Out Now! The New Print Issue of Contributor is here

Jamie Bochert and Michael Pitt by Yu Tsai

Introducing the Latest Print Issue from Contributor

For us, these past months meant a renewed appetite for the empty room – an imaginary space; a new microcosm where you can capture moments, articulate dreams, memories and ideas, all things ephemeral. Ideally, it is a kind of free zone, a place away from external reality. The illusion is created when we liberate ourselves from time and space, as well as death. Like when winter in Stockholm stretches into May, but the signs of snow outside the window disappear. The future waits beyond the new horizons.

Aldous Huxley publishes his dystopian vision of the future “brave new World” in the 1930s. In this issue the writer Tom Greenwood asks himself if there actually is anything brave and new about our world? In our main fashion story, shot by Hasse Nielsen, it becomes quite obvious when we use old, symbolic and ceremonial objects (such as a bridal veil) that subtle terms like purity, innocence, identity and tradition are all fluid. History is a process. and now more than ever the creation and maintenance of traditions – building contexts and continuity – relies heavily on imagery. The studio can become a stage where unexpected links are made between forms, styles, values and symbols, with entirely new forms of expression.

But the empty room is as paradoxical as fashion itself. Totally transparency can be frightening. a kind of fear that is triggered by what people think they can see or read between the lines or amongst the shadows. A kind of “cosmic fear,” as H.P. Lovecraft called it, where the exchange between light and darkness is fundamental and can be a magnificent backdrop to security, giving it meaning. In ancient Egypt the sun was worshipped as a god, as was the moon and the planets. The sun was a constant force in everyday life, dictating harvest and planting. There are existential questions around macrocosms, moon phenomena, the sun, the stars and the origin of the universe that will probably always haunt us. The tension between micro and macro perspectives can be an enchanting attraction; and we see that fashion at its best is a force for democracy and development – a central part of our culture. Contributor issue no 03 is dedicated to Alex Lidbeck.