Throughout the issue, game-changing figures from gender-bending Edwardian aristocrats to creative wunderkinds like Virginia Woolf, Patrick Procktor, Cindy Sherman, Marlene Dietrich and Derek Jarman meet the gaze of contemporary image-makers from across the globe including new commissions by Ethan James Green with Dara Photography by Ethan James Green Allen, Campbell Addy with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, William Waterworth with Amanda Harlech, and Trinity Ellis with Ola-Oluwa Ebiti.
As a non-identical twin, Erdem reflects upon the themes of duality and mirroring, deconstructing the notion of twinning and the fluidity of gender in his exploration of Orlando by Virginia Woolf and the 1993 film by Sally Potter, as well as personal archives from Aubrey Beardsley’s The Yellow Book (1894-97) and the defunct queer magazine After Dark from the 1960s.
Erdem’s deeply personal dedication to the project can be witnessed throughout, with a series of interviews with Glenn Close, Roni Horn, Tim Blanks and Sally Potter, as well as two photographic series conducted by the designer himself, one featuring close friends, family, and muses from Ruthie Rogers, Maria Balshaw, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ruth Wilson and Claire Foy to his twin sister Sara and RCA tutor Wendy Dagworthy. Another features principal dancers and artists from the Royal Ballet. In an ode to Erdem’s late mother, his sister Sara Moralioglu speaks to the acclaimed British painter Kaye Donachie on abstract figurative painting, followed by an arresting cyanotype study of the tulip by creative director Thomas Persson and photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen.
