John Fairchild (editor)

John Burr Fairchild (March 6, 1927 – February 27, 2015) was the publisher and editor in chief of Women's Wear Daily from 1960 to 1996 and the founding editor of W magazine in 1972.

Life

Fairchild was born in Newark, New Jersey,[1] and grew up in Glen Ridge. His father was Louis Fairchild, who joined WWD in 1924, and Louis's father was Edmund Fairchild, the founder of Fairchild Publications.[2] John was a direct descendant of Vice President Aaron Burr. He graduated from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut in 1946 and Princeton. He had a brief tour in the Army but did not see combat. In 1949, while at Fairchild's Paris office, he met his future wife Jill.[3]

Fairchild died on February 27, 2015 at age of 87.[4]

Career

He became the European bureau chief of Fairchild Publications in 1955, the publisher of Women's Wear Daily in 1960 and the founder of W in 1972. He wrote a column for the back page of W under the pseudonym Countess Louise J. Esterhazy.[1] Under his control, Women's Wear Daily was transformed from a negligible trade journal into a notorious, influential and controversial fashion publication that became known as the "bible of fashion".[5][6]

Publications
  • Fairchild, John (1989). Chic savages. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780671683344.
  • Fairchild, John (1965). The fashionable savages. Doubleday.
  • Fairchild, John (1967). The moonflower couple. Doubleday.

Notes
  1. Turner, Zeke (25 June 2010). "The W We Were, With John Fairchild". New York Observer. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  2. Michael Gross, "The McCarthy Era", New York Magazine, August 4, 1997 full text
  3. Meryl Gordon, "Fashion's Most Angry Fella", Vanity Fair, September 2012 full text
  4. John B. Fairchild Dies at 87
  5. Horyn, Cathy (20 August 1999). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  6. Miller, Lia (14 March 2005). "MEDIA; Women's Wear Daily Setting Its Sights on the Luxury Market". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
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