MAT MAITLAND

HIMEROS’ ODYSSEY
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 Filmmaker Christian Coppola has
been fascinated with ‘child stars’ and
their unique acting abilities for as
long as he can remember. While Cole
Sprouse, an actor and photographer
partly known for his role in the series
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,
emerged from the mid-to-late 2000s
alumni of Disney stars, now-26-year-
old Sprouse has progressed from
mere ‘child stardom’ and pursued
a variety of projects and passions
in fields such as photography and
archeology, as well as a recent return
to acting on The CW’s Riverdale,
starring as the iconic teen-heartthrob
Jughead. On the heels of Coppola’s
forthcoming short film Daddy,
starring Sprouse’s twin brother Dylan,
Christian and Cole teamed up for a
series of dreamy suburbia, along with
an in-depth conversation on their
respective disciplines.

PHOTOGRAPHS CHRISTIAN COPPOLA

STYLING SEAN KNIGHT
HAIR & MAKEUP HOMA SAFAR
PRODUCER KRISTA WORBY
Coat, hood & trousers CALVIN KLEIN
Boots SAINT LAURENT
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Suit & shoes STELLA MCCARTNEY

Shirt MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA
Socks FALKE

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I am calling you from Paris in the room Oscar Wilde
IN CONVERSATION WITH CHRISTIAN COPPOLA
died in.
Are there any suspicious stains?
They keep it really clean but the wallpaper freaks
me out because it’s this holographic peacock detailing.
There definitely are cameras of some sort embedded in
the walls but that’s ok.
I live with that same paranoia anytime I go to to
the bathroom or am in public. I understand that
fear, I think the younger, more virtual generation
has and understands that fear.
What are your days off from shooting Riverdale in
Vancouver like?
It usually consists of some sort of chore that still
revolves around filming, AD-R or something of
that sort. I try to shoot a lot on my own, and try
to travel around the greater Vancouver area. It’s a
lot of recuperation. I just went over to Montreal. I
think travelling alone is very important for artists,
when you take a group of people with wherever
you are travelling from - you bring a microcosm of
the culture with you in the group of people. When
you travel alone it forces you to reassess the culture
around you, where you may or may not fit in and
those moments of found-alienation can be the
glory of travelling.
Being alone and being isolated is very conducive to
my creative process.
Which is? Talk a bit about your creative process.
I know I am a floater; I have a hard time staying put
in the same place for like more than two weeks. I’ve
built a life that thrives on movement for my creativity.
I try to emulate an obsessive creative process, even
though I do not call myself a photographer - I bring
my point and shoot everywhere I go. It’s a sense
of documenting. It’s about contextualising what
is happening in my daily life. It’s an obsessive visual
diary. People don’t understand that I would still be
doing this, even if I didn’t have an Instagram page to
show off the photos I am creating.
I understand that.
What about your process, Cole? As pretentious as this
is right now, but it’s not like we shy away from that?
It depends on the artistic medium you are pursuing.
When it comes to acting, it can be very tricky
- it’s a dangerous method to figure out everytime.
You have to experiment with your process on
film and find out how to navigate your voice.
You think of all these things like, “how do I
build this character? How do I build this role?”
It’s interesting you mention young actors being so powerful, that’s something I’ve always
stood by - that idea. Some of the most powerful performances are by incredibly young
actors, even Christian Bale in Empire Of The Sun. The boys in François Truffaut’s 400 Blows
are absolutely dynamite, and fearless on camera.
It’s no surprise that anyone who studies this – that with the fame and recognition that
Coat SANDRO
comes with acting – photography is detrimental to the creative process in and of itself.
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“When it comes to photography, I take tremendous
inspiration from my immediate surroundings,
my environment - it’s a DOUBLE EDGED sword
because I start to become an EMOTIONAL SPONGE."
If one of the variables is off-kilter within that collaboration, I go off. I try to control as much as
possible - I make sure the model is flexible, movable and kind of like a noodle.
You only photograph spaghetti? Fantastic to know.
Marinara.
I have a bolognese you’d be dying to meet.
I don’t see good photos as a happy accident, I see it as serendipity. All the variables were in place in
the dish. If you shoot more consistently, you are going to stumble upon a dish of nice tasty bolognese.
That happens to be one of my favourite pastas. Cole, what’s interesting is that I am always wary of
taking on the label of “photographer” in a world where everyone is a “photographer” with a drugstore
disposable camera or an iPhone camera - medium of access. There is so much ready access to it, it makes
you interrogate the idea of “what is the eye?”
Those labels demand excellence, which is very intimidating. People don’t really like when artists achieve
success in one medium and then choose to adopt another medium for themselves. Labels just help
people try to binary what kind of angle or position you have. The greater of access changes the bell curve
of what people are used to, and what kind of photography becomes a virtual standard. It also allows the
outliers to really stand out. If you put in the time or dedication, and you are working on the craft - the
label can be intimidating but the work will stand out even greater than it has before.
I like to think working hard will lead to this idea of being recognised, and your work speaking for itself.
In a world where I feel there is a lot of art being done for the wrong reason and seeking a certain level of
validation that is reflecting back on the person who is taking the photo or doing whatever publication, or
whatever clout they desire… That’s when I become weary of the world of photography.
There is a celebrity culture surrounded by photographers with the inclusion of social media. Many artistic
mediums thanks to social media have been voiced with the same kind of vanity, and the potential for
morbid narcissism. I see this pursuit of vanity similar to what acting always has been. Photography is in
an interesting period right now thanks to social media, from a neurological and historical standpoint - I
can’t wait to see the kind of photographers that are produced within this generation and what they look
like, 30 years down the line.
have worked with a good amount of child stars, not that I would call you and Dylan child stars but I found
myself working with kids who are actors, or people who have been acting their whole lives. This process of
working your whole life for something, and being in that process your entire life.
When you are young, and you are in front of an audience consistently - those little adolescent mistakes
when you are acting or you are outside of it, you are still a child - held to a degree that is so hypercritical.
When you are an actor, find what works best for you - when you are young, you aren’t really given the
time to do that. A lot of us in society, when we have a level of professionalism and practice - it’s often
not visible, that lack of visibility allows you to go through your metamorphosis and come out as a fully
formed entity. Children are wonderful actors, it’s not self-conscious; it simply just is. They are a conduit
for the writing and the dialogue of the situation. As a kid, I had never worked on the currency of what
acting was, and when I learned later in life - it was empathy. I didn’t have an honest perspective of real
life, and honest struggle, trauma, joy - the empathetic connection that you need to embody. I had to
take some time away in a non-visible setting to work on the professionalism, to come back with a
more educated point of view:
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Jacket & trousers CALVIN KLEIN

Top SANDRO
Boots SAINT LAURENT
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Jacket & trousers SAINT LAURENT

Top SANDRO SWEATER
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Shirt & trousers SAINT LAURENT

Coat SANDRO
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“People are getting addicted to or

getting obsessed with a character It’s this rockstar syndrome, everyone wants to be a rockstar and
when they finally hit that rockstar status with this audience and all
that is essentially another person you these eyes on them the work will be affected, and some might
say suffer.
are building outside of your career." I think for acting, it’s one of those strange things with social
media; the larger the audience you get, the more “authentic”
you try to curate it. The more you are giving your audience a perception of you as a human, it can be detrimental
to suspending their disbelief of you as an actor. If you are asking your audience every time you step into a role if you’ve
done your job correctly, you have to believe the empathy you are putting into that character on the screen. People
are getting addicted to or getting obsessed with a character that is essentially another person you are building outside
of your career. It’s a very strange complicated juggle.

Everyone has fallen victim to playing a role, building a character and I would even argue that everyone is playing a role, and
that makes everyone an actor. When I am thinking about a photo that I want to post, something that I want to share with
everyone, I am going to inevitably think, “does this reflect my ideals? Does this fit into my virtual gallery space? Does this
fit into the world I am trying to build for myself…?”
This is all just human nature. Social media has given us a platform, and an audience bigger and better than before.
From the second you decide to put clothes on in the morning, what you choose to put on from your closet, you
are asking for an interaction with your environment that is essentially a type of roleplaying. Humans have been
doing this for a very long time but the difference is now we have a consistent audience, and a space that is immediately
validating or otherwise, in the form of virtual approval. We are conditioning ourselves and our virtual selves on
how to be a better actor within these confinements.

Cole, what have you sacrificed in your life to be doing what you are doing right now?
The biggest sacrifice is anonymity. You really recognise when it’s gone. A lot of people have a firm understanding
when you go into a recognisable, high profile - you are willingly sacrificing anonymity.

You know the story about Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury going to that party and dressing up as each other and no one
even recognised her or suspected it was them. I feel that would be the best movie scene.
Christian, are you proud of how the movie DADDY you did with my brother turned out?

I think Dylan’s performance in DADDY is transcendent. Making that movie was all about finding someone to bring that role
to life in an interesting way, and that was something that your brother did. Dylan really realised that there is a lot of risk and
excitement to bring into that role… no one else could do it at the end of the day.
Please let me know when I get a chance to see the movie you guys made together. I can’t wait to see it.

I’ll try my best to get you a reserved seat in the screening.

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HENRI LEVY
Henri Levy, provocateur and designer of label Enfants
Riches Déprimés, in conversation with curator and
regular King Kong-contributor Birte Kleemann
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 001 HENRI LEVY
BK: Hi Henri, thank you for allowing this interview with
you. We are thrilled to have you create a special
feature for us. It looks awesome and is truly unique.
We originally met through the work of Don Van Vliet.
Could you say what you specifically like about his
work and how it relates to your own practice, where
you see a similar interest?
HL: I originally found out about Don Van Vliet years
ago in my teens, as I grew up with a large piece in
my household. The work instantly stood out to
me, his sense of composition, use of texture and
colour palette were all factors that drew me in,
but I guess the most relatable aspect for me was
his background as a musician [Captain Beefheart]
but [also his] real passion to paint. In many ways
I feel that way about my work, as I am known
foremost as a designer, but painting for me, has
been a serious focus forever. I have contemplated
retiring from “fashion” and changing my name to
“Disappointment”.
When you draw, do you merely draw from memory
using your intuition, or is it just as much informed
by actual events and surroundings? In the trailer to
your upcoming film ‘Aluminium Tastes Like Fear’
with Andre Bato, we can see you constantly working
without skipping a beat. It has a certain automatism.
I try to be in touch with my subconscious as much
as possible when I draw or paint. My taste has
been carefully curated and fine-tuned over the
years; keeping in mind every experience I’ve had
up until that point. Sometimes when I work, in
order to properly access this, I go against what my
mind is telling me to do, because in some sense
my knowledge can hold me back.
I write on the canvas or garment with my left
hand. I immediately destroy something I spent
hours drawing. Hours spent on a piece does not
equate to anything - attachment is an enemy
during the process. I thoughtfully throw in a
clashing colour (for me this applies to fashion
and painting), playing it too safe with your colour
palette will harm the final result. Now that being
said, in many situations I create an order in which
my subconscious can interact with it. In painting,
an example of this could be large clinical graphs
that I have printed sharply with inkjet on canvas. I
do the original study on the graph from whatever
book I referenced, but I then plan my piece and
create a space to violently interact. Once this is
stretched, I attack the canvas in bursts then step
back and assess. I apply this technique in suiting
as well - maybe I will draw all over a jacket sleeve
before it is sewn together, then the stitches going
over the chaotic marks act as an elegant control
for the subconscious to exist within.
In your practice, how do you go from working in
your studio to your fashion practice, when you
design a full season? How do you carve out the time
for the studio away from working with a team,
and is it currently shifting more towards working
by yourself?
I have always worked on drawings in the same
space that I create a collection. Although I believe
that fashion is not art because it has function,
I do use my painting to push my colour story
and inspire the overall theme of the collection.
Because the graphics are so closely tied in with
the brand, it is essential I can have my studio and
“I try to be in touch with my subconscious as much as
possible when I draw or paint."
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atelier in the same place. I tend to work at night
when no one is around, rather than first thing
in the morning when the staff arrives to a sleep
deprived Henri who starts explaining ideas.
When you set out for a season for your label, what
triggers the groundwork – the underlying theme? Do
you map it out from one topic, or does it naturally
come together by adding one element to another
until it feels rounded to you? It seems there is a
natural take on it, while the season is very in focused
and clear, it seems rooted in a strong instinctive
creative process.
I do research and pick out certain things. It
naturally comes together by adding one element
after another, maybe taking one away. I start off
every season by making kind of like a zine. By the
time the collection is finished the zine is pretty
much done.
I guess why I am asking, is because with every season
you design, it seems several streams are coming
together until they are a cohesive whole. You could
just take one element (piece) or layer several items.
That’s exactly right, I couldn't have said it better.
And there are outside elements in your work, quotes
transferred onto the canvas. Is collage an important
element for you? What does appropriation mean
to you?
Assemblage is an important element for me, but
I try to use it when it naturally feels like the right
choice. I think that it can be used as a crutch
but it’s impactful when done correctly. As far as
appropriation goes once I use something to me,
it’s mine – its previous life is irrelevant.
Is music an important influence for either your
fashion or your artwork? And if so, is it the lyrics
or just in general? I am asking, since in your new
season you have a German punk band reference “Die
tödliche Doris” and a fabulous coat with diary entries
and letters by a German junkie (user). In how far is
the origin of it being German integral to it? Do you
like the poetic element of this being one-removed
from fully understanding the notions?
Music is vital for me. I have definitely referenced
and pieced apart lyrics for visual content, but I
honestly don't care about lyrics. I care about the
way things sound. I feel the same way about art
and clothing, when I throw around symbols in
a way, the meaning is irrelevant to me. For me
what’s important is the end result: if I like the way
it looks it’s a success. If I don’t, it’s a failure.
I do like the removal of understanding the notions.
In this case, the writing being in German was
integral to the piece.
You play yourself, do you also compose?
I play music, I compose, I've had a few bands, it’s a
different type of release for me. I find it therapeutic.
You are currently spending more extended time in
Paris. What is the advantage of being away from LA
for a moment, and in a city that’s not so much on the
radar (from a US perspective)? Does it give you more
time to focus on things that are relevant for you?
I think living in Paris is helping me with my
patience. In LA, I live in my own world and I get
whatever I want done pretty easily, so creating
that environment here has been a process. I will
say that because the majority of my staff are in LA,
living in Paris has given me more time to reflect
on what I’m doing and to decompress.
Can you tell us more about your Enfants Riches
Deprimes flagship store that is coming to the Marais?
Again, you partake in every decision-making process
for the design and layout, revealing in some sorts a
lot of personal information. What does it mean to the
label to have an actual location people can come to
and explore?
For me it’s extremely important to have a physical
location that customers can go to that displays
the product in a perfectly curated atmosphere. In
this digital era, I think having a tangible space is
important so that the customer can have a real
experience that leaves them impacted.
What do collaborations mean to you, and when do
you choose them? What format do they usually take
on and how do they start?
‘Collaboration’ to me is an overused word and usually
means someone brought two already bad ideas
together to generate press or ‘hype.’ A collaboration
for me is something I’m only interested in doing if
I utterly respect the other person I’m working with
- on top of it being interesting enough, creating
something great that otherwise would not exist. I
have been thoughtful about my collaborations and
the collaboration has to go one of two ways: either
it’s organic and develops through friendship and
mutual respect of another’s work, or I seek the
company out because it’s something specific I’m
looking for.
You own work by Jean Michel Basquiat and Cy
Twombly in your home. They are both artists, known
for their hand line drawing, that include notations
and personal writing, radiating a strong presence
through their reduced and focused use of these
elements, something I see in your work as well. What
aspects in their work is especially compelling to you?
Over the last few years I have been collecting my
references. Especially because my studio is filled
with my own work, I like to have my home as this
kind of meditative space where I can try to not
think about myself for the small amount of time
I get to spend there. For me, Basquiat will always
be one of my favorite artists and, in a way, was
my introduction to Twombly and Art Brut. What
I find so compelling about Twombly’s work is
the amount of delicacy and thoughtfulness that
parallels the crude writing and marks. I think
both artists’ use of text has been an enormous
inspiration and reference. My Twombly has been
in LA for the last three months I have lived in
Paris and I miss it like a parent would miss a
child. Probably more. As shallow as it sounds, its
companionship is much more comforting than
that of a human. My Twombly does not let me
down. It is what it says it is, and much more.
Do you ever get bored? Do you ever try to be bored?
I don’t really ever get bored, I’m mostly
overwhelmed by the amount of shit I have to
do these days and keeping up with it all is rather
daunting. I don’t try to be bored, but I do try to
shut my brain off. It’s really difficult.
Thank you for doing this great interview. I am
curious to see more and look forward to the release of
your film. On VHS - no less!
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 JOURNALS

DEV wears jumpsuit VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

CAST LEFT (1) TO RIGHT (4)
(1) Jacket WILLY CHAVARRIA
Denim ECKHAUS LATTA
Necklace MARTINE ALI
(2) Shirt WILLY CHAVARRIA
Necklace MARTINE ALI
(3) Jacket WILLY CHAVARRIA
Necklace MARTINE ALI PHOTOGRAPHS JUSTIN FRENCH STYLING DEVON SAVAGE
(4) Vest WILLY CHAVARRIA
Necklace MARTINE LAI SET DESIGNER LAUREN NIKROOZ LOCATION SMASHBOX STUDIO
Bracelet CHROME HEARTS
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JOURNAL 1: I thought I was going to be interviewed, because it’s a lot easier for me. Especially these days. My whole JOURNAL 2: We asked Mykki Blanco if he could Trousers & boots LOUIS VUITTON

ethos behind everything I do in regards to Blood Orange, is that I’ve realised that it comes down to my own expression. have a sit down chat for this – I’ve wanted to do
Music is my most comfortable place. I also don’t ever want to add to the huge data dump of shit that exists in the that with him for some time. But there was a
world, especially of late. So, obviously... what I do is adding to it. Of course I know that much. But I at least want what I strict deadline on this article. I wasn’t made to
add to be somewhat informative, enjoyable... and most definitely honest. be aware of a deadline before… but I don’t fault
anyone. We’re all busy (?!) So I’m writing this as
a stream of thought journal entry. Which is how I
work musically, it’s the most comfortable for me
and stops me from obsessing over every single
point. As in, if I was to plan what I would write
about… there’s a chance I would end up not
writing anything at all. Going back to the data
dump… possibly a much better idea?

