Hi, Ms. Glassman,
I hope this finds you well. I just wanted to write (completely randomly!) to inform you of some minor editorial blunders I found in the catalogue that Carine Roitfeld put together for your company. But before I do that, let me compliment you and Barneys on the publication. What a wonderful idea, especially after Ms. Roitfeld’s departure from Vogue—on to greener pastures and interesting projects, indeed!
Anyway, there is nothing extremely glaring, but I thought I’d lend an anal-retentive editorial eye:
—In the opening page of the catalogue, there’s a sentence that reads “daughter Julia and son Vladimir.” Because there are no commas trailing the two nouns (“daughter” and “son”), a careful reading would imply that Ms. Roitfeld has more than one daughter and son!
—I would write out all numbers between zero and nine. I believe there’s a quote that uses the arabic numerals 3 and 4. (Found on the page with Melanie Huynh.) Not only does this rule follow the styles of the Associated Press and the Chicago Manual of Style, I find it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the reading of alphabetical characters.
—Perhaps this is something lost in translation, but it is unnecessary to say “herself” in this line: “which alone makes her almost mythical herself.” (Bold is mine.) This appears in the catalogue, but I see that it’s edited from Barneys’s website The Window.
My finicky personality (and my position as an editor by trade) brings on inexplicable urges to inform the people, places, or institutions I respect about seemingly unintentional editorial issues. I hope you aren’t offended at my pointing out of these bits. I think that, with editing, these publications produced by Barneys will look even more polished than they already are.
Thanks for reading this heinously long e-mail!
Best,
Linda Theung
Los Angeles