LIL A MOSS

WHO’S THAT GIRL?

 THE GIRL WHO FELL TO EARTH

LICETT MORILLO
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 WINTER 2018

3AM ETERNAL Photography Leslie Zhang Styling Liu Xiao 34 – 50

Meet the club kids breaking wild new ground for dance music in Shanghai
CLAIRO Photography Hart Lëshkina Styling Stella Greenspan 52 – 57
The pop star for the post-internet age gets real about her battles on and offline
HOW TO FLOSS 58 – 63
Photography Alice Neale Styling Chloe Grace Press
LET’S SPRITZ  64 – 69
Photography Philippe Jarrigeon Styling Victoire Simonney
SABRINA FUENTES Photography Tom Ordoyno Styling Gary David Moore 70 – 75
The Pretty Sick singer/bassist and adoptive Londoner on why her punk spirit will never fade
TIERNEY FINSTER: RESEDA 76 – 79
In this issue’s fiction, a familial tale of secrets and lies from the San Fernando Valley
KHICHDI (KITCHARI)  80 – 87
Kaleidoscopic unseen images from photographer Nick Sethi’s Indian adventures
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK  88 – 91
Barry Jenkins in conversation with the breakout talents of his heartbreaking new filmic romance
MARTINE ROSE Photography Pascal Gambarte Styling Tamara Rothstein 92 – 99
Comedowns, clubbing and first kisses with fashion’s queen of counterculture
OYINDA Photography Rob Kulisek Styling John Colver 100 – 107
The future-pop clarion and Telfar recruit on revealing her rawest self
ALTERED STATE Photography Olgaç Bozalp Styling Charlotte Roberts 108 – 117
The free spirits at the centre of the Tbilisi creative scene come together
ANYA TAYLOR-JOY Photography Mel Bles Styling Elizabeth Fraser-Bell 118 – 127
The actor reveals the darkness at the core of her cinematic world
MID90S Photography Ari Marcopoulos Styling Avena Gallagher  128 – 137
The skating stars of Jonah Hill’s filmmaking debut talk authenticity and weird bonding rituals
LILA MOSS Photography Tim Walker Styling Katy England  138 – 151
hoop piercing her own, hoop earrings with pendant Felt
Mini-dress with bow and hat Celine by Hedi Slimane,

A debut cover shoot 16 years in the making: welcome to the world of Lila Moss
Photography Tim Walker Styling Katy England

THE GIRL WHO FELL TO EARTH 152 – 167

Photography Ben Toms Styling Robbie Spencer
SOFTCORE JUKEBOX 168 – 177
Photography Hanna Moon Styling Emma Wyman
WILD STRAWBERRIES 178 – 187
Photography Letty Schmiterlow Styling Danny Reed
LILA MOSS NIGHT VISIONS 188 – 195
Photography Robi Rodriguez Styling Robbie Spencer Make-up Thomas de Kluyver
196– 207
Silk pyjama shirt Louis Vuitton × Grace Coddington

BAD MOON RISING

Photography Ben Toms Styling Robbie Spencer

Photography Tom Johnson Styling Elizabeth Fraser-Bell

TREAT ME GOOD  208 – 217
Photography Michella Bredahl Styling Haley Wollens
SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER  218 – 231
Photography Julie Greve Styling Francesca Burns
SKIN Photography Ruth Ossai Styling Ai Kamoshita 234 – 240
LICETT MORILLO The anti-Britpop frontwoman talks Afropunk, “clit-pop” and 25 years of Skunk Anansie
 30
Editor-in-Chief Fashion & Creative Director Art Director Group Editorial Director
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 WHO’S THAT GIRL?
Lila Moss’s first Dazed cover is a moment 16 years in the making.
Lensed by Tim Walker and styled by her godmother Katy England,
she is the perfect poster girl for an issue that is all about firsts –  We also wanted to spotlight new cultural scenes from across
new beginnings, powerful retellings and the true originals who
always feel like the first time.
In Mid90s, Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, a group of real-life
skaters come together to create one of the year’s most authentic-
feeling films. Shot by cult photographer Ari Marcopoulos, the cast
reveal in a round-table discussion how skating fosters the essential
bonding moments that “could spark (your) whole life” by changing
your perspective on the world.
For director Barry Jenkins – whose first encounter with
the work of James Baldwin came via an ex-girlfriend – it has been
a four-year journey bringing the writer’s novel, If Beale Street Could
Talk, to life. The heartbreaking film, which tells the story of a young
couple’s unshakable bond in the face of systemic injustice, unites
32
Photography Tim Walker, styling Katy England. All clothes and accessories Celine by Hedi Slimane
two of this year’s most exciting breakout actors, KiKi Layne and
Stephan James. It’s a moment well worth the wait.
the world, shot by image-makers with close personal ties to these
communities. In Tbilisi, Georgia, Olgaç Bozalp documents the city’s
youth in revolt; in Shanghai, the proponents of a thriving new club
culture are captured by Leslie Zhang; and, for this issue’s special art
project, Nick Sethi reveals unseen images from ten years exploring
India, “feeding off the energy of insane situations”.
For our second, limited-edition cover, we introduce Licett
Morillo, who made her runway debut this season after leaving
home in the Dominican Republic for the first time. Finally, a new
generation of female photographers is showcased in our fashion
pages via Julie Greve and Michella Bredahl. You read it here first.
Isabella Burley, Editor-in-Chief
 34
3AM ETERNAL Photography LESLIE ZHANG
Styling LIU XIAO
Text JOSH FEOLA

Making sounds for an accelerated future, the “fast,

violent and vital” scene at Shanghai’s ALL Club is
launching dance music into a new unknown.
Meet the club kids at the core of the cacophony
35
Opposite page: Shanmin wears printed silk top Versace, earring Cough in vain. This page: Kilo wears jacket Xander Zhou, tartan shirt, trousers and tartan bucket hat Lacoste, scarf his own, trainers Nike

On Xiangyang Bei road in Shanghai, one f loor above a sit- music pulls together different styles she heard at The Shelter,
down restaurant and one below a dive bar serving beer by without sounding too much like any one genre. The sartorial
the bucket, sits ALL Club, ground zero for a community styles on view at ALL likewise reference distant corners of
of young musicians and DJs pushing club culture forward. rave, punk, goth and cosplay, but it’s difficult to get the full
Viewing the ALL scene from Instagram, it’s easy to attach picture from your phone screen.
labels like ‘cyberpunk’ or ‘dystopian’ to its mix of extreme “It’s hard for people outside China to see the rate
fashion and discordant dance music. But unlike the first of change here through the limited scope of what makes
waves of UK punk and Berlin techno, which were fed it online,” says Hyph11E. Many artists express frustration
by an undercurrent of cold-war nihilism, this group of with western commentaries about China’s repressive political
genre-transgressing club kids come from a place of hope, atmosphere as a barrier to expression. Crackdowns happen –
an optimism that they’re articulating a new start, not an a handful of drug busts in recent years have resulted in
endpoint. Nevertheless, their jagged mix of icy techno, scattered arrests – but the major challenge remains cultural,
gabber, footwork, grime and other high-bpm micro-genres not political. While the parents of an average 20-something in
has resulted in a sound that can come off as alienating to China came of age during a period of violent social upheaval,
unconditioned ears. It’s a sound of acceleration. the current generation is inheriting decades of economic
The ALL scene gestated over long nights at The Shelter, growth – a buildup manifested in the skylines that have
a converted air-raid bunker that’s since been closed. “It was shot up in cities like Shanghai over the past 30 years.
a really mysterious, legendary place,” says Shanghai producer Relative political stability and the steady accumulation of
Tess Sun AKA Hyph11E, who’s represented the scene at wealth over this period have created a gap between mainstream
London’s Corsica Studios and CTM Festival in Berlin. and countercultural values that can be likened to the post-
Parlaying her day job as a commercial producer into night WWII west, though on a much vaster scale.
work at ALL (The Shelter’s successor, opened last summer), “There’s still a huge gulf between the mainstream
Hyph11E laid the groundwork for Genome 6.66Mbp, and the underground,” says Hyph11E. But that’s changing:
the essential label defining a new Shanghai sound. where The Shelter’s crowd was, by her estimation, 70 per cent
“The visual and sonic sides of things have become more foreigners and 30 per cent locals, those figures are f lipped at
deeply intertwined,” Hyph11E says of ALL Club. “Fashion, ALL, where “more and more Chinese people have become
visuals, design and music are all being thrown in the blender interested in underground music culture, and are trying to
and the end product is something really unique.” Hyph11E’s do something different”.
 36
Stella wears tulle dress Prada, skirt Versace, leather braces SHUSHU/TONG, bra and socks her own, boots Dr. Martens

SCINTII

Originally from Taipei, Stella Chung began producing often shares bills with in Shanghai. “I think that China is weird
music during a stint in London in 2009 and, as Scintii, and interesting like no other place at the moment,” she says.
has been steadily building a body of work around her own “New and old is often being put together and taken out of
voice ever since. its original context in a very aggressive way – it almost feels
Chung moved to Shanghai in 2017, and the city has kinda punk. Despite strict regulations from the government,
proved to be a fertile ground for the expansion of her creative the general atmosphere is optimistic.”
energy. After being invited by the Genome 6.66Mbp crew After a sporadic stream of EPs and singles – including
to perform at Dada Shanghai and The Shelter, she says she the cerebral, house-inf lected “Papier” – Chung is preparing
“felt really lucky to have people with welcoming ears – those her next release for SVBKVLT, a series of baroque electronic
were the first few times I felt connected with the crowd”. tunes grounded in her own ethereal vocal samples that
Though her music is warmer and more melodic than push at the boundaries of established dance music genres.
that of many of her local peers, Chung feels at home among Much like her Shanghai peers, Chung is motivated by the
the budding group of experimental producers and DJs she possibility of pure originality.
 Versace, rollneck, vintage Dries Van Noten skirt and jewellery
Dior Homme, glasses and socks his own. Shanmin wears t-shirt
From left: Han wears hoodie Guess, shorts Prada, trainers

38
her own, tights Calzedonia, shoes Miu Miu

33EMYBW & GOOOOOSE

Through their work in various experimental rock groups, and violent, vital development at the moment. The young
Wu Shanmin and Han Han have been inf luential figures people who go out to clubs are the ones who prefer unique,
on Shanghai’s underground rock scene for over a decade. stylish music.”
But more recently they’ve gravitated to the club circuit with Wu’s partner, Han Han AKA GOOOOOSE, has also
distinctive solo projects. been attracted to the “forward-thinking club music” he’s
Wu, who performs as 33EMYBW, says ALL’s “diversity heard at ALL, where a uniquely local identity is slowly
and tolerance” attracted her to the scene. She adds that the being synthesised from a broad spectrum of foreign sounds.
attitude embodied by Genome 6.66Mbp and SVBKVLT – the “When a place tries to absorb something fermented for over
label run by the forces behind ALL, which just released her half a century in ten years, some weird shit will happen,”
debut album, Golem – constitutes a new voice for the city: he explains. Following his 2017 EP, they, the producer is busy
“It’s because of ALL that I have a nightlife.” preparing new work for SVBKVLT, inspired by the younger
“I wouldn’t say that the club is the most comfortable generation he’s seen come up on the scene. “I think some new
place for me,” Wu continues, “but that is where there’s a fast words should be invented to describe this music.”

KILO VEE
“I’m tired of conversations about ideology and government
regulation,” says Kilo Vee, Genome 6.66Mbp co-founder
and a lodestar of the ALL scene. Bucking western media
narratives, he wants the collective to be viewed on its own
terms: “energetic and full of forward-moving passion”.
“Clubbing is becoming a way of life for local young
people,” Vee explains. “In the Shanghai scene, a mature group
of self-styled club kids is now being cultivated.”
Vee got into skateboarding after college, and through
that scene was dragged into the Shelter orbit. He responded
to a call for part-time bar work at the club in 2012, and found
himself increasingly drawn to the music after life-changing
sets from Madlib, Kode9 and Mykki Blanco, among others.
40
Kilo wears jacket Xander Zhou, tartan shirt, trousers and tartan bucket hat Lacoste, trainers Nike
He ultimately realised that his place wasn’t behind the bar,
but in the booth.
“We’re in an environment where we can create many
possibilities,” says Vee of the club, which has proved a crucial
platform for Genome 6.66Mbp’s “uncompromising sound”.
For Vee, ALL’s “extreme music and vision (of) no skin-colour
boundaries, no gender boundaries, no political boundaries”
allow his cohorts to “form an alternative, purely unique and
undefinable aesthetic”. So far, Genome’s efforts have inspired
upstarts like Hangzhou label FunctionLab and Shenzhen club
OIL, but Vee says it’s still early days: “Eventually, this catalyses
a culture that truly belongs to us… The biggest challenge
is our own – passion and patience (through) music.”

XANTHOUS BAE
“I don’t like to label my style,” says DJ and model Xanthous
Bae. “My fashion aesthetic is very freewheeling, depending
on my mood.” The 23-year-old Qingdao native is a relative
newcomer to the world of club music. Her entry point was
through fashion – specifically, her unique, found-fashion
aesthetic that’s at once evocative and tough to pigeonhole –  Speaking to the evolving fashion sensibility at ALL
and the attention it gained her on social media. On any given
night, she’ll match a spiked crimson radiation mask with an
eye-patch, or stick-on elf ears with fake tribal tattoos.
A self-taught designer and stylist, Bae has been a follower
of the underground scene at The Shelter and ALL for several
years, attracted by the sounds released on Genome 6.66Mbp
and SVBKVLT. In August she launched her own club night
42
at ALL, Morbid, which she spearheads under the DJ name
unhea7thy4u, and soundtracks with her eclectic interests in
hardstyle, electro, rave, grime, Chinese pop and “kawaii music”.
“What I present is a very fanatical and brutal environment,”
Xanthous wears all clothes Miu Miu
says Bae of her approach to DJing.
– which she has been instrumental in shaping, both online and
off – Bae says: “Good music is first and foremost, but (the)
visual (aspect) is more likely to bring the party to a climax if
it works well… Most young people are still following suit.
Only a small percentage will know exactly what they want,
and actually create something of their own. But I think (we’re)
in a phase of growth.”
 44
Elsie wears ribbed military dress Neil Barrett, printed top Givenchy

ILLSEE

DJ and promoter Elsie Liu – AKA Illsee – is an essential “Media reports on the club scene usually only (focus on)
presence on the Shanghai scene, as one half of the long- negative news, which leads the public to think that the clubs
running Stockholm Syndrome night and the major driver of are decadent, dirty and unhealthy,” says Liu, adding that it
Cosign, a weekly Wednesday gig at ALL showcasing “music can be an uphill battle to promote established western
you rarely hear on the weekend”. artists with little name recognition in China. But this fresh
Through Cosign, Liu has worked alongside other ground – as well as the particular cultural quirks of the city –
progressive forces in the community, including NÜSHÙ, generates interesting opportunities.
a workshop for “femme-identifying, queer, LGBTQ and “Shanghai has a large population, a developed economy
non-binary people to learn DJing basics”. Cosign has also and fierce competition,” says Liu. “Whether you’re a DJ or in
played host to collaborations with online platform Shanghai the audience, we all have a need for catharsis. When you dig
Community Radio, as well as Pengzhuang, an ambient synth out the negative emotions such as weakness, anger, anxiety
project by the husband-wife duo who run a local record and pain and show them to others, you may be more likely
shop called Uptown. to resonate with them.”

TZUSING
“In the last few years, with the audience shifting to more
Chinese and less expats, the crowd is newer to underground
dance music,” says Tzu Sing Tho, who produces under the
name Tzusing, of Shanghai’s rapidly evolving club culture.
“It adds a layer of freedom that allows for new possibilities.”
Speaking on his years of involvement in stirring up
the Shanghai scene via his night, Stockholm Syndrome,
Tho claims “it’s taken way more seriously now… It’s not so
much a novelty thing. People don’t go see Chinese artists
because they’re surprised Chinese women can use synths.
They’re there to see a producer or DJ they enjoy.”
Born in Malaysia and raised between Singapore,
Taiwan and China, Tho moved to Kunshan – an industrial
46
Tzu Sing wears printed shirt Dior Homme, vest stylist’s own, trousers and braces BLACKMERLE, boots Under Armour
suburb of Shanghai – in 2007 to start a business, eventually
refocusing his energy on to music. The DJ and producer
acknowledges the open-minded attitudes of bookers at The
Shelter and Shanghai club Dada for “actively encouraging
DJs to take chances”. He also credits Kim Laughton –  ALL’s
in-house visual artist – with pushing the scene’s aesthetic
into new territory.
“Instead of being a club that just regurgitates what
is happening in Europe, (ALL is) trying to do something
of its own, and because of this it has resonated with young
people from different practices,” says Tho. “This has fed back
into the club and added another, much-needed dimension
to the culture.”

