Esaad Younes and Manuel Arnaut. Photo: Jabe
Do you believe in magic?
Let me tell you a secret. This September, we had planned to feature on our cover an actor based in the US. Traditionally, September is the biggest month of the year for fashion magazines, so we usually choose a big, global celebrity in the hopes of increasing our exposure and elevating the publication’s cachet. However, a few days before the cover shoot, when everything was planned and locked in, I received the news that the project had to be canceled, due to the actors’ strike in the US. It was discouraging and a waste of time, but as the saying goes, the show must go on – especially in fashion.
This small bump on the road gave us the opportunity to start from scratch, with a completely blank page. And I’m mentioning a blank page with intent, as this September we searched for inspiration in the pages of some of the most unforgettable fairytales. Since I was a kid, I’ve always been obsessed with The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In fact, I recently bought a coloring book for adults based on the delicious illustrations originally created by John Tenniel in 1865, featuring Alice, the Red Queen, and so many other characters we all love. And if you don’t love them too, off with your head!
These enchanting stories and their heroes and villains (don’t miss our black-and-white fashion editorial inspired by Cruella de Vil) helped us to conceptualize the main features of September, where we want to emphasize the most glamourous, fun, and maximalist side of the latest couture and ready-to-wear collections. This translated into five beautiful covers, photographed in three different cities, in what is perhaps our most daring project to date. In Paris’s Euro Disney, just in front of the palace of the Red Queen, Myriem Boukadida, Aouatif Saadi, and Farnoush Hamidian are dressed in spectacular couture. This cover…
