Penny Martin

Penny Martin is an editor,^[1] writer, and curator. As of 2009 she is the editor-in-chief of the women’s magazine The Gentlewoman.

Growing up in St Andrews, her interest in art was cultivated by her mother and stepfather who worked as an history teacher and theatre critic respectively.^[2] Martin graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in art history in addition to completing a course in museum studies at Manchester University.^[3] She also worked on a PhD in 1980s fashion magazines at the Royal College of Art, which she left to become editor-in-chief of SHOWstudio.com. Prior to her work in fashion, Martin worked part-time at the Fawcett Library, an archive containing the world's oldest collection of women's history.^[2] She also worked as a curator of photographs in the collections of The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television.^[2] Her media career started in 2001 after Nick Knight invited her to work as editor of SHOWstudio.com, the revolutionary fashion broadcasting site.^[2] Over seven years there, she commissioned and executed over 300 of the earliest interactive, motion and live fashion projects for the Internet. Martin collaborated with many of the most progressive figures in fashion and design, including Alexander McQueen, Peter Saville, Kate Moss, Hussein Chalayan and the estate of Erwin Blumenfeld.

In 2008, she returned to academia as the Chair of Fashion Media at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London,^[2] where she curated two exhibitions during 2009: When You’re A Boy: men’s fashion styled by Simon Foxton at The Photographers’ Gallery and SHOWstudio: fashion revolution at Somerset House.

When Jop van Bennekom and Gert Jonkers, founder-owners of men’s magazines BUTT and Fantastic Man wanted to establish a women's magazine, they invited Martin to join them in their endeavor.^[4]

In 2016, Martin received the British Society of Magazine Editors Editor of the Year award in the Women’s Brand – Monthly or Less Frequent category.^[1]

References