CR FASHION BOOK 17 COMMUNITY, CULTURE INFLUENCE TELFAR
PIONEERS. INNOVATORS. A SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM. THRIVING DESPITE. AMAZING. AN INSPIRATION. TELFAR. @BLAKKANVAS
CR FASHION BOOK 17 COMMUNITY, CULTURE INFLUENCE SHARON ALEXIE
CR FASHION BOOK 17 COMMUNITY, CULTURE INFLUENCE SHIRA HAAS
CR FASHION BOOK 17 COMMUNITY, CULTURE INFLUENCE TEYANA TAYLOR
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CR FASHION BOOK • September 2020 • 2 Page Spread • LHP Trim: 280mm x 370mm Bleed: 286mm x 376mm Job # 711728
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CR FASHION BOOK • September 2020 • 2 Page Spread • RHP Trim: 280mm x 370mm Bleed: 286mm x 376mm Job # 711728
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CR FASHION BOOK ISSUE 17 AUTUMN/WINTER 2020 CULTURE, COMMUNITY, INFLUENCE President/Chief Executive Officer: VLADIMIR RESTOIN ROITFELD Founder/Co-Creative Director: CARINE ROITFELD Co-Creative Director and Editorial Director-at-Large: LYNETTE NYLANDER Art Director: MATTHEW TSANG Co-Executive Producer/Managing Editor: ARIELLA STARKMAN Co-Executive Producer: SHAY JOHNSON Creative, Editorial, and Digital Consultant: ÉDOUARD RISSELET Fashion and Market Editor: OLUWABUKOLA BECKY AKINYODE Fashion and Market Assistant: TYLER OKUNS Contributing Fashion Editor: MARIE CHEIAKH Assistant Editor: JOCELYN SILVER Copy Editor: JASMINE VOJDANI Design Assistant: JENA MYUNG Digital Director: SOPHIE SHAW Executive Assistant to the President/Chief Executive Officer: ANNA WELLS CROWLEY Production Coordinator: JOSHE ORDONEZ Executive Assistant and Paris Office Manager: ELISA THERRIAUD Publisher: JORGE GARCIA Advertising Manager: MANDI GARCIA International Editions Publisher: JEANNETTE CHANG Advertising Manager Italy/Switzerland HAW: MILO ANTIMI Managing Partner: ODIS MANAGEMENT Press & Communications: NIKE COMMUNICATIONS Pre-Press: PH MEDIA, part of My Logical Group. ralph@phmedia.com Print Production: LOGICAL CONNECTIONS, part of My Logical Group. greig@logicalconnections.co.uk Distribution: LOGICAL CONNECTIONS, part of My Logical Group. adam@logicalconnections.co.uk Controlled Circulation: LOGICAL CONNECTIONS, part of My Logical Group. jim@logicalconnections.co.uk Contributors: KEMI ALEMORU, MICHAL CHELBIN, DEVAN DÍAZ, EDEM DOSSOU, KENNY GERMÉ, LIAM HESS, FUMIKO IMANO, ADRIAN FIERRO LARA, ZARA MIRKIN, SUFFO MONCLOA, OWEN MYERS, BRIGITTE NIEDERMAIR, ELOISE PARRY, BABAK RADBOY, NOA RENNERT, JODY ROGAC, PETER PHILIPS, RETO SCHMID, ZORA SICHER, GRAY SORRENTI, TILLY MACALISTER-SMITH, STEPHEN TAYO, JASMINE VOJDANI, JOSHUA WOODS
“CR Fashion Book” is used by CR Fashion Book LTD. under license from its owner. Copyright 2020. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.K. CR Fashion Book (BIPAD 29799) is published biannually by CR Fashion Book LTD. Principal Office: 405 Greenwich Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013. Postmaster: Send address changes to ICN,CR Fashion Book, 2900 Veterans Highway, Bristol PA, 19007. For subscriptions, address changes, and adjustments, please contact ICN, CR Fashion Book, 2900 Veterans Highway, Bristol PA, 19007. Tel: 215-7887112. Email: crfashion@icnfull.com. For press inquiries, please contact Full Picture. Tel: 212-627-0001 Special Thanks: MICHAEL CLANCY, RON HARTLEBEN, MICHELLE JONES. ALEX KNOLL, GIA KUAN. KYLE LUU, GIULIA MASSULLO AT PGDM CASTING. IMG MODELS, PIERGIORGIO DEL MORO, ANDREW SAUCEDA, JEFFERY SCHNABOLK, SHEA SPENCER, BEZA TEFARI, AMBER TURNER-RAMSAY
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MASTHEAD 28/09/2020 11:57
WHY SLOWING DOWN COULDN’T COME FAST ENOUGH
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For my entire life and career, I’ve had the opportunity to surround myself with a collective of inspiring creatives that’s evolved over time into what I’m proud and honored to call my community today. This group of talents, one I instinctively gathered and fiercely praised, was crucial to the development and definition of the very style I’ve become known for today. Whether it be the work of Telfar, whose logo-embossed tote has become a powerful symbol for those who proudly choose to carry social and cultural values over a price tag, or the photographers, makeup artists, stylists, celebrities, and designers that contributed to this issue, community has proven to be essential to the success of any entity within our industry. This principle leads our new issue, which at first seemed admittedly overwhelming to complete during a year that has brought our world to a halt. Never in the history of CR have we been challenged to conceive and produce an entire magazine in less than two months, and this on top of the constraints we are all facing due to the devastating spread of the virus. However, restricted travels, remote work, and global bans all failed to prevent us from fulfilling CR’s mission: to convey messages and raise awareness on crucial topics through fashion. Another first was welcoming Lynette Nylander as co-creative director and editorial director-at-large for CR Fashion Book. With a new and diverse team of talents, we challenged ourselves to our very core to create this 17th issue. While signing off and empowering the editorial team and their written content, it was a gift to collaborate and oversee photography and fashion aimed at showcasing and supporting new talents that I believe have the power to reshape and lead tomorrow’s industry. “For a more creative brain, embrace constraints,” they say. From Zoom photoshoots to permanently scouting new local talents, we’ve known no comfort zone. And I can’t wait for you to enter this new territory of creative perseverance and unsilenced self-expression. — Carine Roitfeld
At 16, sitting in my bedroom in London’s suburbs, I thought a lot about fashion. I substituted what I didn’t know about the industry with visions of glamour and excess. I watched blurry livestreams (thanks, dial-up internet) of runway shows and looked at shoddy scans of fashion editorials in magazines I couldn’t afford to buy on The Fashion Spot. What I saw from the industry, while alluring, didn’t have much to do with my reality. The vision was singular, pretty unattainable and, more importantly, dizzyingly lacking in the inspiration that it could have provided to be a true celebration of creativity, no matter where you lived and what you looked like. And that’s how the industry churned on, until pretty recently. Until, not only what is represented in fashion shows, but also the infrastructure that lies behind it, transformed. Burnout meant a need to slow down, a moment to take stock and to ask why we were doing what we were doing in the first place. Then, COVID-19 happened, and we had no choice. The world stopped moving, money stopped being made, and fashion, like so many industries,needed to shift to survive. Without COVID-19,I doubt the chasmic resonance of the Black Lives Matter movement would have had time to echo the world over. And long may it continue. This issue of CR, I hope, in some way speaks to a moment and sheds a spotlight on exciting new names and established voices that inspire hope. Within the CR team, we asked, what does fashion do now? And what should the industry represent? My hopes? I hope that we get back to a basic understanding that the community, the people who you live your life with every day, are of the utmost importance. They need to be seen, they need to be heard, and if you are in a position to give them a voice, do so. Use any position of influence you have to enact change and be the change you want to see. And no matter what you do, contribute to a culture that makes other little 16-year-olds feel that they belong. — Lynette Nylander
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EDITOR’S LETTER 28/09/2020 11:58
As the industry adapts to unprecedented shifts, the Fall 2020 issue of CR Fashion Book asks: Where do we go from here? WE ASK
Who are the voices of today? What are they trying to say? How do we amplify them?
FOR CR
The future of fashion does not look back — it looks forward, and continues to innovate. The industry is united in its thinking to tell a story that goes beyond just clothing.
Fashion in 2020 puts COMMUNITY first: organic and eclectic tribes of people who act as a conduit for a brand’s story. It celebrates CULTURE and storytelling that make fashion appeal to new ways of living, and it uses its INFLUENCE and reach to be a catalyst for change. For the Fall 2020 issue, we at CR empowered our band of creatives to explore the ideas of COMMUNITY, CULTURE, and INFLUENCE. We celebrate fashion’s trailblazers, who have always used their vision to push the industry to its limits, and gave them space to tell their own personal stories. IMAGINE FASHION, AND THE WORLD, FOR THE BETTER.
