A new international style magazine hopes to inspire Western designers with images from the East.
34 magazine is targeting urban professionals between 25 and 45 with an interest in travel, graphic design, architecture, art and fashion.
The first issue features a five-page feature on make-up for men, a photo spread of shoes shot in a mosque, and quirky US innovations such as Botox Fund piggy banks and vinyl boots for dogs.
Murat Patavi, owner of Turkish ad agency Republica, is the founder and editor and American journalist John Weich, former travel editor on Wallpaper, is editorial director.
Weich said: “There is room for a magazine that transcends the whole cliché of a lifestyle magazine and we wanted to introduce the Eastern aspect. We have good contacts in the Middle East and will try to bring their fashion to the forefront and use the East to inspire Western designers. I think we are the first magazine to treat the East in a way that is unprejudiced.”
The title is based in Istanbul, but there are plans to open an editorial office in Amsterdam. It has attracted a number of contributors from Vogue, US magazine Surface and Blueprint.
Weich said the content would appeal to both male and female readers in a similar way to Wallpaper.
“Despite September 11, most thinking, educated people see the East for what it is; they don’t see it as a danger. I think if we succeed, it may subconsciously erase the whole gap between what is East and what is West.”
34 will have a print run of 40,000, distributed at news-stands in 24 countries in Europe, the US and Asia. The second issue is due in mid-May, after which it will be published bi-monthly.
By Ruth Addicott
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