Gnarly: The South of France’s surf and skate culture captured by David Ledoux

‘No posers. Locals only’

In collaboration with stylist Phoebe Arnold for streetwear brand Aries, David Ledoux has released Gnarly, a compelling documentation of youth culture, captured in the Basque country in the southwest of France. The cloth-bound hardback will feature 118 black and white lithographic-printed photographs, capturing sun-kissed portraits of free-spirited young surfers and skaters in the south of France. Ledoux’s imagery pays homage to what it’s like to live, surf and skate on the coast near Biarritz.

Image courtesy of David Ledoux

Aries’ vibrant essence blends seamlessly with Ledoux’s photographs of the carefree surf community in France’s Basque country, reflecting the brand’s deep connection to London subculture and founder Sofia Prantera’s adolescence in the 90s.

Ledoux’s successful photography career spans both reportage and fashion, authentically capturing communities in a state of invisibility, filled with raw energy. reflects his keen sense of discernment and sensitivityThrough the years, his work has captured the eyes of iconoclastic publications like Vice, GQ and Dazed and Confused.

Image courtesy of David Ledoux

Phoebe Arnold first discovered Ledoux’s work on Instagram in 2020,  falling in love with his effortlessly bona fide approach to photographing the community around him. She proposed a collaboration, when Ledoux called the stylist with the news he was moving to Portugal. “It felt like fate,” recalls Arnold. “We met on a surf beach and road tripped together from Aljezur to Biarritz in his caddy van.”

Image courtesy of David Ledoux

Aries’s Soho flagship store is currently housing an exhibition which showcases selected images from Gnarly alongside a never-before-seen film documenting the book’s creation process. 

Aries has also partnered with White Claw to create a capsule collection of tees, sweats and shorts featuring Ledoux’s images.

#Aries

#DavidLedoux

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TWIN LOVES…TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET for BLEU DE CHANEL

As the newly announced ambassador of BLEU DE CHANEL fragrance, Chalamet’s iconic look for this campaign will be shot by equally iconic photographer Mario Sorrenti and released this June.

BLEU DE CHANEL is the actor’s first collaboration with CHANEL, and his first official ambassador of any fashion or beauty label, and with it, the French-American 27-year-old actor will underscore his reputation as a style leader and unique presence in the world of fashion. As BLEU DE CHANEL observe, Chalamet has “audacious style and unapologetic charm…a man who does not limit himself to the ordinary boundaries life sets and looks beyond what is visible”.

As we eagerly await the next instalment of Dune and all the other no-doubt remarkable projects the Hollywood darling turns his hand to, CHANEL have bagged another legend to direct the BLEU DE CHANEL campaign film. Martin Scorsese will work with Chalamet and CHANEL to cement this illustrious collaboration, and we’re more than here for it.

MAISON META: The World’s First AI Fashion Week

The brainchild of Cyril Foiret, Maison Meta is behind some of the world’s first AI-generated fashion campaigns and collections. Across global brands like Moncler Genius, REVOLVE, and Pangaia, the creative studio is pioneering a new phase of fashion tech and the way brands interact with an increasingly digital clientele. In April, it launched AI Fashion Week at New York’s Spring Studios, showcasing selected submissions from 133 digital artists and designers worldwide. 

Maison Meta invited the public to take part by voting for the collections they liked the best on its website.

Image courtesy of Alena Stepanova

For some participating designers, the competition was an opportunity to explore sci-fi couture. Futuristic silhouettes and techy fabrics were paired with dystopian makeup looks, set within a desert or a runway underwater. Alena Stepanova and other designers instead presented intricate ready-to-wear garments, focusing on stacked layers, detailed knitwear and embroidery.

Image courtesy of Rachel Koukal

Rachel Koukal highlighted diversity in her collection ‘Soft Apocalypse’. In a series of images, she featured a culturally-diverse group of mostly curvy models, walking amidst a backdrop of sand dune, clad in otherworldly shapes and materials. In an interview with Vogue Business, Koukal explained that she wanted to create a size and body-type inclusive collection, one that she felt was lacking in the fashion industry. With MidJourney, an AI software allowing designers to prompt their creations through text, Koukal was able to feed her own images and re-prompt them to give her any imagined body she wanted, as well as new designs.

