Drawing inspiration from the vibrant, underground nightlife of New York, Desi Santiago transforms his Club Kid past into a visceral creative force.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Multidisciplinary visual artist Desi Santiago is a continuum of reinvention. He first made a name for himself as a 90s New York City Club Kid with his ‘Desi Monster’ alias, then had a brief stint as a jewelry designer. He is now the mastermind behind creating immersive experiences for Opening Ceremony, Loewe, Y-3 and Cartier’s Ecrou de Cartier launch at Salone del Mobile in addition to creating the dynamic onstage narrative for Madonna’s MDNA World Tour. He also conceived theatrical masks and headpieces for the record-breaking Alexander McQueen ‘Savage Beauty’ show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and for Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton’s retrospective installation at Paris' Musée des Arts Decoratifs. Most recently, he art directed Bruce LaBruce’s film ‘The Misandrists’ and teamed up with Randy Weiner and Ryan Heffington as Production and Costume Designer of the critically-acclaimed theater show ‘Seeing You’. An impressive roster of collaborations that are both visceral and involving.
From set and costume design to editorial and film credits, every project feels like the birth of a cultural movement starting with his New York nightlife heydays. We are just playing catch up.
For the New Jersey born artist of Puerto Rican descent, it is always about seducing the audience and transporting them to a fantastical and otherworldly dreamscape.
“I really like inspiring people and taking them to another place. I consider a lot of my installations like these pockets in reality and of the moment. It’s a physical connection.”
Read the full interview in our latest issue out now.
Photography Philippe Vogelenzang
Styling Ferry Van Der Nat
Model Parker Van Noord at Bananas Models
After taking over Dior Homme ten years ago, Kris Van Assche continues to lead the French couture house toward a brave new world of experimentation, self-expression and liberation.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Photography Morgan O’Donovan
Over the past decade, the private and methodical Artistic Director of Dior Homme, Kris Van Assche, has created a radically new vocabulary for the illustrious French couture house. The Belgian designer has defined a strong aesthetic of his own by reinventing contemporary tailoring, imbuing sartorial suiting with street-cool edge with great rigor and skill.
Expressing Monsieur Christian Dior’s modernist and anti-conformist spirit, Van Assche believes that one needs to reinvent to stay relevant and that could not be more true of his tenure at Dior Homme. After weathering the early storms of his appointment and putting his eponymous label on hiatus, he has come into his own during what can only be categorized as a boundary-breaking journey at Dior. By consistently presenting a study of contrasts through a conscientious balance between heritage and innovation, Van Assche has gained subversive power against storied codes.
As Van Assche explains, he has transformed Dior Homme and Dior Homme has transformed him.
“It has taken me some time to believe that the significance of what we are doing could affect and inspire people outside the industry.”
Read the full interview in our latest issue out now.
Photography Mariano Vivanco
Styling Teddy Czopp
Model Jacob Hankin at Soul Artist Management
Grooming Ali Pirzadeh at CLM
Stylist Assistant Maya Pambagiun
Gucci’s Alessandro Michele enlists the talents of visual artists for a string of high-profile collaborations to build a community that embraces his creative genius and signature eccentricity.
By Max Berlinger
Photography Coco Capitán
It’s no secret that Alessandro Michele created a revolution when he took over the Italian behemoth Gucci as Creative Director, back in 2015. His androgynous, bookish maximalism has swept the fashion industry by storm, causing competitors to play catch up to his ornate and eccentric take on luxury. From his fur-lined slippers to graffiti-style logo T-shirts to his embroidered denim, Michele is a virtual hit machine, cranking out covetable must-haves season after season, seemingly never lacking for inspiration.
Michele, who has many times waxed poetic on philosophy, has tapped visual artists a few times during his short tenure, each with delightful results. The most recent collaboration, unveiled during the Fall-Winter 2017 collection, is with artist Coco Capitán.
“Fashion and art are mutually informed by one another, and they are really part of a connected dialogue.”
Read the full article in our latest issue out now.
Photography Zeb Daemen
Styling Gabriella Norberg
Model Julian Schneyder at New Madison
Photography Marius Hansen
Set Design Annette Masterman
Model Bertie Pearce at Elite Model Management
Grooming Samantha Cooper at Carol Hayes
First Assistant Photographer Richard Turner
Véronique Nichanian, the longtime Artistic Director of the Hermès Men’s Universe, has redefined luxury menswear by capturing timeless values with contemporary design.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Photography Ilaria Orsini
Behind every successful man is a woman and that could not be more true of the Hermès man and the woman behind him, Véronique Nichanian. For almost 30 years, the Artistic Director of the Men’s Universe has been designing for an ever-evolving man who is sensitive to quality, details, and exceptional fabrics. The result is timeless allure and purity; living proof that fashion can defy seasons and trends.
Nichanian’s pragmatic approach to menswear coupled with her penchant for innovation and craftsmanship, gives her a refreshingly clear focus on what both menswear and luxury needs to be today. She juxtaposes the old with the new to push the Hermès brand forward without losing its core DNA.
According to Nichanian, fashion is not something totalitarian. Instead, her philosophy centers on men developing a special, invisible bond to their clothes. She seduces the senses of sight and touch through a meticulous design process informed by color and fabric.
For a brand permanently inscribed in the lexicon of luxury goods, Nichanian believes that Hermès has to be a positive force, bringing strength and happiness to fashion.
“Luxury does not mean anything anymore. I think it’s about being demanding of what we propose to men and the way we do things. Luxury should be about proposing the best we can propose from our soul and from our heart.”
Read the full interview in our latest issue out now.
Alessandro Sartori’s interplay with the other arts and mediums serves as a preview of his modern-day vision for Ermenegildo Zegna.
