The Ins and Outs of the Fashion World with Kevin Ponce

V Magazine’s Digital Managing Editor Kevin Ponce speaks on leading an editorial team, the importance of representation and why fashion deserves all recognition

In the theatrical ambiance of Thom Browne’s New York Fashion Week (NYFW) finale, the anticipation for his latest collection — inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” — had everyone on the edge of their seats, including Kevin Ponce who found herself front row, fully immersed in a world that transcends beyond the fabric and seams. Above all the chaotic glamor of NYFW, for Ponce, the seasoned digital editor of V Magazine, NYFW has become not just a spectacle, but a continuous dialogue towards where the future of fashion is heading.

Finding an “in” within the fashion community is a challenge many attempt, but only a select few navigate successfully. Yet, as Ponce went from a young fashionista, devouring magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and VOGUE, to collaborating on social media projects with them and creating her bylines across V Magazine for years, her enduring passion for the industry thrives on the idea that there’s still more work to be done on and off the runway.

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Could you describe a typical day as an editor for V?

A typical day starts with me overseeing all of the digital, meaning I oversee our websites. We have three main websites, one for V, VMAN and GEN V, and I oversee all the content that goes on those, which includes fashion, beauty, tech, politics, arts and culture. I mean, a day in my life is always quite chaotic. It’s a controlled chaos, I always say. *Laughs*

I always call V a creative playground where artists, from photographers to stylists to makeup and hair artists, to artists like musicians and actors and whatnot — we all sort of come together at V to play. The fun thing about this is I get to adapt that to our online channels and help create stories and a perspective that echoes what we’re doing inside the print magazine.

I saw that you were the first woman to lead the social division of V Magazine. What unique perspectives and values have you learned being in this position as a woman?

You know, what’s so interesting is when I joined at the time, there were a lot more men in power at certain publications and I’ve seen a lot of men have their stake at those higher titles and sort of dictate what goes where. Throughout these last five years, I’ve seen the change in women taking a lot more leadership and I feel like I’m a drop in the bucket of that change, which is really motivating. When I first joined, the entire digital department was all men for V, including the print editorial team. And now in February 2024, it’s me as head of digital, and then our head of print, marketing manager and office manager are all women.

There’s a lot more female power in V than ever before which is great. I was excited to help bring structure to publication for our online channels and help set a tone that established the magazine’s stance on fashion and made sure that our tone was refined. Having my hands in that has been really rewarding, because being a woman and then being Latina and transgender, it brings the conversation even that much more forward.

You said that you use your editorial position to champion the importance of underrepresented communities in the fashion world, especially those in the Trans and Latinx communities. Do you have a particular moment or piece where you felt your efforts were instrumental in elevating the representation of those communities in the fashion industry?

The first moment where I was like, “Oh, this is great. I’m so proud that I lead this,” was when we shot Dominique Jackson, a Black Trans actress, and she was most notable for being on “Pose,” the FX show. We had the opportunity to photograph her for our website and our marketing editor at the time, Sam Knoll, and I wanted to have it [the shoot] done by a queer team. The photographer, Lia Clay Miller, is transgender, Sam uses he/they pronouns and I did the interview. The whole team was queer down to production, nails, hair, all of that. It was just a special moment because it was done at a time when the show was still going on and it wasn’t tied to pride or anything like that. It was a standstill story that we were all really proud of and we pulled great fashion for it.

Keeping on that beat, my editorial approach when it comes to talent that we want to feature or working with specific writers to narrate stories with, it ingrains in you to want to always see your people or underrepresented communities at the forefront. Going back to what I was saying before, I’m a drop in the bucket and I’m working hard to keep people like me in positions of power because if we’re not, then all that change goes away and all the people who came before us did it for nothing. The road is being paved as I’m working on it, so why not just keep it going?

Right, and you’re already part of that progress! To pivot to my next question, you focus on stories and talent that not a lot of people get the chance to see when it comes to fashion. Why do you think fashion is important to write and report on?

I love that question. It’s important because of community. That’s always going to be the bottom line for anything and the foundation of everything. All my peers and friends, whom I sit at the shows and attend events with, are always having conversations about fashion whether it’s personal or not personal, work-related or not. It’s always sort of subjective to see what someone’s purpose in fashion journalism is and I think for me, community is always going to be number one. The second is that I just want to get beautiful things out to the world and help inspire someone. I think you’d be surprised how many people want to engage in conversations about fashion, whether you’re in the community or not. Fashion really does make the world go around, and it’s part of everyone’s day-to-day life that it’s sort of inescapable.