Purple Downpour

In 1992 Olivier Zahm and Elein Fleiss launched Purple Prose, an anarchic magazine that flew in the face of the pristine glamour of 80s fashion. Since then the Purple empire—which currently comprises the biannuals Purple Journal and Purple Fashion—has become a force to be reckoned with. The latest Purple venture is the Purple Diary, a blog of Olivier Zahm's photographs of parties, flings and scandalous adventures, inspired by photographers from Helmut Newton to Dash Snow. Offhand and often sexually explicit, these images have nonetheless become compulsive viewing for fashion enthusiasts the web over, and are currently being celebrated with an exhibition at New York's Half Gallery through January 1.