By Jon Roth
Photography Patrick Fraser
You wouldn’t expect to find a sought-after Italian designer like Alessandro Sartori knocking around in the middle of the Texas desert. The context is all wrong, the setting feels like a glitch. But then Sartori has never been interested in merely meeting expectations. And so in between his comeback show and his second collection as Artistic Director at Ermenegildo Zegna, he made time for a project with longtime friend, dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied.
Sartori knows that fashion can’t exist in a vacuum - that a designer’s mind works best when it’s in dialogue with other artists, responding to their ideas and their output. His partnership with Millepied is just the first page of a new chapter for Ermenegildo Zegna, proof that a modern designer doesn’t just make clothes, he makes aesthetic statements, no matter what the medium.
Read the full article in our latest issue out now.
By Kurt Markus & Eric Hansen
Photography Kurt Markus
What began in 1996 as a magazine assignment quickly became an obsession. Yemen hooked me, hard. I went back, on my own dime, for the following three years. I covered the various, distinctive regions, lost in the rush of discovery. That’s the way I felt, as if I was the only photographer to fall in love with this wonderful landscape and people. Each of the four trips took me to the limits of my endurance, both physically and emotionally. Nothing came easily. I packed a large 4x5” format camera and lenses, making photographs as if they were carved out of stone. No snapshots, just pure, unmanipulated images. No shortcuts, one picture at a time, often surrounded by a couple hundred villagers, clamoring to see what I was doing.
With me was the great travel writer Eric Hansen. Whenever we traveled together, I did the pictures and Eric told the story. We were brothers.
From the beginning, we knew our goal: to create a unique body of work that deserved to be showcased in exhibitions and a book that would travel to major institutions. But the world changed in 2001. Eric put away his notebooks and I stopped printing, although by this time I had made over 400 exhibit-quality prints. The archive has sat on shelves for 20 years, waiting for a right time to bring the archive out of darkness.
Now, the time is right. Maybe these photographs and stories will go some distance to heal what separates us. Maybe we can find common ground. A world without violence.
Kurt Markus
The central purpose of this body of work is to introduce Yemen to a worldwide audience; and in the process, serve as an evocative and lasting tribute to a unique culture in the midst of political, social and economic change that is presently sweeping across Yemen and the rest of the Middle East.
Yemen is an ancient country, situated at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Largely unknown to most of the Western world, Yemen is a place unto itself - a land of warriors, poets and builders. Even compared to other Middle East countries, Yemen is unique. It is populated by proud, independent people who consider themselves the aristocrats of the Islamic world. In addition to history and culture, the visual impact of Yemen is powerful: stark, hauntingly beautiful landscapes, medieval looking cities with their whimsical brick, stone and adobe architecture, and mountain slopes sculpted with undulating stone terraced fields. It is all the work of thousands of years.
Eric Hansen
Tom Ford’s preternatural love of film has transformed the celebrated fashion designer into an honored filmmaker with an arresting vernacular that intrigues and inspires audiences of both worlds.
By Hassan Al Saleh
Tom Ford is a model of reinvention. With impeccable taste and meticulous, unmatched attention to detail, image-making has always been his forte. The genius re-imaging of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent with bold, controversial and hedonistic campaigns will forever be a cornerstone in fashion history. Therefore, it came as no surprise when he stunned the film world with his 2009 directorial debut of A Single Man starring Colin Firth and Julian Moore. The film was a critical sensation, earning Oscar, Golden Globes and BAFTA nominations.
Seven years later, Ford made lightning strike twice with his spectacular second cinematic work, Nocturnal Animals starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal.
It won top prize at the Venice Film Festival and garnered Golden Globes, BAFTA and Oscar nods, affirming his remarkable storytelling acumen that is intelligent, powerfully moving and artistically thought-provoking.
Simply put, Tom Ford is a rarity in every sense of the word. He injects the same artistic vision and brilliant sartorial splendor of his fashion designs into the painfully beautiful and sumptuous films he writes, produces and directs. We sat down with the man himself to understand how and where the realms of fashion and film collide.
“For me film really is the ultimate design project. I think fashion does have permanence – you can go to a museum and see something created – but I don’t think that it necessarily affects you in the same way as a film.” – Tom Ford
Anthony Vaccarello bravely takes on one of fashion’s most illustrious legacies at Saint Laurent.
By Max Berlinger
Imagery Nathalie Canguilhem
For most designers who take over a storied brand like Yves Saint Laurent, it’s part of the job to deal with the founder’s legacy and at YSL, that legacy casts a long shadow. Yves Saint Laurent is one of the most prolific designers of the 20th century, a man who firmly moved clothing into the modern era, a man who was obsessed with making clothing that was made for living, not just couture made for society of ladies. It has been said that no designer has ever been closer to godliness, in the eyes of the fashion industry, and specifically the French, than he.
But Italian-Belgian fashion designer Anthony Vaccarello, who was named Creative Director of the iconic French brand in April 2016, has to also wrestle with the tenure of his immediate predecessor, Hedi Slimane, whose rock ’n’ roll energy sent critics wringing their hands but sent consumers to the stores, happily buying the ineffable style of cool proffered on the runway.
“If you attempt to do the amazing things he did, the incredible things he brought to fashion, you will never re-create the past, so you always have to think of the now for Yves Saint Laurent. It’s not even really thinking about the future with this house: it always has to be about the now.” – Anthony Vaccarello
Photography Robert Fimmano
Styling Andrew Mukamal
Models David Alexander Flinn at the Lions
Grace Corton at Soul Artist Management
Digital Tech Dean Podmore
Photography Assistant Timothy Shin
Stylist Assistant Chris Lee
Makeup Artist Seong Hee Park at Julian Watson Agency
Hairstylist Bok Hee at Streeters
Set Designer Holli Featherstone at Mary Howard Studio
Photography Coppi Barbieri
Set Design Kelly Russell
Dries van Noten’s proud independence has transformed his eponymous fashion house into a beacon of creative ingenuity and intellectual integrity in living color.
