InStyle’s decade of star power lures copycats

The world is a beautiful place when everything is seen through the lens of celebrity, and that’s the world that InStyle magazine has brought to its readers every month for the last 10 years.

When InStyle launched, supermodels ruled the fashion magazines and Martians the supermarket tabloids. But with a current circulation of 1.7 million, the magazine that featured Barbra Streisand on its first cover helped fuel the celebrity craze if not copycat publications.

“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. So I’m flattered. Everyone is going to respond to a great idea ... but sometimes I’ll say, ‘Oh, God, not another one,’ ” says Charla Lawhon, InStyle’s managing editor.

In some ways, InStyle is a victim of its own success: Lawhon says it’s become much more difficult to secure stars for features and to get invited to their homes.

“The fashion magazines used to say, ‘We won’t use celebrities,’ but now fashion magazines have celebrities on the cover 12 out of 12 magazines a year,” Lawhon says.

Though InStyle enjoyed steady growth in the first few years, its breakout really came in September 1999, according to Lawhon.

“That’s when advertisers saw directly relatable results. It could be a martini glass to shoes to a fabulous gown; we made it easy for readers to buy. We’d tell them how to wear something and how to use it without talking down to them,” she says. “We’re the original shopping magazine.”

Lawhon says she’s pleased and proud of the magazine’s ability to spot -- and maybe start -- trends. She cites the 1998 “discovery” of ionic hair tools, which she says has since “changed the lives of million of women,” and the August 2002 prediction that the Louis Vuitton-Stephen Sprouse graffiti bag and Tom Ford’s Yves Saint Laurent Mombasa bag would become collector’s items.

Occasionally, though, InStyle has been wrong, which Lawhon says is always a risk when you’re predicting what will be hot and happening months in advance.

“In fall 2002, we featured white for winter. I bought into it. No one else did,” she says with a laugh.