JOURNAL 3: I’m in my studio right now – I

started on a couple new things. Both based on
guitar lines I thought up yesterday. I have two
goals here. One for each. The first: was seeing if
I could make some kind of Smashing Pumpkins
meets Bone Thugs situation.

The second: to try and hit some kind of

Pharcyde meets UK garage situation.

Surprisingly, the second situation seems to have

worked out. I’ll revisit it tomorrow.

Shirt TELFAR It is the next day.

Trousers VASILIS LOIZIDES
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JOURNAL 004: I’ve decided to print the full lyrics

to Dagenham Dream & Jewelry. See below.

We received our bloody circles in the mail

only see what’s really important when it’s nailed
as a teen my lord and savior was a male
tightened trucks and 6 steel strings that, keep me
frail
it’s the worst i’ve ever felt, when it hailed
broken teeth and bloody nose but least it snowed
instantly dry, oh i cried and cut a line
in my eyebrow acted like the boys in town
then my teacher told me that this, made her sad
had to act just like the others to get around
friday nights alone in ilford with my board
with the pumpkins blasting in my ears oh lord
taught myself the solos to siamese dream
to help boost and to extract some self esteem
We received our bloody circles in the mail
only see what’s really important when it’s nailed

Jewelry.

Cheap on your skin, smooth

Jewels that ring
Shine hit your eyes, black kiss the ring
Ruby ebony sides, time
Change my eyes for something cool
A dream never leaving my sight
A sun never leaving my side
A feeling a door start to close
I’m feeling the burn in my eyes
The eyes of a heavy best suited to
staying indoors like a good nigga
I treated the hope like my home, and
destroyed it go figure

Still proud, best of my abilities but still I

think about an exit
No one ever will appreciate the way you
bare your soul or attune… i’m through

Nigga I’m feeling myself

Nigga I’m still in my zone

God big books but i’m broke
One time for the help
Two times ‘fore I fell
Three times for the hopeless feeling look
at how I’m spending my wealth
And i’m feeling myself looking up, but then
the thoughts start filling me up

Nigga I’m feeling myself

One time for the help
When the news is way to fi’ and a man gets
shot on the passenger side
Too bad ‘cos a nigga went live
Nigga i’m feelin’ myself

Seek what you need to get by, awake with

one eye closed
In dark black clothes
Red and blue lights on my stone
Go back to being unknown

Relax your hair

Tuck your shirt
Put your glasses on
Play your guitar.

Sweater, trousers & shoes ACNE STUDIOS

Necklace MARTINE ALI

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Shirt SAINT LAURENT by ANTHONY VACCARELLO

Trousers VASILIS LOIZIDES
Boots JOHN FLUEVOG
Necklace MARTINE ALI

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THE FEELING IS MUTUAL
BY CLAUDIA PATERSON
In his 1992 poem Heavy Breathing, black, queer poet and American citizen, Essex Hemphill, wrote: “I am eager
to burn / this threadbare masculinity / this perpetual black suit / I have outgrown.” That hollow casing felt
as stifling to Hemphill as it had to generations before him, though no longer as inevitable. In a year that saw the
election of Carol Moseley Braun to the US Senate and the release of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, and just as rioters
blazed across Los Angeles in protest at the acquittal of Rodney King’s attackers, Hemphill ruminated on
the weight that his skin was given; its heft in relation to his character. For an ethereal, romantic spirit such
as his, the image enshrined in Western popular thought—that of the black man as either brute or commodity—
chafed painfully.
A century earlier, during the Franco-Belgian colonisation of Congo, the stated aim of the colonisers had been to “civilise the uncouth” and “naked”
African natives. Hoping to win favour with the chiefs of Brazzaville and Kinshasa, they brought with them gifts of second-hand European clothing
that were received with great curiosity and by the end of the nineteenth century it had become common practice for Congolese “houseboys” to be
paid in clothing in lieu of money. Via this trickle-down exposure to contemporary European fashion, these houseboys—social elites within the
restrictive colonial model—became fervent disciples of Dandyism, a mode of flamboyant, colourful dressing adopted by middle-class men seeking
to imitate the aristocracy in Eighteenth century Britain and France. In his essay, entitled “La Sape Exposed!: High Fashion Among Lower-Class
Congolese”, historian Didier Gondola observes that these newly minted Congolese dandies soon, “spurned their masters’ secondhand clothes and
became unremitting consumers and fervent connoisseurs, spending their meager wages extravagantly to acquire the latest fashions from Paris.” They
adapted the extravagant styles they saw on colonial workers (known as Bapopo or Coastmen) and cross-pollinated them with African influences,
resulting in a bold new style that became known as la Sape.
La Societé des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (SAPE), an informal collective founded in Brazzaville during the thirties, derived their
acronymic title from the French verb saper, meaning “to dress with style”. Style, however, is subjective, and the Sapeurs of Brazzaville began to
experiment far beyond the reaches of European fashion at the time, subverting the aesthetics of ‘refinement’ in favour of something more riotous
and comedic. Beyond the sartorial aspect, however, subscription to la Societé also required commitment to the behavioural customs of the Sapeurs,
namely manners, cleanliness and kindness. Though the word “gentlemanly” in this context is inescapably associated with the so-called “civilising”
mission of European colonialism, the Sapeurs’ commitment to the concept rested upon its gentleness, as opposed to its manliness.
Still, there is a certain amount of chafing to be reckoned with when contemplating Congolese Dandyism, both in relation to the original
colonial context that produced it and to the economic hardship in which it has been practiced since. Whilst the dandy has historically served as
a transgressive figure within both black and white cultures, the desire to emulate European style and the financial weight of that project upon
Sapeurs operating without the socioeconomic privilege of their European counterparts, cast a pall of doubt over the practice. Whilst Charles
Baudelaire—French poet, critic and patron saint of both dandies and rebels—opined that, “Dandyism [is] an institution beyond the laws”, such
transgression takes for granted a level of financial and social cushioning that Baudelaire enjoyed even whilst transgressing. For a lowly clerk in
colonial Congo, the potential for ruin and social disgrace was more severe and the “institution” of Dandyism not tangible enough to provide any
real protection or support.
To this day, the sacrifice required for Sapeurs on Congolese workers’ wages to afford clothes such as those worn on the catwalks of Paris and
London (largely sent over by friends that have emigrated) belies the stylised nonchalance with which they exhibit their finished looks. Buttologist,
the emigré protagonist of Brazzaville-born author Alain Mabanckou’s Black Bazaar, stalks the streets of Paris in an array of designer suits and the
finest accoutrements, yet returns home every evening to a cramped and squalid flat in the wrong part of town. Although Mabanckou appears to
exalt in the self-affirming power of Buttologist’s clothing and embrace its colonial connotations, the lustre of the Sapeur’s uniform cannot wholly
dispel our unease at the desperate precarity of his financial situation. We wonder if he is not simply a fashion victim.
A counter to this argument arrived in 1968, just as la Sape was gaining significant cultural momentum at home and abroad, and as Europe
was erupting once more into youth-led riots. The poet Ted Joans, whom Andre Breton once described as the only African-American Surrealist
he had ever encountered, described his poems as “hand grenades…[which] explode on the enemy and unhip”. His 1968 manifesto, ‘The Black Flower’
statement, laid out a vision of a black freedom movement in which imperialism would be destroyed with bullets of poetic imagery; ‘black flowers’
that would then take root and spread. In his exhaustive history of the renegade intellectuals and artists that have contributed to African diasporic
culture, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Robin Kelley supports Joans’ idealism, stating that, “Juxtaposing surrealism and black
conceptions of liberation is no mere academic exercise; it is an injunction, a proposition.” Kelley quotes surrealist writer and blues scholar, Paul Garon,
who argues that, “new possibilities of expression all help formulate the nature of the supersession of reality, the transformation of everyday life
as it encumbers us today, the unfolding and eventual triumph of the marvelous.” The marvellous, here, meaning the realisation of a fully realised
black identity, replete with at least as many imaginative reincarnations as have have historically been afforded to white people. The Sapeurs’ project
to subvert the norms of their everyday experience and exist within a realm somewhere between reality and their own imaginations, Kelley argued,
was therefore not just a radical but an essentially surrealist project.
42 GARÇON
Of late, Sapeurs have struck the
zeitgeist anew; from Solange’s 2012
video for ‘Losing You’, in which director
Melina Metsoukas’ lens captures the
singer alongside a series of Congolese-
style dandies majestically mid-pose
(though somewhat incongruously in
Cape Town rather than Brazzaville), to
Guinness’ ‘Sapeurs’, an advert launched
in 2014 celebrating the triumphant,
self-defining spirit of the Sapeurs
and their community. A flood of
exhibitions, online documentaries
and articles followed suit, cementing
the Sapeurs’ ascension to It status.
Fittingly, for a practice grounded in the irony of cultural mimicry, la Sape appears to have come full circle, only now it is the European markets begging
for a piece of the pie, lauding their style and ‘civility’ as a model to be esteemed, emulated and, ultimately, monetised across the West.
Last year, when Stella McCartney debuted her collection for SS’18, which featured a series of flowing dresses in bold ankara prints known as
Dutch Wax, many were quick to note the lack of credit attributed to the African designers that popularised the prints and the dearth of black
models wearing them on McCartney's runway. A spokesperson for the house described the collection as a celebration of the heritage of African
textile craftsmanship but as the provenance of the printing style had not been referenced in the presentation of the show, many perceived this
statement as flat and the so-called celebration decidedly muted. Tracing the lineage and ownership of a creative idea is tremendously difficult,
meaning that credit often accrues to the party with the bigger platform and, in the long, circuitous history of creative drift between Africa and
Europe, that party has unfailingly been Europe. Historically, this access has been abused—consciously or not—in order to cherrypick the ripest
creative offerings from colonised nations and insert them, uncredited, back into the European canon. The first Sapeurs, however, were radical in
applying the same process to European culture, distilling what they found “exotic” and gleefully exhibiting their borrowed costumes and
behaviours for one another, delighting in what Monica L. Miller calls, “rituals of reversal”. Not retribution per se, but revolutionary in spirit.
In 2016, writer and broadcaster Ekow Eshun curated a show for the Photographer’s Gallery, inspired by the Sapeurs’ legacy, entitled ‘Made You
Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity’. The show demonstrated the breadth of Dandyism’s influence, presenting South African artist Kristin-Lee
Moolman’s playful experiments in African androgyny alongside British photographer Colin Jones’ ‘Black House’ series, captured on London’s
Holloway Road, and Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj’s colourfully patterned, framed images of his friends and street cast characters. Visitors
experienced this assortment of work as an embrace; a suggestion that complex ethno-cultural identity could become something elastic and joyful
when translated through the kaleidoscopic lens of le Sape. The glaring complexities of Dandyism itself are what makes it feel empowering to both
artist and subject and enables the “perpetual black suit” that so haunted Essex Hemphill, and which has hung—strange and unworn—in the back
of many black artists’ minds throughout history, to be transformed into something fluid and intoxicating; a zoot suit for the times.
Then, in 2017, South African artist, Alice Mann, who was born and studied in Cape Town but has been based in London for the past several years,
produced a series called, ’Maximum Effect - La Sape d’Europe’, which featured portraits of milikiste dandies—young Congolese who have forged
new lives and identities in Europe—fabulously dressed in Sapeur finery whilst strikingly re-contextualised against the drab grey of industrial
concrete and the flaked paintwork of neglected urban brick. Working with a group of Congolese men based in Paris and London, who consider
themselves representatives of a “European chapter” of the La Sape movement, Mann’s series explored the use of la Sape as a, “vehicle with which
to challenge limitations, and celebrate difference.” These images signified another crucial turn of the wheel: la Sape’s colonisation of the streets
that had once informed its creation. For the founders of the Sapeur movement, the breadth and scope of the movement’s influence today
would have been unthinkable, even laughable, yet as a tonic for the perennial discomfort of Black maleness, it remains uniquely effective.
Shantrelle P. Lewis, curator and author of Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style, when asked by Ebony magazine why she decided to
study the phenomenon, said that she was responding to the prison industrial complex, police brutality and the vilification of black males
as thugs and gangsters, explaining that, “Dandyism is a space where Black men have agency over their narrative and their image…It gives them the
capacity to control whatever narrative it is that they want people to think about them.” Rather than remaining stifled by a constrictive, ill-fitting
suit made by past oppressors, la Sape represents a regenerative approach to formulating Black maleness in today's world, replete with all
the irony, contradiction and joy that characterises its past.
43
 PHOTOGRAPHS DANIELLE LEVITT STYLING GARY ARMSTRONG
Coat MAISON MARGIELA GROOMER ANNA CHAPMAN @ JULIAN WATSON
Trousers MARTINE ROSE
Socks NIKE SET DESIGN SEAN THOMSON @ MAGNET
001 TOMMY CASH

Coat NAPA BY MARTINE ROSE

Shirt JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN
Socks NIKE
Shoes GH BASS

46 GARÇON Full look DIOR 47

001 TOMMY CASH Shirt, trousers & shoes XANDER ZHOU
Socks FALKE

Suit JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN

Shirt & Shoes XANDER ZHOU
Socks FALKE
Tie stylist’s Own

48 GARÇON 49
001 TOMMY CASH

Blazer PAUL & JOE

T-Shirt MARTINE ROSE
Shorts JOHN LAWRENCE SULLIVAN
Socks FALKE
Shoes GH BASS

Shirt MARTINE ROSE

Trousers PAUL & JOE
50 GARÇON Tie stylist’s own 51
001 TOMMY CASH

Shirt & leggings MARTINE ROSE

Socks FALKE
Shoes GH BASS
Tie stylist’s own

Suit ALEX MULLINS

T-Shirt VERSACE
52 GARÇON Shoes GH BASS 53
FLATBUSH ZOMBIES
IN CONVERSATION WITH PORTUGAL THE MAN
Rap trio Flatbush Zombies are known for their distinct output built on
a diverse array of rock-flavoured, psychedelic and jazz-oriented sonic
directions and referencing, sidetracking fleeting hip hop trends and
sticking to their own recipe. Friends since early childhood, Brooklyn
natives Meech, Zombie and Erick collectively broke out in 2010 on
YouTube, making an impact as a newer, more experimental wing of East
Coast rap.
The three sat down with friend John Gourley, lead singer from Portugal.
The Man, whom FBZ have collaborated with previously, discussing their
influences, artistic values and hacks.
PHOTOGRAPHS IRA CHERNOVA
PROP STYLIST TWO HAWKS YOUNG
HAIR KIYO IGARASHI
STYING SHANICE GRAY
SPECIAL THANKS JOSH DICK
VACATION IN HELL
What is about Nirvana that resonates so well in
hip-hop?
MEECH: The not give a fuck attitude, the
aggression, the rebellion, it’s pretty much the same
shit, except they got a chance to go to school & learn
to play instruments (laughs). If you look at some
of the harder acts in hip-hop, their performances
weren’t much different from Nirvana, Alice In
Chains, or any punk grunge band. Onyx shows,
Flatbush Zombie shows, Death Grips shows, they
all kind of look the same; a bunch of weird people
in the crowd beating the shit out of each other &
having fun.
If you owned a radio station what would you play?
JUICE: I would play - Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson
Airplane, DrugDealer & Stevie Wonder!
ERICK: I would definitely have a jazz portion. I just
got on to Kamasi Washington recently, he’s really
awesome! I’m sure there a bunch of jazz musicians
that can cross over to hip-hop. Hip-hop samples a
bunch of jazz music, it sounds like a bunch of stuff
I would sample. I would play jazz, 90’s R&B, Soul,
Motown, 60’s, Berry Gordy era and I would play
our music (laughs).
To me, merch is a big part of who FBZ is. How does
it influence your music or does only your music drive
the merch? What’s the correlation?
ERICK: The merch was selling before the music
was. At that point I knew the idea of what made
people interested in Zombies in the representation
of how it looked, but when they found out the
meaning they bought into us deeper as a brand.
Flatbush Zombies sounds like something that
could have already been established. Was the
purpose of the merch to make people find the
music? Or, is the music what makes people fall in
love with the brand? It’s the chicken and the egg I
guess, but people definitely liked the shirts before
they knew “Thug Waffle.”
MEECH: We wanted to give our fans some shit
that some of our favorite artists gave back in the
day. When I had the Ruff Ryders CD back in the
day you fill out the little fan card and they send
you merch. The merch is attached to memories,
you know where you were when you got it. I want
it to be limited and it means something instead of
making the same shirt a million times.
ERICK wears face mask CALVIN KLIEN
Jacket and bottoms COMME DES GARÇON
MEECH wears jacket MJB and sunglasses MARGIELA
JUICE wears sunglasses GUCCI
001 FLATBUSH ZOMBIES