Image courtesy of Anya Klyueva

This week, Maison Meta unveiled the top 10 AIFW finalists, including Anya Klyueva and Ope, who will be judged by a panel of industry experts that includes Dame Pat McGrath, Vogue Japan’s head of editorial content, Tiffany Godoy, Céline casting director, Natalie Hazzout, and Erika Wykes-Sneyd of the Adidas Studio Web3, among others. The chosen three winners will then have their AI-generated designs produced and sold by REVOLVE for the real world. 

While still nascent, it seems that the future of fashion will be increasingly intertwined with generative AI, paving the way for new creative endeavours and global collaboration. Physical runway shows in future seasons are currently in the works for Maison Meta’s creative team, with products designed from previous collections said to be going into production. Maison Meta is also working on an incubator programme with REVOLVE to help designers launch their brands. 

#MaisonMeta

#AIFW

Ibiza ’89 by Dave Swindells

IDEA, the publisher and bookseller of Dover Street Market London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, is back with its incredibly popular–sell out in the blink of an eye–coffee table book, Ibiza ’89 by Dave Swindells.

An expansive vibey photo book, the title perfectly captures the hedonism of the White Isle, as seen through the lens of Dave Swindells. Here, he documents one fun-filled week spent in and outside the likes of Pacha, Café del Mar, and Amnesia; after all, he’s famously been photographing nightlife and people since 1983. 

“It was easy to believe that almost anything was possible in Ibiza in 1989; that many of the big clubs put MDMA powder into their cocktails; that the music could jump across genres and not only be exciting, but better than the sum of its parts; that there was always another club or bar to carry on to as long as you wanted to carry on; that it didn’t really matter about your age or sexual preference or how much money you had if you came for the fiesta and the music (although it helped to dress up to get into Pacha, and only the wealthy could buy tables overlooking the dance floors there); that there was always a secret cove or beach where you could create your own party…And all of that was pretty much true.” Dave SwindellsSnapping the Brits abroad, Dave also recalls first-hand the story of the British guy in the pink shirt framed so perfectly in the mirrored morning light of Amnesia’s terrace, “When a group of Spanish clubbers turned up at the gate I went down on all fours and crawled in behind them. Boom! I was in! The girl in the photo with me was an Italian Princess. She was with a group of people who had water pistols filled with liquid E – it was mental! That was without doubt the best night of my life.”

Back by popular demand, the title it now on its third edition, with four times as many photographs in the new book and has been released this week as an edition of 1,200 at Dover Street Market London. 

Text: Felicity Carter

doverstreetmarket.com

Twin Issue XXVVIII: Marguerite Humeau speaks to Francesca Gavin

Natural Companions: Ecosystems and Existence in the art of Marguerite Humeau

Marguerite Humeau is an artist unafraid of realization the imaginary. Her art practices fuses historic and futuristic research with the skills of craftsmanship and design, and the emotions and ideas of sprituality, philosophy and science. The French artist has been based in London since she studied at the Royal College of Art, and shows at White Cube in the UK and C L E A R I N G in Brussels and New York. She has had stand out solo shows at Tate Britain, Lafayette Anticipations, Jeu de Paume and New Museum, as well as inclusions in the most recent Venice Biennale, Sydney Biennial and Kunsthalle Basel. She’s an artist who is unafraid of working big, bold and addressing the huge issues of existence.

Humeau’s aesthetic is shifting. Best known for giant fluid biological style sculptural installations with sound elements, her new projects are pushing medium, collaboration and what her projects look like. There is always something mind-blowing alongside the accessible in her work. Here the esoteric walks hand in hand with the factual. The results are art experiences that make us address what is it to be human, in this world, at this moment in time. Humeau highlights are place in the long now of civilization.

Your work began as large, sculptural installations with sound elements, and really particular aesthetic. Your work now seems to be going in new directions from video to earthworks. What do you find interesting about how your work is shifting? How does connect to the work you are best known for?

