HWS News
7 December 2017 • Alums "Culture, history, and everything in between" for Vanity Fair Menswear Editor
"No workday, photo shoot or article is ever the same," says Christopher Legaspi '12, menswear editor at Vanity Fair. Working with politicians, actors and other high profile talent means his schedule is unpredictable and "my day-to-day varies a lot and can change at the drop of a dime."
Guided by the magazine's Creative Director, Legaspi takes photo shoots from concept to the page meaning "whenever we have any male talent on the cover or inside the magazine, I do all the market for the photo shoot," he explains. "I also work on the men's market pages, which are our shoppable pages that are based on the biggest trends of the season."
"Things can get complicated when we have multiple male talents for a cover shoot and all of them vary in sizing," says Legaspi. "Not only do I have to get specific sizes from all designers, but sometimes the concept for the shoots are not as easy as just suiting. At Vanity Fair we love black tie (tuxedos) and white tie (tailcoats) and that can be very challenging to get sizes of and not everyone makes white tie tailcoats."
For Vanity Fair's upcoming Hollywood issue, which will appear in February 2018, Legaspi had only a week to prepare for the cover shoot. And with seven male celebrities slated to appear on the cover, there was a flurry of phone calls to contact designers and Savile Row fashion houses to acquire seven custom tailcoats and sets of formalwear.
"Luckily, the mens fashion industry is very tight knit," he says. "Everyone is working together to help create something new and amazing [and it all pays off] when an issue hits stand and you are able to see the hard work that you and your team have put in to making such a great magazine."
For Legaspi, who majored in media and society at HWS, "fashion was something that always intrigued me, but I had no real experience or background in it going into college. After landing an internship at Details Magazine during the summer of 2011, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in fashion and magazines."
After graduation, he joined Details as a fashion assistant. He also worked for GQ magazine and joined Vanity Fair as associate menswear editor for two years before rising to the role of editor.
Between the creativity it takes to make a photo shoot successful and the excitement of looming deadlines, Legaspi relishes being able to create such amazing stories through fashion and surprisingly learn so much about culture, history, and everything in between.
As a student Legaspi studied abroad in Rome, Italy, was a Kappa Alpha brother, and served as vice president of the KINK Advertising Club.