PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICO KARTEL | FASHION AND STORY BY ISRAEL MEJIA
LEIOMY MALDONADO IS STARTING TO GET IRRITABLE. I really can’t blame her, because I am too. It’s been a long, humid day, and our mouths have been masked for hours. We are in a studio on one of those eerily abandoned streets in Brooklyn, nearing the end of our shoot for this story. I remind her that we have one more shot before we can all go back to our mask-free homes. She takes a deep breath, lowers herself to the ground, seduces the camera and just like that, we’re back in business.
TRUTH BE TOLD, once you get to know Leiomy and the life that has led her to this moment, you would come to understand that anyone who can survive what she has, can endure anything. But keep in mind, she is only made of flesh and blood like you and I, therefore allowed to feel whatever emotion she is going through. In order to truly familiarize yourself with her, you have to look beyond what you see on your screen.
Beyond the virtuoso Ballroom performances on YouTube ( 5 Elements of Vogue; Hand Performance, Catwalk, Duckwalk, Spins and Dips, and Floor Performances); beyond the exquisite costumes worn on HBO Max’s “Legendary”; and beyond the her impeccable reputation as a worldwide Ballroom pioneer and icon, she manages to stay true to herself. If you can just peek past all of the aforementioned, you will find a woman who is constantly making herself laugh, and spending as much time as she can with her grandmother.
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Photography by Nate Margolis | Fashion by Lily Zhang
How do we reinvent staples? For one, emerging designer Bailey Prado breathes new life into knitwear, making the case for playful crochets that offer more than just another cardigan.
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by Israel Mejia
I can’t fault Lauren Auder for being a few minutes late to our scheduled video call. Short of breath as she logs on, she informs me she just came back from a walk. It seems we all have been finding our individual way of keeping some sort of normalcy during our current climate. Lauren quickly brushes her vibrant, curly red hair from her face and politely smiles as I ask her how she is, almost unsure as to how to answer my question. Understandable.
With the excitement of her third EP, 5 Songs for the Dysphoric, being released the day after our conversation, one could imagine how a 22-year-old would feel. Surely there is a mixture of curiosity and apprehensiveness, gifting to the world a piece of art during a global pandemic. Lauren already has two previous projects under her belt, along with collaborations with Caroline Polachek, going on tour with Christine and the Queens, and having modeled for Gucci and Celine under Heidi Slimane. As she’s done far more than her peers at this point, it’s no surprise she seems a bit unfazed by her own prowess. Read more
by Israel Mejia
Photography by Henry Lou | Fashion by John Tan
jacket KARL LAGERFELD PARIS
Moving is never painless. Packing, taping boxes, opening said boxes to pull out a hastily tucked away phone charger — it’s cumbersome. But moving coasts is even trickier, especially in the middle of a global pandemic. Tyler Barnhardt figured out the logistics and seamlessly transplanted his life from New York to Los Angeles. For the 27-year-old actor, moving involved Amtrak, face masks and a patient girlfriend.
Tyler knows his limits and readily admits them throughout our conversation. He is currently crashing at co-star Ross Butler’s house in LA, as his apartment, which he has only seen through a Virtual Reality tour, is still not move-in ready. After leaving Brooklyn, Tyler and his girlfriend, casting agent Adriana Schaps, decided to spend a week in Miami. “It was an amazing experience because when you go on vacation with your significant other’s parents, you’re on your best behavior. But when you’re going through a pandemic and you’re together 24/7 for four months, it’s impossible to be on your best behavior.” After settling in for the long haul he shifted his perspective from vacation mode to, as he describes it, “Is this just my life now? I need to get out of here and have some purpose in the world because I just feel nothing.” Read more
Photography and text by Andree Ljutica
The perfect illustration of suburban America’s emotional response to the pandemic. Read more
Story and Photography by Andree Ljutica
Suspended between theatrical arts and combat fighting, the worlds of independent professional wrestling and death match fighting are ripe with subtle contrasts and unexpected paradoxical elements related to gender and masculinity.
This photographic series, THE WRESTLERS PROJECT, intends to highlight these contrasts by presenting a select group of wrestlers from around the country in a high-glamour environment, effectively exposing the inherent tension between the sport’s masculine aggression and it’s performative nature.
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All clothing, photography, and styling by Grete Moeller.
Through fashion design, Berlin-born, London-based Grete Moeller proves that out of darkness there is often light. Read more
Photography by Fujio Emura | Fashion by Try Sutrisno
There’s a whole fashion world out there, often unnoticed or under-appreciated. We open our eyes to Indonesia’s promising fashion landscape.
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by James Manso
Photography by Amina Gingold | Fashion by Tyler Okuns
With rooms in the industry that still exclude black and brown trans womxn, model-turned-DJ Memphis Murphy is ready to swing the doors open.
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