Hardcore Issue

These days, few titles in the saturated magazine marketplace can grab and sustain our attention. 032c is one exception, with probing essays and insightful interviews; and the just-launched Issue One magazine endeavors to feed us visually by bringing back uncompromising and truly creative images to magazine pages.

From Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director Paulus, Issue One's manifesto is to avoid the creative booby trap of "pander[ing] to the requirements of the high-rolling, high-profile advertisers." He's working instead to put the creative reins back into the hands of a visionary team of photographers and stylists, who are free to conceive and execute their own story ideas. "Issue One has a clear message for the fashion world — transforming the obscure, creating the iconic. We do not intend to follow trends, but to be proactive and create them. We are trailblazers who intend to change the future of modern fashion by championing the cutting-edge designers who seem to have to fight an uphill battle in the most competitive of worlds," explains Paulus.

The format includes an eight-page cover that folds into the middle of the book, a feature the publishers claim is entirely unique to Issue One. On the inside, 12 photographers are given a walloping 14 pages each to lay out their stories, without being undermined by tricky graphics and call-out text. Men's and women's fashion are given equal coverage — a revolution in itself in the market-tested magazine world.

On the text front, fashion's noted writers are courted to cover "the new, brave designer, and to champion the exciting but small producer," explains Paulus. "[This] is our motivation, and one that we believe is not only sustainable, but will lead to rapid expansion and growth. This is our raison d'être." The first, very erotic issue is promising; coverage ranges from a Betony Vernon interview and bordello dolls feature by Diane Pernet, to a feature on Sorayama's gynoids by Damian Brachet.

The visuals are what drew us in first, via this summer's East London promotion of the arresting cover image of model Hannelore wearing a burgundy Chanel bag as a hat, perfectly sealed with a Chanel-ribbon bow at the neck. It's certainly more refreshing than a model clutching the bag catalog-style, but it's still a Chanel bag (with Chanel ads inside). We'll have to wait and see whether lesser-known brands will have their wares on future covers.
-Jason Campbell

Photos:
1-6 Issue One