Watch out Conde Nast: The fashion crowd is taking over the magazine world. Or so it would seem. It was announced in today’s Womens Wear Daily that a Departures editor was moving to RalphLauren.com to be the editor-in-chief of the site’s new magazine component. It was also announced that LVMH head-honcho Bernard Arnault just added Les Echos, a French financial daily to his roster of pricey acquisitions.

These developments fit into a developing pattern of series of publications (and publication-like entities) being created by labels themselves: H&M produces a vivid look-book-like magazine several times a year to give to their shoppers, as does Uniqlo. Recall that during fashion week, YSL circulated their fall ad campaign in a newspaper-like format. Karl Lagerfeld has his own publishing house and bookstore while Diane Von Furstenberg recently launched her own online magazine. Filled with her festive personal snapshots and travel anecdotes, it resembles one big glossy blog, but I’m going to save a debate about the semantics of things (blog vs. magazine vs. website) for another time. Instead, I’ll leave you to contemplate the idea of designer-helmed ventures. What will they consist of? How will old-school magazines react? And could it be that—in order to avoid misquotes and unflattering photos from being published—design stars just decided to take press opportunities into their own hands? If that’s the case, surely a few Tinseltown stars will want to follow suit.

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