THE EDITION Issue No. 3 X The Usual

LONDON · MIAMI · NE W YORK

W INTER․SPR ING 2015/16

ISSUE Nº 3 — FR EE

ALEX A CHUNG

The entrepreneur and insider on fashion 2.0

CR EATI V E MINDS IN CR EATI V E CITIES:

DA N I E L A R S H A M ∙ I M R A N A M E D ∙ PA R K E R P O S E Y ∙ M A R A H O FFM A N ∙ G LE N N O’ B R I E N ∙ A D R I A N J O FFE M I A M O R E T T I ∙ K E N N Y S C H A C H T E R ∙ D J H A R V E Y ∙ AT L A N TA D E C A D E N E T TAY L O R ∙ A N D TO N S M O R E

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THE FUTURE ISSUE

A LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE ACCORDING TO ARTIST DANIEL ARSHAM, THE PRESENT, PAST AND future are all malleable states of being and therefore we’ve already arrived at the latter. Of course Arsham isn’t the first to pontificate on what the future holds, and we’re certainly not the first to ask. But with every new exploration of what the next years and decades will look like in the cities we’re rooted in—London, Miami, New York—brings a new perspective on how to live today, and what will be important tomorrow. That’s why we dove into the lofty task of talking to some of the world’s most creative minds to learn what lies ahead in the fields of art, fashion, music, hospitality, and more.

Alexa Chung believes the future will be silver. Business of Fashion’s Imran Amed speculates that fashion’s pace won’t slow down, but instead, brands will begin leading with stronger values. To that effect, designer Mara Hoffman’s five-year plan is to make her manufacturing more responsible and not to be glued to her phone. Looking to contemporary art, advisor Kenny Schachter speculates what the art world will look like in years to come. And DJ Mia Moretti tells us that global nightlife will be increasingly vibrant for those willing to venture out of their comfort zone.

On the following pages, you’ll read about these musings and other cultural soothsaying from EDITION’s friends and family. We hope you enjoy. And if tomorrow becomes too much to contemplate, we have a great solution for your immediate future—a stiff drink at the lobby bar. See you there shortly.

Xo, Yasha, Emily, and the EDITION crew

WINTER · SPRING 2015/16

CREATIVE MINDS

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CONTENTS

DANIEL ARSHAM /

04

How the Miami-bred Artist Is Becoming an Archaeologist of the Future

PARKER POSEY /

06

From Indie Darling to New York Icon

MIA MORETTI /

06

20 Questions for the Music Maven, Disco Nerd, and Pop Aficionado

GLENN O'BRIEN /

07

On How to Be the Host with the Most and a Guest Who's the Best

ALEXA CHUNG /

08

The Entrepreneur and Insider on Fashion 2.0

pg. 04

ADRIAN JOFFE /

09

How Comme des Garç ons' President Goes Against the Flow

CITIES OF TOMORROW /

10

A View of London, Miami, and New York Through Different Lenses

MARA HOFFMAN /

14

A Shaman for the Sartorial Masses

DJ HARVEY /

16

The London Legend on the Next Generation of DJing

FUTURE MEMORIES /

16

The Illuminated World of Artist Olivia Steele

PANTIES, POLITICS & PUNCH / 16

Confessions from London EDITION's Davide Segat

pg. 08

IMRAN AMED /

17

The Media Pioneer on the Business of Consumption

BEN PUNDOLE /

17

Dream Destinations for a Sonic Experience

ART WORLD PREDICTIONS /

18

Veteran Art Dealer Kenny Schachter on Collecting Like There's No Tomorrow

SOUNDTRACK TO THE FUTURE / 19

By Nicolas Matar

ATLANTA DE CADENET TAYLOR /

19

Model of the Moment on How a Picture Isn’t Worth 1,000 Words pg. 14

CONTRIBUTORS MEET YOUR EDITORS: We are The Usual Creative, YASHA WALLIN (editorial director) and EMILY ANDERSON (creative director)―best friends, global connectors, and cultural enthusiasts.

The Usual collaborates with EDITION on this paper you hold in your hands, a bi-annual publication celebrating the cities we love around the world. The Usual began as a seasonal surf publication and “love letter to Montauk.” We now create smart, irreverent content for awesome clients as diverse as Patagonia, Metallica, J.Crew, and The Surf Lodge.

TRAVIS GUMBS is the co-founder of the men’s lifestyle site and creative agency Street Etiquette, which has been aptly described as “Serious About Cool.” We asked Gumbs to translate this aesthetic vision into thinking about NYC in the future, on page 13.

MARCO ARGUELLO is a self-taught photographer with an affinity for urban landscapes, minimalism, and oddities. He’s worked for everyone from Art Basel and Lexus International to Porter Airlines.

For the past four years he’s called Miami home, and on page 12 he reveals his view of this pioneering city.

EVIANA HARTMAN is a writer and creative consultant. She writes the “Profile in Style” feature for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, where she was previously deputy online editor. She also contributes to Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Dwell, and Yahoo Style. On page 17 she asks Imran Amed about the future of the fashion industry.

REBECCA CARROLL is a producer at WNYC and a contributor to The Guardian. She has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, PAPER, and The New York Observer; she is also the author of Saving The Race and Sugar in the Raw. Also a movie buff, Carroll interviewed fellow New Yorker Parker Posey on page 06.

DJ HARVEY has been called the “Keith Richards of dance music.” His motto: “You can't understand the blues until you've had your heart broken and you can't understand my music till you've had group sex on ecstasy.” On page 16 the UK-born musical pioneer tells us what the future of DJing holds.

LEE CARTER is the founder and editor-in-chief of the New York fashion site Hintmag.com. He's also a contributor to Vogue.com, W, and Details. Carter caught up with our cover woman Alexa Chung, while she was multi-tasking through the streets of NYC, page 08.

KYLE MCDONALD runs the Brooklyn-based independent creative studio, A Minor Variant, when not pursuing a career as a professional footballer. When not designing this issue, he can be found surfing the NY/NJ coast before sun rise.

CREATIVE CITIES

ELEANOR HARDWICK is a photographer based in London. She describes her life is one endless art project with Kate Bush as the imaginary soundtrack. She's been featured in Vogue, Dazed, i-D, Purple, and The Guardian. On page 10 she imagines the London of tomorrow.

KEN MILLER is a curator, writer, and creative director. He has published three books on art, photo, and fashion with Rizzoli, with events at the New Museum, Tate Modern, and Colette (Paris). The Newsstand, with photographer Lele Saveri and designers Pau Wau, accompanies an exhibition at MoMA through Spring ’16. Miller talks to the inimitable Adrian Joffe on page 09.

GLENN O'BRIEN is a writer who lives in New York. He is editor-atlarge of the new Maxim magazine and is host of Tea at the Beatrice on M2M/Apple TV. He has also been pretty much everywhere, and done everything there is having to do with culture, so you’ll savor his op-ed on big-city hospitality on page 07.

BEN PUNDOLE is a hotelier, VP of brand experience at EDITION Hotels, and editor-in-chief for AHotelLife.com. The British-born entrepreneur has been involved in the startup and development of many hotels including EDITION, Morgans Hotel Group, Ruschmeyers, Surf Lodge, and King & Grove. Also a music lover, Pundole tells us the sonic experiences not-tobe-missed in 2016 on page 17.

KENNY SCHACHTER has curated contemporary exhibitions for nearly 25 years and teaches graduate seminars in art history. He’s contributed to books on the likes of Zaha Hadid and Gerhard Richter and writes for Artnet, Art News, NY Magazine, The Art Newspaper and British GQ. On page 18 he tells us his outlook on contemporary art for the years to come.

ISSUE N° 3

THE FUTURE ISSUE

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DANIEL ARSHAM How the Miami-bred Artist Is Becoming an Archaeologist of the Future

By Yasha Wallin · Portrait by James Law

STEPPING INTO DANIEL ARSHAM’S Greenpoint, Brooklyn studio is like being suspended in various points of time: packed on shelves, tables, and hanging from the ceiling are artifacts from the present (Nikes, Leica cameras, basketballs) that evoke the past (constructed, for instance, from millions-of-years-old glacial rock dust). And to make matters even more meta, Arsham works as though he’s decades into the future looking back.

The Miami-born creator is one half of Snarkitecture, an experimental architecture studio whose collaborators range from Beats by Dre to Calvin Klein. And he’s also one of contemporary art’s most coveted artists, having mounted exhibitions around the world. To extend his oeuvre, he launched his own film production company in 2014 and is slowly releasing his nine-part ethereal film series Future Relic starring Juliette Lewis and James Franco.

I remember trying to reverseengineer the house I grew up in, being inside of the house and trying to draw architectural plans of that.

WINTER · SPRING 2015/16

When you walk into your studio there’s a sign that reads, "Welcome to the Future." What is the deeper meaning behind that?

My general feeling about time, and the present, the past, and the future is as malleable as the other materials in which I work. That prompt of "Welcome to the Future" is that each moment in which you arrive is the future. You've already arrived at it.

people's expectations of the existing world, whether that be through the decaying of something that you know, or the manipulation of architecture. The running theme through all of that is this idea that we can make things act in ways they shouldn't. That transformation of the everyday and of architecture can be uncanny, can be transformative, can make little kids run away in fear.

How did the future become an omnipresent theme in your work?

In some ways, part of my interest in the future comes through my sort of obsession with archaeology. But inherently, archaeology is a fiction, right? They can tell us whatever they want, but even after developing all of the stories and the basis for Egyptology, for a long time they still didn't realize that a lot of stuff was painted. So my position is that we think that we can know the past, but in fact we know the past as well as we know the future.

You work as both an artist and as one half of the creative duo Snarkitecture. How do you approach a project differently whether for a gallery or a client commission?

A lot of the stuff I make has no place in architecture land. That's kind of the reason why Snarkitecture started. [Years ago] I was making something that had been previously shown in a gallery and museum context and it was being commissioned for a public space. It got to the architect who was building the space, and he said, "There's no way that this is happening, this doesn't meet any building code." So I worked with Alex [Mustonen] to bring that project into compliance with all of these other sorts of necessities, and Snarkitecture was born.

