Guest editor

Icon, the Mondadori Group’s male fashion and lifestyle magazine is on newsstands from tomorrow with a collectors’ issue dedicated to sport, with Claudio Marchisio, former champion of the Italian national team, for the first time in the extraordinary role of guest editor.

Together with the editorial team led by editor Andrea Tenerani and editor-at-large Federico Sarica, Marchisio has created a special issue of Icon to celebrate the symbolic values of the world of sport, that remain relevant even in these difficult days: commitment, sharing, belonging, and excitement.

This is illustrated by the exclusive stories of the talented protagonists featured on the cover, authentic contemporary icons, alongside Claudio Marchisio, the footballers Matthijs de Ligt and Pierluigi Gollini.

At the heart of the issue, sport, ranging across the pages of the magazine, from interviews with great champions, to fashion, beauty and lifestyle features, and all related to the passions of today’s man, lifestyles and trends through the global approach that characterises the brand’s successful formula.

“In these difficult times, I often find myself retracing the happy moments of my life,” Claudio Marchisio begins in the letter to the Icon community that opens the new issue. “All these memories are always accompanied by a common, perhaps even banal, gesture, but one which we certainly take too much for granted: a hug. Strangely, looking back on one of my goals, I never remember the moment when the ball crossed the goal line, but I always remember the embrace of my teammates. I hope that my wife won’t read this, but even of my marriage I don’t remember the moment when we said: “I do”, but I remember very well the beauty of our embrace immediately after.” Now a commentator on the matches of the Italian national team, the new Marchisio talks about his plans for the future in a conversation with Icon: “I have always lived with the motto of my favourite team, which is Juventus obviously, in my head: ‘Winning is all that matters.’” But often victory lies in the path you take to get there. Unexpected things that happen to you, how you train, how you change and mature as you pursue your goals. Whether you reach them or not. In life, for me, this is what winning means.”

Matthijs de Ligt, who appears exclusively on the cover of this month’s Icon, is set to become one of the greats of his sport: at 18 he was already captain of a legendary club like Ajax, at 21 he is consistently one of the best in the world in his role, a staple of the Juventus team after just a year in Turin. “I think the Ajax style can be summed up in two words: courage and discipline. There they expect you to learn to play the ball, without fear, that you learn to prove who you really are, as a player and as a man. And you always work for that. It’s something that stays with you, a mentality that is also helping me a lot at Juventus. Juve will only call you if you are good enough and really deserve it. We young players who have recently arrived, understand this. Obviously, we are here to grow and become like our teammates with more experience: we all want to be the next Chiellini, Bonucci or Buffon. In the end, what we do is work hard every day and push each other to improve. This is the beauty of having a young but aware group of players. We are trying to get to know each other better, even off the pitch: we want to grow together and together raise the level, both individually and as a team.”

At 25, Pierluigi Gollini, who features on the third cover of November’s Icon, has become one of the best goalkeepers in Italy: he has already won his place in the national team and with Atalanta, which is looking to qualify, for the second year in a row, for the Champions League. “We feel the responsibility of being the pride of Bergamo: there is so much warmth here, I really like the city and the spirit of the people. When we are around, we notice the great enthusiasm that surrounds us:” Gollini not afraid to be open about his passions, from rap to fashion and video games, which he often talks about on his social profiles. “I’m not afraid of being judged, indeed, it would be nice if I could be a spur for cultural change.” This awareness comes from the years he spent at Manchester United’s Youth Academy, where he went at the age of 16. “In England I found much more openness than in Italy. There the players make music, or are designers, it’s another world. My goal now is to start a record label,” continues Gollini, the first Italian footballer to have recorded a rap song, and for whom music is more than a passion, “to push some guy from out of nowhere. For now, I am working on some things, there is a project for a new song with my rapper friend,” he reveals in the interview in the issue of Icon on newsstands.

Silvia Grilli, editor of Grazia – the leading 100% Italian fashion brand present around the world with 20 international editions – has selected Chiara Ferragni as guest editor of the new issue of Grazia dedicated to female power and talent, on newsstands from Thursday 29 August. The world’s most followed female digital entrepreneur will also be the protagonist of the cover stories of Grazia in the UK, Germany, Holland, the Middle East and Russia.

