GARDEN PUNK BY ORI PAUL LEVI

Vintage Giorgio Armani Jacket, Christopher Kane Chiffon Bow Shirt, Marc Jacobs Boxer Short, Adidas Socks, Doc Martin Boots, Vintage Hat

Photography: Ori Paul Levi @oriocreams

Styling: Patrick Lopaze @ihavepatrick_

Grooming: Ty Marie Frost @mercytobel

Model: Brock Walters @Photogenics @brock.walters

Special Thanks: Paumé Los Angeles @paumelosangeles

Vintage Giorgio Armani Jacket, Christopher Kane Chiffon Bow Shirt, Vintage Hat

Maison Martin Margiela Coat, Ann Demeulemeester Sheer Shift Dress, Vintage Black Veil, Calvin Klein Briefs, Adidas Socks, Doc Martin Boots

Marc Jacobs Blazer, Comme des Garçons Grey Kilt, Cruize Necklace, Eddie Borgo Padlock Necklace

Yohji Yamamoto Double Collar Jacket, Vintage Sailor Beret, Vintage Spike Collar Necklace, Doc Martin Boots

Vintage Feather and Vinyl Cape, Marc Jacobs Boxer Short, Junya Watanabe Denim Pants, Doc Martin Boots

Helmut Lang Holster Tank Top, Ann Demeulemeester Sleeves, Comme des Garçons Black Satin Wide Leg Trouser

Maison Martin Margiela Exaggerated Shoulder Coat, Ann Demeulemeester Sheer Shift Dress, Vintage Black Veil Calvin Klein Briefs, Adidas Socks, Doc Martin Boots

MEIKA BY JACOPO OLMO

Jacket – Kozaburo, Jeans – Wrangler, Sunglasses – Oakley

RODEO ODYSSEY

Photography – Jacopo Olmo @theinsaneballer17

Styling – Fukasawa @sssssnyc

Model – Meika Woollard @meikawoollard

Top – Pleats Please, Jeans – Kozaburo

Top – Kozaburo, Shorts – Landlord, Boots – Vintage

Top – Kozaburo

Top – CLé Noire, Gloves – vintage

Tracksuit – Kozaburo

Unitard – Dertbag

Top – Kozaburo, Jeans – Landlord, Boots – Vintage

Hat – Vintage , Top – Pleats Please by Issey Miyake

Jacket – Kozaburo, Jeans – Wrangler

‘MAKING THE CUT’ WINNER YANNIK ZAMBONI

Swiss designer Yannik Zamboni introduced the world to his brand maison blanche on the current season of Amazon’s MAKING THE CUT and immediately viewers knew that his approach to fashion would stand out amongst the other contestants.

Zamboni works primarily in white, and his gender inclusive designs are based around conceptual social and political themes. Despite his decidedly avant-garde tendencies, Zamboni‘s appearance on the show showed a softer side of the designer: His sense of humor, sensitivity, and warmth towards the other contestants even surprised judge Heidi Klum, Nicole Richie and Jeremy Scott who commented on an early episode on the contrast between his intimidating designs /personal appearance and his endearing vulnerability.

In an interview with Iris Covet Book just days prior to his debut during NYFW, Zamboni explains his unique take on fashion and how he serves as a guinea pig to his own collections.

ICB: Your entrance on season 3 of Amazon’s Making the Cut is the first time many people became aware of you. What were you hoping you convey to the audience about you and your outlook on fashion?

YZ: I hope people see and feel my positive energy, the will to address socio-political themes, to create social change and the love for sustainable and fair fashion.

ICB: On the show, more so than any other contestant, your personal style mirrored the designs you created. Would you say you are your own muse?

YZ: I see myself more as a guinea pig than a muse. I believe that improvements to my fashion can only be made if I wear them myself and thus feel the clothes. In addition, I create things that I would like to have on the market, which I miss or simply do not exist yet.

ICB: Prior to establishing your label maison blanche, you worked as a model and a Swiss-certified marketing specialist. How have your previous occupations influenced your designs?

YZ: My commercial training, my studies and work in marketing and modeling have made me what I am today. Each of these steps was necessary to create and run my fashion label maison blanche.

ICB: How has being Swiss contributed to your work (e.g., culture, language, geography, etc.)?

