Monocle editor-in-chief Tyler Brule is in town for the launch of a seasonal shop within Crane Brothers, writes Fiona Ralph.
Tyler Brule's first sentence over the phone from Tokyo applauds the price of chicken. Unfortunately, he's been subjected to a local advert while waiting on the line. "$5.99 a kilo sounds great - good to know for room service when I get there."
This affability characterises the conver- sation with the Canadian media magnate. Founder and editor-in-chief of Monocle magazine, he knows how to work the media. He also started ad agency Winkcreative, and writes a column for the Financial Times. His resumé includes launching Wallpaper* magazine and writing for the Guardian, Vanity Fair and New York Times.
For the uninitiated, Monocle is an achingly hip "briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design" featuring innovative success stories, design and culinary highlights, and pictures of perfectly polished folks - mostly European and Asian - going about their business lives with a rumpled-blazer-chinos-and-satchel sort of luxury.
It's a look Brule has cultivated, and is responsible for part of the brand's success. In this day of dwindling print, Monocle keeps growing, through brand extensions such as a radio station, website, shops, cafes and books.
Two weeks on from the release of their second book, The Monocle Guide to Good Business, they've already done a second print run. Following on from The Monocle Guide to Better Living it includes notes on how to dress for success, cultivate a beautiful work space and launch your own business as well as a section on shared work environments such as Auckland's City Works Depot, and a travel directory that lists Britomart's Ortolana as the sort of setting that "should make even the most tiresome adversary give in and sign the contract".
Brule is midway through a whirlwind book tour, and in typical multi-tasking fashion, is opening a Tokyo office, shop and radio studio the night we speak, and getting another book to press. This schedule is not unusual. He usually spends only one week a month at home (production week for the magazine) and counts a three-week stint in London with a two-day trip to Toronto as being a long time in one place. "You have to make it seamless," he says of his work/life balance.
His fleeting Auckland visit for the book tour includes the opening this Friday of a seasonal shop within menswear boutique Crane Brothers. The pop-up shop has an edited selection of the pieces available in the brand's online and free-standing stores (London, Hong Kong, Toronto, New York and now Tokyo). And, of course, along with the notebooks, paperweights, handkerchiefs, bags and other accessories, they'll sell their books, along with the magazine's November issue, and signed copies of the first edition.
Designer Murray Crane, a long-time admirer of the magazine who has nearly every issue archived, approached Brule about the shop after meeting him in Auckland. "It felt like the right time.
seemed to be paying more attention to New Zealand and Auckland in particular and I felt that there was an opportunity to promote their story."
One of Monocle's shops. Photo / Supplied.
A design collaboration is on the horizon. "That's something I'm sure we'll be discussing when I get there," Brule says. "I'm really keen based on the work that we did on the Auckland and New Zealand Survey."
The survey, in the magazine's October issue and part of an ongoing global series, rounds up top entrepreneurs, retailers, cafes and design leaders - a seal of approval for spots like Wellington's Six Barrel Soda, Dunedin's McKinlays Footwear, and Auckland's Bolaven.
Brule says he admires New Zealanders for their entrepreneurialism and self-sufficiency, but believes we could take it even further.
"I would love to see more textile manufacturing. You see so much made of New Zealand wool and then it's got a big 'Made in China' in the neck. I think that there has to be scope to bring manufacturing back."
It's something the stores focus on, with bookends made in Birmingham and blazers made in Italy, and something he believes would fit Crane Brothers' aesthetic well.
With almost enough shops around the world now, give or take Australia and the West Coast of the US, Monocle is focusing on these pop-ups and extending a cafe partnership with New Zealand coffee roasters Allpress, which began with an opening in London last year.
There's also an opportunity for an upmarket newsagent, Brule says, somewhere to sell all the magazines they love alongside Monocle.
"Coffee mixed with a news component is something we're thinking a lot about. Everyone says print is dying. Our view is that yes, print will die if you continue to have dreadful environments to buy magazines in."
