Issue 13 —
The Room seizes the opportunity of its thirteenth issue for a timely exploration of superstition. It’s a rather subtle approach to the topic, as one might expect from this title that is already noted for its restrained elegance. We can discover that Chinese model Liu When doesn’t like to hear the call of crows or that Russian Irina Kulikova doesn’t borrow money, the result of their respective cultural folklores, but on the whole, the issue simply gets on with its stylish diet of fashion, lifestyle and art.
As always, The Room offers surprises and a somewhat different path to content compared with many other magazines that keep it fresh and refreshing. A good example in this issue is Dal Chodha’s article on Tiggy Maconochie. Helmut Newton’s agent for some twenty years and now the manager of his estate, it’s a fascinating portrait of someone who is, in reality, a key player in how photography has come to fulfill the particular place that it now occupies within out visually voracious global culture.
Hanna Johanna Kóbor’s interview with Ed Templeton also demonstrates exactly how the traditionally rigid boundaries between fine art and commercial art have altered in this new world scenario. His trajectory from skatekid to internationally feted visual artist is a prime example of just how much things have changed in the world of ‘high culture’. More importantly, it also offers an intimate insight into exactly why Ed has succeeded is bending the rules.
On the fashion front, in amongst the many eye-pleasing stories, one can’t help but be grabbed by Johan Sandberg’s ‘Multiverse’ shoot, styled by Rossana Passalacqua, that draws on 1930’s notions of the future with a dash of eighties’ futurism to create a stunning environment for the best of current collections.
May 2011 196 Pages
It's Only Superstition Multiverse Palette Chromatique Canon and Gunpowder White Stripes True Beauty Man in the Mirror Playing Nicely Special / Unspecial Girls of Givenchy The DITY-Dandy Is Back Tiggy Maconochie Somewhere Else
Ali Toth
Zoltan Lonovics
Marton Perlaki
Aniko Virag
Our Take —
The Room is a Hungarian bilingual magazine that was founded some five years ago. Since then it has grown from a fledgling example of central European luxury publishing into a confident publication. Printed on high-quality paper in a slightly oversized format, it has a sumptuous feel to it; heading in the direction of a coffee table tome.
Editor-In-Chief Ali Tóth and Fashion Director Anikó Virág oversee its content of fashion, art, design and culture which often has a central European focus to it, providing a fresh and insightful vision on such topics away from the same old centres that usually dominate. The overall art direction of Zoltán Lonovics is restrained and elegant allowing the fabulous photography a suitable framing.
Even during the troubled communist era, Hungary’s old connection with the Austro-Hungarian Empire gave it something of a special relationship with some of its Germanic neighbours that other eastern and central European states did not share. Now, steadfastly one of the newer EU members, it’s easy to see just how and why the sensibility of the magazine would readily appeal to a broad sophisticated readership in central and northern Europe. But, one of the particular delights of The Room is that it’s not too predictable. The regional talent may be well represented, but the choices of international talents on whom to do interesting articles is far from regurgitating the same old celebrities.