By Max Berlinger
Photography Ojoz
Belgian cult fashion designer Dries van Noten first showed his work in 1986, as part of the powerful collective known as The Antwerp Six. Since then, as the industry has unfurled in an explosion of globalization, van Noten has remained a man apart from the madness, maintaining his aesthetic tinged with timeless eclecticism and nostalgia.
Today, as corporate collectives like Kering and LVMH snap up big brands, van Noten remains the Chief Executive and Creative Director of his business, which still remains headquartered in Antwerp. This autonomy has helped inform his work, which mixes a sense of athleticism and wistful romanticism into an undeniably cool, intellectual look.
“I have always believed that economic independence informs and sustains creative independence, a principle of my work. My parents set an example in that they owned their own retail ready-to-wear business. Besides this, I have always enjoyed all of the aspects of my business as one's attention drawn to one area can be a welcome respite from another. It is clear, too, that getting clothes made as an independent company in these days of vertical integration is increasingly important.” – Dries van Noten
Photography Pablo Saez
Styling Gabriella Norberg
Model Felix Gesnouin at View Management
Hairstylist Carol Guzman at Kasteel Artist Management
First Assistant Photographer Fede Delibes
Second Assistant Photographer German Gomez Criado
Stylist Assistant Cesar Sanchez
Belgian-born Moroccan makeup artist Sammy Mourabit masterfully peers into the soul of his subjects to blur the line between the familiar and the fantastic.
By Jon Roth
Photography Steven Klein
Almost from the beginning, Sammy Mourabit has been fascinated with the human face: its textures and contours, the angle of a cheekbone or the jut of a jaw. Certainly, that’s evident in his massive body of work. Over the past 30 years, the makeup artist has left few facets of the visual world untouched - taking his vaunted talents from the old-world tradition of opera and ballet to the glossy sheen of fashion editorials. But even before he picked up a brush, Mourabit was an earnest student of the human form. In his earliest years, he seriously considered becoming a plastic surgeon.
Years of experience have given him a wide-ranging skillset, from wig making and prosthetics to stage makeup and runway-ready looks.
There’s too much work to summarize it neatly. But it may be in film where his talents shine most
Mourabit moves deftly between the outlandish and the approachable. He does this because he’s a professional who can read a client’s needs, sure, but he’s an empath who can read his subjects, too.
“I listen to their soul and their pain and create a visual that fits them perfectly. It all depend who is sitting in front of me. It's a powerful process, that exchange between two human beings.” – Sammy Mourabit
Fendi’s foray into the restorative arts underscores its deep pride in its Made in Italy heritage.
By Radhina Almeida Coutinho
Photography Matteo Piazza
Two intertwined bronze trees holding an 11-tonne sculpted block of marble by celebrated Italian avant-garde artist Giuseppe Penone took residence at Lago Goldoni outside the Palazzo Fendi, a gift from the luxury fashion house to the Eternal City in which it was born a little more than 90 years ago.
The sculpture called “Leaves of Stone” is the latest in a series of projects supported by Fendi that put art and architecture front and center of the brand’s community initiatives – notably revolving around monuments and artists that are iconically Italian.
Penone has described “Leaves of Stone” in a language that evokes a similar concept. He speaks of the sculpture as “something that changes and develops in response to the elements, like a three-dimensional drawing, with nature as the ultimate draughtsman. The oxidized bronze will eventually color the white marble, which is like a blank sheet of paper waiting to be written on over time.”
Photography Marius W. Hansen
Set Design Annette Masterman
First Assistant
Photographer Nicola de Cecchi
Set Assistant Ali Bailon
Creative Director Christopher Bailey takes the iconic British heritage brand Burberry gallantly into the future.
By Max Berlinger
Despite fashion’s obsession with the new, in many ways, it can be an industry that is cautious about trying new things. Take, for example, the fashion calendar, which dictates that brands show their collections to press and store buyers a full six months before they’re available to customers. It’s been this way for the entirety of the modern fashion era, and the timing made sense to give labels time to take orders and then fill them. Those days are gone. Thanks to the Internet, average fashion fans are now able to access the images at the same time (if not sooner) than magazine editors and store buyers. Blogs are able to report on the season before traditional media is able to. Buyers, quite frankly, are bored of the clothing they saw six months ago by the time they land in stores.
There’s a reason that fashion is reluctant to change: it’s hard. Huge corporations can’t easily reimagine the logistics of a supply and demand chain they’ve relied on for the sum total of their existence. And yet Burberry, despite its enormity as a company (not to mention cultural presence) is dedicating itself to adapting, as it has since the dawn of the digital age, thanks to its Creative Director Christopher Bailey.
Despite its heritage and its size, the company has been quick to embrace technology to help spread its message. It was one of the first brands to livestream its runway shows, starting back with its Spring-Summer 2010 show, and to offer customers at home a chance to purchase pieces they see on the catwalk from the comfort of their own home, just click and go.
This season, Burberry made a huge leap, and decided to close the six month gap between the unveiling of its seasonal collection and selling it, adopting a nascent business plan in the industry called by many, “see now, buy now”. During September, when many other brands were showing their Spring-Summer 2017 shows, Bailey showed his Fall-Winter 2016 collection, which was made immediately available via its own stores across the globe and selected retail partners, like Barneys New York in the United States, and MR PORTER online.
“For an industry that loves moving forward - that’s about newness and inspiring people -how can we not be excited about the thing that has changed every one of our lives?” – Christopher Bailey
More than 20 years since his debut film Kids, Larry Clark turns his singular lens on Dior Homme.
By Jon Roth
Photography Larry Clark
There they go, strutting ahead, long and lanky, cocky in the way that only teenage boys can be. Behind them, the Art Deco bas-relief of the Palais de Tokyo. Before them, skateboarders speed and spin, held aloft less by physics than sheer exuberance. The boys walk on, talking with their heads down, laughing, looking up here and there to smirk, to wink. They loaf together on a stone ledge, legs dangling. It looks like they’ll live forever young.
