EDITOR’S LETTER

The Gucci effect continues to permeate through the collective creative fashion consciousness, as you can probably see from these pages – a celebration of eclectic wonder. Alessandro Michele’s unique vision is evident in his most recent resort collection (see fashion director Christine Centenera’s report from Florence, from page 238) and has inspired editors, stylists and even other designers to reimagine fashion.

Our cover talent, Lorde, burst onto the scene in 2013 and forced us to redefine what a then 16-year-old could do. A recent poll in the Wall Street Journal asked readers to imagine they were her manager and say if they would advise her to: a) stick with her edgy down-to-earth image or b) promote her into a big dynamic star like Taylor Swift. I like to think this cover and the inside images do both, remaining true to her teenage eclectic, earthy style while pointing to the more mature and sophisticated world star she has become. Fortunately, this season’s fashion and styling is attuned to that message. Ahead of her upcoming Australian tour and history-making performance on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, Lorde talks frankly to Vogue’s Alice Birrell (from page 162) about the challenges and wonder of her continuing ascent to superstardom.

Wonder seems to be a common theme of this issue and so it’s very suitable that we celebrate the creation of the Australian Ballet’s upcoming production of Alice’s

Adventures in Wonderland. Junior fashion editor Petta Chua visited the Australian Ballet Production Centre in Melbourne where the company was preparing. The resulting images capture the extraordinary costumes alongside the dancers, incredible creative director David McAllister, and the behind-the-scenes talents who create the sets, costumes and manage the stage that transforms the legendary children’s tale into an astonishing ballet spectacle.

Meanwhile, Vogue’s Zara Wong followed the journey of designer Nicky Zimmermann over a period of six months to take you inside the life of this wonderfully gifted Australian designer who, with her sister, continues to conquer the world as they launched three new stores globally, including a first flagship in London, and showed in New York, too. Zimmermann proudly empowers