YZ: Swiss people learn at an early age that everything must be perfect, regulated, and orderly. This certainly spurred me on to test boundaries and do things differently, as I always had the feeling of being different and not fitting into the system.

ICB: What other designers past/ present do you look up to?

YZ: Martin Margiela, Rey Kawakubo & Rick Owens

ICB: Why have you committed to only designing in white? What about this color holds special significance to you?

YZ: I find white to be an extremely calming color but more importantly I wanted to set myself the task to design, cut and surface design / change to create a silhouette so exciting that the color no longer plays a role. I noticed that a lot of designs with bold color or prints worked because of the good composition and not because of the design itself. By not using color, I am able to focus on pure design.

ICB: Your work also seems to blur the lines between traditional women’s and menswear. Gender fluidity undoubtedly is the future but how does a brand address the very real physical limitations to doing a unisex collection (e.g., biological men and women have differing body characteristics)?

YZ: Basically, I don’t want to think in binary terms. 2% of our society are intersex people. Moreover, there are very different ways to live and feel gender. Gender has never been binary. I rather approach designs that I create them on a body. A body with a bulge, or a body with breasts, or finding a way to make designs work on different bodies. I don’t see it as a limitation but as a liberation.

ICB: Do you view the future of your brand as being mass market or boutique?

YZ: I see maison blanche comprising of three lines to satisfy both mass and niche customers. An accessible line that is suitable for every day, a fashion line which is suitable for everyday but more fashion driven and a high-end line for special occasions or stage wear.

ICB: What is the best part of being on Making the Cut?

YZ: Through Making the Cut, consumers understand why something is made and what its purpose is directly from the designer by watching the entire creation process. I increasingly feel the need to be understood and reach the masses.

ICB: As of this writing, you are in the semifinals of the show. If you win, what would you do with the prize money?

YZ: I would put everything back into the company. Grow slowly and invest in the right people to build a small maison blanche family.

DIGITAL COVER: DIEGO BONETA

Jacket by Dsquared2

Photography by: Emilio G Hernandez

Styling & Interview by: Marc Sifuentes

Creative Direction: Louis Liu

Grooming by: Benjamin Thigpen

Location: @alloy.bk @168plymouth @rebeccarobertsoninteriors

Some might call it fate when an 11-year-old Diego Boneta won a televised singing competition with his rendition of a classic Luis Miguel hit song “La Chica del Bikini Azul”. Fast forward 20 years later, and Boneta is not only the star of the three season Netflix hit series Luis Miguel: The Series, but was an integral part in creating the series as Executive Producer to the project. Not one to shy away from a challenge, Boneta recreated and re-recorded some of Miguel’s top hits for the series, a nearly impossible task for those that understand the complexity of Miguel’s catalog of music.

Boneta spoke to Iris Covet Book about the time and preparation involved in playing the legendary crooner and the craft of perfecting a beloved real life character while still making it his own. Boneta also discusses the inspiration behind producing, starting his own production company, and his determination to open more doors for Latino actors.

Suit by TEDDY VONRANSON, Jewelry by Konstantino

The Luis Miguel series has been a huge hit for Netflix for three seasons, but I want to go back to the beginning and talk about your process preparing to play the role of this international superstar.

Of course. Well, when I got offered the part I knew the challenge it would entail because Luis Miguel is somebody who is still very relevant and more importantly still alive. Normally a show like this happens once the artist has passed away. I knew that there was only one way to do this right and that was to really take the preparation part seriously, even more seriously than the actual shooting. It was the first time that I worked on a movie that was a full transformative role and becoming someone else is very, very intense.

It’s me becoming someone else, and not only acting but also singing. I basically took a year to just work on that. I had a vocal coach, Ron Anderson, and then I had my acting coach, Juan Carlos Corazza, helping me on the acting front, and I was also an Executive Producer on the series! It’s the most demanding project I’ve ever been a part of.

Some people might not know that you originally are from a musical background ,you were in a singing competition show at eleven years old and starring opposite Tom Cruise in the movie musical Rock of Ages. Did you know that you would have to take on the responsibility of re-recording all of the songs in the series in your own voice?

