OW DO YOU LAUNCH a magazine that’s been around for seven years? It was something we had to do twice at Lucire last month to début the print edition of the world’s first web-to-print fashion magazine.
   The Auckland, New Zealand launch managed to attract both major Auckland newspapers, with the Herald on Sunday mentioning the goody bags. It was more a tribute to the companies that put their trust in Lucire, from ModelCo (with eyelash curlers) to Dr Hauschka (skin care creams) and L’Oréal (fragrance samples). Bags featured cans of V and Saluté potato chips, which were packed the Saturday before. Fashion journalists, we had noted to ourselves, always wanted food in goody bags, for we never got time to eat between catwalk shows. And Unity Collection had supplied pretty sizeable bags to fill.
   The launch had been planned for many months. As word got around, Mike Clark of Giltrap North Shore offered his showroom to us—which made perfect sense. Lucire had traditionally been a magazine that never shouted, ’Look at me’; by having the function outside the city centre, it suited the brand. Mercedes-Benz was a bit more “look at me”, but Mike saw the classiness of both brands.
   The theme had to be vastly different, too. Instead of being a me-too fashion launch with a catwalk show, we played on the Lucire idea of democratization: that anyone could be a fashion journalist, at least for a night. We set about re-creating, with the help of Sarah Priddy Nails, some of the pampering we might get between shows. Sarah and her crew set about working on guests’ nails all evening, providing a custom Lucire polish using items from Christina Fitzgerald’s range.
   We arrived in the early afternoon to begin the set-up and confronted a typically Teutonic car showroom with a lot of glass. Which is fine if you are selling Germanic precision, but it was some way from being the red-themed, warm venue of Lucire.
   Tapping into the genius of Barry Betham, with his Commence label, the venue was transformed. Red carpet, BoConcept furniture and flowers and tea-lights from Toi Toi Floral Design transformed the North Shore premises into our vision. Barry and his wife would spend most of the evening upstairs, dressing models as they came down to show off the latest collections from Kate Sylvester, Starfish and others; accessorized by his latest Commence creations. Amanda Impey made them up, as she did with our November 2004 issue shoot. Thanks to Lindah Le Pou of Dencium Compri, our DJ Jason and sound crew set the musical mood when a local radio station announced it was unable to help the Friday before.
   Making things complete were a plasma screen from Tech-Rentals, which arrived close to 5 P.M., champagne from Deutz, water from Evian, and food from the crew at Gobble.
   Somewhere in between all the chaos were interviews with Asia Down Under’s Bharat Jamnadas, who kindly supplied the evening’s lighting; in fact, the programme’s reporters Jason Moon (harbouring a cold) and Caleigh Cheung were on hand to help out on everything from ice to vacuuming.
   I ran late returning to the Cintra Lane Apartments, where I got ready; meanwhile, director of advertising Lisa Tardrew got back to the venue early to coordinate everything, as she had done as our main point of contact in Auckland. Photographer Douglas Rimington managed to get some food while at correspondent Robyn Merritt’s mother’s home and zoomed back in due course; I was still trying to get what energy I could from the single yoghurt of the morning.
   Seven o’clock loomed. I found a parking for the Mercedes-Benz C180 Kompressor sedan, and resigned myself to the fact that the car would get dirty with Auckland rain. Daylight saving had just started, so the venue was relatively bright, with the evening twilight making things slightly more cosy. The venue looked exactly as we hoped. It even smelt the way we hoped: Ralph Lauren fragrance was being spritzed on our guests during the evening.
   If the press was to be believed, this was the magazine launch, with a full house despite the faraway venue. And despite being on a Monday night, on the North Shore. I spied colleagues at Headliners and World TV; Paul Blomfield, Trelise Cooper and Saben’s Roanne Jacobson (and her husband Julian Andrews, who had just launched Dish), were immediately noticeable. Former Miss World New Zealand Marina McCartney, who appeared in our May prototype, was with Lindah; Erika Takacs was very enthusiastic; while lottery presenters past and present—Imogen Ovens (again from the May issue) and Hilary Timmins chatted. Auckland’s man-about-town Ricardo Simich was a true delight, accompanying Lucire chief photographer Amanda Dorcil.
   We gave our speeches sitting on the boot of a Mercedes SL 500, introduced by the glamorous Amber Peebles, who was also getting over a slight cold. I made some snide remarks about not putting kiwis and fern leaves on the cover of the magazine. But I am particularly glad we got the whole team up next to the car: everyone who had contributed to Lucire over the last seven years. To me, the evening was their do, particularly with Nicola making great mention of the US and European teams in her speech. Without them, there would be no celebration.
   Lindah offered an impromptu song, while Vibe One performed its hip-hop dance, all before Barry’s fashion show. Later in the evening, I realized that Dei Hamo had shown up, and even performed one of their songs live. The two gentlemen are quite humble in person, and simply enjoyed the music; they weren’t there to upstage anyone. In fact, no one there was, which probably made the do more genuine.

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MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: Emma Daniel, Tracy Berge, Clore Alexa and Louise Tulloch, who appears in the November issue. ABOVE, FROM TOP: The Sarah Priddy Nails team. Caleigh Cheung. Sally-ann Moffat and Erika Takacs. Vibe One performs. Landscape designer Megan Kane and partner. Hilary Timmins, Jack Yan, Stephane Rondel. Amber Peebles and Jason Moon. The models as styled by Barry Betham of Commence.