Until 2008 Penny put her talents to work as editor of Nick Knight’s Showstudio website, and, more recently, she had a sojourn at the London College of Fashion, where she remains a part-time professor and works on projects such as the exhibition on the stylist Simon Foxton, which she curated at the Photographer’s Gallery in 2009. She took up post at The Gentlewoman in September last year and we meet just before the launch of the first issue at Paris fashion week March 2010.

Emily King: Fantastic Man has always struck me as an inversion of women’s publishing, a women’s magazine for men. Has that created problems in making a sister publication?

Penny Martin: Well, I wouldn’t say an inversion so much, more a riposte. The formation of Fantastic Man involved looking at women’s publishing historically, and trying to use that mode of address for men. It’s funny, and making a women’s version did feel like a challenge to begin with - how do you make a riposte to a riposte? But, the more I thought about it, it seemed that the kind of women’s publishing they were pastiching was something from the past. There is nothing like that now, so The Gentlewoman is much more about reinvention than copying. It’s about looking at what Fantastic Man has made, and working out which bits speak best to women. Eventually it became clear that men talk to men in a very different way than women talk to women. What we needed to do was invent a voice, to come up with editorial strategies that allow women to talk as they actually do.

EK: So, how do women talk?

PM: They are much more informal, they chat and they question. Women are really quick to drop their guard. The men in Fantastic Man tend to be very entertaining, they tell you a lot, but they are being great hosts, debonair, cultured men.  Whereas women - and maybe this is because they are anxious about the way that most women’s magazines portray them as light, or silly, or purely visual - are immediately very intimate and talk about serious things like their work. The point I realised we’d achieved something different was when the proof reader, who has worked with Fantastic Man from the start, took me aside and said, ‘Oh Penny, it doesn’t sound like Fantastic Man.’ Immediately I perceived a criticism and said, ‘Oh God Tom, what do you mean?’ But then he said, ‘It’s just that women talk very differently, don’t they?’ Whether we have got it right or not, that feels like a massive achievement.

EK: Is there as much flirtation on the page of The Gentlewoman as there is in Fantastic Man?

PM:  Sexual tension? Yes, there is a bit. Obviously we have straight interviewers and gay interviewers, and male interviewers and female interviewers, so there are lots of different dynamics at work. Personally I find it really easy to fall in love with women who aren’t constructs, women who are trying really hard. These are the women that break my heart. Passive, cool women, women that dropped from the sky perfect - they don’t interest me particularly.

EK: How did you choose the gentlewomen in your first issue?

PM: One of great things about Fantastic Man is that it often does people who you might think of as obvious, but then the piece itself is really surprising. Likewise, I am trying to steer away from worrying about who has already been done and just think of who I would love to do.  I ask myself, ‘Do I want to be with them for six months?’, which is what ends up happening. You build up a very intimate relationship with people when you interview them. It’s such a long process, you get really close. 

EK: Tell me about your cover girl, Phoebe Philo?

PM: Phoebe’s quite a serious woman, she wants to be taken seriously, but then she will drop her guard, come out with some vulgarity and howl with laughter. Those moments seem really precious. I love this contrast, the professionalism and seriousness, and then just, ‘Hah hah!’  I think that this is much more consistent with women’s characters than the bon viveur, raconteur figure of Fantastic Man.

EK: Are you The Gentlewoman?

PM: Am I the gentlewoman in the title? No. But, saying that, who wouldn’t want to be optimistic, bright, hard working and interested in things outside themselves?

EK: Are Gert and Jop the fantastic men? 

PM: Well, we think they are the fantastic men, but the Fantastic Man in their magazine is the man that they love. Both magazines are about pleasure in other people. For Gert and Jop it is about looking at men and thinking, ‘You’re great!’ That’s what’s missing for me in a lot of women’s publishing. It’s cool, chic and sexy, but it is not ‘Oh God, she’s wonderful!’ You know that feeling when you see a little tennis star, she’s trying really hard and she breaks your heart. I don’t think you find that in women’s publishing at the moment, there isn’t a general enthusiasm for people.

EK: So the premise of the magazine is ‘You’re great!’

PM: Yeah, because why would you want to spend time with someone who wasn’t?

EK: It strikes me that the fashion photography in the magazine has a very particular aesthetic.

PM: We have been very specific about what we want. It’s a modern aesthetic, and it’s about maturity, not in the sense of being old, but in terms of graphic contours, silhouettes and fabrics. I love the sort of fashion photography that allows you to be sartorially precise. We are not talking about a mood or a lifestyle, but a garment. The story of a buttonhole -  I love that kind of thing! Perhaps we have been lucky with the clothes this season, but it is also a question of the women we have chosen to portray.

EK: Where next for The Gentlewoman?

PM: As we closed the final issue the team became slightly hysterical, because we finally realised what it was we’d been aiming at. It’s about the qualities of optimism and cheer, and personal style and stylishness. People who are doing difficult things with big old smiles on their faces, those are the people who are nice to be around. When we realised that, it felt really exciting, because these qualities are definitely not being represented in women’s publishing at the moment.