Nylon is an American magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 that focuses on pop culture and fashion

Fashion

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...

. Its coverage includes art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, beauty

Beauty

Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...

, music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

, celebrities

Celebrity

A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

, technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

 and travel

Travel

Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...

. Its name references New York and London.

History

In preparation for founding Nylon, Ray Gun

Ray Gun (magazine)

Ray Gun was an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine, first published in 1992 in Santa Monica, California. Led by founding art director David Carson, Ray Gun explored experimental magazine typographic design. The result was a chaotic, abstract style, not always readable, but distinctive in...

 and Bikini publishers Marvin Scott Jarrett and Jaclynn Jarrett sold their majority interests in Ray Gun Publishing for an "undisclosed sum", then formed Pop Media. Nylon was co-founded in 1999 by the Jarretts, with ex-Ray Gun Editorial Director Mark Blackwell and supermodel

Supermodel

The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...

 Helena Christensen

Helena Christensen

Helena Christensen is a Danish fashion model, Victoria's Secret Angel, beauty queen, and photographer. She has also served as creative director for Nylon magazine, designed clothing, and supported funding for breast cancer organizations and other charities.-Early life:Christensen was born in...

 as Creative Director (no longer involved). According to Publisher Jaclynn Jarrett, the magazine's name was chosen because "...Marvin Scott Jarrett, our Editor-in-Chief, just liked the sound of Nylon. After picking it, we realized the New York/London tie-in, which is congruous with our editorial focus on these two cities." The design of the magazine was intended to be "hyper-legible", in answer to criticism of Ray-Gun 's "chaotic" layouts. The first issue was published on April 6, 1999.

In 2006, Nylon and MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 collaborated on their first International Music issue, making it freely available online for a time.
The magazine became generally available online in digital form in March 2007. Nylon released their June/July International Music and MySpace issue online for free viewing. Marvin Scott Jarrett's Editor's Letter described it as a collaboration with MySpace, focusing on eight "music and style mecca" cities around the world, featuring the White Stripes on the cover, as selected by Nylon's MySpace fans.
On their 10-year anniversary in 2009, Nylon made the April 1999 inaugural issue freely available online, including all articles, in scanned form.

Editors

The Executive Editor for the magazine is currently Luke Crisell, who also holds the same position for Nylon Guys .

Cover models

The first Nylon cover subject was Liv Tyler

Liv Tyler

Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...

 in April 1999, photographed and interviewed by Helena Christensen. Cover models have included: Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera

Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...

, The Horrors

The Horrors

The Horrors are an English band from Southend on Sea, formed in 2005. Their debut Strange House, was released in 2007 and reached number thirty-seven on the UK Albums Chart, their second album Primary Colours was released in 2009 and peaked at number 25 in the UK...

, Lily Allen

Lily Allen

Lily Rose Beatrice Cooper , better known as Lily Allen, is an English recording artist and fashion designer. She is the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. In her teenage years, her musical tastes evolved from glam rock to alternative...

, Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton

Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...

, The Kills

The Kills

The Kills is a rock band formed by American singer Alison Mosshart and British guitarist Jamie Hince . Their first three albums, Keep On Your Mean Side, No Wow, and Midnight Boom, have garnered much critical praise...

, Camilla Belle

Camilla Belle

Camilla Belle is an American actress. Her works include The Lost World: Jurassic Park, When a Stranger Calls, 10,000 BC, The Quiet, Push and Speedy Singhs.- Early life :...

, Karen O

Karen O

Karen Lee Orzolek , better known by her stage name Karen O, is the vocalist for New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.-Early life:...

, Evan Rachel Wood

Evan Rachel Wood

Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career in the late 1990s, appearing in several television series, including American Gothic and Once and Again...

, Mary-Kate Olsen

Mary-Kate Olsen

Mary-Kate Olsen is an American actress, producer, author and fashion designer. She made her career debut in 1987 alongside her twin sister Ashley Olsen in the television series Full House...

