Cause & effect
SINGER/SONGWRITER LIAM PAYNE is a man on many missions he can’t wait to share with us. He discusses single number four, “Familiar”, on his way to dropping a new album; he’s adjusting to life as a dad with his son Bear and singer Cheryl Cole, which he tells us has changed the way he defines success; he tantalises with talk of a big concert reunion for One Direction, once described as the biggest boy band in the world; and he reveals his new-found – though still nascent – passion for acting.
May heralds Mother’s Day, celebrating the ultimate muses in our lives. We shoot a quartet of really cool mums with their children, and marvel at their versatility, from marketing and merchandising to style direction. And for our fashion cover, Kieran Ho shoots and interviews Emily Lam Ho, who combines natural glamour with a deep-seated passion to protect Mother Earth. She wants to ensure her children grow up in a world that suffers less neglect than is the case today: “It might seem like one person using one plastic bottle is insignificant,” she says. “But if everybody thought like that, the world would never change.” Her sentiment is an affecting and timely wake-up call for us all.
As is deputy editor Sarah Engstrand’s story on the pioneering restaurants and bars in Hong Kong leading the sustainable revolution by banning plastic straws from their establishments. It’s striking to discover that not only do customers seldom notice their absence, but they never ask for one, either. Says Melanie Cox, PR and marketing manager of Cé La Vi: “We were shocked to find that globally, human beings produce 300 million tonnes of plastic a year – and 10 per cent of this ends up in our oceans.” It’s a lesson in how easily our habits can be changed for the collective good when humans care about being impactful consumers rather than passive aggregators.
We meet more glamorous women, too: Features editor Helena Yeung profiles Leila Janah, the founder of sustainable skincare company LXMI, who is actively giving back to the Ugandan women who support her business. And we highlight Nadja Swarovski on the publication of a new book, Brilliant, which celebrates 10 years of Atelier Swarovski and her contribution to fashion from the dazzling crystal empire she helped reinvigorate. She’s also a mother to three children.
We explore East Africa with And Beyond, an experiential and ethical travel company that runs 35 safari lodges across 15 countries. In a world where the last male northern white rhino died in Kenya in March, their message roars its necessity at us.
And third-time mother the Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Middleton helped curate a photographic exhibition on Victorian portraiture currently showing at London’s National Portrait Gallery. “Children held a special place in the Victorian imagination and were celebrated for their seemingly boundless potential,” she writes in the foreword to the exhibition catalogue. “This notion still rings true and underpins much of my official work and the charities I support, and indeed, my role as a mother of a young family.” Hear, hear. To mothers everywhere – legends, all.