“I REMEMBER I WENT TO A SHOW AND THE

CROWD WASN’T GIVING ME ANY ENERGY,
NOT EVEN NEGATIVE ENERGY, LIKE NO
ENERGY AT ALL, THAT’S TRASH.″
Henry Rollins said “When there is young people and vitality, you are going to find punk rock”. So, what does
Punk sound like today? Is there any punk today?
ERICK: We’re heavily influenced by it. Our live shows are hip-hop but it has elements of punk. People
at our shows mosh without us even having to tell them to. Not to shit on people who tell their
fans to mosh, but saying “open up the pit” is different than telling the crowd to “mosh”. Our music
genuinely makes people want to mosh and that’s a genuine quality of punk. It’s what we stand for; being
rebellious, it’s fuck the system and that’s what we’re all about.
What was the first punk artist you associated with? I never full understood the label of punk only associated
with music. To me the first punk artist was Hank Williams, talk about an attitude.
ERICK: It’s more of a lifestyle than a genre of music. I’m not sure of my first discovery of it. I like
rock music but I don’t put groups in a genre. They’re under rock, but then I rate them by their
importance to me. If they had a
message that was not agreeable to
some but a lot of others believed in the message, then it’s a form of punk. I love Red
Hot Chilli Peppers, System of A Down, they’re all so dope to me.
When you started the band, for real not just talking. Did you have someone that you looked
up to, musically or artistically?
MEECH: Once the name of the band was created, it was real. There was no talking once we
had the name we started. Notorious BIG is who I looked up to. That was probably our main
reason why we rapped. We’re from Brooklyn so we wanted to represent where we’re
from. So “Biggie”, Wu Tang, ODB, Outkast, Nas, we tried to be an offspring of all the
good shit, none of the bad guys.
JUICE: It all depends on what the beat makes me feel, that’s the direction I go in. Some
beats are more complex, and I may have to write for more than a day. If a beat is simpler I
just go freestyle as much as possible and then clean it up.
Collaborating with FBZ was a real highlight for me. It seems you write songs in a totally
different way then me and I am fascinated as to how?
ERICK: How we craft music is different. For each project we’ve done we’ve approached it
several different ways, but it usually starts with the title. We have a direction and a vision
of where we want the music to go. When we recorded ‘Better Off Dead’ all I listened to was
Onyx. If I heard anything that was pop, or top 40 I would turn it off or tune out. For the
3001 album I watched the 2001 : A Space Odyssey with the sound off a bunch of times and
created music to how I felt. Vacation
in Hell, I’m not sure we finished that
in a short time. Meech said the other
day that when I go up the court
I have to throw the alley oop – it
Jumpsuit designed by ERICK
doesn’t matter who scores, we just
got to get the basket.
Watching you guys perform makes me exhausted. How on earth do you jump around and rap
so much?
JUICE: Probably because I still think I’m 18 years old.
MEECH: I just want to put on the best shows for the fans. We always have to work hard
no matter what, and I want everyone to see we are the best performers of all time. I can’t
moonwalk very well but I’m pretty good at performing. When the crowd is good
and gives me that energy there’s no way I can’t jump. Drinking a little more water and
Hennessy, maybe Jameson and ginger beer; gives me all the energy I need.
Underground hip-hop looks like a real struggle. Like when we were playing skate parks for $50
and praying that the drive to the next show was not further than a tank of gas cuz we might not
make it. Tell me about that struggle.
ERICK: We have our own struggles as a group but I’ve struggled independently as a
solo artist for a long time. I remember it a lot more vividly because it was more painful.
I remember using money I wanted to use to get fresh – getting fly is an important part
of NYC culture. I remember I went to a show and the crowd wasn’t giving me any energy,
not even negative energy, like no energy at all, that’s trash. People were drinking drinks and
ignoring me, I remember that vividly. The idea of going on a world tour was just a
fantasy; it wasn’t possible for me at that moment. I’m glad I went through all of that
though, it was worth doing because it brought me here.
We invited you to a show we played in NYC a couple of years ago. During our set I noticed you
dancing with the fans in the pit. I asked you about it later and you
just said it was New York and you didn’t want to crowd the back
room, but it was inspiring. It was refreshing to see that connection.
Like Beck said, “you can’t write if you can’t relate.” I find that true
on so many levels. Does being a fan of music influence the way you
write it?
ERICK: Absolutely, I remember that day very well! I was lit and
it was a great show. I think it’s important for any artist that’s
great to see how they perform. LeBron watches the tape, Kobe
watches the tape. I’m really curious to know what the fans feel
from their perspective. When you’re in the back room that’s
not the best view. How you going to watch the show when it’s
packed and a dude with a big hat is standing in front of you? I
don’t care about being in VIP and being seen, just being invited
by the artist is flattering enough.

It is interesting to see how our culture has changed. Some of it political correctness, some of it gone too far.
Does that impact the way you write lyrics as opposed to 2 years ago?
MEECH: It does because you guys know that I’m a very morbid man, and I like to make people think
about things, so I say things people normally wouldn’t say. Now you have to layer it enough so people
can get it, or not say it, or you can say it and be prepared for the consequences. Political correctness
sucks and it’s annoying. I have a great vocabulary but I choose to use nasty words. Everything is going
to offend SOMEONE. We as artists shouldn’t have to deal with this like this is politics. We should be
conscious of what we’re saying but we also have to recognise intent. Not everyone is being evil if they say
something you don’t agree with.

Popular rap really seems to follow trends that get super hot and then die off. FBZ seem to buck that system.
“I’D RATHER MAKE THE
Where does that come from?
ERICK: I think we’re trendsetters. The things that we like and enjoy are not based on what people SONG THAT’S GOING
like. I don’t have face tats, coloured hair, or big jewelry. Meech and Juice have been doing those
things forever before it was a trend. I don’t care if people do things because they like them, but
as far as Flatbush Zombies... we created our own lane. People follow us, we don’t follow them. Most
TO LAST FOREVER
times I don’t even pay attention to trends, I focus on the legends. I’d rather make the song that’s
going to last forever than a trend that goes away. THAN A TREND THAT
GOES AWAY.″
“NOT EVERYONE IS BEING EVIL IF THEY SAY SOMETHING JUICE wears coat DRIES VAN NOTEN, jacket GARÇON INFIDELES, shoes BALENCIAGA

YOU DON’T AGREE WITH.″ ERICK wears top CALVIN KLEIN , jumpsuit CARHARTT, shoes JW ANDERSON X CONVERSE
MEECH wears coat DRIES VAN NOTEN, shirt ENFANTS RICHES DEPRIMES, jeans SAINT LAURENT,
Shoes MARGIELA, sunglasses CELINE
56 GARÇON 57
001 FLATBUSH ZOMBIES

58 GARÇON JUICE wears jacket GARÇON INFIDELES 59

001 FLATBUSH ZOMBIES

MEECH wears jacket CALVIN KLEIN

Necklace CHANEL
Trousers DRIES VAN NOTEN
60 GARÇON 61
 CHANGING FACES
BY BRADLEY STERN
Quick question: what do Justin Bieber, Beyoncé and
a Brazilian drag queen have in common?
Apart from what is likely an enviable wig collection,
the answer is simple: Lazers.

That’s Major Lazer, to be clear – just one of the

myriad musical projects of Diplo, the pop provocateur
responsible for regularly injecting fresh international
talent into the bloodstream of Top 40, as with 2015’s
inescapable radio slayer “Lean On” with Denmark’s MØ.

In the past decade or so, Diplo’s recoded the musical

DNA of some of our most tried-and-true pop icons
with refreshingly weird, worldly new sounds, like
the Grammy Award-winning “Where Are Ü Now” for
Justin Bieber with Skrillex as Jack Ü – credited
as one of Justin’s most intriguingly left-of-center
productions to date; a departure from his pop-R&B
gloss - and the “Pon De Floor”-sampling “Run The
World (Girls)” – which Bey hailed at the time as “riskier.”

PHOTOGRAPHS NABIL STYLING JORDAN BOOTHE

MAKEUP WILL LEMON HAIR CHARLIE LE MINDU USING MAC
PHOTO ASSISTANT NATHAN VERNES
SPECIAL THANKS SATURN CREATIVE STUDIO DTLA
002 DIPLO
Diplo didn't just ascend to Diplo-dom overnight, obviously. Like most producers in their
early years with little to their names except some drum kits and basic programming skills,
he chased checks where he could.
“I did everything I was offered to make money,” he
admits. “Every session.”
“I don't envy any young songwriter. It's hard to get
where you want to be. Lots of older producers that
brought me in were difficult to get things done. I've
mostly just focused on the people that I like and
the music I want to make. I realised early I'd rather
fail at what I like than waste time on something
big that doesn't fulfill me...some producers are just
figuring that out.”
There's a lot of “figuring that out” happening
in music right now, especially in this Brave
New World of streaming. Each skim through
the #NewMusicFriday playlist yields similar
results, including a wealth of chorus-less, beat
drop-filled EDM trop-pop – for which, some
might argue, Diplo is at least partially to blame.
“I've learned a lot working in music in the last fifteen
years. It's been the fastest rate of metamorphosis in
the business. It has changed so much so quickly. I've
been through it all,” he recalls.
"The past two years have been so saturated with pop
music and drops and this and that. Almost all the
producers now are just getting records farmed from
their label, and then they put some drums under it.
It's pretty sad these days."
Diplo's just trying to do it like he's always done
it: differently.
“It takes so long for me to put music out because I
want it to sound like the music from tomorrow, not
from yesterday,” he says.
It's not just the culture-blending, speaker-shaking
beats that make Diplo the trailblazer he is today.
It goes deeper, into the guts of the stuff; the soul
of the record, which all comes down to chemistry
– and good songwriting.
“I always thought this EDM arrangement was just
dressing on what I thought was great songwriting
with records like ‘Lean On’ or ‘Light It Up.’ We could
take all the bells and whistles off that, and you
would still have a great song.”
To get those great songs, Diplo thrives in
the company of others, especially when the
partnership seems particularly weird. Take one of
his latest and strangest projects: LSD, a musical
group formed between the producer, British multi-
hyphenate musician Labrinth and pop's top penner
and professional chandelier swinger, Sia.
“I'm not a folk singer. I'm a DJ. Collaborations are
my medium,” he explains. The collaboration came
down, quite simply, to the two being “incredible,
crazy humans.”
“[They're] two of the most creative people I have ever
met,” he says, comparing their work to a newer
version of the late '60s Chicago-bred psychedelic
soul group, Rotary Connection.
108 GARÇON
“Sia is such a pro. She is very intolerable to working “I would guess that
outside of a certain way, and you have to just be able
to manoeuvre in that way. She's fast - her ideas flow the writing of these
like stream of consciousness - the same as Labrinth.”
records probably only
While the styling and programming came together took twenty hours
slowly, the genre-blurring songs themselves -
including the hook-heavy, horn-y earworm
total. That's how fast
“Thunderclouds” and the hypnotising “Audio” - did they are...straight
not, according to Diplo.
from their crazy
Most producers don’t have any super-groups to minds. My job was to
their name. For Diplo, LSD is one of several.
facilitate that as the
“The Mark [Ronson] one probably sounds really weird producer, along with
on paper,” he admits of Silk City, a project with
the “Uptown Funk” super-producer, inspired by the Labrinth, who plays
name of the club where the longtime friends first
DJed together in Philadelphia years ago.
more instruments
than Prince. Somehow
“My relationship with him is very long. Our
personalities are very similar. We come from a
the idea worked."
common ground,” he adds. “We didn't know we were
making a vintage house album at the time, but...”
The two linked up for a series of releases to pay
homage to dance music cities across the world,
including “Feel About You” with Mapei and
“Loud” with GoldLink and Desiigner. Then, the end-
of-Summer ‘18 spark: “Electricity,” a surge of classic,
feel-good club euphoria bolstered by Dua Lipa's
husky vocal chops. You might have even caught
sight of the two DJs in the blackout-themed music
video, stranded in the lift before ever reaching the
sweaty party overhead.
As for their fate? “I'm still in the elevator,” he says.
There’s also Jack Ü, a partnership with fellow EDM
superstar (and self-professed emo) Skrillex, which
spawned an entire Grammy Award-winning album
in early 2015, including the aforementioned “Where
Are Ü Now,” “Take Ü There” with Kiesza and “To Ü”
with AlunaGeorge.
But of all his collaborations, Diplo's longest-
running is a love letter to Jamaican dancehall and
Latin rhythms of reggaeton: Major Lazer. Originally
co-founded with Switch, and later carried on with
Jillionaire and Walshy Fire, the group's delivered
culture-shaping sounds for a solid decade. Most
recently, they put out Afrobeats, a 30-minute
megamix of Afrohouse music featuring African
artists, then toured across the continent.
“Those songs didn't fit on the full-length we're working
on for next year,” he explained.
“That will be a sort of explosion of all the best things
we made in the past ten years, and the music we
influenced: pop music, club music...and lots of
experiments. That was always the flavor for us, trying
to do weird things first. Never playing it safe. Records
like ‘Pon De Floor’ and ‘Hold the Line’ came before
‘Cold Water.’ We didn't mean to become a Top 40
group,” he says.
Jewelry MARTINE ALI
Trousers HELMUT LANG 109
 002 DIPLO
Jewelry RYE DECKER
Trousers GOOM BLACK STAIN TROUSER

From an outsider’s perspective, the sheer volume

of influences that go into the music-making -
from Brazilian funk to New Orleans bounce to
Chicago house - might seem overwhelming. For
Diplo, that's the only way he stays setting the
trends, rather than chasing them.

“As a producer, you have to keep learning and moving

and staying inspired,” he says. “Stay inspired by
music. Every day I listen to new music, and it makes
me happy.”

Intentionally or otherwise, Diplo keeps denting

the charts – not that it hasn’t been a long time
coming. For years, he operated just below the
radar without much commercial fanfare, despite
quietly influencing industry movers and shakers.

“Everything from the first half of my career wasn't

really noticed because we were just making a new
path. But in the inner circles, I know that [Usher's]
‘Climax’ inspired a lot of creators and producers, and
that was equally as important as it being a chart
success,” he says.

Not that he necessarily minds flying slightly

under-the-radar while he's still ahead of the curve.

“Once Drake uses it, it's added to the producer

vocabulary,” he explains.

“When we do it, it's just weird world music. I'm still

working with new artists in Brazil, Turkey, all over
Africa...because those artists are viable, and we are
making great music. It doesn't have to be a particular
global number No. 1. Remember, we had a record-
breaking song on YouTube in Portuguese.”

The record-breaker he's referring to was one of

the Summer of '17's hottest cross-cultural bangers:
“Sua Cara,” a collaboration between Major Lazer,
funk-pop bombshell Anitta and Brazil's premiere
drag queen-turned-pop star, Pabllo Vittar.

Quite subversively, the track's music video, set in

the scorching Moroccan desert sands, presented
both Anitta and Pabllo as equally lusty, in-your-
face forces of feminine energy - despite one of
them being a drag queen.

“Drag artists in Brazil are like 125 steps ahead of what

we have in America,” Diplo says of working with
Pabllo, who first got the producer's attention after
putting a Portuguese spin on Major Lazer's “Lean
On” with “Open Bar” in 2015.

Years before “Sua Cara,” Diplo was making his

love affair with Brazil’s music scene known with
mixtapes like the funk carioca-focused Favela
on Blast. And now, the rest of the world finally
seems to be catching up. He chalks up the crop
of international acts finding crossover success
stateside, including Latinx stars like Bad Bunny
and J. Balvin, to bridges built by the internet.

“Pabllo is a highly evolved pop star, and the fact that

she's a drag queen is secondary to her being sexy
and an awesome performer. I also think that – being
on a record with Anitta – Pabllo went so hard in that
video to try and outshine a pop star woman...some
say she might have.."

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002 DIPLO

Skirt COMME DES GARCONS

Shoes BUFFALO LONDON
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002 DIPLO

“I think being friends makes songwriting stronger. It's a

bit easier to agree on making the right decisions to make
the best song. You can be honest."
“Latin music is easy to break in the U.S. because 25%
of our country speaks Spanish,” he says, “That's
already nearly 100 million people.”
“The rest were sort of accidents, but they all worked:
Balvin, Bad Bunny, Anitta and Pabllo are all artists
that inspire me. I want to work with them because
they have that swagger already. I didn't even think
about what the market share was...I just like them.”
The roster of collaborators goes on, but surely not
every songwriting session is an instant success. So
how does he know he's got something special with
someone like MØ, Sia or Dua?
“But the audience doesn't digest albums in the old
ways,” he went on. “They aren't appreciated. To
top that, a lot of the producers are also artists and
traveling all over the world anyway. It's not like we all
live in Hollywood like it used to be…but I also see in
LA that everyone seems to write the same song.”
Despite conquering the world several times over,
Diplo still has unfinished business - or, even
just business he'd like to do better the next time
around. As is the case with the Swedish Queen of
Pop herself, Robyn, whom he worked with back in
2009, circa Body Talk, on the Ace Of Base-inspired
“Dancehall Queen” and “Criminal Intent.”