I sat down with Jamie Foxx one day,I’ve been a big fan of his work and his Oscar winning performance in the movie Ray about Ray Charles, I think he absolutely crushed that movie, and what he told me was, “the key is to do everything.” You know, he told me if we recreate all the songs, don’t stop there. I needed to recreate the music videos, the album covers,even the prop pictures on the set had to be me. He was also the person to say I needed to sing in the series. You know, Luis Miguel has crazy pipes. He’s one of the best singers of all time. And I wanted to give it a shot. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it. Ron Anderson, who was the vocal coach of Rock of Ages, helped me try to replicate the sound of Luis Miguel. It was like learning how to sing again. Going from changing your vibrato, to seeing where you have to place your voice to sound closer to his tone, to how to pronounce his vowels, where he places each vowel. It was crazy, and that’s all I did for a year.

Full look by Thom Browne, Jewelry by Konstantino

If you didn’t have the musical background, do you think you would have taken on that challenge or is that part of your personality to push yourself out of your comfort zone?

I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it without having a musical background. Because Luis has one of those voices that, I mean, what that man can do with his voice is insane. I don’t think I would have been able to do it without having my 20 years of vocal training.

A key part of the success was having Kiko Cibrian, who produced a lot of Luis’ records, produce this soundtrack. All the songs were re-recorded, all the instruments were re-recorded. So I wasn’t just singing over recorded tracks. Kiko made sure we re-recorded every single song. A lot of those songs were written and recorded back in the 90’s by Kiko, so it was incredible to have him as the music producer for all three seasons of the soundtracks.

And what about Luis Miguel? Did he have any advice for you during the recording process?

Well, I met him before we started shooting. There’s actually a scene in season three that recreates when we met. He shared some very personal stories with me and he told me ‘this is just for you for no one else, use it for your interpretation’. We hung out a few more times and he got to listen to the songs. He was extremely nice and very supportive. After seeing the show he said, ‘Man, you killed it.’ Hearing that from the person that you’re playing, I don’t think you can get any better than that.

Full Look by Alexander McQueen

You prepared for this role for over a year, when did you feel that you had mastered the part?

I’d say whenever we started doing rehearsals in Mexico City, before we started shooting with the director. He’s really the one that found the tone for the show. In those rehearsals, in talking to him, going over the scenes and just playing with the script, that’s where we found it.

Just knowing and having that confidence that there was nothing else I could have done to prepare anymore. I had done my homework and no one knew the character better than I did. That gave me the freedom and the confidence to know that I was ready.

You also put in the work to be in a makeup chair for 4 to 6 hours a day getting your prosthetics on. What was that experience like?

That was a whole different ball game because it’s not just putting on the prosthetics and then boom you’re the part, you know? Studying him and being him for 33 years of his life, from 17 to 50 years old. Studying each of those stages of his life, changing the mannerisms and the way he spoke throughout his life.

The hardest part was trying to understand and imagine what life must have been like for him. The prosthetics consisted of six hours of makeup, wigs and body suits everyday to become that older Luis Miguel. The team behind it was amazing. Bill Corso is a two time Academy Award winning special effects makeup artist alongside Alfredo Moda, an amazing Mexican makeup artist.The fusion between both teams was a really cool experience, and they paid attention to the smallest details

Full Look by Zegna

This series is your first project as an Executive Producer, and I was reading that Mark Burnett called you and threw out the idea. Had the thought of being an EP ever occurred to you before this project? Is that a role you were interested in?

I worked with Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages and observed how he did business and how he manages his career in-between making movies. He was always working on the next thing and working through pre-production on another. I thought that’s what I wanted to do.

Mark Burnett and I worked together on a TV show called the Dovekeepers, back in 2014. And I told Mark I really wanted to get into producing. It’s not something that I want just to have a vanity credit. I actually wanted to learn all the in’s and out’s. So when Luis Miguel came around, he called me and said ‘I have the perfect project. There is no script but I know you’re very familiar with the music, with his life, with his story. Be a part of this production team and let’s do this together.’

Producing together was the best part of the learning experience. Fully learning before there is even any scripts, no actor, no one cast yet. Really shaping this project from the very beginning. That was the best part and I got a big satisfaction out of it.

Full look by Casablanca, Jewelry by Konstantino

So tell me more about your production company Three Amigos. What is your team’s vision?

