Magazine of the week: Hot and Cool #8
Hot and Cool has been a favourite of mine for the past few years, ever since it started out as more of a zine in 2011. Since then it has developed into a perfect-bound publication, but issue eight is a return to its less chunky roots. The new edition is staple-bound and consists of three shoots, a collection of stills from a short film, a photo series, and an interview, and its concise nature is actually really wonderful as it allows you to dwell on the images and soak up the atmosphere of each spread. The simplicity of the pictures and the sparse layout of each page reflect co-editors Alice Goddard and Theo Sian’s philosophy: their interest in fashion as something that doesn’t necessarily have to be self-conscious, and their dedication to casual styling and understated humour.
Review by Madeleine Morley
The three shoots styled by Goddard, who since starting the magazine has styled for TopShop and &OtherStories, are dreamy and playful. They remind me of hanging out with best friends as a teenager and dressing up in clothes dug out from a 99p thrift store bin. Goddard uses street cast models and puts them in odd or simple items of clothing: for Harley Weir’s stunning shoot, a lanky girl has been dressed in a bra decorated with a Rolling Stones tongue and a pair of baggy jeans (above), a laid-back look indicative of Goddard’s style. A few month’s ago the internet got very excited about the idea of ‘Normcore’, and this magazine is very much the source of the craze.
The magazine has little text, but the text it does have is very important: it hints to the narratives hidden within each shoot. ‘Nothing can psosibly go wrong’ (above) relishes the typos and mishaps of everyday life, and features two girls lazing around in a beige coloured room in white t-shirts and underwear, with funny, misspelt props littered around them like a carton of malk and a calendar turned to the month of Smarch.
Each piece is introduced by nothing other than its title, placed discreetly on otherwise empty double page spreads (above).
Photographer Theo Sion’s ‘South Park’ (above) finds beauty in the everyday – a motif that seems to be at the heart of the magazine.
‘You Know, for Kids’ (above) combines weird Halloween costumes with high street brands.
And the one piece of text, an interview with Ella Kruglyanskaya, showcases an artist who doesn’t follow a particular artistic fashion, and whose honest aesthetic is unique and entirely of her own making.
This is a magazine that is completely its own thing, emerging purely from the imaginations of its creators and inspired by day-to-day normalities and ordinary moments rather than specific fashion trends. Hot and Cool has matured elegantly and has a very distinct, iconic and charismatic voice – the images convey real personality and narrative despite the fact that it is a magazine of very few words.