No one captures surly, rambunctious youth like Larry Clark.
The auteur has just created a short film in collaboration with Dior Homme, a skate-centric montage of sudden jump cuts, shaky close-ups and superimposed imagery meant to highlight the release of seven new sneakers. And sure, we see the shoes, but the focus is much broader than that. Mostly, we see four models, and the skaters surrounding them, inhabiting the space outside the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
It’s a fitting subject and setting for Dior, and particularly for Dior Homme’s Artistic Director Kris Van Assche, who has worked diligently to reconcile the fashion house’s historic roots with the forward-thinking vitality of youth culture.
"Larry Clark is intimately linked to the youth culture of my generation, and for this reason he is one of the indelible references in my inspiration. It has been an honor and a pleasure to be able work on this project with him." – Kris Van Assche
It might be the innate Dutch ability for effortless ease tinged with flashes of mad ingenuity, but Lucas Ossendrijver has inadvertently shaped the defining look of 21st century men’s fashion.
By Radhina Almeida Coutinho
Photograhy James Bort
He has described himself as the master of the reserved. No obvious gimmicky references, no muses, no forced attempts at creating a defined “look”.
Instead, what Head of Menswear at Lanvin, Lucas Ossendrijver, has consistently preached during his decade at the high fashion French label is his desire to create a complete wardrobe – one that naturally fits any man, in any situation. Comfortable and confident in its individuality – it’s the ability to wear a suit with sneakers and still look elegant that is the mark of the modern man.
Having grown up in the Dutch country around Utrecht, watching his father build up his lumberyard and construction business, Ossendrijver has said that he always knew he wanted to work with his hands. It’s a way of working that has stuck with him – Ossendrijver is known for employing a very intuitive and tactile approach to creating his designs – one that exercises instinct and develops organically rather than strictly from a drawing board.
“I try to touch people through my collections and bring the passion that we have for making clothes to the customer.” – Lucas Ossendrijver
Photography Philippe Vogelenzang
Styling Peghah Maleknejad
Models
Simon Nessman at Soul Artist Management
Anna Mila at IMG Models
Hairstylist
Paul Donovan at CLM Hair and Make-Up
Makeup Artist
Jo Frost at CLM Hair and Make-Up
Manicurist Trish Lomax
Digital Assistant Robert Self
Producer Sandra Gormley
In just a few short years, Irish designer Jonathan Anderson is taking the Spanish brand Loewe from sleepy traditionalist to cutting-edge newsmaker.
By Max Berlinger
Photography Steven Miesel
Jonathan Anderson looks innocent, but the way he has imposed himself on the fashion landscape with willful determination suggests that there’s something fiery beneath his boyish facade. And the results are hard to ignore. At his own eponymous label, JW Anderson, the 32-year-old designer has become known for his wildly innovative and intellectually challenging collections which feature his prescient penchant for asexual wardrobes where he blends men’s and women’s garments with aplomb. So it was something of a shock to the industry when the news was announced, in 2013, that the designer would be taking the reins at the iconic Spanish brand Loewe, a much more conservative label on the fashion landscape.
Loewe was founded in 1846, originally as a cooperative of leatherworkers in Madrid. The brand’s Spanish heritage, artisanal history, and focus on leather accessories have remained central aspects to the brand. Yet when Anderson presented his first collection, a menswear collection for the Spring-Summer 2015 season, he made it clear that he would be relying less on history than on transformation.
“Brands need to move at the speed the world does, and today that is fast. We live in the era of content. We put something on Instagram and it gets reposted and it’s everywhere and a minute later it’s gone, over. I don’t see that as a negative thing; it’s the way my mind works, too. It’s not just about consumers not getting bored of the brand, it’s about me not getting bored of it.”
– Jonathan Anderson
One of the most influential figures shaping modern menswear, Kim Jones’ perpetual wanderlust has built a powerful narrative for the venerable house of Louis Vuitton over the last five years.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Photography Kim Jones
Kim Jones has been a voracious international explorer since the age of three months old, when he and his family moved to Ecuador. He has not stopped traversing the planet since, with the stated intention of visiting every country in the world. The London-born Men’s Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton has collected, and continues to collect, a globe’s worth of references that feed his wondrous imagination and have helped him build the menswear collections he designs for the Parisian megabrand Louis Vuitton, into major seasonal statements. Very becoming for a brand founded on a steamer trunk and where travel is the essence of its soul.
During his 5 years at Louis Vuitton, Jones has given the menswear collections a real fashion identity, doing “interpretations of himself” with worldly intelligence and a trademark mix of youthful irreverence, through the language of culture. It is his ability to move between worlds that has made a profound impact on luxury menswear, fusing formal with casual and ingraining sportswear in the modern man’s wardrobe.
“Of course, travel is a huge inspiration. Besides the discovery of techniques, fabrics, crafts that is crucial in my work especially at Louis Vuitton, traveling is a massive part of the modern life.” – Kim Jones
Bottega Veneta may be the original proponent of the no-logo philosophy, but Creative Director Tomas Maier will definitely leave an indelible mark.
By Radhina Almeida Coutinho
There’s something to be said for a 50-year old brand breaking with tradition at the very moment it pays tribute to its past.
Bottega Veneta brought together its men’s and women’s collections on the same catwalk for the very first time at its Spring-Summer 2017 show in Milan. It was a deliberate choice that many believe heralds the brand’s desire to confidently embrace its future.
In between the rich leathers, crinkled lamé biker jackets, silk suits and moleskin pants that graced the runway, the models paraded 15 classic archival bags alongside 15 brand new designs - a mirror tribute that was fitting for a twin celebration - 50 years of Bottega Veneta and 15 years with Creative Director Tomas Maier at its helm.