It was a natural transition. Conceptually, I am exploring further many ideas that I have been preoccupied with for a very long time now. Things are also evolving. I’m still interested in mythological ecosystems and how they relate to existing ecosystems. I’m still digging into the deep past and the far future to understand the present(s). I am also still exploring parallel presents and their possible multitude. I had huge desire to bring more texture to my work. I never really talked about this – I’m thinking out loud. But I always felt that there was a lot of texture to my research and my conceptual thinking. And there was a big gap between what I was presenting as pure, raw experiences of death and life and states in between. These semi-mythological presences. There was a gap between that and all the texture that was happening before getting there. I started to wonder, what if I would bring that texture more to my sculptural and installation work? What would happen then?

For a long time, I was interested in accelerating life to a point where death doesn’t exist anymore, and analyzing what that could mean, and the horror that is triggered as a result. I then went on a quest exploring transcendence and how we can exist beyond our physical body. How can our existences persevere in eternal cycles? And I got much more interested – it’s been three years now – in our physical shells and inner worlds. Our imaginaries, dreams and how they crack, how they melt. How they maybe get reborn. I felt especially during the pandemic that we all had to almost collapse to get reborn. We were really lonely. It was very much about survival and then regeneration. It was a transition that started early 2020, when I was doing my explorations on weeds and the soil, that then gave birth to ‘Surface Horizon’ at Lafayette Anticipations.

Let’s talk about research. Even just looking at your Instagram, when you were going around all these crazy postmodern buildings. We could feel your research process, this flow. What sparks your interest and draws you in? What makes you look at something?

That’s a really good question. I think it depends. Last year I went with my partner to the north of Australia, we crossed the Northern Territory from Darwin to Broome. It was amazing. I never travel with something specific in mind. I discovered the termite mounds there in Australia. I became completely obsessed. I downloaded this book that’s called ‘The Soul of the White Ant’ by Eugène Marais, written in the 30s. We were listening to this audiobook, as we were driving through the mounds. I’m encountering something and sometimes it clicks because it speaks to a broader concept that I’m interested in.

For a while, I had been thinking about how we could become collective bodies, how could we merge within the greater whole of Life. For a long time, I had been making bodies that are individuals – a vessel unto themselves, that would become communities as they would be brought together, for example, the elephant family mourning their matriarch in ‘FOXP2’ (2016), or ‘The Dancers in High Tide’ (2019). This time I wanted to create bodies, that would be the sum of their parts. I discovered the termite mounds. I was listening to this audio book. I connected the mounds to beehives and all the collective structures built by insects and also to the concept of human community centers. These concepts are also connected to my project in Colorado, ‘Orisons’. I feel we need to merge within the greater whole of life. It’s not so much about will we survive as a human species that really matters. It’s more about having the confidence that life will make it through all these different crises, and we need to nurture life around us. There are forms of life that will survive us. How can we take them as our guides or companions to understand how to navigate our own futures?

Meys is on show at White Cube Bermondsey April 5 to May 14

Full Interview by Twin’s Art Editor Francesca Gavin in this issue of Twin

Images:

Marguerite Humeau
Migrations (El Niño, La Niña, Kuroshio), 2022, Installation view,
59th Biennale di Venezia.
Courtesy the artist, C L E A R I N G and White Cube
Photo: Roberto Marossi

Marguerite Humeau
The Oracles of the Desert (detail)
2021
Steel, diamond drum cut prismatic light diffusers, aluminium dibond, Plexiglass, Plywood, grow lights, pale amber gold filters, clay soil, mattress foam, clairvoyant, plants variable dimensions, bioindicator plants : Greater Plantain / Plantago major, Annual Mercury / Mercurialis annua, Buck’s-Horn Plantain / Plantago coronopus, Ribwort Plantain / Plantago lanceolata, Broad-Leaved Dock / Rumex obtusifolius, Nipplewort / Lapsana communis, Ragweed / Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Common Amaranth / Amaranthus retroflexus, Fat-Hen / Chenopodium album, Curled Dock / Rumex crispus, Canadian Fleabane / Erigeron canadensis, Cuckoo-Pint / Arum maculatum, Hairy Bitter-Cress / Cardamine hirsute
561 x 654 x 381.3 cm
Courtesy the Artist, C L E A R I N G New York/Brussels
Image Credit: Julia Andréone

Marguerite Humeau Collective Effervescence 2023 Human and AI-produced digital video, silent 2 min 35 sec, looped  © Marguerite Humeau. The artist generated this image in part with DALL-E, OpenAI’s image-generation model. 