SONIA CALICO
Although she lives in Taipei – a 90-minute f light from
Shanghai – Sonia Calico is tapped into the Shanghai zeitgeist.
Through connections with Beijing-based label Do Hits,
the producer born Lai Szu Yun has had frequent contact
with new movers from mainland China, including a show at
Shanghai venue Le Baron that she played in the gap between
The Shelter closing and ALL opening. She maintains close
contact with fellow Taipei artist and DJ Veeeky, who recently
made the move to Shanghai, and has often shared the bill with
Tzusing, who spends about half his time in Taipei.
As founder of the UnderU label, Lai has done
more than most to take the rumblings of greater China’s
underground overseas. In the past couple of years alone,
48
Szu Yun wears jacket Dsquared2, tank top Sirloin, bra her own
she has represented Taiwan at SXSW and LA’s legendary Low
End Theory. Lai calls her latest EP, Desert Trance, a sonic
picture of “scenery which is futuristic and desperately beautiful,
with complicated human emotions. Something between
apocalyptic fiction and Chinese martial arts movies.”
“Electronic dance music has been a one-way export,
from the west to the east, for a long time,” says Lai. “It is
interesting to see now that inf luences can go both ways.
Through the time I spend in the west, I can see people now
have a lot of interest in Chinese electronic music, which is
exciting, as this recognition means we’re very motivated.
Everyone is trying to create something no one has made
before – our own thing.”
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 Xu, A Leng, production Oolong, Jiaozi, translation Emma
Shuman, hair assistant Sussie Lee, make-up assistants Beata
Liu Yifei, Qiao Dongbin, styling assistants Zhou Yicun, Bao
Hair John Zhang, make-up Clive.X, photography assistants

50
Sun, special thanks Adam Chen

OSHEYACK

US-born producer Eli Osheyack is a bridge between the “Everyone was already riding a wave of excitement about
Shanghai scene and its overseas counterparts. Originally all the new music coming out when the move from The
Eli wears jacket Givenchy, jewellery his own

from Vermont, he has gravitated to DIY shows in basements, Shelter to ALL took place,” says Osheyack of the current
warehouses and other non-traditional venues since his mood of optimism in Shanghai. “The new space seemed to
teenage years. His latest album, Sadomodernism – released help focus the entire scene.
in September – brings together disparate international “There is a futurism in the music being made here in
sounds that help to shape the Shanghai scene, incorporating the sense that a lot of it feels ref lective of the accelerating
operatic arias sung by Michael Cignarale (founder of Medusa, reality that is Shanghai. The main difference is that what’s
Shanghai’s premiere queer club night), doom drone from happening in Shanghai is new, and there’s a lack of context
French producer Raphaël Valensi (an audio engineer who for club culture. Other cities like Berlin or New York have
masters much of the SVBKVLT and Genome 6.66Mbp a long history with electronic music and clubbing, and there’s
output), and stray inf luences like gabber, thrash metal and a defined identity to those places and the artists living there.
hardcore punk. Shanghai is writing its own story now.” •
A / W Collec tion 2018
Pink Windmill_01

craig-green.com
 Text AIMEE CLIFF
Styling STELLA GREENSPAN
Photography HART LËSHKINA
CLAIRO

Rollneck jumper BOSS, jeans Levi’s, earring and belts Palace Costume, nose ring worn throughout Claire’s own 52
53
Leather trenchcoat Attico, studded belt and snakeskin boots Palace Costume, piercing worn throughout Claire’s own

Claire Cottrill is the archetypal pop star for the

digital age. Now, she’s ready to get real about
the offline battles she faces
 54
Like many Y2K babies, Claire Cottrill grew up wants to start talking publicly about life with an on Beats 1; people still come at me for it. I just
online. She came of age at a moment when autoimmune disease. “(My arthritis) takes up stopped caring. I’m really focused on my health
multifaceted identities were quickly becoming so much of my daily life that I’ve wanted to right now; I’m focused on just bettering my life
the norm, fired by the rapid growth of social hide it from the people who listen to my music,” as a whole.”
media. Cottrill’s world expanded when, at 13, she says, “because it’s the one group of people Already, Cottrill’s mind is far away from
she taught herself to play guitar by watching that don’t know about it and don’t ask me.” that first project, and she’s deep in the excitement
YouTube videos. It got even bigger a couple Previously, she explains, she felt that, if she of creating diary 002, a record that she says carries
of years after that, when she started uploading didn’t allow the disease to be a part of her life, the spirit of girl groups who ruled the world
lo-fi pop demos to Soundcloud under the name it couldn’t have power over her. “I didn’t want before she was born: TLC, Destiny’s Child,
of Clairo – and even bigger at 16, when Rookie it to be real, and a part of me thought the more the Spice Girls. This time, she’s making a showcase
magazine covered her music. At 18, everything I suppressed it, the more it would just go away. for her voice, which until now has been muff led
changed when she went viral. It feels really good now that I’ve finally allowed by layers of production – a result of both aesthetic
Cottrill is the first to admit how crucial myself to let it be a part of me. Ever since I let choice, and a shyness that comes with creating
the internet has been to shaping her experience: myself identify with it, (that) I actually do have a your music in private. “A year ago when I was
as an artist, as a minor celebrity, and as a person. disability that I’ve been hiding, I’ve been writing in the studio, I wouldn’t even sing in front of
“I would never take back all the hours I spent the best music I’ve ever made.” people!” she laughs. “They were like, ‘This is a
talking to other people online, and creating my While touring is a bigger physical effort studio – you have to get over that.’ I’m finally
first Tumblr,” she muses, speaking on FaceTime, for her than for many musicians, Cottrill relishes past that point of being scared now.”
with a strip of sunlight falling across her bare face. the experience. “As corny as it sounds, I’m just While Cottrill has reaped the benefits of
“All those experiences were so big for me, because genuinely so excited to meet everyone and to creating an online fantasy, some of her sweetest
having to face my real life was so painful.” finally put faces to (fans’) names that I see all moments have been the result of radical honesty.
The Massachusetts-born songwriter, the time,” she says. “For so long, I’ve been In May, she came out to her Twitter followers
now aged 20, is speaking literally when she talks living this life behind the screen. I was sick of in the most 2018 way ever – with a tweet that no
about the pain of her regular life. At 17, she was it. The adrenaline I get during shows takes non-Clairo fan, or person over the age of 30,
diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, the pain away. You forget you have (arthritis) for would understand: “B.O.M.D. (‘Boy of my
leaving her with an ache in her joints so severe a second. That’s the best part.” Dreams’) is also G.O.M.D. for ur information”.
she is sometimes unable to walk. “Even just going Whether on stage or off, Cottrill’s music (During our chat, Cottrill is undecided on labels,
downstairs would hurt so much,” she explains. occupies a permanently logged-on space that but describes herself as “not entirely straight”.)
“The internet gave me freedom.” feels instantly familiar to anyone who grew up “After ‘Pretty Girl’, I was reluctant to
The chronic pain that Cottrill faces will in the blue glow of a screen: it’s sincere and open, talk about my personal life, because I just felt
come as a surprise to many of her fans – aside yet preoccupied with ideas of authenticity. like everyone knew so much, so why would
from a recent tweet to mark World Arthritis Day, On diary 001’s opening track “Hello”, the elastic I give them more?” Cottrill recalls. But after
she has never discussed this aspect of her life in hook goes: “You’re just one click away… / from the heartwarming response to her ‘coming out’
public. The Clairo persona has given Cottrill something real or fake”. tweet – she received scores of messages from girls
an escape route from her day-to-day existence, What Cottrill wasn’t prepared for was who were empowered to come out themselves
and a safe space to explore the plasticity of her the extent to which she herself would become a – she lost her cagey attitude. “It’s crazy that me
identity (as many teenagers find online). In her victim of the internet’s obsession with the ‘real’. doing that for myself had an impact on someone
self-directed video for “Pretty Girl”, the viral When “Pretty Girl” blew up in 2017, she found else. I never thought I’d have that authority.
gem that brought her to fame in 2017, Cottrill herself at the centre of a Reddit-generated So I think that’s why I feel it’s time for me to get
is the picture of freedom. With unbrushed hair whirlwind, after some sleuths figured out that real about my arthritis.”
and unbothered facial expressions, she deadpans her dad is Geoff Cottrill, a marketing executive As she prepares for this new era, Cottrill
her rough-around-the-edges pop song into her who used to run Converse’s Rubber Tracks has done what many young people have done
MacBook camera. The song itself, with daintily music studio programme. Geoff Cottrill has in 2018, and deleted all her Instagram posts.
scathing lines like “I could be a pretty girl / shut connections in the music industry, which meant For Generation Z, there’s no bigger allure than
up when you want me to”, hits out at society’s that his daughter definitely had more options (and a clean digital slate, and that’s exactly what
expectations for girls. savvy advice) available to her than the average Cottrill wants for diary 002. “I’m way less focused
“Pretty Girl” formed the centrepiece of teenager who goes viral. But critics stripped on the internet, and way less focused on what
Cottrill’s debut EP diary 001, released in May. agency from Cottrill by accusing her of being an people are saying online,” she says. “I’m focused
The sweet, self-contained release is a catalogue “industry plant” – making the strange assumption on what’s happening in my life, for real. So I was
of the extremely vivid feelings of being a teenager that a middle-aged man could better engineer like, ‘Why not just delete all my posts?’ I wasn’t
(“Am I gonna feel this way forever?” she sings a viral success than a teenage girl. (Either way, even thinking about other people, it was just me.
on “4EVER”) over glimmering synth melodies Cottrill rejoinders, “There’s no way you could I wanted to do that for myself.” •
and beats that have the soft thud of thumbs on plan something like a viral video happening.”)
a phone screen. When we speak, Cottrill has The whole sexist episode carried traces of deja vu, Clairo’s diary 002 EP is out next year
just finished touring the EP around the US and echoing the scandal that surrounded Lana Del Rey
UK, including support slots for Dua Lipa – an in 2012, when it emerged she had committed the
experience that she describes as a “really rough heinous crime of previously trying to make it as
time” with her arthritis. After spending some a musician with a different name and image.
time over the summer in an LA studio working on Cottrill says the experience has made her
diary 002, she f lew home to Atlanta. Now, she’s feel tougher. She’s breezy when she explains that
in bed, having spent the morning binge-watching she’s grown a lot this year, and her skin is thicker
Brit-comedies – Peep Show and old editions of than ever. “I’ve pretty much stopped reading
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year – with her mum. what people say about me, because it’s not true,”
It’s in this rare moment of downtime that she quips, keen to get off the subject. “I’ve spoken
she’s ref lecting on her next steps, and why she about it in the New York Times, I spoke about it
Printed silk shirt Versace, jeans Guess, earrings Palace Costume 55
Printed shirt MSGM, earrings, belt, tights and snakeskin boots Palace Costume 56
57
Printed shirt Dior, trousers AREA

Hair Lauren Palmer-Smith at Lowe & Co, make-up Natasha Severino

at Forward Artists using Sisley Paris, photography assistant Mark
Underwood, styling assistants Rika Nurrahmah, Manuel Parra,
production Henri Collective
 HOW TO FLOSS
Photography ALICE NEALE Styling CHLOE GRACE PRESS
All footwear worn throughout Jimmy Choo Diamond Sneaker. This page: Ruinan wears printed top Versace, trousers Acne Studios. David wears striped shirt and tie Fendi, patchwork trousers Ports 1961 58
Ruinan wears coat and waistcoat Stella McCartney, pleated shorts Gucci, socks Falke 59
David wears striped shirt and tie Fendi, patchwork trousers Ports 1961, socks Falke 60
 61

Top: Ruinan wears vest Ports 1961, chiffon skirt Andreas

Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, socks Falke. Bottom,
from left: David wears wool jumper Dior Homme, trousers Fendi.
Ruinan wears sequinned dress worn as top Guess Jeans, t-shirt
worn underneath JW Anderson, trousers Ports 1961
This page, top: David wears wool jumper Dior Homme, trousers
Fendi. Ruinan wears sequinned dress worn as top Guess Jeans,
trousers Ports 1961. Bottom: Ruinan wears striped shirt Louis
Vuitton, silk skirt Margaret Howell, pleated skirt worn underneath
JW Anderson. Opposite page: David wears shirt Les Hommes,
wool trousers John Richmond

62
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Hair Teiji Utsumi at Bryant Artists using Bumble and bumble., make-up
Celia Burton at JAQ Management using Lancôme, models David
Alexanderson at Nisch, Ruinan at Premier, styling assistant Tess Pisani,
lighting assistants Alexa Horgan, Alice Joiner, production Louise Mérat
at Artistry, retouching IMGN Studio, casting Svea Greichgauer
 64

LET’S SPRITZ
Photography PHILIPPE JARRIGEON Styling VICTOIRE SIMONNEY
65

Opposite page: Oudey wears silk jacket with embroidered collar,

earring Louis Vuitton, t-shirt stylist’s own, watch Tudor,
fragrance Louis Vuitton Attrape-Rêves. This page: Mariam
wears heart-neckline wool dress and fishbone crystal earrings
Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, fragrance Byredo
Eleventh Hour
66
67
Opposite page: Ilya wears jumper Chanel, all jewellery Coco
Crush by Chanel Fine Jewellery, hair-tie stylist’s own, fragrance
Chanel N°5 L’Eau Red Edition. This page: Viktoriia wears
chantilly lace dress Hermès, fragrance Hermès Twilly
 68

Opposite page: Thialda wears all clothes and bracelet Gucci, watch
Swatch, fragrance Gucci Bloom Nettare di Fiori. This page:
Vivienne wears foil jacket Maison Margiela, fragrance Maison
Margiela Mutiny
69

Hair Ramona Eschbach at Total World using Oribe, make-up Inge

Grognard at Artists Unit using M.A.C, nails Laura Forget at Artlist,
models Thialda Bok at Silent Models, Mariam Eya at Supreme, Viktoriia
Gera at Marilyn Models, Ilya Vermeulen at Paparazzi Models, Oudey
Egone, Vivienne Rohner at Oui, set design Jean-Michel Bertin at
Streeters, photography assistants Corentin Thevenet, Anthony Seklaoui,
styling assistant Julianne Courtois, hair assistant Laure Gaudou, make-up
assistant Asami Kawai, set design assistant Istan Arnoux, digital operator
Thomas Heydon, casting Svea Greichgauer
 70
All clothes MSGM SS19, all accessories Sabrina’s own

SABRINA FUENTES
Photography TOM ORDOYNO
Styling GARY DAVID MOORE
Text DOMINIC CADOGAN
71

ICYMI, the internet’s favourite teen bassist has moved to London – 

but Sabrina Fuentes’ innate love of her craft means
she was always going to play, “even if no one was listening”
 72
“I was obsessed with London when I was little because of FKA twigs that inspire her songwriting. “I feel like women
that Amanda Bynes movie, What a Girl Wants – where she have always hit a soft spot lyrically for me, and that triggers
comes to London and her dad is a duke or something,” says other emotions that make it easier to write,” she explains.
18-year-old Sabrina Fuentes. “I also had Spice World on VHS.” “When I first started playing in front of people at 12, I felt
The native New Yorker is in Peckham just a few weeks after on top of the world. Even though I was so nerdy and didn’t
crossing the Atlantic for college – and it’s clear she feels have any friends, I found my place with people who are
at home in her new adoptive city. like-minded, and they made me feel more comfortable than
Since the age of 13, Fuentes has been the bass-playing I could have ever imagined.”
vocalist of New York post-punk band Pretty Sick. With a sound Even with the platform she’s attained so far, Fuentes
that’s brash, youthful and scuffed round the edges, the band often feels underestimated in her youth – despite her
are leading players in the new, New York underground. exceptional focus. “It’s crazy how people don’t see the potential
So much so, you could call them cult. “I just always loved music, in teenagers – it’s generally written off as a time to fuck
I always knew it was what I wanted to do,” she says. around, drink beer in the park and smoke weed for the first
Growing up on a musical diet of Sum 41, Avril Lavigne time,” the musician muses. In fact, youth is what keeps her
and Blink-182, Fuentes’ palette has grown to encompass an dreaming big. “My life philosophy is that everything I do
eclectic mix of punk, post-punk and techno. It’s these eclectic should strive to be like my perfect image of my life as a
tastes that have led to her London, where she is studying child; that’s when you have the purest intentions and aren’t
popular music at Goldsmiths. Currently, it’s a mash-up tempted by greed or fame. I always wanted to play music,
of trailblazing female artists like Björk, Fiona Apple, Hole and even if no one was listening.” •
73
74
75

Hair Teiji Utsumi at Bryant Artists using Bumble and

bumble., talent Sabrina Fuentes at Storm Management,
photography assistant Federico Gioco, production Eloise
Hautcoeur, casting Noah Shelley at Streeters
RESEDA

by Tierney Finster
Tierney Finster is a writer, actor, artist
and model from the San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles doubled in size when the
city bought the Valley in 1915. This tale
of a middle-aged entertainer and her
apathetic teenage daughter is part of
a larger story, one that begins at home
with them in Reseda.
***
Leo, 16, adjusted the shower warmer and warmer until the
water scalded her. She preferred heat to warmth. Afterwards,
she would douse herself in organic emollients stolen from the
fancy supermarket.
Her mother, Trish, barged into the bathroom. “I can barely The tank was almost out of hot water anyway. Leo turned the
see you through all this fog,” she barked. She had no problem faucet off and shook herself out like a dog, sending beads of
speaking louder than the drumbeat of the water.
“It’s called steam,” Leo said. “And you shouldn’t like to watch
me shower anyway.”
“Oh, I never said I liked it,” Trish retorted, grabbing travel- planned to tattoo over.
sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner from the drawers.
A little collection she’d swiped from cheap motels over the years.
“You’ll be missing me soon.”
76
interest in a couple of hair-metal videos and had also started
the rumour that she had played the waitress on every episode
of Seinfeld, hoping the tidbit would end up on Pop-Up Video.
Her body was now the kind people called womanly instead of
fat, because of how amply the flesh was deposited around her
ass and boobs.
Trish felt swollen but feigned gratitude for her mature figure.
“I would have started eating more regularly way earlier if I’d
known I wear weight this well,” Trish told Leo while eye-
fucking her reflection in the bathroom’s full-length mirror.
She was already practising for her new gig, pretending to like
her physique.
Trish was all set to move into a reality TV house on the other
side of the Valley tomorrow. She called this “going on-location”
regardless of its proximity to the apartment. She’d just landed
a spot on a network dating game in which half the contestants were
the siblings of major celebrities. This gave her the delusional idea
that it was a show about “favourite stars of the past”. Leo felt
that it was her duty to regularly remind her that none of the
show’s producers considered her a celebrity. Shacking Up was
the programme’s tentative title.
“Cold water would make your hair much shinier,” Trish whined
before exiting the bathroom. “I’m just saying!”
water from her hair to the floors and walls. She let her entire
upper body hang in front of her, palms to the floor, and sighed.
Her eyes lingered on the redness of her skin and the scars she
Leo felt like a parent whose kid was going away to camp.
She didn’t know anybody else whose mom was a former nude
model and aspiring reality TV personality.

