Stellene Volandes Reveals Her Secret To Leading Town & Country

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As Town & Country toasts its 180th birthday, dynamo editrix Stellene Volandes is also celebrating a decade of running the glossy. Of course, the heritage brand pulls from its rich history, but nostalgia isn’t enough for Volandes—ahead, she explains how an element of surprise is essential to the magazine’s past, present, and future.

There are a lot of big milestones this year. For you personally, this marks a decade of leading T&C, and 15 years at the mag. What’s your secret?
No. 1 is the team. Some of us have been here all 15 years together, and a lot of us have been here for a decade. It’s a team that deeply believes in what we do, and loves it. Those things sound simple, but they’re rare! There’s a spirit of T&C in everything we do—and we care about everything we do. If something has the Town & Country name attached to it, whether it’s a cover, a Snob’s Guide, or an Instagram caption, it has to feel, look, sound like T&C, and we all agree on the details that make that difference, and so it is, and we all love the process of making that all happen.
What makes it such a special group?
We are really out there in the world. One of my great mentors was Richard David Story, who I worked for at Departures, and he instilled in me that to do this job well, empty your pockets at the end of the day—this was before the iPhone, obviously. Where’d you have breakfast? Who did you have breakfast with? What exhibition or play did you go see? What did you talk about at lunch? What names did you hear and write down so you could research them later? It’s the idea that you’re out there in the world, constantly listening and learning. It’s something the team does exceptionally well; they’re all inspired by all that we see, and there’s a constant infusion and a curiosity.

Why is being on top of—and in—the zeitgeist particularly important to T&C?
For a brand with so much heritage, DNA, a lexicon, and a visual vocabulary, the sense of inspiration and constant curiosity is essential. You need that as any kind of brand, but especially one with a lot of history. Stick to who you are, but never get stuck in it. A cover I reference often is from the 1960s, featuring Cleveland Amory, chronicler of a certain set and frequent T&C contributor; it’s his face really close-up, and he’s smoking a cigarette, the ash is ready to fall off, and the only cover line is “Society?” It’s a great cover, and it’s our guiding light, because of that question mark. Society, heritage, taste, power—those are all very T&C words, but you always, always need that question mark to stay relevant—so we’re constantly investigating and questioning what those words mean today. The power of the curveball is important, too. But it only works if it happens occasionally; it has to be a surprise, or else it’s just what you do. We know when to deliver what people expect from T&C…and when to surprise them with what we know is also T&C. It should never feel like a time capsule, or that it could be an issue from any time. Timely and timeless is always our litmus test.
Happy 180th to T&C! What’s on tap?
You know, anniversary issues are both my least favorite and my favorite thing to do! Approaching them feels like there’s such a nostalgia trap. For a brand like this, you have to be so careful about anything that feels nostalgic. I was at a Ralph Lauren event, and my friend showed me cuff links from the ’70s from a brief collaboration between Ralph Lauren and Tiffany. All of a sudden, I thought, “Iconic American duos! Ooh!” Town & Country—another iconic American duo. What makes a duo, a duo? The ampersand. So we had four artists custom-make ampersands for each cover.

You’ve got a few membership programs now, too. Tell us more!
It’s amazing how strongly people feel like they’re a part of this brand, feel like it belongs to them and they belong to it, and so membership was a natural next step in creating a direct relationship with our readers and creating a community. It’s a word that’s overused, I know, but it’s this inner circle. We’re your friend who knows everything. It’s strengthened our core franchises, especially travel, like our Snob’s Guides, and college admissions content; beauty and plastic surgery advice are also now big topics people can’t seem to get enough of.
How did college admissions coverage get so big?
As an editor, the most important thing you can do, besides being out in the world and not just at your desk, is to listen, especially while out at parties or openings or dinners. Our focus on college content— and now events—came out of that. College admissions is really in the culture. T&C always did education content, like the best boarding schools; we started newer lists, like the Alt-Ivies. Eight to 10 years ago, people started to freak out about how to get their kids into their dream school. More importantly, we realized it had become a “throw money at the problem” issue. And whenever there’s a “throw money at the problem” issue, we come in. We could see anxiety was high, but that there was also a whole economy being built around that anxiety, so we began to cover it. That network of journalists, advisors, and admissions officers began to grow, and the content became something we know our members would love to access early. And, now, in person.
How so?
We’re doing our first-ever college summit for our Town & Country members here at Hearst on September 18th. It’s a morning of discussion about whether it’s actually harder to get in now, or are we all just driving ourselves crazy? Why are people so crazy about getting their kid into Vanderbilt suddenly? We’ll be talking about the top-10 myths and what to believe or what not to believe. We’ll also do specific targeted workshops about college essays: Does it help you get in? Also, what not to say and how to get through writer’s block.
Let’s talk cover lines. You’ve had some great ones. What’s the trick?
My friend William Li, who’s one of our contributors, likes to say that you can make a T&C cover line out of anything if you add the words “revenge, scandal, or Harvard,” and there is some truth to that! Also, words like “society, status, revenge, scandal, power, or the Ivies.” We’re not afraid to use the word “rich,” and we often do it in a way that indicates an arched eyebrow, like, “Mommy, are we rich?” Eccentric is part of the T&C universe as much as anything else, but people don’t always know that. But looking at our archives, our cover lines now are tame compared to the cover lines in the ’60s. We’re always looking for an off-thewall cover line.
What’s the brainstorming process like?
We do cover lines via text chain with a group of six editors, and I generally throw six out to start, and we go back and forth. Then our art director, Kristin Fitzpatrick, places them. Does one offer service? Does one feel like important news that readers want to hear through the T&C lens, and does one feel completely current? Is there a classic one, and also an off-thewall one? The verdict is delivered by our copy chief, James Lochart, who’s not afraid to tell any of us that something is dumb or doesn’t make sense. You need that voice. Always have someone on your team who’s not afraid to tell you no.