A COMPLETE RUN OF DETAILS MAGAZINE FROM ANNIE FLANDERS' TENURE...
The Collection of Annie Flanders
A COMPLETE RUN OF DETAILS MAGAZINE FROM ANNIE FLANDERS' TENURE AS EDITOR.
Details Magazine. June 1982-November 1989.
67 issues. Original printed wrappers. Several copies in duplicate (with plain and split front covers). Condition generally good.
Annie Flanders' personal copies of the magazine she created to capture the essence of New York nightlife in the 1980s. Details began as a small, scrappy publication with a print run of only 10,000, but its subject was so fascinating and its contributors so hip that the magazine soon shot to national and international prominence while still keeping its hip, indie cred.
The rapid evolution of the magazine's success is visible in its transition from a black-and-white newsprint rag to a glossy, full-color fashion magazine.
Marcia Weinraub (1939-2022) was born in the Bronx. As a young woman, she studied fashion and journalism at NYU (and won the 1959 Miss NYU pageant!) before launching a career as buyer for various department stores. In 1967 she opened her own store on the upper east side, Abracadabra, a funky boutique specializing in new and avant-garde designers. She met Chris Flanders, an actor, and though they never married, she took his last name and also changed her first name when he suggested she was more of an "Annie" than a "Marcia." Abracadabra ran for a few years, then Flanders moved to Ethiopia to oversee a leather manufacturing enterprise. In 1976 she was hired as the Fashion Editor for the Soho Weekly News, a newspaper designed to rival the more popular and famous Village Voice. The Soho News shut down in 1982, and with $6000 of her own money, Flanders started Details with many of her Soho News staffers. Details was to be a diary not just of a neighborhood, but of the whole city--its nightlife, restaurants, art, music and fashion scenes. It's motto? "A party in a magazine." The magazine published monthly (rather than weekly, like the Soho News) and featured photography from some of the most important photographers working at the time: Bruce Weber, Steven Meisel, Amy Arbus, Patrick McMullan—and Flanders' very close friend, Bill Cunningham. Cunningham is best known for his long association with the New York Times but Flanders first gave him the most freedom of any editor.
Details caught on with its audience but never found financial stability. Flanders sold out to an investor in 1986, who then sold the magazine on to S.I. Newhouse in 1988. She remained as Editor-in-Chief for a short period before being pushed out altogether. Then, the publisher made the head-scratching decision to turn Details into a men's magazine before the entire project was shut down in 2015.
Flanders' post-Details career included co-sponsoring the Love Balls of 1989 and 1991, and a later move to Los Angeles where she continued to write and consult until her death in 2022.
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The Collection of Annie Flanders
A COMPLETE RUN OF DETAILS MAGAZINE FROM ANNIE FLANDERS' TENURE AS EDITOR.
Details Magazine. June 1982-November 1989.
67 issues. Original printed wrappers. Several copies in duplicate (with plain and split front covers). Condition generally good.
Annie Flanders' personal copies of the magazine she created to capture the essence of New York nightlife in the 1980s. Details began as a small, scrappy publication with a print run of only 10,000, but its subject was so fascinating and its contributors so hip that the magazine soon shot to national and international prominence while still keeping its hip, indie cred.
The rapid evolution of the magazine's success is visible in its transition from a black-and-white newsprint rag to a glossy, full-color fashion magazine.
Marcia Weinraub (1939-2022) was born in the Bronx. As a young woman, she studied fashion and journalism at NYU (and won the 1959 Miss NYU pageant!) before launching a career as buyer for various department stores. In 1967 she opened her own store on the upper east side, Abracadabra, a funky boutique specializing in new and avant-garde designers. She met Chris Flanders, an actor, and though they never married, she took his last name and also changed her first name when he suggested she was more of an "Annie" than a "Marcia." Abracadabra ran for a few years, then Flanders moved to Ethiopia to oversee a leather manufacturing enterprise. In 1976 she was hired as the Fashion Editor for the Soho Weekly News, a newspaper designed to rival the more popular and famous Village Voice. The Soho News shut down in 1982, and with $6000 of her own money, Flanders started Details with many of her Soho News staffers. Details was to be a diary not just of a neighborhood, but of the whole city--its nightlife, restaurants, art, music and fashion scenes. It's motto? "A party in a magazine." The magazine published monthly (rather than weekly, like the Soho News) and featured photography from some of the most important photographers working at the time: Bruce Weber, Steven Meisel, Amy Arbus, Patrick McMullan—and Flanders' very close friend, Bill Cunningham. Cunningham is best known for his long association with the New York Times but Flanders first gave him the most freedom of any editor.
Details caught on with its audience but never found financial stability. Flanders sold out to an investor in 1986, who then sold the magazine on to S.I. Newhouse in 1988. She remained as Editor-in-Chief for a short period before being pushed out altogether. Then, the publisher made the head-scratching decision to turn Details into a men's magazine before the entire project was shut down in 2015.
Flanders' post-Details career included co-sponsoring the Love Balls of 1989 and 1991, and a later move to Los Angeles where she continued to write and consult until her death in 2022.
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