It's All About Love For Our September 2019 Issue

There can be no bigger joy, pain and relief than conceptualising, editing and closing a September issue. I am grateful our mammoth print edition is bursting with so much content, so many beautiful ads and such gorgeous images. I have always felt that the September issue makes or breaks a team—it pushes us to the limit yet makes us realise just how much we are capable of.

For this issue, I decided to focus on love and its many guises: Love of fashion, love of new and exciting things, love of sex or love of classics. It’s such a broad word that encompasses so many aspects of our lives yet it’s so often limited to matters of the heart. In this issue, I hope to shine new light and give new meaning and scope to the idea, concept and meaning of love.

If your passion is fashion, then read what our new Associate Fashion Director, Jeffrey Yan, has to say about the season in his 42-page Collections Report on page 80. If cutting-edge imagery and the search for cool is more your cup of cha, see our special showcase section which puts the spotlight on all the key fashion brands for fall/winter 2019, from the mastery of Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent, to the hypebeast-cum-street-chic brilliance of Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga. Plus, don’t miss Yan’s weird and twisted take on a modern-day vampire on page 187, where he brings to life red eyeshadow worn with the most extravagant watches. If fresh, new designers are what you seek, look no further than our piece on the new wunderkinds on page 126. From the cool pared-down aesthetic of Peter Do to Loverboy’s queer expressionism, it’s a feature that shows how fashion has become so much more than clothes—as cultural, racial and political voices are captured in the threads and fabrics of our times.

Of course, one of our biggest issues of the year requires something spectacular—which explains our triple cover special. Highlighting Shailene Woodley in Dior, Kate Moss in Chanel and Awkwafina in Gucci, we pay tribute to the new icons in film and fashion that permeate our pop cultural consciousness today. There’s also a candid conversation about family, Asian values and the search for identity between Awkwafina and Margaret Cho on page 132. But no one can be more candid, at least when it comes to sex than Sex and the City author, Candace Bushnell. Read her take on sex with a younger man on page 136, which introduces us to the word “cubbing”. And of course, the Royals. Love them or loathe them, few can ignore them, especially since Meghan Markle joined the fold. Decide if you’re a Meghan or a Kate fan on page 146. Enjoy this bumper issue as I leave you with the immortal words from Hard Rock Café: “Love all, serve all”. Now, that’s amore!

—Kenneth Goh, Editor-in-Chief 

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Photographed by: Mario Sorrenti

Styled by: Carine Roitfeld

Makeup artist: Kanako Takase

Hairstylist: Akki Manicurist Mei Kawajiri

Producer: Sasha Bar-Tur

Sittings editor: Ron Hartleben

Sittings assistants: Daniel Gaines and Lauren Fern

Casting director: Evelien Joos

Entertainment director: Christopher Bartley

Set designer: Philipp Haemmerle

Digital technician: Chad Meyer

Lighting technician: Lars Beaulieu

Photography assistants: Kotaro Kawshima, Javier Villegas, Jared Zagha and Lance Cheshire

Printing: Arc Lab Ltd.

Locations: GUM Studios, NYC and Bathhouse Studios, NYC