Purple is a French fashion, art and culture magazine, since 2004 divided into Purple Fashion published by Purple Institute based in Paris and New York, and Purple Journal, published by Les Editions Purple, based in Paris. On February 16th the first installation of Purple Fashion's new online presence was launched. http://purple-diary.com can be considered as the extension of the magazine but as a digital voice that offers immediate access to the world of Purple — including Olivier Zahm’s personal pictures as well as a look into the next issue of the magazine.

History

In 1992, Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm started the magazine Purple Prose as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980’s; much as a part of the global counterculture at the time, inspired by magazines like Interview, Ray Gun, Nova, and Helmut Newton’s Illustrated, but with the aestetics of what usually is referred to as anti-fashion. Based on their personal interests and views; Purple was, and in a sense still is, made much in the same spirit of the fanzine. The magazine quickly became associated with the "realism" of the new fashion photography of the 1990’s, with names like Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Mario Sorrenti.

In the introduction of the Purple Anthology, Zahm writes:

The art director of Purple Prose and Purple Fashion was Christophe Brunnquell until 2006, when he was succeeded by M/M Paris.

Offspring publications

Fleiss & Zahm’s collaboration has resulted in many side projects over the years:

	Purple Prosepublished from October 1992 to winter 1998 (13 issues).
	Purple Fictiona literary magazine published between 1995 and 1998 (4 issues).
	Purple Fashionpublished between 1995 - 1998 (4 issues), and 2004 - (present).
	Purple Sexea magazine devoted to sexuality, published between winter 1998 and 2001 (8 issues). The magazine was reborn as an one-off appendix for Purple Fashion Fall/Winter 2008/09, dedicated to Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi.
	Purplea fusion of Purple Prose, Fiction, Fashion, and Sexe; published between summer 1998 and 2003 (16 issues).
	Purple Booksa publishing house (1998 - 2001)
	Purple Gallerya Parisian art gallery
	Purple Journala cultural magazine published 2004 - (present) in a French and an English version.

Since 2004, Purple is divided in two different publications; Purple Fashion magazine (edited by Olivier Zahm and published by Purple Institute) and Purple Journal (edited by Elein Fleiss and Sébastien Jamain, published by Les Editions Purple).

Purple Fashion’s artist’s books

Since its second issue, each number of Purple Fashion comes with an artist’s book:

No.2 – Terry Richardson: Terry
No.3 – Richard Prince: The Hippie drawings
No.4 – Hedi Slimane: Interzone
No.5 – Juergen Teller: Ed in Japan
No.6 – Rita Ackermann: Good morning New York
No.7 – Helmut Lang: Selective memory series
No.8 – Dash Snow: You can't drink it if it's frozen
No.9 – Christophe Brunnquell: Annees Erotiques
No.10 – Harmony Korine: Pigxtras