Speaking and writing about the dragons seriously means to be slightly damaged in the sound mind. Fire-spitting mouths, sharp teeth, sharp-clawed paws, iron scales, webbed wings, gnarled tail and the small heads endowed with the human fear called «mind» which is simply absent. Only the instincts. And the prevailing instinct is not a «basic» at all, but the gastronomic one directed on the innocent beautiful little fool girls of whom, following the natural selection, the «ugly» members of a society have been getting rid for many centuries.
 

An attempt to guess the charm of Paris on pages of the magazine is akin to staring closed eyes. A city-museum and a city of museums, a permanent «shooting area» on street of which people fall in love, shed blood, give birth to detective stories and break hearts. It is impossible to learn Paris by words. Like impossible it is to feel fluids by verbal description.

ТThe day of a man’s first flight to the space I spent in Italy. This country was celebrating this event animatedly as if Yuri Gagarin was an Italian. Personally, I consider Pavel Popovich to be the first Ukrainian space hero – his cheerfulness, sense of humour and «he-man» nature have always impressed me.
The space – as a premonition of the new era of humanity – has become the reality. And queuing to it is ahead.

The dictionary of synonyms states that "treasure" is a jewellery, pearl, diamond. In my childhood this word sounded romantic to me, later it god a distinct material equivalent. Nowadays, " treasure" is rich in multiple meanings - the most precious and long-awaited ones.

When by the play of my mind I am brought to a fantastical unreality, there I feel free to walk around finding myself the fascinatingly beautiful, brilliantly clever, the sovereign of the fates, the principal heroine of a tremendous film…
That is the core of the most precious Gift that the Lord has given to people – the Gift of thinking.

 

The guiding motif of this issue I determined as Love. It has appeared to be here, there and everywhere: in architecture, clothes and accessories, words and books, restaurants and hotels – in everything, created by people in love with their craft. If one loves his job, there is no place to the unrequited love.

Iadore experiments. This issue of the magazine is a quest – a nostalgic one. For some different reasons – political, crisis and social – the horizon has been in a haze for years. We would like to direct our eyes towards the past and to walk the roads with some landmarks – the ways that people were choosing «when the trees were tall».

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This issue is devoted to a peculiar journey through India and China. It is hardly possible to enclose into one magazine a complete information about geographic and cultural fields of these huge countries, but to form an opinion about them is quite real, especially if keeping next to certain thematic bounds. Within the refined frame of this glossy edition the reader may find the most essential and interesting things, which every traveller should pay attention to while setting off to the East. Nowadays, all over the world the interest to these countries has increased to an enormous extent. Leading a healthy lifestyle, living in a harmony of body and soul according to the eastern philosophy – is a popular pastime among the Europeans.

The revolution that nowadays takes place before the very eyes of the amazed fair sex – has become the main theme of this issue. Plastic surgery – its apologists and opponents, the alternative methods of youth preservation, healthy life-style, the best clinics of plastic surgery, interview with the leading specialists, professional cosmetologists` advice, the most up-to-date methods of face and body treatment – Platinum 21 includes all the topics, which may help the beautiful readers to make the right choice: to leave for getting a "new face" in Switzerland, France or Kiev, to trust surgeons or to spend money for the most modern and up-to-date cosmetic preparations that are based on the achievements in the sphere of intracellular skin processes.

Platinum 20 is devoted to Africa, all the information of which – being picked up from school textbooks and from the children's poem "Aybolit" – has gone out of date. Nowadays this is a rapidly developing region of the world that may suggest to its guests an excellent service of the five-star hotels, the unforgettable tourist routes with deserts and savannahs, national parks with wild animals being carefully protected, the rich cultural heritage and modern African art that inspires the best fashion designers for creation of the unique collections worldwide. Simplified visa systems, holidays in the family circle and business trips due to the well-established air and sea routes leading to Africa – all this favour the demand for the "black continent" countries more and more.