, Lil' Kim

Lil' Kim

Kimberly Denise Jones , better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and actress who was a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A.....

, Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...

, Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart

Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...

, Rachel Bilson

Rachel Bilson

Rachel Sarah Bilson is an American actress. Bilson grew up in a California show business family, and made her television debut in 2003, subsequently becoming well known for playing Summer Roberts on the prime time drama series The O.C. Bilson made her film debut in the 2006 film The Last Kiss and...

, Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...

, Mischa Barton

Mischa Barton

Mischa Anne Marsden Barton is a British-American fashion model, film, television, and stage actress, best known for her role as Marissa Cooper in the American television series The O.C..-Early life:...

, Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...

, Leighton Meester

Leighton Meester

Leighton Marissa Meester is an American actress and singer. Meester first garnered attention for playing Blair Waldorf in the CW television series Gossip Girl...

, Blake Lively

Blake Lively

Blake Christina Lively is an American actress and model who stars as Serena van der Woodsen in the television teen drama series Gossip Girl...

, Taylor Momsen

Taylor Momsen

Taylor Michel Momsen is an American actress, musician and model who portrays the character of Jenny Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl and portrayed the role of Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and fronts the rock band The Pretty Reckless.-Early life and career:Taylor...

, The White Stripes

The White Stripes

The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...

, Sienna Miller

Sienna Miller

Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...

, Nicole Richie

Nicole Richie

Nicole Camille Richie is an American fashion designer, author, actress, singer and television personality. Her father was Peter Michael Escovedo, a musician who played for a brief time with Lionel Richie, and her mother Karen was the executive assistant for Sheila Escovedo...

, Megan Fox

Megan Fox

Megan Denise Fox is an American actress and model. She began her acting career in 2001 with several minor television and film roles, and played a regular role on Hope & Faith. In 2004, she launched her film career with a role in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen...

, Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff

Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in...

, Emma Stone, Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...

, M.I.A.

M.I.A. (artist)

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A. , is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of hip hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. M.I.A...

, Zoe Saldana

Zoe Saldana

Zoe Saldana , sometimes stylized Zoë Saldaña, is an American actress. She had her breakthrough role in the 2000 film Center Stage and later gained prominence for her roles as Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Uhura in the 2009 film Star Trek, and a starring role...

, Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore

Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...

, Jessica Szohr

Jessica Szohr

Jessica Karen Szohr is an American actress. Szohr began her screen career starring on television shows such as CSI: Miami and What About Brian...

, Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis

Milena "Mila" Kunis is an American actress. Her work includes the role of Jackie Burkhart on the TV series That '70s Show and the voice of Meg Griffin on the animated series Family Guy...

, Emily Browning

Emily Browning

Emily Jane Browning is an Australian film actress and fashion model, known for her roles as Violet Baudelaire in Brad Silberling's 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Anna Ivers in the 2009 film The Uninvited, as Babydoll in Zack Snyder's 2011 action thriller Sucker...

, Jena Malone

Jena Malone

Jena Malone is an American actress and musician who has appeared on television, in films, and on Broadway. She made her movie debut with the film Bastard Out of Carolina , and has appeared in films including Contact , Stepmom , Donnie Darko , Saved! , Into the Wild , and Sucker Punch .Malone is...

, Abbie Cornish

Abbie Cornish

Abbie Cornish is an Australian actress. She is well known in Australia for a number of film and television roles, particularly her award-winning lead performance in 2004's Somersault, and internationally for her role as Fanny Brawne in Bright Star and her appearance as Sweet Pea in Sucker Punch.-...

, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung

Jamie Chung

Jamie Jilynn Chung is an American actress known to reality television audiences as a cast member on the MTV reality television series, The Real World: San Diego and its spin-off show, Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno II, and for her appearances in TV and films, such as I Now...

.