ISSUE 17 COVERS ( Left – Right ) Teyana wears Jacket by SACAI, Bra, underwear and knit leggings by ISA BOULDER Rings, earrings, and bracelets by CARTIER Sharon wears corset by CADOLLE Jacket and pants by VALENTINO Halima wears jacket by BALENCIAGA Durag (worn on head) by TELFAR Halima wears Tracksuit by Y/PROJECT Top by ADIDAS. Scarf (worn on head) by CHANEL Earrings by CARTIER Shira wears Dress by BALENCIAGA
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MANIFESTO 30/09/2020 10:38
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EDITOR’S LETTER Why Slowing Down Couldn’t Come Fast Enough
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GUCCI Familiarity Breeds Content
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THE TRAP Devan Díaz
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TELFAR Lynette Nylander in conversation with Telfar Clemens and Babak Radboy
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MANIFESTO
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ALL DRESSED UP AND NOWHERE TO GO Liam Hess
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BRIGHT IDEA
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TEYANA TAYLOR In Bloom
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LACOSTE En Double Mixte
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SHIRA HAAS Rear Window
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COLLECTIONS Beautiful Stranger
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HALIMA ADEN Model Citizen
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DIOR Face Forward
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SHARON ALEXIE Feeling Good
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CR COMMUNITY Family First
TELFAR Cover Credits: Angelika Tomshina @noonnnaameeee, Adam Burack @phlegmtop, Adam Loutf @adamtlo, Alexandra Stark @aleerose, Amanda Breeze Albert @amanda_breeze, Amber Aisha @amberaisha, Amber Wilson @iam.ambyr, Anajah Hamilton @icecreameaterrr, andrea vallé @andreavalle, Ari Aisha @gtgyal_, Arielle Francois @ariellefrancois, Ashley Peña @ashleympena, Auqeno @auqeno, Bence Tugyi @tugyibence, Brandon Wilkinson @abluememory, Bravo @BravoJayna, Brix Carlos Escobar @brixthebadass, Chiaki Ohara @chelsea_chiaki, Coco and Breezy @cocoandbreezy, Courtlyn “Court Kim” Montgomery @thecourtkim, Damazhae “Mazhae” Neal @mazhaeneal, Dasani Mathis @Dasfather, Daysia Howard @daysiaah, Dee Williams @hideexdee, Dupree Stansell @dupreerolls, Elaine @foreveronlaine, Emily Un @emily.un, Enam Asiama @enamasiama, Evan Luis @evanluis, Fantagbe Camara @lumierenyc.shop, Geelherme @geelherme, Green Kim @_narakimmm, Halle Cherry @hallecherry, Imani Walker @selfcaremoodboard, Isiah Ahmad @isiah.ahmad, Jaleel “Leel” Dorcé @leelsoflee, Jalen Dominique @jalen.xx, Jay Stallworth & Reginald Hawkins @jaystallworth, Justin Romero @papaquans, Kade Giselle @astoldbykade, Karina Austin @Karina_Austtin, Kayla Imani Holliday @kayla.iman, Lauren “Leaux” Miller @_laurenlovesyew, Lauren Hutton-Work @laurennwork, Legssss @shop_legssss, Lindsay Amir Wright @lindsayamir, Lluvia “Jubi” Perez @jubiworldwide, Louise Chantál @shrimpndgrits, Louise Chantál @shawnapeezy, Luthfi Darwis @luthfidarwis, Malisa “Juice” Heard @liltraveljuice, Mariah Escoba @mv.esco, Martine Witt @slugtitz, maya finoh @savagexfatty, Maya Lovejoy by Marz Lovejoy @marzyjane, Melanie M. Griffin @melegancy, Michael Umesi @umesi__, Monica Caicedo @a1ittlegirl, Morticia Godiva @Elidsaint, Narea Wilson @shesadeity, Natalie & Aurora Dojcinovic @natahbee, Nia Bell @nmacherie, Nise Garrett @_niseg, Nish Davis @dadevilwearspleasers, Noah Jean-Michel Domond @holdorganicbeef, Olivia Thornton @l1tlivv, Osaze Akil Stigler @blackandbrwn, Paige Brown @onthattpaige, Raina Joseph @raydrizzyjay, Raven Smith @o.asisss, Redd Li @SunFilth, Reef Destro @reefdestro, Richard “Dick” Cole @thickrosstheboss, Rose Golden @rgflicks_, Ross Leonardy @rossl, RYANSONHOANG @ryansonhoang, Sagal Mohamed @sadgal85, Sallen Woewiyu Jr @sallendasilva, Samantha “Cake” Robles @tattoosbycake, Sara Carter @b0diqua, Shawna “Peezy” Spears @shawnapeezy, Suni Mullen @sunimullen, Tonoia Wade @_kfct, Yung Kazi @yungkazi, Zach Arthur @darkstoutarizona, Zerek Green @zergreen, Ziggy Mack-Johnson @ziggymackjohnson, Devine Blacksher @devinemarieblacksher
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CONTENTS 29/09/2020 10:27
ALL DRESSED UP AND NOWHERE TO GO We’re all desperately in need of a good party, a night out with dancing and cocktails and bacteria-ridden cheek kisses. But while that’s out of the question, how can we bring the party home, or at least dress like we’re going to one? We turned to the lessons Parker Posey’s legendary Party Girl for sartorial inspiration. 32 032_CRF.indd 32
Words by LIAM HESS 24/09/2020 16:14
Sketches courtesy of Party Girl’s costume designer, Michael Clancy
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a self-isolating person in possession of a good wardrobe must be in want of a night out. At this point, I’d just take dinner. And I’m certainly not the first person to make this observation, but after being holed up in our apartments and homes for this many months, every day has begun smudging into the next. Everything sits under a fog of amnesia. I can’t remember who I spoke to on the phone yesterday, or whether I went to the shop this morning, or what I had for dinner last night. I certainly couldn’t tell you anything I’ve worn for the past week. It turns out my life before was punctuated by revelry, and without that as a framework on which I hang all the other less exciting parts of my life, everything seems to have collapsed. So how do you recreate the feeling of going out at home on your own? The obvious answer, I suppose, is to watch other people do it. It would explain why I’ve been watching so many films, and really giving myself over to them, letting myself fall headfirst into the shots of nightclubs and the music and the high heels. During the first weeks of lockdown, I rewatched Party Girl. The 1995 indie film stars Parker Posey as debauched downtown club kid Mary, who turns her life around by learning the Dewey Decimal System and becoming a librarian. But the movie primarily serves as a snapshot of a moment in time, one that is shown primarily through clothing. Overseen by costume designer Michael Clancy, Posey’s looks were mostly pieces that were already in her closet or borrowed from friends, making for an eclectic cocktail of the most cutting-edge ’90s labels, including Comme des Garçons and Jean Paul Gaultier, next to a vintage Chanel suit loaned from Hamish Bowles and thrift shop finds. I decided, somewhat unconsciously, that I wanted to dress like Mary. (Well, not exactly like Mary; I’d look like an overstuffed sausage in her Vivienne Westwood corsets.) I wanted to go out, and get
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dressed up for going out, but I couldn’t, so I found myself living vicariously through her in some strange way. I kept asking myself, What would Mary wear? My online shopping habits intensified. I was trawling eBay almost every day, and I wanted the loudest prints I could find. Most of my purchases are still sitting on my clothes rail, tags hanging on, staring out at me every evening as I go to bed. I don’t want to wear them for a Zoom meeting (trying too hard), I don’t want to wear them to go and get milk (too ostentatious), I don’t want to wear them to meet friends socially distanced (do I even care what I look like right now? I genuinely don’t know if I can answer that). While my main memory of the film had been Mary’s flamboyant club looks, the scene that kept pulling me back down to earth upon rewatch was the one that probably more accurately reflects our present moment. Halfway through Party Girl, Mary is forced to sell off the bulk of her wardrobe to pay her rent. “Fifty?” she shrieks at the consignment store cashier. “But it’s Gaultier, it’s a collector’s item!” Eventually, she takes the money. As I look at the shirts I’ve bought during lockdown, I start doing the mental gymnastics of totaling how much I spent on all of them. Then I shiver and force myself to stop. How do you get dressed in a pandemic? It depends on who you ask. The women’s glossies will tell you to swaddle yourself in cashmere sweats. Your favorite e-commerce site will encourage you to buy a glitzy dress for your first night out once all this [gestures around vaguely] is over, hoping to clear the stock they bought earlier this year in Paris when the virus was just an ominous cloud on the horizon. Your friends will tell you to stop making impulse purchases of anything with a flamboyant print while online shopping, or at least mine have. You could also try looking at how people dressed to survive—emotionally, at least—pandemics past. There isn’t an awful lot to go on. We have the data of the 1918 Spanish flu: Sales of pajamas, comforters, and winter underwear skyrocketed (the early 20th century equivalent of athleisure, if you like), while readyto-wear and childrenswear both suffered, the latter because many mothers were nervous about taking their kids to the store. People were wearing stylized versions of face masks; veils became a popular accessory among wealthier women. The classic 1920s crop, it’s been argued by some historians, is a result of women being unable to go to the hairdressers, meaning the low-maintenance style became an accidental trend. But we don’t have a lived-in example of how people were dressing then, at least not on film. There are plenty of potential explanations for this: The Spanish flu was partly overshadowed by World War I, which was receiving the bulk of the coverage, while censorship and underreporting of the virus meant its on-screen representation was minimal. Strangely enough, there are plenty of silent films of
the era that happily retold the story of the Black Death. Perhaps it’s simply that, within the framework of how they understood medieval morality, it made sense. What didn’t make sense was that they were going through it all again after the advent of modern medicine. It doesn’t make sense to many people now. We’re much more comfortable looking back at the following decade, the Zelda Fitzgeralds and Josephine Bakers tearing through the 1920s in fringed dresses and pearls, or the decadent glamour of the Bright Young Things. We’re writing about the pandemic and examining what it means (to varying degrees of success), but we don’t seem to want to look at it—or perhaps more specifically, to see the sorry state we’re in, ten days unshaven, two days unshowered, wearing a natty old sweater you picked up at a dollar store a few years back. But when the vaccine arrives and the party girls are unleashed back on our cities once again—me among them—you can be sure the pencils will be sharpened, the scripts written, the cameras rolling to capture it all as it happens. When the inevitable glut of films about 2020 do arrive many years from nowS, how will filmmakers dress us? In our Zoom tops with no pants on under the kitchen dining table? In the fringed, sequined dresses we bought for our first post-lockdown night out? Maybe my rack of shirts in eye-popping prints will even make an appearance, serving as the backdrop to a bedroom shot of one of the many millions of people around the world right now, sitting cross-legged and typing at their computers in sweats. I kind of hope it doesn’t look like that. Where fashion on film is concerned, the most exciting thing is the fantasy: the promise of more glamour, more money, more danger. Specific brands immediately conjure to mind specific places and experiences; the high-octane jet-set glamour of silk Tom Ford palazzo pants, or the louche bohemianism of an embroidered Gucci dress. Yet nice clothes have a second, more important value too — acting as outward signifiers of our conscious (or sometimes unconscious) desires, and by extension reflecting how much we value ourselves. I might look a mess right now, but if my lockdown purchases are anything to go by, there’s hope for me yet. It might not be Mary who I remember as my sartorial guiding light during this pandemic when I look back on it many years later. I don’t always remember the most memorable evenings on which I’ve worn a treasured item of clothing, but without fail, I can tell you the place and time in my life at which I bought them. Even if my superego is pressuring me to Marie Kondo the shit out of my new lockdown wardrobe, the shirts I’ve bought serve as strange souvenirs of the past few months, and the person I wanted to be — in this case, someone on a wild night out wearing an equally wild print. It seems that if nobody’s going to record the present moment, some part of me has decided I’ll just have to do it for myself.
ALL DRESSED UP 24/09/2020 16:14
BRIGHT IDEA
Ads of a bygone era inspired intrigue and fantasy, making space for designers to share what makes them tick, eschewing even product for purpose. So in that spirit, we enlisted a creative class of eight inimitable emerging designers to create a portfolio of their fantasy displays, ads that reflect their own singular and rather fabulous perspectives. 34 034_CRF.indd 34
CR FASHION BOOK 30/09/2020 10:55
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KENNETH IZE 28/09/2020 12:17
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KENNETH IZE 28/09/2020 12:18
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KENNETH IZE 28/09/2020 12:29
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KENNETH IZE 28/09/2020 12:29
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THEBE MAGUGU 28/09/2020 12:30
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BARRAGÁN 29/09/2020 10:29
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ALLED-MARTINEZ 28/09/2020 12:30
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ALLED-MARTINEZ 28/09/2020 12:30
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COLLINA STRADA 28/09/2020 12:30
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COLLINA STRADA 28/09/2020 12:31
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OTTOLINGER 28/09/2020 12:31
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OTTOLINGER 28/09/2020 12:31
Teyana wears dress by RICK OWENS Earrings, bracelet, and rings by CARTIER Opposite: Jacket by BURBERRY Bra by ARAKS Earrings and rings by CARTIER Body chain TEYANA’S OWN Shoes by MUGLER
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30/09/2020 10:59
TEYANA TAYLOR
IN BLOOM
Teyana Taylor never stops — she is a singer, dancer, producer, and even a director playfully nicknamed “Spike Tey.” She is also a happy nester, offering the public glimpses into an idyllic home life with husband Iman Shumpert and daughter Junie. Shortly after the release of her new album and just before the birth of her second daughter, Rue Rose, Taylor invited CR home.
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Photography by GRAY SORRENTI Styling by CARINE ROITFELD Words by KEMI ALEMORU 30/09/2020 11:00
Dress, jacket and boots by RICK OWENS Earrings, bracelets, and rings by CARTIER
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Teyana Taylor is resting after a chaotic week. She had planned to give birth in her new house in Atlanta, with a famed doula by her side: Erykah Badu, a legend with a side hustle (she even goes by Erykah Badoula on Twitter). It’s been just shy of a week since her second daughter arrived prematurely, right after Taylor’s baby shower. Badu talked her through a water birth over FaceTime. “She was on the phone guiding me through the contractions and everything. It was a wild experience,” explains Taylor from a hospital as she watches over the baby, christened Rue Rose. “We have been in the hospital for a few days, just to ensure that Baby Rue is growing strong,” says the musician. “She’s getting stronger and stronger and growing by the day.” Taylor takes curve balls in stride, and this extraordinary year has completely changed her approach to life and work. It’s become essential for her to learn “how to navigate differently through sudden change.” Given the four-and-a-half year gap between her two children, she says she feels like she is “starting all over.” In the cover photos for CR Fashion Book, Taylor is still heavily pregnant, her bump draped in an electric-blue Rick Owens coat. The shoot was a family affair, including her basketballer husband, Iman Shumpert, and their 4-year-old daughter Junie, a star in her own right (510k Instagram followers and counting). And it’s clear that family is what keeps the 29-year-old laser-focused and energized. Revealing more about the unusual — and very zeitgeist-y — circumstances around her recent birth, she says that once she realized she was pregnant, enlisting the help of the ultimate neo-soul icon made sense. “She’s been a doula for like 20 years, so being able to use her was like a dream come true for me,” says Taylor. The two were able to bond over their shared love of music, while the fellow artist offered her “support, spiritual guidance, and calm.” “[Badu] trusted my instincts and introduced me to a more holistic way of living, including breathing techniques, and also taught me that Western medicine was not the only way,” says Taylor. Taylor needed Badu’s soothing energy — the star’s first labor in 2015 was difficult, and left her a little apprehensive about home births. Taylor’s water broke unexpectedly, and
Shumpert had to make a frantic 911 call to figure out how to help her give birth in their bathroom. It was terrifying, but Taylor repurposed her pain, using a recording of the call on her new album’s intro. It’s a season of seismic change for Taylor. She has a new addition to her family, a new home, and a new album—succinctly titled The Album—over which she took considerably more creative control than her last project, directing her own music videos and overseeing the record’s production (her last record, K.T.S.E., was produced by G.O.O.D Music label owner Kanye West). “It felt great to take the lead on this album, because it gave me the opportunity to really tap into all sides of my creativity,” she says. “There was so much that I needed to get out. That’s why it had 23 songs!” We’re all facing a pandemic, racial unrest, and a global financial crash. And so during lockdown, with the world thrown into chaos, Taylor spent a lot of time “meditating and recentering” herself to process everything happening during the pandemic. She told CR in a previous interview that “about 80 percent” of the album was recorded in quarantine. “My way of staying sane throughout the sudden lockdown was just focusing on family, and still finding creative ways to continue to get my artistry out there,” she explains. It’s well-documented that West made numerous decisions that Taylor wasn’t happy with on her last record, and at one point K.T.S.E was earmarked for a re-release. For the new album, she says her aim was “to really tap into all different emotions.” It’s broken down into five parts, so that fans can tailor their own personal listening experience: Studio A, which tackles love and familial bonds; the “sexy and passionate” Studio L; Studio B, for “chicks that ain’t taking no crap;” Studio U, which makes Taylor feel like she’s “unconditionally fighting for love;” and Studio M, designed to combine sentiments from the previous four. The Album also taps into urgent issues. Taylor’s video for the single “Still”—in which she transforms herself into victims of police brutality including George Floyd, Elijah McClain, and Breonna Taylor—ignited controversy. Taylor says that she “wanted to reenact victims of racist killings to be their voice.” While she’s no stranger to singing about relationships, “Still” is a bold departure, laying bare Black America’s endless fight for equality. STORY CONTINUES ON PG. 55
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From left: Teyana wears jacket by RICK OWENS Bra by ARAKS Earrings and bracelets by CARTIER Iman wears pants and shoes by RICK OWENS Jewelry IMAN’S OWN
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“I’ve been in the industry since the age of 15, and I still don’t feel as if I’ve made my ultimate impact yet. I’m just getting started.”