What kind of materials do you incorporate in your work to tell this narrative?

Volcanic ash; selenite crystal; obsidian, which is a volcanic glass; pyrite; there's a number of different types of quartz—and that's just in this kind of sculpture. I also make work in fiberglass and my paintings are made in gouache. There are very few materials that I wouldn't have some sort of idea to manipulate.

Why is it important to use materials from the past and create new narratives with them?

It's about developing something that is believable, that feels authentic. Creating something that is trompe-l'oeil—inherently the fiction falls apart more quickly. The first work I made was an old camera cast in ash: I brought some [volcanic] stones back from Easter Island with me, crushed those up and that became the first work. It looked so real and it felt so real. In some ways, these figure works that I've been making more recently recall the famous figure from Pompeii. We can tell they're contemporary because they're wearing Nike, yet they appear as if we're viewing them from the future.

With your mind fixed in the future, is it hard to stay in the present? Does having a child help?

Yeah, I have a two-and-a-half-year-old son named Caspar. He's very immediate. I think that his influence on me is as kind of a different way of looking at things. I've often incorporated, even before his birth, ideas that were related to how a child might interpret the world. I try to cause scenarios where people misrecognize architecture; where scenarios that might otherwise be very rigid and fixed can become malleable and fluid. Children often use things in the wrong way: they use a knife as a spoon, they may use a handrail as a play toy. That kind of misrecognition of architecture can be helpful for creating new elements and new experiences.

Kids have so much imagination, then as we become adults we learn to tone it down, to— —to unlearn. I never got there...

So many people do though. How do you tap back into imagination?

Even before my son was born, a lot of the work I made didn't obey those rules. It played with

Do you remember the first building you ever saw that sparked your interest in architecture?

I remember trying to reverse-engineer the house I grew up in, being inside of the house and trying to draw architectural plans of that. To this day I could probably draw a very accurate floor plan of the house that I grew up in, even though I haven't been there in 20 years.

Where did the name Snarkitecture come from?

The name is based on a Lewis Carroll poem called "The Hunting of the Snark," which is a story about a bunch of idiots searching for a beast called the snark. All they have to go on is a blank, white map.

Which is fitting because you’re colorblind. But I heard you’ll soon be getting special glasses that will help you see in color—I didn't even know that they had glasses like that.

They have not had them for long. A couple of years ago, these scientists who were developing specialized lenses for laser use—for surgery and things like this—discovered this refraction that was happening with the lenses. Being colorblind doesn't mean that you don't see any color: what it means is the rods and cones in the eyes cannot distinguish the difference between colors, especially when they have a similar wavelength.

What these lenses do is separate the wavelength of light more drastically so it increases the difference between colors.

How will this change your practice?

Right now, I don't feel like there's anything missing. But being introduced to that, maybe I'm going to hate it, just be like, "I can't believe that this is the world that you guys all see!"

Your hometown of Miami may certainly feel more vibrant in color. How was it growing up as a creative person there?

I grew up among a kind of tropical forest landscape. I spent a lot of time out in the Everglades and out on the water, so the Miami that everyone imagines now with partying and South Beach—that was not at all part of my childhood.

Was there much of an art scene growing up?

I left Miami in 1998 to come to New York to go to school. I studied at Cooper Union. After school I went back to Miami for a while and, with a couple of friends, started an exhibition space called The House. That was right around the time that Art Basel was beginning. It was a time when people would still visit artists' studios in Miami. There weren’t the dinners and parties and all of this other stuff that's going on now in Miami—it was a very particular moment in time.

You wanted to delve into film, so you recently started your own film production company?

I have been making these objects which are very evocative, these kind of future relic pieces that were often being written about in ways that recall the story. People would ask, "What is the universe that you imagine these objects existing within?"

And so I wrote that as a treatment. Some people I knew that worked at Tribeca Films encouraged me to develop that into a script, and it went from there. In order to make films you've got to have a production company, so I started Film the Future to work on that and some other smaller projects.

Why was it important for you to work in film at this point?

Film is something that I've always been interested in. It is, for me, the kind of complete universe that encapsulates all the other areas in which I work: architecture, scenography, photography. All the props in the film are things that I've actually made, and it allows me to bring all those together into one sort of universe.

In Future Relic 03—the third installment of your first film—Juliette Lewis is holding a newspaper dated 2052. In the year 2052, will newsprint be a relevant medium?* You never know. According to 2001: A Space Odyssey, we're living on the moon right now. So we're still reading newspapers—there are certain things that just won't change. Part of what I love about depictions of the future are when they feel very real and pedestrian. I try to combine elements of the present to allow viewers to feel like it's not so removed from their everyday life. *This paper you hold in your hands is, of course, timeless.

You’re highly prolific on Instagram and Snapchat; it's almost become an extension of your artwork. What’s so great about your engagement on there is that it’s the one place your followers really get a glimpse inside your head.

I think that the most powerful thing about it is that it enables me to reach audiences that wouldn't otherwise go to a gallery or to a museum. It reaches people in places where they may not have access to that. I find that to be a very egalitarian way to show work.

Why is art important?

Artists are tasked with uncovering things that people don't pay attention to, that they maybe otherwise should, and provoking responses that are outside of people's everyday experience. I think that that can have a huge impact on people in general, on society, and obviously culture.

To go behind-the-scenes in Daniel's studio, see the video at Facebook.com/EDITIONHotels

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All photos by James Law

Clockwise from top: "Slice,” 2012

"Selenite Eroded Basketball Jersey,” 2015

Still from Future Relic 03, 2014

"Formless Figure,” 2015

Still from Future Relic 04, 2015

CREATIVE CITIES

ISSUE N° 3

THE FUTURE ISSUE

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PARKER POSEY From Indie Darling to New York Icon

By Rebecca Carroll · Illustration by Stefan Knecht

PARKER POSEY IS A DARLING OF many things: “indie films” as they once were, New York City’s West Village neighborhood, magnificent vintage style, and enviable timelessness.

Throughout her three-decades-long career in film and in recent years, television, Posey has remained delightful, clever, and captivating on screen. She first caught our attention in a string of playfully daring independent films: Party Girl (library dance anyone?), House of Yes (is there a single human not wildly riveted by her brilliance as the demented Jackie O?), and of course her long tenure as part of the Christopher Guest crew (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, et al).

with Guest and other collaborators. It’s a pretty sweet career trajectory. And her trajectory is quintessentially New York with its nuance and character, gumption and aplomb. From darling to icon, Posey has never lost view of the city as both her home and her muse; and New York has never lost view of her as its chicest heroine.

One might say we’re now having a Parker Posey renaissance, with her first Woody Allen film Irrational Man having come out this year, and another one with the director on the way. Also slated to open next year are projects

PARKER POSEY’S GUIDE TO NYC Follow your nose and walk around!

Don't be scared to talk to strangers because New Yorkers are mostly friendly and used to engaging with people.

Hang out and drink coffee: MUD in the East Village feels like you're in Australia. La Colombe on Lafayette and Bond is a great hub with big windows and lots of light.

The yoga community is great for newcomers.

Take the 8th St crosstown bus.

Go to Tompkins Square and Washington Square.

MIA MORETTI 20 Questions for the Music Maven, Disco Nerd, and Pop Aficionado

Portrait by Janell Shirtcliff

I N T H E K NOW:

N E W YO RK WINTER · SPRING 2015/16

• WHAT TO DRINK • Martini

WHEN JUST ONE OF your year’s highlights is meeting with Katy Perry and Hillary Clinton on the road in Iowa, it's safe to say your future looks bright. Such is the case with Mia Moretti, DJ, nightlife personality, and half of the DJ/ violin duo The Dolls.

The California-born musical mastermind— who is known for her inimitable style, and keeping crowds dancing until the wee morning hours—was in the middle of a sixweek tour around the world with Perry when we caught up with her to play 20 questions.

You’ve said you almost quit acting because you felt the independent film movement go away from you. Having lived and worked in NYC for so long, have you felt the same sentiment about the city—gentrification as the Hollywood treatment?

Never thought of gentrification in the city as getting the Hollywood treatment, but you can look at the culture that way for sure. A movie gets "the Hollywood treatment" when it invents events that aren't true in order to make the film more viable commercially. The movies are glossy and slick and inflated. Have I noticed people looking more glossy and slick and moneyed? For sure!

My fantasy of New York City had its roots in the antithesis of that, so it's strange to meet 26-yearolds who have had botox and casually talk about aging, with no awareness that a woman twice their age is listening.

How has New York changed for you, for good or otherwise?

The city has changed a lot but it's still New York City. My friends are creative and we have those conversations all the time. But there are still neighborhood places I go to that I went to 20 years ago. I still feel like a New Yorker. I go out to Brooklyn. I went to this party called “The Loft” and danced with people who could really dance like no one's watching. It's a roaming party that's been going on since the 80s and the DJ plays house and disco and I had a hangover of feeling connected to the diversity of the city for a few weeks. I don't want to forget that and be a crank. People still ask for directions despite their iPhones. There's still the New York attitude of spontaneity and strong opinions that will always be there. Neighbors in my building strike up conversations about plays or shows they liked or didn't like. I still find my experience there to be open and energized. But then, your favorite cobbler has left the neighborhood because he couldn't afford his rent and just when the two of you started to get along, he's gone.

It doesn't get much more New York than Woody Allen...

It was my luck that I was in Poland at the Krakow film festival with Juliet Taylor and [I] was right for this role. She's been his casting director for 30 years, I think. I was in the right place at the right time. I met him on a Thursday in his office and we chatted for about five minutes and the next day I got 20 pages of the script. He's such a brilliant writer and I always felt I belonged in his movies so I was relieved to belong.

You starred alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone in Irrational Man. How important is it to create rapport with your co-stars?