The water pressure in the shower was one of the apartment’s
only redeeming qualities. Leo especially hated the way the
place smelled like snack-food residue and cheap perfume and
motor oil (even though nobody who lived there worked on cars).
Trish preferred having a dirty home to having to clean
anything. She was a plump 41. In the 80s she had posed
for centrefolds in both Penthouse and Playboy which, given
their rivalry, was testament to her truly persuasive mouth.
Penthouse gave her the cover, though. She had been the love
“You want me to be like these fucking bores?” Trish asked Leo
whenever she was forced to engage with other parents, usually
whispering it much too loudly.
Leo used to long for Trish to become one of those parents
who lied to her and hid things. She resented her own total
lack of childhood naivety. Trish loved baby Leo like the diary
she’d never had, finding solace in birthing a new repository
for her feelings. Whether it was her astronomical water and
power bills, the handsiness of her new voice-acting instructor,
All images Niko Karamyan 77
 78
the mouldy growths in the bathroom cupboard ruining surprised for good reason: she barely ever brushed her hair.
her antique perfume bottles, or the way that Lay’s sour cream His comment confirmed two things. Everyone did notice
and onion potato chips gave her indigestion, Trish made everything, and her hair was total shit.
sure that Leo was always in the know. This exchange was When the visit was over, Trish tucked a couple more magazines
never reciprocal. into her purse and warned Leo she’d “better stop with her water
Leo was happy her mom had gotten a job in front of the camera games”. She didn’t dare utter specifics.
again. She was relieved she wouldn’t have to run lines with ‘You should be grateful,’ Leo thought. ‘Cutting is a huge mess.’
her any more, at least for a few weeks. Trish never booked “Can we stop at Pinkberry?” she asked aloud instead.
the parts they’d practised anyway. She was bad at acting like They got into their ruddy old car, where a plastic trash bag took
anyone besides the caricature she had decided to become at the the place of the front passenger window, casting an entirely
beginning of her modelling career. Decades passed, but Leo unphotogenic shadow on Leo’s face.
knew her mom would never throw in her make-up-stained towel, “Jack’s mostly still with it,” Trish remarked on the drive
horny for an audience more than she was for money or even back to the apartment, reassuring herself. The sound of the
a man. She was grateful for the advent of reality TV. plastic bag rattling in the wind began giving Leo a headache.
“You can really Google anything,” Trish exclaimed frequently, They hadn’t ordered Jack a yoghurt, so Leo made a mental note
although Leo could tell from the cache that Trish had only to fry him some eggs back at home. He was waiting for them,
ever Googled herself, along with different modifiers like hungry, but not quite aware whether his feeling indicated it was
‘80s beauty’, ‘Whatever happened to…?’ and, most suspiciously, time for breakfast or lunch.
‘hot love’. Trish hated her current body almost as much as she Trish pretended all Leo did as Jack’s primary caregiver was
hated the results of these Google searches, which favoured patiently supply him with information, but Leo’s obligations
an industrious and digitally savvy insurance broker from the were much more exhaustive than that. In kindergarten,
midwest with the same name. Leo’s teacher wrote that she “answers her own questions and
“Not even the internet is fair,” she decided. assigns herself her own tasks”. Perhaps she’d already adapted to her
Whenever Trish was home, the apartment was scored with the home life. Leo had never met her dad, which Trish said was lucky
clinking sound of her weed pipe dislodging against the bathroom because that meant she’d never had to meet any of his loser friends
tile. Between coughing fits, Trish stood in front of the mirror either. He’d left before she was born and come back a decade
and popped pimples, choking on fat hits of weed and using the later to drop off Jack, his own father, with Trish. Trish didn’t
corners of her square-tipped acrylic nails to extract the excess want Jack, but she hadn’t wanted Leo either. Leo’s dad didn’t
sebum beneath her blackheads. She let the gummy oil collect on believe in abortion, but was totally chill with abandoning
her fingertip once liberated, waiting until her face was purple her. Trish took on both relationships, first Leo and then Jack,
with irritation to blow it all off and on to the floor in a single, in hopes this man would come back and love her in return.

caterpillar-like chunk. Leo enjoyed how similar this process
was to the way a good manicurist let all her dead cuticles gather
on her tool before tapping the remains away. This was Trish’s
only efficient habit.
Last week, Trish drove Leo to her final appointment with
her lifelong paediatrician. Leo knew she had a thing for him,
naturally, as Trish once remarked his big nose would feel nice
on her pussy. For the first time, this big-nosed doctor noticed
the marks on Leo’s arms. She blamed them on her curling iron.
“But you always wear your hair up,” the doctor said. He was
“Don’t tell me that!” Leo would scream, slamming her door
whenever Trish got into one of her soul-searching moods and
shared details like this.
Leo had loved Jack as soon as she met him, though. He was
commanding and regal and less petty than all the other adults
she’d met. “Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced
it to you, trippingly on the tongue,” he would recite while
balancing a mango pit between his teeth, its juices sticking to his
long, white beard like glitter. Trish hated fruit. She said it was
a waste of sugar.
79
Now Jack had Alzheimer’s. He could only remember the past,
sometimes the recent past and never the present.
Jack was always full of questions for Leo: “Where’s your she started singing more loudly in class and turning in less of
mother?” “What time is it?” “Where’s my wife?” After a couple her assignments.
years of living like this, his incessant enquiry felt routine.
She liked having someone to answer to at first, but the fun of
it didn’t last long.
Last week, Leo had come home to find Jack breading
chicken cutlets with panko breadcrumbs from the Japanese
market while wearing a terrycloth robe full of globs of his
own faeces. When her mother came home later that night,
she found Leo washing her hands for the thousandth time
and uncharacteristically looking for sympathy.
“I told you to just stick with the Italian breadcrumbs we always
buy,” Trish told her, as though his neurological degradation
was the panko’s fault.
Leo had been particularly confused, because that was the first
time she’d ever seen Jack cook.
The next day, Leo waved goodbye to her mother on her way
out. Trish looked expectant, sitting at her vanity. Leo knew
“You’ve got a real voice, Leo,” he complimented her. She was
shocked that he knew her name. From that point onwards,
After school, Jack was in the apartment reading the paper while
an old movie blared on the TV. He had likely been reading that
same page all day. Leo was glad he couldn’t remember most of
the days of what were certainly his final years, but she always
wondered if he’d have access to these memories once he passed.
With that potentiality in mind, she saved all her snippy remarks
for the shower, where she could berate him and Trish without
anyone hearing. And sometimes she sang, which she never did
when Trish was around. The dollar signs in her eyes whenever
she heard Leo’s voice made her sick. But when she was singing,
Leo felt loose and light like the baby powder Trish sprinkled
under her tits in the summer.
“Where’s your mother?” he asked.
She didn’t want to explain to Jack that Trish was bunking up in
a North Hollywood home her roommates undoubtedly referred
to as a “mansion”, despite the reality of its features.

that her mother wanted a knock-’em-dead speech, like she used “She’s at the store,” Leo lied.
to give her before auditions when she was little, but Leo didn’t Jack didn’t skip a beat. “Do you know my wife? She’s got the
feel like pretending. best face in the entire world.”
Like Trish, everybody at school thought Leo was a bitch. ‘No, I don’t fucking know her,’ Leo thought. Her dad hadn’t
She couldn’t be bothered to smile during the silly morning told his mom he’d impregnated Trish when Leo was first born.
news programme they were forced to watch every day. Other “What song makes you think of her?” Leo asked him instead.
students didn’t think she deserved to be so aloof. Really, she was “‘I’m Glad There Is You’ – Sarah Vaughan,” he replied in
just tired. Also, she wasn’t a Leo, astrologically speaking, which an instant.
was annoying to explain to her peers with enough free time and Leo found a lyric video on YouTube and sang it to him, her own
genuine optimism to ask. Her sullenness soon became a form rendition rich with the freedom of Trish’s absence. Leo felt like
of social currency, however. Bitchy girls always seem smart in singing filled the spaces between her bones and made all her
high school, like they know of something better beyond the different parts into one actual thing of value. She closed her
confines of public academia. Leo wished this was true. eyes and imagined becoming a singer whose voice hit people like
She liked her calculus teacher, who always played disco music, the last of a sunset in Malibu, when the rays of sunlight form a
even though she struggled to slip into the competitive mindset faint, single eyelash between the clouds, ocean and mountains,
he preferred. He was a disciplinarian in unexpected ways, caressing everything at once, when everything is buoyant and
like kicking one of her classmates out of class for smiling too nothing stuck.
widely while working on her warm-up. Leo feared his judgment Leo watched Jack glide across the musty living room with his
until one day he had heard her singing along to “No More Tears arms in a locked position, pretending to dance with a partner
(Enough Is Enough)” by Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand who wasn’t there, and wondered how Trish was settling into
and squatted down next to her, bobbing his head emphatically. the house. •
 80
KHICHDI

(KITCHARI)
81

Punk-minded photographer Nick Sethi has spent over a decade

“feeding off the energy of insane situations” – and nowhere
more so than in India, his family’s homeland. Here, he reveals
unpublished images from Khichdi (Kitchari), his visual love
letter to a country that, for him, always has more to discover
82
83
I NTERVI EW THO RA SI EMSEN
“I was born in Maryland, and moved to Florida
when I was 11. From the age of 12, I started
going to punk shows. I used to play in bands,
but I was never really any good. I still wanted
to be part of that scene, especially once my
friends started going on tour. I always loved
touring because it was a means to get in
a van and leave South Florida, which is pretty
isolated. So I started roadie-ing and selling
merch, and I decided to take photos as a way
to participate. I ended up really enjoying the
process of documenting. Shooting at punk
shows got me comfortable with photographing
in super-hectic environments where people
aren’t aware of the camera first; they’re aware of
their environment first. Now, I excel in working
(in places) where you feed off the energy of an
insane situation. You just have to go for it and
not worry about what’s going to happen, or how
the pictures are coming out.
“My family and I moved to India when
I was a senior in high school, and we were
there for a year. Although my parents and
I moved back, I still have grandparents,
aunts and uncles who I stay with when I’m
there. I live full-time in New York, but I have
been going back to India more and more
recently, and I’m here right now. With
Khichdi (Kitchari) (Sethi’s first major book,
named after a traditional Indian dish),
it took me ten years to work through
everything. Rather than making a book
about India, I wanted to make a book about
my relationship to it. In the photographs,
there are a lot of tattoos and hand-painted
signs, things I’m personally interested in
or people that I have friendships with.
I have a lot of momentum working in India.
The more you think you’re figuring out
about (the country), the more it starts
opening up (with) new avenues, either
untapped or totally inexplicable. India is
a place, from my experience, that steers
KHICHDI ( KITCHARI )  IS OUT NOW
VIA DASHWOOD BOOKS
you the way it wants you to go. You have
to learn to let go of your expectations
of what’s going to happen in your life,
and let these serendipitous experiences
guide you.
“For instance, I’ve been working with this kid,
Bob, since the beginning – he was the first one
to teach me about shooting in India. I made
a trip to start working here – I was kinda just
running around but it wasn’t really making any
sense yet. Bob was this kid who was living
under an overpass by my family’s house and
he came up to (our) car – I guess it was his job
to come out to the intersection and beg at the
red light – and kind of just reached inside and
was like ‘Oh, camera! One picture, one picture!’
So I took some photos of him. Then (another
time) I was shooting these elephants on the
side of the street at the same intersection and
I was like, ‘That’s the same kid!’ I just ended
up going back more and more, because he
was so eager to interact with me, even though
we didn’t speak the same language. And it led
to me giving him the camera and him wanting
to take photos –it was this beautiful thing that
opened me up, from (thinking more about) the
technical aspects of photography to realising
it’s more about this flow and capturing life,
you know? That kind of sets the tone.
“I like involving people in the process of
what I’m doing, especially with a project
that takes ten years. My work isn’t about
making one master image every week.
Especially working in India, it’s about the
volume and complexity of the relationships
happening around you. For instance, I’m
shooting this festival today and every day
I’ve been posting tonnes of stories on
Instagram… It (could be) as simple as
figuring out directions; I might just record
as I’m driving and someone points out
things to me. I don’t know… It just feels
like real life.”– Nick Sethi
84
85
All images courtesy of Nick Sethi 86
87
 IF BEALE
88
STREET
COULD TALK a film by
BARRY JENKINS

starring KIKI LAYNE

and STEPHAN JAMES

Searingly adapted from James Baldwin’s 70s-set novel of the same

name, Barry Jenkins’ new film is a tragic romance
that goes to the heart of American injustice. Here, the Moonlight
director and his stars share the real-life
stories behind a lyrical hymn to love and its survival

Text HANNAH WOODHEAD

89
“I guess I’m really into tragic love,” laughs Barry Jenkins.
“But I don’t think I make typical love stories.” You’ll always
find love in the director’s cinematic worlds, burrowed but
intact under layers of beauty, pain and swelling noise: first in
2008’s Medicine for Melancholy, then in 2016 with Moonlight,
a gorgeous, achingly vulnerable story of black masculinity
that won Jenkins the Academy Award for best picture. Within
Moonlight, amid the sound and fury of lead character Chiron’s
turbulent youth, there’s love, too – impossible and complex,
but vital and nuanced, anchoring the boy (and, later, the man)
to a difficult world. For his third feature, Jenkins has found
himself drawn to another love story – this time, the sweeping,
doomed romance of If Beale Street Could Talk.
Adapted from James Baldwin’s novel of the same name,
the film takes place in early-70s Harlem, and centres on
a young African-American couple trying to build a life
together. Nineteen-year-old Tish Rivers has just discovered
she’s pregnant, while her fiance Fonny Hunt sits in jail, falsely
accused of rape. Moving f luidly between the couple’s halcyon
courtship and their difficult present, the film sees Tish and
her family fight for Fonny’s freedom, all the while conscious
of an unjust system built to work against them.
So when Jenkins says that he’s drawn to tragic love,
he means it. Beale Street is a story of lives shattered by the
state’s institutional racism. Interlaced with Tish and Fonny’s
narrative are the whispered voices of many more like them,
victims of systemic injustice and the prejudice on which
modern America was founded. Although a period drama,
it’s impossible not to trace the bloodlines of Jenkins’ film
right up to the present day. Perhaps what makes Beale Street
so affecting is the romance at its heart – despite the world
trying to tear them apart, Tish and Fonny’s love is a force
of nature. The kind of earth-shattering, once-in-a-lifetime
adoration some people spend forever looking for.
Following on from the success of Moonlight, Jenkins
could have had his pick of Hollywood’s A-list for Beale
Street, and the film is certainly resplendent with established
names, from Diego Luna and Regina Hall to Dave Franco
and Brian Tyree Henry. Yet for his leading couple, Jenkins
chose relative newcomer Stephan James and KiKi Layne,
who had never acted in a film before. As Fonny and Tish,
their chemistry lights up the screen, as crucial to the film
as Jenkins’ discerning eye for detail, or Nicholas Britell’s
soaring score. It’s clear from speaking to Jenkins and his
cast that, as well as being a love story, Beale Street is a true
labour of love – a tribute to Baldwin, but also to their own
families, and to the experience of being a black American
throughout time.

Barry, when did you discover the work of
James Baldwin?
Barry Jenkins: When I was an undergrad,
a woman I’d been dating, after we broke
up, recommended that I read Baldwin
as a way to expand my view of what
manhood and the patriarchy were. So she
had me read The Fire Next Time and
Giovanni’s Room, and it was a very eye-
opening experience. Through the prism
of Mr Baldwin, I realised how limited my
view of those things were.
Amazing.
BJ: But I didn’t have the rights to this book
when I adapted it. Five years after Medicine
I took a trip to Europe, and wrote both
Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk.
I thought I would make this before I made
Moonlight, then I released you can’t legally
do that. I started talking to the James
Baldwin estate (about Beale Street) in early
2014, so I was developing a relationship
with the estate over the three-year window
between first sending them the script and
the premiere of Moonlight.
I was working on a bunch of other things
post-Medicine which just didn’t work out.
And the reason for them not working out,
which I didn’t understand at the time –
but I think I might realise now – is that
those things just weren’t as personal as
they needed to be. These last two films
have been viscerally personal because of
my reverence for Mr Baldwin and the
importance of his work.
And how, all these years later, did you go
about casting the project? How did you
discover Stephan and KiKi?
BJ: I rarely have an actor in mind for
the character when I write. I’m hoping
someone will walk through the door,
you know, and reveal who the character
is to me. With Tish, I knew I was looking
for someone who could really bring that
duality to (the character’s) voice. All of
the things we see her going through she’s
experiencing for the first time, but in her
narration she’s speaking as a woman from
this very wise place, (looking back at)
the things we’re experiencing through
her character. When KiKi sent her tape
in, I saw that duality in her performance.
Stephan was someone that I knew of,
and I didn’t think of him as Fonny at
first, partly because there’s this element
of colourism in the novel and Fonny
is written as very light-skinned. But there
was something in Stephan’s eyes, and I’m
a sucker for actors with this very soulful,
deep-spirited feeling in their eyes. He just
showed me that he was the one.
Stephan James: Barry and I had lunch in LA,
and he shared with me his vision for the
film. I remember going into the meeting
thinking that Barry is reminiscent of James
Baldwin in a way, and I could really see
how passionate he was to tell the story.
At that point I had already (convinced
myself) that I was going to be in the film,
I just wanted him to believe too!
KiKi Layne: Going into the chemistry read
I had no idea what to expect, but what
was special about reading with Stephan
was that we felt we could just have fun
with each other. We were immediately
comfortable with playing around and
giving. We would do the scene one way,
then try it again, playing around with the
scene and with each other while doing
that. Beale Street was actually the first
novel of Baldwin’s that I’ve read – I did
it in preparation for the film, at the
chemistry reading.
SJ: Me too. I knew about James Baldwin
the activist and humanitarian, and some
of the other work that he did as a poet,
but I didn’t necessarily know his novels.
I’d heard of Beale Street, but I didn’t know
the story. I got the chance to (discover)
Baldwin’s writing on this project.
Memory and a sense of place are so crucial to
the story of Beale Street. Where did you grow
up, and how did you first become involved
in cinema?
KL: I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I’ve
been interested in being an actress since
I was little. I was seven years old when
I started going to a performing arts school
to study drama, and I continued to study
it in college in Chicago. Then I worked
for a few years in a Chicago theatre before
I moved to LA to pursue it, and then I got
this opportunity.
SJ: I grew up in a suburb of Toronto
called Scarborough. It was me, my two

