Dear Reader,

You are holding the third volume of StyleZeitgeist magazine.

Two issues under our belt and we are maturing bit by bit. We have learned a few things and made a few friends. The word is spreading and the people I meet at fashion events already know about the magazine. It’s a wonderful feeling, this newfound camaraderie.

Often it is hard to gauge what people really think of our work. But on several occasions, different people have told me the same thing: that it’s refreshing to see a publication that is genuine and uncompromising in its spirit. In turn, I want to express my gratitude in this letter.

Fashion today is a strange realm. The creativity explosion of the late 80s and 90s has been slowly but surely harnessed in the last decade only to be largely extinguished in this one. There is too much fashion, too much information, and too much money at stake. I see a certain bipolarity, in which fame and success come too easy or too hard – and neither is good for creativity.

Still, I firmly believe that fashion is far from dead and that a new generation of fashion designers will come and do something worthwhile. Until then, I feel that perhaps more than ever today it is important to create an aesthetic universe that comes from the heart. I hope we can offer that on the following pages.

Thus, for this issue we interviewed our heroes, like the photographer Sarah Moon, independent designers like A.F. Vandevorst and Boris Bidjan Saberi, and intelligent observers like Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton, co-curators at The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We continue to pay respect to the craftsmen of the industry with the work-in-process photo essays on the jeweler Werkstatt:Munchen and the first unisex haute couture collection by Rad Hourani. And our editorial photographers have managed to outdo themselves yet again.

As always, I truly hope you find the new issue fulfilling and worthy of your time.

Sincerely,

Eugene Rabkin
Eugene Rabkin
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/EDITOR