I hung out with Joaquin for a day before shooting and met Emma at the camera test and immediately felt a kinship. I think the actors in a Woody Allen film are humbled by the opportunity to work with such an auteur, a real master of the craft. One day on set I looked at Woody in his hat and tailored khakis and thought, wow, the progenitor of auteur/actor

One thing you can't get on a plane without?

Socks.

What descriptor do you wish people would use instead of “It” girl?

Call her a successful business woman or an entrepreneur.

• WHAT TO WEAR • All black everything

You were nicknamed "Queen of the Indies."

Was that a blessing or a curse?

I think when you're called something publicly, and there's fame around it, there's a stigma attached. When I was called that in Time magazine, the independent film scene was then being co-opted by the studio system, which wasn't in my control. I thought the community would be supportive, but back then I didn't have the awareness of how disposable our culture would become—with the rise of PR and internet gossip taking more attention from viewers than storytelling in cinema. The rise of the celebrity. The rise of reality TV. The culture just changed. But I wonder if my early career having been so idealistic artistically made me seem too counter culture. I remember hearing feedback from a studio at the time, for a small part to play Matt Damon's wife, that I was "too indie." What does that mean? Well, now we have the word "brand" so it wasn't "on brand" for me to be in a Hollywood movie, which just shows how branding the culture has become. What didn't happen was my brand having any kind of value to financiers. There's some numbers page that shows what actors are viable commodities and what actors aren't. Nowadays you go on a set and you meet the rest of the cast the day you start work. The independent way was truly collaborative and intimate. Movies being cast without chemistry between the actors is so crazy to me.

The business of indie films has changed so much since you started acting. If you could look into the future—say five years—what will the indie film landscape look like?

Historical bio films will probably still be popular.

Movies based on true stories. We may see European movies with American actors get more attention because great actors are attached to great filmmaking and it's easier for real filmmakers to get financing over there.

A lot of folks might say New York ages you, but I think it makes us younger in many ways.

What are your thoughts?

I think New York makes us younger, too!

You're out walking, first of all, engaging in your surroundings and staying curious. Did you see the documentary on Netflix, Advanced Style, about women over 60 who have original style?

It was fantastic! I felt older in my 30s because I wasn't as comfortable as I am now. And you really do stop caring about what people say because it won't matter on your deathbed.

What does Hillary Clinton smell like?

Compassion.

Is it ever okay to wear comfortable clothes (aka sweat pants) on a plane?

Comfortable clothes on a plane are ok, sweat pants on men are not ok.

Best way to get into a guest list-only spot when you’re not on the list?

Say you’re with the DJ.

Do you consider yourself generally more rational or irrational?

I'm rational but I've been attracted to irrational men.

Who is underrated right now?

Hillary Clinton.

Best way to avoid chatty neighbors on a long flight?

A bagel and lox.

Does anyone have better burritos than California?

Mexico does.

filmmaker is right there, almost 80, and he's still doing it, still inspired, still has a lot to say. Woody always says he just casts the right actors and he has that intuition that great directors have in knowing who will work well together.

Best way to deal with overzealous song requesters?

A loud booth monitor.

Best way to get someone’s attention?

Write them a poem.

Best way to heal a broken heart?

Get back to being the badass self you were before. Self love is the best kind of love.

Weirdest thing in your closet?

Caftans, MuMus, turbans, kimonos, a wedding dress from the early 1900s.

What’s important to you?

Peace.

• PICKUP LINE TO USE •

Last time you were unapologetic?

Every day I go to work.

Last time you were nervous walking on stage?

In front of 50,000 people on tour with Katy Perry.

Last song that made you cry?

“Long Black Veil” by Lefty Frizzell.

Last song that made your heart race?

“Isn’t She Lovely” by Margot.

What makes a great DJ? Trust.

What’s more important, love or a career?

Both, always.

What is the future of nightlife?

Whatever you want it to be. You can find anything you want in nightlife if you just look outside your world.

“I live two stops away from wherever you do” or “I live above a 24 hour bodega” CREATIVE MINDS

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phrase, aimed nowhere in particular—"Get a room! Somewhere else!"—may suffice.

GLENN O'BR IEN

On How to Be the Host with the Most and a Guest Who's the Best Illustration by Stefan Knecht

More problematic is an adjoining loud ladies’ night, perhaps celebrating a hard-earned promotion or well-deserved divorce and taking it out on the wine list. I’m with you, but softly. I’d never pick up a fish fork in anger, but provoked I might strike up a conversation with rowdies, even elegant ladies, perhaps by visiting the table and proving that I know far too much about them involuntarily, and in only an hour! A well-placed aside might help remind them they aren’t alone: "He doesn’t deserve you!"

The "girls night out" phenomenon, four or more women, freed from male presence and abetted by tequila, enjoying a collective loss of superego, peaked in the late 90s with the impact of Sex and the City. It promoted an extremist frivolity, with femme posses getting bawdy. The demographic skewed even younger with the 2012 arrival of Girls and the even more extroverted behavior and explicit speech it portrayed. I say let girls be Girls, partay on as if you were Garth, tequila shots all around, but have mercy baby. I’m having enough trouble hearing my date over Skrillex.

Men are far worse when over-enjoying themselves, but I have learned to avoid their high fiving, ball tossing, finger whistling, and alma mater singing by avoiding steak specialists or bistros with 39-foot TV screens and over 100 beers on tap.

One can also deal with noisy neighbors by offering them a round of drinks on you.

Across the street. "Great club! I’ll call ahead!

Tell them Mr. Picasso sent you." I love quiet restaurants and avoid those with noise levels in the chainsaw/747 takeoff range.

Unfortunately we encounter more and more lounges and restaurants that sound like raves. Why? Music makes conversation a l m o s t u n n e c e s s a r y! W h i c h m ay b e advantageous in the case of dinner dates who have nothing to say to each other.

The people who enforce high standards are heroes.

I’M A GOOD AND LOYAL CUSTOMER, A regular patron and a grateful guest. When I love a restaurant or a hotel I treat it like it was my own—a wonderful club I belong to. This is my kind of joint! So I cherish the people who make it great. (Hi Ian!) I like the people at the door to know my name and to know that I will do nothing to diminish the excellence of the establishment: I’m on my best behavior.

in the boudoir. Snapping at a threat is a natural instinct.

My host is my protector. Therefore, I love hosts who are militant about their high standards, taking appropriate and even difficult measures, such as "Sorry, we are completely booked...yes all these tables are reserved." The people who enforce high standards are heroes.

My greatest fear is completely losing it at a restaurant or hotel that I love. I’d hate to seize a stranger’s phone and hurl it into the swimming pool. It’s not just the bullhorn loudness of cellular converse, it’s also the fear of a room full of cameras, many seemingly pointed this way. I don’t want my portrait done by strangers. Don’t want to be background in a selfie. I might have spinach in my teeth or be whispering in the ear of a young lady apparently lecherously when I’m simply being avuncular. I don’t want to appear to be having an attack of Tourette’s syndrome when I am just defending my turf.

Hopefully we are ladies and gents, but we are also animals who need to feel secure when feeding, or sleeping, or otherwise engaging

To that end, I like my leisure stomping grounds to be decorous. I don’t like foreplay in the next booth, however, a well-placed loud

• HANGOVER CURE • Bacon, egg, and cheese

• THE OFFICIAL TOURIST DISH • Hot dog

CREATIVE CITIES

Similarly, if you know any teenagers, you have probably noticed some tend not to be chatty and garrulous but taciturn and standoffish. In groups, they often seem to be engaging in a kind of team sulk. They do communicate, however, by text message. They all have phones but they don’t usually talk on them, they type on them.

But really I bring up the texting situation because I don’t think young people like to talk. Which is why more and more restaurants are playing music at near rave levels.

Upping the music covers for those who are conversationally averse, which is epidemic.

Recently this speechlessness has spread to elders trying to be youthful, and flagrant texting is only slightly less annoying than cell phone hog calling. I do fear that someday I will confiscate another restaurant guest’s phone (perhaps even someone at my own table) and drop it into the lobster tank. I’m not afraid of the law, I worry for the lobster!

That’s why I’m a regular. Some hosts just get it. They maintain decorum almost magically, quietly enforcing an unwritten code by setting a mood, finding a middle way that accommodates the fashionista hipster and the hepcat fogey like me. I honor them with my custom. They get it! They enable great pleasures and they keep me out of the slammer, all at the same time.

OUR FORAY INTO THE FUTURE Fate or Fake?

To figure out our own future, your editors took matters into their own hands, hitting up two totally reliable, factual sources: a palm reader on 34th Street in NYC and a psychic on the Lower East Side. Here were their findings: You’ll live a long life and die of natural causes.

You’ll have two healthy kids.

You will have one kid, a girl.

(Hmmm... you two need to get your stories straight.)

You are born to be a leader not a follower.

(We could have told her that!)

You have two major opportunities that are going to present themselves to you in the spring of next year. One is unfamiliar and you need to look externally for advice. One is more familiar but you need to be very careful because you need a clear head to make the right decision.

(To-do list: Clear head.)

You are not being as financially rewarded as you feel you should be.

Love will come in the form of a man carrying two tulips.

Strong marriage line but there is a splinter in it.

(Sooo...you can get splinters from tulips?)

Looks like you missed the boat or your partner knows you are not ready to settle down.

You will marry late in life.

(Ok, ok... We get it already.)

You have a lovely smile but you are hiding something.

(Maybe the fact we're terrified we'll marry late in life??)

There will be increased opportunity in the spring.

There is a black dog with pointed ears and a blonde–haired blue–eyed guy in your future.

You’re on the precipice of a cliff. Either you will fly or you will fall off. I think you will fall off.

(Note to self: Always wear clean underwear.)

