A lifestyle magazine for realists, Oikos breaks the mould

Ria Roberts, editor and designer of Oikos has described the publication as “a lifestyle magazine for realists.” It’s got speculative contraception ads, an interview in a sauna – “very sweaty, very toxin free,” amateur botany and beautifully lit food waste. A fine antidote to what we shall describe as “the fifty shades of beige” lifestyle sold to us by some popular magazines, Oikos takes the tropes – such as the avocado, and turns them on their head, with old brown banana skins, sweaty mushrooms, malting hair and meds in pools of cold tea.

The word “oikos” is the ancient Greek equivalent of “household” and the origin of the prefix “eco,” it is also the name of a Greek-style yoghurt brand. In this instance, it refers to the potential of a magazine to act as an ecosystem, in terms of how contributors as well as the features themselves function as a cohesive whole. The magazine was produced as Ria’s graduate thesis at Yale, the writing is intelligent and well-observed and the photography is beautifully shot, maintaining its tongue firmly in cheek. It’s exciting to see a new iteration of what lifestyle can mean, particularly one that pushes the context so well.