Monday’s Muse: Penny Martin

After working on a PhD based on fashion magazines, curating an exhibition about a Vogue shoot for the V&A, and as ex editor-in-Chief for Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio, Penny Martin is now celebrated for her genius in capturing a conversational tone inside the magazine The Gentlewoman. Much like her bi-annually featured subjects, Martin could be classed as an example of the ideal modern woman herself; intellectual, creative, feminine and a self-proclaimed chatterbox.

‘I think it is very important that you can hear the way women sound. I think women talk to each other very differently when men aren’t in the room and I wanted that sound of their voices,’ she says. ‘What I wanted to reproduce was that thing when women sit down and say, “God, I love that.”’ She mimes pulling at a jacket. ‘You know, they touch each other.’

With such a distinctive voice and characteristics Martin has created a cult following for The Gentlewoman for the modern day women who crave honest, empowering, and practical perspective. The vibe of the magazine says everything about the woman behind the it…

‘We’ve got an anti-fantasy policy,’ Martin says, ‘and that is very consistent with the kind of Dutch graphic language we come from. That it’s revolutionary to show how people actually are is the sad revelation of our culture. Fashion-media images of women have become so retouched out of all… not recognition, but tangibility.’

With such strength in her vision to continually drive such a refined and thoughtful publication, Penny Martin has become a pioneer in the fashion industry in leading an ever-growing global community of intelligent, forward-thinking females.

Originally written for Charta. {interview quotes via: telegraph.co.uk}