“You just named people I consider my friends,” he says. “I have a complicated story with Robyn, and I love her
to death. It's another issue. I would do anything to get
“I think being friends makes songwriting in with her...even though, back then, I wasn't a good
producer,” he admits.
stronger. It's a bit easier to agree on
making the right decisions to make the “I didn't know my way around the programs and
best song. You can be honest. With I didn't know how to communicate in the studio.
Thank God Klas [Ahlund] was there to help me..”
MØ, we work on a lot of music, and
sometimes it might take a year to come If you already follow Diplo on Instagram, you’d
know he regularly gives his passport a workout
back to a big one and finish it, like we did while touring and writing music across the world:
with ‛Sun in Our Eyes' - or even ‛Lean On.' Zimbabwe, London, Nigeria, Bel Air, Paris - that's
just in the past few weeks. With all of the miles
That song changed a lot." he racks up, does Diplo have some worldly
perspective on what's happening in music – or,
In a time of WhatsApp audio back-and-forths -
more, intriguingly – what's coming next?
and, as Britney will tell you, everyone's been
doing emails - the idea of gathering songwriters,
“We are in a wave of music at the moment. Swells
producers, engineers and artists in one room is
come in, and it's hip-hop having a moment. I think it
quickly becoming a thing of the past. Just ask
might go back to a hybrid of great singer-songwriters,
Madonna – who Diplo refers to as simply “M” –
like Billie Eilish, that can absorb hip-hop's energy
and she'll give you a piece of her mind about the
and use its marketing to her benefit. Hip-hop is the
state of modern songwriting.
language of Instagram and Twitter, and if you can
harness that, you can conquer whatever you want,”
“I've worked with M on an album [Rebel Heart]
he explains.
where we did do it all in one place and I loved that.
As a producer, it gives a better perspective of the
“But maybe the next trend is gonna just be robots
music,” Diplo says when asked about her recent
playing all of it.”
condemnation of writing camps and attention-
deficient songwriters. Jacket CROPPED DENIM PARKA
Bottoms LES STUDIO JUMPSUIT
Shoes BUFFALO LONDON
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002 DIPLO

Jacket & Trousers HELMUT LANG

Jewelry RYE DECKER
Shoes BALMAIN
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002 DIPLO
Bottoms MAHARISHI DRAGON
Belt vintage

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 HELLO - MY NAME IS 21 Savage.
MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT BEING A LIBRA IS Being Real, I'm Myself.

WHEN I GOT HOME, I PUT ON Shottas, IT’S ONE OF MY FAVOURITE MOVIES.

MY FAVOURITE SONG TO LISTEN TO IN THE CAR RIGHT NOW IS Anything I made!

SOMETIMES I WONDER WHAT WILL Change THE WORLD.

MY FAVOURITE CLOTHES TO WEAR THESE DAYS ARE Tracksuits.

THE THING I LOVE THE MOST IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW IS My family.

PHOTOGRAPHS ERIC CHAKEEN

STYLING BRITT MCCAMEY PRODUCER ROXANNE DOUCET
Jacket & trousers TELFAR
Hat LAND OF THE LOST SET DESIGNER STEWART GERARD HAIR JUNYA NAKASHAMI
002 21 SAVAGE

“I fuck with who

fucks with me from an
organic place,
not no Hip Hop shit.”

“I’m still the Savage my day ones know, I've

142 GARÇON Jacket SAINT LAURENT

just evolved a little bit.” Jacket ACNE
Bottoms TRIPP NYC
Shoes RAF SIMONS

143
002 21 SAVAGE

“I'm from the streets so

I'm just speaking about what I did;
I make 21 Savage music about 21 Savage’s life.”

144 GARÇON Full look LOUIS VUITTON 145

002 21 SAVAGE

“Fashion is important
but I don't pay attention to the progress of
my aesthetic and style.”

Jacket SAINT LAURENT

146 GARÇON Jacket MOSCHINO Trousers TRIPP NYC 147
PHOTOGRAPHY ISSAC LAM STYLING & ART DIRECTION OSCAR CHIK
MODELS HARRY CHAN, NICK NOISE, KENNY WONG & JULVIAN HO
HAIR HIM NG MAKEUP HEISAN HUNG
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT CLARK KIANO CAMERON STYLING ASSISTANT MAYI LEUNG
HARRY wears vest UNDERCOVER SS 2006 from Tagged Archives
Tights GUCCI, Trousers & Keychain XANDER ZHOU, Belt stylist’s own
002 COLOUR ME BLOOD RED

HARRY wears shirt & necklace(on belt) VIVIENNE WESTWOOD NOISE wears shirt VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
Trousers JUNYA WATANABE SS 2003 from Tagged Archives Coat COMME DES GARÇONS AW 2006 from Tagged Archives
Bag RICK OWENS Scarf MARC JACOBS
Shoes CHRISTIAN STONE Leggings, balaclava, bracelets & shoes GUCCI
Belt and bracelet stylist’s own Socks & vintage lace stylist’s own
150 GARÇON 151
002 COLOUR ME BLOOD RED
KENNY wears jacket XANDER ZHOU
Shoes VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
Socks stylist’s own
NOISE wears shirt XANDER ZHOU
Top COMME DES GARÇONS AW 2003 from Tagged Archives
HARRY wears jacket XANDER ZHOU
JULVIAN wears shirt GUCCI
Jumper XANDER ZHOU

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002 COLOUR ME BLOOD RED

JULVIAN wears shirt VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

HARRY wears top COMME DES GARÇONS SS 2006 from Tagged Archives Coat MARC JACOBS
Dress, skirt & socks GUCCI Trousers GUCCI
Shoes XANDER ZHOU Tie & shoes XANDER ZHOU
Belt & vintage lace stylist’s own Belt & chain stylist’s own
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002 COLOUR ME BLOOD RED

JULVIAN wears dress JUNYA WATANABE SS 2006 from Tagged Archives

Top & Chain RICK OWENS
Shoes XANDER ZHOU
Sunglasses, gloves & tights stylist’s own

NOISE wears dress & bag RICK OWENS

Trousers CHRISTIAN STONE
Shoes XANDER ZHOU
156 GARÇON 157

manson
MANSON wears trousers JOSHUA KANE
Shoes JIMMY CHOO
Shirt stylists own
Rings PHYRAHH & stylists own
MODEL wears HONEY BIRDETTE
Stilettos JIMMY CHOO
Mask RINALDY A. YUNARDI
marilyn
by ELLEN VON UNWERTH
STYLING MIKE ADLER AT ADB AGENCY
PRODUCTION MICHAEL POWER AT FLOWER AVENUE
MODELS KAYSLEE COLLINS, INDIA-HAYLEY BARTON, JESSICA GADZINSKI
HAIR PETER SAVIC MAKEUP JOYCE BONELLI
MANICURE CHELSEA KING PROPS EVAN JOURDEN
STYLING ASSISTANTS ALICIA LIU, BIANCA AGRUSA & YOON CHOI
SPECIAL THANKS THE HOUSTON BROTHERS & THE RESIDENCY, LA
002 MARILYN MANSON

MANSON wears suit & tie JOSHUA KANE

Shirt stylists own MANSON wears suit & tie JOSHUA KANE
Shoes JIMMY CHOO Ring PHYRAHH
INDIA wears cape CORRIE NIELSEN Shirt & rings stylists own
Dress EZGI CINAR Shoes JIMMY CHOO

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002 MARILYN MANSON

MANSON wears cape & cummerbund MORPHEW

Trouser & waistcoat JOSHUA KANE Model wears SCHIAPARELLI HAUTE COUTURE
Hat STEPHEN JONES Head piece RINALDY A. YUNARDI
Shirt & rings stylists own Earring HOUSE OF EMMANUELE

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002 MARILYN MANSON

MANSON wears jacket & cravat JOSHUA KANE

Shirt, ring stylists own MODELS wear body’s ON AURA TOUT VU
Body chain HOUSE OF EMMANUELE Belt, earring HOUSE OF EMMANUELE

164 GARÇON 165

002 MARILYN MANSON

MANSON wears ARTHUR AVELLANO

Glasses, shirt, glove stylists own
Boots DR MARTENS
MODEL wears body JACOB LEE LONDON
MANSON wears suit JOSHUA KANE Coat PHILIPP PLEIN
Ring PHYRAHH Boots JIMMY CHOO
Shirt & rings stylists own Mask PHILIP TREACY
INDIA wears STEPHANE ROLLAND HAUTE COUTURE
ART WORK by GREGORY AUERBACH
166 GARÇON 167
002 MARILYN MANSON

MANSON wears suit & tie JOSHUA KANE

Coat EPUZA
Shoes JIMMY CHOO
Shirt & rings Stylists own
INDIA wears STEPHANE ROLLAND HAUTE COUTURE

MANSON wears suit & tie JOSHUA KANE

Shirt stylists own

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002 MARILYN MANSON

MANSON wears ARTHUR AVELLANO

MANSON wears Trouser & Coat JOSHUA KANE
Ring PHYRAHH
Shirt, rings stylists own
Boots DR MARTEN
Mask LEATHER DESIGNS
INDIA wears dress EZGI CINAR
Shirt, glove stylists own
Boots DR MARTENS
Model wears body JACOB LEE LONDON
Coat PHILIPP PLEIN
Boots JIMMY CHOO
Mask PHILIP TREACY

170 GARÇON 171

002 MARILYN MANSON

If you were born between 1980 and 1990, your first encounter with the song “Sweet Dreams”
likely wasn’t the Eurythmics’ dance anthem. It was Marilyn Manson’s sludgy cover of
The look you propagated and put out there is
definitely back in a big way. When you first were
coming into vogue, how did you arrive at this fashion
had to be 21 in Florida. So I ended up getting a job
in New York to interview Ann Magnuson who had
a band called Bongwater, and that was when I got a
“When you love
the song where his slowed down croak, “Some of them want to use youuuu,” coming
through the speakers at a school dance sounded like a bitter, relevant warning. I’m not
statement? Who were your influences then?
Stephen Sprouse definitely. But I remember the
real sense of more of the culture.
art, then you
first time I went to New York City, I went there Fast forward to when you asked me about where
saying that Manson’s effect on American society was as widespread and significant as the
Beatles’, but then again Hollywood just greenlit like 20 movies about the Joker.
by myself. I’d met a girl at a McDonald’s in Florida
and she said she was moving to New York - I didn’t
my fashion sense came from, and I know that was
a long way to get to it, but for my first tour I just
have to put your
A former music journalist born Brian Warner in Canton, Ohio, Manson came of age during
know anything about it so I bought myself a coach
ticket and showed up. She lived in East Village but
when you live in East Village and you move from
had on the rider.. because we’d get three things
and some ham, I would have a litter box because
in clubs you’d have to walk through the crowd. So
life on the line to
the rise of hip hop and the death of heavy metal and goth punk. His music would go on to
combine the three and turn up their inherent cynicism to levels at which it became a little
Florida working at McDonald’s... I didn’t realise I’d
be living in someone’s closet. I didn’t even know the
I’d use a litter box if I had to go to the bathroom if I
had to (laughs). do it. You want
IN CONVERSATION WITH DAN DURAY

