A Picture Within a Picture

July 17, 2020

The pandemic has made people feel lonely and isolated while also pushing them to their creative limits. Photographer Cole Fawcett's new project, "A Picture Within a Picture," stems from the idea of exploring the social and material dimensions that exist in photography.

Spanning four months and featuring 52 images of models from across the globe, the project, as Fawcett puts it, "grew out of my frustrations with the rapid pace of social media. We view photos at the same time as we capture them. Often, we share them at that same moment. I wanted to take a step back from that and create photographs that were striking in their tangibility."

How much can a photograph be reproduced while still keeping its original connotation?

Intro by Jacorey Moon
Photos by Cole Fawcett
Fashion assistance by Serge Carreira

With photos of models in different positions and holding different captures of themselves, the shots aim to answer this question. The photo process experienced technical restraints because meeting in person is impossible right now, but by printing images, they bridged the gap of presence.

“After viewing this project, I hope others engage with photography in a different light,” Fawcett says. “Perhaps they will consider the meaning of printing, and lost experiences such as passing photographs around the dinner table, personal portraiture, and giving photographs as a gift.”

Check it out below.

Full look by ERNEST W. BAKER

Tasmir Thiam, 20, Independent Model Management

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

During quarantine I realized that I can have an amazing time staying by myself and it really helped me.

What is your relationship with stillness?

I don’t really know. I would say it's very weird.

What is your favorite household item?

I would say my bed and doors.

What do you daydream about most?

I daydream about being in nature a lot.

What is your daily routine?

When I wake up in the morning, I like to have a shower first then have breakfast and check my emails. But when I don’t have to go to work, I like to take a walk for 30 minutes.

Full look by REESE COOPER

Paris Reid, 22

What have you realised about yourself in quarantine?

Not more or less than I would realize about myself during times prior.

What is your relationship with stillness?

Familial

What is your favourite household item?

The window.

What do you daydream about most?

Libraries.

What is your daily routine?

Wake, wash, foam roll, coffee. I like to go for walks. Swim or otherwise get wet. Some reading and lots of forgetting.

Full look by JW ANDERSON

Peter Dupont, 24, IMG NY

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

I quickly realized I haven’t had much time off and that it was very needed for me to “learn” to move slow again. I just wish it didn’t have to be under such sad conditions that I took time for this.

What is your relationship with stillness?

I have always really enjoyed stillness, one of my favorite things is to be in the mountains. Preferably as remote and difficult to get places. There is a valley in northern Sweden—Sarek—that I have visited a couple of times. At moments it gets so still that you can hear your own heart. This is such a beautiful and calming experience.

What is your favourite household item?

I have a kitchen machine for handling dough, blending and other cooking tasks. As I really enjoy cooking, this is an amazing tool that I use almost daily.

What do you daydream about most?

I work on a couple of fashion and climate related projects. These are always in my thoughts on how to develop new solutions and work with alternatives to how we do today.

What is your daily routine?

I wake up and do a light work out to get started. Then I eat breakfast and answer emails. Later on I will do more work, go for a run, do Muay Thai or other movement. And then cooking/housework. Probably end up watching a show or documentary with my girlfriend or talking about ongoing projects.

Full look by MARINE SERRE

Tobias Dionisi, 20, IMG

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

I reconnected with myself a lot, I discovered that I have more patience than I thought I had.

What is your relationship with stillness?

I’m a person who’s in constant movement, I’m completely in love with the way I can move all over the world with my job.

What is your favorite household item?

I've always had a huge curiosity and interest in knifes and keys, I actually had a collection of old keys in my hometown.

What do you daydream about most?

To be honest, I’m living my dream right now. I’m achieving goals that 5 years ago I thought were impossible.

What is your daily routine?

I'm not a routine person at all, I love the randomness of my lifestyle quite a lot.

Nour Prims, 18, Uno Models

What have you realised about yourself in quarantine?

We are the universe experiencing itself in infinite different viewpoints.

What is your relationship with stillness?

Complete stillness doesn't exist, everything vibrates. When you start to quiet the mind and the voice in your head, the magic starts to happen. Meditating is essential to not forget love and who we are

What is your favourite household item?

A Tibetan bowl that my mother gave me, helps to tune and clean with all the energies that flow, it's magic.

What do you daydream about most?

I dream with natural spaces with a lot of different symbols and synchronicities, I try always to focus in love.

What is your daily routine?

I just get up, write my dreams and take a few breaths, after lunch I start studying either the car license or books. Then I meditate for a while and start to draw or do some music, I try to always stay positive and active and learn something every day

Full look by ARTURO OBEGERO

Ottawa Kwami, 20, Yafan Models

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

During quarantine I realized my in-depth love for arts—not just me walking a show or working on a project or on set, but how I’m eager to create something with things I find around me. This is really where I belong.