brothers and my mom. She raised us
three and she always had high hopes and
huge expectations for us all. But even Were there any stories that inspired you when
though she wanted us to be doctors and making Beale Street, beyond Baldwin’s work?
lawyers, she always supported our creative
endeavours. She was a singer and writer,
and my older brother was a dancer and
actor, and I guess I got the bug. I started
taking drama classes, which was interesting
for me because I’ve always been a reserved
person, and I never really knew if I could
be that expressive in front of other people.
But when I started getting more involved
in theatre I got more comfortable in my
own skin.
BJ: My earliest memories of film would
be around these big Hollywood black
movies – I remember going as a family
to see The Color Purple and Coming to
America. Those are my earliest experiences
of the cinema, and then I remember really
loving Die Hard because it showed on
television quite a bit and it’s an awesome
film. It wasn’t until I got into university
and started studying film that I (was
introduced to) the kind of cinema that
I love today, that I think has been a heavy
inf luence on my work.
How much trepidation did you feel in taking
this book to the screen?
BJ: Quite a bit – but not in the sense of,
‘Oh my God, I have to follow this little
movie we made which won best picture!’
(laughs) It was in the sense that I have
been reading this author for half my life,
and reading him in a way that was earth-
shattering and in some ways life-saving.
So to be entrusted with bringing that work
into the world in a different form, and then
having the responsibility of protecting his
voice… That was terrifying, man. It was
quite difficult, to be brutally honest.
KL: I definitely felt so much excitement,
because I knew I was going to be a part
of something so special. Of course I was
nervous, but I was mostly excited for the And did those themes resonate on a personal
opportunity, especially because, with Beale level, as well as a political one?
Street, I feel like we haven’t had a chance
to tell a story like this before, for black
love to be portrayed how it’s portrayed
in the film. I knew that was something
I wanted to be a part of.
SJ: There were a few nerves (for me)
at first, but the crazy thing about Barry
is he exudes none of that energy at all –
it’s hard to feel pressure when the man
telling the story, the man pointing the
camera at you, doesn’t seem pressured.
That’s one of his gifts as a director.
Everyone just came to work with a sense
of care, a sense of pride in their work,
and it was just able to play itself out.
BJ: I think that, when you’re working
on material which scares you a little bit,
which challenges you, it often pushes
you to aesthetically or creatively do the
things that you couldn’t do otherwise.
KL: My experiences with my family were
a big inspiration for Tish. I reached out
to my mom and sister-in-law about their
experiences of pregnancy, and what it was
like for them. I also paid a lot of attention
to prison stories from the time.
SJ: My biggest inspiration for Fonny
was a young man named Kalief Browder,
who at 16 years old was arrested and
charged for a crime that he did not
commit, and in order to maintain his
innocence pleaded not guilty. He was
in jail for three years, most of which he
spent in solitary confinement. Watching
his story, seeing the aftermath and the
toll that took on him… Kalief ultimately
took his life because of the trauma that
he experienced while he was wrongly
incarcerated. With this role I felt like
I was a vessel to translate these stories,
to tell the stories of so many other young
minorities who have been locked up,
falsely imprisoned and are fighting for
their innocence.
KL: I looked at the Kalief Browder story
too, especially how it affected his family.
BJ: The movie is a work of fiction, but
all stories filtered through the prism
of Baldwin are based on some very real
things. Even when I was writing the script,
I felt like I wanted to underscore some
elements of the film, to show that there
are many children like Fonny, so there’s
a photomontage when Tish is describing
the children of our age. I needed the film
to be a mirror and show that these are the
real children, the conditions they grew up
in, and here is where too many of them end
up. Underscoring (the fact) that Fonny’s
story is not unique was important to me
in telling this narrative.
SJ: I’ve never seen a story like this being
told in this way, exposing the reality for
a lot of people today in America, especially
a lot of young male African-Americans.
To be a f ly on the wall of all those prison
scenes, but also to see what black love
looks like, to see the humanity around
people deemed as criminals… I feel like
these are all really important things,
and that’s why I wanted to do this film.
I admire Barry for taking on stories like
this – with Moonlight I was struck because
I’d never seen a queer black story told
in that way. He’s doing something that
is so innovative, and I truly believe he’s
gonna be one of the most important
directors of our time, if he isn’t already.
He’s changing the way we see film, and it’s
90
a crazy thing to be a part of. I wish I had
better words to explain, but I’m just happy
to be championing these stories alongside
a guy like him.
KL: To me, it speaks to the power of love
and connectedness, but also having to deal
with all the things that affect the black
community, and having to power through.
I’ve never seen anything that depicts
love so beautifully as a source of power,
a source of strength, as this thing to hold
on to and get you through whatever it is
you’re going through. Tish and Fonny’s
relationship could have gone a completely
different way, and Tish is encouraged
to press into that love and not allow it to
be destroyed by her circumstances. She has
to work even harder than she did before
to do all that.
The transcendental power of their love
really does feel like something we’re lucky
to witness as an audience.
SJ: Not to be too cliche, but Romeo and
Juliet was a big part of my research going
in to this film. That balance of absolute,
undying love but epic tragedy at the same
time – just seeing that balance and looking
on both sides of the spectrum. Baldwin is
Shakespearean in a way – he has his own
sort of language, and that really resonated
with me going into Beale Street.
BJ: There was one day on set when
we were shooting in Tish and Fonny’s
apartment, which had all these books in it.
I said to Stephan, ‘Hey, what are you
reading?’ He had picked up one of the
books, and it turned out to be Romeo and
Juliet. We did a little scene of them in bed,
passing Romeo and Juliet back and forth,
reading it to each other, but it was so on
the nose, we were like, ‘We can’t put this
in the film!’ (laughter)
My favourite love stories are shrouded
in pain or difficult circumstances, like
Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love.
My biggest inf luence for Beale Street was
(Marcel Camus’s 1959 tragic romance)
Black Orpheus, but with the genders
reversed. Tish is on this journey to try
and save Fonny from purgatory. And now
I’m thinking of Carlos Reygadas’s Silent
Light. It’s a love story but it’s not about
a traditional kind of love – it’s about the
intersection of religion and the human
heart’s capacity for love, to love more
than one person and the morality of that.
So it’s not a typical love story… •
If Beale Street Could Talk is in UK cinemas from
February 14, 2019
91
“The movie is a work of fiction, but all
stories filtered through the prism of James
Baldwin are based on very real things.
When writing the script, I wanted to
underscore some elements of the film,
to show that there are many children
like Fonny, so there’s a photomontage
when Tish is describing the children
of our age. I needed the film to be
a mirror and show that these are the real
children, the conditions they grew up
in, and here is where too many of them
end up”—BARRY JENKINS “I’ve never seen (a film) that depicts
love so beautifully as a source
of power, a source of strength, as this
thing to hold on to and get you through
whatever it is you’re going through.
Tish and Fonny’s relationship could
have gone a completely different
way, and Tish is encouraged to press into
that love and not allow it to be destroyed
by her circumstances. She has to
work even harder than she did before
to do all that”—KIKI LAYNE

“My biggest inspiration for Fonny

was a young man named Kalief Browder,
who at 16 years old was arrested and
charged for a crime he didn’t commit.
He was in jail for three years, most of
which he spent in solitary confinement.
Kalief took his life because of the trauma
he experienced while incarcerated.
With this role I felt like I was a vessel
to tell these stories, of so many other
young minorities who have been falsely
imprisoned”—STEPHAN JAMES
Front: Cara wears tracksuit top and Rose Air Monarch trainers
Nike × Martine Rose, jeans Martine Rose, earrings worn

92
throughout stylist’s own, customised socks worn throughout
Nike. Back: Derrick wears football jersey and Rose Air Monarch
trainers Nike × Martine Rose, spray-painted jeans Martine
Rose, belt worn throughout stylist’s own, customised socks worn
throughout Nike

MARTINE ROSE Photography PASCAL GAMBARTE

Styling TAMARA ROTHSTEIN
Text LIAM HESS
93
Cara wears all clothes Nike × Martine Rose

Supersize me! Bringing countercultural spirit to her new

Nike collaboration, Martine Rose talks tears on the
dancefloor, comedowns in Clapham, and (probably)
being the best designer in the world

Martine Rose is probably the best designer
in the world. At least, that’s what she likes to
write across her t-shirts. “It’s good to poke fun
at yourself,” she says, sitting in her studio Was there a specific moment where you
in north London. “If you have a sense of humour, remember falling in love with fashion?
you can get away with a hell of a lot more.”
Rose’s innate eye for countercultural
history has always conjured an eclectic world:
lads in footie shirts lounging on sofas surrounded
by rave f lyers, city slickers marching to work
in oversized power suits, or waifish boys straight
out of a James Bidgood queer fantasia. But her
new collaboration with Nike has presented
a whole new paradigm of masculinity to pick
apart: basketball players. “I became obsessed,”
she says. “Athletes in general develop really
interesting proportions, but basketballers have
that superhuman scale. It’s so odd when you
see them in civilian clothes.” Digging through
the Nike archives, Rose tried XXL basketball
gear on for size and translated the bulky
shapes into tracksuits, while moulds of athletes’
warped feet inspired a range of glossy, bulging,
almost-extraterrestrial sneakers.
With her sideways take on menswear
– clashing cultures and stretching sizes to
extreme proportions – the designer has created
a space in which she can continue to surprise.
She may be the best designer in the world, Do you remember the first outfit that you
but she is also, frequently, the first. She was designed?
(probably) the first to stage a show in a cul-de-sac
in Camden, and certainly the first to put a runway
in the middle of a climbing centre. In keeping
with her spirit of spontaneity, here, Rose reveals
the firsts that have shaped her work, and continue
to power her truly unpredictable creativity.
To paraphrase another great British eccentric:
does Martine remember the first time?
Who was your first childhood love?
I remember being ten years old and
obsessed with my cousin’s husband’s
cousin – it sounds weird, I know, but we
weren’t actually related. His mum was
friends with Neneh Cherry, and there’s
a picture of me at his house with Neneh;
she was about 19 at the time and totally
gorgeous. His name was Shallah – his
mum was a rasta so he and all his siblings
were named after the tribes of Israel. It was
my first kiss but I didn’t know what to do,
so I just blew into his mouth. He must How were you introduced to the various
have thought, ‘What the hell is this?’
What was your first job?
It was fucking awful: I sold cruises to
pensioners. It was like The Office, with that
same feeling of intense claustrophobia and
mild depression. I used to show up to the
industrial estate wearing combat trousers,
Buffalo boots and whatever nuts top
I was into at the time – obviously, I stuck
out like a sore thumb. I used to phone
up and say, ‘Can I speak to Fred, please?’
Then they’d reply, ‘Fred died last week,’
and I would have to respond, ‘OK, would
you be interested in going to Bermuda?’
I was saving up to go on a kibbutz, so I just
had to focus on that. It was grim.
It was always in the context of music.
My cousin, Darren, would go to Camden
Palace on Saturday night, then on Sunday
everyone would congregate on Clapham
Common nursing their comedowns. It was
like a little carnival every week, but
because it was in a park I could go. I ended
up being at this bizarre day rave where
everyone was still off their faces – I must
have been about nine, but weirdly my
cousin didn’t mind me hanging around
and my nan actually used to take me.
She would sit down on a blanket and watch
everyone, then I would toddle off with my
cousin and dance. I remember this guy
who was definitely… altered, shall we say.
He was just wearing a crazy look, rave
gear – this patterned baggy tee and
tracksuit bottoms, vaguely hippie. His hair
was knotted up and he had these gold
teeth. I thought he looked so impressive.
It wasn’t a eureka fashion moment, but it
certainly grabbed my attention.
I do, actually. It was at fashion college.
I wasn’t the kind of kid who made outfits
for their dolls; I didn’t really know I wanted
to be a designer until fairly late. Up until
finishing my foundation course I was still
toying with the idea of being an artist or
a sculptor, so I started designing during
my first term at Middlesex, and let me tell
you, it was quite a look – ha! There were
jeans with gold leaf up the inner thigh,
(and) a felted top that had jewellery
embedded in it. It was very ambitious.
The jeans actually got nicked, which I was
f lattered by. I was impressed that someone
was actually going to fucking wear them!
I never saw anyone out and about in
them, though. Maybe they didn’t have
the balls. Thinking about it, it actually
looked quite rude with the gold all over
the crotch and down the legs. You can use
your imagination.
underground music scenes happening in
London back then?
It’s funny, because a video recently turned
up of my sister in Jamaica. My brother
found it and sent it on the family group
chat, saying, ‘Michelle, is that you?’
My sister had no idea it existed, but it
was her – she was backstage at Reggae
Sunsplash chatting with John Holt and
Dennis Brown. It brought back all these
memories for me. I had the whole rave
thing going on with Darren, but my
sister was really into the reggae scene
94
and I remember her taking me to Dennis
Brown’s house in London. He gave me a
glass of orange juice. She used to take me
to their recording studios. I was in one of
Freddie McGregor’s music videos; I was
immersed in all of these totally different
scenes. It was such a mish-mash, but
the incredible thing was that I was so
small – my sister was years older than me,
so she was like a younger, cooler mum.
I can’t believe she took me everywhere;
I must have been such a hindrance.
Do you remember your first time raving?
We used to go to a night called Strawberry
Sundae in Vauxhall. It was started by
a homeless guy called Conan who used
to sleep there. I guess it started out as
a community thing, but then it grew
and grew and he finally managed to get
a licence. Before it was legal, it was round
the back of the arches, and obviously
they didn’t give a shit what age you
were; there wasn’t any proper security.
So I had my 14th birthday party in there
and it was mental: it was a techno night
with a crazy cyberpunk vibe. I remember
it being just mindblowing, but I had also
done quite a bit of speed.
Have you ever shed tears on the dancef loor?
Oh yeah, I’ve definitely cried on the
dancef loor, mainly for the sheer emotion
of the moment. One that sticks out from a
few years ago was being at Plastic People
and dancing away. It was really dark and
everyone was in the zone and my friend
Acyde was playing. Suddenly he put on
Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’: it was so
perfect for absolutely no reason. It was
completely out of context, but it’s such a
beautiful song. I wasn’t alone, but I had
that feeling of listening to it for the first
time on my headphones. It was a real
moment, and I cried.
When you start work on a collection, does it
still feel like the first time?
No, it doesn’t… Or does it? There is
a moment of panic when you feel lost,
then there’s excitement when you know
you’ve got it. It doesn’t get less stressful,
however many times you do it. It always
feels like a f luke. You ask yourself, ‘Was it
that good or was it just a one-off?’ I feel
like that’s the human condition, though:
you always think someone’s gonna come
up to you and say, ‘What are you doing
here? How have you got away with this
shit for so long?’ I feel like I’m going
to get rumbled at any moment, always.
That feeling never goes away. •
Cara wears transparent trenchcoat Martine Rose, football jersey and tracksuit bottoms Nike × Martine Rose, belt worn throughout stylist’s own 95
 96

This page, from left: Cara wears tracksuit top and Rose Air
Monarch trainers Nike × Martine Rose, jeans Martine Rose.
Derrick wears football jersey Nike × Martine Rose, spray-painted
jeans Martine Rose. Opposite page: Cara wears tracksuit and
Rose Air Monarch trainers Nike × Martine Rose, printed shirt
with ruffle Martine Rose
97
98
Hair Peter Gray at Home Agency using Shu Uemura Art of Hair, make-up 99
Jen Myles at Streeters using NARS, models Derrick Kilgore at Fusion,
Cara Taylor at Next, set design Andrea Stanley, photography assistants
Enrico Brunetti, John Spyrou, styling assistant Megan McDearman, hair
assistant Nastya Milyaeva, make-up assistant Jenna Scavone, set design
assistants Nick Thalhuber, Mark Vale, production John Haywood at
Mini Title, post-production Studio RM, casting Svea Greichgauer, special
thanks Casey at Pier Studios
Rose, transparent trousers Martine Rose, underwear his own
football jersey and Rose Air Monarch trainers Nike × Martine
Opposite page: Cara wears tracksuit top and Rose Air Monarch
trainers Nike × Martine Rose, striped shirt and transparent
trousers Martine Rose. This page: Derrick wears tracksuit top,
 100
T-shirt Versace, chain belt worn as necklace Martine Ali