– Glenn O'Brien

• VICE • Coffee

• DON’T MISS •

Sneaking into the penthouse for one of the city’s best views at New York EDITION. ISSUE N° 3

THE FUTURE ISSUE

08

ALEXA CHUNG The Entrepreneur and Insider on Fashion 2.0

By Lee Carter · Portrait by Aaron Stern

A

multi-tasking multi-hyphenate if ever there were, Alexa Chung—the leonine English model turned TV presenter turned global style icon—is giving this interview while hustling through the bustling streets of New York City, where she relocated six years ago to host an MTV show and never left. She’s on her way to the offices of a fashion app she’s helping launch with her big-picture ideas, real-life experience, and no small amount of her golden touch.

Chung’s life brims with all the glamorous trappings you’d expect—red carpets, front rows, famous friends, celebrity romances— and the notches in her smart belt don’t end there. She’s a three-time recipient of the British Style prize at the British Fashion Awards; UK brand Mulberry named a bag after her and it’s become a bestseller; she’s designed two sold-out collections for both retailers Madewell and AG Jeans. Add to that a book, assorted witticisms and anecdotes from the international media darling, and you have a thoroughly modern muse.

If this seems like the impossible "It" career of a socially savvy "It" girl, it is. But Chung is more than a pretty Facebook and exploding Instagram (2m followers and blowing up fast).

She’s a sort of cross between Jane Birkin and Steve Jobs. Chung’s idolatry of the former is well-documented in the fashion press. For a quotidian jolt of inspo, she’s said she does a daily Google search on the perennial ingénue and namesake of the most coveted handbag of all time. In regards to the Apple co-founder, Chung is similarly restless, forever peering into the future and devising ways to make it a reality now.

Chung was born in Winchester, Hampshire, in the south of England. She was accepted at King's College in London to study English, but didn’t quite make it there. Before she started she was scouted by Storm models—the same agency that discovered Kate Moss— at a music festival in Reading. She was 16 and spent the next four years modeling in magazines and appearing in music videos before bidding adieu, stating she’d become disillusioned with the industry. A co-host spot on Channel 4’s Popworld came next for

I N T H E K NOW:

MIAMI

WINTER · SPRING 2015/16

• WHAT TO DRINK • Caipirinha

Chung, putting her on the pop-culture map, followed by a variety of television hosting gigs in London and New York.

Increasingly, however, Chung is assuming the role of entrepreneur. “The social fashion app I’m working on is called Villoid. Have you seen it?” No, I say sheepishly. “Dude!

You should download it. You can make moodboards from a selection of clothes and share them. It’s similar to Instagram in that you can follow other people, like their boards, and interact, but it also has a Buy button. It’s expressing your style and being inspired, with the ability to purchase stuff if you want.” The name Villoid (based in Norway) is Chung’s idea, a portmanteau of two of her favorite words: villain and asteroid. And for the record, despite what some see as a looming backlash, she thinks social media has loads more room to grow. “It may not be a realistic representation of what you’re up to, but it’s still exciting. The opportunity to see, think, and feel outside your environment is always going to be compelling.”

Compelling ideas are something Chung has in spades. “Just this morning I woke up with an idea for a pregnancy fashion line called From Here to Maternity,” she laughs. “The visual could be a dawning earth with a rocket flying around, except the earth turns out to be the belly of a pregnant woman.” Make it happen, Alexa. “Oh, I’ll forget all about it tomorrow.”

Chung’s roving, inquisitive nature means she’s a natural fit for a new web series, “The Future of Fashion,” for British Vogue, for which she’s a contributing editor. In it, she dons her journalist’s hat and explores the weighty issues affecting the fashion industry, ranging from body image to education to sustainability.

Along the way she sits down with a host of major fashion figures, including Vogue.com’s chief critic Sarah Mower and designers Paul Smith and Olivier Rousteing of Balmain. She probes them on how they do what they do in a friendly, conversational tone that nearly belies her genuine interest.

is to clothes. Obviously they’re a necessity.

People have to wear things to keep warm and to not be naked. Aside from that, I think it’s the commercial versus the artistic—whether or not your brain can come up with that many ideas that quickly.”

worth that cost? I always go back to Vivienne Westwood’s manifesto—buy less, buy better.

In our next episode we’re going to talk about going back to the old-school way of saving up and investing in one item that will last longer and have more wears per purchase.”

The issue she’s alluding to, that of mass production, has taken on renewed urgency of late. “Designers aren’t just producing two seasons a year [spring and autumn] but also pre-spring, pre-fall, cruise, resort, and a couple of things in between,” explains Chung.

“The thing I’m hearing from them is that it’s a lot of pressure to churn out that much product in a world that used to just be reliant on two main shows. Maybe fashion will speed up until it gets to a point where we follow a format of supply and demand—more like Supreme or one of those smaller cool brands that you see surfacing now, where they deliver product on a weekly basis but it’s limited stock.” Then, are the days of the all-knowing designer numbered? “No, there will definitely always be a place for genius. I think those big designers are just moving around. They’re like the Monet of fashion. I think in any field there are people who are spectacularly gifted and talented, and that’s always going to be a commodity.

They can’t be replaced by mediocre products and bad fashion.”

Chung says the one area all her subjects wind up discussing is arts education, specifically tuition hikes. “I think this is specific to Britain, not necessarily elsewhere. Depending on who’s in power, it impacts how much money is being fed into tuition fees and the arts in general. They’re finding that budget cutbacks are detrimental to bringing new talent into the field, because it costs a lot of money.

So it’s the people of privilege who get work experience or have the luxury of thinking about what they want to do as a career in that field. We should be concerned about coming up with ways to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to start something.”

The topic most experts on her show agree will dominate fashion chatter in the next years— sustainability—is top of mind for Chung as well. “We’re definitely going to reach a point at which we’re over-saturated with products. The system is unrealistic for the planet to sustain.

You’ve seen that with factory breakdowns and lives lost. At the end of the day, is it

For instance: Is fashion art? “That’s one of the questions we wanted to address in the series and still haven’t found an answer for,” she laments. “It depends what your relationship

• WHAT TO WEAR • Skimpy bikini

Chung’s arts education started early. The daughter of a Chinese-English graphicdesigner father and an English mother, she grew up with the visual-arts, learning about the great masters. Her siblings, too, have all pursued careers in the arts, whether music or architecture. As such, she’s entirely comfortable around personal expression and creative drive. “Most of the designers I’ve interviewed are still incredibly passionate about what they do,” she says. “If they were asked to do the amount of work they do and they didn’t love it, there’s no way it would be done. Because fashion is inevitably still about the new, it’s a desire to explore the future.”

And if Chung had to speculate on what the future would look like? “I just hope everything looks like The Jetsons.”

The system is unrealistic for the planet to sustain...At the end of the day, is it worth that cost?

• PICKUP LINE TO USE •

“Hear that? The ocean wants you to join me for a drink.”

CREATIVE MINDS

LONDON — MIAMI — NEW YORK

09

ADRIAN JOFFE

How the Comme des Garçons President Goes Against the Flow

By Ken Miller

A

drian Joffe is far too unfailingly thoughtful, considerate, and measured to describe himself as some sort of anti-establishment radical.

He’s one of the most revered and recognized CEOs in the fashion industry, yet also someone who describes his preferred decision-making process as involving collaborative discussions, long walks, and “self-doubt”—hardly the self-aggrandizing pose struck by most in his position. Joffe even goes so far as to describe the whole notion of being a boss as “demotivating” (as compared to being a leader, which he most certainly is).

Yet there is something heroic in Joffe’s commitment to speaking so frankly and humbly about the process, one that has made his wife Rei Kawakubo’s iconic Comme des Garçons label into the epitome of forward-looking chic, and the Dover Street Market shops that Joffe oversees into some of the most prestigious retail locations in the world.

He started working for Comme des Garçons in 1987 in Paris and became its president in 1992.

Joffe would not have been the obvious choice to head the company: he has no business training and famously studied Zen Buddhism at university. Born in South Africa, he attended school in the United Kingdom and ended up in Japan. By his own admission, he remains willfully not business-minded, going so far as to describe making a profit as “a secondary priority.” Yet that contrarian impulse has made him the ideal partner for a designer who has publicly declared that she will never repeat herself, a daunting challenge for a 46-year-old avant-garde fashion label in an increasingly high-speed fashion market.

Joffe and Kawakubo have been partners in life, as in business, since 1992. Over the years they’ve maintained an interesting arrangement; he lives in Paris while she lives in Tokyo.

Kawakubo is notoriously publicity-shy and Joffe gives all interviews, though he is very cautious

Kawakubo and Joffe met in 1982 when he traveled to her native Tokyo on behalf of his sister’s business, somewhat by accident. (He had originally planned on traveling to Tibet.) Kawakubo was already a legend within the fashion industry, part of a generation of Japanese designers who had transformed the industry with a sleekly experimental, futuristic vision. But her Comme des Garçons label was a niche enterprise that struggled to balance making a profit with Kawakubo’s commitment to innovative conceptual designs (and her distaste for the repetitive, high-profit margin items—such as handbags— that support big labels).

cept store that was located in a previously unglamorous corner of London. The store broke numerous rules—managing to be both inviting and intimidating, with an unusual mix of emerging designers and established brands, all set within a mish-mashed environment that has become the store’s signature aesthetic.

“I try to keep Dover Street with the same values as Comme des Garçons,” Joffe explains, “creating something new, something original, or something that’s going to surprise you. I think that shared philosophy is very important for informing each business.” That loosening of restrictions has allowed Comme des Garçons to flourish while Dover Street Market has expanded to become a global retailer, with locations in Tokyo and New York, and an upcoming relocation of the London store that will be three times the size of the original.

A long-rejected idea such as creating a Comme des Garçons fragrance has become instead a forum for experimentation and, somewhat ironically, one of the label’s signature products.

Collaborations with everyone from Daphne Guinness to Pharrell Williams have expanded Comme des Garçons’ reach, while Joffe has promoted numerous designers both with his buying power and as a behind-the-scenes Svengali. He admits that this fluid business approach can be confusing to many. “With my team, I sell the Comme des Garçons collections to my buyers in our showrooms after our shows. Then three days later, I go to other designer showrooms to buy for DSM and bump into the same buyers who bought CDG. And people will say ‘It’s strange to see you with your other hat on!’ But it’s fun, I always liked that part of it, I never wanted to be too defined.”

