August 26, 2011 |
Fear Eats the Soul – a wonderfully titled film by Fassbinder, quoted as inspirational by Nicolas Provost. For me, it really does illustrate the state of play. The daily servings of slop disguised as “inspirational” images in magazines the world over – fearful of offending, resorting to bland predictability – are suffocating the creative process. Now that the dust has settled on our year-long celebration of a decade of existence, I have begun to question the things that have always inspired and informed my creative process and found that all roads lead back to the same place: ART. So, when thinking about our Autumn Winter issue, I really wanted to explore the challenge of bringing together art and fashion and give to you, my darling Tenners, a little testament of how, when incorporated, the two can take you on path less predictable, resulting in a visual feast so much more inspiring than most, if not all, the fashion imagery we consume on a daily basis. I wanted to explore the triggers that fuel my own creativity and try to share all the wonderful collaborators with you, too.
So, how best to do it? Convince some of my favourite people to come and experiment between the pages? With a lot of help and support from the wonderful Kim Hersov, who became my real-life Jim’ll Fix It. We also decided to make the pages even bigger (all the better to see them with). Yes, I have finally been allowed to have my wicked way and go big. Large it up! I have always been of the opinion that big is best (not size-ist or anything), BUT after years of dreaming about it I have been able to expand not just my waistline for a change. And not a moment too soon. The collaborations in these pages have far exceeded all my expectations and taken everyone on great journey of creative exploration, which I hope you will agree enrich our fashion landscape. Hope you enjoy the trip and, as the wonderful Maureen Paley said, “Art is linked to the idea of alchemy. Something almost magical – it is there to illuminate.” I hope we have managed to switch your light bulbs on, my dear Tenners.
Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou
Editor-in-Chief
