A Magazine Unlike Any Other

Inside the legendary Visionaire issue (yes, the one in Louis Vuitton case).

I’m still processing how lucky I am.

One day my friend Ellen Carey - who for decades nurtures and supports New York-based designers, artisans and independent boutiques - DM-ed me about one of her many precious possessions she’s collected throughout the years of working in fashion: Visionaire, issue 18 from 1996. She asked if she could gift it to me - I was mind-blown. This iconic, legendary, and incredibly scarce magazine had been on my mind for years, like a dream I thought would remain just that - a dream. We arranged carrying it to Poland (thank you so much for help Agnieszka!) and here it is, now on my top shelf.

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There are magazines, and then there is Visionaire — an entirely different creature, one that slinks out of the usual taxonomy and instead belongs to the realm of rare butterflies and collector’s desires.

Conceived by Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos, Visionaire has always been less a publication and more a sensorial playground: a cabinet of creative curiosities that spills over with wit, beauty, and the kind of ideas you think about for days afterward. It is the lovechild of art and fashion, raised with impeccable manners but a taste for chaos.

Enter ssue 18, the first-ever all-out Fashion Special. A love letter, a dare, and a reinvention - all packed into a single edition. 44 artists, photographers, and image-makers were handed carte blanche to interpret pieces from 45 of the most irreverent and influential fashion designers of the moment. The result? An ecstatic explosion of timeless images and untamed imagination, from Nan Goldin channeling Helmut Lang through her inimitable, raw lens to Craig McDean unfolding a nine-page, life-size (!) visual epic featuring Comme des Garçons.

And because Visionaire never just sends you home with a dog-eared magazine tucked under your arm, this issue is encased in a Louis Vuitton monogrammed portfolio. A literal treasure chest.

Here are some of my favorite pages (the issue in unbound, so you can browse it in any order you feel like!):