For the first time in the role of guest editor, Chiara Ferragni, who is also the subject of the documentary Chiara Ferragni – Unposted, which will be presented on 4 September at the Venice Film Festival, has worked together with the editor Silvia Grilli on the creation of the issue: from the fashion pages, in which she also poses for the photographer Yu Tsai in a shooting in Los Angeles, to interviews, news and current affairs features, as well as the beauty and travel sections, with an open and inclusive approach to the latest trends.

«For some time Grazia under my editorship has had a special relationship with female digital entrepreneurs. We were the first to launch a team of influencers when the fashion establishment had not yet understood their significance. We were also the first to organise – along with Chiara Ferragni’s The Blonde Salad – an exhibition on the revolution provoked by street style in the world of fashion,» explained Grazia editor Silvia Grilli. «I have a long-standing and consolidated relationship with Chiara so, to coincide with the presentation of the documentary film about her life at the Venice Film Festival, I asked her to work with us as guest editor on a special issue, and she enthusiastically accepted. So here we are with this special edition of Grazia dedicated to women with power, features on the most pressing issues of the moment and, of course, Chiara’s world: her passions, her fashion, her commitment and, also, the film about her life. We have also involved five other international editions of the magazine who have joined us on this adventure.»

«When Silvia Grilli, the editor who first believed in me and put me on the cover five years ago – the realisation of a dream – asked me to be the guest editor of an issue, I wasn’t sure I would be up to the task. So we worked together on this issue to remind everyone to follow their dreams, also, even especially, when they fly in the face of other people’s judgements. And for me this has been another dream come true,» declared Chiara Ferragni.

A collector’s issue, of more than 200 pages, that pays homage to the talent, ambition and style of women through portraits of special women to be inspired by, and presented in the words of exceptional reporters, starting with Chiara Ferragni herself, interviewed by Teresa Ciabatti, along with other outstanding figures such as Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, television host, actress and producer Oprah Winfrey, the creative director of Dior Maria Grazia Chiuri, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the artistic director of Givenchy Clare Waight Keller, and actress Margot Robbie.

The features of the week also include a special on digital bullying, an issue to which both Silvia Grilli and Chiara Ferragni are particularly committed, and a survey on how our diet will change in the future, due to new technologies and environmental sustainability.

The new issue of Grazia also gives space to Chiara Ferragni’s passions, objects of desire and favourite places, which she has selected for readers from among her most loved places in Milan, Los Angeles, Paris and London. There will, of course, also be beauty advice, with a feature on highlighters, one of Chiara’s cosmetic passions, and a classification of the latest red carpet looks, commented on by Chiara Ferragni herself.

The special issue has attracted great interest also in terms of advertising sales as this editorial initiative has been well received by a number of clients resulting in revenues that have almost tripled.

This four-handed project has made it possible to bring together the values that Grazia has championed for more than 80 years, accompanying generations of women with a unique formula that combines fashion, news and current affairs, which has consequently cemented the privileged relationship that the brand has always had with the digital world, social media and fashion influencers, now a fundamental element of the fashion system.

Today Grazia’s communication platform in Italy can count on the circulation of 156,000 copies (Source: Ads, monthly average Jan-May 2019) and 785,000 readers (Source: Audipress 2019/I), the web site Grazia.it, has 3 million unique users per month (Source: Audiweb, monthly average Mar-May 2019), social media channels with a reach of 14 million, special events, the Factory of influencers and the creative agency Grazia Creative Lab. The global multichannel system Grazia International Network every month reaches an overall community of 15 million readers, with a monthly circulation of 10 million copies, and 35 million unique users, as well as over 15 million followers on social media.

The launch of this new issue of Grazia will be supported by an advertising campaign planned across print, radio, web, social and DOOH.

Grazia will be available on newsstands from Thursday 29 August at the price of €2.

Grazia sarà in edicola da giovedì 29 agosto al prezzo di 2 euro.