Watertaxicab Confessions

Fashion People

In this episode of Fashion People, host Lauren Sherman is joined by The Ringer's Amanda Dobbins and Alastair McKimm to discuss a range of topics

Key takeaways

• Prototype is not just a magazine but a holistic creative platform focused on product design, limited editions, and artist collaborations.
• The first release from Prototype was a custom aluminum chair designed in collaboration with Pierre Castagnola, symbolizing the brand's commitment to craftsmanship over advertising.

Main topics

• Venice Film Festival dynamics
• Dries Van Noten's 'The Only True Protest Is Beauty' exhibit

Notable quotes

"The only quote-unquote advertising in the magazine is a picture of the chair and our website address. So, you know, it's all just super clean, really stripped back." – Alastair McKimm

Conclusion

This episode blends high-fashion commentary with deep dives into creative innovation, emphasizing how art,

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:03) Hello and welcome to Fashion People. I'm Lauren Sherman, writer of Puck's Fashion and Beauty Memo Line Cheat. And today with me on the show is The Ringer's Amanda Dobbins, host of The Big Picture and Jam Session. We're talking about the Venice Film Festival, our trip to Dries Van Noten's Palazzo, Virginie Viard's Chanel book, and plenty more. Plus, up top, Alistair McKinn joins me to discuss the launch of Prototype, his new magazine. Speaker 4 (0:34) Happy Tuesday, everyone. Hope you are having a great week. I'm traveling to New York today for half a week. A little bit over half a week. I've got a private dinner tomorrow night. More on that later in the week. And then we have a live taping of Fashion People on Thursday night with Elizabeth VonderGoltz from Poshmark, Indra Rockefeller, and Roy Satrin. We're talking about the idea of good taste and what that actually means in 2026. It should be super interesting. Anyway, if you want to come, it's at 5 p.m. in downtown New York City on Thursday. You can email puckevents at puck.news. to secure a spot and get more details. And let's get going with Alistair and Amanda. I just got word that Vanessa Friedman is at the U.S. Open wearing meta Ray-Bans. I assume it's for a story. Thank you for the on-the-ground intel, people. And let's get going. Speaker 4 (1:30) Alistair McKim, welcome back to Fashion People. Speaker 1 (1:34) Hi, Lauren. Speaker 4 (1:35) I'm so happy to have you. The last time you were on, you were just kind of hinting about prototype and now it is here. Congrats. Yeah, Speaker 1 (1:43) exactly. Last time we spoke, it was Paris Fashion Week and I was there for the shows without a magazine. So it was kind of like this imaginary magazine that was coming. So yeah, it's here today. So we're excited. Speaker 4 (1:56) The first image you released is a chair. Speaker 1 (1:59) Yeah. Speaker 4 (2:01) Tell me about this. What does it mean? Speaker 1 (2:03) So the chair is, well, it's all sort of part of like the bigger picture of what Prototype is, which is, you know, a creative community, basically, in a creative space where we're making products. So the idea is that the magazine is one of the products that we create. So we're also working, as you know, with our brands and artists and obviously product designers. You know, what I'd like to do, because I just realized this sort of, you know, just the cadence of things is like have one big product push every time we put out an issue, which is every six months. And then we're also going to like drop products and collaborations throughout the season, as well as obviously all of the work that we're doing within the studio for brands and musicians, artists, etc. So I wanted to release the chair. before any of the images from the magazine because I just thought it kind of cemented that idea more clearly, you know? So the first thing we released was an actual, like, animation of the magazine, which is just a white cover. And then the next day after that, we released the chair. And the chair is actually the only quote-unquote advertising in the magazine is a picture of the chair and our website address. So, you know, it's all just super clean, really, like, stripped back. publication, you know. Speaker 4 (3:26) Why did you decide to work with Pierre? Is it Castagnola? Is that how you pronounce it? Castagnola, yeah, exactly. Yeah. On this particular thing and how did you all conceive it? Speaker 1 (3:40) So everything, I mean, really everything that I do is very personal, you know, especially with issue zero, like it was so important to me that it was like a personal. It was a personal perspective with the team, you know, the team that I put together are people that either I've worked with for a long time or people that really organically