Different Strokes
if i’ve learnt anything from this issue, it’s that you need to march to the beat of your own drum. I’m quite sure that when Mark Bradford was in his mid-30s, starting his career as an artist by pasting hairdressing supplies on to bedsheets, he never could have imagined he would become one of the world’s most important creative voices. But he did it anyway, and it paved the path that got him to where he is today.
It’s a theme that recurs throughout our line-up this month. Most pastry chefs would agree with Cédric Grolet that ingredients form the basis of their confections. But few make it a point to exclude the basic building blocks of baking – sugar and butter – which is what Grolet is doing. The result is equal parts radical and delicious, enough so that he was honoured as World’s Best Pastry Chef last year.
Interior designers Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu do Chinese design without using obvious tropes, traditional motifs or even the colour red. Their cerebral approach infuses spaces with an aesthetic that is clearly Eastern in influence without being overt, giving new facets to the Chinese design movement, one previously associated either with kitschy Chinoiserie or blatant copycatting. And we are all the better for it.
In fashion, standing out from the crowd is exactly what the game is all about. It’s not about being different, it’s about making your difference commercial, relevant and long-lasting. Olivier Lapidus, who recently took the helm at troubled Lanvin, knows this: “Every customer wants to be unique, so the problem for the industry is to find a way to make an industrial process that makes people feel that they are unique.” It’s early days for us to say whether he can achieve this, but it’s a spirit we feel is worth exploring – and we hope he will be given a chance to do so, which isn’t a luxury that faltering brands can always afford.
Tibi, for example, almost didn’t – but despite losing retailers when it transitioned from a prints-heavy trend-focussed brand to a classicist, it has rebounded and then some, becoming not just a favourite label among celebrities and influencers, but a truly viable business proposition.
Our mantra for the month, then, is to do what we want, critical voices be damned. And we invite you to do the same.