Guendalina Cerruti at Miart, Milan

Twin correspondent and artist Cecilie Norgaard travelled to Milan to explore the emergent section of miart fair this April. London-based gallery Ginny on Frederick presented five sculptures on a high table by artist Guendalina Cerruti. They resembled miniature rides in a fun park and urban landmarks forming the skyline of a city. All the objects, clearly handcrafted, are made from a mix of wood, plastic beads, wire steel mesh, glitters, glue, fabric, and none of their dimensions exceed 70 centimetres. They seem direct extension of toys, underlining associations to childhood with their rainbow and soft pastel colour scheme. The bigger pieces are decorated by photographs from what seems like someone’s photo roll.

I have a thing for miniatures. The part of me that pressed a fascinated face against the glass montre of a large miniature landscape, through which different electric trains drove upon the toss of a small coin in the central station of my childhood lives on. Many childish miniature passions have matured into adult dedication and dexterity and become complicated, nerdy, professional hobbies – from Warhammer to collections of electronic and self-assembled miniature vehicles, to the elaborate design of the landscapes that these objects inhabit. Art too, I would argue, is “refined” childhood passion matured in a subject over time. The minimum criterion for good art, I would propose, is when the subject, the artist, opens their eyes to their surroundings to the extent of finding resonance outside themselves with whatever their passion is – and creates from there. 

The reason why I find Cerruti’s sculptures brilliant in the context of the fair is because they’re very effective mirrors of a contemporary condition. By literally thematising entertainment and spectacle, one can perceive the works as a metaphor for the art fair as fun park: hysterical and sensation-driven, too sweet, too loud, too exciting, way too exhausting. I really like how meticulously they’re crafted. To me this communicates authenticity and intimacy which makes the sweet mockery they engage translate as sympathetic and self-aware, rather than sarcastic and condescending. These objects are someone’s darlings. The care they hold, combined with the alludes to innocence, contrasts the cynicism of the market within which they’re traded. They’re aware that they quite concretely depict entertainment value and old fashioned stimuli, like ice cream and rollercoasters. They are the entertainment around which all the hysterical transactionality happens. 

As I inquire the gallerist about the work he goes on to demonstrate how it can be interacted with; he spins the work ‘Life is a Giant Wheel’ and multi-coloured beads slide up and down the spokes as they used to on the rear wheel of my bicycle. It is clear that the interactive part of the work is sensitive. “It has already been sold, so we shouldn’t spin it too much,” he says. In the context of the fair, the works function as good mirrors of the holy Trinity inner-child-professionalist-Artist, fun-fair-ride-promoter-conductor-Gallerist, and of the Consumer, for whom the spin is reserved. 

Text: Cecilie Norgaard

Miart.it
ginnyonfrederick.com

Aries Debuts Flagship Store in London’s Soho

This April, Aries opened its first ever store in Soho, London. Designed in-house and in collaboration with Brinkworth and Wilson Brothers, the Aries Soho store will showcase Aries in-line collections in full for the first time in bricks and mortar and will function as a curated concept store and art space.

This April, Aries opened its first ever store in Soho, London. Designed in-house and in collaboration with Brinkworth and Wilson Brothers, the Aries Soho store will showcase Aries in-line collections in full for the first time in bricks and mortar and will function as a curated concept store and art space.
Photo courtesy of Aries

The store will feature exclusive brand collaborations, brought to life with installation pop-ups, as well as a rotating concept trading with collaborators, friends and like-minded international partners, from clothing and music to books and art, allowing visitors to immerse themselves into the Aries world.