Totally scuffed steps of mother-Europe still attract more and more generations from all over the globe. One would think: to visit Prague would be enough to find its architectural shapes in all other countries afterwards, three days spent in Paris would be enough to remember all the love stories by Maupassant while walking along narrow streets, and a visit to Uffizi art gallery would be enough to feel sure of having already seen all the best works of art. But no matter how many times you visit England, you will never find it banally recognizable. No political unions, open borders or globalization could break down conservatism of this nation that tries to save its identity and mentality with might and main. This issue of the magazine will help to feel the spirit of England.

Today not to write about the East, not to visit its countries, not to wear clothes with eastern motifs, not to have a dragon depicted on a clock dial, not to regale yourself with a duck cooked in a genuine Beijing style, not to devote yourself to the eastern martial arts or not to use rejuvenating cosmetics made on the basis of rare plants growing only in the Land of the Rising Sun – means to lag far behind life. Routes offered by Platinum are well-beaten by its staff, hotels worth staying at have been explored carefully, eastern kitchen does not let you put on weight - tested in practice, standards of eastern jewels are marked, names of fashionable super designers are called – nothing more is lacking to meet the mysterious and ancient East with pleasure.

Ancient castles which in many cases are very well saved and in much more cases thoroughly restored create unforgettable image of Europe, make it manysided and beautiful. It`s understandable why enterprising Americans are ready to bye most picturesque medieval European fortresses transport them across Atlantic and restore to the last brick on the new native land. But Europeans during centuries had built so many castles that there is no reason to afraid that someday fortresses will be over. Only in tiny Ireland, there are several hundred of fortresses situated in most romantic and picturesque places. If we`ll add to it all castles in England and Germany, in Italy and Spain there will be not enough place in magazine to describe them all.

To advocate something obvious and appeal to choose the best out of good is an ungrateful thing but our editorial stuff has taken it to ourselves. To be more convincing we have armed ourselves not with fantasies and pure emotions but with the facts and evidences. Because the matter in question is worth of it. We are going to discuss what of European countries you`d visit better to give birth to your beloved child, the future successor of you wealth and of you respectful fulfillments. And to put it bluntly – how much is it? And we have clarified for ourselves that the best obstetrics system is in Great Britain, best maternity hospitals are in Germany, and Switzerland is just a heaven for women in childbirth and for their babies.

Many of us can truthfully say that they are traveling to obtain new impressions. But, to say it quite truthfully, what impressions you could obtain observing famous Champs-Elysees or Athenian Aсropolis but thinking in this moment only about where to obtain a decent dinner. And in what a lovely banquet for both your stomach and soul is able to turn in every ordinary meal if you know how to choose a restaurant in this country, what to eat and in what queue. Then a beautiful fresh air, delicious landscapes on mountain slopes or wonderful seashore will become a nicest addition to your meal. So, let`s combine pleasant with useful and to create out of it something unforgettable.

Summer. The rush season for adorers to open up new environments, correct one`s attitude to the summer rest, to a lifestyle as a whole. To provide our readers with a whole possible arsenal of useful and luxurious rest means and habits our editors have decided to get an advice from the leading professionals of traveling business in Ukraine. Unanimously they say that the most popular tendency of comfort, prestigious and modern rest is to combine it with a good spa-therapy course. Revived science about water curing nowadays successfully spreading all over the world and every self respecting hotel is trying to have its own exclusive and original spa-centre. We are acquiring you with the best.

Springtime issue dedicated to foretasting of summer holidays and travels. Main personages here are Mediterranean countries: Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal. They are as always ready to give you happy opportunity of recreating at their best resorts, soaking in hot sun, restoring your health among delightful landscapes and masterpieces of classical architecture. Divine Crete, golden beaches of Liguria, famous "pearls" of Catalonian coast: to speak more is just a wasting of time. You can travel also to Milan which is famous by its luxury shops and fashion exhibitions, to ancient and ever-young Rome, architecturally fantastic Barcelona. In the magazine there are also some interviews by well-known people and at the same time real travel-funs.

One may travel very quickly, without any definite purpose, but results of such travel are predicted - they are a headache and total irritation. There is a way to travel slowly and with comfort, and as result to get a great number of delightful emotions. Such way of tourism in full measure "old merry England" can teach you. May be some prudish but always sincere she is ready to give you an opportunity to live in real Royal apartments, take a thorough look into the richest in the world museums, and just see beautiful landscapes that had not a bit changed since Turner`s times.