In this way, being naturally contrarian becomes a successful business model. As Joffe puts it, risk is inherent to the business, so why not approach that uncertainty with a sense of adventure and curiosity? “You see a lot of people go through their stores with their sales crews and say, ‘We didn’t sell our skirts, so we will replace them with trousers.’ But markets aren’t fixed. You just don’t know. I really encourage people to take risks, not come with facts and figures. Maybe people with business training in marketing and forecasting would do things differently, but I didn't do any of those things and so that’s my way.”

As a result, what would be ‘loss leaders’ for other businesses—unknown young designers and very rare high-end pieces—have become central to the Dover Street Market business. “I’ll buy show pieces because we need them: they express the philosophy of the store and of the designer. [And] our client expects that from us.

For a lot of the bigger brands like Celine or Dior, we sell a lot more of the show pieces than they do themselves.”

In the end, for a business and personal relationship as organic and instinctual as the marriage between Kawakubo and Joffe, and Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market, it comes down to a unifying philosophy. Despite having a new London store on the horizon, Joffe isn’t above whimsically musing about potential future landing spots, mentioning offbeat locales such as Mumbai and Johannesburg and the more reasonable-sounding Milan, which he finds intriguing mostly “because it’s so boring.”

But, more than anything, he is curious to keep exploring and to keep making ‘incorrect’ decisions that turn out to be pioneering.

to not speak on her behalf. Yet the trust inherent in their relationship has allowed Joffe to pursue a remarkably organic strategy as president of, first, the Comme des Garçons label and, for the past decade-plus, the Dover Street Market stores, fusing conceptual design into practical commerce, mixing emerging designers with powerful brands, and creating an environment that feels like a cross between a department store and an art installation.

Photos from left to right: Comme des Garçons Pocket Shop, New York Rei Kawakubo Comme des Garçons, New York

• HANGOVER CURE • Wheatgrass

CREATIVE CITIES

Joffe has fruitfully expanded Kawakubo’s philosophy of constant innovation into a business ethic that guides the entire enterprise. “We’re not a sentimental company and we believe that new is good. We never do a carbon copy,” he says. “But on the other hand, it doesn’t make any sense to do something completely different. We always like to keep the same DNA and the same concept of beautiful chaos, creative synergy, energy, mixing, and even accidents….” So while most brands would focus on opening their own shops, Comme des Garçons opened Dover Street Market, incorporating the label into a multi-brand con-

• THE OFFICIAL DISH • Cuban sandwich

• VICE • Working out

• DON’T MISS •

Ice skating at 3 am at Miami Beach EDITION. ISSUE N° 3

10

THE FUTURE ISSUE

CITIES OF TOMORROW A View of London, Miami, and New York Through Different Lenses

WINTER 路 SPRING 2015/16

CREATIVE MINDS

LONDON — MIAMI — NEW YORK

11

LONDON

BY ELEANOR HARDWICK

Favorite thing to photograph:

"The people in London are the most exciting part of the city, and their interactions with space and architecture."

On the future of London:

"London is forever getting bigger and bigger.

Everything in the world is becoming globalized, which is positive and negative. But artists and communities will always find a way to be where we want, even if it's a struggle—or even if it opens doors for other cities in the UK to grow. That could be positive too, as there are so many other inspiring places on this island."

@eleanorhardwick eleanorhardwick.com

Photos: Eleanor Hardwick London, 2015

CREATIVE CITIES

ISSUE N° 3

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THE FUTURE ISSUE

MIAMI

BY MARCO ARGUELLO

Favorite thing to photograph:

"My favorite thing to photograph in Miami is long exposures of palm trees at night. It's my favorite tree and they are even more beautiful when lit up by a full moon or ambient city lights."

On the future of Miami:

"Miami has a promising future if it's not underwater in 75 years! Since I moved here four years ago, the city has gone through a lot of changes with regards to nightlife, restaurants, and the art scene. It is working hard to shed its touristy image and position itself as a world-class destination."

@marcoandres marcoarguello.com

Photos:

Marco Arguello Tungsten Beach series Miami, 2014

WINTER 路 SPRING 2015/16

CREATIVE MINDS

LONDON — MIAMI — NEW YORK

13

NEW YORK

BY TRAVIS GUMBS

Favorite thing to photograph:

"The people of my neighborhood—capturing offhand moments, the changes in businesses, and specifically the interactions between people who have been born and raised here, and those who are attempting to settle in to the neighborhood for the first time."

On the future of New York:

"Based on what I have seen growing up here, I can't predict where the city will be in 10, 20, or even 30 years because I couldn’t have imagined even where we are now. When you hear people talk about New York, it seems like everyone—no matter the generation— complains that New York is less and less what it used to be. But every generation says that! So what will that mean in the future?

I honestly can't say..."

@travisgumbs streetetiquette.com

Photos: Travis Gumbs New York, 2015

CREATIVE CITIES

ISSUE N° 3

THE FUTURE ISSUE

14

MARA HOFFMAN

A Shaman for the Sartorial Masses

By Yasha Wallin

MARA HOFFMAN DONS ALL WHITE as she greets us in her sprawling, light-flooded downtown Manhattan studio. The first word that comes to mind upon meeting the New York native is “grounded”—a feat for someone at the helm of one of the city’s most sought-after fashion houses (not to mention her own household as a mother to four-year-old Joaquin).

a more public or larger level and have the accessibility of people and materials.

The almost ceremonial, colorless attire she's wearing contradicts the bold hues and mystical patterns that her eponymous line is synonymous with. But for Hoffman it’s all about contrasts: Paired with an intense ambition that’s propelled her into a fashion force carried in 400 specialty stores and major department stores worldwide, she also maintains an inner calm. This kind of balance is what women-the-world-over aspire to; why her brand is seen in spades on the beaches of Tulum, Montauk, and St Tropez; worn by everyone from Beyoncé to Lena Dunham. And while most known for her swimsuits, just as coveted are her ready-to-wear, kids, bridal, and recently launched category, activewear (hello, psychedelic sports bras). We spoke with Hoffman who was fresh from a marathon trip to Morocco where she was shooting her Resort Swim '16 editorial.

You first launched your swim collection in Miami. Miami is its own... ...beast! Miami has a different energy from New York and London. The heat does something to people, it is its own force of nature. Aesthetically, Miami is outright sexier. If skin equals sexy, then Miami wins for sexy. It's the Latin influence that embraces this super feminine kind of "own it,” curvy, it's okay to show skin, wear tighter pieces—yes!

Travel is a huge inspiration: Why is it so important to you?

Travel is my juice, it feeds the creativity. It's the plug-in, the recharge, the mojo. It's my life force for creativity. It's the jump-off for whatever my next collection is going to be, it sets my head into the right movement towards the future. Getting to a destination and being part of it: smelling the air, immersing myself in the culture, and feeling the textiles. It's what I need to come back here and turn out these collections. Without it, I would probably fade a bit.

What was your first trip out of the country?

My father is a classical cellist and we used to spend about three weeks at a time in Puerto Rico so he could play in the Pablo Casals Festival.

You studied at Central Saint Martins in London for a summer, which many people see as a creative sister city to New York. How would you compare the two?

It's an energetic similarity as far as getting shit done. In my relationship to New York, or any bigger city, I wouldn't live here just to chill. At this point in my life, I would be more in nature. So here and in London, it's that accessibility to get things done and to work on your passion. And to work on it on

New Yorkers wear a lot of black. How did you get people out of their comfort zone wearing more color?

When you're trying to get a sea of people that wear black to embrace color, it's not the hardest thing. It's easier to speak to their travel selves, or their vacation selves first, like, "Ooh, I could take that with me somewhere." Also, as soon as the weather shifts, women shift. Color speaks to that part of you and your sexuality—your life force that's itching to get out after a long winter.

What makes a woman sexy?

I know it sounds cliché, but confidence makes a woman sexy. A woman who believes that she is sexy and feels it.

In regards to body image, there is a larger conversation in the fashion industry about the need for more diversity and range of body types. How have you addressed this?

By putting it out there and continually saying, "Look at this, it's so beautiful, she's so beautiful, holy moly, this should knock your socks off!" But it's also very true to my aesthetic. It's not something that I hit a season and then I'm like, "I've got to make this season very diverse." It's really what inspires me as an artist; who are my muses? [They are] a rainbow.

Do I think there should be more diversity in the fashion industry? Absolutely. But how do you tell a creator what they should feel inspired by? I can speak for myself. And hopefully the women and the men that listen to me are inspired by me and embrace it.

How can we learn to embrace it more?

I was listening to a TED talk about outer space.

The story line was that humans need proof— visuals that there's intelligent life in this universe, multiverse.

For me it's like an absolute zero-brainer—we are 100% not alone.

But this woman was speaking about, how if we could have that proof, what it would do to human beings, what that could change. Instead of seeing ourselves as these separate tribes of people, instead of the diverse separatism and the wars,

we would see ourselves as the tribe of human beings—the Earth tribe. Everyone would feel the same and that we're brother and sister; it would unify us.

This is a beautiful and existential idea, which relates to your work, where nature and mythology are common themes. The fashion industry, however, isn’t the most environmentally friendly. Have you been able to translate your love of nature into your production practices?

A big focus for the company now is redirecting our manufacturing processes and figuring out how we can make the most responsible choices. It is an enormous part of my, as well my company's, thought process. But it takes time to re-source, and with that new re-sourcing to make sure that that in itself is a sustainable resource. We're working on it.

And your activewear is made in LA. How difficult was it to have US manufacturing?

Our swimwear has always been manufactured in the US. It's actually a lot easier for us in the sense that our prints are so engineered and we need to be present for that each step of the way.

To send it overseas—there's too much risk in that. We found awesome manufacturers in California, and we can be there in five hours. So my production team goes and makes sure one bikini top wasn't cut upside down, because it changes the whole print.

