Strictly Business — Women of Influence
By: Artists For Humanity
Tags: Fashion, Education, Womenleaders

Strictly Business — Women of Influence

Kelly Talamas - Editor-in-Chief Vogue Mexico & Latin America

We are running late.

And not just running late for meeting a friend for coffee, or late to get home. We are late for our phone interview with the Editor-In-Chief of Vogue Mexico/Latin America, Kelly Talamas. As we run across the park to get to the conference room, the tension rises, knowing that we cannot turn back the clock and regain the lost time.

One of the girls tentatively asks, “This is the type of thing that people get fired for, right?” Choosing not to dwell on finding the answer, we scurry into the air-conditioned room and take a deep breath.

The moment we first realized that not only had the Editor-In-Chief not only responded to our email, but that she also agreed to be interviewed, the young women of the “Strictly Business — Women of Influence” team were elated and nervous. A few of them dreamed of pursuing careers as editors or fashion photographers, making this interview even more than just an incredible opportunity. There was no shortage of questions; in fact the sheer number was so numerous and interesting, that it proved difficult to edit them down.

The phone rings loudly over the conference room speaker system and a sweet voice, speaking in rapid fire Spanish, states “Condé Nast” announcing that it is show time. We are connected to Ms. Talamas’ extension and the reality that the current EIC has graciously devoted time to have a conversation with us sinks in. A few beeps later, a warm voice fills the room:

“Vogue.”

The girls look at each other giddily, and we begin the interview.

What interested you to study Journalism and Economics? Did you envision a career in the business side of media?

I was always more interested in the editorial side. Since a very young age I’ve always loved fashion. My family on my mother’s side tended to be more creative, so my sister and I were always really interested in fashion more as a hobby, something that we enjoyed on the side. I also loved collecting magazines and I loved writing. So when I started University, I immediately knew I wanted to go into the communications field, definitely into journalism. I used to collect all of the fashion magazines I loved and read the articles from the beginning to end, more than just looking at the images, so I decided the best field for me was fashion journalism. At the university where I studied they had a requirement to do double majors and I’m very happy about this requirement. I was always very interested in business and economics, because I feel like the skills that you learn in that career can help you in anything that you do.

As Editor-In-Chief I have to keep budgets, plan strategies for the magazine in all of our platforms, deal with clients, so having a knowledge of the current economics and business is always a plus in whatever field you are in. So that’s why I chose to go down that route to compliment my journalism degree.

What is one of the hardest experiences you have had to overcome to reach the position of Editor-in-Chief that you now hold as a woman?

There’s not one particular moment in mind that stands out as something that I had to overcome. I think to get to this position it’s a lot of hard work and sacrifice on your personal life to be able to move up.

I am originally from Miami and I started in the Vogue Mexico and Latin America office in Miam, however five years ago, I was offered the opportunity to move to Mexico because they were moving the editorial office here. That was definitely a big decision to make. I absolutely loved my job, but it was never really my plan to move to Mexico.

Given this opportunity, I really had nothing to lose, and I decided to take it not knowing truthfully that eventually I would be promoted to Editor-In-Chief. I was Fashion Editor at the time. That was an important lesson for me because I think sometimes you take risks and you think “Well you know, I would really like to stay in the U.S industry and focus more on the U.S industry.” But you never know, sometimes there are benefits that can come from taking certain risks that you didn’t have in your plan. At the same time

I think it’s important to have a vision of what you want to do with your career, but also be open to the unexpected because you never know how different opportunities present themselves. I would say that it was an important step in my career, which eventually led to me becoming Editor-In-Chief.

You also have to be willing to understand that sometimes it’s difficult. Sometimes you can have it all and sometimes you can’t have it all.

There are certain times in your life where you have to dedicate more to your career and there are certain times where you dedicate more to your personal life.

There are times, as women, we want to do everything and we feel guilty if we can’t achieve everything in the time that we’ve placed upon ourselves. It all boils down to giving yourself those moments in your life to dedicate to your career and understand that you have to make certain sacrifices in both your career and your personal life to be able to achieve everything that you want. We do a lot of articles about this in Vogue because we know this is a predicament and issue many women struggle with.

At this age, I thought that I would have kids already or I would be married but, you know, you have to learn to dedicate your attention and your time to what you need at the moment.

As Editor-in-Chief, you dictate the magazine’s direction. Have you ever made any decisions that you regret, such as featuring or not featuring someone on the cover?

I think I wouldn’t necessarily say regret. It can all be taken as a learning experience. Not necessarily to say that everything happens for a reason, but when we choose the people that we put on our cover we clearly and carefully meditate on them. It’s not just on a whim that we decide to put people there.

Each Vogue — each magazine in the world — also always has in mind the title we represent in order to maintain the quality and know what people look for in our magazine. Do they look for fashion? Do they look for celebrities? Do they look for…you know what exactly are they looking for in Vogue?

In our case we’ve learned to focus mostly on top models because in our market people look to Vogue for fashion and they want fashion figures. We don’t do as many celebrities as Vogue US does, for example, because the US is a very entertainment-based market. The celebrities that are in the US are known for their fashion sense. This is not necessarily the case in Vogue Mexico or Latin America. We do feature them from time to time but they have to have some sort of link to fashion and they have to be relevant to the market also in terms of — Is it a Latin actress? Is it an American actress? Is it an American actress that speaks to the foreign market?

These are all things that we take into consideration when we are choosing our covers. In choosing the local content for the magazine, the person also has to match. If it’s a Mother’s Day issue maybe we will put a model that’s a mother on the cover. We carefully think about it. So we don’t necessarily regret the people that we put [on our cover], but there are times that we’ve said no to a certain model or a certain celebrity that later comes out with a really interesting project that we had the opportunity to shoot with and we missed them.

Of course you always learn those things and again it goes back to not being able to please everybody or do everything.

You do learn maybe to, next time, not make a decision so quickly or to consider it for the future. There will always be those instances; you never know 100%.

I’m also a very picky person with very high standards, who is always looking to improve on how to do better and present exclusive materials. We are always looking to be one step ahead of the game, ahead of the market. I think that’s what drives us everyday, always looking to improve. If we were just comfortable with everything we put into the magazine we wouldn’t be challenging ourselves every day. I wouldn’t say that I’ve regretted putting anyone in the magazine per se because we do carefully decide each person, each article, each time — but maybe yes, not picking up opportunities that have been presented to us and then later not having that opportunity presented again. I guess that happens with everything in life.