Interview Magazine swings for the fences

Well, got a good look today of Interview‘s Sept 08 issue and the crew there has in a single issue transformed the magazine from the gasping for it’s last breath’s celebrity rag that Warhol invented so long ago to a fashion force to be reckoned with. Fabien Baron and Karl Templar have gradually been upping the ante with shoots like Mikael Jensen’s Eve Mendez spread last month, but this issue is a big, ballsy, and, I think, excellent move deeper in that direction.  To drop some names from it: McDean, Sims, Mert and Marcus, Jensen, Templer, Guido, Moss, oh, and an entire spread dedicated to Margiela!  And as if that’s not enough, they added an inch to page size and went to perfect binding.

[Insert applause].


photo: Interview Magazine Sept 08 cover, Kate Moss shot my Mert and Marcus.

Comments
3 Responses to “Interview Magazine swings for the fences”
  1. Mr. T says:

    Sounds like they’re turning into V Magazine.

  2. admin says:

    A mix of V and W sorta. A less model-booker scene than V and less society scene than W. And despite how I made it seem, there’s still def old Interview heritage remaining in there; in that the magazine is based on personalities and, well, interviews.

    (Even with the tough editorial market right now and all the doomsday talk for the publishing business, I really feel there is room for more high-end American fashion and style and culture mags. V and W are good. Vogue does it’s thing. But I think there’s a place for magazines stateside that are monthly (not bi-annual art pubs) that are pushing the envelope. And who knows, maybe as the business get’s forced further into the corner more mags will be taking risks with content and thinking outside of the old box. Going at it with nothing to loose, so to speak. Necessity, mother of invention, so forth.

    (This will quickly become a tangent…but I’ve had innumerable conversations here in NYC with people feeling the glorious time has passed, that the culture here is one directed by money and ad sales, not creativity. Ideas I agree and disagree with for reasons that amount to a lengthy essay, b/c it’s never as simple as it seems. But, this discussion always comes to the point of someone posing the question of, “so where’s the shit happening now!?!” To which I always reply confidently with thick undertones of arrogance, Mexico City and Shanghai, certainly, and Madrid is catching on. Not that I’ve any idea, but it seems to make as much sense as any other three places. Joking aside, Latin America and China are going off right now, but I think it’s time for some new blood to shake things up in the mag world in general.

    Now Interview’s team is remarkably old blood, but they’re still moving it in the right direction like they were new blood. Props.

    (Disclaimer: I’ve practically no practical understanding of the publishing business short of delivering pictures, so my opinions is one muddled with the cracking of peanuts I’m chewing and the shells I’m walking on.)))

  3. cameron k says:

    hey graeme – interview rocks!!! seriously! fabian is genius. you might want to tag your posts with all the names/subjects/etc. you talk about. really helps with google so people can type in “interview magazine” and your blog would come up but only if you tag “interview magazine”. i posted about chad pittman and when you google his name my blog comes up because i tagged his name. just something to think about. pow wow soon.