OYINDA
Photography ROB KULISEK
Styling JOHN COLVER
Text OWEN MYERS
Tailored wool twill jacket Mugler, vest worn underneath and hat Cherry Vintage, customised skirt Carhartt, earrings Gucci, necklace Martine Ali, rings worn throughout Oyinda’s own 101

layer of skin to reveal her rawest incarnation to date

Her sci-fi songs of transhumanist bliss bring pop and soul
into the 22nd century. Now, Oyinda is shedding one more
 102
There is nowhere in New York that symbolises Oyinda’s parents, Nigerian political refugees, be everlasting. When we look at ruins, we never
the city’s f lux quite like Williamsburg, Brooklyn. created a home that was filled with bright prints, get to see the ones that look like other Africans,
Originally a place where German, Jewish and and often the rich smell of her mum’s jollof rice. and it’s not historically accurate. (Those videos
Latinx immigrant communities made lives, Artists like Nina Simone and Luther Vandross were) an acceptance of me. I have to learn to
the neighbourhood is now a synecdoche for got regular rotation in the house, but her mum’s accept myself the way that I am, even though
global gentrification and the rapid creep of favourite was Celine Dion’s The Colour of My society always tells us not to.” The music world
urban regeneration. On a bright October day Love, which was played so often that Oyinda is far from being immune to racially biased
with the first cold snap of autumn, a sports bar swears she can still sing it from start to finish. attitudes, and Oyinda ditched a former PR
with plasma screens is frying up its first chicken As the youngest of three siblings (she has agency who, she says, “were trying to paint me
tenders of the day, as posters advertise a newly an older sister and half-brother), Oyinda loved as this angry black girl”.
opened Sephora. And a block away from the to draw as a kid and was obsessed with anime Oyinda’s deeply felt new music, due in
once-beloved, now-shuttered DIY institution like Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. “I was always the spring of next year, began to germinate after
285 Kent, a sugar factory complex has become an in my own bubble,” she says. “I was not trying she visited the Los Angeles Contemporary
amusement park of overpriced tacos and skyline to hang with too many people. I guess that was Museum of Art’s 2017 Kerry James Marshall
selfies. You feel that, if you blinked, a juice bar my little defence mechanism.” retrospective. His masterful, tender paintings
would appear. Oyinda was acting in local plays from the of exclusively black subjects prompted painful
Oyinda, whose chameleonic songcraft age of four, and later enrolled in the Lamda ref lections on Oyinda’s own experiences
explores tensions between tradition and futurism classes offered at her local school, learning with marginalisation. “It’s not that I had
with its mesh of blues, soul and 22nd-century ballet and cello. After moving to London and underestimated how important representation
electronic sounds, is a refreshingly enigmatic releasing the piano-led Before the Fall, her debut was, it’s more that I hadn’t realised I had lost
presence here. She slinks into an airy cafe EP of soulful piano ballads shot through with hope for it.” She pauses, as if to weigh the
wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and dark southern-gothic drama, she moved to New York heartbreak in her words. She swipes away
layers that f lutter behind her, making her look the following year, in 2015. a tear. “It was a really sad moment to be like,
like the final boss on Castlevania. Ordering an There, she found a community of sorts. ‘When did you start thinking that you couldn’t
aromatica – a Columbian infusion with f loating Oyinda’s friends today include co-producer be the exception? When did you become so
chunks of fresh fruit – I notice her oversized Canteen Killa, experimental vocalist and cellist hopeless?’ That was like a real wake-up call for
rubber phone case, shaped like the lonesome Kelsey Lu, and psych-soul artist Nick Hakim, me. That’s why I wanted to pause and be like,
ghost No-Face from Studio Ghibli’s Spirited who she’s due in the studio with the week after we ‘OK, there are so many things I need to unlearn.
Away. “I change it according to my outfit and meet. Inspired by Pussykrew’s dimension-shifting There are so many things I need to shed.’”
my mood,” she says. “I’m in a shy-guy mood work with Iranian-Dutch musician Sevdaliza, Oyinda’s new mixtape is about resisting
today. I have a Totoro case for when I’m feeling Oyinda sought out the duo to create the video for those self-limiting impulses while plunging
a little more playful.” “Serpentine”. The visual was partly conceived as into new personal depths. Each song takes
An ability to distil both introvert and “a female-centered version of the Blade movie,” a Marshall work as a loose starting point for
extrovert tendencies is crucial to Oyinda’s Pussykrew say, as well as a corrective to the lack slippery electronic soul which crackles with
work. The latter came to the fore at Telfar’s of women of colour in VR spaces. For the double tension and touches on themes like prejudice,
AW18 show-turned-gospel-sermon in New York helix-like narrative, Oyinda looked through hollow virtue-signalling, and the search for peace
this February, where she performed rapturous a third eye. “I had these two storylines very and survival in a hostile world. Today, Oyinda
harmonies with Dev Hynes, Kelela and Ian Isiah much based on hypnotism,” she says. “I wanted speaks of the record as a turning point, and seems
on the runway-turned-stage. (She returned that underlying quality of travelling realms ready to abandon the CGI futurism to show
to collaborate with the label for their SS19 show.) within yourself.” a rawer side of herself, shedding another layer
In her videos and performances, Oyinda has an “Serpentine”’s utopian vision of of skin. “I really wanted to challenge myself in
uncanny f lair for drawing your eye, but also transhuman possibilities calls to mind “A Cyborg that sense of writing from personal experience,”
fixing it with a steely stare of her own, revealing Manifesto”, the 1985 essay from feminist scholar she explains. “I’m getting triggered. But I really
a rapier-sharp purpose. In the sci-fi-inspired Donna Haraway proposing cyborg existence wanna be raw and exposed in this. It’s going to be
video for last year’s creeping, low-end electronic as a way to see past the traditional limitations all me, and I slowly gotta figure out how.” •
soul single “Serpentine”, she is rendered in CGI, of feminism, gender and identity. Technology
a seductive android with Bantu knots; in another, is already part of what it means to be human, Oyinda’s new mixtape is out in February 2019
“Never Enough”, she meets the viewer with Haraway acknowledges. Why not embrace its
a challenge, singing, “Watch me move like I’m possibilities of transcendence?
up on the big screen” in a comment on agency, In a world which confines black women
spectatorship and sexual politics. to narrow margins, the desire to escape rigid
As the cafe pipes in lively post-punk, and confines has been on Oyinda’s mind. “A lot of
the glow from a skylight catches leaves trailing the time I’m judged based on my skin, which
the walls inside, I ask if Oyinda’s childhood in affects what people assume my music is going
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was a happy to be,” she says. “Automatically I’m called R&B,
one. “Define happy,” she replies, explaining the although my music isn’t quite that. I grew up
f laws in taking a rose-tinted view of childhood. listening to R&B singers and I’m sure there’s
“I grew up in a predominantly white school so a riff in there, but I also come from a jazz and
often it was like, ‘You’re the funny one,’ or I would blues background. I find it a bit insulting.”
have to play the villain. When I was six, one of In other CGI collaborative visuals with
the girls in my class casually said, ‘My father’s Pussykrew, Oyinda plays an almighty, Gaia-like
gonna kill you ’cos you’re black.’ Having to deal deity. “They were very much an Akasha moment,”
with that with no allies was really odd.” She stops she says, referencing Queen of the Damned’s
to sip her tea. “But I cherished growing up that bloodthirsty vampire, played with fire and fury
way. I think it’s made me who I am.” by Aaliyah. “I wanted to be someone who could
Coat Napapijri, fleece vest Carhartt, nylon parachute trousers Mugler, earrings worn on left ear Lady Grey, earring worn on right ear Chrishabana, necklace Martine Ali 103
Customised jacket Carhartt, lace-up leather dress Moschino, necklace Martine Ali, faux-fur socks UGG, boots Charles & Keith 104
Beaded piqué top Area, top worn underneath Cherry Vintage, customised skirt Carhartt, boots Charles & Keith 105
Raglan mink coat Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, customised dress Carhartt 106
107
Hair Shingo Shibata at The Wall Group using TIGI, make-up
Ingeborg using Surratt Beauty, photography assistant Parker
Bright, styling assistants Stella Evans, Fraser Horsfall, Sun
Zhique, production Creative Exchange Agency
Beaded wool halterneck Area, top worn underneath Carhartt, tassled skirt Cherry Vintage, charm earrings AMBUSH, faux-fur socks UGG, boots Charles & Keith
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Sopiko Gvimradze actress

ALTERED STATE
Photography OLGAÇ BOZALP
Styling CHARLOTTE ROBERTS
Text EMMA ELIZABETH DAVIDSON
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Opposite page: Sopiko wears embroidered velvet dress Attico,
necklace her own, tights Wolford, shoes Dorateymur. This
page: Sandro wears motorcycle jacket Tamra, leather trousers
Dsquared2, necklace and boots his own

When armed police raided clubs in downtown Tbilisi this spring,

the city’s creative community came together in defiance.
Meet the new Georgian underground taking the power back

Sandro Popxadze model and DJ


“It’s like living in what’s left of something that
died, like the corpse of a dinosaur. The Soviet
Union was gone by the time me and my friends
were born, but its ghosts are everywhere –  based modelling agency and skate collective
in the supermarkets, on the buses… We grew
up alongside this new, totally savage jungle that
emerged out of its ashes, and it’s still changing,
still struggling to find its identity, even now.
It’s this weird, chaotic little city that doesn’t really
fit into anything.”
Maxime Machaidze, one half of rap duo
KayaKata, is describing his hometown of Tbilisi.
Situated at the point where eastern Europe meets
Asia, the historic Georgian city reverberates with
clashing inf luences, brutal, Soviet-era buildings
jostling with the ornate carvings of its old town,
and breathtaking natural waterfalls lying hidden
behind hastily erected concrete tower blocks.
Now, as Tbilisi emerges from the shadow of
Soviet rule, civil war and economic crisis, a new
generation of forward-thinking creatives
is carving out its own narrative for the future.
It’s a scene that’s inspired by the ever-evolving
landscape of the city, from music to art and
the f lourishing fashion scene led by Vetements
founding father and Georgia native Demna
Gvasalia, who has done much to draw attention
to his homeland.
Machaidze – or Luna, as the artist is better
known – makes offbeat, experimental hip-hop
alongside Zurab Jishkariani (AKA Dilla) as half
of KayaKata, which translates as ‘cool cats’ or
‘weed cats’, depending on who you ask. The pair’s
languid drawl and trippy visuals have won them
comparisons to the likes of Wu-Tang, but neither
are keen to be tied down by labels.
“My dad and my uncle made post-industrial
electronic music and films in the early 90s when
they were living in Berlin, and Dilla and I used
to be in a band called Kung Fu Junkie, putting
out these skewed pop and electronic tracks,”
explains Machaidze. “As KayaKata, we’re making
hip-hop, but we’re inf luenced by everything,
and I don’t think we really fit into a category –
our stuff comes from weirdness. As a kid, I did
a lot of psychedelics, which opened me up to
things. I think that’s something that links a lot of
the youth in Tbilisi. An openness, and a desire
not to be categorised.”
Machaidze also runs a streetwear label
called LTFR, which he shows as part of Tbilisi
Fashion Week, with girlfriend Iri Tordiashvili.
“Well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t,” he
laughs. “It’s always quite disorganised, right up
until the last minute.” In fact, this DIY spirit
underpins many of the city’s labels, as the likes
of Aznauri, Gola Damian and George Keburia
make waves with their individualistic, boundary-
pushing designs. While Tbilisi Fashion Week
continues to draw attention, Demna Gvasalia
presented a surprisingly personal collection
at Vetements’ Paris SS19 show, inspired
by family, war and his memories of f leeing
the country’s Abkhazia region as a refugee in 1993.
Many of the designer’s cast, largely made up of
Georgian models who stormed intensely down
the catwalk, belonged to Troublemakerz and
Tamra Skateboards – respectively, the Tbilisi-
founded by Tamuna Karumidze.
Karumidze stepped into the spotlight after
co-directing the 2015 film When the Earth Seems
to Be Light, which follows a group of teenage
skaters around Tbilisi, with David Meskhi and
Salome Machaidze. The film offers a glimpse of
life on the fringes of Georgian society, portraying
a country that still clings on to its troubled past
through the eyes of its youth.
“There were ten or 15 boys when we made
the film; it was a small group,” says Karumidze.
“They were kind of vilified by people living in the
city, who had very negative ideas about skaters.
After When the Earth Seems to Be Light came out
people were like, ‘I always thought they were
hooligans moping about the city, breaking things
and being dangerous. We didn’t know they could
actually be nice.’ It gave the boys confidence to
be themselves.” Having forged strong bonds with
the group, Karumidze continued working with
the skaters after the film wrapped, eventually
launching Tamra Skateboards – a collective
which offers marginalised kids an inclusive space
to create and collaborate – and its fashion-label
counterpart, Tamra.
Like LTFR, Tamra’s track record of
showing at Tbilisi Fashion Week is sporadic,
but when it does, the presentations are usually
pretty riotous – angular boys and girls covered
in tattoos skate and dance around each other
seemingly unaware of the audience, and at one
show a model energetically vogued down the
catwalk. “I want it to feel removed from fashion,
really,” says Karumidze. “I don’t want to create
collections. I want to tell stories.”
This autumn, a troupe of the artists, poets,
musicians and performers that make up Tamra and
Troublemakerz agency came together to launch
a new boutique hotel in the heart of Tbilisi with
a runway show. The day before, Karumidze
received a call from the international chain which
had organised the event asking her to drop one
of her models from the lineup.
“I was shocked,” she explains. “This hotel
knows who we are and what we do, and here
they are asking me to drop one of my models
because he is gay. You know, we have this amazing
LGBTQ scene in Tbilisi, and all these inclusive
spaces… I really thought we were making
progress when it came to acceptance.”
For Karumidze, the request highlighted
the disparity between companies looking to
cash in on the city’s newfound cool, and the
conservative, homophobic attitude to the queer
community that permeates Georgian culture.
“There’s a dark side to Tbilisi that makes itself
known every now and then to remind you that
things are still complicated here,” she says.
That darkness surfaced in May of this
year, when armed police stormed legendary
techno club Bassiani and bar and art space Cafe
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Gallery. The unsanctioned raids led to a huge
protest rave which took place in the shadow of
the city’s former parliament building, as the
international dance music scene showed its
support with live streams and messages of
solidarity. The resounding call of “We dance
together, we fight together” rang out around
the world. “They said it was about drugs,”
says Karumidze. “It wasn’t about drugs, it was
about politics and control.”
The model Karumidze was asked to drop
from the recent Tamra show was actor and
performer Matt Shally, who was assaulted by
the police on the night of the raids. Shally and
his friends had been heading to LGBTQ club
night KiKi at Khidi, a cavernous techno club
on the banks of the Mtkvari river, and decided
to stop at Gallery for a drink on the way. “When
we got there, police in riot gear with machine
guns were blocking the entrance,” explains Shally.
“We asked why we couldn’t go in, and what was
happening to the people in there, but they kept
shouting at us to leave. Eventually one grabbed
me by the hair and started beating me, before my
friends managed to drag me away.”
In the aftermath, Shally gave an emotional
interview at the scene which saw him hounded in
the street and bullied on social media. “For a few
months, I couldn’t go out because people would
stop me in the street,” he says now. “Someone
released a video of me performing drag and
I started receiving messages filled with abuse.
Eventually, I got fed up with all the bullshit – 
my family accepts me, my friends accept me,
so why should I care what other people think?
If people like me don’t live freely, how will
things change for the next generation, and the
generation after that? I want to be an inspiration
to them, in the same way I’ve been inspired by
those before me that fought for freedom.”
Shally’s rallying call is echoed by another
Troublemakerz signing – Liza Rivs, a DJ and
producer living between Paris and Tbilisi.
“The government is afraid of this new wave of
people who are striving to be free and express
themselves,” says Rivs, a Khidi mainstay who
is at the heart of the city’s pulsing techno scene.
“Georgia was always a conservative country,
but what some people don’t realise is that
if they continue to try and repress us, we will push
back harder. The raids didn’t stop people going
to the clubs. If anything, there are more parties
in Tbilisi than there ever were.”
Clashes between Georgia’s archaic system
and its youth aren’t likely to end any time
soon, but this hopeful new generation is willing
to tackle whatever comes its way – through art and
music and sheer determination – until attitudes
change. “One thing about Georgian people
is that they go into things with their whole heart,”
says Machaidze. “That 10,000 people came
together to dance for change on Rustaveli Avenue
still gives me goosebumps. Slowly, this city is
going to turn its weirdness and all of its traumas
into something truly amazing.” •
Mishka wears striped shirt Ben Sherman, trousers Les Hommes, trainers Gucci 111

Mishka Sulakauri graffiti artist and skater

 Nariam Iremashvili artist
Nariam wears jacket Tagliatore 0205, dress Ludovic de Saint Sernin, rollneck jumper A.P.C., tights Wolford, boots Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello 112
Lasha wears leather windbreaker Givenchy, jeans and shoes his own 113
Lasha Kabanashvili performance artist and poet
Tamara Ioramashvili DJ
This page: Tamara wears all clothes Saint Laurent by Anthony
Vaccarello, tights Wolford. Opposite page, top: Luka wears shirt
Dsquared2, overalls Carhartt WIP, socks VETEMENTS,
shoes his own. Bottom: David wears striped shirt Ami, trousers
Yang Li, belt his own, shoes Acne Studios 114
115

Luka Bitchikashvili performance artist

David Apaqidze performance artist
 116
This page: Maxime wears sleeveless t-shirt, rings and shoes his
own, long-sleeved top Levi’s, nylon trousers Lacoste, trainers
his own. Opposite page: Matt wears jacket Tamra, knitted jumper
A.P.C., trousers Marni, shoes Shellyshoes

Maxime Machaidze musician and artist

Styling assistants Zooey Gleaves, Tatusia Lashauri, Giorgi Wazoski, special thanks Iota Hotel Tbilisi, Saba Gorgodze, Tamuna Karumidze 117
Matt Shally actor and dancer
 118
All clothes and accessories Dior Cruise 2019

With her “beautifully fucked-up” oeuvre to date, Anya Taylor-Joy

is fashioning a Hollywood fairytale steeped in blood
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ANYA TAYLOR-JOY
Photography MEL BLES
Styling ELIZABETH FRASER-BELL
Text SUSANNE MADSEN