came into my life at the right moment, you know. So Patrick Slack, my art director, he reached out, went in, I was prototype and he said he's an incredible art director and he said he was moving back from LA to New York and he would love to meet. Everything sort of happened very organically. Like my managing director, Emily Griffiths, was someone that I've known for like 20 years. And she moved back from Nike in Portland, sorry, in Amsterdam. She'd been in Portland, then Amsterdam, and then back to New York to work as the managing director of Prototype. And then, you know, such a small team like Olivia Singer is my editorial director, who is also my editorial director at ID Magazine. And, you know, when it comes to the chair, I actually, when I first started conceiving the prototype, I just had randomly bought one of Pierre's pieces. I really love his, I love his furniture. I love, I love reworked classics, you know, like he basically takes standard garden chairs and like recreates them into like new pieces. And I had actually bought one of his like little stools from my office. And so we actually. You know, he's just someone that I kind of connected with. And I was speaking to him directly to buy his chair and we sort of became friends. And then when we started Prototype, I just thought it'd be really nice to collaborate on a chair. And I actually, I wanted to make it out of platinum, but that was not possible. That was the idea. I was like, how can we make the most expensive garden chair? And then we ended up pouring it with aluminum and our aluminum, as I was corrected today. I say aluminum because I'm Irish. You're allowed. I Speaker 4 (5:40) knew what Speaker 1 (5:40) you meant. Someone laughed at me today for saying aluminum. So yeah, that's really how it happened. And we already have lots of conversations in the pipeline as far as... what we're going to do with products for early next year and also exciting collaborations as well. You know, like we, you know, obviously it's everybody's dream to do eyewear and sneakers and all of those things, but I wanted to do something different and that's why the chair came first. Speaker 4 (6:10) I'm going to have you on to talk for a longer conversation because you remind me the last time we chatted, it was like almost two hours. And this is at the top of a previously scheduled podcast that's great with Amanda about the Venice Film Festival. And I actually went to the, I talk about this with Amanda, so I don't want to get into it, but I went to the Dries Foundation there. I saw that. There's so much. object. There's so many amazing industrial designers included in that first show. I guess one question is like, how many of these are going to be for sale? And are they available on prototype? Like if someone listens and they look at it and they want it, can they get it? Speaker 1 (6:49) Exactly. You can, you go to prototype.world, which is our website. And that was, that was also something that was important to me that the website wasn't like a media website. It's not a magazine website. It's a store. You know, it's all about, it's all about product. So, and I'll try and keep it brief, but like you just go to prototype.world and the chairs are made to order. Right now we've made the prototype, which is one chair, and then they're going to be made to order and numbered as they sell. That's awesome. Speaker 4 (7:20) Okay. So you could have gotten advertising. Everyone loves you. People need. They have limited budgets, but they have budgets and they don't want to spend them where they normally spend them. You could have had advertisers. So why did you decide not to? And what your business partners like, what was the thinking behind not having advertising in issue zero? It was a Speaker 1 (7:42) very specific pitch initially of like how I wanted to do issue zero. I've obviously worked in magazines for like 25 years or something. And I just know the politics of. Once you start inviting everybody in and all the conversation and how that works politically, I think it just changes the purity of the concept. So it was always an initial approach to do issue zero with no ads and no cover. And again, like the same with the covers, it becomes very political and it becomes about the brands and it becomes about the talent and it becomes about the photographers and all of these different things. So really what Prototype is, is it's 12 zines bound together. So each zine has its own cover. So within the white cover of the magazine, every zine has its own cover. And we'll also be selling the zines separately. So it's really beautifully like kind of put together and like button together. But then you can also buy the separate zines, which are going to be like super limited edition. And Speaker 4 (8:44) then we've also done Speaker 1 (8:45) a zine with Tom Sachs for his Chanel project, which because we had so many images. Oh Speaker 4 (8:52) my God, I'm so excited. Speaker 1 (8:53) Yeah. I mean, it's incredible. So this is... you know, that was just something else that I wanted to do was actually be able to just have the freedom to print and publish what we wanted. And yeah, honestly, the brands have been so, so supportive. Like you said, like I have a lot of relationships with designers and brands across lots of different sort of genres. But I think for the next issue, we really have a nice concept of how we're going to work with brands as well and how we're going to do things. And also like there's brands that want to support just through the studio and like, cause the money from the studio obviously supports the publication, you know? So it's like, there's different ways to work with us and support the project, you know? Speaker 4 (9:38) As someone who's been in magazines for a long time and you've worked at a lot of different kinds of publications and like you said, there's politics, there's money involved, there's all these things. And then there's also like the existential, how do we make this a viable business in an era when being a business is important? It sounds like you're just being super, are these kind of things, there's so much. I mean, just looking at the list of features and and people a lot of it are people you've like you said collaborate it's like almost like your career and in in a magazine um but are a lot of these like more these ideas were these things that you had wanted to do for years and never had a place or was this a thing where your core team sat down a year ago and started really conceiving a lot of because it's really creative? Yeah, Speaker 1 (10:31) I think that's a great question. I mean, it sort of has just evolved throughout my career. There was there was a section in ID magazine called artists in residence, which I set up during the pandemic, because I was like, we have all these pages, how can we fill these pages with incredible art and like, that section of the magazine, which I launched in 2020, just became a really exciting part of my editorship. And I was like, 24 pages and the artists. submitted like 20 pages of image and we do four pages of text. So like, that's really where the zine idea for prototype came from. So it's an evolution of that idea. And then as you said, like all the people that have contributed to the, to this issue are people that I've either worked with for years or once or numerous times. Like, I don't think there's really that many contributors that I haven't worked with before. So, and also conversations that I was already having in my old jobs that I didn't get to like. follow through on so I was able to pick them up and run with it so that's how I can give a buy really oh Speaker 4 (11:31) there's just so much is the event on Friday public The DSM thing or no? Speaker 1 (11:37) Oh, that's on Wednesday. Yeah. Wednesday the 9th. Yeah. We're doing, we're doing a public event. Yeah. At Dover street market in New York. Everybody Speaker 4 (11:47) should go. There's so much to, to dig in to here. Had you ever worked with Peter miles on a magazine? I know you work with him in other Speaker 1 (11:55) capacity. He was actually, yeah, he, he works with Mark Jacobs and Speaker 4 (12:00) yeah. Speaker 1 (12:01) And I went to him to talk to him in London. Actually when it, when it, First kind of 19 January, we had our first meeting about it. And he actually designed the Zero, which is on the back of the magazine. It's great. He was my first artist, actually. Like first artist commission was the Zero. Like Speaker 4 (12:16) everyone else, I'm a fan. I think that's cool. And you're working with Susan Kappa, formerly of Condé Nast as a strategic advisor. It's very smart of you. Susan is a very famous. Yes, strategic. person that advertisers love. I think that's very strategic of you to hire her as a strategic advisor. There's so many good, Mark Holgate's on here, Nomi Frye. I'm very excited for Karen's. Speaker 4 (12:48) tribute to Melanie Ward. It just sounds amazing. I'm so excited for you and wish that I had one right here, but I'll have one in a couple of days that I can dig Speaker 1 (13:02) into. A Speaker 4 (13:02) couple Speaker 1 (13:02) of Speaker 4 (13:02) days. I'm Speaker 1 (13:03) going Speaker 4 (13:03) to Speaker 1 (13:03) see you on Wednesday, right? Speaker 4 (13:04) Yeah, yeah. The Arthur Jaffa thing is interesting too because I just went to the Arthur Jaffa Richard Prince show at... at the Prada Foundation in Venice. And there is like a little zine there that you could take home too. But yeah, it just feels, there's just so much. And it's interesting, the