Purple Fashion

[cerfas]

You guys are much better at etymology than I!
I guess I'm interested in fashion as part of life and an expression of life, and it doesn't bother me that some of the photographs in the issues of Purple that I like are boring or don't document the clothes well. Wolfgang Tillmans is a photographer I like quite a bit, and he contributes to Purple consistently. Although some of his work bothers me I like the overall philosphy of it, snapshot photography, using the camera to do something really new that absolutely could not be done with any other medium--to capture ephemeral bits of life that could never otherwise be captured. And that is more the philosophy I think that governs Purple--not perfect or careful documentation of clothing, not polished fashion images, but imperfect depiction of the intersection of life and fashion. Well, that's what it does when it's at its best. When it's not, it's ineffective and boring. I think that is a good assessment of what I found so appealling about Purple.

 

[faust]

You guys are much better at etymology than I!
I guess I'm interested in fashion as part of life and an expression of life, and it doesn't bother me that some of the photographs in the issues of Purple that I like are boring or don't document the clothes well. Wolfgang Tillmans is a photographer I like quite a bit, and he contributes to Purple consistently. Although some of his work bothers me I like the overall philosphy of it, snapshot photography, using the camera to do something really new that absolutely could not be done with any other medium--to capture ephemeral bits of life that could never otherwise be captured. And that is more the philosophy I think that governs Purple--not perfect or careful documentation of clothing, not polished fashion images, but imperfect depiction of the intersection of life and fashion. Well, that's what it does when it's at its best. When it's not, it's ineffective and boring. I think that is a good assessment of what I found so appealling about Purple.

Well, it's not like you have fans of Vogue posting in this thread, so I think we all know where you are coming from (well, at least I do). I think some viable alternatives to purple were suggested like i-D and A. I also like to put things in context I guess, so when I see a bunch of underwhelming (subjective, yes I know) images that neither excite me nor expand my aesthetic/knowledge horizons, with a pricetag of $30 - I can't help buy have an eye-rolling who-are-you-trying-to-fool reaction. Emperor's new clothes moment, if you will. It took me a lot of flipping to buy the Yohji curated A, but I thought it was well worth it. Talk about ephemeral bits of life being capture - that shot that Johnny talked about was all that!

 

[cerfas]

Strange, I never paid much attention to i-D it seemed a bit too trashy for me--but I never really gave it a chance so I can't judge it.
I've heard a LOT about A magazine and have seen what's up their website. It seems like I would love it but I'm not sure I can invest in it at the moment. I'd definitely need to see it first. Now I have to find a way to check it out, the way you've described it is so revealing

 

[faust]

Strange, I never paid much attention to i-D it seemed a bit too trashy for me--but I never really gave it a chance so I can't judge it.
I've heard a LOT about A magazine and have seen what's up their website. It seems like I would love it but I'm not sure I can invest in it at the moment. I'd definitely need to see it first. Now I have to find a way to check it out, the way you've described it is so revealing

Yes, i-D is certainly not without bad moments or pretension, but I find that their fashion coverage is quite good. A is very hard to get a hold of in the US, but there are some images scanned in a thread we have on that magazine (I'm not sure if you've seen it). At the end of the day though, one can do much worse than Purple - I can't say that it's a bad magazine. I have two old issues, and they are excellent.

 

[cerfas]

Well, I actually for some reason thought i-D was a product design magazine. I have no idea how I got that impression.
I'm going to check out that thread now, haven't seen it yet, hopefully you can order it online or find it in New York.

 

[faust]

Well, I actually for some reason thought i-D was a product design magazine. I have no idea how I got that impression.
I'm going to check out that thread now, haven't seen it yet, hopefully you can order it online or find it in New York.

No, that's I.D. (Industrial Design). I got confused too, initially. You can get A in two locations in New York - Yohji Yamamoto boutique (where Softie and I got our copies), and St.Marks Book Shop (last I checked they were still waiting for their shipment to arrive). PM me if you decide to get a copy for sure and if you need help locating/getting one.

 

[PrinceOfCats]

Isn't 'A' magazine Terry Richardson's p*rn mag? Or am I thinking of something totally different.

 

[faust]

Isn't 'A' magazine Terry Richardson's p*rn mag? Or am I thinking of something totally different.

No, Prince, you are thinking of Purple

 

[cerfas]

Hahaha...oh poor little Purp

 

[Lena]

A mag is edited by guest designers, each time there is someone else putting the whole issue up..

i'm not a huge fan of i-D either,
some issues are cute but its been a bit too 'niche' (like for skaters) lately?
btw, its a monthly, UK 'young fashion/lifestyle' publication cerfas

 

[faust]

Hahaha...oh poor little Purp

I'm sorry cerfas, but that was one of the late issues of Purple Fashion - it was really erotica in bad taste - I saw it!!!

 

[PrinceOfCats]

I know you're all going to love this one

You can send your thank-you cheques to R. Riddick, 63...

PS Adult content and all that

 

[Lena]

No, Prince, you are thinking of Purple

purple is certainly not terry's p*rn mag

 

[cerfas]

hahahah i don't doubt it, faust! :> i hope people do not think i am overly serious...or easily offended, im not. online communication can be really stilted and bad way of communicating.
Thanks lena and faust for the clarifications about i-D.
And princeofcats--heheh. eek.

 

[faust]

purple is certainly not terry's p*rn mag

Did you see the issue that came out several month's ago? That issue certainly is .

 

[faust]

I know you're all going to love this one

You can send your thank-you cheques to R. Riddick, 63...

PS Adult content and all that

Put a WW (work warning) on that one, Prince!!! Some of us work for a living!

 

[PrinceOfCats]

Put a WW (work warning) on that one, Prince!!! Some of us work for a living!

Sorry As the 'edit' button's gone this is an 'official' warning to all of you who are at work.

PS I am your boss! Kidding...

 

[metal-on-metal]

Isn't 'A' magazine Terry Richardson's p*rn mag? Or am I thinking of something totally different.

No, you're thinking of RICHARDSON, which is a softcore p*rn/fashion magazine by stylist Andrew Richardson. No relation to Terry. He does a lot of work with Mario Sorrenti and David Sims. Great stylist. But RICHARDSON comes out very, very seldomly. In fact, I haven't seen it in about a year.

 

[metal-on-metal]

And that is more the philosophy I think that governs Purple--not perfect or careful documentation of clothing, not polished fashion images, but imperfect depiction of the intersection of life and fashion. Well, that's what it does when it's at its best. When it's not, it's ineffective and boring. I think that is a good assessment of what I found so appealling about Purple.

I think that's a really great way to sum up Purple and a lot of the magazines like it.

You can get A in two locations in New York - Yohji Yamamoto boutique (where Softie and I got our copies), and St.Marks Book Shop (last I checked they were still waiting for their shipment to arrive).

I've also seen it at Universal News at Broadway and Broome. But I think they sell out of stock quite often. 212.965.9042

 

[PrinceOfCats]

Thanks! Two of the 'articles' on that site are attributed to Terry Richardson. Hence my confusion.