Singapore. The "Platinum" hunters for rarities have never gone so far before.
The editorial staff expected them to be nearly "scalped", bubbling with stories about terrible poverty and savage customs, which prevail in those places. However, they returned with their eyes popped out in amazement and with the pictures of an alien, fantastic city, which has no equal. It turned out that the East is not only the raising sun, but also a civilization, which is destined to be dominating on our planet in the future.

The first notable victory is that the covers of our magazines, which are demonstrated in London, alongside with the most fashionable European magazines, are not inferior to them either in the quality of printing or in aesthetics of the genre.
Moreover, the jubilee issue is devoted to Holland, which is famous not only for its very tasty cheese but for its special, distinctly different mode of life, which could be put as barely acceptable for us (we mean drugs and free love).
We accept Holland of "the old masters" and the unique architecture of its cities. This is the only country in the world, which is situated below the sea level.

Paris and Venice - there is no more beautiful and wiser remedy for getting away from your troubles: One can speak about these two cities for hours on end, and each time, getting back to their love blessed streets and squares, rediscover them over and over again. However, cognition comes through comparison, that is why alongside with a rapturous ode to the most popular and most visited places, the reader finds the Elounda hotels in Greece to be less noisy and more charming in their seclusion.

Traveling from the European civilization to the realm of eternal snows, and then to the South, to the Mediterranean zone, with its almost African environment and palm-lined streets, and all this traveling is done by car or train in less than 48 hours - it could only be in Switzerland!
Myths and reality of the richest country of the world. Is it good for a Russian to live there, or better to master it by short "incursions" during various seasons of the year?

Always trying to stick to the point, the editorial staff decides to issue thematic publications of the magazine, devoted to different countries. Sure enough, Austria could not fit into one issue, and that was why it was decided to get back to this absolutely dreamy place, created by God in one of his best moods.

Absolutely unexpected for the editorial staff, Mark Zaharov made a royal present to the magazine - he wrote an exclusive essay discussing the topic of luxury and its meaning in the modern society. The essay raised the benchmark of published material, and now the editorial staff has to live up to it.
The editor-in-chief pays meticulous attention to each edition cover, as it is the face of the magazine, making searches in different areas, which, undoubtedly, gladdens the readers' hearts.

The time has come when the editorial staff realized that one could not speak about the outstanding European designers, jewelers and watchmakers separately, without describing places, where they grew. That was why the topic of traveling was brought to the forefront, traveling not as an acquaintance with the sights of this or that country, but as a deep penetration into the secrets of creativity.

We are always upraised by our intimate feelings, which are realized at different degrees of the talent. It is not for nothing that speaking about the greatest works of art, we, as a rule, use the term "divine". The death of the Pontifex in the Vatican left an imprint on the magazine contents, too. The issue paid attention to the philosophical understanding of the purpose of luxury in man's life.

As usual the issue starts with the column "12 Things Worthy of Being Called Platinum" - the world's best watch, airplane, cognac, ladies handbag, extravagant jewelry piece and: a domino piece at the price of a car.
The magazine starts understanding, valuing and enjoying refined photo sessions, which are more eloquent than words.
The geography of coverage has widened: Morocco and London, Provence and Crete, but this is just the first attempt at describing the places, which the magazine will portray at length in the future

The essay about the world-famous photograph is beside the description of the technical monster - the Hummer car; St. Petersburg's modern urban sculpture competes in popularity with a 150-year-old festival in Lyons.
The magazine columns have become more diversified and targeted at a certain circle of people, who know the true value of luxury.

It was our first attempt at writing, which not only escaped the fate of being upsetting but also succeeded in catching the attention of people, who know how to live in good style no matter what their means are.
From the very outset, the magazine's style struck the right note of conversation with the reader - confiding, showing respect to people, who have sufficient financial means, but, due to various reasons, are unaware how to use these means properly, thus, not showing off their wealth but demonstrating their good taste.