The Spanish fast fashion brand Zara, which belongs to the Inditex group, is venturing into a new area: together with the British magazine Wallpaper, which specializes in design, architecture, fashion, travel, art and lifestyle, it has a 300-page one Illustrated book called “Where to now” published.
This is divided into five photo volumes, which are marketed together in a slipcase. In terms of travel and adventure, each volume is dedicated to a travel destination: Bruton in the green south-west of England, Ojai in California in the Topatopa Mountains, Galicia in north-west Spain, the Japanese island of Naoshima and the Namibian capital Windhoek.
According to Zara and Wallpaper, the illustrated book sees itself more as a “travel report than a travel guide” and also contains various notes that, together with the photos, are aimed at actual travelers as well as those who do so with their finger on the map.
“Carefully crafted images and text that suggest a calmer rhythm of life and enable peaceful encounters with shops, hotels, people, alleys, street vendors and small architectural wonders,” says the Zara and Wallpaper team.
The lyrics were written by Wallpaper editors Simon Mills and Pei-Ru Keh, and contributors Celeste Chipperfield, Jens H Jensen and Mazi Odu. The motifs were photographed by Salva López and Luis Díaz Díaz for the Galicia volume, by Sophie Green for Bruton, Den Niwa for Naoshima, Kent Andreasen for Namibia and Pia Riverola for Ojai.
The entire illustrated book costs EUR 79.95 and is available now from the Zara website. The respective photo volumes can also be purchased individually for EUR 17.95. In addition to the photo books, Zara also sells notebooks for 9.95 euros, mini notebooks for 5.95 euros and posters for 25.95 euros with the motifs from the photo books.
While Zara Home has previously offered stationery, it remains to be seen whether Inditex’s flagship brand, Zara, will venture into publishing in the future. In any case, the brand seems to want to shed its fast-fashion image and, for example, launched a first capsule collection with the Infinited Fiber Company, launched a detergent that reduces the detachment of microfibres from textiles and offers a resale program with Zara Pre-Owned , a repair service and a donation option.
The brand also launched a new line of cosmetics, Zara Beauty, or Zara Atelier, with only two collections a year, as well as collaborations with brands Clarks, Ader Error, and others.
Customers seem to like it, Inditex (not least thanks to the train brand Zara) is flying high and was able to set new records in annual sales and profit for the 2022/23 financial year.