What is your relationship with stillness?

Stilllness, hmm. To be honest with you, that’s a relationship we are still trying to work to be better haha. I wasn’t finding it at all. Like, total absence of movement isn’t really my thing.

What is your favorite household item?

I think my favorite household item is going to be my couch. It even became my bed at one point because I usually end up sleeping there when I’m on my phone or watching something.

What do you daydream about most?

During quarantine my daydream was me outside at the park with my friends with music and just vibing, sharing ideas and opinions and making jokes with each other and sometimes working on a beautiful project.

What is your daily routine?

When I wake up, the first thing I often do is check my emails and messages, take a shower, make a little breakfast and listen to morning sermons or my morning playlists that help me get ready for what the day brings my way.

Full look by LAZOSCHMIDL

Louis Dercon, 17, The Coven Models

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

How nurturing social interaction really is.

What is your relationship with stillness?

I welcome it. It makes me want to create.

What is your favourite household item?

My coffee maker.

What do you daydream about most?

I daydream about what I will think looking back five years from now.

What is your daily routine?

I wake up, I drink coffee, I read, I drink coffee, I go to bed.

Full look by THEBE MAGUGU

Mathew Seymour, 21, The Claw Models

What did you realize about yourself in quarantine?

I’ve realized that I really enjoy the peacefulness of being at home. The luxury of time and peace of mind that being stuck at home creates.

What is your relationship with stillness?

Non-existent. I try to be as busy as possible throughout the day.

What is your favorite household item?

My Xbox.

What do you daydream about most?

Future vacations.

What is your daily routine?

My daily routine changes a lot based on how I feel. But I always try to fit in some meditation and time to work on my music.

Full look by WALES BONNER

Farhan Alam, 22, Supa Model Management

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

I would say I’ve come to the realization that I enjoy self company a lot more than I thought.

What is your relationship with stillness?

Stillness is much like mindfulness for me, paying attention on purpose.

What is your favorite household item?

My favourite household item would be a kettle as it is efficient.

What is your daily routine?

I like to be present in the moment but it would be, me becoming an actor and being capable and helping those in need and my family.

What is your daily routine?

It usually is: prep food, exercise, go for casting/job, keep shuffling.

Top by LOUIS GABRIEL NOUCHI, bottoms by JACQUEMUS

Liam McGovern, 22

What have you realised about yourself in quarantine?

I’m way more capable of keeping up on my laundry than previously thought!

What is your relationship with stillness?

I guess it all depends on how you look at the meaning of stillness. For me, I think about my best friend and how we’ve spent our time together. Me, I’m more likely to want to hang out with some loud music and chat away, but she taught me (while sitting on my porch in the early morning) that sometimes it’s better to make peace with silence and sit still, listen to the noises around us: like a bird’s song or even the bustle of a beverage truck unloading bottles.

What is your favourite household item?

Definitely the refrigerator. Keepin’ it real here.

What do you daydream about most?

Despite the ever changing daily aspirations in society, I still find myself being such a hopeless romantic. I catch myself all of the time thinking about running away to take a dip in the Mediterranean with a beautiful boy and enjoying the sun and the cool water.

What is your daily routine?

My daily routine is never the same...every time I think I have one down, I end up deviating from it in some way. However if there is one thing that is consistent, that would be watching an episode or two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for fashion advice!

Full look by REESE COOPER

Afton Reid, 25

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

I’m bad at puzzles.

What is your relationship with stillness?

I’m bad at it..but trying to become more aware. Most of my inactive moments are some degree of anxiety-based paralysis so it’s been interesting to observe that and learn about myself. That being said, I’ve had some really brief moments of clarity in quarantine—those have been amazing.

What is your favorite household item?

We found an old box of taper candles that belonged to my grandmother. They’re really elegant and I always think of her out here, so that’s been nice.

What do you daydream about most?

Love, the UK, starting a band, EVERYTHING…. I’m trying to daydream less!

What is your daily routine?

Coffee, emails, self-tape, emails, maybe a yin yoga class. Most of all I’ve enjoyed sharing meals with friends at the end of almost every day —that has been a game changer for me.

Full look by UNIFORME PARIS

Alexis Tiem, 19, The Claw Models

What have you realized about yourself in quarantine?

I realized that I always can find something to do even stuck at home.

What is your relationship with stillness?

Uncomfortable, but I can deal with it.

What is your favorite household item?

My favorite one is my computer with my music software on it.

What do you daydream about most?

About love and happiness.

What is your daily routine?