At one point, Anya Taylor-Joy considered getting two pygmy
goats. “Essentially my vibe is I need something small and
f luffy to love. After The Witch came out, Robert (Eggers,
the director) and I laughed quite a bit because I was like,
‘I’d always planned on getting goats and you kinda fucked it
for me.’ But,” she says resolutely, “I’ll still do it.”
Black Phillip, the horned beast responsible for the
scuppered entourage plans, hardly needs an introduction.
Within weeks of Taylor-Joy’s debut film premiering in 2015,
her co-star had his own Twitter account, endless memes
and mock-children’s board games, tempting us all to live
deliciously. “Ah, Charlie the goat,” she says, clutching her chest.
“I loved him so much, he was such a babe. He was very much
a method actor. He loved me, he hated Ralph (Ineson, her co-
star in the film). He hated anybody that wasn’t me. We used
to take naps together in the sun, amidst the f lies.”
To say that The Witch was a major entrance into acting
for Taylor-Joy is an understatement. Watching her portray
Thomasin, a 17th-century girl on the cusp of her sexual
awakening, you’d never think this was her first role. Played to
mesmerising perfection, with big eyes and a Cupid’s bow only
F Scott Fitzgerald should attempt to describe, Taylor-Joy’s
performance offered timely commentary on (not-so) modern
society’s demonisation of young women. Luckily, she has not
encountered “too much misogyny” in her career so far.
“I grew up with boys and I think that helped,” she says,
adding as a side note that she’s never owned a bra because
the boys around her weren’t wearing one. “Very few men
in my field have treated me as an inferior.” She does, however,
see it, and it angers her that women cast in the girlfriend role
don’t always earn the same respect as other actors. (A word
she prefers to ‘actress’.) “We’re doing the same job. It’s not
about the ‘-tress’ being feminine. I think being feminine is one
of the biggest strengths you can ever possibly have. It’s about
being treated equally on set.”
At 22, Taylor-Joy has carved out a space for herself
as an exhilarating young talent prone to taking on strange,
dark roles, reigniting the female-centric intelligent horror
genre – and its offshoots – along the way. It’s been a start-
as-you-mean-to-go-on type of situation, with Taylor-Joy
gravitating to complex lead roles. There’s been the gleefully
twisted Thoroughbreds, the emotionally explosive AI thriller
Morgan, the creepy period-drama of The Miniaturist, and the
haunting semi-ghost story Marrowbone, where you’re f loored
at the end by her central character.
On the day of our interview Taylor-Joy is in London,
taking a break from filming series five of Peaky Blinders up
north. In person, she’s vividly alive and electric, with ‘Starry
Eyed’ scrawled across her heart on an orange t-shirt and
her hair held back with phone-cord elastic. This morning,
she was waved off by her movie-mum from The Witch, Kate
Dickie, who is staying with her. “We went off into the middle
of nowhere (for the film, shot in rural Ontario) and just made
friends and family. It’s the biggest gift the world has ever
given to me, that film,” she says softly, with an accent that’s
entirely her own, morphing seamlessly between American,
Irish, English and Scottish. Her speech is peppered with odd
phrases of Spanish, her first language.
Born in Miami and brought up in Buenos Aires, Taylor-
Joy moved to London with her Scottish-Argentinian father
and Spanish-African-English mother when she was six.
“My parents did the best thing for (my brothers and me)
in terms of giving us opportunities and making us feel safe
and everything,” she says. “But I missed Argentina. I missed
my horses, I missed my lambs, I missed being a farm girl.”
120
So, with all the make-believe conviction of childhood
imagination, she decided not to speak English for almost
three years. “I convinced myself that if I didn’t learn to speak
English they would have to move us back home, because I’d
be a pariah. I ended up being a pariah anyway, but I learned
how to speak English.”
It’s this attraction to imaginary worlds that might be
why she savours the visceral horror scenes. “Shooting them
is the most cathartic, wonderful thing,” she beams. “All of
my friends hate it. My family hates it. They’re all just like,
‘Oh God, can you please do a movie that’s not me watching
you suffer?’ And I’m like, ‘But it felt so good!’” Cue contented,
devilish smile. Fittingly, the name she stays under in hotels
is a reference to Satan. “I was quite proud of myself when
I came up with it,” she says, every inch the gothic archduchess.
“And then my mum, being Spanish and African and Catholic,
was like, ‘Can we not invoke the Devil?’”
As for horror’s renaissance, Taylor-Joy links the recent
glut of critically acclaimed chillers to Hollywood’s golden
era. “People are looking for escapism,” she says. “Being able
to be in a movie theatre where you are contained, you are
safe, but you’re going to be at the edge of what you can feel.”
But, she says, at the other end of the escapist spectrum is
something like La La Land. “Which I loved. I bawled my eyes
out. I’m such a cuddly-toy, Disney-girl softie. It’s hysterical,
considering my career.”
There’s no shortage of darkness in Taylor-Joy’s choice of
films, and she doesn’t shy away from any volatile emotion that
her work brings out. Filming the psychologically fraught Split,
where James McAvoy portrays 23 characters as a kidnapper
with dissociative identity disorder, M Night Shyamalan told
her: “You’re such a raw, open nerve.”
“When I heard it I found it quite insulting and was like,
‘I have to be stronger.’ I’m (just) not good at putting up a front,”
says the actor, who eventually realised her strength is actually
“being able to be vulnerable and feel everything”. I have
to ask: did her character, Casey Cooke, whose traumatising
backstory underpins the film, go home with her abusive uncle
at the end of Split? “No. Fuck, no.”
Taylor-Joy admires Casey’s quiet strength, and says that,
for herself, having conviction in your beliefs is key – in life,
as in art. “I’m very young but I’ve experienced a lot at this
age, and a woman with conviction – a young woman, especially
– is the most terrifying thing in the world to men, and to
anyone in general,” she explains. “If you show up and you’re
like, ‘This is how I feel about that,’ they tend to go along with
it because otherwise you’re going to be a nightmare. Men just
don’t know what to do with opinionated women. They don’t.
And that’s the best possible place to be in, because then you
can do whatever the fuck you want.”
At her most recent trip to Sundance, for Thoroughbreds,
Taylor-Joy decided that the idea of an actor being trained to
be neutral so you don’t piss anybody off isn’t really acceptable
any more. “(As) a big marcher, a rallier, you have to stand for
what you believe in,” she says. “If you stand on the side of
what is right, you’ve got to protect people who are fighting
for their rights.”
Taylor-Joy swears a lot when she really wants to
stress how much she loves something, throws devil horns
to show appreciation, recites stories of having a Bali belly
in Bali, and confesses she is a terrible hoarder. “I have every
single call sheet. Ever. I have to learn how to be like, ‘OK, this
means something to me, (or is it) just me being a hoarder?’”
She also holds on to a lot of feelings from other people and
her characters and is, by her own admission, an empath.
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“Women with conviction – and young women,

especially – are the most terrifying thing in the world
to men, and to anyone in general”
125
How does that work in terms of bringing your work home
every day? It’s an answer she says she’s still trying to work
out for herself. “There’s something beautiful about just being
able to feel for someone else. Shutting off your own emotions
and being like, ‘What does this person feel? How can I give
a voice to this person?’ That is the most sincere form of therapy
to me. I tend to go home quite happy and relaxed after
a situation like that. Whereas when I’m with myself, I get
quite quiet and just cuddle up into a ball. Like, I don’t know
what I’m feeling,” she says, drawing out the last word.
For all Taylor-Joy’s empathy – which she says is
very much made possible by the support of the crew
(“my favourite people on the entire planet”) – it must
have been hard living with someone like Lily from
Thoroughbreds. The film, which makes Heathers look like
a Nickelodeon movie, centres on two Connecticut high
school girls – played by Olivia Cooke and Taylor-Joy
to deadpan and chilling perfection, respectively –  she’ll return as Casey Cooke in Glass, M Night Shyamalan’s
who plot to murder Lily’s wicked stepfather. “Lils killed me,”
she says. “People on set were like, ‘God, she’s such a bitch
and I’d turn around like, ‘Don’t talk about my character that
way, that’s completely unacceptable. She’s going through a
lot right now, leave her alone’. And they’d be like, ‘O-kaaay,
babe, you deal with that.’” She gestures backing off, hands
in the air. “I’m actually a very gentle, sweet person in real
life, but when it comes to my characters I get very aggressive,
in a way. Very protective.”
At the Thoroughbreds wrap party, she had a bit of a 3am
epiphany. “I turned to our gaffer and said, ‘(Lily is) a really
terrible person, isn’t she?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, girl. She’s
pretty shit.’ I couldn’t cope with that while playing her. I just
had to be her best friend and understand all the choices that
she was making, and really feel them and be there with her.
But once that ended I definitely went through this mindfuck
of, like, ‘Oh my God, what have I just done?’” For the record:
a really, really good film.
As a child, Taylor-Joy was caught between becoming an
actor or an animal activist. There was no sneaky horror-movie
watching – it was all animal films and Jumanji. (“Jumanji on
LaserDisc, man, that was a full-on trip,” she says.) From an
early age, she learned to immerse herself completely in the
story being told, qualities that would later come to define her
performances as an actor. “I fall headfirst into a black pool
of water, and experience whatever it is the filmmaker wants
me to experience,” she ref lects.
Coming to London, missing home and not speaking the
language made Taylor-Joy seek refuge in films, like the 2003
Peter Pan with Jeremy Sumpter. “I couldn’t speak English but
I’d go to school screaming, ‘I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!’”
she says. “That was my early response to anything anyone said.
‘I do believe in fairies.’ Everyone was like, ‘What the fuck are
you?’” Kids, as they say, are cruel, and she was badly bullied.
Shit, I say, I’m sorry. “I’m not. I’m here. I’m fine, I’m fine.
It was terrible, but even then I just knew this wasn’t my
place. And I knew I was going to find my place. And I have.
I’m so lucky. I really do feel that. I feel no resentment.”
Taylor-Joy’s forever hall-pass from school came in the
shape of her audition for The Witch. “The second I stepped
on set, I could breathe again. I was surrounded by people
who didn’t think I was mad! They just thought I was myself,
trying to cope with all these different emotions. Because I’ve
got no skin. It’s my biggest problem and my biggest strength,”
she says, toying with her silver dragon necklace.
On The Witch, everybody ended up in the bushes,
picking the f lowering buds off trees to make it look like winter,
and helping lift the dolly out of the mud. Which turned out
to be a stark contrast with later roles on big-budget films,
where Taylor-Joy would be trying to help only to be told,
no, the actress sits in the chair. “And I was like, ‘I don’t sit in
no fucking chair. I work on it and I make it better.’ I’m such
a DP nerd, I’m such a camera-operator nerd. I’m listening
to everything because I want to direct one day so I’m very
interested in not just the acting but everything around it.”
Right now, Taylor-Joy is excited about Radioactive,
her upcoming film with Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley
charting Marie Curie’s discoveries. “My first female director!”
she says of the film, helmed by Persepolis director Marjane
Satrapi. “It’s the best possible experience in the entire world.
Marjane is a force of nature and I could not love her more
if I tried. She’s beautiful, she’s perfect and Rosamund is just
heaven on Earth.” There’s also her turn in The New Mutants to
come, a foray into the Hollywood blockbuster. But before then
follow-up to Split, in the new year.
Whatever Taylor-Joy does, she does properly. A week
before filming began for Thoroughbreds, she broke her four
front teeth falling down a f light of stairs and was told to
rest for six months. She was on set a week later, with her
own busted teeth put back in her mouth. “The director was
like, ‘Anya, you’ll need to smile in this scene, why aren’t
you smiling?’” she reminisces. Incredibly, she explains
she’s also pretty much blind, doesn’t wear contacts and
is considering getting laser surgery. It’s because of her poor
eyesight, Taylor-Joy muses, that she tends not to focus on
how she looks in a scene watching it back, but how the
overall picture is.
It somehow fits with a young woman who is more tuned
in to other people than herself. Saying goodbye, Taylor-Joy
looks elated speaking about how wonderfully messy human
beings are. “That’s the beauty in humanity. As much as I believe
we don’t deserve animals and we don’t deserve this planet,
human beings are so beautifully fucked-up and complex.”
You can see why she picks the roles that she does. “I just
think that on set I become a proper animal,” she says. “At the
beginning it was easier because I was working back-to-back
and nothing had come out yet, then all of a sudden shit started
coming out and people were like, ‘Oh, I loved you in Split.’”
Her eyes widen, in complete disbelief and shock. “I was like,
‘You saw that?’ That was a time in my life when I was so
vulnerable and you’ve seen it? I can’t wrap my head around
it, because I didn’t become an actor to have people watch me.
I became an actor to feel (things) for other people and to be
in that very closed, very intimate space. I’m learning to wrap
my head around it, because I’ve made 22 projects, so I’m
fucked now! There’s nothing I can do about it.” •
Glass is in UK cinemas from January 18, 2019
126
 128
MID
90S
Tender but tough, Jonah Hill’s Mid90s is an ode to skate culture’s
near-mythical pre-internet past. Here, its deck-slinging
stars talk asphalt, authenticity and “weird bonding” rituals

Photography ARI MARCOPOULOS

Styling AVENA GALLAGHER
Text COLLEEN NIKA
129
Previous spread: Sunny wears fleece Napapijri. This page: Olan wears hoodie Fucking Awesome, beanie hat Gucci 130
131
“A lot of things in the 90s were at their core,
you know?” So says skater Olan Prenatt, who,
like the rest of the non-actors in the room,
isn’t old enough to have actually experienced the
decade’s pursuit of authentic expression. But it’s
thanks to this unlikely gang of skater kids that
the nostalgic coming-of-age film finds gritty
new traction this autumn, with Jonah Hill’s
screenwriting and directorial debut, Mid90s.
Set in Los Angeles, and bolstered by a killer
Wu-Tang Clan-meets-Nirvana soundtrack,
the film follows a group of skateboard-wielding
teen libertines as they navigate the thrilling,
sometimes brutal community lines of their
neighbourhood subculture. Here, skating is no
mere sport: it’s a street brotherhood, complete
with rough-and-tumble bonding rituals and the
emotional weight of what it means to choose your
family when your own f lesh and blood fails you.
It’s no coincidence that Mid90s captures a near-
mythical moment in time before mobile phones
were commonplace. Loneliness, boredom and
a skin-crawling need to escape leads these kids
to find each other – and, eventually, themselves.
Hardcore yet heartfelt, Mid90s is more
uplifting than Larry Clark’s infamous Kids,
but shares with it a taste for unconventional
casting. Hill, honouring skate culture’s affinity
for the ‘real’, risked it all by opting to hire actual
skaters over actors. Fortunately, the gamble
paid off: skateboarders Sunny Suljic, Na-Kel
Smith, Olan Prenatt, Ryder McLaughlin and
Gio Galicia, alongside actress Alexa Demie,
steal the show by simply skating, scheming,
existing – by coming as they are. Plus, they knew
each other already. To meet them – which
I do in early October, as Mid90s scores early
awards-season buzz – is like stumbling into a
casual group hang, where inside jokes and jabs
are traded with carefree ease. Turns out Hill
was right: sharing the soul of skateboarding is
really just letting the people who love it show
you why – scars and all.
So, you’re all real-deal skaters?
Na-Kel Smith: We all official!
How did Jonah find you guys?
NS: I think Jonah searched for Sunny and
then (producer) Mikey Alfred brought in
the rest of us to Jonah.
Sunny Suljic: We auditioned parts from
the actual film but they got rewritten a
little bit, or taken out. Actually, it’s funny
watching the movie, ’cos there’s so much
stuff we filmed that just isn’t in there.
There’s about an hour and a half of the
movie that didn’t make it.
That can be the director’s cut! What was your
first impression of the script?
SS: I mean, with my character alone…
so many people can relate to it. Everyone
goes through that phase where it’s like,
‘I’m trying to find my friends, my place in
the world.’ Jonah was really able to create
something special.
NS: I was surprised with certain turns it
took. I don’t feel like anyone has made
a skateboarding movie that made it feel
like real life, except for Lords of Dogtown,
maybe. But that was based on a true story. That’s basically the movie’s catchphrase,
Jonah’s is original, and I was like, ‘Oh isn’t it?
shit, this is kinda deep.’ Like, drugs, sex
and all that shit is pretty normal, but not
necessarily what you expect in a skating
film. He went in from one of the best angles,
where it was less about the physical act
of skating and more about friendship,
camaraderie and shit like that.
Olan Prenatt: I agree with Na-Kel. It was
like an intense book. I was in awe.
NS: Jonah’s fucking insane.
OP: Jonah’s fucking insane!
SS: The skating in the film is so real and
genuine. Most of the time skating on film
is directed by people who have nothing to
do with skating, so to actually capture that
feeling in the film… I was impressed.
Ryder McLaughlin: I was a little sceptical,
because skateboarding movies have been
kinda misinterpreted (in the past). I saw
this old video where Jonah listed his top
five favourite skate videos, and it was all
videos I’d never heard of. I was like, ‘Why?
I know this stuff!’ So he knows a lot about
skating and has really good taste – it’s
not just, you know, Supreme hype stuff.
As I read it I was like, ‘Wow, this is, like…’
He hit the spot. (coughing and laughter)
OP: He definitely hit my spot. (laughter)
Alexa, your romance with Sunny is definitely
a surprising element in the movie.
Alexa Demie: I had a lot of anxiety about skate? They all seem to have something they
that (at first) because obviously there’s are trying to resolve through it.
somewhat of an age difference between
Sunny and I. But he is just so cool and it
felt very comfortable and safe, and after
thinking about it… There’s no way I didn’t
want to be a part of it. I’ve always wanted
to do a film that was set in (another) time
– that felt like a dream, you know? I knew
these guys growing up in LA and also
two of the other girls. So I love the way
it turned out.
NS: In a few years, she gonna forget us,
though!
AD: Can you fucking stop? (laughter)
He loves to say I’m Hollywood, but no –
I was just born there.
NS: It’s all right, we’re all about to be
Hollywood.
AD: You were walking around wearing a
fucking Variety hat… You’re Hollywood!
NS: I know!
What does skateboarding mean to you guys?
OP: Skateboarding makes you forget
who you are. Everybody shows you who
you really are, because there’s no jealousy
and no embarrassment.
NS: You know damn well that is a lie! I could also imagine it being a meditative
But skating does make you more open experience, because you’re not really thinking
to different cultures, music and (other)
types of stuff. It’s my spirit and my soul.
It taught me a good work ethic – if you
fall down, get right back up and try again.
NS: Yeah! Skateboarding gave me all my
friends. If I didn’t skate, I wouldn’t be in
this movie.
SS: It kinda sounds corny, but there is no
age, race or gender in skating. Everyone
is super open-minded. We meet so many
types of people – we can adjust to a specific
crowd. Like, you’ll see a homeless person
and you’ll talk to them like a normal
human being!
OP: I had a lot of homeless friends
growing up in Venice.
SS: My friend went to rehab for smoking
weed because his parents are really
protective. But looking at it from a skater’s
perspective, we just see that as a part of
growing up! Some people from the nice
suburbs aren’t open to a lot of things.
NS: I mean, I don’t even come from the
suburbs, but everyone always says to me,
‘What you doing skating – get a job!’
Especially when I was younger – it was
like, ‘You’re doing that white-boy shit,
that shit (is) for nerds.’ Even my parents
are like, ‘Na-Kel, you better get a job.’
And I’m like, ‘I’m telling you: this shit is
going to pay off. I’m getting good; I know
what it takes.’ But nobody understands it.
No one does unless they skate!
What drives the characters in the movie to
NS: You know, everyone got shit going on.
(My character), Ray, wants to take skating
somewhere where it could help out his
family and his life. I relate to that a lot.
Whereas (Prenatt’s character), Fuckshit,
is trying to have fun and not worry too
much about the future. Stevie (Suljic) is
going through shit at home and starting
to have feelings against it. He’s starting to
be like, ‘I don’t fuck with this.’
SS: When Stevie gets beaten up by his
brother or argues with his mom, the next
day he goes to the skate shop with his
friends and is a whole other person. It’s like
another family, really. And there is the
commitment to skating itself. It’s like,
you’re only gonna stop skating when you
either get really hurt or get kicked out
somewhere – it’s not just like you’re not
feeling it any more.
Gio Galicia: I do feel like it’s an escape.
(My character), Ruben, gets beaten up by
his mom but then he goes skating and he’s
a different person: he’s happy, he’s having
a good day, he doesn’t wanna go home.