girl but she [suggested] we go to New York together

ridiculous: “If you live with apes, man, it’s hard to be clean.” Outright anger was a new spin he
put on it, allowing his outsider fan base to feel self-righteous in their rejection, and hate
and me being very impulsive just went there. The
good news was that I had an extra 200 bucks on
‘The Beautiful People’ who’d rejected them. Antichrist Superstar (1996) and Mechanical
Animals (1998) both went platinum, which raised the amusing question currently facing
me and that was enough to get home, so (laughs)
I spent it all on a pair of creepers at Trash and
Vaudeville. But then I was stuck in New York.
the president: how do you act disenfranchised when you’re the king? Columbine solved
that. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold used rifles, shotguns and handguns That was the first time I got beat up for a pair of
shoes - well technically I got beat up at middle
to murder 12 of their classmates and one teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado.
They injured an additional 21. America had not yet accepted these shootings as part of
school because my mum got me a pair of sneakers
at Kmart and some older kid shoved me down,
everyday life and was horrified. The Republican propaganda outlet Fox News, with close ties called me a cunt and took my shoes. I came home
crying asking mum, “What is a cunt?” So the same
to the gun industry, chose to scapegoat The Matrix, directed by a pair of transgender thing sort of happened at Trash and Vaudeville, all
siblings, and Manson, claiming the shooters were fans of his, which they were not. He has
since been vindicated in the worst way possible, with mass shootings now occurring on
the punks - they didn’t take my shoes, but I got beat
down. In retrospect they’re not healthy enough
usually to beat you up cause they’re kinda strung
an almost monthly basis. Not that anyone ever really believed the lie, except for a handful of
suburban fascists. Manson’s fans, like The Insane Clown Posse’s, come more from the
out, but I was too scared and nervous and it was my
first time in a big city.
working class neglected by America’s politicians and media, which is part of why his
Were there people that dressed like that in Florida or
message, and absurdly prescient fashion sense, continues to resonate today. was that your first time encountering that look?
Well at that point in Florida I had just moved
there and had no friends – I’d moved out of Ohio.
I was still on the cusp of even discovering or
understanding what would be ‘alternative’ because
I was coming straight out of Judas Priest, Iron
Maiden, Kiss, Black Sabbath. The one thing that
rang true is that the most punk band still to this
day in its essence is The Doors, and that was the
one strain that helped in all that, and it still does.
So I ended going to New York, coming back and
realising that was a bad idea (laughs). I wanted
to become a journalist, so I went to community
college for a few months. I think I mostly wanted
to meet people because I didn’t have any friends. I
think that was the initial thing; I took a couple
of classes, electives only, and they were theatre
and journalism.
I ended up working on the college newspaper and
my first assignment was to write a review on Jane’s
Addiction. About that time I got a job at a record
store, and it was right when they were phasing
out albums and introducing CDs. You could say I
definitely embezzled a lot of the merchandise at the
store. I remember it was the era when the first few
records that really hit me, because they were still
guitar driven, but I had never heard them before
were The Cure’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Jane’s
Addiction on Triple X... this was before Nothing’s
Shocking had come out and Sisters of Mercy, and
there was a box set on cassette of Bauhaus and
I had no idea who Bauhaus was. When I was
working at the store, some young kid - and at this
point I’d made my way to becoming a manager for
a week, it really takes a lot of skill to become the
manager of a record store in a mall - said, “Yeah,
this music is for vampires!” And I just laughed; it was
like watching The Lost Boys but in real life.
My next adventure back to New York was as a
journalist, I’d somehow tricked my way to getting a
job at the age of 20 and again, mostly was for other
reasons, and I had a business card which I used to
get into bars. I didn’t even drink at the time, I just
MANSON wears coat & trousers JOSHUA KANE
Shirt, rings stylists own wanted to go to bars and see bands play, but you
Hat STEPHEN JONES
MODEL left wears corset ON AURA TOUT VU
Stilettos JIMMY CHOO
172 GARÇON MODEL right wears corset GRAHAM CRUZ
Smart.
It's very effective. Cats use them all the time. And
to live for your
then also L'eggs, the panty hose that come in those
egg-shaped containers. I’d just crack those open,
I’d put them on and tear them up, I put my head
art, you gotta be
through the crotch panel and that was the shirt and
then I’d put a second pair on. And I had a medical willing to die for
back brace that I found at a medical store in Florida,
that’s where it started - because it's Florida, there's
a lot of old people. And I had a pair of pole climbers
it - I don’t want to
die for it, but you
that came up to the knee, and it’s funny because
they were really hard to find and they had some at
a hunting-type store where the soles of the boots
were sort of an orange colour. I remember buying
them and saying out loud, “Don’t worry I’ll paint gotta be willing
the soles black”. They were like the anti-Christian
Louboutin (laughs). And that’s how my fashion
sense started and I ended up working in New York
to put that much
weight on it.”
for a while, so like seven months at the DoubleTree
in Times Square. And that’s why I started meeting
fashion people.
That’s really interesting. Speaking of all those goth
bands, you were discovered by Trent Reznor right?
Yeah, the way that happened was when I was
still living in Florida and working as a journalist
around the age of 21, and I had not yet started
a band. I interviewed Trent when Nine Inch
Nails was playing with The Jesus and the Mary
Chain, which was amazing. So I interviewed him
and for some reason we got along - I don’t why, I
would not get along with some young kid asking
questions (laughs). So [later on] they came back
to town with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and
then I had a band, this was a couple years later. I
gave them a cassette tape, and a show called The
Simpsons had just come out. That’s how strangely
timed it was. I remember Trent playing his version
of Supernaut, that they put out on Wax Trax!
and at that time there was a big scene in Miami,
where there was a place that was the epicentre
of everything called The Kitchen Club. It was a
really shitty hotel that was abandoned and they
made a club at the bottom of it and I saw every cool
band, they would all just go through - like all the
Chicago bands; Split Second, Front242… everyone
would come through there at every week’s show.
That really drew me in, I think it was more the
industrial… I don’t if it’s ‘goth industrial’, at the time
there was no name for it other than [the night] was
called ‘House Night’. I don’t know whose house it
was supposed to be but it was cool.
That was the era when it was loose. I remember seeing Ministry
play Land of Rape and Honey and being scared for my life because
the mosh pit was insanely dangerous. You had to adapt. I had my
blond hair and I dyed it black and that made a change, that’s when
I started bands and it was in the tradition - I think my mother loved
Elvis so much that that’s probably where it came from. It wasn’t
trying to fit into a mold of what is now traditionally ‘goth’, as people
would just generalise it this way. I was just thinking Elvis, that was
probably my influence.
173
002 MARILYN MANSON
Jim Morrison and Elvis were bigtime sex-symbols, and the cover of Mechanical Animals was kind of a sex symbol statement, albeit transgender and different. I was especially now it seems like everything is getting more watered down. I find a lot of the strongest comments coming from comedians strangely. Comedians have
twelve when that album came out and that was my first encounter with that kind of statement and now of course that’s sort of everywhere, especially in New York. Was a different license, for some reason, to say things but I think political commentary has always been important and people like to always have me on talk shows or
that a conscious decision for you to channel that sort of rockstar sexuality and put a twist on it? doing interviews and people want to hear what I have to say.
I think the first thing I stole was a copy of a Doors book from the Canton Public Library. And it had that classic picture of Morrison with his shirt off, that black
and white one. Also Diamond Dogs by Bowie, so there was an animal element to it. And that was maybe way forward-thinking at the time but also going to The For me, mostly, the world is not getting any more complicated, it’s always going to be the same. It’s just that people are starting to get too relaxed and not curious
Limelight when I went to New York and becoming very close with a lot of people that were just... you didn’t even need to ask. It wasn’t like now where you had anymore; there’s no curiosity anymore. Nobody really needs to venture into any culture of sorts. So it is an artist’s responsibility to bring that back, but you
to come up with a name for something that is gender fluid, gender fluid can technically sound like a bathroom. I remember going into Limelight and everybody can’t say ‘the dying planet’ because I don’t think that it’s that hopeless yet. The best and the worst thing that can happen, and this is not political commentary; I
was having a fun time, it was a show, and everybody was dressed up like an everyday is Halloween situation. So that embraced me early on after growing up hate when people talk about Trump... I’ve always said that under a conservative president art thrives, under Bush and things like that, but this is a different and
going to Christian school - of course the first thing I do is everything they told me not to. Being a shy person, I didn’t find the courage to be like that until it was unique situation. It’s a good opportunity for everyone whose an artist to look really smart, and you don’t really have to try very hard. That’s not saying I feel good
onstage, and then suddenly it felt like that was the place to be whatever you wanted to be. Not necessarily ‘be yourself’ because I think I’m always myself, about it, it’s saying as an American artist - someone who is white trash born in Ohio - is a more likely ambassador for America to another continent than other
but if you take away all definitions, in the dark and there’s no names for anything… whatever happens in this mentality whether it be painting or writing a song people who are in roles of power. That is when art becomes really relevant.
or performing, all the things that you create in that
space take a form. Your fan base has always been really blue collar. Why
MANSON wears shirt stylists own
Rings PHYRAHH & stylists own do you think that is? What do you think they’re
When the lights come back on it’s always the tapping into?
same for me, it’s all part of you. It’s just a way of If I can paraphrase some of the musicians I’ve
unleashing an inner energy. An inner personality. met recently, I’ve had a strange bond with hip
The things that you talk to yourself about when hop culture. It’s not strange for me because one
you go to sleep sometimes when you have an of the first records I bought was a Sugar Hill Gang
inner dialogue. When you take it all away it’s still record, but it’s strange for me that the massive
you, but sometimes it takes a place to put you in rockstar element has now attached itself to like
to get there, to realise that, and I’m not perfect Rick Ross and Jay-Z and when I meet them and
at it - I’m always looking for a new place to go to their fans we have a common bond, a common
be me. Sometimes that is in fashion, sometimes bond that I was told was the young kids who
it’s in my paintings, sometimes it’s in my music, liked hip hop coming up to see me being real…
sometimes it’s in performing. I’m not full of shit. Which in its essence is punk.
Everything is a show, but when the lights come on
From the beginning, the first question anyone and you’re still there, you’re still that person and
ever asked me in an interview was “are you afraid you’ve got to handle the repercussions or benefits
that image would overshadow the music?” I’d say of what you’ve created. For me, I never have to fake
“no, the opposite.” Obviously [now] the world has it any more than I am. My name is comprised of
changed, but [it] hasn’t changed if you keep the two fake names; Marilyn wasn’t Marilyn Monroe’s
world in a macrocosm. As long as you focus real name and Manson wasn’t Charles Manson’s
on doing what you want, then it can continue. real name, but together - abracadabra! I tend to
[For me] it’s not that I’ve become sober or [have say things directly, I don’t like people that are
had] some sort of religious awakening, I just afraid to say something to someone’s face because
became more in tune with myself since I had it just breeds insincerity. I believe in values such
a rough year breaking my leg and having to get as loyalty and trust and whatever family attributes.
back on my feet with that. I persevered, but After losing my parents these past two years, you
it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was, and maybe get a different sense of family, so you hold the
that was a sign for me to realise how important people close to you tight you protect them. I think
it is to make art because if you don’t do it you’re despite my general behaviour, my destructive
not someone that adds something in the world, sense of common traditional values… I don’t even
you’re just someone that takes something from know what that means it’s all so fabricated, but
it. That’s why no one likes politics or religion just the way that I handle my life doesn’t mean
at the moment, it just takes things away - at I don’t have morals. My morals are strong and
least for religion, but I’ll give them some credit they’re based on protecting the things that you
for creating some great merchandise (laughs). love. When you love art, then you have to put
The world is as big as you want it to be, for me your life on the line to do it. You want to live for
when I get to meet people on a daily basis when your art, you gotta be willing to die for it - I don’t
I’m touring - I get to, I don’t have to - and I get want to die for it, but you gotta be willing to put
to hear their stories, it never gets old. People that much weight on it. That’s something people
show me tattoos they have of me. Sometimes might not think, I’m not trying to make it sound
it can be overwhelming but that’s where I have dramatic it’s just true.
to realise the influence I have. When I see that
someone is happy, that they can go the show. And It’s the people that are pushing boundaries for all of
it doesn't even matter if they go there every day of us. If we’re talking about the history of magazines,
their waking life. we’re forgetting that Hugh Hefner was one of the
best free speech advocates this country ever had. He
I don’t wake up and put on everything that I wear turned into a cartoon in the end but it’s important
on stage, cause it would be uncomfortable. But to remember that we owe him a lot.
at the same time I’ve always said to people in my Yeah. And Larry Flint. And all of the authors I
band, “Okay, you wear cool clothes when you’re loved growing up, Vonnegut and Burroughs and
stage but why don’t you wear them in real life?”
This is a critical conversation I had regarding
“It’s tough to break out of that space where “Marilyn wasn’t Marilyn Monroe’s real name Bukowski. I would never have even come across it
unless I went down the rabbit hole of things that
lifestyle, like you feel cool while wearing that
right? Then why don’t you feel cool wearing that
you feel free and then like being that all and Manson wasn’t Charles Manson’s real
you’re not supposed to read. [The world] becomes
sort of like Fahrenheit 451 in the sense that there’s
all the time? That’s a broader metaphor, not a
criticism of my band members. It’s just saying the time.″ name, but together - abracadabra!″
so much information out there and I’m not sure
what people need to focus on, so I guess you need
that it’s tough to break out of that space where to make a statement loud and you need to make it
you feel free and then like being that all the time. great but most importantly you need to look good
while you're doing it. That’s the key to tight fashion, art or whatever - do it well and make sure people hear it. That will last because that’s the one thing. Things
I wanted to talk about Columbine, and I remember ‘they’ put that on you… whoever 'they' is. become super popular, some things come and go and some things don’t go away not because of nostalgia, like Beatles or Bowie or Pink Floyd, it’s not just for
'They' is Fox News. I remember watching it [when it happened], I was sitting in a Chicago hotel room and I was with one of my longest friends... a photographer nostalgia it’s because they made it. They made a difference. I feel like I could rest easy saying I made a dent at one point, but I don’t think I made as big a dent
[named] Perou. We were watching it, he was on tour with me because he was documenting it and Rock Is Dead had just become a massive hit because it was as I could have. I want to make a hole, not just a dent.
in The Matrix. The video had Keanu Reeves with the trenchcoat and the machine guns and stuff like that in the video. And I was sitting there... and we
can assume I was high on drugs... it comes on Fox News and it says ‘Five Gunmen Dressed in Marilyn Manson Costumes Shot Up A School’ - they originally thought One last question. How many ribs do you have?
it was five - and I went, “Oh shit, I’m fucked”. My entire tour was cancelled. In the end, I ended up meeting up meeting one of the [survivors] who Michael How many ribs? I don’t even know how many ribs humans have. Can I get a medical chart? How many ribs do people have? That was very amusing, I think
Moore paraded into Kmart in his wheelchair. So when it got around the time to when [Bowling For Columbine] was being made, I made a record called Holy that rumor started because I was wearing that medical corset. I really don’t how that rumour was started. I don't think if I could suck my own dick I would
Wood which was intended to be a movie, but because of Columbine it became a record. It became a spiteful force of me standing my ground because if I didn’t do it anyway. 24 ribs? I have a full 24 ribs. If I was at BBQ place I would be a full rack of ribs. By the way, just to tie together right now and I’m wearing a full
they wouldn’t be where they are today; I have to take some responsibility and some credit that people don’t often have the balls to say what they want to say, size pyjama skeleton outfit, it was a gift. I don't know why everyone wants to know about the ribs...
174 GARÇON 175
PILLOW
Who excites you in pop right now other then Rihanna?  Long gone are the Mocambo, Ciro’s, Copacabana, and the Latin Quarter.
After several decades of increasing disillusion with TV, I’ve been thrilled with
producer Ryan Murphy’s recent projects for Fox, The Assassination of Gianni
Versace and Pose. The acting, sets, costumes, directing, photography, and
editing on Versace were stunning—demonstrating how the old creativity
of Hollywood movies has now migrated to TV. The casting of Pose was
phenomenal. The performances of transgender actors Mj Rodriguez and
Indya Moore had such vivid emotional depth that I had to constantly remind
myself that their characters (Blanca and Angel) were fictional and not real.
That is the highest praise for any actor! Rodriguez and Moore have proved
their acting chops and deserve to win a broad spectrum of future roles.
But Rihanna sure knows how to play to the paps—I adore her misty,
enigmatic pre-dawn exits from dark clubs in London or L.A.. Rihanna’s pap
pix constitute an entire art genre in themselves.
I think Heidi Fleiss is glamorous as fuck. Will this generation ever have a
Heidi Fleiss moment? 
No, even our scandals have become banal! Heidi Fleiss’s sensational Los
Angeles arrest for “pandering” in 1993 was unfortunately quickly swallowed
up by other national news. But I loved that period of flamboyant madams
running high-end brothels! Sydney Biddle Barrows, whose Manhattan
escort service was busted in 1984, was played by Candice Bergen in The

CAMILLE PAGLIA
Have you been to SUR Restaurant yet?  Mayflower Madam. And then Faye Dunaway was terrific in Beverly Hills
What an exotic picture you paint of my humdrum life! I’m just a school Madam in 1986. I’m afraid Tinder has rather wrecked the grand old gestalt of
marm—closer to Eve Arden (as Our Miss Brooks) than Auntie Mame! I’d woman-run urban prostitution.

TALK
certainly be delighted to be served a frosty cocktail by Lala Kent in a sleek,
cut-to-the-navel frock, but the closest I’ve ever come to a glam moment in L.A. What sign was the person on the end of one of your more toxic, speedy love
was when Tippi Hedren took me to lunch at what I think was Crustacean in affairs in your lifetime thus far?
BY ALEX KAZEMI 1998 (the winding entryway was a dizzy-making glass floor over an aquarium). “Toxic, speedy love affairs” sound terrific—do they come in a box? Unfortunately,
I was in town to give a Shakespeare lecture at the public library. Tippi brought my workaholic life has never had that high level of edgy excitement. I would
a stack of books for me to sign—12 copies of my new British Film Institute say that I generally perk up in the smoldering presence of a late Scorpio—
book on Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, which celebrated her performance. She they tend to be quite bossy, which is always a plus. But at this stage of my life,
invited me to her rural Shambala Preserve to see the big cats, but I had to fly I don’t need any more trouble, thank you very much!
back to teach in Philadelphia. Tippi was elegance personified—what class!
Would I be dramatic to call you one of the last living rock stars alive?
Do you care about New York Fashion Week?  As I’ve said from the start, my showy, in-your-face writing style was modeled
No. Not until they come up with something hip and intelligent that will filter on San Francisco acid-rock lead guitar. And the weathered Keith Richards
out to the shopping mall culture that I inhabit in suburban Philadelphia. has always been my idol. But I’m a no-drug gal--gimme a beer or a scotch
I’m so sick of the girly tat clogging department stores and mall boutiques. and soda! If there’s anything rock star about me, it’s my kickass, don’t-give-a-
What the hell is the point of the transgender revolution if there’s been zero damn philosophy of life. We mouthy broads from the ‘60s don’t put up with
shift in clothes on the rack? The mid to late 1960s were a glorious fantasia melting snowflakes and their endless self-pity. Our brassy motto is get up,
LOOK BITCH, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET CAMILLE PAGLIA’S ATTENTION EVER SINCE I FIRST READ HER 1995 of gender-bending fashions pouring out of Mod London. Today’s rag trade get going, and get real!
PLAYBOY INTERVIEW WHEN I WAS 18 YEARS OLD. WHEN I DID MY 2013 INTERNET PERFORMANCE AS “CAT is a big boring fail!
MARNELL’S TEEN PUBLICIST”, CAT INTRODUCED ME TO HER WORK AND I WAS IMMEDIATELY OBSESSED. I’VE
What is your favorite fast food? 
WATCHED HOURS OF HER INTERVIEWS, READ ALL HER BOOKS AND HAVE STUDIED HER TO A PSYCHOPATHIC Auntie Anne’s jalapeño-pretzel hot dog, my longtime staple at the mall. It’s
DEGREE. IN 2016, BY SOME ODD ALCHEMY AND SYNCHRONICITY ON AN ARIES WAXING MOON, I WROTE soft, moist Pennsylvania Dutch pretzel dough lusciously wrapped around a
HER A LETTER ABOUT MADONNA MISQUOTING HER IN A RECENT AWARDS SHOW SPEECH AND SHE meaty hot dog, piquantly studded with jalapeño rings, then baked on the
spot. I dip it in Auntie Anne’s Hot Salsa cheese sauce for added bite. It’s
WROTE BACK! SINCE THEN, WE HAVE WRITTEN LETTERS TO EACH OTHER AND SUSTAINED A BIZARRE PEN trans-ethnic perfection!
PAL RELATIONSHIP. I CALLED HER UP TO TALK ABOUT SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE THINGS: SEX, AQUARIA
AND JUNK FOOD. What do you think is so “erotic” to people about getting “likes” on Instagram
and being seen? 
Oh, I have absolutely no idea about this 24/7 addiction to sad little pats on
the head. It’s like Lesley Gore’s “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows” all over
Who annoys you the most in pop right now, like makes you want to stab yourself secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale)--form a strange, insular alternative again. Can we please move on from the Doris Day era? All this meat on
as Gaga did when she first came on the scene…  family. Evidently, the three remained equally close in real life for decades the rack, and it’s no more erotic than a Girl Scout jamboree.
Topping the list, of course, would be the dour, catatonic Kardashians with afterward. Fans of classic movies will find much to admire in Perry Mason!
their tedious inflated gourds. Second is Madonna’s tragic self-ruination. In the last 20 years, what has the modern art, pop and fashion world lost?
What in Aphrodite’s name is she thinking? Burying her fabulous classic bone What do you feel most young people today don’t understand about sex?  How about plain old originality and guts? What a gigantic pig trough of
structure behind bulging puff pads! Jamming ugly gold grills for insta-lift Having been raised in a crass, cartoonish videogame era, young people have recycled postmodernist slop. Of course, no true underground or bohemia
behind her withering upper lip! I despair. never seen great romantic Hollywood movies or sophisticated European is left. There’s a blurry, four-minute YouTube clip panning back and forth
art films, with their fantastically seductive atmosphere. For therapy, I between poet Gerard Malanga and cross-dressed Mary Woronov in Andy
Does any famous female in 2018 have the worth-following-into-a-department- recommend “Invitation” on YouTube--a classic Bronislau Kaper song performed Warhol’s Chelsea Girls (1966) that shows the kind of daring that was once
store allure of Catherine Deneuve to you? in 1963 by Rosemary Clooney (George’s aunt) with Nelson Riddle’s orchestra. state of the art in downtown New York. No words--just hypnotic jangly music
Ha! You are recalling my notorious collision with Catherine Deneuve in Here are some of the delicious lyrics: “You and your smile hold a strange and pure attitude. Go, Mary!
front of Sak’s Fifth Avenue in 1968. We bumped chest to chest, I kid you invitation. Somehow it seems we’ve shared our dreams, but where? Time after
not—like treasure galleons off the wind-whipped Spanish Main. It was mind- time, in a room full of strangers, out of the blue, suddenly you are there. Wherever Are you happy Aquaria won the last season of Drag Race?
blowing Jungian synchronicity, since a bare-backed poster of Deneuve as the I go, you’re the glow of temptation, glancing my way in the grey of the dawn. Aquaria is a true artist! What flair and star power. I’ve always identified with
leisure-time whore of Belle de Jour was then hanging over the bed in my And always your eyes smile that strange invitation--then you are gone. Where the drag ethos—throwing shade is my specialty! When in autobiographical
musty Gothic chamber at the Yale Graduate School. Alas, there are no more or where have you gone? How long must I stay in a world of illusion?” This song mode as an Italian-American from nearby West Chester, Pennsylvania,
stars of Deneuve’s intriguing allure. says it all—excitement, adventure, and intrigue! Aquaria (aka Giovanni Palandrani) gives me an eerie sense of shared DNA.
There’s something in the eyes that feels like a mirror image. I suspect we are
Tell me what your favorite TV show is right now! What’s on Paglia TIVO?  Who do you think most needs to read your new book, Provocations? Who will related in the mother country way far back!
I’m obsessed with the courtroom-drama series Perry Mason (1957-66), it help the most?
which I loved in my youth. The casting, acting, script, photography, and Virtually the entire younger generation, which has been saturated in clichéd The annoying art-school gay millenials believe that celebrities before Instagram
editing are brilliant. The pioneering women producer was Gail Patrick political correctness since grade school, could use my advice to break free were more interesting--people obsess and fawn over the 2007 tabloid era of
Jackson (the “other woman” in 60 Hollywood movies from the 1930s on). from ideological conformism. My primary principles are free thought and Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton calling the paparazzi. Did any of that interest
Raymond Burr (as Erle Stanley Gardner’s showboating defense attorney) was free speech. Don’t follow the crowd. Think for yourself. You are responsible you when it was happening?
a closeted gay living with a male partner, with whom he raised orchids and for your own enlightenment. Despite their noble, progressive goals, too many Lindsay Lohan felt like a post-adolescent train wreck, but Paris Hilton
founded a California vineyard. I’m spotting sporadic gay undertones on the young people fail to realize how they’ve capitulated to the tyranny of the dramatically revived the classic archetype of the “It girl” of Jazz Age café
show, including some bold double entendres. The central trio—Mason with group. Dissent must be encouraged and protected. Authentic liberalism is society. Unfortunately, Paris couldn’t sustain it—partly because sophisticated
tall, blonde Paul Drake (William Hopper, son of gossip queen Hedda) and predicated on the power and prerogatives of the individual. nightclub life had waned or rather decentralized in both Manhattan and L.A.
PAGLIA’S NEW BOOK PROVOCATIONS IS AVAILABLE NOW.

