01/12/2005 05:57:00 PM 
For their 44th issue themed Toys, Visionaire has collaborated with urban toy creator, Kidrobot, to create an original Visionaire soft vinyl toy, and then further collaborated with 10 fashion designers - including Donatella Versace, Heidi Slimane, Karl Lagerfeld, Dolce & Gabanna, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, and Viktor & Rolf - to customize the toy into 10 different characters. The issue is released in two sets of 5 toys, but each set contains photographs of all 10 characters. The characters and booklets are packaged inside an opaque molded plastic case, and sold with the magazine for $175.00. While not super-limited by toy standards (small batch is usually less than 500), the 2000 run are still limited edition.
The Asian toy culture phenomenon popularized by twenty and thirty year-old hipsters is usually considered an urban trend, not runway. Yet this collaboration works for a number of reasons. First, designer fashion and designer toys are recognized as collectible art forms. Both are artist-created, manufactured limitedly, and mainly distributed in boutiques. And the idea further connects with consumers by being in the right media environments - the visually driven, text-free magazine and the display at the Visionaire gallery in Soho give more meaning and texture to these toys. In short, the collaboration works because Kidrobot and Visionaire share similar approaches in creating and distributing their product.
A second Toy issue is planned for March and will feature ten more Kidrobot collaborations with designers such as John Galliano, Helmut Lang and Rei Kawakubo.
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