2020 hasn’t given us much to laugh about, but it has changed our experience of time and space. This year we’ve slowed down, ground to a halt, accelerated, activated, organised, experienced deep grief and pure joy all at once, sometimes at the same time. With a global pandemic keeping most people at home, we invited contributors to explore their surroundings, to work with what they had around them.
The result is Twin’s personal issue, and we’re honoured and excited to have been able to create such a rich, intimate, thought provoking magazine at this genuinely strange and largely unprecedented time (remember when that wasn’t the opening line to every single email…?) thanks to the independent, dynamic spirit of our contributors.
At 26 years old, Dilone is one of the leading models in fashion, and wields her influence powerfully. Our cover star model and activist explores the power of protest and community in an interview with Jordan Anderson. The brilliant Leah Thomas, founder of the Intersectional Environmentalism movement, drills into systemic racism within environmentalism. She explains why activism needs work across social justice and sustainability in order to make impactful change, with portraits by Nolwen Cifuentes. And in ‘Words and Pictures’ photographer Jermaine Francis and director Akinola Davies discuss Francis’ portraits of graffiti that were taken during lockdown in London and how they embody our political reality.
2020 is a time to celebrate radical visionaries, so in this issue you’ll also find a rare interview with the iconic Californian pioneer of performance and print, Barbara T. Smith. Kate Neave profiles the inspirational installations of Dominique White. Also, Jess Clark talks to Byredo founder Ben Gorham and beauty maverick and artist Isamaya Ffrench about future colour theory. Photographer Sharif Hamza captures moments of fleeting beauty, style icon Tziporah Salamon, captured by Ben Rayner, offers a love letter to New York post-lockdown. At home, Lara Johnson-Wheeler delivers a love letter to romance and recipes, while in ‘Subversive Skin’, Isabella Davey profiles the new designers changing underwear.
And so much more! As winter looms, get up close & personal with this latest issue; be inspired and energised to face this brave new world we’re in.
As winter draws to an end, there’s no better way to welcome a new season than with a new scent. For those who want to take the romance of cosying up with a good novel with them wherever they go, BYREDO’s new perfume Bibliothèque will prove positivelydreamy.
Peach, plum and vanilla notes fuse to evoke that unforgettable scent of fresh pages, strengthened by hints of patchouli and leather. Originally a candle and then a room spray, the Eau de Parfum will be released for a limited time only.
Bibliothèque Eau de Parfum (100ml / £150) is available from March.
As the darkest evening of the year snakes quietly towards us, and the autumnal hues give way to a starker and far colder season, nothing is more needed for hibernation than a decadent scented candle. Reader, meet Byredo’s 2016 Holiday Collection: the solution to your winter blues.
This new set of three scented candles, Bibliothèque, Cotton Poplin and Fleur Fantôme, all come in their own coloured glass holders, and offer a perfect compliment to these cold nights in the run up to Christmas. Best enjoyed with a stiff drink and a warm bath. They’d also make the a welcome Christmas gift, if you can bare to share them.
In their latest collaboration, Byredo has partnered with Oliver Peoples to create a new fragrance and limited edition sunglass, exploring the cross between both sight and smell. To celebrate, you’ll find a dedicated window and week-long pop-up in Selfridges, London.
Inspired by synesthesia, the joint perception of the senses, Byredo’s founder Ben Gorham found himself in Los Angeles. It was there that he looked upon California’s sights through different coloured lenses and called upon the Stockholm based brand’s master perfumer to translate them into various smells that would then come together to produce one multi-faceted fragrance. “Oliver Peoples has never done anything but glasses,” David Schulte, Oliver Peoples CEO stated. “So for us to venture out and do a scent is a very big deal. I can’t think of anyone better than Byredo to do it with.” Each of the three coloured bottles of the new Byredo scent – which features top notes of Juniper Berries and Californian Lemon – gives a new depth to the smell and correlates to the three different photochromatic lens colours of the sunglasses: indigo, champagne and green.
“I have always admired Oliver Peoples for as long as I can remember and felt their approach to product was similar to ours at Byredo. It was important for me that this partnership had a true reason for being and synesthesia and the idea of joint perception became that. I have met artists, musicians and perfumers that display traits of this so-called disorder, and I have always been fascinated by the clarity of their descriptions,” states Gorham.
The Oliver Peoples and Byredo fragrance, sunglasses and box set is available now at their Selfridges Pop-Up until Thursday 28th May.
Stockholm based fragrance brand BYREDO has launched a new collection of hair perfume exclusively at London’s Selfridges.