194 GARÇON 195

 Trousers BALMAIN
Shoes (left) CHURCHES (right) BALMAIN
Necklace MCQUEEN

PHOTOGRAPHS JACK PIERSON STYLING PAUL SINCLAIRE HAIR DENNIS LANNI MAKEUP DEVRA KINERY
MODELS JOSHUAH MELNICK, SIMON SOUCHOIS, TAY LANDAU, RICHARD ZECCHINI, LIAM LITTLE & ISAAC KAPLAN (LEFT PAGE)
Shoes (left) LOUIS VUITTON (right) JOHN LOBB
DIGITAL TECH TOMMY KHA EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MICHAEL SCHEIDELER PRODUCER ANNA MAGRIPILIS Coat MCQUEEN
STYLING ASSISTANT WALKER HINHERMAN Polo LACOSTE
003 TEENAGE RUNAWAY Necklace TIFFANY ELSA PERETTI
Jacket GUESS

Shoes (left) CHURCHES (right) GIVENCHY

198 GARÇON Watch ROLEX 199
003 TEENAGE RUNAWAY

Jacket & trousers DRIES VAN NOTEN

200 GARÇON Trainers CONVERSE Jacket YVES SAINT LAURENT by ANTHONY VACCARELLO
201
003 TEENAGE RUNAWAY Coat ACNE
Shoes PIERRE HARDY Shoes (left) GIVENCHY (right) CHURCHES
Underwear CALVIN KLIEN Bottoms GIVENCHY
Hat MOSCHINO

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003 TEENAGE RUNAWAY

T-shirt LACOSTE
Coat & Jeans SAINT LAURENT Trousers RICK OWENS
Shoes (left) CHURCHES (right) GIVENCHY Watch ROLEX
Watch CARTIE REVERSO Shoes (right) CHURCHES (left) GIVENCHY
204 GARÇON 205
003 TEENAGE RUNAWAY

Coat MOSCHINO by JEREMY SCOTT

Trousers LOUIS VUITTON
Glove & cuff RAF SIMMONS Shirt & bowtie THOM BROWNE
Shoes (right) JOHN LOBB (left) LOUIS VUITTON Jacket, trousers & shoes RAF SIMMONS
206 GARÇON 207
003 TEENAGE RUNAWAY

Shirt ALEXANDER WANG Coat RICK OWENS

Trousers & belt YSL Jeans ACNE
Watch PATEK PHILIPPE Shoes (left) CHURCHES (right) GIVENCHY
208 GARÇON 209
 IN CONVERSATION WITH VICTORIA JESIONEK
DENZEL CURRY Top AMIRI MOHAIR

There’s not just one feeling that Denzel Curry’s music evokes. This 23-year-old Florida native
rapper embodies an insightful energy that only amplifies his haunting wisdom towards topics
that are too often unturned by society. Somehow, he sees clarity and expresses the trials and
tribulations of mental health, the current political climate, and the fuckery of social media - an
impressive gift especially for someone that wasn’t always sober with a razor sharp focus.

Coming up with the Raider Klan collective in Miami which includes artists SpaceGhostPurpp
and the late Xxxtentacion, Curry has carved out a space for himself and others that are not
strangers to the dark pits of the mind, describing the the collective’s roots as “a place for
people that may have been cheated on, lied to, called weird, or just felt like an outcast.”

His experimental nature and cross-genre affinity has pushed him to aspirations of becoming
a master at all aspects of music and art. It’s refreshing to see an artist challenge the
traditional constraints put on mainstream performers while staying so humble. His newest
How did you get into music?
album TA13OO showcases his evolutionary qualities while still shedding
I got into music because it was in my household a light on controversial societal anecdotes.
lot. My parents and brothers listened to a bunch
of different stuff. I’d say around 6th grade is when Now living in Los Angeles, Curry has more time and space to continue
I picked up rapping.
perfecting his craft, away from the sometimes tumultuous climate of
You came out with Nostalgic 64 in high school. What the Miami rap scene. Using his empathy as a tool to create, this rapper’s
was your high school experience like? dynamic nature is a force to be reckoned with.
Nostalgic was my first album, my first mixtapes
were while I was in Raider Klan and they were
on Youtube and Datpiff (pre-Soundcloud era).
My high school experience was shitty for the first
two years and better the last two. The first two
sucked because I got kicked out of this book-ass
art school. The last two were better because I went
home to Carol City, Florida.

How has growing up in Florida influenced

your sound?
Florida has a lot of different cultures, so that played
a big part.

You came up in the Raider Klan crew, what made you

gravitate to the collective?
It was the message that made me want to be apart
of it, it was for people who felt they were in a
dark space - a place for people that may have been
cheated on, lied to, called weird, or just felt like
an outcast.

What frustrates you most about today's

political climate?
How everyone wants to be mad at the president
for not making changes but the real change is the
people because we have the voice and the numbers.

Besides music, what rituals or exercises do you do to

"THE MAIN THING I WANT PEOPLE TO keep yourself sane in such a tumultuous world?
I do martial arts to keep me balanced and I keep my
close friends and family around me at all times.
FEEL AND UNDERSTAND ABOUT MY You've mentioned before that you don't reinvent
MUSIC IS MY POINT OF VIEW AND WHAT yourself, you evolve. Do you think this process is
everlasting or do you think is there a final phase in
I SEE AND FEEL." your artistic evolution?
There isn't a final stage once you make more
art… but there are more ways to keep growing
artistically. It is an everlasting process once you
understand that you should always be a student.

PHOTOGRAPHS ALEXIS GROSS

STYLING JORDAN BOOTHE
003 DENZEL CURRY

Is crossing over into different genres

and subgenres something you've always
wanted to do with your music?
Yes because if I don't try to get good
at doing them now I won't be able
to grow artistically and I won't be a
versatile artist that I want to be.

Genius has been described as something

that you find, something that comes
to the body, not something that comes
from within the body. Where do you
go mentally or physically to find
your genius?
I compare my genius to different
types of martial arts... learning
different styles of fighting makes
you a genius if you're able to adapt
to that style and get good at it. When
it comes down to music it's the
same ordeal except it's getting good
at genres. That's where the genius
behind it all comes from.

You're an Aquarius - one of the main

characteristics of the sign is its
humanitarian quality, the need to give
back to society. Generally, what do you
hope people feel when they listen to
your music?
I hope people feel everything I
try to convey and if they don't,
I understand that people don't
understand. But the main thing I
want people to feel and understand
about my music is my point of view
and what I see and feel.

Has moving to California influenced

your approach to music?
Not really, but reading the
autobiography of Gucci Mane
definitely played a part in how
I approach music today.

What's your favorite video game

and why?
Naruto Shippuden Ninja Storm
because I'm really into martial arts
and I love fighting games. Next
to that is Mortal Combat and
Dragon Ball Z.

You've tapped into the realness of the

BS and materialism of Instagram
culture in CLOUT COBAIN. Were you
always so sharply aware of the negative
implications of social media? How did
you get to this enlightenment?
Observation is really all it took and
staying sober so I can really see
what’s going on around me at all
times. That’s the inspiration behind
the song.

Do you make other art besides music?

Do you paint, draw?
I paint, draw, write, and do
martial arts.

What is your message to the youth?

Shirt RAF SIMONS
Jeans CALVIN KLIEN Be Yourself.
Shoes JW ANDERSON X CONVERSE

212 GARÇON 213

003 DENZEL CURRY

Top DOUBLET
Shirt DEATHSTAR
Bottoms SECOND LAYER

214 GARÇON Shirt DEATHSTAR 215

 As the traditional chain letter template fades into obscurity, a new format is already
CHAIN LETTERS: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
BY DOMINIQUE TUREK

poised to take its place.

There are only two acceptable reactions to chain letters, one of which is an eye roll
and jerk off motion and the other is hysterical compliance. While highly improbable, I Where Are They Now?
like to imagine a world where anyone that Chain Letters have undergone a transformation of Frankenstenian proportions. Now rearing its ugly head in the form of GoFundMe accounts and Facebook
After a decades-long crusade of copying and pasting chain challenges, these “new” platforms operate under the same system which helped to constitute attention as cryptocurrency.
ever broke a chain letter is revisited night letters turned up fruitless, the whole scam began to lose its
after night by a little girl with empty eye appeal and is slowly being replaced with a new and improved GoFundMe
assortment of online hoaxes. While the equation remains the The path to hell is paved with good intentions, and GoFundMe is no exception. The credo of GoFundMe aims to, “…help a person, fix a neighborhood, or even
sockets and gray skin, making them rue same, Mob mentality plus sensationalism divided by baseless change a nation. We believe your inspiration should be shared with everyone. Because that is how change happens.” In many ways, this ethos is upheld by its featured
the day they left that chain letter to rot threats equals influence; the tactics have changed. No longer campaigns, but we can start to see the need for attention and monetary greed start to seep in.
away ‘on read.’ fooled by Mr. Nigerian Prince Charming and his defamed
petroleum company in West Africa, this generation’s chain mail GoFundMe acts as a chain letter in a couple of different ways. The first is that it largely operates under blind faith. This platform is a goldmine for those who want
comes to you in the form of GoFundMe accounts, internet challenges and Facebook users promising to quit buying Juul pods if to “do the right thing” without becoming too emotionally invested. Similar to chain letters, GoFundMe allows you to keep reality an arms length away as you donate
you help them reach one million likes. money or repost stories without too much at stake. This is your ‘Get Out of Hell Free’ card.

Where Did Chain Letters Come From?
If something weird is going on, chances are Jesus Christ isn’t far behind. While the origin story of the chain letter is widely disputed, it’s
been argued that Christ pioneered the practice with a note he’d authored post-resurrection called, “Letter from Heaven,” a slightly more
credible sounding title than it’s current successor, “IT’S COCKTOBER.”
It’s hard to imagine Jesus writing a chain letter. “Send this to all 12 disciples before the sundial hits noon and collect your season pass to
Six Flags at will call.” Following a very questionable discovery of this chain letter in England in 1795, a group of Methodist missionary
women in Chicago were inspired to organise their own chain letter to try and alleviate some debt they’d accumulated. Their plan
worked and the missionaries walked away with $6,000 cash. This incident helped to verify chain letters as a successful means to
garner money and attention, meanwhile proving that Ponzi schemes work quicker than prayers.
The most notable chain letter pre-internet was carried out anonymously in Denver, Colorado in 1935 under the name, “Send-a-
Dime.” The response was so overwhelming that it spread across the United States and left a trail of incapacitated postal services in its
wake. The letter was said to have been copied and distributed upwards of a billion times. Recipients of the letter were promised to
receive a cash payout if they followed the instructions on the letter, and with so many left feeling dejected from the Great Depression,
recipients saw “Send-a-Dime” as a glimmer of hope, failing to see the greater pyramid scheme at hand.
Why Do They Work?
The internet doesn’t sleep because we do not sleep. It is the busiest, loneliest place on earth next to New York City. As we spend an
increased amount of time on the internet, we began to reconcile the fact that attention is the closest we may ever get to a meaningful
interaction. Using fear as a motivator to spread its message far and wide, chain letters rely on malicious tactics to exploit our
deepest insecurities.
Loneliness
Chain letters suggest we remedy our solitary existence by leaving our comfort zone and reach out to other people. Sending a chain
letter becomes a great excuse to contact that crush or coworker you’ve never known how to approach. It’s also a great way you make
yourself look wildly unhinged. Chain letters commonly bait people with the promise of friendship, eternal happiness and true love.
“If you send this to TEN people, you will be kissed and asked out. If you break the chain you will see a dead boy or girl in your room tonight.
The second reason is the devolution from divinity into absurdity. In the same way that “Letters from Heaven” turned into sensationalist stories about escaped
lunatics and good dick, GoFundMe accounts went from helping victims of mass shootings with funeral costs to guys from Beta Theta Pi raising money to buy a
30 rack of Coors Light.
Internet Challenges
Years ago, I took part in the cinnamon challenge because the internet told me to. I put spoonful of cinnamon into my mouth and immediately started to panic as
every bit of saliva my body had ever produced was suffocated with saccharine sand. If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to drown in your own kitchen, I
highly recommend it. Following the cinnamon challenge, the internet saw a rise in this sort of sadomasochistic behavior.
Comparable to the fear and reward system relied upon by chain letters, internet challenges provide people with an opportunity to feel good and bad at the same
time. While neither chain letters nor internet challenges provide people with tangible rewards, it’s evident that participants gain something from the experience.
Engaging in a challenge where you snort a condom through your nose and pull it out of your mouth isn’t all that different from resending a chain letter to twenty
colleagues who will start to ignore you at an ever-increasing rate, but it’s worth the struggle because these small feats help eek out your place in society and solidify
you as a person who is both a part of society and apart from society.
Facebook Likes
If Patty Matthews gets ten thousand likes on her picture she’ll stop smoking with her kid in the car. Throw in a couple hundred extra Likes and she’ll try to stop
falling asleep on the couch with a lit cigarette in her hand.
Using the internet as our own personal platform is one of the most powerful tools we have to expose corruption, incite change and rally for inclusivity, however,
we can’t have nice things. One of many dark side projects taking place on Facebook right now is the, “If I Get 100 Likes I Will...” trend. We now spend so much time
online that we interact more with strangers than we do people in our physical world. We have become comfortable enough with anonymity and interfaces that
we feel fine reaching out to a community of strangers for support.
Putting emotional responsibility on strangers is highly reminiscent of chain letters. One minute you’re answering a work email and the next you’re being
manipulated into sending a chain letter to your boss so that little Susie O’Conner who fell down the well in 1885 won’t come back to life and possess your unborn
child. While giving and receiving support on the internet has revolutionised the way people relate with each other, it can lead to a culture of disingenuousness.