“When I joined the house it was losing its identity and roots, so I instituted our four cornerstones of outstanding craftsmanship, timeless yet innovative design, contemporary functionality and the highest quality materials.” – Tomas Maier
Syrian-born Swedish artist Jwan Yosef is shattering boundaries with his innate raw talent and structural vision of art that conveys a greater and purer expression of today’s modern existence.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Photography Tomo Brejc
To conceptual artist, Jwan Yosef, subtlety is intellect. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in London, he has honed his craft of layered simplicity with great dexterity to evolve his figurative work to almost “hyper minimal” but equally self-referential. The unpretentious complexity of his work is filled with an unabashed sense of intimacy. Strong with purpose, the simplicity is captivating, seducing even, with expressions of mystery that heighten intrigue and ignite the imagination.
A prolific painter of beautiful abstractions, his relationship with art supplies and materials - and his attempt to make sense of their purpose and value in contemporary art - has become a defining quality of his work. He brushes his canvas with broad strokes of commentary on dualisms, absence, acceptance, identity, gender, and sexuality in today’s modern existence. In an era of blurred lines, Jwan bends the boundaries of mediums to transcend form and function.
Born in Syria, raised in Sweden and now living in London as he prepares to move to Los Angeles, Jwan describes himself as a modern-day gypsy. He does not conform to Arab or Scandinavian archetypes and considers himself a foreigner wherever he goes. We caught up with him in his studio in London just before his first solo show at Stene Projects in Stockholm entitled “Masking”.
“The platform for art is certainly shifting; it’s becoming somewhat more loose and fluid, somehow maybe more digitalized, less dependent of actual objects.” – Jwan Yosef
Photography Mariano Vivanco
Styling Hassan Al-Saleh
Hairstylist James Brown
Makeup Artist Alex Babsky
First Assistant Tomas Hein
Digital Robert Self
Casting Director Paul Isaac
Stylist Assistant Sayuri Bloom
Set Designer Trish Stephenson
Producer Junietsy De Marcos
Photography Coppi Barbieri
Art Direction Luca De Salvia
Styling Johanne Mills
Photography Stewart Shining
Styling Andrew Holden
Models
Jesse Gwin at Soul Artist Management and Impy at Next Models
Hairstylist Davy Newkirk
Makeup Artist Matthew Vanleeunwen
First Assistant Andrew Roque
Stylist Assistant Mel Eligon
Production Walter Schupfer Management
Photographer Damnien Ropero
First Assistant Andres Guillard
When it comes to holding up a mirror to the present day, no one does it better than the visionary and founder of intellectual fashion Miuccia Prada.
By Radhina Almeida Coutinho
When Miuccia Prada presented the Fall-Winter 2016 collection of her eponymous label at Milan Fashion Week, it seemed as if she transported an entire human city in flight straight onto the catwalk. The thrown-together look of the ensembles was palpable – long coats belted over brocade gowns, cagoules paraded alongside fur coats, hemmed trousers cut as though the wearer expected to walk through a damp field, sneaker-clad feet tramping alongside leather dress shoes.
The overall image would have seemed unsettlingly familiar to those we have watched repeatedly on our television screens in recent months – that of a crowd on the move.
But then Miuccia Prada has never shied away from tackling the issues of today. Her boundary-pushing aesthetic, bordering at times on the avant-garde, is deeply rooted in the reality of these tumultuous times we live in.
“We need to understand who we are now…Maybe it’s useful to look back to the different characteristic moments, difficulties, love, no love, pain, happiness... this was the main concept,” said Mrs. Prada.
The overall impression is one of world-weary individuals who had journeyed through the rough and had emerged on the other side.
They’d survived.
The storied house of Valentino embraces genderless clothing with a capsule collection of unisex basics.
By Max Berlinger
Valentino is accommodating a new generation who doesn’t get hung up by men’s clothing versus women’s. But it is handled in a way that feels true to the brand, with the release of the 12 piece collection, titled Rockstud Untitled.
“We wanted to render the unisex items unique, we therefore worked on the Rockstud Untitled Collection and on the idea that signs are the element that make objects and human beings unique,” said Piccioli. “We used golden studs to render the items immediately recognizable.”
The collection, which takes its inspiration from the Japanese idea of wabi-sabi, or the concept that things find perfection in their imperfections, is part of the brand’s Fall-Winter 2016 offering. The designs lean on classic items, with most of the fripperies stripped away, leaving each garment and accessory represented at its essence and instead of traditional labels, they’re merely identified by numbers, one through 12. These are, in a sense, Valentino’s idea of a core wardrobe, pieces that aren’t tied to a particular season or gender or even country or aesthetic, they are just iconic items that every person should own.
After a short hiatus from the industry, designer Khalid Al Qasimi is back with a deeply personal menswear brand that confronts the issues of today’s world.
By Max Berlinger
Photography Brett Lloyd
In fashion, things are rarely easy. No one knows this better than Khalid Al Qasimi, the designer who took a break from his namesake brand in 2013, to rest and redouble his efforts for his re-launch, with a focus on menswear and aspirations to transform Qasimi into a lifestyle brand.
Qasimi, who was born in the United Arab Emirates and now lives in the United Kingdom has drawn on both places as inspiration for his deeply personal, elegantly romantic designs. His background as an architect has also come into play, wherein Qasimi takes traditional garments and imbues them with touches from his childhood, adding a flow and lyricism to slouchy pants, embroidered knitwear, and keen eye for color. The Central Saint Martins graduate employs a disciplined approach to creating menswear though a unique perspective that sparks dialogue with his signature trademark of blending cultures, social issues and politics in fashion.
“I feel that it is extremely important to discuss and debate my cultural background and the political discourse that surrounds it. The media is generally very biased towards a certain agenda and it is key for me to voice my views through this medium. I hope that we can all begin to work together to get a better understanding of each other’s cultures and beliefs and that we can find a lasting solution to the conflicts going on around the world today” – Khalid Al Qasimi
We speak with the designer about his inspirations, how his upbringing has influenced his aesthetic, and the most difficult part about working in the fashion industry today.