With its own entrance on Bridle Lane, Parisian-born coffee shop Paperboy will also open its first official outpost in London, exclusively serving the brand’s own signature sandwiches and coffees, in collaboration with Aries and Dark Arts Coffee.

It’s also announced that the store will be housing exhibitions, alongside seasonal collections and store exclusives. Its rails will be rotating between pop-ups by South London’s leading vintage re-sell brand, JerksTM and London-based luxury unisex jewellery brand, Bunney.

Photo courtesy of Aries

Founded by Italian-born Sofia Prantera of Silas and Holmes fame, Aries was born out of an ongoing love of trash culture, outsider art, graphics and illustration. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in the early ‘90s, Sofia has been an integral part of the skate and streetwear community for over 25 years with three successful brands under her belt.

Photo courtesy of Aries

The Aries Soho store officially opened its doors Monday 17th April 2023.

Twin Issue XXVVIII: Noon by Noor SS23

First showcased at London fashion week 2022, the noon by Noor collection comes into its own this spring. Pale Pinks, Mint Greens, Stone and Navy create a neutral base from which the brand plays with texture and form.

Noon By Noor designers Shaikha Noor Al Khalifa and Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa present precision engineered sportswear-inspired shapes and sculptural layers. Boxy oversized shirts meet chiffon and lace, layered over low slung pants or dresses

“We think the Noon By Noor woman will have fun styling this collection. It is conceptually simple yet rich with unexpected details,” said Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa.

Simplicity of form, function and a clean precise aesthetic extends through to the photography and styling in this strong visual identity.

The collection is conceptually presented with a film that showcases a portrayal of sisterhood in the context of the home through sculptural gestures, touch and togetherness.

The designers worked alongside Art Director Sarah-Jayne Todd, Photographer and Filmmaker Esther Theaker, Stylist Hanna Kelifa and Casting Director Gabrielle Lawrence to craft the season’s visual media starring identical twins AmelieKöpf and Charlotte Köpf exclusive to Noon By Noor at London Fashion Week.“We loved engaging with an all-woman team this season and are very grateful for everyone who has helped us bring our vision to life” remarks Shaikha Noor Al Khalifa.

Founded in Bahrain in 2008 by business partners and cousins, Shaikha Noor Al Khalifa and Shaikha Haya Al Khalifa, the womenswear brand became the first GCC-based fashion brand to be invited to NYFW in 2013, where it continued to show prior to its shift to LFW in 2021.

Twin Issue XXVIII

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Soo Joo Park, model, musician and Chanel ambassador is here to guide you into the new season as Twin 28 lands. Let her show you how to wear and style the new season with elegance, finesse and a little old-school nostalgia. 

The issue is the ultimate inspiration and companion for brighter days ahead with fashion that spans power, freedom, imagination, new rules, pop colour, paradise charm and the trickiest of hues – red.

Plus must-read interviews, conversation and curation with Diana Policarpo, Gabby Laurent, Cinzia Ruggeri, Lewis Dalton Gilbert, Marguerite Humeau, Olivier Theyskens, Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt, and a tribute to Hilary Alexander, the late great fashion journalist who passed away earlier this year. 

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Dior Pre-Fall 2023

DIOR: Pre-Fall 2023 show in Mumbai

Dior has announced Mumbai’s Gateway of India as the location of the fashion house’s Pre-Fall 2023 presentation on March 30. This will be the first time a European luxury maison stages an official calendar show in India. As part of Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s commitment to support and collaborate with Mumbai-based talent, the collection will feature pieces embellished with intricate embroidery by Chanakya, an atelier and craftsmanship school for women in Mumbai. 

The show plays tribute to the visionary spirit of Christian Dior and his successors who had a profound admiration for India. As the first-ever female creative director of Dior, Chiuri’s partnership with Chanakya evolves the brand’s feminine identity and values. The non-profit organisation was founded by Monica Shah and Karishma Swali and seeks to empower female artisans from low-income backgrounds with skills that enable them to earn a livelihood within the fashion industry -an ethos which resonates strongly with the feminist message that Chiuri has actively pushed forth through collaborations with female craftspeople, image-makers and artists within the fashion industry. 

