Visionaire 21 The Diamond Issue

This issue provided two rare opportunities, among the many others that accompany the making of each issue of Visionaire. First, we were able to hand over entire series of images (in this case, card suits) to individual art directors. Fabien Baron conceived the House of Hearts as a meditation on motion with dancer Ushio Amagatsu of Sankai Juku. M/M, Paris realized the House of Spades in a variety of Parisian butcher shops. Lee Swillingham and Stuart Spalding portrayed the House of Clubs in - where else? - nightclubs. And Visionaire worked with thirteen artists to build the House of Diamonds. Mario Testino shot John Galliano as the King while Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin photographed Iman as the Queen, dressed, fittingly, in Alexander McQueen. A Bruce Weber boy toy was the Jack. The second opportunity was the incorporation of diamonds, courtesy of the Diamond Information Center, DeBeers and H. Stern, into each picture, which required the highly insured shipping of millions of dollars worth of jewels to all parts of the globe. The 3,000 issues were packaged in individual jewelry boxes, each with its own lock and key, and offered a real diamond for one lucky subscriber. Our launch party took place at The “21" Club in New York, a former speakeasy that we transformed into a faux casino complete with card tables. Another lucky winner walked away from the evening with a diamond necklace.