Tom Sachs thing. I'm sure you knew about the Chanel shop in shop, essentially, that he's putting in his little workshop on Center Street. But I just saw that. It sounds amazing. I'm so excited Speaker 1 (13:39) to see it. Oh my Speaker 4 (13:39) God, it's Speaker 1 (13:40) so Speaker 4 (13:40) amazing. Speaker 1 (13:40) And yeah, so, and also, yeah, Tom and I have worked together before. and he's very close with Mario Sorrenti who's a close collaborator of mine so yeah it's just an amazing project and also like I said it's become something bigger and we're actually doing he's where so we launched on the 9th Tom's launching on the 10th down the 14th we're also doing something together so it's all of these collaborative experiences really that are so special and like I said it's like sort of you know it's issue zero for my heroes really you know like that was the sort of tagline and and even like some of the titles of the stories like we just released Skepta this morning and his stories title is a lifetime in the making which is a part of the conversation he's having with novelists but it really feels like lifetime in the making is something that I could have called this magazine as well you know because it really is like you said it's all my experiences over my career so and all the people I've met along the way that are really supportive. So it's an honor to publish their work, really. Speaker 4 (14:43) Well, it looks, it honestly looks so great. And it's so, Amanda and I talk about this as a preview to the conversation for people who stick around about like how much work you have to put into things to make them good, essentially. And you obviously put an incredible amount of work here. And it's just like, There's so much to kind of parse through and I'm excited for you and excited to see what else you make out of it. Speaker 1 (15:14) Thank you. Yeah, I know. It's like, I remember when I did my first issue of ID, it was the same thing. You pour your whole life and soul into it and then you're like, okay, now I've got to turn around and do it again. Because it's like, Speaker 4 (15:24) before Speaker 1 (15:25) we know it, we've got to publish another one. So we're just like, now it's like on to the next. It's like, this is kind of old news for us. So it's like. Really thinking about what the next issue is going to look like as an issue one, you know. Speaker 4 (15:37) Well, excited to see it. Happy for you. And also, if you're interested in this, if you want one of the zines or all of the zines, go to the Dover Street Market event on Wednesday. What is it like at six? Yeah, six to eight. Or go to the Speaker 1 (15:55) prototype.world store. Speaker 4 (15:57) Yeah, and order that chair. Speaker 1 (16:00) Order that chair. Yeah, exactly. Support the arts. Alistair, thank you for being here. It's always great to see you and I'll Speaker 4 (16:07) see you this Speaker 2 (16:07) week. Speaker 1 (16:08) Yeah, see you soon. We'll talk Speaker 2 (16:09) soon. Speaker 2 (16:13) Hey there, I'm Kendra Adachi and my show, The Lazy Genius Podcast, helps you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And you get to decide what matters. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to give you a new way to see. Episodes of The Lazy Genius Podcast are full of compassionate time management tips and permission slips to do what makes sense for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Follow and listen to The Lazy Genius Podcast on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (16:46) Amanda Dobbins, welcome back to Speaker 3 (16:48) Fashion People. Thank you so Speaker 4 (16:50) much for having me. Lovely to see you again. Lovely to see you. It's been less than 15 hours, I would say, 10 hours. That's true. How was your trip back ultimately? You know, it was good. I got a ride to the airport from my friends who were in Venice for an afternoon and they said, we're going to drive to the airport. Would you like a ride? And it was lovely to see them. fell asleep on the plane, which was good. I was saying to you before we started recording that I was so incredibly tired yesterday, even though I feel like I got more sleep than I normally do. But there was not, maybe there was so much adrenaline from our whirlwind Saturday night and Sunday morning that I was, you know, but I had an amazing time. How are you doing? You've been in Venice since. What, last Wednesday? We're going on a week now. Yeah. Wow. Speaker 3 (17:45) I got in Tuesday night. And, you know, I'm here as a film journalist and a film critic covering movies for the big picture. So I've mostly been in festival rat mode, which is on the island where the movies are being shown, darting in and out, you know, eating bad salads out of paper containers, this