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The stirring lyrics include lines like: “I keep cryin’ for love / But it won’t wipe, won’t wipe, my tears / Ain’t it crazy how I’m still so emotional, still?” With her community “emotional, angry, saddened,” Taylor explains that it was important for her to lend her voice and platform to the cause. “Black people deserve the same level of opportunity and prosperity,” she says. “A new system must be established.” Taylor set up her new production company, The Aunties Production, to level the playing field in the music video scene. “I remember continuously looking around, whether being on a set of filming my own music videos, television shows, movies, etc. and realised that the production hands were almost always exclusively all male,” she recalls. “I’m a natural helper, so with that, I decided to create a platform to give other artists who may not have the huge budgets an opportunity to bring across their visions.” “I’ve been in the industry since the age of 15, and I still don’t feel as if I’ve made my ultimate impact yet,” she says. “I’m just getting started.” With projects like filming a sequel to Eddie Murphy’s classic Coming to America, and a MAC collaboration she describes as an “ultimate fangirl moment,” in the pipeline, Taylor is utilizing her broad spectrum of talents, and it feels like she’s finally getting her flowers. Or, more aptly, her roses.
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Dress and boots by RICK OWENS Earrings, bracelets, and rings by CARTIER Opposite (Clockwise): Iman wears top by LAQUAN SMITH Pants and shoes by RICK OWENS Junie wears scarf (worn as dress) by ISSEY MIYAKE Teyana wears jacket by JUNYA WATANABE
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Hair: Tahirah Carter Grooming: Tarik Mallett Makeup: Japan Production: Shay Johnson and Ariella Starkman ( CR Studio ) Production Coordinator: Joshe Ordonez On-Set Stylists: Ron Hartleben and Oluwabukola Becky Akinyode Production Assistants: Meredith DeNucci and Erika Laffin
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Shira wears dress by PRADA Bra and briefs by ARAKS Shoes by CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Opposite: Dress by BALENCIAGA
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28/09/2020 12:51
SHIRA HAAS
REAR WINDOW
Israeli actress Shira Haas earned international renown through her star turn on Netflix’s Unorthodox. But her newfound fame came during a global lockdown. What’s it like to be on the precipice of global fame in 2020? She tells us about filming the smash-hit, her newfound accolades, and the Black Mirror-like experience of becoming a celebrity from the confines of her own bedroom.
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Photography by MICHAL CHELBIN Styling by NOA RENNERT Words by JOCELYN SILVER 28/09/2020 12:51
Sweater, earrings and bracelet by CHANEL Underwear by ARAKS Shoes by CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN
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In the first episode of the Netflix hit Unorthodox, a group of urbane young people speaking in a mash of European accents gather at Wannsee Lake in Berlin, bathed in golden light. The lake’s brutal history—Nazis devised the Final Solution at a luxury villa on its shore— seems inconceivable on a breezy summer day. “The lake is just a lake,” a cute German boy tells a small girl covered from the neck down in thick fabric, sweating in her pantyhose. She hesitates to swim. But then she walks into the water, towards the sun. A half-smile transforms into resolve as she slowly pulls a heavy wig off her head, droplets lingering on her forehead. She sighs with relief, drops the mousy sheitel, and lets it float in the water. Viewers at home were in isolation, but inhaled something of a collective gasp. Unorthodox premiered in March 2020, and became an instant sensation. The miniseries, based on Deborah Feldman’s memoir of the same name, follows 19-year-old Esty Shapiro’s escape from Williamsburg’s cloistered Hasidic Satmar community to Berlin. Star Shira Haas, already famed in her native Israel, was suddenly launched into international celebrity at the height of the pandemic. “I remember the first time that I realized the show was a big thing was when I went out to my balcony to hang laundry or something, and I saw all these people in different buildings watching televisions with my face on them,” she says with a laugh during a September interview from her home in Tel Aviv. “I saw myself on so many screens! It was like an episode of Black Mirror or something.” Haas, 25, is warm and laughs easily; she had just finished Israeli television show Shtisel’s new season while social distancing, and the experience had been especially strange because, as she puts it, “I’m a hugger.” She’s animated and sweet, and speaks with a lot of energy, like a teeny Israeli Gilda Radner. “Not a lot of people know I can be super funny!” she says, letting out an indignant giggle. She apologizes for her bedroom’s alleged messiness–over Zoom, it appears sparkling clean–and eagerly shows me a wall of collaged photos, a quarantine project. She has spent her lockdown much like any other artistically inclined 20-something: writing, watching HBO programming (she just started Succession, and has a soft spot for Carmela Soprano),
and playing with design in Photoshop. But while alone in her apartment in Tel Aviv, the actress became known to so many, receiving a flood of interview requests and an outpouring of messages on social media. The accolades came fast—she was even nominated for an Emmy, and posted a video online with her costar and friend of a decade, Amit Rahav, in which they hear the news and jump for joy on her bed. “Of course I would like to celebrate all of it face-to-face,” she says. “And obviously I wish COVID wasn’t happening, for so many reasons. But in a weird way, the fact that I get to receive all this love, but I still get to be in my home with my safety—I think it helped me take it all in. I found it very, very healthy, in an unhealthy period of time. Emotionally, it helped me process [fame] in a good way.” As a child, Haas didn’t naturally gravitate towards acting—“I was never like, one of those kids who had to be the center of attention and make their parents watch them perform at a family meal”—but she began performing while attending an arts high school outside Tel Aviv. At 16, she received a Facebook message from a casting director (the same one who would go on to cast her in Unorthodox) and landed the lead in the drama Princess. She continued to take on high-profile roles in Israel; her most beloved is Ruchami Weiss in Shtisel, a show that, in contrast to Unorthodox, explores a family’s choice to stay in orthodoxy, even when the ideology verges on oppressive. She was nominated for an Ophir, the Israeli equivalent of an Oscar, for 2018’s Broken Mirrors, and in 2020 she won the Tribeca Film Festival’s Best International Actress Award for her turn in the upcoming Asia, a film about a teenager trying to live out her adolescence despite suffering from a severe motor disease. COVID has hampered the film’s planned release (“I miss going to the movies,” Haas exclaims. “Cinema can’t die!”). And internationally, she’s performed alongside Jessica Chastain in the Holocaust drama The Zookeeper’s Wife and had a supporting part in Natalie Portman’s directorial debut, A Tale of Love and Darkness. Haas’s work is not exactly light. “I really love taking [on] tough subjects, or even taboos, if you want to call them that, but to bring a lot of empathy and love to it,” she says. Fans have noticed. “Two years ago, some STORY CONTINUES ON PG. 72
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Slip dress by ARAKS Belt by CHANEL
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Opposite: Coat by HED MAYNER Knit top by PRADA
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“I remember the first time that I realized the show was a big thing was when I went out to my balcony to hang laundry or something, and I saw all these people in different buildings watching televisions with my face on them.” guy approached me in a restaurant, and I had this big smile,” she says. “And he turned to his friend and said ‘oh my god, I’m so happy to see her smiling.’” She laughs. “It was a bit much.” In Unorthodox, Haas doesn’t smile often. But the show’s creators have described her ability to telegraph multiple emotions across her face at once. When Esty is bemused, disgusted, or livid, the left corner of her lip curls. It is an exquisitely sensitive performance, and one that took an enormous amount of work. Haas took piano lessons for the role, and famously learned to speak Yiddish; her language teacher plays a rabbi on the show. “I don’t come from a home where we speak Yiddish, but my grandparents knew it,” she says. “So I knew the rhythm of it. I was excited to learn something new. I’m a nerd! But it is part of my family’s roots in a way, so I was happy to explore that.” Roots are everything in Unorthodox, whose characters spend their lives enveloped in the atrocities of the Holocaust (“we must replace the six million lost,” Esty says upon learning of her pregnancy). Of Berlin, a cousin sent to bring her home to Williamsburg spits, “This place is full of Jewish souls, Esty.” That history is part of Haas’s real-life lineage as well. “My grandparents are Holocaust survivors,” she says. “My grandfather, who is not with us anymore, was an Auschwitz survivor, and my grandmother is from Hungary. So I have this history, and when I got the role I went to my grandmother and told her that [we would be filming in Berlin], and I was really surprised and happy to hear how happy she was. She was even almost crying from how proud of me she was. So this is everything. This is really what I aim to do.”
Playing someone from a widely misunderstood background could be tricky— Unorthodox, while praised amongst secular Jews, has received some pushback from members of the Orthodox community. Esty suffers and suffers: she was taken from her mother, her father is a drunk, her husband, Rahav’s Yanky, seems harmless until it comes to sex, when his greedy bumbling becomes something akin to violence. “There was always this tension and conflict for me,” says Haas. “You need to root for your character, you need to understand your character. And there’s a lot of things to criticize, to bring to the table. But at the same time, it’s rude to show an incomplete picture of an entire community of people. People can say their opinions, it’s okay. But I think on our show, you feel for Yanky, you feel for Bubbe, you wait for their scenes—you understand them.” Much of Unorthodox directly contrasts the oppression of religious Williamsburg with the freedom of secular Berlin—consider the montage in which Yanky and Moishe wind tefillin straps tightly around their forearms as Esty cautiously slithers into her first pair of skinny blue jeans. But there is nuance; viewers see repression and fear alongside the serenity of the mikvah, the pageantry of Esty’s wedding. “It’s not a story about a community,” says Haas. “It’s a story about a specific woman, and it’s worth telling. We got some comments saying it wasn’t relevant, and that it generalizes a whole community. Was I surprised to get those? No, of course not. And I really, really respect those opinions.” “But the story, for me, is about a woman finding her voice, literally,” she continues. “And exploring without even knowing what she’s looking for.” Esty is a musician, and music is central to the show’s plot and structure. You hear the hums of prayer, soaring chamber music, fuzzy techno in a club. And it all comes to a head when she auditions for an elite music academy. She reclaims “Mi Bon Siach,” the song played at religious Jewish weddings when bride and groom stand under the chuppah. Her voice booms as she clenches her fists, squeezes her eyes shut, and doubles over with emotion. It’s performance as release—Esty finds her voice, and it’s rightfully loud. “People are being loud right now,” Haas says of 2020. “they need to scream their screams.”