Where do you come up with the designs and patterns for collections?

The inspiration for the prints each season is a theme or story. For example, our Resort 2016 collection was inspired by Marrakesh and by Yves Saint Laurent's time there in the 1970s. We just came off of spring's collection inspired by Willie Nelson and Americana from the '60s and '70s.

The jump-off point for the collection was Willie Nelson's rendition of “Nothin' But Blue Skies” so I had to do a cloud print which we hadn't done before. I had a full cloud ensemble when I was 7-years-old and a cloud-painted bedroom, so it was coming full circle.

This image of you and the whole family wearing cloud print is amazing. Your husband Javier Piñon is a collage artist. How is it having another creative in the household?

I think it's good. We inspire each other. Having two creatives in a household could go either way: It could be a little combustible, or it could be an understandable environment for both people. I think the latter is for us: we understand each other's processes, we are inspired when the other one is inspired. I feel like if I had married a dude in finance or some other world it would just be... [my husband] understands my weirdo-ness, my creativity, my processes, and my ins and outs of insecurity, self-doubt, and then self-highs.

There's that [bond] you share with another artist because it's a very emotional trip that you go on when you're a creator.

now and he speaks about them. He's just now differentiating more of the male and female, because we've raised him very loosely. He loved to wear dresses. And it's just now because he's in a new school and around more traditional boy vibes that he's differentiating what's boy and what's girl. We're a little bit heartbroken by it but it's part of the process.

What would you say to him if he wanted to be a fashion designer?

Whatever! I want him to be happy. I say be happy, let's find happiness. When I don't feel super happy, it aches. Sometimes it takes people a long time to understand what happiness really feels like, or what it does. So I want him to be happy, I don't care what he does.

Are you happy?

For the most part I am. I have moments—I'm hard on myself, and when I'm hard on myself I'm not that happy.

Is fashion a luxury?

It depends. There are incredible ways to be inventive and to create fashion and be an alchemist, depending on your comfort and creativity level. Necessity is the mother of invention. It's an incredible quote but it's true: if you have the will there's a way. Street fashion didn't originate from $8,000 skirts. It was creating your own aesthetic and then making things from nothing. So is it a luxury? It can be, absolutely. It just depends on how you look at it.

After having so much success in your career and business where do you want to go?

As I'm getting older I’m understanding what I need this life to be…I need there to be more in the sense of, what am I with this company and what is my give-back? Do I care to be this gigantus brand? I don't care, I don't think that's the route to happiness. I'm not totally inspired and driven by fashion. I'm just not. It's my medium; I've been doing it for so long that I understand it and I know how to do it well.

But like I said, I really want to be happy, I want to resonate in a place of sweetness, gentleness, self-love, and ease. Not without ambition, because I'm an ambitious human being, I like goals. I'm an Aries: I like to build shit, I make it happen, I like fire.

It's just now, do I think the world needs a lot more clothing? I don't. So I'm a bit in conflict with that. But how do I turn this creation into something more meaningful? I'm in that process of exploring it right now and figuring it out.

So in five years I hope to not be glued to my phone; I hope to be traveling; I hope to be meditating all the time; I hope to feel really wonderful about who I am as a human being and what I've done as a mother with my son, and my relationship to my husband, my relationship to God, my relationship to this planet. I want it all in peace.

And you’ve collaborated on a son?

We deeply collaborated on the most magnificent piece of work, our son Joaquin, who's just radical.

Does your son weigh in on your collections?

Absolutely. I had a work-from-home-day yesterday, and he was like, "Mom, are you working on another fashion show? You're always working on fashion shows." Some kids connect to it, some don't; he gets it. He recognizes beautiful dresses

I like to build shit, I make it happen, I like fire.

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15

To go behind-the-scenes in Mara's studio, see the video at Facebook.com/EDITIONHotels

CREATIVE CITIES

ISSUE N° 3

THE FUTURE ISSUE

16

DJ HARVEY

FUTURE MEMORIES

The London Legend on the Next Generation of DJing

The Illuminated World of Artist Olivia Steele

By Yasha Wallin

WHEN IT COMES TO THE FUTURE you can look on the bright side or you can look on the dark side: the world could either turn out to be a hipster utopia or we'll all be wading around in one another’s blood. To take that question on, we could fill books rather than just this publication. When asked the question “What does the future hold?” I typically answer, “The past is history, the future is a mystery.”

But let me pontificate. I believe that in the future DJing will be polarized further into two developing factions:

Portrait by Dustin Beatty

1 Those who no longer own or care to own music but pay-

per-play from the great cloud in the sky containing all the music ever made. You type in your account code and can listen to, or be inserted virtually into the concert/club of your choosing. This will allow you to live and travel light, and requests would be acceptable.

2 The other faction will be the bespoke-analogue-high-

fidelity-reproduction real experience. A system playing vinyl and tape on high-end hi-fi in custom built listening clubs. Hand made speaker cabinets, esoteric hand build pre-amps and turntables, moving coil cartridges for connoisseurs and playboys and girls alike.

PANTIES, POLITICS & PUNCH

Confessions from London EDITION's Davide Segat A COMMUNAL DRINK IF EVER THERE WAS ONE—served in large bowls to accommodate a thirsty crowd—punch is finally having a come back. That’s thanks in part to London EDITION’s Punch Room, run by industry expert Davide Segat, whose carefully crafted recipes are making this 350-year-old alcoholic drink en vogue again. Formerly of London’s Bulgari Hotel, Hawksmoor Restaurant, and Green & Red, Italian-born Segat has been around the beverage block. We caught up with him here, just before the bustling, dimly lit Punch Room opened for the night.

ON PUNCH’S ORIGINS: It comes from the days that England colonized. They went to India. They traveled by boat and had no way to preserve what they needed to survive. One thing was vitamin C, which can cure scurvy. So when they arrived there, they found this drink which is from the word "pañc," which means five, because it had five ingredients: tea, spices, fruit juice, sugar, and alcohol. In the latter case, coconut arrack, a kind of rum. The booze and the sugar keep the vitamin C in the fruit juice alive. So they would take it back and it would help them to survive. And it became "all the rage," as they say.

ON PUNCH BEING GENDER-NEUTRAL: There are great recipes from women back in the day. There are [also] great recipes from Charles Dickens, for example. Everyone—when they hosted a dinner—to show their wealth, would make a punch, whether it was a woman making it or a man.

ON PUNCH’S BAD RAP IN AMERICA: It is a sharing drink at the end of the day. You need to make big portions. It went to America but the cocktail took over because people wanted more single-served drinks: "I don’t want to share with 10 people. I want my own." Also it's associated with the awful punch students spike in universities, where they throw their entire booze cabinet in a punch bowl with some fruit. Ew. HOW TO MAKE A GREAT PUNCH: If you think about making a punch to cover the taste of this bad alcohol, it’s not going to

I N T H E K NOW:

LONDON

WINTER · SPRING 2015/16

• WHAT TO DRINK • Cup of tea

T

HE OTHER NIGHT, walking down a dark street in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood it hit me, lit up in neon on a building’s facade—a message I couldn’t ignore: “Let Me Love You.” A message of such love and tenderness was certainly not expected down this somewhat drab, empty sidewalk, making it all the more powerful to be confronted with.

Such is the impact of Olivia Steele’s urban art interventions. The Nashville-born, Berlin, London, and Tulum-based artist uses neon as her medium to tell stories—snippets of life and its contradictions— that are literally and philosophically illuminating.

“Art has to be provocative, it has to stimulate our thoughts and emotions, and provoke a moment of awareness,” Steele explains. “Future Memories” is her latest contemplative sentiment, and can be seen at the Miami Beach EDITION as part of the hotel’s permanent collection. The piece, she says, is a “reflection of the anticipation and mystery of what we're going through as a race. The content of our memories in the future will be a stark contrast to anything we are accustomed to these days.” To take a lighter turn, also on view at EDITION is the cheeky, glowing piece, “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” in the downstairs ice skating rink. Join us there to make some memories.

C O C K TA I L R E C I P E

work. Everything needs to be balanced and with quality ingredients. You want to use the best: the best sugar leaf, the best tea, the best spices, and the best spirits.

FAVORITE SPIRIT: Tequila and/or mezcal. Spirits made of the agave plant.

ON HOW BARTENDERS BECOME DEFAULT THERAPISTS: You need to be very clever at what you say. You can’t get into the political, religious, or say what you think of something. You need to be able to read your guests and accommodate them.

WEIRDEST PUNCH ROOM STORY: Oh God. Not sure how far can we go? Sometimes crazy stuff just happens. On top of the table, under the table.

We've found panties. We honestly try to keep it quiet* I can assure you, but sometimes it can be a mischievous place. That’s what I like about EDITION. People walk in and they feel immediately comfortable, so they let themselves go. And a bartender never tells.*Not true. At all.

ON WHY THE LONDON COCKTAIL SCENE IS SO GREAT: It’s a mixture of people knowing what they’re doing and being willing to experiment. The crowd has an open mind.

• WHAT TO WEAR • Wellington boots

HANNAH WOOLEY PUNCH INSTRUCTIONS

Build in a punch bowl over a block of ice. Garnish with lemon wheels, mint spring, red currant, and grated nutmeg.

• PICKUP LINE TO USE •

INGREDIENTS

20 ML HENNESSY FINE DE COGNAC 15 ML BAROLO CHINATO 20 ML NUTMEG SYRUP 50 ML MERLOT 20 ML LEMON JUICE TOP SODA

“My love for you is inversely proportional to my hatred for Leicester Square” CREATIVE MINDS

LONDON — MIAMI — NEW YORK

17

BEN PUNDOLE Dream Destinations for a Sonic Experience

IMRAN AMED

The Media Pioneer on the Business of Consumption

By Eviana Hartman · Portrait by Thomas Lohr

IN JUST A FEW YEARS, IMRAN Amed has transformed from stylish outsider to the ultimate insider.

