Gwyneth Paltrow, having conquered the worlds of acting, macrobiotic cookery and high-end fashion, is to launch a quarterly magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine, named Goop after Paltrow’s lifestyle brand, will be available on newsstands from September.
The magazine will focus on wellness – a trillion-dollar industry of which Paltrow has long been at the vanguard.
From its inception as an email newsletter in 2008, Goop has urged readers to take care of themselves, expensively, under the strapline “urge the inner aspect”. Goop has given advice on therapy, parenting, mysticism, sex, fashion, beauty, and kale-centric clean eating plans, many of which have been called into question by medical professionals.
Over the years many of Goop’s more unusual lifestyle suggestions – vaginal steaming, sex bark, conscious uncoupling – have won global headlines. Last year, its Christmas gift guide included a selection of crystals handpicked by the house shaman and a yurt costing $8,300.
Goop magazine is just the latest high-profile move in Goop’s recent, aggressive, expansion. Last week it was announced that Paltrow would host a one day “wellness summit” in Los Angeles in June with workshops and services including aura photography, crystal therapy and “energy-boosting” intravenous drips.
Earlier this month, the brand launched Edition 02, an “artisanal” $165 perfume with ingredients described as “mystical”, “clairvoyant” and “homeopathic”. Last September, it launched its own clothing line, Goop Label, selling blazers for $695 and shirts for $195.
Condé Nast announced that the initiative would run online, as well as in print, and will be keenly watched by publishers in the volatile landscape of glossy magazines, a business that has been upended by the internet boom. The company’s statement continued that the magazine would translate the brand’s most popular areas of expertise into “headlining sections” and was “conceptualised as a collectible edition”.
The launch has being interpreted as an attempt to fill the void left by Condé Nast’s health title Self, which closed, in print, last year.
The WWD website reports that the deal was inspired by a conversation between Paltrow and the editor in chief of US Vogue, Anna Wintour, who was recently appointed to an expanded role as Condé Nast’s artistic director.
“I’ve long known Gwyneth to have wonderful taste and vision – but with Goop she has built something remarkable, a thoroughly modern take on how we live today,” said Wintour, in a statement.
Paltrow added: “Goop’s emergence into a physical entity was an opportunity for us to push our boundaries visually and deliver Goop’s point of view to consumers in new, dynamic ways.”