Reception

The inaugural issue of Nylon was received with some disdain from Barry Didcock of the Glasgow Sunday Herald

Sunday Herald

The Sunday Herald is a Scottish Sunday newspaper launched on 7 February 1999. The ABC audited circulation in April 2011 showed sales of 31,123.From the start it has combined a centre-left stance with support for Scottish devolution...

, who referred to Christensen's photography of Liv Tyler as "striking enough" but said her interview was "natter" and her photo/journal article about India was "gushing." He continued, "British music fans won't take much from Nylon they haven't already absorbed" from other magazines.

Medialife Magazine's Jennifer Cox wrote in 2001 that Nylon was "a little uppity, and it's not hard to understand why", describing it as "bold, idiosyncratic, challenging, absolutely of-the-moment," but unnoticed by "the mainstream" until March 2001, when Nylon was nominated for the ASME National Magazine award. She described the April issue as "groundbreaking" (for a fashion magazine) to feature an overweight woman in a history of women's weight, noted that the magazine's models "are more often interesting looking than beautiful per se." She found its photo spreads "bold with their use of white space and innovative photography" and noted Nylon's distinctive "heavy emphasis on music coverage."

Recognition

The American Society of Magazine Editors

American Society of Magazine Editors

The American Society of Magazine Editors is an industry trade group for editors of magazines published in the United States. The group advocates on behalf of member organizations with respect to First Amendment issues, and serves as a networking hub for editors and other industry employees...

 noted the magazine three times: Nylon was nominated for "National Magazine Award for General Excellence (100,000-400,000 circulation)" in 2001, was a finalist for "General Excellence (100,000 to 250,000 circulation)" in 2003, and was a finalist for the 2006 ASME "Design" award.

In 2006, Nylon was a Nominee at the 10th Annual Webby Awards

Webby Awards

A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....

, in the Fashion category, and an Official Honoree at the 12th Annual Webby Awards in the Magazine category in 2008.

In 2008 industry monitor Media Industry News Online editors selected Nylon.com as the penultimate of their "Top 5 Women's Fashion Mag Website Picks", judging on "visual appeal, functionality and usefulness of information". They found it to be the "destination of choice for alternative, fashion minds everywhere", and "...Nylon’s entertainment radar is still alive and well. Its funky illustrations and graphics give Nylon a hip, unique look that is truly hard to come by in the category. Nxtbook provides slick, downloadable digital magazine issues".

Brand extensions

The magazine has Radar, Fashion, and Style pages. There is also a Nylon Guys

Nylon Guys

Nylon Guys is an American magazine devoted to men's fashions published by Nylon magazine. Its coverage includes art, music, design, technology, men's fashion and travel. It is a branch off of Nylon with a focus on the interests of guys.-History:...

magazine, first announced in 2003 and published independently in 2004, which has featured Joseph Gordon Levitt from 500 Days of Summer

500 Days of Summer

Days of Summer is a 2009 comedy drama film. It was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, directed by Marc Webb, produced by Mark Waters, and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The film employs a nonlinear narrative structure, with the story based upon its male protagonist...

. According to publisher Jaclynn Jarrett, Nylon partnered with Rizzoli Publishing to publish three books: Street, on global street fashion; Pretty, on beauty; and Play, on music.
Pretty: The NYLON Book of Beauty was listed in the New York Public Library's best Books for the Teen Age 2008.

In 2009, Jarrett founded Nylon Records and signed French female pop group Plastiscines

Plastiscines

The Plastiscines are an all-female French rock band who perform mostly in English. Their song "Barcelona" was featured on the NYLON Summer Playlist.-Formation and discovery:...

 as its first act, after seeing them on the cover of French fashion and style magazine Citizen K.
Also in 2009, Nylon introduced its iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

 app

Application software

Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...

; MinOnline listed it (among "Top 5 iPhone Mags You May Have Missed") as "a pleasant surprise. This fashion and culture mag has one of the more attractive magazine-like designs among print brands on mobile." The September 2010 issue of the magazine was released as an iPad

IPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

app, including video, music and some exclusive content.