I wake up, then take a coffee and the rest of the day is about doing sport and making music.

Fashion

From Prince Street to East 4th, a Ride With Rapha

April 29, 2024

To celebrate the coolest (and finest) cycle-centric brand Rapha's latest drop, we kept the party going after its New York Clubhouse launch with dinner and drinks at Ella Funt.

With a first campaign shot in New York, capturing riders through the lens of street photographers Sarah van Rij and David van der Leeuw, Rapha Performance Sportswear strikes the perfect balance between style and functionality, tailored for life in motion. Just in time for prime sunny weather here in New York, the collection is a perfect choice, both on and off the bike. "For someone like myself who lives in Amsterdam and commutes by bike daily," says Fayrouz Salem, Rapha Head of Lifestyle, "this is a dream come true. We've created pieces that work on the bike without having to compromise on style."

Shop the collection at rapha.cc and in select Clubhouses.

Photography by Anderson Martinez

Fashion

Happy 424 Day!

Simon Rasmussen — What's going on?

Guillermo Andrade — Right now we're just setting everything up.

So, what are you doing, is it a party?

Well, I kind of felt universally forced, right? Because 4/24/24, I was just like, I don’t really have a choice here. The stars also just kind of aligned, so to be honest, I got this settlement that came with a bunch of clothes so I had this idea to give back to the kids who fuck with us by allowing them to buy our shit first. Not handing stuff out for free, but to do it in a way where we could skip the middleman of the industry, so to speak, and not allow clothes to disappear into the abyss of Farfetch or whatever else. So what we’re going to do is a sort of warehouse sale, which we’ve never done before so that was really exciting for me. I didn’t want to do just another warehouse sale, so it’s like a sample sale turns rager. We teamed up with Adidas and a couple of other sponsors, then drinks, DJs, and a performance.

Sick, I love it.

Yeah. My dream sample sale. Also, it’s not just hoodies and t-shirts here in there, it’s proper collections from the past three seasons. I’m also not picking and choosing, trying to make it accessible, like this was the only way I could afford to buy shit when I was a kid, bro. Sample sales were the thing I looked forward to the most.

I feel you. In New York, there's the annual CDG sale, which is when I used to cop all my CDG.

The only time I could afford Rick. I flew to New York once for a Rick sample sale and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I got invited. And it was mental. I still have those pieces. I will never sell them. Not even because I got 'em cheap. It was also just really fun. Even on the flight to New York, I was like, I can't believe I'm going to New York for a sample sale, what a fucking loser I am. But it was like the adult version of when I was a kid and I was like, Wow, I can't believe I'm 20-something and I'm still doing the thing I was doing in high school. So I hope we can create moments like that for kids here in LA.

Yeah. I love that. It’s important to connect with them; they’re essentially creating the brand. If you don't have them, good luck.

I mean, yeah. Fuck, bro. It's cool that we've been around for this long. I mean, it got a little rocky there for a second I think, for all of us. So coming out of it, tomorrow is a celebration. And it’s like an odd day of the week. It's a Wednesday, super random. And now that we've set it up, the homies are all like, Yo, I'm coming. I'm coming. Let me jump on stage, let me do this, and that's really what it's always been about. It's not some other strategy to get likes on the internet.

That’s how the best things happen, you just couldn’t help yourself. It was intuitive.

Yeah, it all came together in a really nice way.

Would you say that’s how 424 started as well? I remember we met in like 2010 on Fairfax and I was visiting with Rasmus…

Oh bro, it’s probably the time when I started the branch… do you remember Cecilia from Black Dakini? She’s the one that introduced me to CIFF and honestly, I didn’t even care what she was doing, I was just like, I’m coming, I’ll go with you. She said she’d give me half of her booth and I said, Awesome count me in. At the time, I had just gotten my green card and I wasn't allowed to ever leave America, so Copenhagen was one of the first cities I went to when I could finally travel. I mean, you see what we did at CIFF bro? It became our fucking hub for half a decade.

That was a moment for sure.

I remember the first account I got was Antonioli, and he came super gangster, being like, You're going to sell me these clothes. And I was like, bro, I didn't come to sell clothes. I'm just kind of catching a vibe with my homie and I made these things. And he's like, No, you're going to sell it to me. And then I was like, Oh my god that’s Claudio Antonioli. So then I went home, I googled wholesale, and figured that shit out. [laughs]

[Laughs]

Like you said, I couldn't help myself, but I didn't just make t-shirts and hoodies either. I was really on my Rick wave, so I made my version of the Rick things. It was that meets like The Boondock Saints, because I'm still a little bit of a Cali bro, sort of rock kid, but not really. I like hip-hop, but I like the way the rock stars look. I like the contrast. I thought it was cool. After that, I just never stopped.

