Twin Magazine

I should really wait to spend some quality time with Twin before posting it up, but a little late-night glimpse in a pub recently was enough to warrant a bit of prematurity. A simply beautiful hard back magazine (that is closer to a book) with contributions from the likes of Miranda July, Sir Peter and Rose Blake, Niall O’Brien and The Selby leave me short of excuses not to do everything in my power to scrape together the necessary £15. Intrigued and excited, we spoke to creative director and founder Becky Smith to find out a little more.

Hi Becky, we’re really liking the first issue of Twin, can you tell us how it all came about?

5 years after founding Lula magazine i grew restless, I wanted to expand and create something more grown up, versitile and stronger. Something that still looked gorgeous but something that really said something as well…. it is possible to have the best of both worlds. So I hand picked an amazing team, the best of London, Aimee from British Vogue, Francesca Gavin from Another magazine, Celestine Cooney from Dazed and Confused, Naomi Miller from Harpers Bazaar. Hianta Cassam Chenai heads up the website. Together we worked hard and fast as a team… and here we are :)

How do you decide on who/what to feature?

Gut instinct helps a lot… I either love it or hate it… if I’m not sure it probably shouldn’t be there! I also work with good people who I trust and believe in.

The future of print magazines has been bought up so much recently, so it seems like a brave thing to be launching a hard-back, reasonably expensive publication. What do you think it adds to and already saturated industry?

Well this one can’t be thrown away as easily! (with the present economy status I think people are looking for that something extra)… I’m a big magazine nut, I’ve collected everything for years…my flat is covered from floor to ceiling with magazines. I thought about what I would want now as a fan. I want to move away from the mass marketed bog standard mag and create something that feels more unique and special. The 250 unique covers were expensive to produce but to have something that no one else has that is hand numbered – hopefully this feels special. It is the personalised touch which is very anti-magazine in a way.

When can we expect to see the second one?

April/ May next year if we get a wriggle on!

All time favourite twins?

The X factor twins… Ahhhh no erm… it’s gotta be the Olsen twins :) Or its a bit more the fasination with Diane Arbus’s pictures of twins.