The Random House dictionary defines beauty as the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality. We thought that the quotidian use of this definition was narrow. To illuminate our vision, we added intellectual (no reference to Shelley) as a qualifier to stress that ‘TWILL’s beauty aspires to cross many boundaries. The utopian goal is that of giving pleasure to areas of the reader’s brain that are stimulated by the beauty of serious original points of view in fields as diverse as politics, economy, science, literature, sex, photography and art, sometimes taking shape as fashion. Definitely not an easy task! Even more difficult will be to find, in today’s materialistic and specialized world, the eclectic sensitive hearts and sharp minds that can appreciate ‘TWILL for what it is, not for what it seems to be. This is the utopia that we are recklessly pursuing.
‘Twill is a unique venture in publishing that some media have labeled an intellectual fashion magazine. The oxymoron is rather obvious and, in fact, ‘Twill is not a fashion magazine.
The elegant photography and graphics of ‘Twill make it look like a fashion magazine, but its texts deal with serious subjects or interpret visual arts in a literary key, thus creating glossy storyboards rather than fashion editorials.
Moreover, each text is printed only in the original source language (English, French, and Italian) assuming a truly cosmopolitan audience.
‘Twill is without any doubt an exclusive magazine that only few people can enjoy; therefore it does not compete with any existing title.
In fact, it will be more appropriate to call ‘Twill a quarterly book series to collect and to read now and again.
‘Twill is a work in progress, and we hope to attract very special writers, economists, philosophers, scientists, artists, designers and photographers who want to showcase their work in an international format unconstrained by editorial stricture.
The magazine is loosely divided into three sections: serious subjects, visual arts and our unique fotoromanzi, an extravagantly luscious literary retake on a classic genre of Italian-French kitsch.
Based in Paris, ‘Twill is published by TWS Press France. But it is misleading to place it in a specific country; ‘Twill is the result of a distributed effort coming from Italy, England, France and the Americas. A virtual editorial office, in essence, but this is what makes such new genre of magazine an interesting and daring challenge.
Glossy magazines are nearly always part of commercial operations whose ultimate end is profit, material or immaterial.
Therefore, publishers tailor magazines for a specific target-audience of readers/customers to satisfy, seduce or entice.
Daily, newsagents, hotels and the mail are flooded with possible magazines.
‘Twill, on the contrary, is a magazine that does not have an obvious readership, because it lacks an homogeneity of content, views, ideology or even language.
For the publishing business ‘Twill is an impossible magazine. But, sometimes, boundaries can be crossed simply turning upside down the fundamental tenets, especially if you are not afraid of the associated risks.
We, at ‘Twill, have thus decided to reverse the golden rule of publishing; instead of identifying a class of potential customers on whom to foist a magazine, we have created a publication that defines ourselves.
And we have shifted onto the market, or rather on a small fraction of it, the task of identifying with us.
To challenge the market rules has not been a difficult choice, because we are not merchants.
We hope that, amidst the exuberant cacophony of our contents, our readers will recognize the only rigorous coherence that we have struggled to obtain: that of reason, heart and beauty.
Periodicity: quarterly (eventually….)
Circulation: few thousands
Editorial offices: Paris, Milan, London
Publisher: TWS Press France, a TWS-Holding subsidiary.