about anything except doing what you’re
doing on your skateboard.
NS: Hell, yeah!
Ryder – your character, Fourth Grade, is kind Were there any challenges during the shoot,
of like the documentarian of the group, given that most of you don’t come from acting
making videos of his friends.
RM: Filming gives Ryder a purpose in
his group of friends; it’s how he is able
to contribute. You know, he’s not there
to talk but (he expresses himself through)
his camera, and capturing everything
makes him happy.
As you said, the characters form their own
family. Do you see Ray as the protector of
the group?
NS: I think it’s equal between Ray and
Fuckshit, but then morals come into play.
We’re kicking it with younger kids and
stuff – so, you know, it’s like an angel-
and-devil type of thing. Overall, Ray is
down to party and all that shit too, but he’s
more focused on succeeding.
“It sounds corny, but there is no age, race or gender in skating.
Everyone is super open-minded. We meet so many types
of people – we can adjust to a specific crowd” Sunny Suljic
OP: Fuckshit has no mental process before
anything. He sees something he wants
to do and he does it – he doesn’t think
about how dumb it is. Ray is definitely
smarter than Fuckshit.
And what about the boy/girl dynamic?
AD: I think it’s accurate. I grew up with all
boy cousins. I don’t really go to skate parks
but I can imagine there’ll be a couple of
girls hanging out there, right? They’re also
escaping their shit at home, which is why
they have parties and invite the guys over.
Girls also just want to have fun and smoke
some weed and drink some drink.
What attracts your character, Estee, to Stevie
in the film?
AD: I created this story for Estee that
she has been hurt by multiple men in her
life, be it her dad or whoever, and she
just sees these dudes around and the way
that they talk to girls. She thinks Stevie
is a genuine pure soul.
She makes the comment, ‘You’re right before
the age where –’
AD: ‘…guys become dicks.’ Yeah. Maybe
she’s seen some guy fuck with her friends.
It’s that age where boys wanna be little
pimps and players. (laughter all around)
NS: Boys can get hurt too, though.
Hurt people hurt people.
How much do you guys feel you were able
to shape your roles?
NS: Jonah used pieces of how we are in
real life. He wrote the characters one way
and then, after seeing how we interact in
real life, it changed. Our humour, how we
hang out, how we talk, all of that stuff.
Jonah would ask, ‘Is this something you
would say? Do you feel comfortable saying
this? How would you do it?’
backgrounds?
NS: Hell, yeah. Wait, oh my God, OK –
so there’s a scene in the movie where
I’m supposed to be beefing with Olan.
And I remember we did the scene so many
times; afterwards I was like, ‘I love you,
bro, it’s all good, we don’t got no real beef
or nothing like that.’ ’Cos we started to
really get into character; it was crazy.
OP: We did this one scene where both of
us just turn around and look at each other.
We literally did that scene, like, ten times
and it still didn’t work. Every time Na-Kel
turned around and looked at me, we were
dying laughing.
SS: One of my favourite scenes is where
Fourth Grade talks to Teresa (played by
Liana Perlich) about his film, Strong Baby.
Throughout the film, everyone always has
the most negative response when he tries
to talk about it – and he’s not too open
because of that. But then he finally gets
to express his idea to Teresa and she’s like,
‘That’s sick.’
AD: Yeah – she’s like, ‘That’s a sick idea.’
She’s so sweet, I love that scene. I find it
weirdly emotional watching it.
NS: You know what’s crazy? That says a
lot about homies and girls.
AD: Mm-hmm.
NS: Especially Alexa. All my other friends
just say, ‘Shut your dumb ass up, that’s
stupid.’ Like, boys can really crush your
dreams, ’cos we rough. But it shows how
nurturing women are. No matter what the
idea is, it’s like, ‘Oh, I think that could be
possible.’ That one moment on the couch
could have sparked his whole life!
Exactly. Did you feel it was important that
Jonah set this film in the 90s?
NS: It was definitely really cool that the
film was set in the 90s; it kept it very period,
but the story doesn’t have much to do with
the actual 90s.
Why do you think it’s set in that time?
NS: I think it’s a part of Jonah’s childhood
he wanted to recreate. It’s just something
he knows well. You can look back at (an era)
and know everything about it more than you
can predict things. And, of course, there is
the music that comes with it.
RM: It also gives all of us a reason to not
have a cellphone or be on the internet.
And to have, like, real conversations and
132
weird bonding moments between skaters.
OP: Also, a lot of things in the 90s were
at their core, you know?
Why do you think a lot of us are nostalgic
for that time?
NS: It’s comforting for people who were
teens in the 90s. Those are the years when
you’re doing a lot of shit for the first time;
you’re experimenting. Communication has
changed. In society today, there’s an older/
younger divide. There are people I meet
on Instagram who will just immediately
FaceTime me. Being a little older, I would
never just FaceTime somebody! I would
have to meet them before or at least text
them. But a lot of people build really good
relationships that way.
SS: There’s a lot of hypocrisy, too. I was
on my phone and this older guy looked at
me like this (gives judgmental look) at the
dinner table – and then five minutes later
he was doing the same thing! Even now,
you could have a phone on and not use it –
just have it on you for emergency contacts.
It’s a choice.
SS: Yeah.
AD: We couldn’t have our phones on set.
And I liked that. On other projects that
I’ve been doing (since), I haven’t had one
either. I like what you said, Sunny – it’s a
choice. You don’t have to be that person
who lives in their phone 24/7. Using it as
a tool but still being a human in the real
world – that’s the way to go. •
Mid90s is out now in US cinemas
Ryder wears denim jacket Linder 133
Gio wears all clothes Balenciaga 134
From left: Gio wears jacket Carhartt WIP, t-shirt Telfar, trousers Craig Green. Alexa wears wool coat Marni, knitted body Lou Dallas, denim shorts G-Star RAW, earring Acne Studios, necklace Bing Bang NYC 135
Opposite page: Na-Kel wears all clothes and accessories his own 136
Grooming Ingeborg using Surratt Beauty, styling assistant Gregory Miller, on-set production Anne Ryan at arc production 137
 138
WHO’S
THAT
GIRL?
Lila Moss grew up Dazed & Confused.
Styled by her godmother Katy England and lensed by Tim Walker, 2019’s new
face stars in her first cover shoot – a moment 16 years in the making.
Welcome to her world

Photography TIM WALKER Styling KATY ENGLAND

Printed asymmetrical dress Louis Vuitton, stone heart earrings Balenciaga 139
140
141

Opposite page: all clothes vintage Rachel Auburn from

Contemporary Wardrobe, pillbox hat with veil Costume
Studio, earring worn on right Felt, earring worn throughout
Lila’s own, eyewear Roberi & Fraud. This page: satin dress Preen
by Thornton Bregazzi, boater hat National Theatre Costume
Hire, neon socks Happy Socks
142
Opposite page: boots Contemporary Wardrobe. This page: printed asymmetrical dress Louis Vuitton, eyewear Linda Farrow, stone heart earrings Balenciaga 143
This spread: custom butterfly costume Gary Card 144
145
146
Shirt and braces Budd Shirtmakers, vintage Chloé trousers Cassie Mercantile, earring Felt, striped tie Turnbull & Asser, socks Pantherella, brogues Alice Derby from O’Keeffe 147
This spread: all clothes and accessories Celine by Hedi Slimane 148
149
 150

Hair Syd Hayes at Art + Commerce using BaByliss, make-up Lucy Bridge
at Streeters using Marc Jacobs Beauty, model Lila Moss at Kate Moss
Agency, set design Gary Card at Streeters, lighting director Paul Burns,
photography assistants Tony Ivanov, Sarah Lloyd, styling assistants Lydia
Simpson, Angus McEvoy, Lauren Perrin, hair assistant Paula McCash,
make-up assistant Lindsay Lowe, set design assistants Emily Frances Barrett,
Lydia Chan, set build Andy Knight, production Jeff Delich, production
assistants Charlotte Garner, Lauren Sakioka, printing Graeme Bulcraig
at Touch Digital
This spread: all clothes vintage Rachel Auburn from Contemporary Wardrobe, pillbox hat with veil Costume Studio, eyewear Beyond Retro, boots Rellik 151
 152

THE GIRL WHO FELL TO EARTH

Photography BEN TOMS Styling ROBBIE SPENCER
All clothes and accessories Louis Vuitton × Grace Coddington and Cruise 2019 153
Cotton vest stylist’s archive 154
155
156
157
Plastic poncho, plastic bonnet and wool socks stylist’s archive 159
160
Ribbed wool tights and wool socks stylist’s archive 161
Plastic poncho stylist’s archive 162
Ribbed wool tights stylist’s archive 164
Cotton vest and wool socks stylist’s archive 165
Plastic poncho stylist’s archive 166
167
All clothes and accessories Louis Vuitton × Grace Coddington and Cruise 2019

Hair Soichi Inagaki at Art Partner, make-up Niamh Quinn at LGA

Management using YSL Beauty, model Licett Morillo at IMG, set design
Janina Pedan at The Magnet Agency, photography assistants Jack Symes,
Ed Phillips, styling assistant Ioana Ivan, set design assistants Ksenia Pedan,
Miranda Keyes, on-set production Natalie Stranescu, production assistant
Jamie Gordon, casting Noah Shelley at Streeters
168
169

SOFTCORE JUKEBOX Photography HANNA MOON Styling EMMA WYMAN

Opposite page, main image: knitted blouse Circus Hotel,

leopard printed vest and metallic lace dress worn underneath
Paco Rabanne, vintage eyelet belt Costume Studio, bow belt
Marni. Inset: striped jumper Guess, vinyl hood Courrèges.
This page: embellished dress Miu Miu, striped bandeau
Gabriella Sardeña
170
171

Opposite page, main image: patterned silk dress Louis Vuitton,

tights stylist’s own, boots MSGM. Inset: polo shirt Prada,
embellished satin crop top Moschino, embossed hood Jo Miller.
This page: polka-dot dress MSGM, chainmail vest worn underneath
Paco Rabanne, latex shirt Hillier Bartley, shoulder-pads Vaquera,
belts Costume Studio, tights UK Tights
172
173
Opposite page, main image: silk embellished dress Roberto Cavalli,
printed dress worn underneath Prada, leggings Paula Canovas del Vas,
bow belt Marni. Inset: embellished dress Miu Miu, striped bandeau
Gabriella Sardeña. This page: jacquard dress with bow and printed
trousers Gucci, striped vest Beyond Retro, earrings Gillian Horsup
at Alfies Antiques, polka-dot tights Moschino, shoes Miu Miu
174
175

Opposite page, main image: bandeau top Miu Miu, hot pants stylist’s
archive, bow belt worn on bandeau Marni, chain belt and bow belt
worn on hot pants Beyond Retro, f lower belt Costume Studio.
Inset: jacquard dress Gucci, earrings Gillian Horsup at Alfies
Antiques. This page: transparent panelled dress Chanel, jacquard
skirt worn on top Prada, embossed hood Jo Miller, bow belt Marni,
bow belt worn on bottom Beyond Retro, boots MSGM
This page: striped jumper Guess, Swarovski crystal body worn underneath
Koché, knickers Miu Miu, vinyl hood Courrèges, bow belt Marni, eyelet
belt Costume Studio, tights UK Tights, shoes Miu Miu. Opposite page,
main image: polo shirt and t-shirt worn underneath Prada, satin embellished
crop top, skirt and polka-dot tights Moschino, top worn underneath belt
Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh, embossed hood Jo Miller, belt Costume
Studio, boots MSGM. Inset: knitted blouse Circus Hotel
Hair Soichi Inagaki at Art Partner using KMS, make-up Mathias Van
Hooff at Management + Artists, model Eniola Abioro at Next London,
set design Patience Harding at Magnet, photography assistants Matt
Kelly, Mark McKinley, styling assistants Tess Pisani, Rhiarn Schuck,
Gabby Vicente, hair assistant Shunsuke Meguro, set design assistant
Miranda Latimer, production Kirsty Wilson at MAP, casting Noah
Shelley at Streeters 176
177
 178

WILD

Photography LETTY SCHMITERLOW Styling DANNY REED

179

STRAWBERRIES

Opposite page: crepe de chine shirt dress Chloé, tights UK Tights,

shoes Paco Rabanne. This page: velvet jacket Avant Toi, wool
skirt Emporio Armani, tights UK Tights
180
181

Opposite page: wool jacquard dress Avant Toi. This page: printed
bodysuit with buttons, printed skirt Louis Vuitton, bra La Perla,
tights UK Tights, shoes Manolo Blahnik
182
183

Opposite page: jacket Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne

Westwood, swimming costume stylist’s own, tights UK Tights,
shoes Paco Rabanne. This page: top Giorgio Armani
184
185

Opposite page: t-shirt The Gate, pleated skirt and bag Fendi.
This page: bustier dress with bow, shoes Givenchy, tights
UK Tights
 186

This page: wool jacquard dress Avant Toi, wool jacket Dior.
Opposite page: wool jacket Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne
Westwood, fringed dress Bottega Veneta, tights UK Tights,
shoes Manolo Blahnik, bag Fendi
187

Model Rachel, photography assistant Heather Lawrence, styling

assistants Julie Velut, Clémence Rose, printing Luke at Touch,
production Artistry London
NIGHT VISIONS
Photography ROBI RODRIGUEZ
Styling ROBBIE SPENCER
Make-up THOMAS DE KLUYVER
 190

Previous spread, left: Tex wears Boy De Chanel Le Teint

Foundation, Boy De Chanel Le Balm Lèvres Lip Balm, Rouge
Allure Velvet Extreme Lip Colour in Impressive. This page:
Esrom wears all clothes Raf Simons, Boy De Chanel Le Teint
Foundation, Boy De Chanel Le Stylo Sourcils Brow Pencil
in Deep Brown, Boy De Chanel Le Balm Lèvres Lip Balm
191

A Jay wears Boy De Chanel Le Teint Foundation, Boy De

Chanel Le Stylo Sourcils Brow Pencil in Deep Brown, Les
Beiges Healthy Glow Luminous Powder in Deep, Palette
Essentielle in 185 Caramel, Le Crayon Khôl in 62 Ambre
 192

From left: William wears Boy De Chanel Le Teint Foundation.

A Jay wears Boy De Chanel Le Teint Foundation, Boy De
Chanel Le Stylo Sourcils Brow Pencil in Deep Brown, Les
Beiges Healthy Glow Luminous Powder in Deep, Palette
Essentielle in 185 Caramel, Le Crayon Khôl in 62 Ambre
193

Cai wears Boy De Chanel Le Teint Foundation, Boy De Chanel

Le Stylo Sourcils Brow Pencil in Light Brown, Boy De Chanel
Le Balm Lèvres Lip Balm
 194

William wears blazer Y/Project, rollneck with metal hoops Raf

Simons, Boy De Chanel Le Teint Foundation, Boy De Chanel
Le Stylo Sourcils Brow Pencil in Deep Brown, Boy De Chanel
Le Balm Lèvres Lip Balm, Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer
Colour Stick in N°.21
195
Hair Gary Gill at Streeters, make-up Thomas de Kluyver at
Art Partner using Boy De Chanel, model Tex at SUPA, street
cast models Esrom Alexander, William Boldero, A Jay Collins,
Cai Leplaw, photography assistants Tom Ayerst, Irene Arraez,
styling assistants Ioana Ivan, Nicola Neri, hair assistants Thom
Wright, Rebecca Chang, make-up assistants Lauren Reynolds,
Anastasia Hess, production Tilly Gerrard at 360pm, casting
Troy Fearn at Troy Casting

From left: A Jay wears oversized blazer Lanvin, shirt Les Hommes,
Boy De Chanel Le Teint Foundation, Boy De Chanel Le Balm
Lèvres Lip Balm, Boy De Chanel Le Stylo Sourcils Brow
Pencil in Deep Brown, Les Beiges Healthy Glow Luminous
Powder in Deep, Palette Essentielle in 185 Caramel, Le
Crayon Khôl in 62 Ambre. Esrom wears all clothes Balenciaga.
Boy De Chanel Le Teint Foundation, Boy De Chanel Le
Stylo Sourcils Brow Pencil in Deep Brown, Boy De Chanel
Le Balm Lèvres Lip Balm
Photography TOM JOHNSON Styling ELIZABETH FRASER-BELL
BAD MOON RISING
Duncan wears trousers Marni, straw hat Westernaffair, trainers his own 196
Owen wears checked shirt Woolrich, stretch-velvet salopette and industrial waders Maison Margiela Artisanal Men’s by John Galliano 197
198
Owen wears all clothes Dior Man, leather boots Frye 199
 200

This page, from left: Monty wears all clothes Miu Miu, merino
wool socks Corrymoor, PVC boots Dior. Owen and Monty
wear all clothes Prada. Opposite page: Brooke wears twill dress
Chanel, vest Petit Bateau
201
202
203

Opposite page, from left: Monty wears all clothes Ann

Demeulemeester, tights Falke, leather boots Frye. John wears
linen shirt Ted Baker, workwear jumpsuit Dries Van Noten,
leather boots Frye. This page, from left: Duncan wears trousers
Marni. Taylor wears wool dress Margaret Howell
204
Monty wears knitted polo shirt and shorts Dondup, oversized skirt Y/Project, merino wool socks Corrymoor, PVC boots Dior 205
Owen wears oversized blazer and cuffed trousers Raf Simons, jersey rollneck top Stefan Cooke 206
207
Left: Owen wears cashmere twill overshirt Dior Man, veil
Ann Demeulemeester. Monty wears wool cardigan Miu Miu.
Right: Brooke and Monty wear all clothes and boots
VETEMENTS