Gateway of India © Ganesh Vanare

Chiuri wrote in an Instagram post: “It was through this relationship with Chanakya that I was able to learn so much about the artisanal embroidery techniques, which are still found in each and every Indian region, and the unique ability of the Chanakya Atelier to put them in dialogue with the fashion industry.”

Under Chiuri’s wing, the presentation will showcase India’s rich technical knowledge within the field of craft and fashion. And with the luxury sector in India expected to explode over the next decade, the country is quickly becoming a destination for global brands looking to expand their footprint.

The collection will be available in stores from late April, featuring an array of evening coats, silk dresses and sari-inspired skirts.

@dior

#diorprefall2023

Nana Komatsu for Chanel Beauty

CHANEL: Beauty Backstage Fall-Winter 2023/24

The CHANEL Fall-Winter 2023/24 Ready-To-Wear Collection pays tribute to the brand’s iconic white camellia motif. Imagined by Virginia Viard, this season is described to be afloat with asymmetrical silhouettes traversed by the camellia motifs, an eternal code of the brand.

The show took place in Paris’s Grand Palais Éphémère. At its centre, a larger-than-life white camellia and cinematic images of Japanese actress and House Ambassador Nana Komatsu, a spectacle directed by Inez and Vinnodh.  

Komatsu evolves within a set inspired by William Klein’s Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, “It’s the idea of a Japanese woman in Paris, with a spirit of light-heartedness and freedom,” tells Inez and Vinnodh. “In the way she moves in the video there is a sense of wonder, a sense of displacement and belonging.”

As precise as it is profound, the makeup palette mirrored the collection.  Featuring black, white and pink tones with washes of silver on the eyelids and layers of mascara on bottom and top lashes for a fluttery effect. On the lips, nude touches of rouge to complement a sheer complexion with a matte finish.

Image courtesy of CHANEL

Virginie Viard had intended for the collection to be delicate and in motion. “The energy of the merry-go-round of wooden horses that provides the setting for Inez & Vinoodh’s film, with actress Nana Komatsu as the heroine, gave me the idea for the Bermuda short suits and the asymmetries,” she reveals.

Nana Komatsu by Inez and Vinnodh
Image courtesy of CHANEL

@chanel.beauty

#CHANELMakeup

#CHANELFallWinter

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Twin Picks: We Found Our Own Reality @CTM

At the end of a deep Berlin tunnel, lies an exhibition that marks the cornerstone of this year’s edition of CTM festival in Berlin. We Found Our Own Reality examines the cultural, political, and post-colonial echoes of South Asia’s avant-garde sonic pioneers. This large-scale exhibition at Betonhalle, brings together architecture, furniture, textiles, and sound to explore India’s first electronic music studio, founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design (NID)* in Ahmedabad. The exhibition curator – artist and musician Paul Purgas – also presents a new work from a collection of unheard recordings by five previously unknown Indian electronic composers.

Alongside the exhibition and vast research output by Purgas, is an in depth talks and events programme, including a great discussion on “Feminist Perspectives on Night Life and Music Scenes in India and its Global Diaspora” with Nabihah Iqbal and Dehli-based DJ Lush Lata, who went on to bring her legendary mix of influences Panorama Bar for Thursday evening’s CTM club night.

*”Founded after India’s independence, the NID was a multi-disciplinary facility to train a new generation of free thinking modern designers, animators, ceramicists, film-makers, and sound artists. The exhibition explores the technological and experimental ambition of the NID’s electronic music studio across its four year lifespan at a moment of unprecedented national transformation and cultural exchange between Western and Indian Modernist ideologies, narrating its dialogue with the international sonic and visual avant-gardes of Europe and the USA.”

Curated and created by Paul Purgas
More information: https://www.ctm-festival.de/festival-2023/programme/exhibition

Twin Picks: The Horror Show!