The Canada-born London resident graduated from Harvard Business School and worked as a consultant for McKinsey before quitting to explore a career in fashion. He had just been hired to consult for LVMH when he launched his website, The Business of Fashion (BoF), as a blogging side project in 2007. Now, BoF is the most influential and comprehensive daily read about the forces shaping the fashion industry. With marquee writers like legendary personality Tim Blanks on the payroll and a social-media following in the millions, Amed himself has become a front-row fixture.

And when it comes to fashion’s future, his access to the top creative minds and executives in the business gives him broader perspective than most.

At a moment when fashion occupies a more prominent role than ever in the cultural conversation—and in the global economy—Amed shares his thoughts on where it's heading.

How is fashion evolving right now?

The main driver of change is technology, of course—it’s not just changing, it’s changing the world. We’re in the midst of one of the greatest shifts in history in the same way that the industrial revolution and the arrival of the printing press completely changed the way the world operated. And we’re only, say, 25 years into this digital revolution.

What are some tangible ways technology has changed fashion?

It has been changing the way we consume fashion for the better part of a decade now.

The retail and online channels are converging because people have these really powerful devices. A typical brand awareness journey before was that you read about something in a magazine and you went to a brick and mortar store and purchased it. Now, the first place you’re going to learn about a product is on your phone. People have information from all over the world in the palm of their hands.

How will te chnology evolve? Will we be watching shows in 3-D on our phones?

I think it’s actually more simple than that. Video and audio are really interesting ways of consuming information. I can imagine podcasts and those kind of things, where you can add a layer of consumption to life—if you’re taking a run, or in the car, or just hanging out in bed. Listening is an interesting way of disseminating content now, particularly [in regards to] debates or discussions.

So I think we may see more of that in fashion.

It’s something that we’re thinking about at BoF. Has technology changed the fashion landscape in favor of corporate brands with more resources to spend on digital marketing?

I actually think there’s even more opportunity for independent brands now. The consumer is looking for something special. With some of the big megabrands out there, the products

• HANGOVER CURE: Full English breakfast CREATIVE CITIES

Nothing good happens in comfort zones. Forget Coachella, Glastonbury, and Art Basel. Here are some festivals to consider for 2016 for a fix of art, tech, music, wellness, and everything in between.

WHAT: FURTHER FUTURE WHERE: NEVADA WHY: 2016 will be the second year of this desert experience. Dress up; stay in tents or an RV. It’s not Burning Man, but you will find Robot Heart. Further Future…if you haven’t you should.

FURTHERFUTURE.COM

and the things they’re offering are basically the same things everywhere. I think there’s a whole consumer base that’s not that into that.

As an independent brand, because of the availability of inexpensive technology, you can actually reach an audience online. The go-tomarket strategy can be completely facilitated by technology. Where I do feel there’s a problem with independent brands is that there’s so many of them. There’s so much noise.

Many in the industry would agree with that.

We’re experiencing fashion fatigue. I feel there are too many products, too many collections, too many brands. In terms of the volume of stuff produced, I find myself questioning whether we need that much stuff. On the other hand, with the pace, I’m not expecting that to go down.

I interviewed Karl Lagerfeld last year about his pace: He kind of sees fashion as a sport.

That it’s just the reality and there’s no point in questioning it.

The recent departures of Raf Simons, Alber Elbaz, and Alexander Wang from their respective posts at Dior, Lanvin, and Balenciaga might seem to suggest that things are moving too fast.

It can be easy for people to get whipped up into a frenzy because there have been a few important announcements about people leaving their brands.

First of all, it’s important to keep it in perspective. It was Raf’s departure that really raised the issue of the pace of fashion. Alber and Alexander left their posts for very different reasons.

Clearly there are some questions around the fashion system and whether all the collections that are being produced are really sustainable.

Not just from kind of an environmental or ethical standpoint, but also from a creative standpoint.

Creative people, as with any other people and maybe more so than other disciplines, need space and time to create. And if you’ve gone from creating two collections a year 15 years ago to four or six now, is it really reasonable to expect they’re going to be able to deliver the same level of creativity? I don’t claim to have the answers to those questions, but I think Raf’s departure from Dior brought them into stark relief.

• VICE • Pubs

He found, from what I understand, the system to be not necessarily compatible with his own creative process, forcing him to make personal sacrifices that he was no longer prepared to make. I thought it was quite courageous for him to step away from this role. It showed a level of character and self-awareness that you don’t see in our industry, where everyone’s concerned about status and position and fame and power.

WHAT: ENVISION WHERE: COSTA RICA WHY: Reiki, yoga, wellness, meditation, beautiful sunshine, a didgeridoo or two…self expression at its finest. It’s not for the uptight— maybe the future you?

Back to the idea of ‘sustainable.’ What’s your take on the movement toward more sustainable practices in the industry?

Literally, people’s wardrobes are bursting. I think the broader discussion around climate change, ethics, and workers’ rights is beginning to change the way people consume. But at the end of the day, I don’t think it’s the main driver of a decision. You still have to be creating desirable products. But if those desirable products can be improved or elevated by having a set of values that consumers appreciate, then it becomes an element of the purchasing decision.

WHAT: MUTEK WHERE: BARCELONA WHY: Art, tech, music. It’s a celebration of digital excess.

The one in Mexico this year was electric, fascinating, and generally highlights the future at its finest.

Next stop, Barcelona in 2016.

ENVISIONFESTIVAL.COM

MUTEK.MX/EN WHAT: ZONA MACO WHERE: MEXICO, DF WHY: Because let’s face it, Mexico, DF is the coolest city in the world right now. What! Have you seen/ heard what’s happening there?

Get involved.

Will people ever be convinced to buy fewer things?

I think in certain markets, yes, absolutely. You can see the rise of vintage, for example, when people want something made really well and would rather have a few nice pieces than an endless supply of disposable products.

But sadly, in certain parts of the world in the consumption hierarchy, that’s not the case. At Primark you can go and buy a handbag for five dollars and you have no idea how it’s made, but people just want to buy more.

ZSONAMACO.COM WHAT: HABITAS WHERE: TULUM / TURKEY / LA WHY: Well, I know I found my family. This invite-only haven of wonderment celebrates the best music in the world and the people who love it.

How do you stay sane in such a rapidly changing world?

It’s hard for me to take extended vacations, but I can take a few days here and there, and I try to do a digital detox once a year when I literally unplug and disconnect. Last year I did it for almost 10 days. It was done by force—I was in the Andaman Islands and there was no internet service there. I felt a bit twitchy the first few days, but after a while I felt more creative. It was like 1999. I enjoyed it so much that I’m going to try to implement it again this year.

• THE OFFICIAL DISH • Fish and chips

OURHABITAS.COM WHAT: SUMMIT AT SEA WHERE: THE OCEAN WHY: When described to me as Burning Man meets a TED talk on a cruise ship, I was skeptical.

I’m now a convert. I learned, connected, danced, and felt honored to be there.

SAS.SUMMIT.CO

• DON’T MISS •

Feasting on a traditional Sunday Roast at London EDITION’s Berners Tavern.

ISSUE N° 3

THE FUTURE ISSUE

18

PACKING ETIQUETTE

BY TRAVIS GUMBS AS ONE HALF OF THE LIFESTYLE BRAND Street Etiquette, Travis Gumbs has traveled the world over photographing stylish men and women in every corner of the globe. For this issue, he turned his lens to his home turf to share his future vision of NYC (page 14). And naturally, as the face of a menswear website, the man needs his gear. Here, Gumbs shares what he packs along with him to make it all happen.

on Collecting Like There's No Tomorrow

BYREDO BAL D’AFRIQUE

ALPHA INDUSTRIES M-65 LINER, BL ACK

CLIF BAR SIERR A TR AIL MIX

COMME DES GARÇONS WALLET

WE ARE IN AN UNPRECEDENTED PERIOD OF GROWTH IN THE OVERALL scale and global reach of the art market, more so in the past 25 years than in the previous 100. But nothing goes up forever without the requisite zigs and zags, and we are about to enter a period of monumental uncertainly where the good will mingle with the bad, oftentimes at the same dance. In other words, there will be dramatic highs and lows. Looking ahead, my ruminations on some of the most pressing questions shaping the contemporary art landscape.

Will 2016 break all auction sales records?

Without doubt we will see some unbelievable prices for post-war contemporary art, but I am afraid we have plateaued. We’re in the midst of a downward trend, yet one that still won’t exclude the notion of pornographic prices for covetous art, fresh to market.

Yes, as obscene as it is, we will see a billion-dollar work of art—I’ve been forecasting it for years, but it will take some time.

Are art fairs over?

Like them or loathe them, art fairs are here to stay. Personally, I adore the ability to see so much, so swiftly, and under one circus tent. Yes, they are hell on your feet and wallet during the midst of one, but living in London the past decade where it could take weeks to wend your way to a mere handful of galleries, nothing beats the ease of navigating through so much material so readily.

FUJIFILM X-T1 W/23MM LENS

BLISTEX LIP MEDEX

ADIDAS ULTR A BOOST

R AINS BAG, BL ACK

ARC'TERY X VEIL ANCE LIMINAL PANT, BL ACK JUNO FACE OIL

WINTER · SPRING 2015/16

ART WORLD PREDICTIONS Veteran Art Dealer Kenny Schachter

What country will dominate in art-buying power?

The art market today is like a fast moving river: When there is an impediment in the stream, i.e. one country suffers recessionary effects at the expense of another, there is always a region to pick up the slack. When a rock is thrown into a stream it merely diverts around the diversion. So if Europe hiccups, Asia can step in.

But in my estimation, there is nothing that parallels the deep culture of collecting than runs historically throughout the US. The benchmark won’t change anytime soon: New York sales will never be eclipsed.

Who will we be buying more or less of?

