Yann Weber began his career as a stylist, working alongside photographers including Giampaolo Sgura, Daniel Sannwald, Hans Feurer, Ren Hang, and Patrick Demarchelier, before founding Antidote in Paris in 2010. His background at ELLE and L’Express had given him the editorial instincts; what he wanted was a publication that placed fashion at the heart of a rapidly changing society — connecting it to cultural and political considerations with real opinions rather than the careful neutrality that most fashion magazines practise as a survival strategy.
Each issue of Antidote is entirely shot by a single photographer and dedicated to a main theme. Past issues have included Earth, Pride, Freedom, Survival, Desire, and Excess — centred respectively around ecology, LGBTQI+ communities, creativity, resilience, desire for change, and the analysis of excess in all its forms. The Earth issue was the first fashion magazine edition to be entirely vegan: none of the clothes used for the shoots contained leather, fur, feathers, silk, wool, or cashmere. It was not a gimmick but a demonstration — proof that fashion can function without animal products and still look extraordinary.
Over fifteen years, Weber has expanded Antidote from a print magazine into what he calls a global brand: a website, social media presence, podcast, event series including conferences and parties open to the public, and clothing lines — Antidote Wear, Antidote Re-Wear, and Antidote Merch — all of them gender-free and vegan, with collaborations from designers including Sankuanz, Xander Zhou, and Chen Peng. The magazine’s identity is mixed, inclusive, and deliberately rid of the exclusionary norms that have long characterised the fashion world. Weber, who in 2017 also began shooting his own photography for clients including Valentino, Gucci, Chanel, and Nike, describes Antidote as an ecosystem rather than a publication.
In a Parisian fashion media landscape with no shortage of heritage titles, Antidote has carved out a position that few competitors occupy: a publication that is genuinely forward-looking, committed to its values, and unafraid to use its editorial line to advocate for the shifts it believes fashion and society need to make.
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