By Charlie Siddick
Imagine waking up to an email asking you whether you’d like to interview one of your idols… it’s every writer’s wet dream. That’s what happened to me recently on a gloomy and otherwise non-remarkable December day, “ThandieKay would probably love an interview with Pat Cleveland?” read the subject line, followed by a brief description of Pat’s achievements and accolades, which let me tell you are hard to compress. “Yes, ThandieKay would love to interview Pat Cleveland” I hastily responded without consulting either Thandie or Kay, because I mean, Pat’s the perfect fit- and one of the world’s first ‘African-American’ supermodels, and certainly the most fabulous.… Read more...
By Charlie Siddick
The Italian tyre company, Pirelli, have published a calendar annually since 1964, and is known as a showcase for iconic photographers to shoot high fashion models normally robed in, rather than disrobed of the YSL. This iconic tradition is presented as a limited edition ‘art calender’, unlike the usual fayre adorning the sooty walls of 70’s car mechanics.
The last decade has seen the company increasingly garner criticism not only for it’s regressive depiction of femininity, but also for its lack of diversity. For the most part, the women displayed were always three things: white, thin, and traditionally beautiful from a western perspective.… Read more...
Posted by Kay
Called the best thing on instagram by Refinery 29, body positive activist, model and nascent documentary maker Naomi Shimada is a warm ray of sunshine in our cynical times.
Rarely seen without a brightly coloured outfit, a huge smile, and a great pair of kicks, half Japanese, raised-in-Spain Naomi is one of a kind and I adore her.
Hilary Taymour is a friend and she’s the designer behind Collina Strada. Hilary started her casting process by deliberately selecting models from countries on Trump’s ‘travel ban’ list. However that proved harder than it from there we started selecting a wide range of models with different ethnic backgrounds, beliefs, ideologies that are fearful of the consequences during this presidential term.… Read more...
1 of 2 i-D Fall 2016 Covers: ‘The Game-Changing’ issue featuring Stormzy
Not many people can command a room like Lynette Nylander can. Confident, self-assured and fashion-savvy, the 27 year old navigated her way amongst the world’s fashion elites to become the deputy editor of i-D magazine, the 36 year old fashion title.
So, I grew up in East London (far east) and I went to school in Essex. It was really kind of strange and not very exciting because there weren’t many people who were creative. I was really starved and I bonded really closely with the people who were creative and different.… Read more...
By Rose Miyonga
With the prominence of smart, beautiful women of colour in the pubic eye wearing head wraps, it might seem like head wraps are having a renaissance. But i would argue that they never went away. Phenomenal women like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lupita Nyong’o and Zadie Smith deserve credit for wearing their head wraps with such style and grace, and their power is only enhanced by the fact that the history of the garment makes them part of a long tradition of women of African origin defying the conventions of Western beauty standards and standing tall and powerful at the intersection between tradition and avant-garde.… Read more...
By Oyin Akande
‘Gender fluidity’ has become the hot topic of 2016. High street brand Zara released its interpretation of agender clothing earlier this year. Designer labels like Casely-Hayford, Rick Owens and Maison Margiela have sent models down the runway and straight into a conversation around neutrality. The conversation existed before this year but as Mrs. Prada surmised “more and more, it feels instinctively right to translate the same idea for both genders.” It is part of the contemporary movement towards recognising diverse identities and interrogating the precepts we have for feminine and masculine identity.
Women have embraced gender fluidity with some ease as we’ve been wearing men’s clothes for decades anyway.… Read more...
by Oyin Akande
Nipples removed by instagram not us 🙂
So it’s hard to imagine a world-class model being told that she’s anything but gorgeous, right? While we are increasingly aware how many mainstream industries push rigid and unattainable ideas of beauty, we have a tendency to overlook that these constructs are even more ruthlessly observed for models than they are for us, the majority of ‘real women’.
French model Anaïs Mali has featured in many editions of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and many other international titles; she has walked down the runways for Michael Kors, Balenciaga, Jason Wu and more.… Read more...
