Luis Venegas

Luis Venegas

Portrait of Luis Venegas
Born (1979-03-13) March 13, 1979
Vitoria, Spain
Occupation Creative Director, editor, publisher

Luis Venegas (born March 13, 1979) is the Spanish editor and publisher of three independent, limited edition magazines based in Spain: Fanzine137, EY! Magateen and Candy. He is also a Creative director who has worked for luxury brands such as Loewe, Acne, Carolina Herrera and American Apparel, and as a freelance contributor for publications such as GQ Style UK, Acne Paper, V Magazine, Butt, SSAW and Oyster.

“Just when everyone was preparing for fashion print publishing’s dying breath, Luis Venegas has reacquainted the industry with its love of hard-to-find magazines. Produced in severely limited editions, his labours of love Fanzine137, EY! and Candy (...) prove that fashion publishing has a healthy future if it serves a niche of fellow enthusiasts.”

Murray Healy, The New Creative Establishment, Interview Magazine 2010

Early career

After studying fashion design in Barcelona, Luis Venegas moved to Paris in December 1996 to work as an intern for Thierry Mugler for seven months. In 1999 he moved to Madrid to work for Spanish fashion designer Sybilla as Creative Director of Communications until 2005, followed by a brief period of nine months as Art Director for the Spanish edition of Marie Claire.

Fanzine137

In 2004 the first issue of Fanzine137 was born, with a limited edition run of 1,137 copies. The magazine is a collection of Luis Venegas’ objects of attraction at the specific time of publication. Each issue includes a Wanted list with a dream list of contributors with whom Venegas would like to work.

Every issue is different from each other: size, theme, materials, layout and graphic design changes.

Cover of Fanzine 17.137 The Black And White Issue with Timothy Kelleher shot by Thomas Giddings

The list of contributors of Fanzine137 has included Steven Klein, Terry Richardson, Alasdair McLellan, Ryan McGinley, Christian Lacroix, Javier Vallhonrat, Tom Ford, Rodarte, Richard Prince, Tim Walker, Larry Clark, Gus Van Sant, plus interviews with Linda Evangelista, Bruce Weber, Juergen Teller, Carolina Herrera, Joe McKenna, Grace Coddington and Oliver Zahm among others. It has also posthumously presented portfolios by photographers such as Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts and Francesco Scavullo.

Issue Date Title
1.137 September 2004 Anything Goes
3.137 May 2005 Corps Et Âme
5.137 May 2006 Heartbeats Accelerating
7.137 October 2006 The Sweet & Subtle Issue
9.137 April 2007 Unforgettable Faces
11.137 November 2007 We Are The World
13.137 June 2008 Ladies & Gentlemen (Vol.1)
15.137 March 2009 Ladies & Gentlemen (Vol.2)
17.137 May 2011 The Black & White Issue

EY! Magateen

Venegas launched his second magazine, EY! Magateen in Spring 2008. Originally the magazine was called Electric Youth!. The title of the magazine makes homage to Debbie Gibson’s 1989 song Electric Youth, taken from the album with the same name.

Cover of EY Magateen Brazil issue 7 with Marlon Teixeria shot by Marcelo Krasilcic

EY! Magateen addresses the energy, power and vitality of young males, most of them aged between 16 and 21 years old. Each new issue is about a specific country or a city and is limited to just 1000 copies. The group of young people on display in EY! Magateen is a mix of handsome unknowns: mostly models, emerging artists, actors and athletes. The magazine features quirky comments and suggestive nudity.

Issues 6, 7 and 8 featured collaborations with American Apparel.

Issue Date Title
1 Spring 2008 Spain by Daniel Riera
2 Fall 2008 United Kingdom by Alasdair McLellan
3 Winter 2008-2009 USA West Coast by Doug Inglish
4 Spring-Summer 2009 Argenteena by Steven Klein
5 Winter 2009-2010 Germany by Kira Bunse
6 Summer 2010 New Kids On The World
7 Summer 2011 Brazil by Marcelo Krasilcic
8 Summer 2012 Spain by Xevi Muntané
9 Spring 2014 New York by Steven Klein

Candy

Venegas’ third magazine, Candy was launched in October 2009. According to its slogan it is The First Transversal Style Magazine. Following the tradition of his other two magazines, Candy has an exclusive limited edition run of 1500 copies. It is a fashion and art magazine completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, transsexuality, cross dressing and androgyny. The title of the magazine makes homage to Candy Darling.

Unlike other publications related to the LGBT community, which generally advocate for rights form a political standpoint, Candy stands out as a celebration of this lifestyle. For Venegas, “Candy isn’t about rights, but I do think the fact it [Candy] exists helps.”[1] In an interview with The New York Times, Venegas made his statement clear:

“Gay magazines talk about the rights of gay people and the achievements of the gay movement […] I didn’t want Candy to be like that. I wanted it to be like Vogue. There are few groups of people for whom fashion, makeup and hair is more relevant.”[2]

Luis Venegas, "Bold Crossings of the Gender Line". The New York Times. 

Cover of Candy with James Franco photographed by Terry Richardson

Photographers like Bruce Weber, Terry Richardson, Steven Klein, Tim Walker, David Armstrong, Ellen von Unwerth, Ryan McGinley, Walter Pfeiffer, Juan Gatti, Daniel Riera or Danielle Levitt and writers like Tim Blanks, Derek Blasberg or Hilton Als -among others- are regular contributors.

For the launch of the second issue, Venegas collaborated with Swedish design house Acne, creating a limited run of unisex blouses named after characters from the American soap opera, Dynasty.

Issue Date Cover
1 Winter 2009-2010 Luke Worral photographed by Brett Lloyd
2 Winter 2010-2011 James Franco photographed by Terry Richardson
3 Winter 2011-2012 Chlöe Sevigny photographed by Terry Richardson
4 Summer 2012 Tilda Swinton photographed by Xevi Muntané
5 Winter 2012-2013 Connie Fleming photographed by Danielle Levitt
6 Summer 2013 Jared Leto photographed by Terry Richardson
7 Winter 2013-2014 Lady Gaga and Marilyn Manson photographed by Steven Klein

Other Projects

Invited by Christian Lacroix in 2008 he was a judge for the prestigious photography festival Rencontres d’Arles alongside Elisabeth Biondi, Caroline Issa & Masoud Golsorkhi, Nathalie Ours and Carla Sozzani.

As a Creative Director in Spring 2012 he directed a video for the launch of Loewe’s Oro Collection which became viral and highly controversial in Spain. As a result the collection sold out and it turned out to be the best seller of the year for the LMVH's Spanish brand.

In 2013 he took part as a panelist for a Fashion Seminar in Helsinki curated by Daniel Thawley in which also participated Marc Ascoli, Michel Gaubert, Jonathan Anderson, Benjamin Bruno and Karen van Godtsenhoven held at the Aalto University.

Venegas has also DJ’d in various venues around the world including Plastic in Milan, George & Dragon and Bistrotheque in London, Razzmatazz in Barcelona, Kaiku in Helsinki and at the Boom Boom Room in New York City.

He occasionally is a professor in Madrid and Barcelona.

References

  1. ↑ Simon-Geddis, Paul. "Luis Venegas is a Geek". Fashion Issue Vol.04 No.3. viceland.com: 70–72.
  2. ↑ Van Meter, William (December 9, 2010). "Bold Crossings of the Gender Line". The New York Times. p. E1.
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