Scorched Hair and Soft Power: A Night Out with Evie Magazine

Just after 8 On Sunday night, Evie Magazine’s first live event finally kicked off. The women’s magazinewhich was founded in 2019 and once described itself as a “conservative Cosmo,” eager fans welcomed the publication, in general, and its new edition, specifically, during New York Fashion Week at the Standard Hotel’s Boom in Chelsea.

Guests lined up outside, hugging fur coats around formal dresses as hosts scanned a list for their names. One blonde woman begged for access to the VIP section; an event planner ran downstairs to tell her colleagues that someone’s hair had caught on fire. Upstairs, women thronged the entrance for the chance to be photographed against a larger-than-life plastic Evie Magazine cover that declared, “Welcome to the Romantic Era.” (The other cover lines: “‘Your Secret Feminine Power,” “12 Ways to Make Him Swoon,” and “Women’s Fashion We Love: Corsets, Dresses, and Drama.”)

The party was hosted by Brittany Hugoboom, the editor-in-chief, and her co-founder and husband Gabriel Hugoboom. The invite billed it as a “celebration of romance and beauty,” with attendees promising an “impressive evening of live music, stunning visuals, captivating performances, delicious food and drinks and a secret reveal.”

Aside from the lingering stench of burnt hair and the prominent “EVIE” projected above the wraparound gold bar, it was hard to distinguish the event from any other party, which certainly seemed to be on point. There was virtually no overt mention of politics, and the kind of conservatism in the air had more to do with Sydney Sweeney as abstinence.

But Evie, which critics call “alt-right,” is inherently political. Evie has been thoroughly embraced by different corners of the Republican Party: Candace Owens, Steve Bannonand Brett Cooper-a conservative commentator who attended the party – all champion Evie. The magazine itself is trading in the meantime conspiracy theoriesshares anti-vaccine content, hand out business woman inspo (remember Ballerina Farm?), rejected “modern” feminismand push an app founded by the Hugobooms called 28, where users record information about their periods to calculate their menstrual cycle. Ads for the app, which was initially funded in part by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, appear alongside articles which criticizes hormonal birth control and pressures women to get off the pill. (Brittany Hugoboom told The New York Times that she pitched up Thiel, one of many conservatives involved about declining American birth rates, about the “fertility crisis.”)

If you’re thinking this all sounds more or less like what you’d get from any right-wing media outlet these days, you’d be right. What sets Evie apart, aside from her unusual soft-focus photography of glamorously dressed women milking cows, is that this kind of content runs alongside lists titled, for example, “7 questions to ask early if you want a serious relationship” or “How to dress like Olivia Dean on a budget.” It’s a classic example of soft power in action – just as the appeal of mid-century Hollywood films wasn’t necessarily the anti-communist message but the glitz and glamour, the power of Evie’s politics is in its pretense of nothingness.

For many participants, this is not only the purpose of the party, but of Evie in general. “This is how we shift the culture,” said one participant, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of her career. She credited Evie with starting a Republican cultural revival. “We’ve been so politically focused that we’ve lost the culture, and we have to take it back if we want to win.” This is what made this party noteworthy. Evie’s conservatism-without-conservatism messages have long attracted attention (incl profiles according to numbers publications). But now, going into a resulting midterm election in which the polls seems grim for the GOP, that messaging seems less a curiosity than a necessity. Here was at least a proof of concept that Evie-ism could make a compelling backdrop for young women unsure of what the Republican movement meant to them.