LONDON — For as long as he can remember, Villa Moda founder Majed Al-Sabah has been flipping through Middle Eastern fashion magazines — and wincing with pain.
In a typical magazine, Chanel ads sit next to ones for Head & Shoulders, Louis Vuitton spreads appear alongside ones for cleaning detergent, photos are pixilated and stories are cut and pasted from Western titles without any regard for copyright. And he’s not taking it anymore.
For fall, Al-Sabah will launch his own magazine, to be called Alef: A New Language of Beauty. “We want to become the fashion magazine of record in the Middle East,” said Al-Sabah over a cup of tea at the Berkeley Hotel here. “We want to position ourselves as a must-read for fashion insiders.”
Al-Sabah said he’s creating the magazine mostly out of necessity. “I have franchises to look after now, and they have ad budgets, but there’s no place to put the ads — except for the cut-and-paste magazines,” he said. “And that’s money down the drain.”
Alef, which is the letter A in Arabic, will bow with a September issue and come out four times a year. Al-Sabah, whose money is behind the project, hopes eventually to ramp the number of issues up to 10 a year. He’s named Sameer Reddy, formerly of hintmag.com and Bidoun Magazine, as Alef’s editor and publisher. Paul de Zwart, co-founder and former publisher of Wallpaper*, is consultant publisher. Edward Jowdy is creative director, Sam Shahid is editor at large and contributors include Samira Nasr and Horacio Silva.
“It wouldn’t take much to raise the bar on magazines in the Middle East,” said Reddy with a laugh, “but we do want to show the rest of the world that we can produce a respectable creative title.”
The time is certainly ripe for a high-end magazine: Climbing oil prices are fueling an economic boom in the Persian Gulf, fashion brands such as Giorgio Armani and Versace are opening luxury hotels in the region and department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Harvey Nichols are opening franchised stores there.
Reddy said he plans to fill the magazine with fashion, beauty, design, food, film, music and celebrity coverage. About 70 percent of Alef will be devoted to Middle Eastern culture, he said, even though the magazine will be published out of New York and have a satellite office in Kuwait. Stories will also focus on hot gallerists and philanthropists, regional celebrities and royals. Al-Sabah said he’s hoping his name and position in the Middle East (he hails from a big Kuwaiti family) will help the magazine gain access to VIPs’ homes.
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“A lot of Middle Eastern people are afraid of the tabloids, afraid of exposing their lives to strangers. If they know I’m behind it, they may be more willing,” suggested Al-Sabah.
Reddy said the magazine wants to have a mix of internationally known photographers and local talent. “But, don’t worry, it’s not going to become an affirmative action program for the locals,” he said.
Reddy said he doesn’t see the Middle East’s more conservative social mores as a barrier to a hip fashion title. “I’m more interested in working to find innovative ways to express sensuality and beauty instead of resorting to the lowest common denominator of sex to create a strong image,” he said. “And I think the major photographers with whom we’re speaking are inspired by the challenge of pioneering a new kind of fashion aesthetic that doesn’t rely on nudity and overt sexuality to make a convincing image.”
Alef will have an initial print run of 60,000 to 70,000, small by American standards, and will be distributed at newsstands, in hotels and on partner airlines in the Middle East, and on newsstands in major U.S., European and Southeast Asian cities. The copy will be in English, with Arabic subtitles. The cover price is still being determined, although Reddy said it will be 4 pounds in the Middle East and 5 pounds in the West, or $6.96 to $8.70.
The launch issue will be slightly more than 200 pages, and advertisers will include major luxury brands, said Reddy, although he declined to reveal any names.
Al-Sabah said he hopes Alef will play another role, as well. “I want the magazine to be an ambassador from the Middle East, something that reflects the beauty of the region and shows that it’s not only about Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and terrorism.”