Black Magazine emerged in a flurry of black and white as a quarterly fashion, beauty, arts and culture magazine back in 2006. It is published from New Zealand, created by a network of friends and contributors around the world and in 2008 the publication went bi-annual. People often ask Rachael Churchward and Grant Fell, the founders of the magazine, about the title ‘Black,’ and their thinking was simple; “Black is the colour of New Zealand, black is the staple colour of fashion, black is the colour of the sand on the beach where we live at Muriwai, West Auckland, Aotearoa. Our national rugby team is called the All Blacks and our cat Oscar is, you guessed it, black.
The fashion and beauty contributions are all commissioned (Black does not take submissions) exclusively for Black Magazine. New Zealand, Australia, USA, UK and France are the primary locations for the magazine’s editorial content although stories have come from; Thailand, India, Italy, Japan, Polynesia, Holland, Canada, Hong Kong and many other places. Photography is king at Black Mag and current or past contributors include; Robert Erdmann, Derek Kettela, Michael Schwartz, Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca, Paul Empson, Arthur Belebeau, Johnny Gembitsky, Seiji Fukamori, Toshihiro Takaoka, James Demitri, Derek Henderson, Russ Flatt, Tim White, Craig Owen and many more. Fashion, Beauty and Creative Director Rachael Churchward’s strong stylistic ethic ensures that Black’s fashion editors are always at the top of their game – current or past fashion editors include: Alex Slavycz, Christian Stroble, Dean Voycovich, June Nakamoto, Kimi O.Neill, William Gilchrist, Katie Felstead, Zoe James, Imogene Barron, Wil Ariyamethe, Anda & Masha, Atip W, Karen Inderbitzen-Waller and more. Beauty is also high on the Black agenda and past or present contributors include: Sam McKnight, Kerry Warn, Sharon Dowsett, Valery Gherman, Ashley Javier, Dennis Goutsolous, Leon Gorman, Greg Murrell, Stefan Knight, Virginia Carde to name a few. Last but not least, Black has always sought quality models. Whilst quality isn’t always easy to come by down under, the magazine’s New York, London and Paris teams have ensured the list of models appearing in Black is of a high standard. Cover girls include: Valentina Zelyaeva, Ali Stephens, Heather Marks, Siri Tollerod, Constance Jablonski, Heidi Mount, Kemp Muhl, Rachel Alexander and Rosie Huntington-Whitely.
Black Is not gender-specific equally featuring women’s and men’s editorials and the past two issues have also featured a male cover. The magazine has a number of sections; Blackhearts and Blacklist (profiles), Black Beauty, Black Fashion, TalkBlack (interviews and features) and The Black End (page artworks, photography, travel). Black 11 is on sale NZ in October, Australia in November and UK, Europe and eastern USA pre Christmas and you will also see it here on F-Tape in October.
