The punk perfume renaissance
For a growing number of fragrance fans, selling singular is more important than smelling good. “Do you know any perfumes that smell like dead trees, water-stained motels, peeling wallpaper, dusty wooden floorboards and an abandoned church?” is the kind of hyper-specific request that Annabelle La Chimia, 31, says she regularly receives from followers of her […]
Would you get braces again – for fun?
“The phrase “fashion braces” may sound like an oxymoron to anyone who endured the years of pain and humiliation that accompany orthodontic intervention. Yet purely ornamental, non-corrective braces have become a coveted accessory for young people cultivating a cool-nerd look. “I get around 15 to 20 direct messages from people a day, asking me where they […]
Live From Earth – techno’s enfants terribles
Ten years into the Berlin label’s remarkable story, Cassidy George speaks to the core team about staying DIY, rejecting nightlife’s norms and championing off-the-wall dance music. “Since launching in 2014, Live From Earth has evolved from a punk, left-wing YouTube channel into one of the most influential independent labels in electronic music. Defined by its […]
Yeat breaks his silence
How do you make rap sound revolutionary to a generation shaped by its cultural domination? Through years of uninhibited experimentation, the SoundCloud legend YEAT (born 2000) has proposed an answer, with a bewildering catalogue of music that succeeds in making the familiar feel foreign again. On the occasion of the release of his fourth studio […]
The Talking Heads will never Stop Making Sense
For W Magazine’s Great Performances Issue, I was asked to speak with the legendary rock band, The Talking Heads. “Your 1984 film, Stop Making Sense, was recently rereleased by A24. Its raw simplicity stands in contrast to the highly produced stadium tour films of today, and it is still widely regarded as the greatest concert film […]
Contributor interview: Cassidy George
To celebrate the creatives that made the annual Pop issue come to life, W asks the issue’s contributors––Cassidy George, Tyler Mitchell, Carljin Jacobs and more––what “pop” mean to them. Cassidy George Writer, “Karol G” and “Raye” Who do you consider the most important pop culture icon of our time? Without question, it’s Kim Kardashian. In my life, though, it’s […]
How to make it as an artist
“While “success” in electronic music can mean everything from simply paying your rent to headlining Tomorrowland, fame has just as many faces in the industry today. To some, it looks like billboards of Peggy Gou or the 115 million Spotify streams on Bicep’s track, “Glue.” It also manifests as the buzz behind FJAAK’s label Spandau20, […]
How did nu metal become the hottest thing in fashion?
“After all the bizarre fashion collaborations we’ve seen over the past decade, I was convinced that nothing could surprise me anymore. And then, in late October, I learned that the nu metal band Korn—yes, the Freaks on a Leash themselves—had linked up with Adidas on a full-fledged capsule of apparel and footwear, including a tracksuit riddled with shiny purple sequins. […]
Cruella de Vil is having a moment
My latest piece for ON TRENDS was featured in W’s Fall Fashion issue. “If the devil on your shoulder has been telling you to embrace your inner villain, what better style icon is there to embody than Cruella de Vil? Though she first appeared in Dodie Smith’s 1956 children’s book, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Cruella […]
The art of Japanese women’s wrestling
“At this stage in the evolution of the hugely hyped (and deeply corporate) phenomenon that is Art Basel Miami, attendees should know to expect the unexpected. While AR art exhibitions on megayachts and endless cascades of celebrity appearances have become par for the course at the fair, one of the buzziest events on the 2023 […]