Oh! the Stories Kristina O'Neill Can Tell As Head of Sotheby's Media & Magazine

When former editor in chief of WSJ Magazine Kristina O’Neill hosted a Mid-November 2023 chat with supermodel Cindy Crawford and daughter Kaia Gerber at the West Chelsea Planet Omega exhibit, O’Neill surely knew she was headed to Sotheby’s Magazine on January 8, 2024.

The entire Gerber family has served as Omega Ambassadors since 2018. Original supermodel Cindy Crawford signed on with Omega in 1995. Her daughter Kaia signed on in 2017.

In a business landscape where traditional magazines are faltering, it seemed like only a new media concept/publication would suit O’Neil. In her appointment as head of Sotheby’s Media and editor-in-chief of a revamped Sotheby’s Magazine, the visionary media pro has found a perfect spot in which to flex the muscles of her fashion and design aesthetic and her deeply-personal connections in and outside the industry.

O’Neill also brings a host of life-enhancing, civic values to her Sotheby’s appointment, and they will serve her well. We share an insight to those values here on Anne of Carversville, having followed O’Neill’s editorial eye at WSJ Magazine for a decade.

The prestigious auction house, founded on March 11, 1944 in the United Kingdom has 80 locations in 4 countries around the world. This world is much grander and wider in scope than WSJ Magazine.

The evolving world of Sotheby’s auctions is an exciting one for O’Neill to narrate and visualize, as a storyteller par excellence.

AOC doesn’t know whether the Sotheby’s Impact initiative is five years old or 50. We capture a slice of it, along with Sotheby’s Instagam from January 27, 2024 because the images project a revered art world institution very much evolving with the 21st century world.

AOC imagines some people squinting the eyes with a furrowed brow, asking “THIS is Sotheby’s?”

THIS is Sotheby’s?

Kristina O’Neill Is Clearly a Change Agent

In her former role as EIC of WSJ Magazine, O’Neill operated with a keen eye for developing and giving exposure to talented creatives of color. British-Ghanaian photographer Campbell Addy comes to mind.

For AOC there’s a firm line drawn in the American fashion and style crosswalk, one defined by the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Opportunities for photographers increased significantly after the protests of the summer of 2020, and that momentun has continued for all creatives, including models, of color.

Reality is that O’Neill at WSJ Magazine was cultivating and sponsoring Black talent long before the summer of 2020 — and that says a lot about her and her approach to marketing to the elite WSJ audience.

AOC tracks this issue with a particular focus and diligence, because we also are committed to structural change in the fashion and style industry — and luxury markets generally.

Kristina O’Neill and Campbell Addy

Campbell Addy’s Model.com portfolio dates from summer 2018, as do Campbell Addy’s archives on AOC.

By May of 2019, Addy was in WSJ Magazine with ‘14 Modern Looks in Khaki’, a fashion story we shared on AOC. The British-Ghanian photographer was not in American Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE — or their international titles — with the exception of a minor appearance in British Vogue, led then by Edward Enninful.

Our last post before reading the breaking news of O’Neill’s appointment at Sotheby’s was Campbell Addy for WSJ Magazine’s December 2023/January 2024 fashion story shot in Ghana.

Kristina O’Neill had to smile with private pleasure, when she learned that Campbell Addy was the recipient of the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at The Fashion Awards 2023 in London on December 4.

Given the direction that Sotheby’s is pursuing, O’Neill’s secondary, more values-driven skills create a tight fit with that Instagram screen grab above.

LVMH and Sotheby’s

LVMH founder Bernard Arnault does not own Sotheby’s, in the way that Groupe Artémis — the holding company of Kering head François Pinault — owns British auction house Christies.

Sotheby’s is privately-owned by billionaire telecom magnate and art collector Patrick Drahl since 2019.

There are many successful LVMH-Sotheby’s collaborations to discuss. Among the most heartfelt ones was the 2022 auction of special sneakers to support the foundation of Louis Vuitton Men’s Creative Director Virgil Abloh.

The Sotheby’s x Louis Vuitton Men Collab Honoring Virgil Abloh

In a true gut punch to the fashion and style world, the beloved Virgil Abloh passed of a rare form of cancer on November 28, 2021. Virgil was only 41 years old.

Given the financial success that Sotheby’s experienced in the February 2022 philanthropic auction of Louis Vuitton Men and Nike ‘Air Force 1’ sneakers to raise $25.3 million for Virgil Abloh’s ‘Post-Modern’ Scholarship Fund’, AOC argues that O’Neill’s connections and credibility among people of color is a great asset.