“We now spend so much time

Resend this in the next 53 minutes and someone will tell you they love you,” according to a chain letter circulated over Instagram. “Ken Barker from Saint Paul, Minnesota will only agree
to chemotherapy if he gets 1,000 likes on Facebook,”
Religion + Bullying has become a normal thing to see. Cushioned
Religious superstition is one of the leading causes of lazy altruism. This idea that, “If I do something good then nothing bad can happen between cat videos and a politically incorrect
to me,” is the driving force behind most of our “good deeds.” Chain letters are nothing more than modern day Hail Mary’s. In this age of
technology, assuaging Catholic guilt and quelling your fears of the unknown has never been easier. We now have the option to choose
our own adventure, deciding our own fates through prayer, reposts or both.
rant from your uncle, Ken Barker’s life hangs in
the balance. Toeing the line between indifference
and interference, it’s worth considering that one
online that we INTERACT more
The modus operandi of any good chain letter relies on a fear and reward based system. Playing upon certain phobias, chain letters use
emotionally manipulative tactics to keep us asking, “But, what if?” This is why the New York lottery slogan “Hey, you never know,” has
like could be all it takes to saves Ken and help him
reevaluate his stance on chemotherapy. While it’s
incredibly unlikely that Ken’s life trajectory will
with STRANGERS than we do
people in our physical world."
homeless people spending their last dollar on scratch offs. According to psychologist Dr. Pamela Rutledge, “We have to choose between change based on Facebook activity, it’s probably
feeling silly for believing or risking the threatened outcome. We consciously know it is irrational, but we also have those innate, biological fears, best to like his page just in case because, hey, you
especially if we’re reacting to protect those around us, rather than ourselves,” (Llyod, 2015). never know.

217
 HYSTERICAL ATTACHMENTS
WORDS BY WILLIAM J SIMMONS
Jimmy DeSana was a figurehead of the New York punk scene in the
late 1970s and 80s. As with many members of the queer avant-garde,
he died of AIDS-related illness in 1990. He was perhaps best known
for his photographs of fellow artistic luminaries, such as Debbie Harry,
David Byrne, Kenneth Anger, and Billy Idol, but he also had an ouvre more
easily categorized as ‘art photography’. DeSana made a splash with
his Submission series—an explicit documentation of the BDSM culture
of which he was a part (contemporaneous with, but in my opinion, better
than, Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs of the same subject). DeSana
then turned to domestic scenes in his Suburban Sex series and, later,
collages, when his health began to fail and his movement was limited.

At a panel on DeSana’s work some years ago,
Cyrus Dunham remarked that queer people
always have a heightened relationship to objects
and places. That comment was so intensely
profound when I first heard it that I have yet to
fully process its meaning. There is the obvious
willingness queer people have to use objects in a
novel sexual fashion, evinced by DeSana’s work,
but there is something more capacious going on
as well. As the late queer theorist Eve Kosofsky
Sedgwick theorised: “I think that for many of us
in childhood the ability to attach intently to a few
cultural objects, objects of high or popular culture
or both, objects whose meanings seemed mysterious,
excessive, or oblique in relation to the codes most
readily available to us, became a prime resource
for survival.”
It is not that the body becomes an object, but
rather that everything becomes a medium for the
extension of the body in space and time. Nothing
could be more life affirming and necessary—the
ability to expand one’s self when everything
conspires to make you feel small. It might be your
childhood bedroom, where you first jerked off to a
picture of someone of the “wrong” sex, or perhaps
the worn, annotated set of Anne of Green Gables
that your parents said you were not allowed to
read. Objects and places reveal your delicacy and
the difficulty you have operating in the world as
it exists, and objects and places offer you a chance
to reimagine all that is staid and stagnant. The
irrational attachments you harbour might be all
you have when everything seems to exclude you.
It is nearly impossible to explain this mindset to
someone who is not queer, but perhaps DeSana’s
photographs make a visual argument where
words fail. His work undermines the assumption
that we are all autonomous beings with full self-
determination. In fact, we need other people and
props and glamorous (if only in our own mind)
narratives in order to signify at all, and that does
not reduce our agency.
ALL IMAGES (C) THE JIMMY DESANATRUST
003 HYSTERICAL ATTACHMENTS

220 GARÇON 221

003 HYSTERICAL ATTACHMENTS

222 GARÇON 223

003 HYSTERICAL ATTACHMENTS

224 GARÇON 225

During the breaks on their Garçon cover shoot, two occultists – Brian Butler and Kenneth
Anger – read and discussed obscure magick theory and practices. What follows is a rare
documentation of these intimate discussions…

PHOTOGRAPHS & STYLING BRIAN BUTLER

PRODUCTION ALEX KAZEMI @ VOID COLLECTIVE
 003 KENNETH ANGER
BB: I woke very early from a dream in which I had
married some deformed and imbecile creature. Her
fingers were distorted in a strange zigzag, and her
ring was twisted to fit. I had to be persuaded to say
the words and violently protested that the whole
thing was only a rehearsal immediately afterwards.
KA: That’s odd.
As I was waking up I heard a voice saying “It’s only a
fay.” What's a fay?
Fairy.
Okay, anyway, I’ve been working on a new ritual.
The way it works is this: you're stopping at the
four quarters in a clockwise order, but you're going
counter-clockwise to reach them. So instead of going
ahead one quarter you are going backwards three
quarters to reach the next quadrant. So you start with
air in the East, then you go around counter-clockwise
and land in the South.
Yeah.
In the South is fire, and it’s inhabited by the Solar
Phallic Lion.
Are you supposed to be doing this in a circle or-
Yeah. But the circle is-
It's imaginary?
It's built on the Astral plane, yeah. You build an
Astral temple with the actual circle design and the
cabalistic squares going in the shape of a -T-, so
you're standing in the center square when you start,
facing Boleskine, which is North-East and you do the
first oration which is the Invocation of Bornless One.
Then you go through the different elements. You
face East for air, say the barbarous names, trace the
pentagram, salute in the sign of the grade of air, and
then you visualize the inhabitant which in this case
is a yellow solar phallic bird of a mercurial nature.
IN CONVERSATION WITH BRIAN BUTLER
228 GARÇON
Then you go around counter-clockwise until you land
in the South and then that's when you see this, uh,
it would be a solar phallic Lion there. Fire is in the
South so flame red are the rays that burst forth from
his verendum.
That means head.
Yeah, of his, uh, shaft or whatever.
Or whatever.
I think maybe that's a little bit of an insight into
Therion’s sense of humor.
Yeah.
Then you go counter-clockwise three fourths the way
around to land in the West. So you're going around
counterclockwise, but you're always landing in the
place next to where you were as if you were traveling
clockwise.
Yeah.
So then you go around counter-clockwise to the West
and the conception is of water, glowing, inhabited by
a solar phallic dragon serpent of a Neptunian nature.
That's a tall order.
So that's kind of like a Leviathan or something, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. It's like an astral creature. Next you travel three
quarters counter-clockwise to land in the North. The
conception is of earth, glowing inhabited by a solar
phallic Hippopotamus of the venereal nature.
Venurial just means connected to sex.
So all the other ones are connected to a planet.
In the footnote to the Hippopotamus description,
it says its sacred to Ahathor. The idea is that of
the female conceived as invulnerable, reposeful, of
enormous swallowing capacity, et cetera. I
think this type of creature has origins in the book
of Job.
Can be.
In most editions of Job it’s translated as Behemoth.
Yeah.
But in other places its translated as a Hippopotamus.
Yeah.
Sometimes it's translated as a pig, or an elephant. It's
basically a grotesque. I suppose.
It's an imaginary animal.
It’s also described as invulnerable. What does that
mean in this context?
Invulnerable means you can't do anything
against her.
So it's kind of holy or something.
Yeah.
And it's reposeful.
Anything that's invulnerable can't be defeated.
It's superstrong.
I once saw a documentary about the Hippopotamus,
and they have these really long ivory teeth.
Yeah.
And they're always fighting. Even though they're
vegetarians and appear to be docile, they’re
violent against each other. They get into these
spectacular fights with those big tusks, chomping
at each other.
Well maybe when they have mating fights, they use
the tusks. I'm not quite sure.
Yeah.
Anyway, the animal kingdom is pretty weird.
229
003 KENNETH ANGER
So this Hippopotamus could be considered kind
of holy.
Yeah.

An invulnerable, reposeful, solar phallic Hippopotamus.

(laughs) Like a cartoon.

So its nature is reposeful, but it also has an

enormous swallowing capacity.
Well, good for him. I don't know what it's
gonna swallow.

Well, I don't know either.

Water? People? (laughs)

... reposeful, invulnerable, venereal Hippopotamus.

So, I guess on some plane he's serious, I mean, but
it sounds like a ...
Like a joke.

This invocation has origins in Egypt. Did you

notice many strange animal figures while you
were there shooting Lucifer?
When you go to Egypt, you notice that the most
common animal flying arounds are bats. But
there weren't any bats ever represented in ancient
Egyptian art. And the bats apparently came later.
There was an invasion of bats from Africa or
some place.

So maybe they're considered more of a pest like

flies or mosquitoes. You don't typically see those
in art, right?
And you know that the mysteries are never
represented in Egyptian art. Like a taboo. But I
think there weren’t any.

Yeah.
Bats came later. And in ancient Egypt there weren't
any bats.

Did you see any other animals?

Another animal that came later was the camels.
There weren't any camels in ancient Egypt.

Where did they come from?

North Africa or some place.

Did you see any cats? Or were there dogs?

No. I'm not sure. They had a god named Anubis,
that was a little bit like a dog. Or a wolf.

Did you see any wild dogs or cats when you were
there?
Cats were considered sacred and they had a
cat goddess.

Bastet, right?
Yeah.

Well almost all the statues are zoomorphic. A head

of a cat and on a human body, for instance.
Sometimes.

Like those big statues at the end of Lucifer Rising,

the Colossi of Memnon.
Yeah.

“The cult of the world. The twins statues. What were they?
They're related to one Pharaoh. Pharaohs like to

Above the bed there was a series

portray themselves as gods. Presumptuous but on
the other hand relatable.

of painted as if It’s interesting that gods are often portrayed as

animals.
Well, it’s an animal having superpowers.
they were looking over to watch the That goes back to your idea that it’s like a

debauchery that occurred there.”

cartoon.
Yeah.

230 GARÇON 231

003 KENNETH ANGER

232 GARÇON 233

003 KENNETH ANGER

234 GARÇON 235

003 KENNETH ANGER
It’s interesting that cartoons show animals with
superpowers, although speaking is a superpower
for an animal. Also, some of the paintings in the
Abbey of Thelema were of weird, animal-form
sexual creatures, right?
Yeah, too bad that they were painted over; the
figure of Aiwas, the guardian angel, was in blue.
Blue is the traditional color of gods in India. And
the interesting thing about it was that from the
parts survived, you could tell that it had six toes. I
guess probably fingers, had six fingers, so the whole
thing would add up to 666 or something like that.

The idea of the bedroom which was called the chamber

of nightmares was to have new initiates spend the
night there in order to conquer any fears.
The cult of the nightmare world. Above the bed
there was a series of demonic heads painted as if
they were looking over to watch the debauchery
that occurred there. I found that humorous.

Yeah, I remember that. Above the demonic heads

was a banner that said, “Stab your demonic smile
to my brain, Soak me in cognac, cunt and cocaine.”
Yeah that was on the wall there.

The Master Therion was attracted to conceptions

of the grotesque – he even put out that famous ad
looking for models in New York for his art, right?
He was looking for dwarfs and all kinds of freaks.
I don’t know if he found it. There are no pictures
with dwarves.

So yeah, maybe not. Who knows if he got any

response. But, looking through the diaries, it doesn't
seem like conventional physical beauty was something
he was attracted to.
No. He seemed to like the grotesque.

He seemed proud to put an entry into his diary

about a monstrous prostitute with one eye...he'd
never complained.

236 GARÇON 237

WHAT IS THE

ALLURE OF
RIGHT-WING

FEMINISM?
BY ART TAVANA

Feminist writer Lindy West once opined that Americans elected Donald Trump because they were, quote, “repulsed by the hubris of female ambition.” It’s
a smartly written straw-man, one that reduces the scope of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy to an enterprising vagina. I imagine this wasn’t her intent, but Ms. West
also assumes that voters, specifically conservatives, were so handcuffed to the kitchen-sink of domesticity that they could not vote with a clear mind. It’s the
stereotype of conservatism as a monolithic bloc of Judeo-Christian chauvinists who dream of Donna Reed serving them scrambled eggs every morning. It’s a
view of conservatism as knights of the patriarchy, one that culturally archaic conservatives contribute to by stubbornly viewing America as a culture war between
feminists and anti-feminists, which is, ironically, unintentionally Marxist, as it categorises Americans as oppressors versus the oppressed—reproductive rights
standing squarely in the middle. So if you’re a conservative, you can’t be a feminist, because abortion is an act of murder, thus you’re complicit in murdering
babies. The left views the “conservative feminist” as nothing more than the misogynistic double-agent of the patriarchy. The average American is surely more
flexible in their thinking. The supposedly irreconcilable relationship between feminism and conservatism was discussed in a recent NYT column by conservative
Ross Douthat, titled “An Age Divided by Sex,” where, again, legal abortion was identified as the impenetrable wall separating the competing ideologies of
feminism and conservatism. It seems that if abortion is truly the sum of a person and their political identity, then conservatism cannot coexist with feminism.
But the abortion-centric perception offers a claustrophobic view of conservatism as nothing more than a dissenting opinion on Roe v. Wade, which the theater of
Kavanaugh seems to have contributed to. It denies, however, that philosophical conservatism isn’t the property of the religious right or the pro-life movement,
or even the GOP. The abortion debate isn’t the only thing that drives the conservative impulse to reject third-wave feminism, or vice versa. Putting aside the
issue of reproductive rights, for a moment, I believe conservatism can provide a civilised protest against the third-wave’s utter madness by standing counter
to their gender cleansing efforts, and ensuring that feminism doesn’t divide the country into micro-colonies separated by penises and vaginas. Conservatism
can also marry feminism, as I have, which could produce a less divisive feminism, not simply a more domesticated one.
As a conservative-libertarian, I’m a fan of the tough-cookie feminism and isn’t blindly right-wing or biblical. It indulges in the beautiful prose of
“CONSERVATIVE FEMINISM FEEDS ON It is a staunchly individualistic feminism, a rebellion
the masculinity of great women in history, such as legendary pro wrestler Sylvia Plath’s confessional poetry. It uses Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Bitch as
against the collectivist feminism we’re currently
Mildred Burke, whose poster was pinned to the wall of Los Angeles Police
Department precincts in the ‘40s to shame the men into improving their
bible for pugnacious femininity and hails Margaret Thatcher as a feminist
majordomo for tearing away power from men, without any birthright. It
FEMALE POWER AND THEIR UNIQUE gifted with, or rather, faced to endure. Today’s liberal
physical fitness. I believe in feminism as an amalgamation of the first-wave’s lionises great men and women, regardless of their gender, and values gender SURVIVAL INSTINCTS, GUIDED BY bourgeoisie rejects anything that threatens their
Midwestern moxie and pistol-carrying femme fatale’s rejection of domesticity. equality, not gender superiority as a form of affirmative action. Conservative
My feminism is inspired by pre-code Barbara Stanwyck devouring men feminism is inseparable from deregulated Reagan-era capitalism, as seen in SELF-DEFENSE, NOT SELF-PITY OR AN fragile hegemony over the youth, as they strategically
in “Baby Face,” the wise-cracking version of Agrippina, the mother of Nero. the cutthroat ambition of Madonna, pulling herself up from her bra straps, place orange cones around their crumbling corner
Conservative feminism, and I’m defining, not “mansplaining,” doesn’t whine and using grabby publicity stunts as currency in a marketplace she would IRRATIONAL FEAR OF MASCULINITY." on cool. What I’m advocating for is an outlawed and
about lack of access to male-dominated arenas, but seeks to conquer them aggressively conquer like a Randian heroine: Dagny Taggart in a ponytail
with the ruthless guile of Cersei Lannister sitting atop the iron throne in a and cone bra. The feminism I describe isn’t a brand. It can’t be commodified
far more stylish Gen-X feminism, from the ‘90s when femininity was wielded like a sword, rather
chainmail gown. It’s Dana Loesch defiantly wielding an AR-15 on the cover of into a byline. It is purely a form of liberation from the orthodoxy of the than a curse. It’s a feminism that lives squarely in the equalitarian definition of feminism, rather than
her book, “Hands Off My Gun,” in red dress, conquering a masculine act with authoritarian second and third-wave, who’ve conflated women’s rights the commodification of feminism into an online branding campaign for the professional victim. It
feminine cunning, which is, at least in my view, a far more compelling image activism with the questionable figures who’ve suffocated its voice on Twitter,
than any scene in scripted learned-helplessness of HBO’s “Girls.” Femininity or butchered its aesthetic on the unglamorous pages of Tumblr. If you, like
rejects the superficial feminism of Katy Perry, who used feminism to sell perfume, or Beyoncé at
is not rejected by the conservative feminist, and gender is not viewed purely me, simply can’t find a feminist to relate with on the increasingly witless and the 2014 MTV VMA’s, where the word “FEMINIST” appeared behind her on a jumbo-sized screen,
as a “social construct.” Traditional and vampish beauty are adored as a form of conformist internet, why not simply become the feminist you desire? Because as she redefined the once transgressive movement into a corporate scheme, as fake as the punk
genius, or biological gift, the way Oscar Wilde may have viewed them, or as conservatism isn’t a religion, or a codified medieval order of knights who’ve
weapons, the way Gen-X feminism expressed it in the form of Sharon Stone been knighted by; National Review, I don’t need to ask for permission to be
band touring with a bubbly “PUNK” marquee. Conservative feminism isn’t about using feminism
in “Basic Instinct,” a icy right-wing femme fatale, who used her vagina like a a feminist. The architecture of my feminism doesn’t rely on others; it isn’t a to gain followers on Twitter. It’s about trusting your gut like a gunslinger, rather than relying on
single-action Colt—the great equaliser. question of whether I can merge these two opposing philosophies together, it configuration of the stars. It’s about adapting the paternal influence with feminist literature,
is, as Howard Roark proclaimed in The Fountainhead, a question of… who
Conservative feminism feeds on female power and their unique survival dares to stop me? Listen, conservatism is more pluralistic today than ever
de-radicalising and being more statesmanlike, a Burkean conservative within the feminist framework,
instincts, guided by self-defense, not self-pity or an irrational fear of in its history. It isn’t copyrighted by Fox News. Like the “Game of Thrones”- coexisting with men, as Yoko Ono argued in her 1972 NYT essay, “The Feminsiation of Society.”
masculinity. It doesn’t blog about campus rape, it trains in Krav Maga and era of feminism that continues to battle for the iron throne, there are Finally, conservative feminism recognises that men and women are fundamentally different creatures
attains a concealed-carry permit. If you don’t feel safe taking the subway after warring factions battling to reclaim conservatism, and admits the rubble
7 p.m., force grotesque male predators to bend the knee at the barrel of Glock. of their war. I believe conservatives and libertarians will redraw the map
fighting in a hierarchical society. We aren’t the same, and differences need to be nurtured. Men, for
Don’t turn your struggle into a meritless grievance badge; turn it into a stylish of feminism and claim a piece of it in their own image, which should be example, should reintroduce chivalry into an un-chivalrous age, without being shamed for it. Women
rebirth as an imposing figure, like Ann Coulter on “Firing Line,” out-dueling — I’m sorry — far more reality based. Rather than being strapped to the should objectify men in their own sex magazine, rather than being so wounded by the male gaze.
Buckley and impeaching a President with her pen and gimlet-eyed stare. gurney of the “gendered” wage gap, and bemoaning that a woman makes
Coulter is the right-wing rebirth of Madonna as a litigator, someone who 79-cents per every dollar a man makes (which I won’t debunk here), why
Conservative feminism certainly rejects Hollywood’s normalisation of sexual assault, but it is does
never self-identified as a feminist, which is, in the #MeToo-era, transgression. not overtake men in their macho conference rooms? Bulldoze over them not, for example, reject the idea of women fighting back like Beatrix Kiddo in “Kill Bill,” another feminist
Conservative feminism isn’t confined to the boundaries of right-wing during meetings and do it dressed like Marlene Dietrich in heels. The icon that’s sexy, ruthless, individualistic, motherly, trained in battle, and completely unwilling to
valkyries like Ms. Coulter; it extends to all kinds of Joan of Arc figures, like only thing stopping you from being Sheryl Sandberg or Angela Merkel is
Bernadette Devlin, a Catholic socialist who survived an assassination attempt wasteful overindulgence in women’s studies and astrological charts instead
play the victim. She is the mascot of conservative feminism, in the comic sense, while Camille
and threw a punch in the House of Commons—it didn’t, for example, wear a of studying economics, or attaining a degree in chemistry, like the Iron Lady Paglia is our guiding light in the real world.
ridiculous “pussy hat,” or style her hair in an act of vacuous rebellion. herself. Don’t live in order to self-blind yourself in a cocoon of feyness,
outplay your opponents, as Nietzsche argued, “waste no time yearning of the
My feminism is individualistic and unsympathetic to the collective. It isn’t moon…crush out all sentiment.” Become a female Caesar. Live in order to
aimed at the “greater good,” but the pleasure and fulfillment of the individual normalise the female might, or absorb it in the form of a female Thor, not the
as a work of art, like Oscar Wilde’s aestheticism, where the goal is not to depressing storytelling of Hannah Gadsby. Conservative feminism is fulfilled
change the world, but to dine in it, to take a whiff of its intoxicating aroma by turning thin-skin into Valyrian steel. It’s done by using fashion like a
without feeling any guilt for such undeniable privilege. For the conservative military strategy—a cross-dressing Marlene Dietrich—rather than rejecting
feminist, privilege isn’t a sin. It’s a gift from God. But conservative feminism fashion altogether and rolling eyeballs at the male gaze until it blinds you!
EXPLORING
FEMININITY
IN 2018 BY EILEEN KELLY
When the definition of “femininity” is constantly being adjusted in an effort to include more identities
and fight repressive patriarchal notions of womanhood, how does one express their femininity in a way
that doesn’t reinforce gender stereotypes, while staying true to whatever “kind” of woman you are?
What does it mean to be “feminine”? As our definition has evolved and shifted, it’s important to acknowledge that femininity is much more than a role
or particular aesthetic. In an attempt to move away from “mandatory” gender roles that bind women to the kitchen and prevent them from exploring
all forms of education or career paths, we are forming new meanings of what it means to be a woman in the modern world.

