In celebration of young women who explore their own sexuality as a huge way they relate to their world, we present our Generation Bombshell issue. And we’re celebrating that, because it’s rare that anybody else does. Growing up is hard, growing up as a girl is hard, and growing up in the public eye is so difficult most of us can not fathom it. Instead, there’s a larger focus on using energy to make girls who are just trying to figure all this shit out, feel really bad. At 18, Kylie Jenner owns multiple companies, manages the largest public Snapchat following to date, responds to an obscene public obsession with her body, family and relationships, and still manages to get out of bed in the morning. Applause for you, Kylie—it takes a strong woman to grow up into the girl that you are. Our other cover girl, Zendaya, has also established herself as a (very stylish) businesswoman, and as a young woman invested not only in standing up for herself, but in being held fully accountable for her own statements and actions. The idea isn’t that you’ll always make the right choice, or even wear the right thing. Take it from our girls in this issue: you’ll mess up, but it’ll be okay. If it doesn’t feel possible, that’s also okay—just focus on getting out of bed in the morning.
Paris Fashion Week is getting a little more provocative. Tom of Finland Foundation presents Packed for Pleasure, a new group exhibition exploring nearly a century of art, desire and censorship—and the creative ways artists have continued to make and share work when society tells them not to. Curated by the Foundation’s Chief Curator Brooke Wise
Before understanding that she could work in fashion, Maria Braz already understood the power of an image. Music videos, movies, magazines, red carpets, shows. Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna. As a child and teenager, she watched, recreated, dressed up, invented characters, and turned her computer into a set for her own productions.
Fashion week, trend fatigue, relationship scheduling, accidental wellness, and the annual September identity crisis. Maybe nothing is wrong with us. Maybe we’ve just been online too long.
Fashion Week is happening, TikTok discovered something that already existed, Mary-Kate and Ashley left the house, and naturally, I have thoughts. Welcome to NOT THAT SERIOUS.
