Behind the Scenes with Emanuele Farneti: A Magazine Maker's Journey

What's Contemporary Now?

Editor-in-chief of all la Repubblica magazines, Emanuele Farneti, is an influential figure in the fashion and design industries. Born in Italy, Farneti’s career trajectory skyrocketed as he took the helm of esteemed publications like Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue. His keen eye for style, commitment to innovation, and passion for storytelling have propelled these magazines to new heights, earning him global accolades. A fusion of tradition and modernity characterizes Farneti’s leadership, analyzing the DNA of magazines to establish and evolve a language and direction better suited for contemporary society.

Episode Highlights:

• He comes from a family of journalists who worked for Italian weekly “Panorama,” so he was “literally born within a newsroom” and has “childhood memories of the good old days of print media, where this group of talented journalists in their 30s, in the middle of the 70s were having a lot of fun playing poker and doing beautiful newspapers.”
• Informed by a classical education, he studied law while training as a television and print media journalist, starting with sports before moving on to fashion.
• Known as “a true magazine maker,” Farneti knows the importance of working with a brand’s DNA, which he says can evolve but should remain true to itself.
• Remembering Vogue Italia’s pandemic coverage, Farneti remarks that the ability to use fashion to address largerquestions and have a voice about what’s important is crucial.
• As the director of D-la Repubblica, he’s adept at addressing a general audience with various and surprising topics united under the banner of good writing.
• Focusing on making the most beautiful monthly-style, weekly-produced magazine possible, D sets itself apart for the quality and depth of its reporting in beauty, fashion, society, art, and lifestyle sections.
• The three limits of D as a print magazine: 1) it takes a long time to come together and is in circulation so briefly. 2) print quality and paper are low when working on a weekly basis. 3) there’s no international distribution.
• One of the issues he’s more proud of came out last year and was completely dedicated to Afro-Italian or second-generation Italians, conceived, styled, and photographed by second-generation Italians themselves.
• The magazine is launching a men’s monthly on June 24. With D, Farneti oversees three different titles plus a newspaper covering the broader spectrum of fashion and beauty.
• When asked what’s contemporary, he says teamwork, and that his coworkers “are all bringing so many ideas, so many opportunities and such a good energy to the magazine.”

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