Letter From the Editor

SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO VIEW A CLEAR LIFE PATH rolling out in front of them like a carpet. My cousin’s son is like that. “I’m going to be an engineer,” he told me, still in middle school. Sure of his plans and aiming high, he spent his weekends, at age 12, taking extra math courses, with an eye toward the university he hoped to attend: MIT.

I have always been a bit envious of anyone who approaches life with that kind of certainty. I am not of this breed. I spent my early years dreaming, not planning, and college was a wandering stroll. I worked as a bartender, and customers would prod me, “But what do you really do?” “I bartend,” I would answer because I had no idea what would come next.

The upside of such uncertainty is that it makes space for life’s surprises. Following those years behind the bar, I landed a contract job working for a magazine. Next, I worked for an artist. I then looped back to co-found a magazine with former co-workers. Though the publication was intended as a creative endeavor, it ultimately became much more. Years passed, and I realized I had found a career, and a creative medium, in magazines.

It was a fortuitous space to stumble into for someone with a rambling set of interests and divergent skill sets. Magazines can be so many things, sometimes all at once. Existing somewhere between books and newspapers, they occupy a wide space, from ephemeral to enduring. They’re about a moment, and of that moment. And they are something you get to create again and again — each issue, you hope, is a little better than the last.

It’s possible that my own meandering led me to be fascinated by the unconventional twists in others’ stories. Whatever the reason, I believe that the best tales keep you guessing. From designer Francisco Costa’s second act, born from the rainforests of his native Brazil, to Chef Nicky Gibbs’ winding journey to opening a Cape Town restaurant in her home to choreographer Fatima Robinson’s unexpected path to working with entertainment’s biggest names, many of the subjects featured within these pages are reminders that you never really know what the future holds.

Another of my favorite aspects of making magazines is that the process is highly collaborative. Like a fi lm or a play, it is a group pursuit. This means that each issue is unpredictable, even to the people who make it. You may start out with one idea of what it will be, but the final product is alchemical, created by the editors’ moods, contributors’ pitches, shoot schedules, and brand collaborations. If any one of those entities shifts, the output changes entirely.

The issue you’re holding is no different. Each person who has touched this issue has played an integral part in its creation. In that way, each magazine is a self-contained world. We hope you enjoy this one.