Katie Grand’s Perfect Magazine’s Print Edition Engages Music, Video, And Social Media For Its Launch
Today, Katie Grand releases her first print issue of Perfect Magazine. With a release of 20,000 copies, “Issue Zero”, which feels more like an art book than a fashion magazine. Coming in at 464 pages, the square-shaped magazine resembles an album cover, and includes a Perfect Gucci flexi disc, (that can be played on a turntable). The disc, with artwork designed by Gucci’s Creative Director Alessandro Michele, is an exclusive recording of a musical artist from Perfect and Gucci’s collaborative project entitled Notes from the Underground.
Perfect Magazine’s first print issue features models Kate Moss and Ajok Madel, actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, previous executive editor of WWD, Bridget Foley, TikTok star Dixie D’Amelio, and a portfolio of images of England in lockdown by Alasdair McLellan. Other contributors include photographer Rasharn Agyemang, writer Pierre A M’Pelé (aka Pam Boy), artist Laetitia Ky and photographer Trunk Xu. And lastly, musicians from the Notes from the Underground project are photographed by Steve Mackey,(and due to the pandemic – when he could not, they photographed themselves). These images, cloaked with an after-dark atmosphere of a gig in some intimate underground venue, are featured alongside interviews with the artists.
Grand launched Perfect last September, after leaving Love, the magazine she founded with Condé Nast in 2009. Most of her Love team came with her, along with a few new notable team members and collaborators. Perfect‘s “Issue Zero”, was put together by an editorial collective made up of: Ben Cobb, Paul Flynn, Murray Healy, Soraya Lamari, Jeanie Annan-Lewin, Pierre A M’Pelé aka PAM Boy, Graham Rounthwaite, Catherine Russell, Amelia White, and Bryan Yambao aka Bryanboy.
I brought together a group of very smart, curious, and forward-thinking people to not only put together a print magazine but also work on digital, fashion, and music projects with brands and designers. In today’s tumultuous times, it’s important to remember this needs to be a moment for radical thinking and free-flowing ideas.
– Katie Grand
One of those projects, Notes From The Underground was born when Perfect Magazine partnered with photographer and musician, Steve Mackey who is best known as the bassist for the band Pulp. The goal was to turn the spotlight on notable musicians unable to record or perform due to the pandemic. Mackey worked with Gucci’s Alessandro Michele to draft a shortlist of talents from across continents and genres, all connected by the fact they work at the more experimental edge of their field. Those artists were then invited to create a film of themselves performing live. Videos of the performances, which were shot across the globe, will be available to watch on Perfect’s YouTube channel.
Original artwork by Alessandro Michele
All musicians were given complete artistic freedom to document their performance in any way they wished, along with access to Gucci’s Spring and Pre-Fall 2021 collections. The only instruction was that their presentation should have “a nocturnal edge,” Mackey explains, “because that is when music is at its most powerful.”
The artists taking part in Notes from the Underground include Angèle David-Guillou, Doon Kanda, Douglas Dare, the Ebinum Brothers, Equiknoxx, Hatis Noit, Hsien Ching, Jockstrap, Kate NV, Lotic, Lol K, Minsky Rock, and Oliver Coates.
The Perfect Gucci Flexi discs have been sent to all the artists involved, as well as to friends of the magazine. They have been invited to film themselves as they play the flexis on their turntables and upload the results to TikTok, creating an intergenerational collision of media platforms.
The magazine will be distributed via Dover Street Market, select Gucci shops, specialty bookstores and online, selling for $48.
Perfect Cover
Photographer | Zhong Lin
Music Director | Steve Mackey
Creative Director | Katie Grand
Fashion Editor | Jeanie Annan-Lewin
Talent | Hsien Ching
Kate NV Photo
Photographer | Jenia Filatova
Music Director | Steve Mackey
Creative Director | Katie Grand
Fashion Editor | Jeanie Annan-Lewin
Talent | Kate NV
