Bookmark Now: Rue

By Lexi Green
January 24, 2012

Crystal Gentilello Have you fallen for a digital design darling yet? When it comes to creating eye-candy-filled interiors magazines, online is now the way to go. We know this isn’t news for anyone. But, with so many e-magazines to choose from — chief among them Lonny, Anthology, and Matchbook, not to mention the never-ending supply of well-curated design blogs — there’s an overwhelming amount of style inspiration to ingest on a daily basis. Just why then, you ask, have we chosen Rue magazine as one of our must-reads?

Rue magazine co-founder and editor-in-chief Crystal Gentilello

Since its launch in September 2010, Rue co-founder and editor-in-chief Crystal Gentilello and her team have churned out eight beautiful digital issues, each one showcasing an abundance of gorgeously laid-out and fun-to-read articles on interior designers, party planners, bloggers, beautiful homes and creative inspiration. The Rue staff also jam-packs their pages with design tips, tricks and how-tos for everything from room styling to seasonal cooking, flower arrangement and festive party decorating. Embedded in the pages are plenty of videos of what’s going behind-the-scenes at the Rue offices. All we can say is it looks like a lot of fun.

Rue

Power design couple Robert and Cortney Novogratz , featured in Rue

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Blogger Erica Domesek of PS. I Made This offering a tutorial on how to create a sunburst mirror

Rue

Blogger interviews with Ronda Carman of All the Best and Holly Becker from Décor8

What we love about Rue is the not only the beautiful design and the compelling stories, but also the accessible tone and insights we can really use.

Having devoured the January issue yet still feeling hungry for more, we snagged a few minutes with Gentilello.

The Inside Source: Hi, Crystal! It is great to meet you! So, we have got to ask, what’s behind the name “Rue"?

Crystal Gentilello: Hi! Well, when coming up with a name for the magazine we had simple criteria: it had to be easy to remember, easy to spell and easy to pronounce. Of course, we also wanted the name to mean something to us and our mission. Rue is the French word for “road.” It evokes a sense of destination and progress and we loved that.

The Inside Source: What can we find inside every issue of Rue?

Crystal Gentilello: We strive to showcase unique homes and content that inspires our readers to try new things, hone in on their individual style and have fun with design. Rue is also an interactive experience, so our readers can click through links that lead to purchases, behind-the-scenes videos, and printable downloads for recipes, how-tos and more!

The Inside Source: How would you describe the magazine's aesthetic?

Crystal Gentilello: Rue's aesthetic is fresh, eclectic, global and inspiring. We aim to feature homes, style and fashion that you won't necessarily see anywhere else! We want people to open our magazine and feel like they're seeing design in a whole new light.

The Inside Source: What's a typical day like at the Rue offices?

Crystal Gentilello: No two days are ever the same, and that's what I love about what I do! Some days I'm on location at a photo shoot, other days I'm traveling to conferences and speaking engagements, or I'm spending hours on end at my laptop catching up on emails and tackling my to-do list!

The Inside Source: What have been some of your favorite features from inside Rue’s pages?

Crystal Gentilello: This is such a tough question! If I had to narrow it down to just one, I would say our issue four cover story. For this piece we traveled into the Nevada desert with a crew of fifteen and a truck full of fashion and furniture. It was pretty unforgettable. We had the best time making tons of memories and being reminded that we love what we do along the way.

The March/April 2011 cover of Rue

The Inside Source: Where do you gather inspiration?

Crystal Gentilello: I've been really inspired by photographers lately. I find it fascinating how differently each photographer can capture a space through an image. The composition of a photo can change the feel of a room completely. We love working with a range of photographers and seeing what vision and magic they come up with!

The Inside Source: What is one design item that you can't live without?

Crystal Gentilello: For me, it's less of an item and more of a philosophy: "Elegance is refusal."

The Inside Source: How do you and the team at Rue use eBay?

Crystal Gentilello: We love using eBay to find one-of-a-kind, unique vintage finds for our readers. You make our job so much easier! What did we ever do without eBay?!

Speaking of eBay... See how we took a few of our favorite Rue features and found eBay products to help recreate the look.

In Rue’s inaugural September/October 2010 issue, Gentilello and team showcased products in red and camel, a favorite color combo of Shopbop’s then-fashion director, Kate Ciepluch.

Rue