Name John Fairchild Role Publisher | Books Chic Savages | |
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Died February 27, 2015, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States | ||
John Burr Fairchild (March 6, 1927 – February 27, 2015) was the publisher and editor in chief of Women's Wear Daily from 1960 to 1996 and the founding editor of W magazine in 1972.
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Life
Fairchild was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Glen Ridge. His father was Louis Fairchild, who joined WWD in 1924, and Louis's father was Edmund Fairchild, the founder of Fairchild Publications. John was a direct descendant of Vice President Aaron Burr. He graduated from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut in 1946 and Princeton. He had a brief tour in the Army but did not see combat. In 1949, while at Fairchild's Paris office, he met his future wife Jill.
Fairchild died on February 27, 2015 at age of 87.
Career
He became the European bureau chief of Fairchild Publications in 1955, the publisher of Women's Wear Daily in 1960 and the founder of W in 1972. He wrote a column for the back page of W under the pseudonym Countess Louise J. Esterhazy. Under his control, Women's Wear Daily was transformed from a negligible trade journal into a notorious, influential and controversial fashion publication that became known as the "bible of fashion".