Vogue Runway Has Officially Launched

Bid Style.com farewell in this previous post Mattie wrote. She’s the same writer who offered tips on how to spot a feminist. She’s also been known to analyze the deeper meaning of Shoshanna’s accessories in GIRLS.

Style.com posted a virtual “Closed for Business” placard on Monday, telling readers that the site would no longer publish content. It would soon redirect to Vogue Runway, which will follow fashion news and show reviews on a new section of Vogue.com.

In a goodbye-to-all-that letter the (now former) executive editor Nicole Phelps wrote, she looked back on what Style.com created, contending that that the “sole constant” of fashion coverage since it launched over 15 years ago is Madonna, “who was wedged into the front row at Versus and continues to be a presence at the collections today.”

Cheeky, yes. But not true. Because while so much has been transformed and so much of what we cherish now wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago, more than Madonna has remained a fixture. Vogue Runway proves it. The site is a testament to what I love about the shows. Even pressed into screens, it cheers three-dimensional fashion.

Despite my weakness for minimalism and navy and discreet hardware, I have always known fashion to have noise. The intensity of it, the vibrancy of beautiful clothes and gorgeous people and stunning creativity — it could run you over. It could blast your eardrums. No matter how understated the silhouettes, great clothes are explosive. At the site, they have found a new target.

Photos are bright. Some move, proving that GIFs are Hogwarts portraits IRL.

At the moment, every September issue of Vogue since 1893 is available at the Vogue Archive to fete the launch. Spy Kate Moss and Amber Valletta (and puppies!) front the magazine in 1996, and I swear your Tuesday will be better. Yellow taffeta has that effect on people.

A calendar, which I assume will update in time for a new season next week, outlines show schedules in New York and Paris. An app and mobile site will update in real time. And while features are still few, Phelps promises that Lynn Yaeger, Sarah Mower, Luke Leitch and Maya Singer will soon pen more.

Already, Mower has explained the return of ’90s fashion, celebrating the men and women responsible for its resurrection. The story is a proxy for the platform. Like Style.com was, Vogue Runway is a love letter to all the people who show us how we want to get dressed. It adores Phoebe Philo. It is glossy and informative. It is made for fashion nerds.

It is not perfect, of course. Launches never are. Not even the kickiest music can distract from a belated debut and too little of the geeky archival research that I know it can produce. But a Vogue inauguration is like that pair of underwear you spent a little too much on. It’s sexy and sophisticated. It looks seamless.

Welcoming the masses to the site, Nicole Phelps makes her intentions explicit.

“Bookmark VogueRunway.com now,” she commands.

And I do.

I am not really nostalgic. I liked high school, but I do not pine for it. I only miss The O.C., like, twice a week. But I loved Style.com. Which is why I take a last reverent glance at that alphabetic icon when I replace it on my bookmarks bar. And yet for all my dramatics, I’m sure I won’t mourn it for very long.

Do not let bad pantsuits and grunge makeup and Miley Cyrus fool you. While decades and trends may be cyclic, fashion always moves ahead. Right now, the future looks good.

And may I say: very intuitively designed!

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Vogue is offering readers one week of free access to their archive to view every September issue Vogue has created. Here’s how: Visit vogue.com/archive from your desktop or tablet and select “Archive Login” at the top of the page. Click “Magazine Subscribers and Registered Users” and log in with the following info (Username:  Runway@vogue.com,  Password: runway).

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