Purple Fashion 31 – The Paris issue: ‘Paris is back. No longer do we have to run to London, Berlin, New York, or Tokyo for new discoveries — the way we did when we founded the magazine in Paris in 1992, when the city was mostly conservative, slow-moving, and opposed to change. Now, for the first time in almost three decades, Purple is devoting an entire issue to a city that in so many ways determined the aesthetic of this French magazine.
Far from being a comprehensive overview of what the city offers — in fashion, which was always great here, art, and more — this issue takes a more subjective look at what makes Paris different and sometimes hard to appreciate from the outside: how it subtly balances past and present; how it remains a city of intellectuals always looking for new ideas — in art, fashion, cinema, photography, the decorative arts, music, and literature; and how they are all conjoined in a shared bohemian lifestyle. Recall, for example, Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment and Azzedine Alaïa’s studio and gallery: their lives and their work coalesced into an eclectic Parisian lifestyle.
If the highly varied Paris artists in this issue share one thing, it’s a broad view of life and work that combines their singular focus on one art form with a strong awareness of others. They don’t define their success in purely commercial terms or through media validation. And, they may be idealistic or romantic. If so, another Parisian trait is carrying on the city’s prestigious bohemian history.’
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