Purple (magazine)

Purple

Fall Winter 2011/2012 cover
Editor-in-chief	Olivier Zahm
Categories	Fashion, Art, Culture
Frequency	Biannual
Year founded	1992 (Purple Prose) 1995 (old version) 2004 (new version)
Company	Purple Institute
Country	France
Language	English + French
Website	purple.fr
ISSN	1766-8832

Purple is a French fashion, art and culture magazine founded in 1992.

In 1992, Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm started the magazine Purple Prose as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980's; much as a part of the global counterculture at the time, inspired by magazines like Interview, Ray Gun, Nova, and Helmut Newton's Illustrated, but with the aesthetics of what usually is referred to as anti-fashion. Based on their personal interests and views; Purple was, and in a sense still is, made much in the same spirit of the fanzine. The magazine quickly became associated with the "realism" of the new fashion photography of the 1990s, with names like Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Mario Sorrenti.

In the introduction of the Purple Anthology, Zahm writes:

In 2004 it divided into Purple Fashion published by Purple Institute based in Paris and New York, and Purple Journal, published by Les Editions Purple, based in Paris. On February 16 the first installation of Purple Fashion's new online presence was launched. http://purple-diary.com can be considered as the extension of the magazine but as a digital voice that offers immediate access to the world of Purple — including Olivier Zahm's personal pictures as well as a look into the next issue of the magazine.

The art director of Purple Prose and Purple Fashion was Christophe Brunnquell until 2006, when he was succeeded by M/M Paris.

Fleiss & Zahm's collaboration has resulted in many side projects over the years:

Since 2004, Purple is divided in two different publications; Purple Fashion magazine (edited by Olivier Zahm and published by Purple Institute) and Purple Journal (edited by Elein Fleiss and Sébastien Jamain, published by Les Editions Purple).