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Coat by GUCCI Shoes by MANOLO BLAHNIK
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Sweater, bracelet and earring by CHANEL Slip dress by ARAKS Opposite: Sweater and leggings by WOLFORD Belt by CHANEL
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Hair: Maor Kidushim Makeup: Roza Shwartsman Production: Elrie Carmon Photographer’s Assistant: Michael Tzur Special Thanks to Oded Plotnizki
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Halima wears jacket by BALENCIAGA Durag (worn as headscarf) by TELFAR Opposite: Coat by MAX MARA Pants and durag (worn as headscarf) by TELFAR Shoes by BALENCIAGA Jewelry worn throughout by CARTIER
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HALIMA ADEN
MODEL CITIZEN
A supermodel with a super mission, Halima Aden forged new paths for representation in fashion and beyond as the world’s most prominent hijab-wearing model. But sometimes being “the first” comes with huge responsibility. Here’s why she hopes her influence will clear the way for Muslim girls who follow.
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Photography by JODY ROGAC Styling by ZARA MIRKIN Words by JASMINE VOJDANI 28/09/2020 12:58
Dress by VAQUERA Pants and boots by TOM FORD Durag by TELFAR
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Two weeks before her 23rd birthday in September, Somali-American model Halima Aden sits near her fridge, radiating a dimpled composure that only her own energy can disrupt. It’s still summery in Minnesota, but she’s wearing a patterned knit sweater (for the A/C) and a headband with a bow around the crown of her hijab, her baby hairs tucked. Even over video call, her looks are major. She swings from gracious to goofy, her vernacular full of infectious squeals of affirmation, coos of giiiiirl, and you know? Lately she’s been spending more time in her kitchen, the backdrop for livestreams with Sports Illustrated, Tommy Hilfiger (which just launched its first hijab), and interviews about her activism. Like many quarantined young people, Aden is learning to cook for the first time, tackling “a couple different variations of pasta” and couscous. She’s “over it” by now though, and back to ordering takeout. As the first hijab-wearing woman to grace countless covers, runways, and campaigns, Aden is already iconic. In 2016, she was the first to wear a hijab and burkini, the modest swimwear banned from French beaches and public pools earlier that year, in a Miss USA pageant. A rookie in heels, Aden was less focused on making history than on not tripping on stage. She didn’t win—or trip—but Rihanna called, asking her to appear in Fenty Beatuty’s first video campaign. (“I was like, Rihanna is coming out with a skincare line and I gotta keep it a secret?”) Then Carine Roitfeld, her “fashion fairy godmother,” invited her to New York for her first-ever shoot for issue ten of this magazine. “I get so emotional talking about her,” she says of Roitfeld. “I grew wings. Now I’m so excited to give that opportunity to others.” Aden has said that she could spell UNICEF before she could spell her own name. Her mother fled the Somali Civil War to Kakuma, the world’s largest refugee camp, where Aden was born. She lived a “happy, protected childhood” that, she’ll admit, wasn’t without some hardship. At 7, her family landed in a poor St. Louis neighborhood, where she heard gunshots for the first time. When they relocated to St. Cloud, Minnesota, home to the largest Somali community in America, no one mentioned the winter. Aden recalls their case-worker personally funding their first coats and gloves and teachers putting in extra time to help her learn English. She hasn’t strayed far from the city that showed her family that hospitality. “Sometimes when people in Minnesota are surprised I’m still here I’m like,
where are you all trying to ship me off to?!” Now she’s thrilled to give back, calling herself a proud tax-payer (“Take my money, honey!”) and role model for Muslim girls in the area. She doesn’t speak with self-pity, but Aden knows the pressures of being the first in terms of representation. You could say modeling is far from traditional in Somali culture. Last year, she returned to Kenya to pose for Sports Illustrated in a burkini—another first. There’s been backlash, but she is mostly impervious to criticism, believing modesty is something you define for yourself. She alone sets the terms of her work, and although she’s passed up looks that didn’t fit her wardrobe requirements, the industry has largely met her where she stands. Included in those terms: No fashion without activism. Beyond her strides in representing Muslim women, Aden is a defiant voice. She’s written about protesting in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, spotlighted challenges faced by refugees during the pandemic in Vogue, and praised sustainable fashion. She tells me that mental health is not talked about enough within the Muslim community, particularly among the generation of Somalis who experienced the war. “I’m so passionate,” she explains, “because it’s affected me personally and our community needs to address it.” Recently named Diversity-Editor-at-Large at Vogue Arabia, Aden will continue exploring issues that compel her in a monthly column. Aden says her mother taught her that “if you don’t have community, you have nothing.” Although she is still waiting for her daughter to get a “real, stable” job—translation: become a doctor or teacher—Aden looks at their differences with love and understanding. “You don’t sacrifice so much for your child, move them to a place like America, only for them to go a different, unconventional path.” Sure, there are things her mom won’t ever get about modeling, like why no one smiles on the runway, but that makes their common ground more precious. They agree that her becoming a UNICEF ambassador at 20 is her biggest accomplishment to date. Maybe the least modest thing about Aden is her ambition to influence. “I wanna make fashion look amazing for Muslim girls. Like, okay I can dress modestly — as I sit here in a freakin’ bow! — and make fashion look young, classy, elegant.” She laughs, then sighs. “Here we are in 2020 still discussing what women choose to wear. I just think that’s all dinosaur—we need to evolve past that.”
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Hair: Evanie Frausto Makeup: Marcelo Gutierrez Nails: Mei Kawajiri Production: Shay Johnson and Ariella Starkman (CR Studio) Styling Assistant: Zoey Radford Scott Shoot Location: Highlight Studios
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SHARON ALEXIE
FEELING GOOD
Model Sharon Alexie has emerged as a rising force in fashion. But she’s far from just a mannequin. Alexie has dedicated herself to art and activism, connecting with her large online audience about supporting the global uprising. Here, she’s paired in conversation with the distinctive American-born, Parisdwelling photographer Joshua Woods, the lensman for her CR fashion story, to discuss their work, identity, and how to push the industry forward.
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Photography by JOSHUA WOODS Styling by CARINE ROITFELD 30/09/2020 11:05
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Jacket by MUGLER Slip dress STYLIST’S OWN Shoes by PRADA Tights by WOLFORD
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SHARON ALEXIE JOSHUA WOODS What inspired you to pick up the paintbrush? SA I’m extremely, extremely sensitive and I absorb a lot of information and a lot of feelings from people. And I’m very interested in a lot of things. I was interested in justice — I wanted to be a lawyer, I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to be a designer, and the best way I had to express myself was painting. But it’s still very hard, because the canvas is white, there is nothing. You have to create, and you have to place yourself as a creator. And I think that, as a creator, you need to have this ego and ambition that I don’t have. I need to be more confident. And sometimes I look at the canvas and I’m like, that’s scary. I don’t know. So it’s pretty rare that I finish a painting. I will say that I want to paint the things that are hidden, or that people are trying to hide. If I show them, it’s all about coherence, authenticity, and transparency with people. I want to touch a chord, I don’t want to just show things [just to show them].
reflective, and they’re very much centered around the Black experience and what you see. I feel the same way about my photography. For a while I didn’t know where I was going with the camera. I’ve always loved storytelling and I loved that component of things early on in my work, but my mentality hadn’t necessarily caught up to the actual work. It took me a while for me to show what I’m thinking and see what I’m trying to say. Sometimes it takes years and years for that to happen, for your work to catch up to where your mind is. That’s one of the reasons why I moved to Paris, to actually really slow down and be more present with myself.
JW
JW
So you see yourself going other avenues, not just totally fashion. You see yourself doing some writing, some painting, obviously. SA I want to create links between different [art forms]. I wish you could be in my mind to see how things are happening, because I’m a bad speaker. [Laughs] I can’t talk really. I don’t know if you can feel it. I can express myself very well through writing and photography and paintings, but talking is so hard for me. It’s hard because I’m always thinking so much. But I don’t see life in such a microscopic way — I can’t tell what my future in fashion is, because that’s thinking small. I really see everything in such big, big space. So it’s not a question that I can answer very well.
JW SA JW
What’s your star sign? I’m a Cancer. I’m a Cancer, too. Cancers are the best people in the world.
SA JW
Do you practice a religion? I grew up Christian in a Baptist church in a Catholic family, I guess. My mom was Catholic and my dad was Christian and I went to Catholic school my whole life. I wore a buttonup, and we were proper boys. What about you? I’m Muslim, since last year.
SA JW
Is anyone in your family a painter? SA No. I’m the first person in my family to have a high school diploma. They were all working. And so I’m the first person to be able to pursue my dreams in my family. And that’s thanks to my mother, because she helped me a lot. She really pushed me into this. JW I know your paintings are very
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SA JW
What are your roots? My mom is from Puerto Rico and my dad was from the South, a small town called Monroe, Louisiana. But I’ve never done one of those DNA tests to see where my ancestry is. SA That’s an American thing? JW I guess. People don’t do that in France? SA I mean, we are directly children of immigrants, so we know where we come from, directly from Africa. My mom was born and raised in Cameroon, and it’s the same for many Black people or people of color in France. Have you spent much time on the continent? SA No. I’m 20 years old, so I just discovered the wealth of Africa maybe a year or two ago. I’m figuring out how to go there. I was supposed to go to Cameroon before the quarantine, but I couldn’t make it. I’m researching Africa on the internet, and I went to Comoros, near Madagascar, with a friend for two weeks, and it was extremely powerful and spiritual.
incredible. It completely changed my whole perspective on being Black, being a Black American. Being there and not having to worry about turning on the news and hearing about another Black boy getting gunned down, or a Black woman getting killed — it completely shifted my perspective. I get so balanced when I go to Senegal. SA I watched the movie you recommended, Concerning Violence, about [independence movements in Africa]. I had never seen this kind of documentary. It is pretty honest, so I really loved it. But the conclusion, I’m not really sure about the conclusion. I’m still thinking about it. But it was interesting. Did you read Frantz Fanon? JW I didn’t read it straight through, but I’ve read certain chapters and picked apart The Wretched of the Earth. SA movie? JW
JW
JW
I’ve spent some time in Senegal over the last three years. I had shown my work to an older Nigerian photographer I really looked up to, Andrew Dosunmu, and he said, “You have really good work, but you need to go to Africa, man.” So then I immediately booked a plane ticket to Senegal, and went the next month. I knew when I went to Senegal — as soon as I touched on the soil — I felt this instant connection to a place that I’ve always had an idea about in my mind. As soon as I arrived, I instantly felt completely different. I felt taken aback, and thought, wow, this is my home. This is where I’m from. This is where my ancestors came from. Senegal was a place for me to escape, to get away from America and all the social injustices there. And it was
What did you think about the Well, that’s how I first learned about Thomas Sankara. I was completely blown away by his rebellious soul and how people refer to him as the Che Guevara of Africa. It completely opened my eyes to this whole other world of what colonization and materialists did to us, and the idea of us being selfsufficient. What he did for Burkina Faso was incredible. Changed the name from Upper Volta, recruiting women for the government and the army, all politicians driving the same cars. His story completely opened my eyes to what Africa should have been. And his dreams and his goals for it were taken away because the French didn’t feel how he felt.
SA As a French person with African roots, I did some research on identity. And I had always identified myself as a Black person. But my father is — or was — white. I don’t know him. And so I don’t think I should consider myself a Black person, but rather a biracial person who is a part of the Black culture. JW That’s how you identify? SA Yes. And I think it’s really important to make these distinctions. This one-drop rule is made to define what is whiteness, what is a white person, but it’s not made to define what is a Black person or Blackness. And there is this impurity/purity thing in that definition that is so personal. And so I was thinking about that, and I just realized that the industry and society love to say that biracial people are light-skinned—people that are not obviously Black. They would like to put them forward and hide darkskinned people. JW
What do you think about that
SHARON ALEXIE 28/09/2020 13:01
“The more you grow in the industry, the more you meet real artists and real people who bring a soul to this industry.” — SHARON ALEXIE when it comes to fashion, dark-skinned models versus light-skinned models? SA I would say, I would ask myself these questions. Like a few days ago. I was thinking about light-skinned privilege and I was thinking about fashion. And I was like, there are more and more darkskinned models, but that’s because that is the industry of image. And being a model in this industry—it’s really rude to say—but we’re seen as objects a little bit. And we, Black models, are used as a tool to not look offensive. But in reality, backstage at fashion shows for example, there are no Black people. They don’t consider Black people as they truly are in this industry. JW
The beginning of my photography career was shooting backstage photography. I shot backstage for four years, and now I am one of the few Black photographers and people in that setting. That was my introduction to fashion, shooting fashion week and being a part of the machine — the London, Milan Paris, New York fashion machine. And so I can connect with you and understand a bit about not seeing diversity. SA I’m very attached to the process of saying something through your art. You don’t only make beautiful things —you are sharing a story. And [in fashion], they don’t really share the backstory. They don’t want me to share this magic, you know? So that’s why you will see a lot of white people behind the scenes and white creators and blah, blah, blah. I mean, I was thinking, how many Black designers do we have in luxury or high fashion? And I was like, not a lot.
