Catching the curious, stupefied, almost alien look that brightens the beautiful, still freshly youthful face of Bill and Tom Kaulitz, Tokio Hotel heart and brains, makes one feel strange. They wander through the rooms of Palazzo Biscari, the splendid eighteenth-century baroque mansion in Catania - where the photoshoot portrayed in these pages was set - with a featherly, respectful and timid step, as not to interfere with the genius loci.

You might expect that these guys - grown up too fast and now 20 years of age - give everything for granted, considering the milions of copies they've sold all over the world, the last record being Humanoid (Universal), which came out exactly one year ago. But no. They move from a room to another, almost unbelieving that they can be here today. "It's a magnificent palace, an artistic treasure: there aren't places like this from where we come from", Bill mentioned with an esitant smile, referring to his hometown Magdeburg.

But it's right there, in that village know for its saltmines, once part of East Germany, where ten years ago the Tokio Hotel rock tale began. Barely 7, the Kaulitz brothers were already busy with guitars and extravagant looks, which attracted the school mates' disconcert, by whom the two identical twins were already seen as out-and-out aliens. No wonder back then Tom was already hooked on Aerosmith and guitarist Joe Perry, whereas Bill was a big fan of David Bowie and the White Duke's art of quick-change.

Stefania Cubello, in L'Uomo Vogue, October 2010 (n. 414), p. 112-119

On cover. On Tom. Frac and shirt by Lanvin; jeans by DSquared2; shoes by Hey Day Footwear. On Bill. outfit by Lanvin; papillon by Franco Jacassi; jewels by Sevan Bicakci; boots by Rick Owens. Photo by Pierpaolo Ferrari. Fashion editor Robert Rabensteiner.

Translation by Seipht

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