After a decade in the art business, accidental art dealer Steve Lazarides has beaten all odds and looks to the future with Qatari business tycoon Wissam Al Mana.
By Max Berlinger
Ten years is a long time —120 months, 520 weeks, 3,650 days, 87,600 hours, and so on. And this decade, from 2006 to now, has felt especially long with the advent of social media helping to change the way we understand the world around us, changing the way we understand time itself. This has been a particularly long decade for those who work in the art world, a decade where everyone with an iPhone camera and an Instagram following fancies themselves an artist and where likes and filters have come to mean more than paint strokes and ideas. It’s the decade that everything changed.
Naturally, the art market has been rocked by these developments, and it’s reflected in the record-setting auction prices and a new generation of artists who bring a digital energy to their work. It’s an unstable, thrilling time and it’s the era in which Steve Lazarides has owned his gallery in London, aptly called Lazarides and this year, he celebrated his first decade as a gallery owner and art dealer in perhaps the most tumultuous art market ever known. He started his business just as the global financial markets faltered, and he’s survived nonetheless.
"It's a miracle that we are still here. Every step of the way we were told by the art world that what we were doing was impossible, and it would never work. But you know, we're still here" - Steve Lazarides
His survival against all odds proves that success is not limited to conforming to rules and following a beaten path. Earlier this year, he forged a partnership with the Qatari business mogul Wissam Al Mana, a signal that Lazarides is serious about continuing his work in the art world in a major way.
“I have been interested in opening an art gallery for quite some time. As an art lover and collector, owning a gallery seemed the next thing to do, so when Steve approached me to partner with him, it was a great opportunity to penetrate the art world by being part of a successful and renowned gallery with a potential to take it to the next level” – Wissam Al Mana
One of the most pre-eminent contemporary photographers of our time, Mariano Vivanco documents his bold and imaginative style in a captivating new book ‘Portraits Nudes Flowers’ to redefine a higher, purer form of beauty.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Photography Mariano Vivanco
Photographers have an incredible urge to have the world see their work and feel what they feel. That couldn't be more true of one of today’s most influential, versatile and creative talents, Mariano Vivanco.
He’s a dreamer, a romantic and a flirt. His evocative images are reflective of the man behind the lens. But there is one distinct quality that does not go unnoticed: his genuine spirit, a rare commodity these days. It permeates every genre of his work.
Unknown to many until now, flowers have also been part of Vivanco’s early photographic explorations. The three subjects may appear to be disjointed at first, but Vivanco marries them with the unifying quality of exposed, unabashed innocent emotion. Vibrant colors juxtapose the tonal portraits and nudes in modern and compelling compositions.
“They are three subjects in my photography that I really love. I enjoyed pairing with similarities between people and flowers and I love observing purity in nature and purity in the soul” – Mariano Vivanco
‘Portraits Nudes Flowers’ comes full circle with a repertoire of what can be best described as a photographic journal that is an elegantly rendered example of classic photography in its purist form, and one that bears testament to Vivanco’s evolving style. As Tim Blanks puts it, “Intellect plus instinct. Equal visions”.
Photographer An Le
Stylist Andrew Holden
Model Jarrod Scott at Ford Model Management
Hairstylist Nabil Harlow
Makeup Artist Bruce Dean
First Assistant James Sakalian III
Styling Assistant Olivia Perdoch
Producer Ana Victoria Pavon
Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci embodies the myths and ideals of American culture in the Maison’s growing denim collection.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Like so many designers, Givenchy’s visionary Artistic Director Riccardo Tisci is inspired by the promise of the American Dream and has made Americana a recurring theme in his work. While Tisci has experimented with a number of American sub-cultures and references, nothing better personifies his fascination with America and his own personal journey than denim.
“America was the first country to really believe in me. People find a way to express themselves in America. So that was my American Dream.” - Riccardo Tisci
Denim, highlighted in nearly all of his collections since he was named creative director of the Maison in 2005, serves as the perfect multi-dimensional canvas to express Tisici’s deep, complex and resolutely modern vision for Givenchy.
For Fall-Winter 2016, he evokes ’50s Americana workwear and taps into the bearded, booted, check shirt-ed aesthetic. The collection includes jackets, jeans, dungarees in blue and black denim in straight and slim fits. The ruggedness of the pieces is accented with the designer’s penchant for metallic studs juxtaposed with distressed floral-like detailing.
Images courtesy of Givenchy.
Photography Jack Waterlot
Styling Matthew Marden
Model Henrik Fallenius at Soul Artist Management
Grooming Benjamin Thigpen
Styling Assistant Kevin Hunter
Photography Assistant Herman Van Den Brandt
Tomas Maier’s new Home Collection for Bottega Veneta is a study in how functional minimalism is the only true synonym for timelessness in the world of furniture and home accessories.
By Radhina Almeida Coutinho
For a man who has consistently shunned flash in favor of function (he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year he has no patience for skirts you can’t walk in or bags that are heavy even before you load them up), it comes as no surprise that Tomas Maier’s newest Home Collection for Bottega Veneta is as beautifully practical as his clothes.
Maier’s emphasis on craftsmanship, rigorous engineering of even the simplest pieces and insistence on using quality materials are well known and respected in fashion circles. The German-born creative director of Bottega Veneta has always maintained that he seeks to produce timeless rather than trendy creations.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Bottega Veneta’s Home Collection unveiled during the Salone Del Mobile held in Milan in April. One of the main highlights of the 2016 Home Collection is a set of handmade bronze tables whose surface pays tribute to the house's signature woven leather intrecciato motif. The tables are a collaboration between Bottega Veneta and Italian designer Osanna Visconti di Modrone.
“The evolution of our Home collection has been purposefully gradual and deliberate, as we have never been interested in doing anything flashy or of-the-moment. That’s a problem in my industry; things come on and off the shelf so quickly. A lot of good stuff falls through the cracks. Leave it for a while, and let people look at it and discover it.” - Tomas Maier.