Ray Stevenson, The Bromley, 1978 (c) Ray Stevenson.jpg

A giant fanged mouth frames the entrance to the subterreanean space of Somerset house on London’s embankment this winter.

Presenting some of the greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, The Horror Show! examines how ideas rooted in horror have informed the last 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain.

An immersive exhibition through over 200 artworks and culturally significant artefacts, the exhibition presents modern British history in three acts – Monster, Ghost and Witch through 1970s punk to the revolutionary potential of modern witchcraft, showing how “the anarchic alchemy of horror – its subversion, transgression and the supernatural – can help make sense of the world around us”.

Juno Calypso , A Dream in Green, Courtesy of the artist

Horror not only allows us to express our deepest fears; it gives a powerful voice to the marginalised and society’s outliers, providing us with tools to overcome our anxieties and imagine a radically different future. 

The exhibition is an invitation to imagine a radically different future through outliers and marginalised persons and practices. The Horror Show! is co-curated by BAFTA nominated filmmakers Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard with curator Claire Catterall and open until 19th Feb 2022.

Twin meets: Ninni Nummela

Ninni Nummela is a professional make-up artist known for her editorial work and plethora of celebrity clients. She has a keen eye for touching simplicity, focusing on the enhancement of natural beauty. Emma Clarke caught up with Nummella to talk with her about a recent project using Chanel Noir Allure – Chanel’s latest innovative mascara.

What were your main influences/inspirations for the look created with Liz Collins, using Chanel Noir Allure? We wanted to create a story with beautiful moments on a late summer’s day, where an effortless beauty look with naturally radiant skin brings focus to the Chanel Noir Allure mascara. Lived in mascara, like she’s been wearing it all day; swimming, running, lounging. Nothing too perfect. 

What about Chanel’s style is synonymous with your creative outlook?
I love the understated elegance of Chanel. The simplicity and beauty. It’s very much synonymous with my work and how I approach beauty. 

Chanel Noir Allure’s design is indicative of simplicity. What is your definition of both and how is that reflected in your work?
To me Chanel makeup is iconic; the design, colours and compacts all reflect a true elegance. The Chanel Noir Allure mascara is the epitome of Chanel; sleek, beautiful and easy to use.

My work is very much less is more. I always strive to enhance the individual beauty of the person I’m working with by enhancing elements and never applying too much.

How do you negotiate the balance between an iconic beauty brand and innovation?
I always try to innovate and create looks that will inspire, while always reflecting the essence of the iconic Chanel brand.

What do you envision the future of beauty and style to be?
I envision individuality will play a big role, in both beauty and style. Self-expression and inclusivity. 

Twin Issue XXVII

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Issue 27 of Twin has landed! And we’re really excited about this issue, which features Lara Stone as one of the cover stars, alongside Ajok Madel; and brings you the best of fashion for the new autumn/winter season. Think dinner-time jewels, climactic couture, self-expression, the new grunge, how to dress up for going out now and an entirely new take on the enfant terrible.

Inside, we speak with the actress Betsey Brown, who shares how rejection has only served to make her stronger and succeed in her own inimitable way; and we catch up with the IRL-and-URL designer Charli Cohen, who is making waves in the hybrid fashion world. We look at why boobs are in fashion in both the art and style worlds; meanwhile there are interviews with the multi-hyphenate Howardena Pindell, photographer Hannah Starkey, artist Megan Rooney and curator Laura Amann. 

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CHANEL: Beauty Backstage

The CHANEL Spring-Summer 2023 Ready-To-Wear Collection draws inspiration from arthouse film Last Year in Marienbad (1961) by Alain Renais. A haunting classic, the fiolm takes place in an eerie Marienbad and splices together scenes in a non-linear series of images and set pieces, and similarly the CHANEL Spring-Summer 2023 Ready-to-Wear collection is described as a collage.

The collection is imagined by Virginie Viard as a “free stroll through fragments, it exposes an imaginary world confronted with itself, offering variations on the theme of allure” as she explains, “the films we have seen, those that possess us and those we invent for ourselves, Marienbad, the Nouvelle Vague, the allure according to Gabrielle Chanel, Karl, the night, feathers, sequins, heels: I like it when things get mixed up”.

