Sarah Richardson Launches ‘Beyond Noise’ Magazine

Sarah Richardson, the stylist and former fashion creative director of Document Journal, is launching Beyond Noise, a new bi-annual print magazine and digital platform, with her husband, the photographer Richard Bush, and investor Stefan Ericsson.

Richardson has assembled a masthead that includes Holly Shackleton as editorial director, Fran Burns as sustainability fashion director and Venetia Scott as senior fashion editor-at-large. Juergen Teller, Mario Sorrenti, Malick Bodian, Sarah Mower and Anders Christian Madsen are among the contributors to the first issue.

With the project, Richardson aims to modernise the traditional women’s magazine, getting away from “the same direction of the last 50 years where it’s fashion, beauty, social and celebrity,” she said. “The modern woman is more than that.”

The print magazine will come in two separate volumes — “Beyond” and “Noise” — one dedicated to visuals, the other to text. The first issue has 12 covers, ranging from a self-portrait by Gray Sorrenti to actress Monica Bellucci shot by Juergen Teller. It opens with a letter by primatologist Jane Goodall and includes an interview with New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, a Laurence Ellis-lensed photo spread of rewilding in Patagonia and a feature on the finale to Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 1999 show.

The print issue has attracted advertisers including Gucci, Prada, Loro Piana and Celine, but it’s the website, which will harness video, generative AI and the metaverse to showcase fashion products in novel ways, that has greater commercial potential, said Bush.

In recent years, as mass market magazines like Glamour, Allure and InStyle have suffered from shrinking ad sales, independent titles catering to niche, affluent audiences have fared better. With print issues going for £75, that’s certainly who Beyond Noise is targeting.

“I’ve seen magazines come and go and this is not something that we want to be a flash in the pan,” Richardson said. “It’s fashion insiders building this together and creating something they think is different to other publications.”