I-D Soul  July 22, 2008

Veering away from the commercially minded and just plain superficial slant of previous projects such as the "Fashion Now" series the creative forces behind i-D Magazine have once again teamed up with publishing house Taschen for a hardcover book - this time an introspective affair entitled "i-D Soul".

Tackling issues as diverse as materialism, familial support systems, life lessons, and inspirational stories "i-D Soul" sounds like a chic "Chicken Soup for the Christian (Dior) Soul". Sorry. That was terrible. Anyway, it's refreshing to see a style magazine moving into more emotionally available territory even if it is just for a book.

From the publishers:"Soul i-D is a 600-page visual anthology of ideas and images featuring personal insights and contributions from some of the most creative names in contemporary fashion, music, art, and design. Looking at issues that affect all of our lives, from family values to global responsibility and personal lessons learned to inspirational survival stories, all of the best special projects are here—and with the mix of quirky irreverence that has been part of the i-D vocabulary since its launch by Terry Jones in 1980.

Contributors include: Ron Arad, Giorgio Armani, Christopher Bailey, David Bailey, Bono, Neville Brody, Hussein Chalayan, Alber Elbaz, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, Tom Ford, John Galliano, Bob Geldof, Marc Jacobs, Stephen Jones, Nick Knight, David LaChapelle, Helmut Lang, Maison Martin Margiela, Chris Martin, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Kylie Minogue, Yoko Ono, Miuccia Prada, Terry Richardson, Anita Roddick, Renzo Rosso, Paolo Roversi, Peter Saville, Wing Shya, David Sims, Raf Simons, Paul Smith, Mario Sorrenti, Sam Taylor-Wood, Juergen Teller, Wolfgang Tillmans, Dries Van Noten, Patrick Vieira, Ellen Von Unwerth, Alek Wek, Vivienne Westwood, and Yohji Yamamoto."

As long as it strikes that delicate balance between aesthetic inspiration without ever crossing into sentimental cheese I'm probably going to have to buy it. It'll look pretty good next to my Purple Anthology on the pretentious wanker part of my bookshelf.