It was clear to me when I first met you that you were onto your own thing in LA. It made a lot of sense, and it was so cool. It was before 424 was its own brand; you just had the store and this really cool curation.

It was all my shit, bro. I was very, very invested in sharing all of these things that I was finding from all over the world, like Astrid Anderson. She was one of those designers at the time, so important to 424. The connection to Copenhagen specifically for me was huge. I had a big fan base there. It was incredible. And then here in LA, we were sharing the things that we were a part of and finding; it was still the early days of Fear of God, Rhude, Martine Rose. A lot of these brands, we were the first store to ever sell it — we were selling Hood By Air on the West Coast.

You had Rick as well, I remember.

Oh yeah. It took me a long time. But I got Rick, bro. By the time I had to close the store on Fairfax, I already had a Raf Simons account. I had reached my ultimate dream. It was really all the stuff I wanted to wear at the time. It was dope. The best of the best.

We had an office magazine newsstand in there as well.

Oh yeah, we did! I came to visit the one you had, and I was like, Yo, I got to bring this whole fucking thing over here. But yeah, in LA, after two days people forget you exist, but everyone’s been super supportive. We’re all 10 years older now. We've been around forever at this point.

It can be dangerous to take those breaks when you’re figuring shit out, but there’s something very genuine to this comeback you’re having.

Thank you, thank you. We’ve been in and out of those fucking showrooms in Paris for long enough. I've been in and out of these factories for the past 10 years of my life. We had to figure something out. And I think now really diving in, being in Italy full time and being there to develop these products over time, I think that the whole thing just really shows the suppliers respect you more. The people who are making your goods understand why you're making them. And I think now I finally got to the place where I'm not making Italian things, I’m making my clothes, I'm making Cali-centric shit, but with that European technicality and execution. With this Fall / Winter collection, it clicked.

So what’s the vision for the next year? What are you manifesting?

I'm just fucking relentless, bro. This is the way I want to live my life. Now that we are more aligned, more prepared, and have more experience, moving forward it is just more of becoming a fully functioning company that can provide and create opportunities for all of the people around me. We’ve been operating just on instinct for a long time.

Sustaining a business is scary, trust me I know.

Scary as fuck, dog. I just opened a store next to Bottega, bro, and it’s like what am I even doing? You have to just believe in the thing you're doing more than anybody else.

100%, and it seems like that’s what you’re doing.

And fashion’s kind of a competitive sport, as much as people don’t think it is. We can reach a certain level without losing ourselves. My biggest ambition at the moment is to create something that, when you leave one of our neighbors you come into our place you don’t feel that the level has been sacrificed at all. And it’s not easy.

Definitely. I wish I could be there tomorrow.

Thank you, bro. 10 years now. You’ve always shown me so much love. We have to do a booth or have the office part of the next 424 day. Shit let’s do a 424 day in New York.

That would be sick. Let's do it. I'm here. Let’s catch up soon.

Next season’s right around the corner so I’ll see you in Paris.

Yes, see you in Paris and Happy 424 day!

Fashion

Luis De Javier's PUTA Takeover

April 25, 2024

Last night with Luis De Javier, guests were overheard confirming this generation's most vital conundrum: “If I’m cunt, I can still be pussy.” “And if you’re pussy, you can still be cunt.” This sentiment echoed throughout the night as we celebrated De Javier’s first-ever streetwear collection, "PUTA". We spent seven hours at Ella Funt at a dinner turned party that only he could’ve thrown (co-hosted by emcee). It was too dark for even the most aspiring-to-look-mysterious of us to wear sunglasses inside. Under the semi-oppressive flash of party photographers, we danced as much as the space would allow, drank tequila out of teacups and kissed each other on the cheeks with a vaguely European intimacy. “I’m doing streetwear!” De Javier could be heard exclaiming — whether it be in disbelief or excitement, we couldn’t tell you.

Words and photos by Izzy Capulong

The Spanish-born London-based designer has been well-loved for his genderless tailoring, latex mastery, and overall message of empowerment. Dressing everyone from ravers to A-listers, De Javier’s latest drop pushes his design repertoire to a new level. “While designing for my celebrity clientele and showcasing my creations on the runway has always been my dream,” he notes, “It’s equally important to me that my brand resonates with a wider, more diverse audience.” While this collection’s medium has shifted from corsets to sweatshirts, the classic LDJ avant-garde sensibilities remain. Bikinis and booty shorts are shamelessly emblazoned with “PUTA,” blazers are constructed with ample shoulder padding, and I had my eye on the cheekily-named “Faguette Bag.”