Rebel with a cause - new multicultural fashion magazine, Rebelle - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 15, 1994

Multiculturalism may be the hottest PC topic of the decade to date, but until recently, there was no consumer magazine devoted to the demographics of diversity. Enter Haitian-born fashion photographer Ralph Clermont, who set out to fill the void by launching a national, multicultural fashion magazine. Launched last June, Rebelle's 120-page premier issue carried 29 ad pages and had a newsstand distribution of 100,000. With October (its second issue and official launch), the glossy title win publish 10 times a year and boasts a circulation of 250,000. Word One recently caught up with Clermont to discuss his editorial vision.

Word One: Why fashion as the milieu for exploring multiculturalism?

Ralph Clermont: It's not that I care about fashion, but I believe people respond to beautiful images. There are some magazines that show women of color, but they are superficial. Elle, one of the most beautiful magazines to come to America, has been an inspiration. It showed women of color in a way that Vogue would never dare. But Elle never went beyond the photograph. I'm interested in showing how ethnic culture influences fashion, art, music, literature, food.

Word One: What does the name signify?

Clermont: Rebelle, which is French, is about rebelling against the fashion establishment. It's about seeing images you wouldn't see in other magazines.

Word One: Whom do you see as your reader?

Clermont Rebelle is for everyone - different genders and races. I'm not interested in just targeting a black market. And this is not a book for teenagers. Rebelle is looking at multiculturalism from a grown-up perspective.

Word One: How did you raise capital for the launch?

Clermont. Initially I went to Time Publishing Ventures with the concept, but they were already doing Vibe and Mouth2Mouth, and they told me to come back. So I decided to go into it by myself. I raised the money from family and wealthy friends who believed in me and the magazine concept. The launch was done on less than $500,000. Now that I've done an issue, there is renewed interest [in investing in it] from several publishing companies.

Word One: What has been the reader response so far?

Clermont.: We don't have actual newsstand-sales numbers from our first issue yet. We did a blow-in subscription card - the charter rate is $15 for 10 issues [the cover price is 2.951 - but to keep our costs down, it wasn't postage paid. And we still got 1,000 subscribers.