In the short term, the most sought after contemporary artists will continue to be the ones that just flouted the vaguely downward trends of the market and flourished in the spotty but solid November 2015 New York sales: Rudolf Stingel, Mike Kelley, Christopher Wool, Joe Bradley, Jeff Elrod, Bruce Nauman; and, on the more emerging end of the spectrum I like Math Bass, Petra Cortright, Amy Feldman, and Aaron Garber-Maikovska. Gerhard Richter said in relation to the obscene prices fetched for his works that only idiots would pay so much for a painting, but it's better than the alternative—no one buying your art. When I got involved in curating emerging art exhibitions in the 1990s (featuring the likes of Wade Guyton, Joe Bradley, Cecily Brown, and Katherine Bernhardt), there was bad beer—for which I bear responsibility—and scary looking people on the scene to drink it all up. Now it's all celebrities, but with that it brings more of a spotlight on the art profession so I won’t bemoan it (more than I have).

Will sales of new media art break any records?

I’ve bought three DVDs in my lifetime and between us, have misplaced them all. I am not a proponent of art that needs to be turned on, but I can see a Bruce

Nauman vid going for big money. I am a prude when it comes to my personal aesthetic consumption favoring works on paper and paintings (and a sculpture here and there) with an aversion to frontal nudity, which is what the net was invented for.

Will there be more diversity in the art world?

Georg Baselitz said the reason women artists have never made the numbers at auction as their male counterparts is that no woman has made great art. What an a-hole. I don’t think I can ever look at his art again the same. And since he made such myopic utterances, Louise Bourgeois’ work has fetched nearly $30 million and Georgia O’Keeffe $44 million at auction. But the disparity of pricing in the art market still wreaks of racism and ingrained prejudices reflected in the wider world beyond art. Do we need more diversity, minorities, and women in museum and gallery shows? Ask the hard-charging, on-point Guerilla Girls and the answer would be an unequivocal yes.

How do we become the next great art collector of the future?

You may not like the answer: Art is a slow burning, old-fashioned process of accumulating knowledge through reading, looking, learning, and connoisseurship. It takes time, consideration, and a deep abiding thoughtfulness. There are NO shortcuts; no advisors that should or could do it for you. Look and learn. The only tips I can proffer are take your time, walk before you run, and trust your gut, but only after a healthy dose of accumulated knowledge. The Supreme Court once described porn as such: I can’t spell it out but I know it when I see it, and the same goes for art. Do your homework, call me for some advice, and in the end, there are only your instincts to trust. There is nothing wrong with an impulse buy as long as it is based on reasoned analysis. I guess that negates the notion of compulsion, but I still do it, yet it's based on decades of looking and learning and I still happily approach art as a student.

The changes in art since I started are too monumental for words; the village has exploded onto a world stage for better and worse.

Today, there are more people making, looking at, writing about, and buying art than ever before by a huge margin. We are at an unprecedented level of art appreciation, so let us rejoice. Throughout these epic changes, however, what has remained the same is the criteria for judging good art.

Who will have access?

At auctions we all have the same freedom of entry, as long as you can afford to pay, and at galleries, if you make yourself and your intentions clear, forthright, and transparent, you should have plenty of access.

How much should we listen to the critics?

You would probably not do too badly buying whatever Roberta Smith reviews positively. But this is not merely a matter of aping our peers, though I adore, admire, if not worship the wise words of Roberta every week in the New York Times; but if you do so you miss the point. Art is a personal journey where we mark our time through the shared experiences of the collective consciousness. So don’t miss the plethora of fairs, the Armory, Friezes, Basels, NADAs, Independents in all their resplendent glory: you are looking into a mirror of our rather glorious and unprecedented times, so why not roll up your sleeves, jump in, and participate yourself.

CREATIVE MINDS

LONDON — MIAMI — NEW YORK

SOUNDTRACK TO THE FUTURE

BY NICOLAS MATAR

CREDITS PUBLISHER

ATLANTA DE CADENET TAYLOR

Model of the Moment on How a Picture Isn’t Worth 1,000 Words

5

Rampa “Mascha”

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(Keinemusik, Germany)

C.Vogt/Patrick Jeremic “After All It’s You” (Shield Re-edit) (Rebirth Records, Italy)

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Butch “Dope”

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Yotam Avni “This Is How”

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Andras & Oscar “Looking Back”

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Rachel Sampson

EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS Ivan Poljak

SPECIAL THANKS Bianca Bianconi, Meghan Clohessy, Evan Douaihy, Emily Doyle, Donnell Gavin, Bradley Kal Hagan, Andres Pajon-Leite, Min Shrimpton, Bruce Starr, Jason Vickers, Meagan Ziegler-Haynes

THE USUAL X EDITION VIDEO SERIES For more in-depth interviews: Facebook.com/EDITIONHotels

(Room With A View, Germany) (Kompakt Records, Germany)

(Play It Say It, UK) (Ovum Recordings, USA)

BRITISH-BORN, LA-BRED ATLANTA DE CADENET TAYLOR was destined to be in the spotlight. She was born into rock royalty: Her father is John Taylor, Duran Duran’s bassist; her stepfather is the Strokes' Nick Valensi; and her mother, the accomplished photographer Amanda de Cadenet. This creative upbringing informs her career today as an aspiring actress and model with a relaxed vintage style that, at the young age of 23, has already landed her covers of countless magazines.

(Slow Town Records, San Francisco)

The entire contents of The EDITION are © copyrighted and may not be reproduced, either in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher. © 2015 The EDITION Made for EDITION by The Usual Creative Talk to us: hello@theusualcreative.com theusualcreative.com Aaron Stern

With your mother as a photographer, you must have been in front of the camera from a very early age?

I am completely used to being in front of a camera.

Although sometimes I have to remind myself not to take myself too seriously. For example, around the third week in of Fashion Month. You’re just in it, it’s like you’re a machine. And people don’t mess around with that sort of thing. I’ll come out of it and I’m like, "Oh, my gosh, what am I thinking?

Calm down." It’s hard because I find that a photo can’t show everything. It’s just how you look and it doesn’t take into account your personality or what you have to say. It’s just how the clothes look on you.

What don’t your pictures convey about you?

I feel like I’m pretty funny. I think a lot of people are curious about my weight or how tall I am or my measurements, that kind of thing.

Is that weird to think that people are thinking about your weight?

No. That’s the world that I work in. People are obsessed with weight.

How do you stay level-headed about it all?

Learning to love myself and stop trying to change myself and be happy about that. It’s challenging, especially when you’re in a world that you’re getting your photo constantly taken. You always think, "This person must be so happy," because they’re this size and look like this. But I know better. At this point in my life, I know that whatever you’re putting off on the outside, doesn’t mean that’s what’s going on, on the inside.

What have you learned about style from your upbringing?

My mom had banging style. I would just steal her clothes. She has stories of me putting on her Gucci Lucite heels and trying to walk in them at like six years old, which is probably the last time I liked to wear heels.

CREATIVE CITIES

Director: Emily Anderson Producer: Yasha Wallin Cinematographer: Mark Wiitanen Editor/Color: Alexandra Joe Audio Mix: Ken Meyer

FRONT-COVER IMAGE

(Tornado Wallace Dub) (Dopeness Galore, Amsterdam)

Rhythm & Soul “Lost Grooves,” Slow Town X

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

PROOFREADER

(Ovum Recordings, USA)

COMA “Lora” (Robag’s Remix)

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Emily Anderson, The Usual Creative

CONTRIBUTORS

DJ Dozia “Pop Culture”(KiNK Remix)

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Yasha Wallin, The Usual Creative

Marco Arguello, Rebecca Carroll, Lee Carter, José Diaz, Travis Gumbs, Eleanor Hardwick, Eviana Hartman, Stefan Knecht, Glenn O’Brien, Ken Miller, Kenny Schachter, Aaron Stern, Douglas Lyle Thompson – many thanks guys!

Isolée “Floripa”

Fouk “Coconuts”

@EDITIONHotels editionhotels.com

Kyle McDonald

(Pampa Records, Berlin)

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DESIGNER

Nicolas Matar has been DJing since the early age of 15, influenced by the record collection of his father—an original member of Studio 54. He honed his innovative style playing at some of the world’s best festivals and clubs, and, along the way, founded two of New York’s most successful venues: Cielo, and the Berlininspired Output. He also does programming for the rowdy and wonderful Basement club at the Miami Beach EDITION. Matar has heard it all, and here, he lets us in on the sounds of the future:

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EDITION Hotels

Ben Pundole

By Yasha Wallin · Portrait by Niki Takesh

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Have your parents told you crazy stories about what it was like in the '80s in London when they met?

I’m pretty sure I’m a love child. They were only married for four years or something. My mom was pregnant pretty soon.

Your dad said in an interview that the advice he’d impart on you is, "Be nice. Work hard."

Is that accurate?

My dad is really motivating when it comes to making me work. People think that because I come from a well-off family that my life is paid for. For me, I got my first job at 17. I moved out at 18. I’ve been paying my own rent for years. People get confused, they think that if you have that [kind of upbringing], you’re set for life. But it’s not true. You have to have something to say.

Aside from everything else, you also DJ? I’m a music freak, so it’s fun to be able to get to control the music in a room. And I love playing weird music.

Like what?

Carly Simon remixes that only came off the vinyl version that my dad has on some weird disc he gave me. I don’t play Top 40. I play weird stuff. I like disco, that’s my jam.

BACK-COVER IMAGE Douglas Lyle Thompson

ATLANTA’S VINTAGE SHOPPING PICKS: MIAMI: The Webster 1220 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL NEW YORK: Brooklyn Flea Market 1 Hanson Pl, Brooklyn, NY LONDON: Topshop's vintage section 18 Cardinal Place, Victoria St, London, UK

Who are some up-and-coming musicians we should know about?

I am obsessed with Leon Bridges.

What are common misconceptions people have about rock stars?

They like to party all the time. That’s not really a misconception, rock stars do party a lot. They do often have funny mirror faces that they check out before they go anywhere. But the rock stars in my life are old, so they’re over that whole stage. For me, they’re just my parents. My dad lives in Adidas track suits when he’s not on stage. So maybe that’s one: They don’t always look so glamorous.

ISSUE N° 3