Phoebe Philo Guest Edits the FT’s New HTSI Issue, Focused on Beauty and ‘Intention’
Jonathan Anderson was the magazine’s first guest editor in 2021, since then Jony Ive and Yinka Ilori have applied their talents the Financial Times’ luxury weekend magazine.
By Hikmat Mohammed
Phoebe Philo is the latest guest editor of HTSI, the Financial Times’ luxury weekend magazine, joining a list of creative talent ranging from Jonathan Anderson to Yinka Ilori.
The “Beauty and Intention” issue will come out in physical form with the newspaper’s weekend edition this Saturday and Sunday.
Jo Ellison, the title’s editor and deputy editor of FT Weekend, said in an interview that she chose Philo for her “outsize influence within the world of fashion,” while acknowledging the British designer remains an enigma.
“People are fascinated by her, her style and her creative influences — we, like so many others, wanted to get a glimpse into her world,” she added.
Ellison said the designer didn’t take much convincing to edit the issue. Instead, “she had an extremely precise and exacting vision of what she wanted to present.”
In her editor’s letter, Philo said she’s always been “fascinated by our relationship with clothes. That was my starting point for this issue — the communication in, and of, clothes.”
She added that “with so much of our collective experience and social interaction reliant on a digital culture, clothes, for me, represent almost the polar opposite. Clothes are tactile, emotionally resonant, personal and, on so many levels, anything but remote.”
Philo reiterated the importance of clothing and its emotional connection and symbolism.
“For me, it is important that we think about what we are saying, about what it means — to my team, to my collaborators and finally to the wearer of each piece,” she said.
The cover story features an all female-cast. The performance artist Andrea Fraser, recipient of the debut Philip Guston Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, appears on the cover in an olive green, double-breasted suit and a pair of oversize “Bombé” sunglasses from Philo’s eponymous label.
Talia Chetrit, who worked on a campaign for Philo’s label last year, photographed the cover.
For the issue, Philo said she tapped people she admires including the French film director and actress Mati Diop; British writer and broadcaster Deyan Sudjic; Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, and Mónica Manzutto, the cofounder of the Mexican art gallery Kurimanzutto.
She also brought in the London fabric artist Tuesday Greenidge, who started Grenfell Memorial Quilt for survivors and members of the local community of London’s Grenfell Tower, which burnt down in 2017, killing 72 people.
Ellison said she gained insight into Philo’s creative process and working methodology while making the issue.
“I think she has an extraordinary cultural reach and a massive range of interests, so I would love to see what she would curate. Side note, she told me she was too busy to contemplate it, so it would mean [a lot] if she had a major change of heart,” Ellison said.
Source | WWD
