Take Care i.l.y asks artists, photographers, authors, journalists and sociologists to discuss fashion

“The magazine aims to create a research space around fashion,” explains founder of new publication Take Care i.l.y Aurore Mercadé. “We’re not really interested in the news or trends surrounding fashion. We try to go a little bit deeper. Where does fashion exist? Where does it take place but not in such an obvious way?”

Based in Paris, Take Care i.l.y is the result of a tight-knit team. Aurore, the publication’s creative director and editor, created it alongside her boyfriend who she shares a workspace with, Julien Achard, and graphic design studio, PanamA5. “I met Carmen and Paul [from PanamA5] through a friend who knew I was searching for people to design Take Care i.l.y. We met for the first time and one hour later we decided to work together! It matched instantly,” Aurore recalls.

Take Care i.l.y’s distinctive name is a nod to the magazine’s ethos which aims to be aware and take care, of what they are surrounded by in terms of fashion: a factor which is easily noticeable when flicking through the publication’s first issue. Its content, although varied and transdisciplinary, is considered, creating a very specific tone of voice.

In order to push the magazine as a space for research, its contributors range from artists and photographers to authors, journalists and sociologists. Whereas other fashion magazines might ask someone heavily involved in the industry to review a recent seasons’ shows, in Runway Stories, Aurore reached out to writer and film critic Aude Jouanne to tackle the subject. “I asked her to write about three New York shows,” she explains, resulting in an altogether different coverage of fashion week.

Design wise, the magazine is bold in its use of typography, the cover being a prime example of this. “I love pop logos like MTV and Kodak,” Aurore explains, “so I wanted something that would be playful.” This playfulness is continued throughout Take Car i.l.y’s pages with unusual layouts that see texts spiralling or zig-zagging across a page. “Fashion magazines can be shy when it comes to graphic design,” Aurore adds, “but I wanted to make space for it. It also had to accommodate the text, if a writer wants to write ten pages, it had to adapt to that, not the other way around,” concluding that, “the design had to serve to content.”