JW
But just in the same way that they use us as a tool, I feel like we get to use them as a tool also. It’s a way of breaking the structure, if you want to talk about reparations. But I do agree. We’re gems amongst these wolves. I came out of quarantine intending to protect my space even more. What I have to say about the Black experience is valuable, especially because we haven’t been able to share this space equally for God knows how long. So I’m watching my space, in work and my personal life. I can’t have someone in my circle if they don’t understand what it is for me to be Black and my experience as a Black male. And so with that being said,
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how do you find yourself navigating the fashion space while creating the type of work that you want to make? SA I used to see the fashion industry as a monster. You can lose yourself in it. And so I also really needed this space where I was isolated, to check myself and make sure I’m still on a good path The culture of fashion can eat authenticity. And sometimes if I’m too into fashion, I can lose myself in this. We have to produce, we have to pose and blah, blah, blah. I can’t forget about my real purpose. I’m not just some model — I’m really an artist. But I’m still trying to learn about this industry and want to be more fair, not to judge it. And I’m always thinking about how I can use this space to make something positive for our culture. JW
There’s a misconception that fashion is this terrible industry. I’ve met some of my best friends, some of my most amazing collaborators and such incredible people while working in this industry. I definitely see fashion as a tool where people can express themselves freely and can express themselves in many ways, and not be confined and put in a box. SA Yes, I had this prejudice about fashion. I was watching too many movies about fashion. [Laughs] And the more you grow in the industry, the more you meet real artists and real people who bring a soul to this industry. We have both—we have authentic people, and people who just want to look like they work in fashion.
In quarantine, I made a decision. I asked myself, What do you have to say? What are you saying in fashion? What is your voice with fashion? And at the end of the day, I’m here to express and explore the Black experience through fashion. In doing that with my work, I think it’s important for photoshoot sets to be very diverse. There’s no reason for it to be a stiff and stuffy set. I’m curious about what your experience on set was like? SA My nature is very shy. I’m naturally shy, and very reserved. That’s why I’m a little bit stressed when I express myself. I have a lot of things to say but I just can’t because I don’t know —there is this barrier of shyness. Like I felt uncomfortable in the first few seconds [we were shooting] because I felt, “oh, he is like inviting me into his environment.” I don’t know you, but I don’t invite anybody in my house. It’s very precious for me to invite you in my space. So I felt like, “Oh, I have to do my job to accept his invitation, and to be as open as he has been with me for this project.” I had to talk to myself and think “It’s okay, you can do that, you can do that.” And finally I was like, “Oh my God, this is amazing.” JW We’re making it work. And if we’re doing something that we love to do, and we enjoy doing, then why should there be any bad energy or bad vibes? It should all feel good.
JW
I agree. That’s why I made a conscious decision to work more with Black collaborators— Black stylists, Black hairstylists, Black makeup artists, Black set designers. I’m making it a point to everybody who’s producing shoots and positioning things that it’s a Black space. For the last three or four years, I’ve been photographing Black lives. And people ask me often, “Do you only shoot Black people? Do you only have Black people to show us?” And I say, yo, these are my people. You want to hire me or you don’t? You know what I’m saying? This is what my work is about. So you’re going to fuck with me or you’re not going to fuck with me. End of story.
SHARON ALEXIE 28/09/2020 13:01
Coat by FERRAGAMO T-shirt STYLIST’S OWN Shoes by PRADA Tights by WOLFORD
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Clothing and accessories by PRADA Tights by WOLFORD
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SHARON ALEXIE 28/09/2020 13:02
Clothing and accessories by GIVENCHY Opposite: Jacket, skirt, necklace and tights by CHANEL Bag and t-shirt STYLIST’S OWN Shoes by PRADA
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Hair: Yann Turchi Makeup: Aurore Gibrien Set Design: Kaduri Elyashar Production: Kim Nigay Photographer’s Assistant: Kyle Keese Styling Assistant: Marie Cheiakh
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Clothing and accessories by GIVENCHY
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Opposite: Jacket, earrings and beret by DIOR Corset by CADOLLE Skirt and veil STYLIST’S OWN Shoes by PRADA Tights by WOLFORD
28/09/2020 13:03
FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT
In a Lewis-Carroll-esque distortion, quarantine transformed each of our domestic spaces into a world unto itself. And so, in concert with Gucci, we solicited an extended network of global photographers to open a window into their own universes, incorporating the heritage label’s latest accessories. 96 096_CRF.indd 96
GUCCI 28/09/2020 13:17
ELOISE PARRY, 31 London, United Kingdom This picture was taken in my hallway, although it looks like I live in a creepy bed and breakfast. Like everyone else, I’ve spent a good portion of this year at home, restless and keen to make stuff. One thing that really helped combat my boredom was messing around with clothes and make-up and taking pictures, but this time with me as the model.
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ZORA SICHER, 25 Brooklyn, New York There is a narrow fenced patch of grass right next to the F train near my childhood home in Brooklyn. I would pass by it every day on the way to the subway to school. There have clearly been various visitors, creatures, objects left, and graffiti that changes and gets painted over—sometimes tall grass grows, and flowers. It’s always been a curious place to me. There is a door in the fence that allows you to enter. I’ve always wondered if my entering would be considered trespassing. I can’t quite figure out its function, but I always check up on the space. It’s beautiful, strangely located and has become quotidian viewing for me, which should mean that I know it well, but it’s still something of a mystery to me.
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ADRIAN FIERRO LARA, 26 Mexico City, Mexico I had three panic attacks during quarantine. My dog has been such an important part of my mental health and process for getting better, so I took pictures of three dogs I spent time with in quarantine. My boyfriend Te Ariki Alistair Taniwha dressed them, and one of my best friends, Mariana Palacios, did the hair for the little doggies. My mom and my pals Josue and Rene also really helped. Mental health is a really big taboo in Mexico. People don’t go to psychological therapy or a psychiatrist because there is this idea that only crazy people have to do it. I am really privileged to have access to mental health care, but it’s kind of a shame that I waited until I had panic attacks to look for help.
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KENNY GERMÉ, 46 Paris, France As a black photographer, Château-d’Eau is the neighbourhood to find hairdressers in Paris, along with beauty and hair products for the Black community. You can’t be Black and ignore this very crowded and lively neighborhood. It’s like a second home. One of the signature elements are the corn sellers. This is truly a postcard—a type of cliché that might not ring a bell for everybody, but that I wanted to depict.
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FUMIKO IMANO, 46 Tokyo, Japan For 15 years, I’ve been living at my parents’ house in the countryside, but I always wanted to live by myself. When this pandemic slowed down in Japan, I found this flat in Tokyo. Finally, I have my own place and surroundings. I feel super lonely sometimes, but I’m feeling really good about having freedom to live how I want.
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GUCCI 28/09/2020 13:18
STEPHEN TAYO, 26 Lagos, Nigeria Due to the pandemic, I’ve spent the most time in my room photographing myself and objects, as well as doing yoga and a little bit of a workout. I thought it would be nice to create something like a little Gucci world in my room using sheets I bought at the Yaba Market, close to the residence where I live in Lagos, Nigeria. The location (my room) has been the best thing that has happened to me the past few months. I do everything in my room, from reading to editing to conference calls. It’s been my safe space so far.
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28/09/2020 13:18
THE TRAP
Words by DEVAN DÍAZ
Representation is everything, or so we’ve been told. Trans stories are more visible in media than ever, but too often they resist joy, telling hollowed-out, one-dimensional tales of trauma. Devan Díaz imagines a new era for trans representation, whose stories will be shimmering, sexy, and complex. I think it started in 2017, or 2016, the year identity stuck to our ambitions. In a litany of newly profitable labels, I had a full deck: Latina, Woman, Poor, Trans. I was part of the thinkpiece boom, and everyone had a story to sell. Plucked from Tumblr by a new crop of feminist media, I was assigned the futile task of representation. People called me “brave.” I wrote personal essays, bravely. I modeled for magazines, bravely. At first I was happy to share, even proud of my participation in this anti-Trumpian effort of branding. It felt urgent, because it was. We learn about ourselves through images, and the inclusion of marginalized people was a beginning. I played along. It was a mad dash to online verification, as though we knew there were only a few years left to cash those diversity checks. The personal was political, and monetizable. “Doors” had been “opened”—we had no clue what we’d let out. A friend of mine referred to us as “manic dream girls” during this time. Pixies with their heads cut off, obsessed with becoming and no desire to stop. I didn’t intend to step before a camera, but it happens if you’re at enough parties. These were the decadent years, when everything required a “launch.” Every look, tweet, and interaction was an audition. Casting directors circled dance floors searching for their next “it” girl. When you’ve ripped through all your magazines and stuck them to the wall, at some point you (I) want to try being the girl in the picture. If you’ve come to know yourself through fashion, in an Eddie-Redmaynein-The-Danish-Girl kind of way, it is understandable to want to right some of its wrongs. Clothing can be a disguise, or lead to new guises. Millennials of a certain age are still recovering from the brain rot of the fashion era in which we came to be. We grew to call ourselves models, photographers, and stylists, all in opposition to a skinny white reality that didn’t fit. We posted online, and cultivated followings until we saw our ambitions through. Yes, we were seeing more trans people, but what else? I want to do more than just see—which will demand a departure from certain narrative appetites and representations of the moment. When we first meet Jules in Euphoria, her assault is our point of entry.
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It isn’t a false representation, but it isn’t a good one either. Her tragedy is the audience’s opportunity; an educational moment at her expense. This would be less tiresome if the public portrayal of trans girlhood was more varied — or if the growing number of real-life assaults didn’t loom all too large. On Pose, Candy’s open casket is displayed on screen, making us bear witness to another unsolved murder. It’s a reality for many, but are we ever allowed fantasy? In a realm we can control, in the realm of fiction, what’s the purpose of a bloody outcome? If the tone isn’t violent, it’s celebratory, which isn’t free from artifice. It’s those damn Calvin Klein campaigns during Pride, where each participant is asked to get on the mic to tell us what they’ve survived. Never anything else, and definitely not during any other time of year. Trauma hasn’t made me brave. Instead I am angry, vengeful. For now, the culture industry has won, and it’s turned a community into a contest. I’ve begun to think of its gaze as something I am stealing. In my mind, it’s better to be a criminal than a victim. The flattery of participation has worn off, and now I am stuck. Do I continue to recount the minutiae of my deviant psychological history, like I am now, or opt out? The latter would make me feel less crazy, but I’d still scramble to make rent. I’m here to work. I keep taking the diversity jobs, either because I’m hopeful, foolish, or broke. Glamour is hard to resist. It’s September in New York — when Fashion Week should be starting — and I receive a DM offering a spot in a photoshoot featuring an “LGBTQ+ cast” and 100 dollars for a day’s work. I don’t turn it down right away. I feel uneasy: What if this is who I am? I don’t want to exploit my image, but I could use the money. It might be worthwhile if the ask to bring my identity to set was in service of something that excited me. It hardly ever is. The pay isn’t the problem. I know 100 dollars is a weekly MetroCard, pizza, and manicure. I’ve also worked around magazines long enough to know they’re dying, and most everyone on set hopes to revive them. It’s the “LGBTQ+ casting” for me (the T in LGBTQ should stand for “Transsexual,” vintage and chic. “Tranny” is more fun, but “Transgender” is what goes in the press release). Like, it’s always on these sets,
where I’m “celebrated,” where I’ll be asked my pronouns repeatedly. That’s fine, I know it’s the right protocol — just not while my tits are out. Sure, I’ll tell you why I haven’t spoken to my dad in ten years — but do you promise to pay the invoice within 30 days? But it’s fun to be put in drag, even when it sucks. That’s how they seduce you. The whir of blow-dryers, the hushed communication between photographer and stylist, the feeling of being part of it all. So I responded to the message. I sent in my measurements and waited for three days. When the client finally replied asking for my cell phone number for the callsheet, I asked for the address and time of the shoot, explaining that I haven’t had a working phone since lockdown began. Why pay when I’m connected to Wi-Fi all day? No response. Somehow rejection feels worse when you didn’t want it to begin with. I laugh, I write, and I wonder if they’ll read this. I’m optimistic. I’m also bored. I’ve been sold authentically trans stories, but I still don’t see them on TV or in the movies or magazines. They’re out there, just not on our feeds. They’re uptown, and down South. In huddled bathroom stalls, where ideas are shared like key bumps. Group chats where people say the things they dare not tweet. I want to see trans women experience pleasure. Something that is unafraid to frame us boldly, even harshly. Give me liars, cheaters, and thieves. They deserve our attention, too. I want something sexy, rather than didactic. Glamour without a sense of mourning. If I must be trans — and it seems I must — then let it be dangerous! Or joyous, with better dialogue and beautiful lighting. I don’t care what it means to be trans, or a woman. I want to be told stories.
