Editor makes her way to top of fashion world - InStyle

A mystery project led her to the editorial helm of a celebrity magazine.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NEW YORK -- Ask a career counselor how best to reach a position overlooking America's vast fashion arena, and you would probably not hear Charla Lawhon's story.
Growing up in St. Joseph, Mo., Lawhon did not haunt the trendy boutiques, save her money for high-platform shoes or hunt down the latest shiny lip gloss. She was mostly all about books and sports, she says, and the yearbook.
She now sits at the editorial helm of one of most successful celebrity fashion magazines. Since February 2002 she has been managing editor of InStyle magazine, the first major publication to magnify clothing and home decorating styles of notables.
The publication itself has been an impressive success story. It was introduced in 1994 just as celebrity and fashion were moving into a lock step. America's fascination with the Hollywood scene was only beginning to take shape, and the media focus on star style was still a small voice. Television's "Entertainment Tonight" was the broadcast pioneer.
InStyle's older sister publication, People magazine, featured celebrities frequently, but others did not.
"The magazine actually came from the Star Tracks pages of People magazine in the sense that editors realized people really loved those pages when they featured celebrities out living their lives," Lawhon says.
In the beginning
The magazine plan, as it was announced, was to go into stars' homes and closets. It seemed daunting in a time before celebrities posed for the paparazzi and red-carpet coverage at awards shows had such power. Eleven years later InStyle has a circulation of 1.7 million readers.
It also produces bridal and home decorating specials and interactive fashion shows in addition to the regular magazine, which designers see as a powerful marketing tool. Featured jewelry, clothing, Oscar gowns or accessories tend to attract an enthusiastic consumer. It is the bible of conspicuous consumption.
As for Lawhon, she left St. Joseph for college at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she majored in journalism. Soon after her graduation in 1978, she moved to New York to take a job as a secretary with the Meredith Corp., publishers of Apartment Life. It later became the familiar newsstand book Metropolitan Home. "That's where I got most of my editorial training," she says.
In New York, like many young women of that era, she stayed at the YWCA while she looked for an apartment. When she finally found a small space she could afford, she had furnishings shipped from St. Joseph. "The apartment was so small I didn't need much."
On the up-and-up
One day she was promoted from secretary to editor. That meant no more overtime pay and a salary cut of about 3,000 a year. About the same time, her landlord raised the rent 50 a month. "I called my mother, probably weeping. She said, 'Just look for another apartment,'" Lawhon says.
When Meredith Corp. was sold, she landed at Time Inc. to work on a mystery project. It turned out to be InStyle.
The magazine introduced some innovations that were soon copied by other publications: wardrobe guides featuring clothing not on models but arranged on the floor; beauty sections recounting celebrities' makeup, hair products and beauty regimens along with stylists' comments.
It was the inspiration for numerous features in other magazines. And the celebrity publications are still multiplying.
Copycat magazines
Being knocked off is inevitable, Lawhon says.
"When people can't think of what to do, they look around to see what someone else is doing. And I do think in the magazine business, everyone pays homage. There are people who do it quite well or people who do it not so well. People who do it well, God bless. If not, they are not going to be around long."
In the last decade, Lawhon's middle-American roots have served her well. "I think we know how to work hard," she says of Heartlanders. A lot of people in journalism are from the Midwest, she notes, including Walter Cronkite.
"And there is an attitude that I certainly grew up with. And my mother helped me to understand. And that is that no job is too big or too small. If it's there to be done, take care of it."
She says the talent she brings to her job is the "ability -- and desire -- to put the reader first, which is not as easy as one would think."
Lawhon has family and friends in St. Joseph, and she returns when she can.
"It keeps me from getting too fancy just from the way I live my life."