Hair Chi Wong at Management + Artists using Mr. Smith, make-up

Jen Myles at Streeters, models John Coss, Owen Crandall, Monty, Brooke
Davis, Taylor Foster, Duncan Sinclair Foster Allen, props Mila Taylor-
Young at D+V, photography assistants James Hobson, Justin Leveritt,
styling assistant Rhiarn Schuck, production John Haywood at Mini Title,
production assistant Mateus Lages, post-production Studio RM, casting
Douglas Perrett COACD Inc and DELCO
This page: Ace wears ruched bodysuit with doves
Moschino, tights and shoes Chanel. Opposite page:
Shona wears all clothes Balenciaga, earrings her own 208
209

TREAT ME GOOD
Photography MICHELLA BREDAHL Styling HALEY WOLLENS
210
211
Opposite page: Ace wears polka-dot top MSGM, floral top worn
underneath Maryam Nassir Zadeh, towel and necklace her own.
This page: HAWA wears all clothes and accessories Chanel
 212

This page: Rosa wears all clothes Dior. Opposite page: Ace wears
all clothes and bag Givenchy, tights Emilio Cavallini, gingham
boots Balenciaga
213
214
Opposite page: HAWA wears velvet embroidered fringe 215
dress Proenza Schouler, socks adidas, lace-up platforms
Vivienne Westwood & Burberry. This page: Shona wears
heart bustier jumpsuit and embroidered leather belt Saint
Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello
 216
This page: HAWA wears knitted tweed top Chanel, jeans Levi’s,
body chain and belt her own. Opposite page: Shona wears all
clothes Christopher Kane
Models HAWA, Shona Michéle Keenoy, Rosa Polin, 217
Ace Ramsey, set design Mila Taylor-Young at D+V
Management, styling assistants Alexander Picon,
Natalia Zemliakova, casting Eléonore Hendricks,
Michele Mansoor
 218

SUDDENLY
LAST SUMMER

Photography JULIE GREVE Styling FRANCESCA BURNS

219

Opposite page, from left: Matilde Rose wears wool poncho Avant
Toi, jewellery worn throughout her own. Michella wears tube
top Elliss, jeans Faustine Steinmetz, necklace Annina Vogel.
This page: Oline wears taffeta dress and tights Molly Goddard,
necklace worn throughout Annina Vogel
220
221

Opposite page: Matilde Rose wears knitted dress Erika Cavallini,

zebra-print bikini Stella McCartney. This page, from left: Astrid
wears swimming costume Beyond Retro, towel stylist’s own,
necklace worn throughout Annina Vogel. Oline wears swimming
costume Costume Studio, towel stylist’s own
 222

This page: Astrid wears bikini top Maryam Nassir Zadeh, zebra-
print skirt Chloé, towel stylist’s own. Opposite page, from left:
Sonja wears all clothes Louis Vuitton, earring Georgia Kemball.
Stine wears all clothes Louis Vuitton
223
 224

This page: Martine wears floral top Maryam Nassir Zadeh,

cropped trousers Ottolinger, necklace worn throughout Sophie
Buhai. Opposite page: Oline wears ruched jersey top Elliss,
printed cropped jeans Loewe
225
226
227

Opposite page: Martine wears all clothes Louis Vuitton.

This page, from left: Stine wears knitted jumper and striped
turtleneck Calvin Klein 205W39NYC, jumpsuit worn underneath
stylist’s archive, socks FUNN Stockings, shoes Paraboot. Sonja
wears all clothes Miu Miu, socks Falke, shoes Paraboot
228
229

Opposite page: Katrine wears all clothes Balenciaga. This page:

Martine wears shirt dress Ports 1961, chiffon skirt Miu Miu,
socks FUNN Stockings
 230

This page: Oline wears vest top Elliss, printed knickers Miu Miu.
Opposite page: Stine wears all clothes Prada
Models Astrid, Oline, Matilde Rose, Michella, Sonja, Stine, Martine, Katrine, styling assistants Bianca Raggi, Emma Simmonds 231
 232
SUBSCRIPTIONS STOCKISTS

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to 25 years of Dazed archives alongside Apple Ambush Dr. Martens Levi’s Saint Laurent by Anthony
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SE16 3LL Annina Vogel elliss.co.uk loudallas.com Stefan Cooke
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+ 44 207 193 59 66 AREA emiliocavallini.com louisvuitton.com Stella McCartney
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Attico erikacavallini.com Ludovic de Saint Sernin Swatch
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Avant Toi F Symonds Pearmain
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Balenciaga faustinesteinmetz.com Maison Margiela Artisanal by Tagliatore 0205
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Ben Sherman feltlondon.com maisonmargiela.com Ted Baker
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Beyond Retro fendi.com manoloblahnik.com Telfar
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Bing Bang NYC thefryecompany.com margarethowell.co.uk Tudor
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BOSS G martineali.com
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Budd Shirtmakers georgiakemball.com mnzstore.com UK Tights
buddshirts.co.uk Gillian Horsup Miu Miu uktights.com
Burberry gillianhorsup.com miumiu.com Under Armour
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Byredo armani.com mollygoddard.com
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Chanel Neil Barrett Woolrich
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Charles & Keith Jimmy Choo Nike
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Chloé Jo Miller Nike × Martine Rose Xander Zhou
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Chrishabana John Richmond
chrishabanajewelry.com johnrichmond.com O Y
Christopher Kane JW Anderson O’Keeffe Y/Project
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Circus Hotel Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh Yang Li
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Coach 1941 Koché Ottolinger
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Contemporary Wardrobe
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Corrymoor Paco Rabanne
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Costume Studio Palace Costume
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Courrèges Paraboot
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Craig Green Paula Canovas del Vas
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Petit Bateau
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Pihakapi
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Ports 1961
ports1961.com
Prada
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Preen by Thornton Bregazzi
preenbythorntonbregazzi.com
Proenza Schouler
proenzaschouler.com
SKIN

234

Photography RUTH OSSAI

Styling AI KAMOSHITA
Text KIERAN YATES
235
Opposite page: slashed cardigan top and printed asymmetrical
tights Katya Zelentsova, jumper Symonds Pearmain, pleated
dress and scarf Coach 1941, leather bonnet Pihakapi, bracelet
Dior, velvet pantashoes Balenciaga. This page: checked wool
coat Balenciaga, silk dress with ruff le Valentino, eyewear and
belt Louis Vuitton, f lower bag Charlie McCosker, marabou
feather socks Mulberry, faux-fur mules Westernaffair

She’s been the scourge of the Britpop patriarchy – and helped

ignite a new era in Afropunk activism. Skunk Anansie
icon Skin talks 25 years as rock’s most radical frontwoman
Silk embellished top, tweed beret and bangle Chanel, rollneck Margaret Howell, leggings, scarf and socks stylist’s own, embroidered bike-saddle bag Matthew Needham, shoes Westernaffair 236
237
“It’s like a dirty old shag that keeps sneaking up on you!”
laughs Skin, trying to put the enduring legacy of her band,
Skunk Anansie, into words. She’s sitting in her local Hackney
pub, dressed in top-to-toe black with a pair of Dr. Martens,
f lashing a shy smile as the guy behind the bar recognises her.
In person, she strikes an endearing balance between girlish
giggler and the sweary punk powerhouse you might recognise.
2019 marks 25 years since Deborah Anne Dyer became
Skin – the rock performer who, after trying and failing to
be “the girl next door”, went on to become the frontwoman
of one of the most unforgettable bands of the 90s.
“We were the best live band anyone had ever fucking
seen in decades,” recalls Skin, and she’s not wrong. Her band
was rawer, more avant-garde and radical than the then-
pervasive ‘four white men with guitars’ model of Britpop –  at the same time. I felt very much betrayed because
and by the time that scene imploded, Skunk Anansie remained,
going on to make six albums, finding success on America’s
live circuit and building a lasting cult following. Lazy critics
of the time might have thought that Skin was destined for
momentary shock value, but it was really her achingly visceral
insights into heartbreak on early tracks like “Hedonism” that
saw her become a beloved artist for a generation of outsiders.
Skunk Anansie made you feel it, and Skin made you run to your
bed and lose yourself in the tear-stained thrill that somehow,
someone else had also felt your sting.
In the racist cultural climate she came up in, Skin was
doubly visible: a black woman in a music industry teeming
with whiteness, and a black artist that leaned into ‘otherness’,
by refusing stereotypical expectations of playing soul or
R&B to instead play rock. When I ask whether the band
might have been more initially successful had she not been
the frontwoman, she leaps to answer: “Fuck yeah!” This is
Skin’s charm – a refusal to submit that means her legacy is
of someone who has always spoken up. (The week we meet,
she posts a response on Instagram to Wireless festival’s
proposed swearing ban, writing “Seriously???? Fuck those
Mary Whitehouse anti-grime, anti-youth, buy-your-
gentrified-house-off-black-folk-then-complain-bitches!”,
swiftly putting an end to the debate).
In another life, Skin might have been an interior
designer, off the back of the degree she studied for at Teesside
before joining the band. It makes a strange kind of sense:
imagining spaces that don’t exist yet, to create something
beautiful. Twenty-five years ago, she laid the blueprint
for a music culture that hadn’t been born yet, in a band that
became history. As she celebrates 25 years of Skunk Anansie
with a career-spanning new live album, 25LIVE@25, Skin
talks Afropunk, “clit-pop”, and that one time her signature
Alexander McQueen bumsters caused a moral panic.
You once described yourself as ‘the living nightmare of
every conservative suburban house owner’. What did
you mean by that?
I was quite shy growing up; my mother was religious
and I was always trying to conform. I had a very abusive
boyfriend, and at that point I realised if I didn’t come
out of this timid, shy shit I was gonna be a housewife
with 15 kids. Later I realised that I was just not the
girl next door and I was never gonna be. There was
just something weird about me – a lot of that was
sexuality, because I wasn’t the normal black girl going
to church with the long perm. I tried to look like that,
but I wasn’t like that inside. Once I became OK with
that, my confidence really grew, in myself (and) in my
performances onstage.
Did your parents get what you did?
I don’t think that they really got it. I mean, I got the
university degree and all that for my parents and then
when I went out and started working as an interior
designer I was like, ‘I hate this.’ I’d done all the goody-
two-shoes stuff that I should be doing for my mum
and dad, to make them proud. My mum complained
and complained until she saw (me on) Top of the Pops
– and then she was like, ‘Ooh, she’s on TV, she must
be successful.’ She hasn’t complained since!
They must have been part of the Windrush generation –
how does the Tory government’s current agenda of
deportation make you feel?
That was… a stab in the back and a stab in the heart
that’s my mum, you know? That’s my aunt. It was like,
‘You’ve been sending Jamaicans back who have been
here for 50, 60 years.’ They begged us to come here
then they turned round and were like, ‘Yeah, actually
you’re not supposed to be here, we’ll send you back.’
It shows how short the memory is. I think that we’re
living in really racist times right now. Brexit has taken
us back, the Trump thing has just given (the racists)
wings, it’s given the wrong people a sense of power.
Like, ‘Oh, it’s our time now, we can do something here,
we can get all these blacks kicked out.’ I have a song
called ‘Little Baby Swastikkka’ (from Skunk Anansie’s
1995 debut, Paranoid & Sunburnt) – all those songs
we wrote back in the mid-90s because it was quite
a racist environment at the time. Brixton wasn’t the
lovely, gentrified, white area it is now. It was boarded
up, there were riots in ’91 and ’95 – it was riotsville.
They didn’t care, they didn’t give a shit.
Later on, when you formed the band, you were based in
Kings Cross. Was there a black community there?
It was very multicultural, (especially) later. We were
all hanging around rehearsing and the Splash Club
was kind of our home. There was Echobelly, Elastica,
us and Asian Dub Foundation, Dub War… There were
all these bands in Kings Cross. When you’re a kid you
don’t realise that not everyone else is like that. It was
only when we got signed and started touring that we
realised we were really weird and our little scene was
very alien.
What did your scene think about Britpop at that time?
We were anti-Britpop! We didn’t like it; it made
things really difficult for us because we weren’t like
that. There was no diversity in that scene; it was literally
just four white boys playing guitars. Magazines like
the NME used to make scenes up – but we were real
and overlooked. Then, when Britpop started to die,
we exploded, because we were the alternative and so we
all started doing really well in America. We identified
with Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine,
Marilyn Manson… All those bands loved us.
Do you think you would have had more British success
if you weren’t the frontwoman?
Fuck, yeah! Absolutely. I mean, where were all the
other Skunk Anansies? This country suffers from a lot
of inverted racism. If you’re white and you’re doing
what black people do, people will love it, but if you’re
black and you’re doing (something that) white people
are doing – like rock music – everyone will hate it.
If I was going to be a grime artist then I would be fine.
But I’ve never been into rap in my life! I cannot sing

reggae! It’s ingrained in the British press: ‘If you’re
doing this, we’re going to big you up and we’re going
to love you, but if you’re not, (you should) know it’s
going to be a bit harder for you.’ I knew I had to be
better than everyone else put together. I have to sing
better, I have to be more crazy, I have to write better
songs. It was just about being better. We were so good
we would just astound people.
The present-day Afropunk movement seems to have had
a huge impact on ideas of blackness.
Yes! We played Afropunk in New York and I loved it,
because there’s a whole philosophy and cultural identity.
The point of it is that blackness is so much bigger than
“The point of Afropunk is that blackness is so much bigger than
what we’re perceived as. It’s like how we were (in the 90s) – 
it didn’t matter who went where, or what sexuality someone was”
what we’re perceived as. For me, it’s like how we were
in Kings Cross back in 1992 – it didn’t matter who went
where, or what sexuality someone was.
What were some of the stranger things you read about
yourself when you started getting press?
If you Google (press from) back in the day, the first
line of literally 95 per cent of interviews starts with
‘six-foot, black bisexual, Amazonian lead singer of
Skunk Anansie’. I was described as this kind of cliche.
I’ve got to be Amazonian, I’ve got to be super-sexual,
I’ve got to be really tall. Then people met me and
they were like, ‘Oh, you’re not that tall’ and I was like,
‘I never said I was tall.’ And I’m not that aggressive,
I’m actually quite softly spoken.
‘Clit-pop’ was used as a genre classification for a while in
the 90s, and it’s rumoured that you coined it. Is that true?
I remember doing an interview where they said,
‘So what do you think about Britpop? Wouldn’t you
want to be a Britpop band?’ and I said, ‘We’re not
fucking Britpop – we’re our own team, clitpop.’ I just
made it up on the spot. Then the whole thing just
went crazy. Other bands were saying they were clitpop
and I was like, ‘There’s no such thing! I made it up!
We were the only clitpop band and now it’s over.’
How political did you set out to be?
We never thought, ‘We’re going to write a political
song.’ It was always important to us to write songs about
something important – but we didn’t restrict ourselves
to being a political band at all, you know? But if you
write one political song – you become dangerous and
‘political’. It’s just so they can put you in a box and
throw you away, because actually the establishment
doesn’t want you to say anything political – or if it
does, it wants you to say it in a way that’s not gonna
hurt anyone.
What were the tracks that provoked this kind of reaction?
With ‘Little Baby Swastikkka’, I saw a little baby
swastika on the wall that looked like it was done by
a four-year-old child and wrote about it. Then there’s
(1996 track) ‘Yes It’s Fucking Political’ – I mean,
it’s not like I’ve written an Adele song there, have I?
We just wanted to be a great band. We didn’t even
want to be a stadium band; we had no ambitions there.
We don’t really write pop songs. Our biggest one was
like, number 13 (“Brazen (Weep)”, which reached
number 11 in the UK charts in 1997).
238
You were a spiritual muse to Alexander McQueen.
How do you feel about that?
Alexander McQueen was my introduction to fashion,
really. I think I was the first person to wear bumsters on
TV, on TFI Friday! Your bum was like a bit of cleavage;
they were really low and really tiny, and when I wore
them it was a big fucking deal. Every time I turned
around they would edit it out! Lee actually used to
live near me, on Wood Lane (in west London), so we
were neighbours. I used to go round to his house and
try not to walk on his white f loor. He gave me some
great advice – he would say things like, ‘Don’t hang
out with those guys, they all fuck each other when
the doors are closed and stab each other in the back.’
He didn’t give a shit, he was just an East End boy and
not changing for these people. The saddest thing for
fashion is that he’s not around.
Your clothing archive must be pretty special – do you
have any favourite pieces?
I’ve got suits, and I’ve got the original bumsters.
My favourite thing I have of McQueen’s is the original
rose thorns. They came up in auction in New York and
my girlfriend bought me these solid silver thorns as
a birthday present, so they’re in my safe!
I heard that you were invited to Nelson Mandela’s 80th
birthday because of your popularity in South Africa?
Yes, we were invited to go to Nelson Mandela’s night of
a thousand dinners (charity event) and 80th-birthday
concert (in 1998). Me and Cass (Lewis, Skunk Anansie’s
bassist) were standing there at the end of the night,
after dinner. They started introducing people to come
up and shake hands with Nelson Mandela. Somebody
would go, ‘Nina Simone’ and Nina Simone comes up,
‘Danny Glover’ and Danny Glover comes up, ‘Stevie
Wonder’, ‘Michael Jackson’… So I leaned over to
Cass and went, ‘Skunk Anansie!’ and we both started
giggling because it was so ridiculous, we were laughing
our heads off. Then they said ‘Skunk Anansie’ and
we were so busy giggling they had to say our name
three times. We were like, ‘Is that us?!’ So we went
up and shook Nelson Mandela’s hand. It was a surreal
moment in my life.
Skunk Anansie’s 25LIVE@25 is out January 25, 2019
Tartan leotard and handbag Charlie McCosker, puffer jacket 66 North, hooded top worn underneath Balenciaga, trousers Symonds Pearmain, bum-bag Levi’s, belt Dior, leather boots Chloé 239
Ambroziak, Ayaka Matsuda, special thanks Gas Studio
Ryan Connolly, styling assistants Hannah Hetherington, Kat
Make-up Ciara O’Shea at LGA Managment, photography assistant
Striped panel rollneck Raf Simons, wool dress and scarf Versace, jeans and shoes Burberry, beret Margaret Howell, earrings and tights stylist’s own, bracelet Dior, bag Charlie McCosker 240
THE NIGHT NOIR EDIT
DOCUMENTED BY STEVEN MEISEL
GIVENCHY.COM