September 5, 2022 |
Introducing the brand-spanking new issue of 10 Magazine, hitting newsstands this Friday, September 9. In the horrendous aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we asked all our contributors to explore how they have overcome adversity and found peace. The pages of this issue show how they express and embody their freedom, and how they’ve found the courage to exist the way they deserve, unhindered and free in their choices. For the first of 11 covers, the incomparable Aiden Curtiss wears the latest delights from Christian Louboutin, styled by our own Editrix-in-Chief, Sophia Neophitou, and shot by Antonie and Charlie.
To talk you through the issue, here is Neophitou’s editor’s letter:
On February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Since then, more than 12 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, with more than 5 million leaving for neighbouring countries and 7 million displaced within the country. Families are shattered. Women and children are torn from their everyday lives. Who could have predicted this horrendous reality, when the world has so recently suffered such terrible losses and sadness with the pandemic taking so many lives? It has caused so much global turmoil that the thought of someone instigating such a thing seemed incomprehensible.
Ukrainians faced seeing their homes changed forever and the visceral loss of so much. Childhood naivety has been taken, stolen by this war, and now these people have had to suffer the plundering, destruction and abandonment of their beloved cities.
The same day the Russians invaded Ukraine, a woman in the southern port town of Henichesk gave sunflower seeds to the occupying soldiers. The footage was shown across the world, including translations of what she said: “Take these seeds and put them in your pocket, so sunflowers grow here when you die.” It was a chilling act of rebellion and courage.
The fashion industry reacted in very different ways. Giorgio Armani was the first designer to try and express his support for the Ukrainians’ plight by deciding to hold his show in silence as an act of respect. The next day, Western sanctions began and would shut down the Russian outposts of fashion brands and publishers.
Perhaps the most heart-wrenching moment, and an incredibly personal one, was seen at the Balenciaga show in Paris. Demna is himself a refugee, whose own flight from Georgia, aged 12, after the Russian invasion in 1993 echoed the situation in Ukraine. He considered cancelling the show – fashion seems absurd in the face of such world events, but he went ahead, not wanting the hard work of all who worked on it to be wasted by war. The night, instead, took on a powerful new meaning. As the models struggled to walk through an artificial snowstorm, they embodied the fragility and determination of the individual to make it through a hostile environment. Demna also paid a moving tribute to refugees everywhere and talked candidly about being a “forever refugee”, explaining that the feeling is something which remains with you always. He dedicated the show to fearlessness and resistance, and to the victory of love and peace.
That message resonated with me, too, when we began to think about the themes of this issue. We asked all our contributors to explore how they have overcome adversity and found peace. The pages of this issue show how they express and embody their freedom, and how they’ve found the courage to exist the way they deserve, unhindered and free in their choices.
One of the most beautiful and personal visual essays in the issue comes from Sergey Vasiljevic, a photographer based in Ukraine, who documents his “new normal” in the scenes of horror and destruction in his hometown of Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city. He expresses in an accompanying interview how his biggest fears are never for himself but for his family, who still live in Kharkiv, which, at the time of going to press, had been won back by Ukraine after a brutal Russian bombardment and occupation. He documented for us how his beloved city is now unrecognisable, reduced to rubble.
Also in this issue are amazing essays by people who have experienced war first-hand. The veteran correspondent Clarissa Ward vividly documents the human cost of war in an excerpt from her book On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist. While communications specialist Shelley Thakral, now working for the UN’s World Food Programme, talks about combating the most appalling human consequence of war: hunger. She shares moments of hope and discusses solutions. Our fashion contributors, too, have found ways to manifest freedom of expression, joy, hope and love.
The sad, terrible fact remains that this war rages on and lives are still being lost, something I would never have believed would be our continued reality. But what we have learnt is that Ukrainian liberation is a cause worthy of uniting behind, as none of us are free until we all are.
Issue 69 of 10 Magazine – PEACE, COURAGE, FREEDOM – is on newsstands September 9. Pre-order your copy here.
CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN: LIPSTICK DREAM
Photographer ANTOINE AND CHARLIE
Fashion Editor SOPHIA NEOPHITOU
Hair STEFAN BERTIN at The Wall Group using Color Wow
Make-up SHARON DOWSETT at Of Substance
Model AIDEN CURTISS at Elite
Nail technician ROBBIE TOMKINS at LMC Worldwide using Artistic Nail Design
Photographer’s assistant JULES MARTIN
Fashion assistants HEATHER CLEAL and GEORGINA ROBERTSON
Make-up assistant CHARLOTTE FITZJOHN
Digital operator LOUIS CLERC
Production COSIMA MENIER at Tristan Godefroy and ZAC APOSTOLOU
