The Political Awakening of a Fashion Power Player

*My pick for your lunch break read of the day. Where fashion and politics were destined to meet. VL

By Jennifer S. Altman, The New York Times (6 minute read)

American fashion has never been afraid of declaring its political allegiance, at least in an insider kind of way. During the last two presidential elections, for example, numerous designers created pieces to raise money for the Obama campaign in initiatives called Runway to Change (in 2008) and Runway to Win (in 2012), and Anna Wintour, the artistic director of Condé Nast, is a famous bundler.

But even by those standards, the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have galvanized the industry to an extent never before seen.

Two weeks ago, American Vogue offered the first endorsement of a presidential candidate in its 124-year history, urging its readers to vote for Mrs. Clinton because of “the profound stakes” and the “history that stands to be made.”

Last week, Patagonia announced that for the first time it was closing all of its stores, as well as its headquarters, distribution center and customer service center, on Election Day to encourage everyone to “head to the polls and engage in civil society” instead of shopping, according to a company announcement.

And just before that, Condé Nast announced that as part of a reorganization, it would consolidate all 21 of its creative departments (all the magazines, websites and 23 Stories, its native advertising arm) under the leadership of Raúl Martinez.

Read more NewsTaco stories on Facebook. >> 

Wait, you say: That’s not a politics story. That’s a media story.

Which it is. Except for one thing: Though his promotion (he is officially called head of the creative group) was intended as business strategy, it had the unplanned effect of casting Mr. Martinez as not only the leader of almost 200 Condé Nast employees at the country’s most influential glossy magazines (like Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour and GQ) but also as the most powerful Latino in glossy publishing. READ MORE