Distill : The Best of the International Fashion & Style Press

[MissMagAddict]

source | distilldigital

As its name suggests, Distill is a distillation of the very best fashion and style editorial from across the globe. We have scoured every magazine - from household names to the most obscure titles - in order to showcase the most inspiring content to stimulate you in your work and everyday lives.

Each issue will contain Distill's selection - made by top creatives from all over the world - of the most beautiful and challenging fashion and style images to appear in print. The international Distill team not only includes those involved in the fashion business but creatives from a wide range of disciplines - all of whom have been chosen for the openness to new ideas and their sensitive understanding of the best visual approaches.

Those who have contibuted to our launch issue include British designers GIles Deacon and Matthew Williamson, the American founder of Visionaire Stephen Gan and Juliet Warkentin, Director of Content for WGSN, from Canada. Joining them on our Editorial Board are Chiemi Isozaki, Editor of Japanese title PingmMag; Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum in London; Natalie Massanet founder of Net-a-Porter and the Brazilian designer Lenny Niemeyer, as well as many more global figures.

Along with the broad selection of fashion and art photography we feature, each bi-monthly issue of Distill will contain expert commentary on the chosen stories, and include checklists of exhibitions, shows, new trends, book reviews and critiques of events happening around the globe.

Art and Creative Directors, Stylists, Photographers, Editors, Writers, Designers, Film-makers and anyone who cares about fashion in its many guises; tell all of your creative friends - this one is for you.

Colin McDowell
Editor in Chief

REVIEW FROM magCulture

I just picked up the launch issue of Distill. Billed as ‘The best of the international fashion and style press’, it’s a bi-monthly collection of work from various magazines selected by the editors and an editorial board that includes fashion designers Giles Deacon and Matthew Williamson alongside Stephen Gan from Visionaire, Deyan Sudjic from the Design museum here in London and Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massanet.


A pretty sound bunch of selectors, then, and their choices are presented very cleanly and simply. Divided into sections (Womanwear, Menswear etc) there’s an intro explaining the selections and highlighting themes, and then the various fashion stories are re-printed in full, and without further commentary, as they appeared in their original magazines.

When I first heard of the project I wasn’t sure publishers would be willing to contribute whole features like this, but full marks to the Distill team for making it happen. It can only help independent publishers to have a project like this out there.

Choices are wide – womanswear includes shoots from V, Numero, Acne Paper, S and The Room – and the comments intelligent. But it’s a difficult thing to present a series of disparate shoots like these in one run of pages, and I sense the magazine designers struggling how to deal with this. There are plenty of arresting images but any sense of pace is lost as you jump from story to story without ads or other visual relief. This, together with the way designers have opted for a pared back design so as not to conflict with the material they are presenting, leaves Distill itself rather cold and characterless.

It’s a very difficult area of editorial design, designing to present other creative work like this, but I can’t help feeling Distill could do it better. Perhaps the images of magazines are just too clinical and un-emotive?

Design aside, it’s great to see independent magazines being examined like this. Distill is an interesting idea that should develop to be a very useful resource for magaholics everywhere.

source | magCulture

 

[TREVOFASHIONISTO]

where is it sold?

 

[MissMagAddict]

^I haven't seen it yet. I asked my Independent Mag Store to get it & they said they could so I'll pick mine up there. It seems as though B&N or Borders should stock something like this though. It just came out in the UK so I'd say look for it in a week or so.

 

[OriginalSin]

^ It's available in NYC already! I saw it at Around the World on 40th between Fifth and Sixth (for anyone living in NYC who wants it).

 

[tigerrouge]

I haven't seen it anywhere in the UK yet, I hope it's not going to be madly contradictory - a magazine that brings together hard-to-find international content which itself is hard to find in its own country of publication.

This would be better going out to people who don't have access to varied newsstands (those who do are probably buying all those magazines already and will have no real need of Distill).

 

[MissMagAddict]

From what I've seen on their website some of the mags featured I can't get where I am. I'm willing to at least give it a chance for one issue & I think for someone like me it might be quite useful. It will be interesting to see what their editorial board considers to be the best edits, etc. to feature.

 

[tigerrouge]

I see none of those magazines, not a whiff of them ever, so it's a guaranteed sale to me for every page of content... when people in the US already have it, I wonder, is it going to be yet another of those London-NY things and everybody else's small-town newsstand be damned.

 

[surrealseven]

Where can I find this in Asia?

 

[Gold Star]

^ I have seen it in different stores in Hong Kong

 

[MissMagAddict]

some content...






source | flickr:chiclooks

 

[BerlinRocks]

it looks a lot like the french free magazine MAGAZINE ....
non ?

 

[Batgeline]

Showcasing the work of magazines I can't get, in one I won't be able to get either.
Looks promising though, I'm thrilled about the idea of presenting the work published in major magazines along with the more unknown ones. As far as I know, magazines like wig and acne paper only have 5-6 issues out yet.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Distill #2


source | distilldigital

 

[BerlinRocks]

^you're back !!!!!!!

 

[MissMagAddict]

Distill has returned as an iPhone App.

 

[ysljunkie]

^need.

 

[tigerrouge]

I think that's an improvement on the paper-based publication, because the idea behind Distill is not to present anyone's work in any depth, but to give people a collection of images as a taster of what's going on, a starting point for further exploration. And this way, more people can access it.

 

[fashionismydrug]

I'm so happy Distill is back. It was really interesting seeing other people perspective of what is great and I got to see content from magazines that I couldn't find or couldn't afford!

 

[fashionismydrug]

I hate paying for apps but I guess the $4.99 is worth it...

 

[cottonmouth13]

I only have the first issue of this one. It's kinda' sad 'cause I wanna have the second issue but can't seem to find it here.