Katie Grand's Animal Instincts

When we asked LOVE Editor-in-Chief Katie Grand to take over NOWNESS for a day, she came back with various options. A paean to this season’s handbags? It would make sense, given her styling credentials at leather supremos Louis Vuitton and Loewe, and her prominent position at the forefront of fashion for the past, oh, 20 years. Or maybe a preview of LOVE’s fourth issue? After all, the latest installment of her joyous super-glossy, which launched in 2009, hits shelves today. But as she hopped into a cab en route to her post-print-deadline Safari holiday, it came to her: an ode to her favorite animals. Grand’s unabashed admiration for our furry friends is typical of her anything-goes attitude toward the fashion game, and that she makes it work (while still at POP, she devoted a whole issue to our non-human counterparts) is testimony to her Midas touch as an editor and super-stylist. Though the first few issues of LOVE have been relatively beast-free, the newly launched website is covered with pixilated sprites of glossy-eyed cartoon bunnies, dogs and kittens, and the new edition’s accompanying iPad app, which features 14 original fashion films, marks the return of Grand’s favorite mascot (to find out just how Victoria Beckham turned lagomorph click here). Below, Grand tells us more about the creatures closest to her heart: