Take a moment to reflect on what you know about fashion magazines. Shimmering covers, lengthy mastheads, tons of pages (that are mostly ads) and newsstand prices between $3 and $5. Now, forget what you know about fashion magazines. Or magazines in general.
Meet Visionaire, the ultimate un-magazine. Visionaire is not glossy. It does not contain ads. Rarely does it have articles or use text at all. Sometimes, there are no pages; the magazine’s latest issue, entitled “Scent,” consisted solely of a white leather case packed with forty-two fragrance- filled vials bearing names such as Electricity, Drunk and Noise.
Those seeing the magazine for the first time will react with wonder and ask, “What is it?” More or less a quarterly publication (sometimes it comes out only three times a year), Visionaire has been deftly blurring the boundaries between art, books and periodicals since its inception in 1991. A different format and theme are conceived for each issue, and worldfamous artists, photographers and fashion designers are commissioned to create the magazine’s original works.
For Issue No. 24, “Light,” the Visionaire team brought aboard Tom Ford of Gucci fame to create the world’s first battery-operated publication: a fully functional light box with twenty-four transparencies of fine art. Issues of Visionaire No. 38, “Love,” contained vintage romance novels that were inserted with silver-pendant bookmarks by Italian jewelry designer Elsa Peretti, then packed into an iconic Tiffany blue box. So coveted was the No. 18 “Fashion Special,” which highlighted the world’s most influential designers through photography, that it sold out before the launch party.
With veteran fashion photographers like Mario Testino and David LaChappelle behind the camera, Visionaire’s images are captivating, managing to span the spectrum from bawdy to tender. But this magazine excels in providing an experience that is as sensory as it is visual and uses more than paper in its production. Materials incorporated in past issues include denim, velvet, mylar, wood, foil and Plexiglas. Tossing the magazine’s mailer in the trash isn’t an option, either. Far from the plastic shrink wrap that sheaths other magazines, copies of Visionaire have come encased in custom- made Hermès pouches and leather Louis Vuitton portfolios.
However visionary Visionaire’s founders Stephen Gan, James Kaliardos and Cecilia Dean—friends since adolescence—were, they couldn’t have predicted the success of their venture thirteen years ago. They invented the magazine with only $7,000. These days, however, the trio’s brainchild has become a phenomenon in a Sotheby’s salesroom, where just one issue purportedly fetches thousands.
http://www.visionaireworld.com/index.php
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