We cannot overstate how these ties are equally important to her place at the $250,000 table at a fashion and design event or hosting a convo with Cindy Crawford and daughter Kaia Gerber at a Planet Omega event.

Reframing Values

Among rich people of conscience, there is a desire to better understand and create relationships in the world outside their own often-sheltered direct experiences. Most top-level luxury brands now accept responsibility for creating positive changes in our marketplace. But LVMH has defined these obligations as a core part of their corporate identity.

This reality does not mean that The Squad of American politicians is driving their decision-making about luxury marketing. When the newly-elected foursome called The Squad tried to kill off Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in January 2019, and we all know how that went.

My point is that significant numbers of wealthy people — of all ages — who are part of the Sotheby’s world, care that De Beers signed a long-term contract with the government of Botswana this summer, for example. The contract brought significant equity in the relationship to the government of Botswana.

Under the old agreement, Botswana received 25 percent of the rough stones extracted, while De Beers took the remaining 75 percent. Immediately, Botswana will receive a 30 percent share, with an escalating increase to 50 percent within a decade.

AOC speculated:

“Just imagine if Pharrell Williams, the outstanding new Creative Director of Louis Vuitton Men’s developed a collection of Botswana-designed and Botswana-artisans-made jewelry using Botswana diamonds trained by Louis Vuitton as apprentices.”

I just asked Lulu to research whether Gaston-Louis Vuitton ever traveled to Africa. If so, perhaps Francesca Amfitheatrof, Artistic Director for Watches and Jewellery at Louis Vuitton — who also adores Pharrell — can consider this idea for the new Les Gastons Vuitton Fine Jewelry collection.

Ubuntu for All — Even Living Vicariously with Sotheby’s Magazine

The new Sotheby’s Magazine will be in the vanguard of telling stories that promote these progressive values as LVMH-owned luxury houses like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior or Belmond Luxury Travel lead the way in redefining what is expected of today’s global luxury brands.

The relationship between Sotheby’s and LVMH was already very tight. Suddenly, a journalist/editor with deep ties in both the world of luxury and the world of equity-driven values is at the helm of a new global magazine.

Perhaps Anne of Carversville is the only entity doing absolute cartwheels over this new chapter at Sotheby’s Media. We were alone advocating for the appointment of Pharrell Williams to his post at Louix Vuitton Men, and standing behind him as fashion critics ost their minds. You just watch where O’Neil goes at Sotheby’s, with this basket of riches.

I’m clear that her focus is not the latest Louis Vuitton Men’s Collection, given Sotheby’s mission as an auction house. But the history of Black cowboys — the centerpiece of the latest Pharrell Williams Louis Vuitton Men’s FW 2024 runway show — is a story that may well have a tie back to Sotheby’s.

After Kentucky Whiskey, Any Creative Auction Is Possible

I adored the story we included in AOC’s December, 2023 announcement of O’Neill’s Sotheby’s appointment.

The very recent Sotheby’s American whiskey and rye auction set new records with two big blockbusters. LeNell’s Red Hook Rye 23 Year and Rathskeller Rye, each sold far beyond their highest initial estimate ranges. The LRHR 23 year scoring $56,250 (est range $20,000 – $30,000) and RR grabbing $37,500 ($18,000 – $24,000).

What fun I had researching an American story that married Red Hook Brooklyn and Birmingham, Alabama with the development of new Kentucky whisky. LeNell Santa Ana Camacho, the woman of the hour, also carried Pappy Van Winkle in her Red Hook shop. Com‘on. Smile.

With so much anger and division in American politics and our social fabric, this story unites Americans. Thanks to Sotheby’s ingenuity, we have a fantastic story about an Alabama white woman ending up in Red Hook, Brookyn with a liquor store.

Deciding that she wanted to create her own whiskey, off LeNell Santa Ana Camacho went to Kentucky, and the rest is history at Sotheby’s recent whiskey auction.

With my eyes closed, I can count almost unlimited times that O’Neill stepped out for the kind of world she wants to see evolve among the monied set — whatever their ages — at WSJ Magazine. She used types of clothes, unusual locations, and new creatives to share her global vision of a more modern, less class conscious society . . . a vision shared by AOC.

As you can tell, AOC is thrilled with the appointment of Kristina O’Neill to launch Sotheby’s Magazine and head Sotheby’s Media.

It’s a beautiful thing — and I know she intends to top her already high-bar performance at WSJ Magazine. ~ Anne