GQ’s Head of Editorial in Conversation with FAD

Che Kurrien, Head of Editorial at GQ India, joined FADTalents for a conversation on editorial insight and the changing landscape of fashion media.

Since launching GQ India in 2008, Che Kurrien has helped build a publication that sits at the intersection of fashion, luxury, culture, business and contemporary masculinity, one that has grown well beyond the magazine itself into a wider cultural platform. FADTalents welcomed him for a conversation that traced that journey, from the original question of what GQ needed to be for an Indian reader to what has endured of that thinking nearly two decades on.

The conversation moved through the questions that define editorial leadership today: what makes a story culturally relevant, how an editorial idea becomes a recognisable brand property in the way Best Dressed, Men of the Year and Most Influential Young Indians have, and who ultimately owns the creative vision of a shoot when an editor, photographer, stylist, makeup artist, set designer and brand are all involved. Che also spoke candidly on what young photographers and stylists get wrong when approaching editorial work.

The discussion turned, too, to the pressures reshaping the industry, from balancing what audiences want to see with what an editor believes they should, to whether the algorithm has quietly become an invisible editor, and where AI sits in the future of the editorial image. Che closed with advice for students hoping to enter fashion and media, on what they should understand about the industry before stepping into it.

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