all about. In
the first issue, her "Letter from the
Editor" talks about style as well as a
one-page article entitled "Mirabella Dic-
tu," with a Grace Mirabella caricature
by the artist Hirschfeld.
"Style, as we see it, informs every
aspect of our lives— where we travel,
what we read, how we socialize, and
how we think about ourselves as part
of the world," says Mirabella.
Style a la Mirabella is not trendy, not
ephemeral and not glitzy. It's integrity
and spirit. It is not what one wears but