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Exclusive: Agyness Deyn Talks About Her New Web Magazine

Agyness Deyn’s return to the runway after taking last season off started out with an unfortunate, if adorable, flop when she toppled over twice wearing seven-inch Burberry heels at Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief show to benefit Haiti yesterday. But Deyn is bravely carrying on. She’s walking in Alexander Wang today at 5, with more shows on her plate, as well as a burgeoning acting career and a web magazine, the details of which she’s announcing to The Cut exclusively.

Naag.com is a lifestyle web magazine that Deyn is starting with her best friend Fiona Byrne, a former editor at NME.com and contributor to New York, Nylon, and other publications. The name is a combination of the last two letters of Byrne’s first name and the first two of Deyn’s. Deyn explained that the site is meant to be a magazine that just happens to be online, and that she just happens to be involved with: “It’s not AgynessDeyn.com.” Deyn will act as creative director and Byrne as editor-in-chief. They plan on original video and photo shoots featuring Deyn, as well as articles on fashion, beauty, travel, and culture written by their journalist friends.

“It’s places that we go, things that we buy, products that we use,” Byrne explained. “We’re writing it for our peers, and we hope people who hang out with us in New York and London will find new stuff to be obsessed with. But we also want girls in Ohio to be able to go on and find stuff, too. The fashion, for example, will be aspirational, but accessible. You will be able to buy this stuff, hopefully, where you are.” As Deyn put it, “It’s just going to be stuff we think is rad.” In terms of tone, Byrne said, “I miss the attitude of Jane. It was funny and it was intimate. You felt like you knew the writers. It was cool, but it wasn’t just downtown New York.”

As they move through this Fashion Week, Deyn and Byrne are gathering content for the site. There may be trips to Paris and Milan in the future, and they’re hoping for a launch sometime in April or May. If their plans sound a bit loose, it’s because they just managed to buy their domain name and set up a business plan; Deyn is the sole investor. “I just know that if I hadn’t had my brother telling me, ‘You’ve got to listen to Stone Roses, they’re awesome!’” Deyn concluded, “I’d probably be listening to dance music. I’d like to help people get exposed to things in the same way, and then let them decide for themselves.”

Exclusive: Agyness Deyn Talks About Her New Web Magazine