Utilising a unique silicone and polymer formula, the new products create a light, invisible veil that leave the hair nourished and luminous whilst scented with one of BYREDO’s signature scents Gypsy Water, Bal d’Afrique and Blanche. “People are more experimental today, applying fragrances in various forms.” states Ben Gorham, BYREDO’s Founder. “At BYREDO, our focus has been very much on the smells, we now want to focus on innovative ways to apply perfume.”
These long lasting scents will be showcased at the Selfridges Pop-Up until April 22nd. Although the collection will still be available at the department store after this date, we recommend taking a trip today or tomorrow to see the stunning display and test these new creations for yourself.
Let’s set the scene: A lone candle burns at the end of the room, filling the air with it’s sweet aroma. You become calm and content, ready for a cosy night at home. Now if this sounds like your idea of bliss, take note.
We’ve rounded up the best new launches from luxury candle brands to find those burning delights that will warm your senses. From Byredo’s Winter Collection, Rachel Vosper’s hand made Winter Fig scent, Mila’s new invigorating green seaweed, musk and amber fragrance Isla, to Laura Mercier’s signature Golden Honey Musk; each candle boasts a unique fragrance, causing tranquility, homeliness and warmth.
Rachel Vosper 2 Wick Glass Jar Candle in Winter Fig, £34, rachelvosper.com & Byredo Parfums Safran Candle, £60, liberty.co.uk
Admission: I used to hate gourmand fragrances. Not spicy ones but obvious scents that smelt of chocolate and caramel and vanilla. Oh and fruity florals were an absolute bugbear. Why? Well in all honesty I felt they were too obvious, too commercial, too lowest common denominator (yes it was a bit snobbish of me I admit). I felt they were predominantly marketed and aimed at young girls with unsophisticated tastes who wanted to smell good enough to eat. Who would want to smell like something edible? I did at the age of 18 – I used to wear the long defunct Body Shop Mango oil and also the Vanilla and Dewberry oil. With the vanilla I thought I smellled as good as bowl of fresh custard.
How naïve I was! The grown up me found gourmand scents totally unacceptable. But I’ve had something of a damascene conversion. I think this is because some of my favourite indie perfume brands have been making gourmands recently that are a little bit different. They are not your usual fruity florals or toffee caramel concoctions. Byredo’s Pulp does smell of exotic fruit, but it also smells of green leaves and stems and slightly sour but fresh foliage. So it’s a kind of interesting riff on the gourmand genre. Likewise Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille – yes, it smells of vanilla and cocoa beans and other delicious edibles but there’s also a tinge of smoke, a dirty gentleman’s clubby woodyness about it that lends it a sophistication and hauteur that a straight vanilla wouldn’t have. Lastly, Etat Libre d’Orange’s Like This, Tilda Swinton fragrance is equally off-key. It smells of carrots and gingerbread and almonds – not your obvious epicurean fragrance by a long chalk. So, thanks to the niche perfumers gourmand fragrances are changing. I love these new oddball gourmands, if only the blockbuster brands would pay heed.
The interface between literature and perfume has never been exploited fully by perfumers until very recently. Perhaps it was only natural that Frederic Malle, who has always described himself as a perfume ‘publisher’ and his noses as authors, would be one of the first to exploit the connection. His latest fragrance ‘Portrait of a Lady’ (nose: Dominique Ropion) is just the sort of elevated, elegant and cultivated oriental that the heroine of Henry James’ 1881 novel, Isabel Archer, might have worn as she undertook her grand tour of Paris, Florence and Rome. Malle describes the smell, a composition including rose essence, cinnamon, clove, patchouli and incense as, ‘aristocratic’. And it certainly has an archness, a transcendence, a haute couture poise about it.
Compare and contrast with Byredo’s ‘Baudelaire’, inspired directly by the olfactive ambience of LesFleurs Du Mal, which has juniper berry, black pepper, incense, leather, patchouli and black amber in its saturnine pasticcio. Like Malle, Byredo’s Ben Gorham comes across as something of a bibliophile – he has a scented candle in his collection called ‘Bibliotheque’ with peach plum, violet, leather and vanilla numbered in its accord. A gorgeous scent to waft around in the environs of your old books.
Frederic Malle ‘Portrait Of A Lady’ is £115.00/50ml from Les Senteurs (020 7730 2322), lessenteurs.com and Byredo ‘Baudelaire’ is £115.00/100ml from Liberty (020 7734 1234), liberty.co.uk
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