Yann Dandois
It dawned on us that May 2025 marks 20 years since the première issue of Lucire Romania, our first licensed print edition.
Mirella Lapusca and Valentin Lapusca, a mother-and-son team in București, had the courage to take on a licence from a magazine that had only been going for eight years at the time, and had a single year in print. The fact that New Zealand was not a nation known for magazine licensors did not deter them—as it turned out, we might have been the only firm doing this in Aotearoa. But we were all brimming with confidence: we at head office felt sure we had a decent product, and Mirella and Valentin felt they could make it work in their market. Coincidentally, Romanian was one language in which the word Lucire existed, though it was not in current speech.
They were wonderful to work with and Valentin was an incredible art director and designer. He translated and adapted the Lucire style faithfully—in fact, he did the best job in interpreting my template and style.
The first issue had some unique features, e.g. a story on pianist Richard Clayderman, though it had some of our shoots, such as the cover story with Karen Carreño, represented by my friend Paolo Zampolli at ID Models, and photographed by Yann Dandois.
It was a decent start for Lucire Romania, and eventually the crew there were confident to branch out with their own cover stories, with Monica Gabor the most memorable Romanian cover model. As a result of both licensor and licensee having very strong ethics, Mirella and Valentin’s team faced difficulties with distribution, which at the time had some questionable parties in the industry, and Lucire Romania called it a day before 2006 drew to a close.
Above: Valentin Lapusca at a function promoting the February 2006 issue of Lucire Romania, with Monica Gabor on the cover.
Jack Yan is founder and publisher of Lucire.
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