We see it as a media company because of our focus on television, film, books, and broadcasts. We want to find projects that show Latinos in an uplifting light. We are so excited to team up with some of the best filmmakers in the industry. At the moment, we are working on a romantic comedy with Paramount called At Midnight, it’s something of a fusion between Hollywood and Mexico. Today, with more opportunities through streaming services, the business is realizing that people don’t really care as much about the language as they do about a relatable and interesting story. Spanish is a global language. There are a lot of hugely successful Spanish speaking shows watched all over the world and we are looking forward to being a major player in bringing quality content to a global audience.

Full Look by Dries Van Noten

There has always been a lack of representation in Hollywood for the Latin community, and a lot of the roles that were out there leaned towards a certain stereotype. Did you ever have to confront a time where there were roles being pitched to you that were not a good fit for you as a representative of the Latin community.

I think times have definitely changed from when I first moved to LA in 2007. There are more roles and better roles. But back then, yes, it was difficult to get good latino roles.

There are plenty of actors of different races out there that can play different nationalities, and so can we. So yes, I think things are better today. I think they’re moving in the right direction. There’s still a lot of work to do. There’s still a lot of room to grow and improve and that’s why I’m so passionate about my production company Three Amigos, which is creating those vehicles for other actors as well.

Suit and Pant by Zegna, Jewelry by Konstantino

Shot at 168 Plymouth, the last historic factory to residential loft conversions in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood, composed of two 100-year-old paint factory buildings which have been attentively transformed by Alloy Development’s architecture team. Pictured is the new Brick and Timber model residence with interior design by Rebecca Robertson Interiors.

@alloy.bk @168plymouth @rebeccarobertsoninteriors

CONNOR JESSUP STAR OF NETFLIX’S LOCKE & KEY

Sweater and Pants: DSQUARED2, Shoes: Prada

Photographer: Emma Craft

Stylist/Interview: Angel Emmanuel

Groomer: Ellen Guhin via Canvas Agency

Set Designer: Lidia Moore

Set Design Assistant: Tess Donlevie

The fans are loving the supernatural fantasy drama, Locke & Key, which premiered its second season on Netflix this October. The show’s success has kept the series in the top ten on the platforms ratings list and has already prompted the creators to move forward with season three. The show has also garnered a few notable new fans including one Britney Spears, who earlier this week prompted her instagram fans to watch the show in typical Britney fashion “Holy crap you guys, gotta check out Locke & Key…it’s pretty good!!!”

Playing Tyler Locke, the eldest of the Locke siblings is; Actor, Director, Writer, Avid Reader, Heartthrob, Globetrotter, and recent guest judge on Canada’s Drag Race, Connor Jessup. We sat down with Jessup over Zoom to talk about why he’s “straight4pay”, RuPaul’s Drag Race, how his accessibility through social media has influenced his queer experience, and how secluding himself in a cottage for a month in the British countryside is influencing his upcoming projects.

Sweater and Pants: DSQUARED2, Shoes: Prada

Nice to see you again!! Congratulations on the new season of Locke & Key!!

CJ: Thank you!

You’ve now filmed three seasons of Locke & Key, with the third being filmed back to back simultaneously with the second. Having played Tyler Locke for three seasons, is it hard for you to separate yourself from a character that you’ve put a lot of time into?

CJ: No, I’ve never had that. Maybe it’s where I’m at in my career or the characters that I play. I’ve never felt followed by a character. The reality of shooting something is so mechanical; you shoot in many little pieces, you shoot out of order, a hundred people are standing around you. You’ve got a 10 hour, 12 hour workday and spend about 40 minutes at most actually shooting. So it’s never been hard for me to remember that, that’s work. Maybe if I was playing a character that was more radically different than I am, I haven’t really had that experience though.

The sets and visual effects were amazing this season! I loved the Spider scene from episode 3, “Small World”, also the small antique toy house was very cool. Did you have any favorite visual heavy scenes that you filmed?

CJ: Yeah that was an amazing prop. The spider one was probably the most fun I had. We had great fun at the end, there’s a scene where Kinsey, my sister, carries me through the air with her angel wings that she’s found, which involved me and Emilia (Jones), flying on wires for days at a time which was almost like working at a theme park, it was so much fun. There was a scene where we’re making a key, there’s a montage of us forging a key, so they needed lots and lots of little bits and pieces. No one there had any idea how to forge anything, so we literally just made shit up. I’m sure the blacksmithing community is furious! That was fun, in a way it felt like when you’re a kid and you go on a boat and you pretend to know how to sail it, and you do all sorts of random stuff, like pulling ropes but none of it has any actual connection to the reality of how to properly sail a boat, so it felt like that.

