Kim France
France is former editor-in-chief of Lucky and the Condé Naste darling who created the hybrid mag and oversaw it's publication for over a decade.
France grew up in Houston-her mother was a jewelry designer, her father ran a glass lamination company. She attended Oberlin, and after graduation moved to New York and got an editorial assistant's job at defunct weekly 7 Days (edited by fellow Oberlin grad Adam Moss). She later became a staff writer (and rap authority) at Jane Pratt's legendary teen bible Sassy and had staff jobs at Elle,New York, and Spin. When Jade Hobson Charnin, the then-fashion director at New York, talked France up to Condé Nast's James Truman, he asked her to develop a prototype for a new type of fashion magazine. France came up with Lucky, a hybrid magazine/catalogue that made little pretense of being anything other than a glorified shopping rag for the ladies. Still, the monthly "magalog" launched in 2000 and did remarkably well, although attempts to mimic the format for men (Cargo, Vitals) haven't been so, um, lucky. In 2010 it was announced that France would be replaced at Lucky by Brandon Holley for reasons both Condé Naste and France kept mum about (rumors circulated about needing someone with more online know-how).
Since her departure from Lucky, France has returned to writing full time. In the summer of 2001, France married Michael Morse, a high school English teacher she knew from college. They've since divorced.