A#27
A Magazine Curated By Glenn Martens, 2023.
The 27th issue has been curated by Glenn Martens, the Belgian creative director of both Diesel and Y/Project.
Martens’ work is steeped in gothic imagery taken from the Flemish masters, often reworked through a contemporary digitally-informed lens. This juxtaposition plays a central role in his issue, balancing the historical with the now. A substantial portfolio shot in Martens’ hometown of Bruges plays on this theme; Photographer Arnaud Lajeunie and stylist Ursina Gysi photographed 10 years of Y/Project on iconic Belgian models like Anouck Lepere, Delphine Bafort, Kim Peers, Anne-Catherine Lacroix and Roos Van Bosstraeten throughout the medieval city.
The fascination of a muse, in this case the Pre-Raphaelite artist Elizabeth Siddal, is dissected in an essay by Nicole DeMarco, exploring how all redhead muses of history might owe their it-girl statuses to Siddal. The longest extensions made by hair artist Cyndia Harvey is photographed in a series of images by Jordan Hemingway and stylist Robbie Spencer inspired by women like Siddal with fashion by Diesel, Y/Project and Jean Paul Gaultier Couture. Turning the idea on its head, in a series of self-portraits Sharok, the Iranian-American adult performer, takes his agency back in a discussion about the self and representation.
A continuation of this contemplation, Paul Kooiker photographs a longtime muse, using clay and forms to play with the shape of the body. The sitter becomes sculpture. Similarly, a carte blache beauty series by makeup artist Inge Grognard and photographer Zhong Lin turns face into the canvas of artwork — with the striking cover image of A MAGAZINE curated by GLENN MARTENS being taken from this series.
Photography by Zac Bayly
Contributors in alphabetical order:
Arnaud Lajeunie, Bob & Julie Bagnall, Cyndia Harvey, Fredrik Nielsen, Inge Grognard, Jordan Hemingway, Josh Kline, Kacper Kasprzyk, Kristien Hanselaer, Lars Byrresen Petersen, Michael Abel, Michelle Deng, Nicole DeMarco, Paul Kooiker, Robbie Spencer, Senjan Jansen, Sharok, Silvia Prada, Ursina Gysi, Zac Bayly, Zhong Lin
Delfine Bafort photographed by Arnaud Lajeunie and styled by Ursina Gysi
Roos van Bosstraeten photographed by Arnaud Lajeunie and styled by Ursina Gysi
Hair extensions by Cyndia Harvey photographed by Jordan Hemingway and styled by Robbie Spencer
Artwork by Josh Kline
Artwork by Fredrik Niesel photographed by Kacper Kasprycz
Julie and Bob Bagnall aka Mohawkamania
Photography by Paul Kooiker
Self-portrait by Sharok
Makeup by Inge Grognard photographed by Zhong Lin
For her first show outside New York, Hillary Taymour brought Collina Strada to Copenhagen for Spring Summer 2027, a season that also marked Copenhagen Fashion Week’s 20th anniversary. Collina Strada was the first brand invited to take part in its new International Guest Slot, supported by The Climate Pledge.
There is something about Paolina Russo that makes you want to be part of the gang. Canadian-born, half Filipina and half Italian, Russo grew up in Markham, Ontario, while her French co-founder Lucile Guilmard was raised in Fouras, a small seaside town on France’s Atlantic coast. Their London-based label draws on the things they grew up with far away from fashion capitals: arts and crafts, local sports, video games, music and the particular kind of imagination that comes from having to make your own fun.
On a leafy street in Yunusabad, just north of central Tashkent, behind a wrought-iron gate and a garden planted with roses, irises and young fruit trees, stands a pale yellow villa that once belonged to a prosecutor in the municipal justice system. Today it houses the studio of designer Jenia Kim, whose eponymous label — founded in 2014, while she was living in Moscow — has become one of the defining voices in contemporary Central Asian fashion. While many designers from the region have built careers by leaving, Jenia has spent the last four years doing the opposite: building a company, a studio and, increasingly, a creative community in the city where she was born.
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