THE TRAP 30/09/2020 11:07
LYNETTE NYLANDER in conversation with TELFAR CLEMENS and BABAK RADBOY 104_CRF.indd 104
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Telfar Clemens has always been a fashion designer. In fact, he’s never had another job. “I was a daycare assistant once, but I don’t know what I would be doing right now if I wasn’t a designer. I like music. Or maybe I would just marry rich,” he ponders. “The fallback, thanks to your good looks,” laughs Babak Radboy, finishing his sentence. This happens a lot. One starts a sentence, and the other finishes, operating in a sort of separate togetherness that works in perfect harmony. Clemens, 35, brings unfiltered creativity to the brand. His designs are born of his experience — his upbringing in Liberia and Lefrak City, Queens and early New York life as a daytime accounting student in the Financial District and downtown DJ by night—and appeal to a cohort of like-minded fans across the world. Radboy, so astutely tuned in to the world at large, operates as the brand’s creative director, though no one title could really sum up his omniscient influence. Radboy helped Telfar tap into the structural idiosyncrasies of the fashion industry, only to subvert them, benefit, then tap out again. The community who started with the brand are still loyal to it to this day — a small niche of people on the Lower East Side or in parts of Brooklyn who appreciate, at its core, what Telfar is about. “It’s a bunch of people from all different walks of life. I’ve always understood the proximity between community TELFAR CLEMENS BABAK RADBOY LYNETTE NYLANDER LN
Telfar, you’re someone who kind of thrives on human interaction. I’d be very interested to understand how you’ve been using your time and what you’ve been doing? TC When quarantine started, we had already kind of planned to take a break from the fashion cycle to focus on the business, to assess how we are set up and how we want to continue to build. We had two shows right before the world ended. So after those two shows, it was just really reflecting on the experiences that we had — what we’d like to do, and how to do that more. BR We were weirdly prepared because we had just decided that 2020 was the year that everything was going to change, and that we were going to pull ourselves out of the industry. By the time the lockdown happened, from a work perspective, we were just doing everything exactly on schedule, so there wasn’t an interruption to that. But at the same time, that year before had been
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and conspiracy,” explains Babak. “Community is an easy shorthand word that is understood by journalists and brands, but when a community is put under pressure, its contours change. When you have a community, you ask yourself, how do you create? How do you actually plan to be on the right side of that? How do you nurture the bond and lines of communication so you don’t sound wrong in this context or that context?” This cover and feature, made up of images. tweets, and Instagram comments of the global Telfar community (selected by Clemens, Radboy and CR’s creative team) — are a hodgepodge of selfies from the stirring to downright absurd — and feels like something that no other brand would do. It’s a democratization of sorts, a tribute to the community that is so critical to what Telfar is doing that they gladly eschew celebrities and models in their branding (and even Clemens himself, who once served as a wild-eyed face of the brand) choosing to put these selfies on a magazine cover instead. They are both the catalyst and the customer — it’s powerful stuff. “It’s one of the best things for me. I’d rather let other people just be on stuff. I’m like, you look great,” Clemens says with a laugh. “And having all those people on the cover of a magazine because they’re supporting us is like everything coming full circle.”
such a crazy sprint. We made this film, did a show in New York, and then a show in Paris. And then three months later — TC — did our show in Florence. BR We had to make our biggest collection ever, faster than we ever did it. Did our most ambitious three shows right in a row. And we were so ready for a vacation. TC Yeah. It feels like an accomplishment because we definitely did exactly what we planned to do. BR January to March we did all that, and our sales on the bag were just exponentially growing until the product totally sold out, which was a combination of the sales growing and our factories shutting down because of COVID in China. So when that stuff finally dropped — it was crazy. We didn’t know people were going to be buying bags right now. And we had our biggest sales day in the middle of the lockdown, like at the height of it! TC And it continued to do that three or four times after that. It keeps growing and growing. BR So it felt like it all made a lot of
sense. In lockdown, I would be looking online at everybody’s Instagrams. Fashion really struggled because, first of all, people were shooting their ads three, four, or five months in advance. And so all of a sudden they didn’t even look like they’re from reality anymore. Or they just ran out of content because of how they shoot stuff. Our shit was just coming out every day looking like that day. It was like the New York Post every day, and I noticed that was not what was happening with other people. We were prepared for it in this weird way because people wanted [to see] things to be how they were and our content is already that. LN
Do you read every single comment, tweet, mention, photo? Do you actually go through every single one? TC I used to. In the morning I would look at Twitter and read everything and be able to get through it. I think I was probably the only person doing that. We check Twitter—we don’t use it. I look at it like once a day, maximum.
TELFAR CLEMENS 30/09/2020 11:09
LN
I want to bring up social media because, inadvertently or not, it’s become as much of the discourse and conversation around Telfar as any one product. It is almost a product of the brand. I want to know how much that was engineered or how much social media is part of the strategy, if there even is a strategy, which I understand there might not be. TC I think we started to build things just based on the viewer, and the viewer is actually making all the content. We just basically give them a platform to express themselves and see what people that are interested in the product are doing. I think it really started from us just reposting what people posted. BR Yeah, reposting the bag was definitely on purpose. We were definitely the first people in fashion doing that. What I would say about social media is that it’s just the visible part of something. You look at what we’ve been doing the last few years, it’s a social practice
project; the way we do our shows, the way we treat people —it’s a social practice thing every day. And then you have the visible part of that that gets delivered as a visual, fixed product. TC I remember when Instagram first started; we would post something and it was just such a disconnect, even though it’s exactly kind of the same thing that we’re posting right now. People grew at the same time that we were learning how to interact with the platform. You got likes if you had really big tits, or it was like, oh you have a dog or like, a cookie on a plate. BR A dog — 10,000 likes. TC And I didn’t know if I connected with it. Then we started seeing the customer that I actually didn’t see, that person I missed on the street. And if that person and another person had this bag, it starts to build this community of people. BR And that’s a rare thing. We built it over years, and we built it from an actual core of social practice— there’s a sense
@papaquans: DO I KNOW YOU? Thank you @telfarglobal please release the olive bag. Thank you Larry for the Tom cruise idea @hunters.slave Previous page: Image by Malike Sidibe/Redux
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BABAK RADBOY 30/09/2020 11:09
@brianxseymore: My most prized possession. When our last spot burned down two days before New Years. When we were finally able to get into the building that night. Under a pile of soil, drywall, water and ashes was my @telfarglobal shopping bag and in it $3000 worth of hard drives, memory cards and camera equipment. Everything was lightly moistened but virtually unharmed. My partner and I used this bag to gather what we could from the ashes and rubble and it was one of the most essential pieces in us rebuilding after the fire. For the next couple days after it carried everything we owned at that point as we went looking for a new place and gathered resources. I believe the energy invested in items is what defines their true worth. That’s why this bag will always be priceless to me.
of unity in the customer and a sense of community in the customer. The way that this exploded on Twitter was like, Telfar customers battling with resellers. Because there’s actually two different camps of people at the end of the day, and they couldn’t stand each other. LN
You’ve got to be the only brand that’s growing in COVID. You’ve really been able to bond people together. I think on the back end in fashion recently, we’ve seen this reactionary embracing of people. You have just remained completely consistent the entire time, which is why you’ll have people coming out getting into like full-on Twitter wars on social media for you. People are going to task like you’re their family. BR Or they’re doing customer support for us. Like if someone asked a question about shipping, there’s 20 people answering. Telfar has always not fit into the world and that is because needed the world to move. And what we’ve seen in the last six months is the world moving fast as fuck. Its shape and direction is falling apart. Every time that happens, that benefits us, because the goalposts, milestones and gatekeepers are not for us. The global pandemic will hurt a bunch of established brands, and we’ll make it obvious — we’ll cut the noise to make it obvious what we’re already doing. LN
@jubiworldwide @dasfather @BravoJayna @astoldbykade: it’s the bag for me :)
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I know you had plans to turn your show and your show concept into more of a traveling tour. I feel like you have never been scared of this hypercommercialization of the brand. Those huge plans have probably changed since COVID. But what were those plans? TC I think that we want to now be able to have an entertainment sector that goes along with the clothes. BR It’s culture and entertainment that is going to be properly owned inside of the community. When we did our shows, we were collaborating with musicians, artists, filmmakers, and we could understand the way that their respective industries siloed them, turned whatever was inside them into a career, separated them from each other, never giving them ownership of their work. Musicians are in a fucked-up position. With filmmakers it’s like, “oh, it’s so cool that he got to make that movie,” but they don’t own it, you know? We were making clothes and also not owning the clothes. We were giving everything to someone else. So I think that part of that concern has been, how do
we work together to create these expressive forms and deliver them to the people who actually care about them without all of this management and exploitation in the center of it? That’s the core idea. To create a space where people can be creative and communicate. We’ve also learned more about the entertainment industry. Like don’t we already have a TV show? There are more people on our online shop than are watching a show the night it comes out. So, do I need you? Do I need an investor? Do I need a platform? These questions are bubbling. And we’re just trying to work organically from the relationships with the people we want to work with, the idea being that we know that we need to make our own cultural space to appear. Because we’re always at a disadvantage — the same way we’re at a disadvantage appearing in a store when that’s not our customer. They’re actually filtering out our customers. It’s the same with anywhere else. LN
Whereas traditional brands have always had brand faces and brand ambassadors, you’ve always had a community of people that have circled your ecosystem, and they’ve been ambassadors without the word — and I’m sure without the big paycheck, and without the contractual obligations. Your brand faces look a lot different. A brand face could be someone who works a nineto-five but has a Telfar bag and within their horrible office job that they hate, they are an ambassador because they represent something different within that traditional ecosystem. Or it could be an Oyinda, or a Kelela. I think your idea of ambassadorship has so much ability to be able to move and transfer and I want to understand if that was conscious or not. BR In general, we’ve been really interested in what we have that no one else has, especially at times where we didn’t have money. We had to think about what we could do that nobody else could do. I’m also looking for that person, when they post a picture of themselves in the bag. We thought to ourselves, none of you other brands have that person. And that’s why we focus on that person. Our bag was an example of reverse influence. Celebrities bought it because regular people had it, 100 percent. And when we would even post a picture of a celebrity with it, nobody was interested. LN
I almost feel the bag is another take on you being called emerging for ten years. I read so many articles calling the bag “new” when the bag was designed in 2014. There’s this laziness. I don’t know whe-
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ther it’s laziness of the press, I don’t know whether it’s laziness of mind. I don’t know what it is. The party’s always been open — if you never showed up that’s on you. And I find it frustrating, so I know that you must find it annoying tenfold. I want to know how you feel about this adoption of these bags. Are you into the fact that everyone is so into them? Or are you more like, I’ve got 20 million things up my sleeve, it’s cool. TC I guess it’s a bit of both. I love to see millions of people with the same thing, because that’s why I made that thing. I want those designs to perform like that. But then at the same time, we’ve been making all these really cool clothes the entire time we’ve been around. I think now it’s my responsibility to actually make those things that you believe in and make them available. It’s like, I’ve always created the world for them—I have 15, 16, 20 years worth of clothes, and now I just need to make those things available in the real world, instead of walking down a runway. LN
And is that part of the strategy moving forward? Because I do want to talk about the clothes, about this being a fully realized brand. Of course it’s incredible, and I’m sure it’s really affirming to have a generation of people who respond to this brand and want to be a part of it. But it also must be quite confusing that they might only know you for one thing or one product. How do you transfer the way they love this bag and say hey, we have jeans that represent you too. We’ve had a tank top that represents you. I think that original Telfar tank top is actually really, for me, idealistic of a certain person. There’s everything about the way it’s constructed: the price point, what it’s made off, the fact the strap falls down. It’s all the embodiment of a person with a certain mentality. Age, size, race aside. So I wonder how you’re going to get that thinking on that bag to other areas? BR That’s just purely a question of a business plan. Because all of those clothes were available, just through this broken system. It was a system where we couldn’t make any money on anything, and our customer had to pay crazy prices. Like, if I’m gonna make a tank top for someone I’m interested in, it’s not going to be $600. That’s stupid. So it’s all about us. The one thing we’re doing is figuring out not how many bags do we need to make, but how many bags we want to make? How many bags do we need to make sure that the customer also connects with all these other things and that we continue to grow the catego-
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@darkstoutarizona @geelherme: cherubs 2.0, made with an algorithm image generator, using pieces of classical art and the @fiorucci bb angels as the base for the faces.