The collection seams together bows, boas, rhinestone boots, jersey worked like scales and chiffon tracing contours of the body, flowing and dreamlike.

Virginie explains, “whether it’s her [Kristen Stewart], or the other women I dress, I need to feel that they like the clothes anyway. But, of the people around me, she is the closest to Gabrielle Chanel, at least to my idea of her. She understands CHANEL, its clothes. And with her, it becomes even more modern. This collection, it’s also her.”

The makeup mirrored the timeless colour palette of the show with nude shades on the eyes and lips to compliment each models skin tone.

The lashes were kept bare with only a light dusting of Les 4 Ombres Tweed on the lids.

@chanel.beauty

#CHANELMakeup

#CHANELSpringSummer

Tyler Mitchell presents Chrysalis

Opening this evening at London’s Gagosian gallery, this large scale photographic exhibition showcases the work of Altanta-born photographer Tyler Mitchell, now reknowned for his distinctive editorials including Beyoncé’s cover for Vogue. Describing the exhibition he explains,

Collectively, these moments become figments of an imaginative psychic state of being, one in which radiance, resistance, restraint, comfort, and full human agency exist.

The duality of organic and manmade, staged and naturalistic combine in Cage, which shows a woman posing before a painted backdrop of a garden surrounded by a white picket fence.

Tyler Mitchell, A Glint of Possibility, 2022, archival pigment print, 50 × 40 inches (127 × 101.6 cm), edition of 3 + 2 AP © Tyler Mitchell, image courtesy the artist; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; and Gagosian

For Chrysalis, the New York photographer has continued his exloration of youth and coming of age while reflecting on the history of photographic images of Black people, particularly in the American South. The images bring into focus a sense of spirituality, transformation and aspiration.

As the gallery describes, “Chrysalis presents images of Black men and women in idyllic states of leisure and repose, safe and unencumbered by social expectations. In a photograph that shares its title with the exhibition, a young man sleeps on a blanket-covered bed, within the protective cocoon of a mosquito net.”

TYLER MITCHELL
Chrysalis
October 6–November 12, 2022
Gagosian 17–19 Davies Street, London

Mitchell’s work is also to be featured in The New Black Vanguard, an exhibition curated by Antwaun Sargent that will open at Saatchi Gallery, London, on October 28, 2022.

Tyler Mitchell, Gagosian Gallery, Davies Street, September 2022

Agnes Costa @ Flou Paris

Marton Perlaki

An intimate photography show opened in Paris last week for one evening only, organised by Agnes Costa in association with Rapid Eye Darkroom . invited artists to respond to the brief “blurry”. The intimate show played host to the bright lights of the photography world including Drew Vickers, Maxime Imbert and Larissa Hoffman.

Louis Canadas

As Agnes explains, “I used to organise these kind of exhibitions at Rapid eye when I was working there – I would give a theme (we did ‘Blue’, ‘Pink’ and ‘Woman’ at Rapid eye few years ago) – and then ask a few of my friends to hand print something. Everyone was free to print anything they wanted around that theme, so we would always end up with something very versatile and interesting…I moved to Paris to open my own darkroom here and it made sense to keep organising these kind of events that bring people together and celebrate hand printing which is something very dear to my heart!”

Thomas Christiani

The exhibition took place at Flou, 13 Rue de Mont Louis, 75011 Paris

BTS exclusive: Twin presents BMUET(TE) at LFW

For London Fashion Week 2022, Twin commissioned photographer Natalie Lloyd to document the brightest, boldest, best and most distinctive moments of the week.

Below are the highlights from BMUET(TE)’s presentation Spring-Summer 2023…

BTS exclusive: Twin presents Sinéad O’Dwyer at LFW

For London Fashion Week 2022, Twin commissioned photographer Natalie Lloyd to roam around the shows and document the brightest, boldest, best and most distinctive moments of the week.

Below are the highlights from Sinéad O’Dwyer‘s presentation Spring-Summer 2023…

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