PUMPED
Above: The New York Times Style Magazine, Men’s Fashion Fall 2009
“The new men’s issue of T is now online and will be on stands this Sunday [well, in NY that is] – just in time for fashion week.”
Holding my breath… please be in the IHT in a couple of weeks. More here.
THANKS VICTORIA
Above: Wallpaper* magazine’s two October 2009 covers
Following on from my previous post… special thanks to Victoria in the IPC media office for these images. Lovely.
MUSE
Above: Model Baptiste Giabiconi in a Chanel advert
That guy up there, his name is Baptiste Giabiconi. He’s a model. But not just any model… he’s Karl Lagerfeld’s latest muse. I wish I were Karl Lagerfeld’s muse. Anyway, I digress.
Mr Giabiconi is in the latest Purple Fashion Magazine, photographed by Mr Lagerfeld, not wearing very many clothes. He’s also on the cover of October’s Wallpaper* magazine (on sale from tomorrow). Again shot by Mr Lagerfeld. Again not wearing very much… well… if you peel away the cover, that is.
It’s all very exciting. You see, October’s Wallpaper* is the first magazine ever to feature a ‘peelable’ cover. On the newsstand Mr Giabiconi is wearing a suit, but peel away the cover and he’s naked. Check it out here.
There’s an alternate triple-layered, transparent October cover, too. It’s by Philippe Stark. But it doesn’t include a naked model; so, no surprise… it hasn’t received the same widespread blog love. Can’t wait to check out both.
Check out the official IPC press release here.
Oh, I love magazines. We live in a crazy world; I wouldn’t change a thing.
FARROW
Above: Spiritualized album packaging by Farrow
Dan blogged about Spiritualized the other day. His post contained a link to Farrow’s website. They’re the design studio behind the packaging for Spiritualized’s album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. I clicked on the link and checked out some of Farrow’s other work… man, it’s well ace. Like, seriously. Ch, ch, check it for yourself here. Lush.
THE END
Above: Latest 2012 poster
Gotta love an end-of-the-world Hollywood blockbuster. The trailer looks ace.
TRON LEGACY
Above: Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy
Walt Disney has announced the release date of Tron Legacy. It’s going up against The Green Hornet, The Smurfs and Yogi Bear on 17 December next year. Did I mention it’s in 3D? Exciting.
MELBOURNE
Above: Melbourne’s makeover
I love the M top row, far left; the M third row, far right; and the M fourth row, far left. BTW, I lifted this image from here.
NEGATIVE SPACE
Above: Noma Bar’s Negative Space
Illustrator Noma Bar has a new book. It’s called Negative Space. It looks ace. I’ll be posting some spreads from the book soon. In the meantime, and just in case you missed it, check out the Q&A with Noma here. Yaay!
HEROTIC
Ah… magazines. I love ‘em. So when London-based Fabien Kruszelnicki and James West emailed me with news of their newbie title Hero, I wanted to know more. And they were happy to answer my questions. Nice.
Above: Model Robbie Wadge photographed by Matthew Kristall
Hey guys, thanks for chatting with Gym Class Magazine. So, big news… you’ve started your very own magazine. Exciting. What’s the Hero back-story? What’s the magazine about and who’s it for? Is it a fashion title or is it a magazine about models?
[Fabien] Hey, well we wanted to create something that wasn’t based in fashion but obviously does come from fashion. We have always been interested in the people that are on the bill boards, in advertisements, on the bottle, kind of like movie stars and thought people would want to know more about them just like we do. We wanted to make sure all the guys in Hero are actually models, that’s the whole point. They are starting to live that dream. Just because they’re models, it doesn’t mean they’re only a pretty face. It’s nice to hear that most of them are actually pretty intelligent and interesting. We wanted to make Hero an optimistic magazine where the shoots were wholesome, fun and fresh. Something that people could just enjoy and flick through. When I was a kid, I loved flicking through magazines; I loved seeing this other, perfect world and the amazing photography and how it felt comfortable and reassuring.
Ok I need to stop otherwise I’ll just keep going but generally it’s not just a fashion title, it is about the models. The next issue will have a bit more styling in it but it will always be about the guys. The magazine is for anyone who’s interested in fashion, photography and the models.
What are your backgrounds? Fashion? Magazines? Editorial or art direction?
[Fabien] Well James is an art director and designer and I’m a fashion photographer, but that said we’re both mad magazine fans. We’ve been talking about our own magazine for years and then thought, now is the right time.
Let’s talk art direction and design. What’s Hero’s look? And how long did it take to finalise the magazine’s image? How long has issue one been in the pipeline? And how many people were involved in the process?
[James] I guess we wanted the look to mirror the photography in that it’s fresh and optimistic and quite ballsy, and we also wanted it to feel very contemporary. Coming up with the look was a pretty tough process and we ended up re-doing the whole thing 24 hours before going to print… although the magazine sits in the fashion world it couldn’t look quite like a fashion magazine, so it is a bit of uncharted territory. There are only two of us actually putting the magazine together, but for issue one there were 10 photographers around the world, plus all the help from the modeling agencies etc. So quite a few people contributed their time. We had been thinking about the magazine for a few months but really only started properly in May.
I need to pop into R D Franks and thumb through a copy. For all the print spec geeks out there: How many pages is it? What size is it? What stock have you used?
[James] If you really want to know it’s 100 pages, including a four-page cover, all on a gorgeous uncoated paper called Starfine from Fenner Paper, a specialist paper supplier. It’s 210 x 280mm. And if you’re a real geek you might also love to know that all the black and white images inside are printed as duotones to really give a nice image tone and depth.
Which magazines do like and were any inspirations for Hero?
[James] We love magazines. We have shelves full of them.
[Fabien] We seem to collect mostly menswear titles, a few of our favourites are L’Officiel Hommes, Homme+, Fantastic Man, Slurp, Useless, Self Service, Dazed, 10 Men, V Man, GQ Style and Man About Town.
[Fabien] We get inspired by all kinds of things so no doubt they all probably inspired us a bit at some point. We’ll remember something we liked the look of even if we can’t remember where. But there is some amazing stuff they all do, and some amazing photographers.
Hero is widely available in London and a few other select UK locations. You’ve also got international distribution in the pipeline. What’s the bigger Hero picture? All going to plan, where do you see Hero in five years time?
[Fabien] More pages, more locations, big holidays and people saying, “yeah, I saw him in Hero, he’s going places.”
More here: Hero.
I HEART SWEDEN
Above: Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair
Founded by Swedish duo Astrid Olsson and Lee Cotter in 2004, Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair is where it’s at. Seriously.
I’m in love. Win 10.000 SEK (that’s about £850 or $1,370 USD) to spend on Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair clothing here. I’ve entered, you should too. Good luck.
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