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@1ittlegirl: PICTURE THIS: me when @telfarglobal restocks tan mini so i can finally put @felinesofnewyorkk Telfar 2 use???? ive been dreaming all day! @thickrosstheboss: “CLASS WARFARE” BUT MAKE IT BLACK OWNED @icecreameaterrr: I promise I wore a mask (*´ `*) @babyvuota: <3<3<3 <3<3<3 <3<3<3
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@holdorganicbeef: brown paper bag â&#x20AC;&#x2122;#35mmfilm @telfarglobal #expiredfilm Top (Left â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Right): @isiah.ahmad: grocery runs @mr.magpie: Living On The Edge @daysiaah: Handsome & I decided to take a step away from sitting in the house staring at the tv or our phones. We decided to spend some quality together outside, by planning a picnic.
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ries of what you can get from us. But that means developing a product; there’s a difference between an object and a product. The product has everything built into it, the entire supply chain. It shows up to your house the day after you order it. And you didn’t have to pay too much, and we made enough, you know? That takes time to develop, and that takes capital to develop. And the bag is allowing us to do that for all the other categories. We just teased the durag yesterday, it’s coming out in a couple days. That’s gonna sell out. That’s another category. The jewelry is sold out. TC Each time we introduce a product, I realize that it’s actually sold out. So I just want to be the same way with the clothing that we’ve been making because some of the best things that you do want to make, and you do want to sell, don’t make it out. BR If I asked anybody in fashion in the industry what the result of the Bag Security program would be, they would guess something at least ten times less than what it was. And what that made us realize is that all these people’s opinions conspire to limit material reality. They create your limits. They’re the ones who make you “emerging” or not. I like bypassing them and asking directly to our customer, “How many of you want to be counted? How many of you are out there?” We just totally broke out of the hole of the entire industry. That was the same thing that’s happening every time we design a collection. It’s like, okay, so what does this store think they can sell to their customer? But it had nothing to do with us — we were fitting into them. TC It seems like where we are right now is just a result of just us practicing a certain way of doing things and knowing which way is gonna work. And the way that’s not working is the way that the fashion industry works. When we had our showroom at Century 21, people were able to pick what they wanted to get, and we got in our minds to tell the stores what to buy. And still, the stores really didn’t listen to that. LN And have all those retailers now circumnavigated and come back to you saying, “Actually, now we want a part. You guys have figured out that your supply can be infinite. Oh, can we have some of that infinity?” I’m sure you’re high on retailers’ list to get back. I’m interested in this because everyone probably thinks you’re rich now. TC I’m just trying to get rid of that rumor. I don’t want any of that attachment that comes with it. I’m rich in life and love and happiness. LN Very good. Very good answer. TC I’ll leave the bank account out of it.
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LN
What about the post-popularization of the brand. Have you thought about if demand kind of settles down? Do you guys think about it? Do you worry about it? Do you not care about it? TC I think about it. But I think that we’re making so much new stuff. We’re aware of how much that product is in demand, and we have other, equally great products too. BR We’re not passive in this. We were there every step of the way, communicating, creating new programs, and getting the other products in line, putting them out in a plan with the bag releases. And they’re hitting. Those products are working, too. If we were a company that only had one bag, then I think we would be in a greater risk of that ending. And if we lose a bunch of hype people who don’t have the patience to even understand what we do anyway, that’s not a loss. TC There’s also this other thing that’s going on. It’s like, will supporting Black business still be in by the time I get this bag in January, you know? It’s like, you can go. This isn’t a trend. I make things with the intention of you wearing that forever. I’m owning this period of what someone looks like, just like a Birkin bag or Chanel. Just how they’re around, I plan to be around. I’m building this based off of my life, and my life is not a trend. BR And we also have a high amount of reciprocity with our customer. We like this person. This person is our person, overwhelmingly, and unusually. We could basically hang out with most people who have the bag. Especially as we expand, we realize, do we want a million more followers if those million followers become our police? Who is it and why are they there, is the question. TC It’s like you could have a million people that are following your brand and just get a bunch of bullshit. People perceive fashion and people in fashion to be always trying to take advantage of someone, or profit off of someone, which is true. But it doesn’t have to be. You’re invited into a place to exert your individualism in a condition of unfreedom. LN
And dare you not conform, then you’re considered to be unfashionable or ugly. BR In that context, the coolest thing you could do is be a troll, because at least then you’re showing some kind of resistance. On social media, 50 percent of our activity is in the U.S., and 10 percent of that is in New York. We’re now in every little town in the country. It used to be like, you could get that [rare bag] and make your girlfriend feel bad. But with the creation of
something like Bag Security, we’re creating the possibility that [exclusivity] is not what [fashion] is about. Because for us, if we were feeding into that old system, then we’re its slaves. TC It’s like, “oh, you get the new bag.” But I carry the dustiest one, even though I made it! LN
I remember I came into school when I was like 7, and my book was all tattered and torn. I cried, and my school teacher said, “that means you love that book. And you read it and you slept on it and you actually read your books.” And I’ll never forget it. She said, “never be ashamed that your book is tattered and torn.” TC There’s a certain way about fashion where people keep things and they have nice things. I just basically — I don’t know. Like, I’m gonna keep my entire day’s, week’s, month’s, year’s look. BR It’s a real thing. Like if you meet somebody and they’re wearing something, and then you see them the next day and they’re wearing the same thing, I’m like, damn, yes, that’s a real person. TC It’s like, that’s their look. LN
Let’s talk about the durags, which for me feel really culturally important. They’re specifically significant because I can’t think really of one accessory that defines an African-American sartorial moment as much as the durag. Tell me why you chose to make one? TC I’ve basically been calling it the cornerstone of Black hair care. We’ve been talking about it for almost five years, to create a thing that I really use and need and survive off of. And then also I guess it’s like our first step into this direction of beauty. It’s another accessory that also speaks specifically to me and most people that buy into the brand. LN
How would you feel if a white person was wearing a Telfar durag? TC I’d say to them, you could do whatever you want to do. You know what it’s for. And you know, what is that doing for you? You want to lay your hair down, you can lay your hair down. We’re in 2020. I’m not policing anything that people can buy themselves. That’s not the point of fashion. I literally have lived in New York, down South, East Coast, you know—I’ve seen white people in durags. It’s not a new thing. You even clock them and be like, “damn, you actually try that.” But I don’t find that insulting. This whole thing of policing what you can and can’t do makes me want to do something more. BR That’s not our job. But I think that was also in the category of shit that other people can’t do. And it makes so much sense
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[to sell] direct-to-consumer, because that can’t be in a fashion store. You know what I mean? Because it literally will give you the wrong idea. Like it’s actually for people who need it, and they’re ordering it from a place that’s worth it. LN
And what else? What other products, categories would you love to get into or are you planning to get into, if you can share them? TC Definitely our denim line. A line of underwear. Accessories. There’s shoes. BR We’re doing it all, to be honest. It’s just a matter of time. But what we’re kind of in the process of unpacking the collection. We also loved collections in the tradition of European fashion, because we saw them and we admired them. But I think, over time, we’ve started to realize what the problems are with this tradition, the first and foremost being that we started to understand that it’s almost like a kind of
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protectionist racket, similar to burgundy wine, or regional cheeses. They want to continue cultural dominance in an idea of beauty. And what we’re starting to understand is that we’ve always made types of clothes, and there have always been Telfar departments. We’re trying to unpack that into, how do we come out with clothes in a way that’s new, that’s for the future? We’re essentially bringing everything back, but just launching it in a way that actually makes sense. That isn’t just a performance where you’re losing money on everything from marketing or some kind of nonsensical thing. So the answer is everything — all the categories of clothes you’ve seen from us have been consistent since forever. TC I go through the archive, from the first collection to the most recent one, and pick out literally everything that makes us and then edit from there. LN And that’s your formula for the collection each time, to look back?
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TC It’s really annoying. Literally I’ll bring a mood board and it only has our collections on it. Nothing else. It’ll be from 2006 or 2005. It’s really about going back to what we were doing and actually perfecting that. LN
I feel like you have a career’s worth of ideas already stored up there. TC I just find myself going back to them so much because the world is shifting toward what I was already thinking that I wanted the world to be, and the way I wanted people to act within the world. BR It’s really crazy: When we pull something out from like, 2006 to 2009, it just looks so new. It looks like, oh shit, people will buy that today. It looks newer than what we just did. LN Top (Left–Right) @noonnnaaammmeeee @47broadway: #TELFARGLOBAL Bottom (Left–Right) @cocoandbreezy: Happy Sunday babiess!!! @_narakimmm: 베이비 갱스터~#기저귀갈기전~
TC BR
You know, a friend said this to me yesterday, but Viagra was originally made to be heart medicine. It was meant to keep you alive. They realized in the testing that it obviously gets your dick hard, and used it and marketed it as that. And I thought it was a metaphor for Telfar. It was created to be essential. It’s an essential part of your life, but I think through no marketing and thinking of your own — through the buzz and the getting-off of everybody else — you created Viagra. If there ever was a strategy to your mass market success, it’s to create something essential, to have other people freak out over it, but you don’t say it or do anything.
I’m still unpacking it in my head. What you said is obviously true, because it sounds so good. But I would say that there’s two answers to it, and they don’t come from me or come from Telfar. I would say that it feels like we’re not behind it, we’re in front of it. What we’re interested in is security. What we’re interested in is being able to create control over time and space for ourselves, and to share it with other people. And that’s the secret behind the brand. And all the commercial things come from us believing that that is actually true. We want to do every single thing differently down to its core fundamental structure. So in a way it doesn’t seem like we’re saying anything, because we’re doing things. TC I think we’re just owning the shit that we’re doing. Every season, you’re gonna see a thing that represents what we’re about. And it’s not losing the message. LN I was thinking about you being the heir apparent to Calvin and Ralph and Tommy and all of
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these one-man name brands that were kind of able to crack the code on American dressing. I want to understand your relationship to fame and notoriety, because with all of this kind of success, people love to see the face of it. And actually, I always think you have taken that code and again subverted it. Because at the beginning of your career, you were doing the clapping avatar of yourself and that stuff. BR That wasn’t the beginning, by the way. At the beginning of his career, people thought he was a Japanese designer. And they didn’t believe that he was Telfer when they would meet him. TC I would tell someone that I made something and they’d be like, “Yeah, right.” When me and Babak started working together, he encouraged me to actually be very present — BR I kind of forced him. But my rationale for it was, you’re going to be fabricated and perpetrated. You need to get ahead of it and put a decoy in front of yourself. Everything about you is going to pass through your skin and through how people perceive you, so put that out there now. Make that action have to happen in public, and let’s go from there. So we went for literally that kind of celebrity designer — aesthetic as a provocation — at that time. I came on in 2014, by the time it was the CFDA Awards in 2017, it was one year to the day after the election. And that was a different era. Now, we’ve moved into tokenization from marginalization. The industry had a plan in place [for Telfar], and they were gonna stick us in the slot. None of these things came from the people they’re addressing. In fact, they’re not addressing those people at all. It’s people addressing each other, using us. So that changed our strategy, and then that turned into business practices. It’s like, no, we’re gonna run our business like this. I would say that those resistances helped define us — we couldn’t choose our context. We happen in this world, and there’s a kind of subjection that totally precedes us. And we’re just trying to find a way out. And it’s not a conversation, it’s a line of flight.
