The chief creative officer role is new for Revlon but makes good sense as beauty becomes increasingly content driven and media is evolving at conventional print publications, as evermore nuanced branded content, and in every imaginable digital format.
What and how consumers think about beauty often begins at the brand level. And that is where Linda Wells comes in. Explaining a bit of the company’s thinking behind this new role, Fabian Garcia, president and CEO of Revlon, tells the press, “as we continue to strengthen our portfolio of iconic brands, Linda’s extensive knowledge of the beauty industry and her experience assessing and reporting on the global beauty sector will elevate the prestige, image and execution of our brands.”
“She will also be integral to ensuring the glamour, sophistication and innovativeness that are original to both Revlon and Elizabeth Arden brands’ iconic heritage,” Garcia says.
Background
Linda Wells was Allure magazine’s EIC for 25 years, from when she helped launch the magazine at Condé Nast until late 2015. In the interviewing year, Wells was contributing beauty editor at large for New York Magazine’s The Cut. She also produced The Linda Wells Report for Hearst. A sort of magazine within magazines, the report was a cross-branded beauty feature that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and Town & Country.
In a 2014 interview with The New Potato , Wells summarized the vision she had had for Allure when she founded the magazine. “My main wish was to combine the strengths of the two places I worked—reporting from The New York Times and visuals from Vogue. I also looked at men’s magazines, and still do. I love their energy, toughness, and sense of humor.”
It’s the expansive understanding of all things beauty and content that Wells has garnered over the years that she now brings to the benefit of every Revlon brand.
Foreground
As Revlon’s first chief creative officer, Wells will be reporting directly to Garcia and working closely with marketing, product development, and R&D across the brands. The Revlon press release emphasizes that she’ll “be responsible for curating the look and feel of the Company’s brands across all consumer touch points including advertising, product innovation, packaging, digital and social presence, and point of sale.”
Her work is meant to reinforce the strategic growth priorities of the brands, as the release goes on to note.