Other pieces have furniture classic written all over them. These include round arch tables that combine a bronze structure, honey veined travertine, or matte oak in Espresso or Ardoise colors, available in two models – an eight arch table and a five arch table. The Rudi collection made in collaboration with Poltrona Frau features a club chair, foot rest, three seating couch and a day bed available in velvet or linen, while a chest of drawers completely covered in suede or leather feature Bottega Veneta’s iconic bronze handles combined with a marble or wooden top.
Portrait by Martin Adolfsson courtesy of Bottega Veneta.
As the Creative Director of Balmain Hair Couture, Parisian-born Arab wunderkind Nabil Harlow is at the height of his power but is leaving a little room for imperfection.
By Jon Roth
Photography An Le
Last year, master hair designer Nabil Harlow made history in the fashion and beauty circles when he was appointed Creative Director of Balmain Hair Couture. It’s an unprecedented position: in addition to overseeing Balmain runway and campaign looks from the ears up, he’s also the figurehead of a global hair empire, with an exclusive Parisian atelier, partnerships with salons across the world, and a constantly evolving product line of sought-after sprays, shampoos and straighteners. That he is still so young, and an Arab man of Moroccan decent in an often lily-white industry, makes his climb to the top doubly impressive.
But Harlow’s career didn’t start out in fashion. As best he can remember, it really began with old movies, which he watched as a child in the living room with his grandmother. He’s credited the movie sirens of the ‘40s and ‘50s - Greta Garbo, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford - as silver screen inspirations. “I learned about perfection from them,” he says. Inspired, he started cutting hair for family members at 13, and enrolled in hair school by 17. Harlow helped cover the cost with a few modeling gigs, and eventually worked backstage with greats like Orlando Pita. Three years later, he moved to New York, learning English while he colored hair at the Frederic Fekkai Salon on 5th Avenue. After four years, it was back to Paris, where he was reunited with his first love: the cinema. He began doing hair for films.
It wasn’t until an agent approached Harlow that his career left the screen and reentered the fashion world, but since he began working with Balmain, many of the skills he learned behind the camera have been brought to bear on the runway. He credits his film background for his strong technical abilities (you can’t create hairpiece for a 13th-century period piece without really knowing your trade) and that acumen shows in his recent work for the French fashion house. In the past year, he’s created a hat-trick of technically ambitious looks — swapping the hair colors of models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner with carefully designed wigs, creating two-foot dreadlock extensions for the men’s Fall-Winter 2016 runway show, and crafting dramatic, Mod-inspired pony tails in the Spring-Summer women’s show. Each new look had fashion crowds (and Instagram followers) abuzz.
“I have my own ways. It doesn't mean they are better than others, but they seem right to me.” - Nabil Harlow
And that’s only half the job. Balmain Hair Couture, originally founded back in 1974, is enjoying a renaissance under Harlow’s creative directorship. This includes a luxury line of styling products (their sprays, shampoos, and hair perfumes are top sellers), tools like brushes and straightening irons, plus extensions and wigs geared toward a fashion crowd always eager to switch up their look. For a man who’s moved largely in artistic circles, it’s hard science, and big business, helping to formulate new releases and expand the reach of the brand.
But it’s not about business for Harlow. It’s about a feeling, and that’s evident in his work. He praises glamour (thanks to those silver screen stars, no doubt), but also loves imperfection. He’ll create beautiful shapes and textures, then remove some of the polish. Performing at the top of his game, the charismatic Harlow understands the allure of hair as few others could. Today, he’s on a mission to empower women around the world, one tress at a time.
Perfumer Frederic Malle, Founder of Editions de Parfums, has redefined the industry by ceding the spotlight to the artists working behind the curtain.
By Jon Roth
We live in an age when anyone can be a curator — of playlists, of menus, of party guests. It’s an easy title, the kind anyone with a modicum of taste can assume. That’s why Frederic Malle has never taken it. Instead, he edits. Grandson of the founder of Dior Parfums, son of one of its greatest innovators, he works with the best noses in the world to hit on a gripping conceit, then whittles it down: considerate, careful, and cunning, into an olfactive masterwork.
In a world where editors garner few accolades, Malle stands alone in his field.
The distinction lies in his approach. Take quick stock of the cologne bottles on your dresser, and you’ll see the names of brands, not perfumers. Malle has effectively erased the middle man, taking the architects behind iconic scents like Terre D’Hermes and Eternity and, for the first time, putting the author’s names on the bottle.
“Until I wrote their names on our perfume bottles, these artists were like ghost writers. They were hidden from the public, not even invited to the launches of their own products. I thought that it was much more interesting to connect the public to the very best perfumers in the industry, rather than pretending that I had made these perfumes.”
Frederic Malle.
We sat with the perfumer to learn more about the inspiration for Monsieur, his collaborative process, and the visceral power of scent.
Alessandro Michele’s unique understanding and appreciation of
the historical codes of Gucci, married with his modern take on romanticism, have created a compelling new narrative for the venerable Italian brand.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Alessandro Michele, Creative Director of Gucci, has emerged as a polymath of the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, leading a fashion Renaissance in an era of cultural change. Beauty and the awareness of individuality are the epicenter of his movement with a renewed desire to unravel the axioms of aesthetics and restore proper value to craftsmanship and artisanship.
Since taking the reins of the storied house in January 2015, Michele has re-established the luxury house’s position as a truly directional fashion label by not only presenting gender-redefining collections that are built seamlessly as a ‘continuum,’ regardless of season but by introducing a plethora of creative collaborations that showcase the poetic reinvention of the Gucci brand.
Alessandro Michele has captivated the world with his grand eclectic vision. A man with a beautiful mind who lives in his own creative world and has made the Gucci affair both fascinating and irresistible without loosing mainstream appeal.
