Ariel Foxman

Ariel Foxman is an innovative and business-minded editorial executive with two decades of progressive experience and a deep knowledge base across highly-engaged content categories including style, culture and travel.

Ariel Foxman is the former editorial director of leading fashion media brands InStyle and StyleWatch. He also oversaw the all-digital InStyle Collection, comprised of InStyle, xoJane, xoVain, and The Outfit. He was responsible for print and digital content, consumer and client strategy, and new revenue streams beyond advertising and circulation. Under Foxman’s leadership, InStyle became the foremost fashion and beauty media brand, outperforming the entire category with the largest audience of affluent women, the highest newsstand sales, and the most subscriptions at the highest price. Foxman became the brand's only male editor at the age of 34 and held the title for eight years before resigning his post in 2016.

During Foxman’s tenure, InStyle earned numerous awards and distinctions. It was selected among nearly 10,000 eligible titles as min’s (Media Industry Newsletter) Top Brand of the Past 30 Years, in addition to receiving the 2016 award for Digital Team of the Year. In 2015, Daily Front Row honored InStyle as Fashion Media Brand of the Year, and in both 2013 and 2012.

Advertising Age placed InStyle on its A-List as one of the top five media brands of the year. Over the course of his career, Foxman has received many accolades. In 2016, for the second straight year, he was listed in “Business of Fashion 500” as one of the world’s most influential fashion insiders. He was also a speaker at SXSW Interactive, covering the New Rules of Social Stardom with actress Kerry Washington, and was featured in Fandango’s red-carpet edition of its I Love Movies series. Foxman received the Marylou Luther Journalism Award from the Accessories Council in 2015, and in 2014 was honored at Live Out Loud’s annual Trailblazers Gala. In 2013, Crain’s listed Foxman as one of the “40 Under 40,” a group of rising stars “who will shape New York for the next 25 years,” and The Advocate called him one of the “50 Most Influential LGBT People in Media.” Foxman was thrice included in Out’s annual Power List and was named one of Forbes magazine’s most powerful U.S. fashion editors.

In addition to being a contributing writer for Time magazine on the topic of fashion, Foxman has written about culture and travel for Fortune, New York, and The New York Times, among others. He is a frequent speaker on such topics as careers, fashion, and publishing, and is a lecturer at New York University’s Summer Publishing Institute and School of Professional Studies. Foxman has interviewed countless notable subjects including the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, Julia Roberts, and Kerry Washington.

On television, Foxman was a permanent judge on Lifetime’s Project Accessory, the first spinoff of Project Runway. He has also appeared on Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project and It’s a Brad, Brad World. He was featured in the documentary, Crazy About Tiffany’s, and was the first editor to make a cameo on CW’s Gossip Girl.

Foxman began his career at Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, and then worked in editorial at Details and The New Yorker. Subsequently, he spent four years at InStyle, where he held various positions covering celebrities, films, and trends. In 2003, at age 29, he left InStyle to become the founding editor of Cargo, Condé Nast’s men’s shopping magazine. He rejoined Time Inc. as editor-at-large in 2006.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Foxman earned a B.A. in English and American Literature and the comparative study of religion. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, a New York City public school principal.