Now I’m not deeply into fashion myself. Nor would I ever normally read a fashion magazine. However, I will make an exception. The ultra-exclusive, tri-annual art / fashion magazine Visionaire. That’s if I could ever lay my hands on one…
Now when I say magazine, perhaps you’re thinking sheets of paper, bound together, most likely with some text and pictures printed on them. Not so Visionaire. This is so much more than a magazine. Each issue is a work of art with its own theme.
My first introduction to Visionaire was from my university lecturer who told us with great delight of how he managed to procure a much-sought-after ‘Love’ edition as a present for his wife on their wedding anniversary (husbands and boyfriends take note). Said issue (no.38) was created in collaboration with Tiffany & Co.contained, amongst many other treasures, flowers hand picked by Kylie Minogue and a silver heart designed by Elsa Peretti. All of the artwork and tokens of love were inserted by hand into 4,000 vintage hardback novels – truly one of a kind. The boxes (which varied in size to fit each individual book) are instantly recognisable in the signature Tiffany blue with a white satin ribbon.
Visionaire 55 - Love
Visionaire 38 - Love - Flowers collected by Kylie
For the Fashion Special Issue (no.18), the packaging was a deluxe monogrammed portfolio designed and produced specially for Visionaire by Louis Vuitton himself. Needless to say these “magazines” cost hundreds of pounds, even thousands for some of the more rare back issues. If you did happen to have a spare £1000 just lying around, you can pick up an issue 18 on ebay at the moment. Let me know if you do so I can come round and have a look at it.
Visionaire 18 - Fashion Special
One of my favourite issues is 55 or ‘Surprise’ which is made up of 11 individually designed pop-ups all contained in a beautiful box.
If you’d like to see what other weird and wonderful issues there are you can see them all here. The new issue Religion (no.60) is out next month and has been edited by Ricardo Tisci in collaboration with Givenchy.
Visionaire 60 - Religion - Cover
Visionaire 60 - Religion - Carine Roitfeld photographed by Karl Lagerfeld
