Photo: Courtesy of David Martin Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story Welcome to the Scoop : a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week. This will be a way for the Vogue Business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines and get a little inside scoop every Friday.
This week’s guest is David Martin, founder and editor-in-chief of Odda magazine, a.k.a. likely the nicest person on fashion’s front row, which he seems to be on constantly. While the rest of us editors, buyers and assorted fashion people alternate between cities and seasons to share the workload with colleagues, David seems to be everywhere, all at once.
After traveling for another long fashion month, David is back in London for a little while working on the next issue of Odda , which comes out in October. I called him up because he had some news to share about his plans afterwards.
Next year is Odda’s 15th anniversary — we launched the magazine on April 14, 2012. We will celebrate over the entire year but the festivities will start with the launch of Issue 32 on April 14, 2027. In terms of content, I am looking to celebrate the people that have been part of our history — those who have been featured but also worked with me on it. I am also considering printing limited editions focused on specific territories. We launched Odda Korea in 2020 and it has been a success. I’m also speaking with sculptor Rona Pondick, who we featured in the magazine in 2022, about a collaboration but it’s too early to know what that would look like yet.
After years of decline, magazines are getting a refresh with bigger, collectible editions no longer tethered to a monthly cadence. Is this the dawn of a new print era?
Why did you launch Odda in the first place?
I was 23 and I wanted to connect with the industry — I wanted to connect with designers, the photographers, and the brands. I didn’t come from a fashion background, but ever since I saw Lady Gaga in McQueen in “Bad Romance ”, I knew I wanted to be part of that world. I started making sketches and randomly emailed Nicola Formichetti who was working with Gaga at the time, I didn’t know him. He advised me to apply to Central Saint Martins, which I did, and I studied there for three months but ended up dropping out — design wasn’t for me. Then I started a blog, where I was interviewing designers and the brands started inviting me to the shows.
Milou Sluis on set for the first issue of Odda in 2012.
But, at the same time, we were very cute and unpretentious. We were all trying to learn and co-exist at the dawn of social media . Everything was very experimental. When I started Odda in the middle of all this, everyone thought I was crazy. Digital was becoming so important and print was disappearing.
So how did you put that first issue together?
I first put together a prototype with a cover shoot featuring an interior designer. I started sending out copies and emails non-stop, I was harassing people really. After 75 emails, the PR team from Versace responded and I went to Milan to meet them. I explained what I was trying to do with Odda and they agreed to send the entire SS12 collection to Madrid for me to shoot for our first cover story. I didn’t make any money from it obviously, but they covered all expenses, which, for me, was a big deal.
Odda’s first issue featuring Milou Sluis and Tom Barker wearing Versace’s SS12 collection.
When did you start getting advertisi…