“I always try to translate the beauty of the brand in a different language. I can't resist the idea of creating another story from the very beginning. Its time for this brand to tell another story and change everything.”
- Alessandro Michele
A champion of the romantic and historical, his stewardship has been a wonderful flurry of the two infused with retro codes and eccentric maximalism.
Portrait by Kevin Tachman. Images by Ronan Gallagher courtesy of Gucci.
As Creative Director of the storied house of Cerruti, Jason Basmajian is bringing back the value of beauty through his deft manipulation of sartorial convention.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
It is both a new beginning and a return to the past for designer Jason Basmajian at the venerable house of Cerruti. As the brand’s Creative Director, he is writing a new chapter in his storied career in luxury menswear by take the brand back to its traditional values and roots, to it’s past glory when Nino Cerruti’s inspirational vision was at the cutting edge of men’s fashion.
A brand that tells a tale of vision, craftsmanship, and the history and culture of fabric and fashion, Cerruti is establishing codes that are today intrinsic to modern men’s fashion. We sat down with Basmajian to learn more about how he plans to steer the historic house into a new century in what he describes as an antidote to current fashion trends.
“I want to restore Cerruti to its important place in global menswear through a modern perspective of the brand's DNA. Often we need to go back to the foundation to move forward.” - Jason Basmajian.
Designer Nicola Formichetti is an unstoppable powerhouse with an insatiable appetite to keep learning, creating and innovating.
By Hassan Al-Saleh
Nicola Formichetti is no ordinary fashion designer. Bursting with creativity and curiosity, he continues to prove his fashion prowess by breaking the rules and transgressing boundaries. Today, he has become an unstoppable powerhouse as the Artistic Director of Italian denim-brand Diesel and Chief Creative Officer of his own clothing label Nicopanda. What started in 2011 as a playful apparel collection inspired by a fictional animated panda character inspired by Formichetti’s nickname, Nicopanda is now transitioning into a fully-fledged fashion and lifestyle brand. And as if that wasn't enough, he also has his own magazine called Free in Japan.
“I am lucky to be able to do what I love! Every day is different it’s always fun and inspiring, plus I get to work with so many different people.” - Nicola Formichetti
A multi-disciplinary artist known for his vital, youthful aesthetic, Formichetti is the son of a Japanese mother and Italian father and has spent time living in London and New York. He started his career at British magazine Dazed & Confused in the mid-2000s working as a fashion editor and climbing up the ranks to Creative Director. But it was his work as a personal style advisor to Lady Gaga that catapulted him into a new realm of popularity and fame. After two years with Parisian couturier Mugler, Formichetti stepped down from his position as Creative Director to spearhead Diesel’s monumental reboot, tasked with bringing back the coolness of the brand and move it forward.
For Formichetti, it was – and still is – normal to be different. In many ways, it is second nature growing up as an Italian boy in Japan and a Japanese boy in Italy. Perhaps this is the fuel to his creative genius – uninhibited by fear, criticism, disapproval and rejection. Defined by his boundless inventiveness and innate ability to engage with millennial consumers around the world, he is the visionary behind unconventional campaigns such as the one for Diesel that was shot with an iPhone by photographer Nick Knight and the collaboration with Instagram-based artist Doug Abraham, aka BessNYC. Of course, who can forget the advertisements that appeared on adult entertainment websites and social networking applications.
Images by Andy Rolfes.
From black tea to cedar wood, these six new fragrances draw from the perfumer’s toolbox to deliver magnetism in a bottle.
By John Roth
Photography Damien Ropero
Styling Fabien Caperan
Designers look towards adventurous archetypes for this season’s most stylish outfits.
By Max Berlinger
Whether looking to the past or the future, to the great outdoors or the great beyond, designers have adventure of the brain.
For the Fall-Winter 2016 season, men’s designers were looking west. The notion of the wild, wild west - cowboys and Native Americans, the Gold Rush and saloons - hold a particularly strong place in the imaginations of fashion designers, and it’s easy to see why, especially now. When the fashion system is in flux - with the calendar in question and androgyny on the rise, this sense of archetypical masculinity, cinematic in a way, is especially captivating. This season, the romance of the west was found everywhere you looked.
While this trip to the west was certainly beautiful, it was a look in the rearview mirror. Other designers had the future on their minds.
When it comes down to it, it was a classic case of cowboys and astronauts, two professional callings that most young boys toy with being at some point or another. One represents an American sense of rebellion and a breaking away from society, while the other represents the great unknown - outer space. It’s interesting that designers felt compelled and inspired by these two figures, as one is an outlaw and one is a hero. Maybe that’s what all boys teeter between - whether or not they’ve grown up - confronting the unknown and showing true bravery or breaking free from society’s expectations and riding off into the sunset.
When the basic function of a watch is to mark time, it’s hardly surprisingly that preferences for this instrument are as individualistic as the lives of the men they measure.
By Radhina Almeida Coutinho
Artwork Maxwell Burnstein
Hemingway may have been a bit morbid when he declared that every man's life ends the same way, it is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another. But there’s no denying what he said is true. Life is in the details. It’s little wonder then that a timepiece – the constant companion to life’s most memorable moments – remains a very personal choice. From the exterior accoutrements – the bezels, crowns, straps and buckles, to an affinity towards round, rectangular, cushion or distinctively-shaped watch faces, a penchant for complications that only tell the time or incorporate fascinating facets of information like moon phases, day-night transitions, second time zones, chronographs or date displays, it’s undoubtedly the details that ultimately distinguish one watch from the other. Traditional hand-finishings such as stain brushing and mirror polishing, futuristic materials and technology, dials that are delicate or dashingly macho – whatever your personal preference, we pick five haute horology creations that celebrate the marvels of minutiae.
Louis Vuitton Flying Tourbillon “Poinçon de Genève”
A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Moon Phase
Cartier Drive de Cartier
Dior Chiffre Rouge C05
Bulgari Octo Ultranero