Vulnerability, sensitivity, and empathy have historically been seen as traditional female characteristics. These traits shaped the roles that we deemed
acceptable for women to take on not only in the household but in the workforce and society in general. While still considered crucial to our
communities, these positions were viewed as “lesser than” due to the weak and submissive nature commonly associated with these qualities. The
nurse, the secretary, the teacher - always important, but never in charge. As we re-configure gender roles and try to make a more fair and just society,
we need to embrace these unique distinctions when they exist and view them as strengths instead of inadequacies; there is power in motherhood, in
taking care of one’s family emotionally, in being a matriarch. It takes great courage and resilience to be emotionally in tune with one's surroundings.
But our respective roles are not as limited as they once were, and in the changing climate, we must remember to value all/different exhibitions
of femininity. A woman can still be a housewife, and demand respect for that, or she can be the breadwinner, and still be viewed as fulfilling her
womanly duties. We’re embracing a more fluid idea of the capabilities each gender can possess, and with that will come adjusting our systems of
self-examination.

Throughout history, femininity has been linked with domesticity. There was – and still is – immense amounts of pressure put on women to maintain
a certain appearance and behave within the constraints of her gender role. We’re fortunate to live in a time where in many places around the world
(but not all, of course) women are finally having the opportunity to explore less traditional paths. Women are dressing in unconventional ways,
holding high-powered positions all across the spectrum, studying subjects that have been typically reserved for men, and leading the types of lives
that for too long have been unavailable to them.For many of us, we now view female CEOs and politicians as our superheroes, the example of what a
true modern day feminist looks like. And while these women do deserve our admiration, and can be our role models, we must remember to equally
respect those who choose to lead a more traditional life. We mustn’t get to a place where a female who outwardly displays the characteristics we
mentioned earlier is looked down upon, where those who choose to don a more feminine appearance are taken less seriously. We wind up playing
into the patriarchal system most of us are so desperately trying to fight when we demonise a woman for however she chooses to perform her gender
identity.

When discussing femininity, it’s essential to always address masculinity as well. In The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love, Bell Hooks so
eloquently writes: “Learning to wear a mask (that word already embedded in the term “masculinity”) is the first lesson in patriarchal masculinity that a
boy learns. He learns that his core feelings cannot be expressed if they do not conform to the acceptable behaviors sexism defines as male.” If we’re fighting
for true equality as is the basis of feminism, the exclusion of men from this dialogue inhibits us from reaching our collective goal. While it’s evident
that men benefit from the patriarchy greater than women do, how can we expect to come to a solution when this system also places unrealistic and
unhealthy demands on men? Anti-patriarchal culture allows for freedom of will across all genders; in a society where everyone is able to truly express
themselves, no one has to conceal critical elements of their true identity.

Gender identity is currently being examined in new and exciting ways; what was once thought of as a rigid binary system is now being considered as
far more intricate and complex. With the inclusion of non-cis identities into the gender conversation, we leave room for discussions around what it
even means to be a specific gender. A society that doesn’t restrict how a woman is allowed to act or dress leaves new interpretations
of how to perform femininity. As the lines blur between who is and who isn’t allowed to possess masculine and feminine traits, what will the future
definition of these words hold? It’s only when we raise our children the same way, fighting against the instinct to mold their identities based off of sex
and the traditional characteristics that we associate with each one, that will we see if these ways of describing gender hold up.And if they do - we have
to remind ourselves that regardless of attributes, everyone deserves to have their humanity recognised and be treated with equal respect. Remember, PHOTO EILEEN KELLY
we’ve been fighting for the choice.

“LEARNING TO WEAR A MASK (THAT WORD ALREADY

EMBEDDED IN THE TERM “MASCULINITY”) IS THE
FIRST LESSON IN PATRIARCHAL MASCULINITY
THAT A BOY LEARNS. HE LEARNS THAT HIS CORE
FEELINGS CANNOT BE EXPRESSED IF THEY DO
NOT CONFORM TO THE ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIORS
SEXISM DEFINES AS MALE.”
241
 Full look SACAI

Full look COACH 1941

Jewelry Sonny’s personal

PHOTOGRAPHS LUKE DICKEY PRODUCER NATASHA KHROLENKO

STYLING JENNY HAAPALA GROOMER TORU SAKANISHI @ JOE MANAGEMENT
STYLIST ASSISTANTS DELIA SOCORRO & OLIVIA JAKUBIK 243
003 SONNY DIGITAL Full look KENZO

“[I avoid repeating myself and

continue moving forward] by

and not breaking what I've

built my career on, staying
out of the way,

and leaving it at that."

Blazer & trousers AMIRI

Turtleneck Z ZEGNA

Full look PRADA

244 GARÇON Full look KENZO 245

003 SONNY DIGITAL

“I started rapping first before producing -

everyone around me was rapping and eventually
the beats ran out. I decided to make my own
beats so I had something to rap on, and

Coat LACOSTE
Bottoms Z ZEGNA

Jumper DSQUARED2 Coat, gloves & Trousers RAF SIMONS

Bomber & jeans AMIRI Jeans AMIRI Turtleneck Z ZEGNA
Turtleneck Z ZEGNA Trainers FILLING PIECES Shoes FILLING PIECES
246 GARÇON 247
 ARIANA’S GRANDE’S SWEET TRAGEDY
BY SHANE MICHAEL SINGH
Before you get a moment to breathe in Ariana Grande’s fourth studio album, the moving and mature
Sweetener, she cuts you deep with soprano notes of tragedy. Titled “raindrops (an angel cried),” this opener
- a soaring and cathartic 37-second eulogy, courageously sets up Sweetener as an antidote to suffering.
In a lesser artist’s hands, “raindrops” would have been paralysing, given there are only a handful of
lyrics offered here — “When raindrops fell down from the sky the day you left me,” she wails, “an angel
Of course, the pop star, a mere 25 years old cried.” But what Grande accomplishes here will simultaneously break
and one of only a few radio mainstays who have your heart and make it sing.
displayed tremendous growth with each new
outing (as opposed to dwindling creative stamina), embolism. I’m not sure of his exact age, because grabs your hand and lurches you into a party. It’s
is referring to the victims of the May 2017 terrorist we, him 22, maybe 23; me 20, never spoke about called “blazed,” and Pharrell is spinning, and
attack during a Dangerous Woman tour date such adult concerns, even though I attended his there’s someone else there, too; a man who stares
at Manchester Arena. The attack took the lives birthday party at a suburban Chili’s, and even affectionately at you from across the room
of 23 people and injured dozens more, many though he is a man whom I think about often. Like (eye-fucking, really), who you’ll go home with
of whom were children. The singer’s immediate most stories involving young debauchery, we met and blow and pretend to like until the next
responses to that event now feel both genuine and on the internet, agreed to be “just friends,” and someone walks in the room and affectionately
programmed: a Twitter post, a charity concert, then fell in love like idiots. None of this was serious, stares at you. This will continue at bars and clubs
a hiatus. This is, after all, what we’ve learned of course. We did not pretend to be interested in and house parties and in texts until you learn to
to expect from a culture routinely damaged by marriage or children or Cape Cod vacations or love again; or love for the first time, coupled
national tragedy: acknowledgement, philanthropy, telling Facebook statuses. We did not dream of a with someone who has a savings account and a
and an effort to heal while knowing the events future other than the one our present allowed. We family and whose birthday you remember by heart
will soon be forgotten. knew our love was circumstantial: I, a poor college because that’s what good boyfriends do.
student, had nothing better to do that summer in
At a trim 47 minutes, Sweetener makes no 2009 than spend it with him, a poor retail worker For Ariana, that latter man is Pete Davidson;
sweeping statements about victimisation, who sold leather goods at discounted prices. Our previously, it was Mac Miller. One relationship
terrorism or recovery, nor does it attempt to heal meals were limited to the coupons in our wallets; lasted two years; the other has resulted in a speedy
the soul with gospel. Rather, the album works to our companionship defined by the playlists that engagement. In between, the singer experienced
broaden pop culture’s consciousness of life and accompanied our late-night travels up and down death and then, finally, released an album that
death, cataloging the sweet spots of life against the craggy roads hugging Lake Michigan. We bends over backwards to appease the media’s
its ultimate sorrow — both of which can only be stared at the stars and wore each other’s black attention over her relationship with Davidson.
realised after the other has slipped away. To tackle V-necks and talked about homosexuality and “the (One song on the album is literally called “pete
this on a pop album is tricky, and yet here lies scene” and morals (I was a virgin) and sex (he was davidson.”) It does not, notable, focus on her
Sweetener with its message: death cannot depress not). He gave me a necklace once, and it broke relationship with 23 slain concertgoers. She parties
you unless you have something to lose; one when my neck sweat had eaten through the cheap with Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliot. “I'm better off

cannot heal unless there is reason worth living.
These truths toe the line of being existential, and
while Sweetener is by no means an existential
album — this record has purpose — it does consider
chord. He had carved his initials in the back of one
of its metal pendants, as if he knew a pulmonary
embolism would take him at 22. Or was it 23?
The only woman Matthew called family was a
BREATHIN'
being a wild one,” she sings in “better off.” In the
title track, she simulates mind-blowing sex: “And
then you get it, get it, get it, get it (ayy) / Hit it, hit it,
hit it, hit it (ayy).” She is explicit and sexually aware.
She is a sex god. And once in a while, she sobs. That

the complexity of the human condition with zero
politeness. Yes, you can be in love and broken at the
same time. Yes, you don’t have to be aware of every
deeply harbored emotion at all times. Yes, it’s okay
to stupidly move on while simultaneously letting
your past inform your future.
half-sister who lived in the Wisconsin backwoods.
When he died, I called her—Maureen, I believe
her name was. She did not answer. I messaged his
Facebook friends, and they messaged me back;
“Where is the memorial?”; “What happened?”; “Can
I see him?”
BREATHIN'
is ever present in her prolific “No Tears Left to Cry,”
2018’s surefire song of the summer if it hadn’t been
so subtly melancholy, and if Cardi B’s “I Like It”
hadn’t been so horn-heavy and so damn catchy.
In recent years, pop has flourished thanks to the

This reading may not ring obvious for Grande’s
most diehard fans, but it does for me, thanks to a
man named Matthew, who unexpectedly died at
the age of 20, and with whom I unexpectedly fell
in love. Since its release, Sweetener has doubled as
a highway toward my contemplating love and loss
at such a young age; it has accelerated through my
I did not have answers and the hospital knew I
didn’t, so they ignored me. I was left to ponder
Matthew’s future as a memory. He left this world
unwanted by all except a clueless kid who had no
idea how to deal with his death save for accepting
it and moving on. His ashes are somewhere,
though I can’t say where. Maybe in the Wisconsin
BREATHIN'
efforts of the genre’s most reliable stars: “Taylor
Swift’s 1989,” Beyonce’s Lemonade and Adele’s 25
will go down in history for evolving the craft of
radio-ready lyricism and reigniting their public
personas. Ariana Grande’s Sweetener is just as
impressive, but it won’t stand the test of time.
That’s because those preceding albums are more
relatable: being resilient after love, heartbreak and

veins and perforated my heart with sanguine relief
and made me dance with delight.
Matthew — kinky, vibrant, passionate, brunette,
of average intelligence and tortured on the inside
— was 22, maybe 23 when he died of a pulmonary
backwoods, perhaps in a dump.
But back to Sweetener. “When raindrops fell
down from the sky the day you left me,” Ariana
Grande sings, “an angel cried.” Before you get a
moment to breathe from this heaviness, Grande
BREATHIN'
cheating will never go out of style. Resilience after
death, on the other hand, is less marketable on the
pop charts. So what did our sweet Ariana do?
She moved on, fell in love and delivered that
experience in a pitch-perfect record that asks the
casual listener to look another way.

When Alex approached me to write an essay about why I deemed Sweetener a perfect pop album on Twitter, I was confused. My experience
with death will not be similar to yours. Yours will not be similar to mine. My experience is not prolific. I loved a man, and he left me, and I
moved on and kept breathing. Tragedy, in the form of death and loss, is not romantic or debilitating or confusing. It’s nothing more than an
experience we use as a stabiliser for priorities and desires and responsibilities. It is the sweetener of life, adding just enough temporality to our days
of swiping, crunching, fueling and cumming to make it worth something more; to make us dance and sing when we fall in love and then rally when
it’s time to do it all over again. As Grande repeats on the album’s standout track “breathin,” death forces us to “just keep breathin' and breathin' and
breathin' and breathin'.” I know I’m still trying to do just that.
RYAN BEATTY

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