While walking home from Jivamukti Yoga in Union Square last February, Greg Krelenstein — arguably the least-conspicuous member of the D.J. collective Misshapes, who is now the editorial director at the Starworks Group, a fashion communications agency in New York, had a vision: Madonna and Katy Perry should appear together on the May cover of V Magazine.
“I
think some of my best ideas come from yoga,” Mr. Krelenstein said.
“Your mind is free.” He phoned Stephen Gan, the editor in chief of V, to
share his epiphany on the two tongue-in-cheek queens of the moment.
“I
was boarding a plane and talking to him on my mobile,” Mr. Gan wrote in
an email. “Greg said, ‘So I have this crazy idea. ...’ He was almost
embarrassed to say it, so I prodded him and the rest is history.”
History,
in this case, meant a flurry of publicity for Ms. Perry, Madonna and V
Magazine. The Bettie Page-inspired, Steven Klein-shot photographs pinged
across the online echo chamber that included Madonna’s Instagram account (more than 1.8 million followers), the good-natured gossip site Just Jared and even “Access Hollywood.”
Not bad for a niche fashion title with a circulation of 100,000.
Thanks
in part to Mr. Krelenstein, the booking of megawatt talent like Miley
Cyrus and Lorde for smaller publications like V and Condé Nast’s Love
magazine has taken on greater importance in the new, social-media-driven
promotional trail.
“The
record and film industries have changed,” he said recently at Cafe
Gitane, a restaurant at the Jane Hotel in the West Village. “The imaging
and styling of a star is almost just as important as selling records or
movie tickets now.”
Mr.
Krelenstein, 34, maintains a distinct gothic-granola David Bowie look.
He was wearing a zebra-print Saint Laurent top, BLK DNM jeans and black
Dr. Martens made of faux leather. (Besides being a yogi, he is also a
strict vegan.)
“These
magazines cultivate the types of envelope-pushing images that people
organically want to share online,” he continued as he put down a piece
of avocado toast. “It’s the same impact as a big tabloid you see at the
supermarket because everyone sees it on Instagram or the blogs.”
Generating
editorial “gets” for his left-of-mainstream client list, which also
includes AnOther Magazine and Fantastic Man, has made him something of a
secret force in the fashion industry, seeking to link the avant-garde
with pop culture.
Just
ask the musician Sky Ferreira, a longtime friend of Mr. Krelenstein and
muse to the recent Saint Laurent collections. “I can 100 percent say if
I didn’t know Greg K., I would not be where I am today,” Ms. Ferreira
wrote in an email. “He’s basically my stage mom, but in a good way.”
Such
nurturing has made him something of a mother hen to young indie stars.
He helped the teen actress Chloë Grace Moretz land the cover of Wonderland in 2010 and later helped her secure covers of Love and Dazed & Confused, another client of his at Starworks.
In
2010, he pushed for the actor Dane DeHaan to appear in V Man. Mr.
DeHaan has gone on to land Prada’s current ad campaign, shot by Annie
Leibovitz, and star in the “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”
“He
is permanently 12 months ahead,” said James Grant, a founder of
Starworks. “He bridges the commercial world of celebrity with the
artistic world of fashion without even realizing that he’s doing it.”
Then
there was Ms. Cyrus. Before she re-entered the public conscious on a
wrecking ball, Mr. Krelenstein negotiated to have her appear on the May 2013 cover issue
of V, four weeks before her single “We Can’t Stop” hit iTunes. The
punk-themed, half-naked photos by Mario Testino jump-started Ms. Cyrus’s
tongue-wagging reinvention from pop amateur to living Tumblr meme. (Mr.
Krelenstein later secured Ms. Cyrus for the cover of Love. That was
shot by David Sims and styled by Katie Grand, who subsequently tapped
Ms. Cyrus to be the face of Marc Jacobs’s Spring 2014 ad campaign.)
For his fashion-celebrity forecasting, Mr. Krelenstein often turns to music sites like Idolator and Pitchfork,
as well as the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. There is also
relentless cross-pollinating between editorial calendars and release
dates for movies and albums.
And,
of course, he relies on his gut. “I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I
was waiting around for an agent or a publicist to pitch to me,” he
said.
Industry
insiders, who are allergic to publicists spoon-feeding clients or the
demands of milquetoast celebrities, turn to Mr. Krelenstein to be
something of a Switzerland of fashion — a neutral zone among competing
egos and turf wars.
“We
are all equally tricky; the magazine wants complete control, the agent
wants complete control, everyone all wanting the same thing and
generally trying their best not to budge until the last minute,” said
Ms. Grand, the monarchical stylist to Marc Jacobs. “Greg is on
everyone’s side.”
His
unassuming ability to shake publicists’ hands and kiss fashion babies
can in part be explained by his dalliances in New York night life, both
as a moonlighting D.J. (he recently hosted a weekly party at Bedlam bar
in Alphabet City) and in his former role as one-third of the Misshapes.
While
his cohorts, Geordon Nicol and Leigh Lezark, did the fabled
asymmetrical-hair party full time and continue to travel the world as
runway and after-party sound-trackers, Mr. Krelenstein always puts his
day job first. During the Misshapes’ heyday in the mid-2000s, he held a
9-to-5 job in the publicity department at Fox Searchlight Pictures
before his nocturnal side gig at clubs like Luke & Leroy’s or Don
Hill’s. “I brought a lot of editors and publicists that helped spread
the word,” he said.
His
after-dark pursuits and new-wave all-black dress code can at times
spook play-it-safe Hollywood wranglers. “The imagery of the most public
persona of myself is still the Misshapes; even some acquaintances don’t
really know if I still do it or not,” he said. “To this day, I sometimes
worry that people might not take me seriously.”