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DOUBLE MIXTE
LACOSTE is synonymous with tennis—with the crocodile comes a racket. Collections from designer Louise Trotter, the label’s first female creative director in its nearly century-old history, have paid homage to players of the past and their rakish, retro style. Here, we photographed models in full heritage-style looks, with an interview from Trotter about the brand’s legacy of innovation, boundary-breaking women, and the iconic polo.
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All clothing and accessories throughout by LACOSTE.
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Of course you know Lacoste. Perhaps you own a crocodile polo — the L.12.12 in cotton piqué to be precise — and know something of its tennis heritage (and golf, too). You’ve seen the punchy collaborations with Tyler the Creator, Keith Haring, Disney, Supreme, and others. But perhaps you didn’t know that the 87year-old French apparel brand, headquartered in Paris, turns over two billion euros annually, employs over 10,000 people of 40 nationalities based in over 120 countries, and produces not just apparel, but luxury ready-to-wear, accessories, homeware, sunglasses, underwear, watches, collaborations, and performance apparel (for all the serious Lacoste athletes). It’s a serious operation. Overseeing all of this, calmly and adroitly, is Louise Trotter. Since joining Lacoste in 2018 as the brand’s first female creative director, Trotter has carved a pathway as a designer with a knack for balancing fashion’s frisson and desirability with functionality. Her lengthy tenure at Joseph, and previously Gap, Calvin Klein, and Tommy Hilfiger, laid the foundations. Born in Sunderland (halfway up England’s blustery East coast), Trotter has a pragmatic approach and clear vision that has set the Lacoste brand on course. TILLY MACALISTER-SMITH LOUISE TROTTER TMS
You’re Lacoste’s first female creative director, does that feel important to you? LT Yes, it does, and it’s become more important as I’ve come to realize the responsibility that comes with my role. I was raised to believe that women could be equal to men, but this is sadly not the reality for many women. The history of Lacoste centers around two very strong females: Simone Thion de La Chaume, René’s wife, and Suzanne Lenglen, his tennis partner. Both were strong, pioneering women who broke boundaries and rules. I hope that, with my values and through my work, I can continue to do justice to their legacy.
TMS
How has our current situation globally shaped the conversation you want to have as a designer? LT It’s interesting, because there are great societal challenges as well as shifting perspectives on how people want to live in this changing world. Specifically as a designer, I feel that people want clothes that inspire and express values that they feel are important to them; they must also perform and function in a way that gives confidence to the wearer who places health and wellness as a life priority, and clothes must be made to last, so that you buy less of them but keep them for longer.
TMS
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The Fall 2020 collection was shown in Paris in March, just as COVID-19 was taking hold in Europe. Since then, how has the virus affected the business and what decisions have been
“ I am not saying fashion shows are dead — as I do believe nothing can replace that sense of connection and we need to dream — but until we can come together safely, I think we need to press the pause button.” made to protect the future of the brand? LT In the short term, we had to close almost every store globally and many of our factories stopped production. The rules of the game changed overnight and we recognized that we needed to change how we played and how we worked together as a team, despite the physical distancing. Business in the short term has been challenging, and to counter that, we are being cautious with our actions and making sure every output is meaningful. Longer-term, we remain confident in our strategic vision and, in a way, I believe COVID-19 has made us stronger and more united in our beliefs and purpose. TMS
What do you think the future of the fashion show is? LT I think for now it’s not a priority. I am not saying fashion shows are dead—as I do believe nothing can replace that sense of connection and we need to dream—but until we can come together safely, I think we need to press the pause button.
TMS
Is sustainability an important part of your design process? Can you share some examples of how the brand functions, or changes you have implemented, that support this? LT We have no option but to embrace a more sustainable approach to how we live and work, so we are looking at the ways we produce and behave. We will not be the brand that makes false promises, so we are taking discrete and assured steps in the right direction. (Lacoste has signed the UN Global Compact.) We produce in large volumes, so finding a sustainable source at the right quality level takes time and careful consideration. With that said, our factory in France, an important part of our production, now uses sustainable yarns and manufacturing. In Spring ’21 we will launch a full sustainable capsule of new essentials, including a new sustainable polo. We also believe that our collections should be built to last, and with this in mind, we are working to increase the lifespan of our icons through technical innovation and studied design so that people can cherish them for longer.
TMS
You are a working mother at the top of her game. How do you manage to balance all your responsibilities?
LT I have three children, all under 10. There was a bit of a running joke because, between the three children, I was breastfeeding for about eight years! It got to the point where I would just be sitting in meetings with the pump going berrrr, berrrr, berrrr and nobody would take any notice of me. That pump would be the soundtrack of my life! First of all, I’ve been in a very fortunate position where I’ve worked for companies who have been very supportive of my role not only as their creative director but as a mother. There are many women who are not in such a fortunate position and not able to do the things I was able to do. Also, I have the most incredible husband, who has also allowed me to continue with my career while pretty much raising our kids himself. Then, at the same time, you just get on with it and deal with it. There are times when I have to juggle and I try to do both, and other times when work has to take priority, and I don’t get guilty about that, and then times when I have to draw a line and say now is the time for my children. You make it work, there is no secret. At times, it’s not perfect but you do your best. TMS
The theme of this issue is “Culture, Community, and Influence.” How does Lacoste view these three tenets? LT Lacoste has a very distinct relationship with each of those tenets. It has a wonderful history of being embraced by many different cultures who have turned wearing Lacoste into an individual expression of who they are —building a diverse community with those that share Lacoste’s values of fair play, innovation, and elegance lies at the heart of everything we do, whilst influence may probably come from behaving with integrity and inspiring others to join your community. TMS
Do you feel optimistic for the future? LT I feel optimistic when I speak to the younger generation, such as the young photographers that I work with, as they are so much more aware than I ever was at their age. It brings hope. The next generation are going to be ones to flip this, and this moment feels like the catalyst we need to kick us into something very, very different.
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Hair: Jacob Kajrup Makeup: Aurore Gibrier Models: Moriaby Samassi and Mariame Ouattara Production: Kim Nigay Photographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Assistant: Peter Keyser Location: Tennis Energy
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BEAUTIFUL STRANGER
Photography by SUFFO MONCLOA Styling by CARINE ROITFELD
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Take a trip to the fringes with model Lauren Ernwein and soak up some of the seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best collections.
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Lauren wears Sweater, skirt and bag by JACQUEMUS Coat by MAX MARA, Tights by WOLFORD Shoes by GIANVITO ROSSI Jewelry worn throughout by CARTIER
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Dress by BOTTEGA VENETA Bra by CARINE GILSON Tights by WOLFORD
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Opposite: Dress and belt by CELINE Tights by WOLFORD Shoes by GIANVITO ROSSI
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Dress by VALENTINO Jacket by VETEMENTS
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Opposite: Coat and skirt by FENDI Slip dress STYLISTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S OWN Bra by FIFI CHACHNIL Tights by WOLFORD Shoes by MANOLO BLAHNIK
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Coat by MIU MIU Tights by WOLFORD
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Opposite: Sweater, skirt and scarf by MARC JACOBS Bra by CARINE GILSON Tights by WOLFORD, Shoes by GIANVITO ROSSI
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Jacket by LOUIS VUITTON Slip dress STYLISTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S OWN Tights by WOLFORD Shoes by GIANVITO ROSSI
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Jacket by BURBERRY Slipdress by LA PERLA Hood by PACO RABANNE Shoes by GIANVITO ROSSI
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Sweater, skirt and coat by TOM FORD Tights by WOLFORD Shoes by GIANVITO ROSSI Bag by CARTIER
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Hair: Yuji Okuda Makeup: Sakoto Watanabe Production: Kim Nigay Photographer’s Assistants: Bertrand Dussart and Theophile Mottelet Fashion Assistant: Marie Cheiakh Shoot Location: Bourse Départementale Du Travail De La Seine Saint Denis
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FACE FORWARD
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“Makeup and the application of makeup almost becomes more luxurious, because it’s more precious,” explains Peter Philips of the current quagmire we find ourselves in. The global pandemic has meant less leaving our homes and less opportunity for celebration, while the mandatory need for masks has made for less facial real estate to play with, rendering makeup a tricky step to incorporate into our new routines, if we have any. But Philips, the beauty visionary and Creative and Image Director of Christian Dior Makeup, offers some solutions.
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“Ok, you have to wear the mask, so it’s a practical problem. But it’s only a problem when you make it a problem,” he says. “You can do gorgeous eye makeup, beautiful eyebrows — you can make it look interesting, you can wear that lipstick and that highlight for a Zoom meeting with a good light because you want to show yourself at your best.” Philips teamed up with CR’s co-creative director Carine Roitfeld and photographer Brigitte Niedermair for a series that turns the mask into art. Using bursts of color courtesy of Dior Rouge
lipstick and graphic statements above the eyes, this series comments on our current global context with flair. “It’s about a new representation of the face,” says Philips. “We have this mask but what’s underneath? What do you want to cover up?” His work serves as a reminder in the importance of putting yourself together, even if you may be the only person to see. “You want to make an impression when you can, even at home. The moments when you are able to wear makeup are even more powerful now because they are even more rare.”
28/09/2020 14:17
Mao wears Rouge DIOR 999 VELVET (VELVET) Previous Page: Swati wears ROUGE DIOR 814 ROUGE ATELIER (MATTE)
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Diara wears Rouge DIOR 976 DAISY PLUM All makeup used throughout by DIOR BEAUTY
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Diara wears Rouge DIOR 976 DAISY PLUM All makeup used throughout by DIOR BEAUTY
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Hair: Yoann Fernandez Nails: Brenda Photographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Assistants: Corinna Schulte and Katrin Backes Models: Marie Fofana, Kim Shell, Mao, Diarra, Swati Eck Fashion Assistant: Marie Cheiakh
29/09/2020 10:39
FAMILY FIRST We’re living in an unprecedented age, one that is complex, confusing, and leaves us with more questions than answers. But this singularly bizarre period has provided us with an opportunity to slow down, think, and take stock of what really matters to us. And so we asked CR’s closest friends and collaborators about their hopes for the future, and how they want the world to change for the better.
HALIMA ADEN My hope for the world is that one day we will get to a place where there is no need for organizations like UNICEF because every child, in every corner of the world, will have access to basic needs, such as education, food, clean water, a stable family life, and healthcare. But until then, we must fully commit our support to UNICEF as they work day in and day out to provide for and protect the world’s most vulnerable children. TOM FORD I would like for the world to rediscover love, and civility. And to once and for all put an end to racial bias. We are one people and we all inhabit the same planet and we waste so much time with hate and anger. Our culture has become so negative. We rip each other apart for sport. We are cynical, and sarcastic, and cruel to each other. We need to support each other, realize that everyone on the planet suffers in their own way, and all try to ease the pain of our fellow man.
PARIS JACKSON We need to think of ourselves as allies with the Earth, as opposed to being separate from its resources. Such actions must take place in an environment where our differences are honored, but unity is the priority. The world can only change for the better if we truly, actively, and passionately turn away from conflict. I want to be part of a world where we simply treat each other with fundamental decency.
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MEI KAWAJIRI Do not try too hard. Create something with a message.
IRINA SHAYK I hope that this year has given everyone time to look inward and reflect. The world is so fast-paced, and seems to only get faster. I hope this period has been an opening for everyone to take better care of themselves, and therefore others.
MARIO SORRENTI I’m hopeful for us to treat each other with love and respect, kindness and equality. To treat all living things as we would like to be treated. Uplift and inspire. Keep loving, keep growing as one.
LARA STONE Not sure how to fix the world. Maybe if we stop being assholes. RICCARDO TISCI Today, everything is so available and easily accessible, which is of course convenient, but I miss the old ways of working when I first started my career. Although technology can offer us so many things, I feel that it is affecting humanity and our perspective on the reality of life. But I truly believe in renaissance and in change for the better, in a world that is more open-minded.
JOAN SMALLS I want the world to be more considerate and conscious, for us to be loving towards one another, and for there to be equality and justice for all.
NORTH WEST I would make everybody love each other and make the coronavirus go away and make everyone have more dogs.
CR FASHION BOOK 28/09/2020 14:20
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CANCELS & REPLACES CR FASHION BOOK WOMEN OBC 280x370 F - 1854 SP 2 INTERNATIONAL - On sale date: 2 OCTOBER