A couple of days after our shoot you went to Greece by yourself for two weeks with no plan on what to do. How was your trip, what did you do?

CJ: It was extremely lovely, I did mostly very touristy things! I wandered around Athens, I saw very old things. I ate a lot of overwhelmingly delicious food. I went to Milos and Santorini. All and all, I had a very quiet, restful and calm time, which is exactly what I was looking for. I had never been to Greece before, so it was fun!

Based on your Instagram stories and highlights, it’s safe to say that you’re an avid reader. During your trip, I saw that you were reading Photocopies by John Berger. Considering you were living in a picturesque moment worth capturing and writing a story about; if you were to write a short snippet about that moment with an accompanying photo, how would it go? What would that photo look like?

CJ: That’s a good question! It’s interesting, I was thinking a lot as I was traveling, about the roles of different types of photos. I had my proper camera with me and my phone of course. I was taking a lot of pictures, because I was in a scenic place and also I was alone which helps. It’s funny what you feel compelled to take a photo of with your iPhone and what you feel compelled to take a photo of with your “proper camera” and how the perspective between the two changes. There’s a famous Gertrued Stein quote where she says, “I like a view, but I like to sit with my back turned to it.” I was in Santorini near the end of my trip which is just this stunningly scenic and idyllic place, swarmed with tourists who obviously all feel the same. It’s amazing how quickly you stop looking at “the postcard.” It’s amazing how quickly you tune out the landscape and the beautiful buildings, and the sunsets and the reasons why, ostensibly why, people are there. I feel like it would end up being a photo of a fragment that could almost be anywhere. It could be the pattern of the way a few walls intersect with some light. It’s not anything particularly beautiful but something that catches your eye in that one moment, you can’t repeat it. You can’t exactly put your finger on why it’s striking. That’s why I try to stay open to photography, it makes you look.

Button up top and Jumpsuit: Martin Asbjørn

Do you consider photography a hobby or something you just enjoy on trips?

CJ: I always chastise myself because I want to do it more often when I’m at home, but I just find that the energy for it is less present when I’m at home than when I’m abroad. Even though what I end up taking pictures of when I’m away is not anything particularly touristy. So I really should start forcing myself to carry my camera everywhere with me when I’m home. I have a very bad memory, and it’s a great way to remember things. Not in the traditional sense of you have a photo of a thing but in deciding to take a photo of something. You remember that moment.

You’re creating your own “photocopy”!

CJ: Exactly! Which is in a way what Photocopies is about. The fascinating thing about that book is that every little snippet, story, fragment, whatever you want to call it, is inspired by a photo. But for the vast majority of the pieces you don’t see the photo. It doesn’t do the thing you expect it to do, like here’s the photo and here’s the story. There’s actually stories where the photos are absent, so it really is like the stories themselves are the photocopies. I think a lot of people with an interest in photography understand that feeling; which is that the photo just becomes a stand-in for some other feeling, or some memory, or some moment.

Anytime I visit a new country I always come back learning so much more about myself than I did before. Did you learn anything new about yourself while there, or London, or now the countryside?

CJ: I’m sure I did, maybe I’m still in the process of that. I’m out here in the countryside in a cottage for about a month. The mission of being here in one place in the quiet for a month is to try and do some writing. So maybe through that process I’ll come to more of a bit of understanding. I always find it takes a second. I felt like I was in such a specific mood for a year while we were working. There’s a certain automatic quality to that, as an actor your life is kind of planned for you while you’re working. I’ve been trying, in the last month since we wrapped and in traveling, to find what my normal speed is again or what my new speed is. I’ve made a lot of new friends in the last little bit. So I’ve been enjoying remembering that friendship can be a great source of energy and inspiration.

Button up top and Jumpsuit: Martin Asbjørn, Shoes: Converse

Speaking of friendship, during the shoot you showed me a photo of you and Tilda Swinton proudly showing off your manicures. How did that friendship start and when are you going on a Mani/Pedi date?

CJ: Friendship is a strong word, but Tilda is one of these people who is almost supernaturally open to other people and experiences and the world. Which I don’t think is a huge surprise to people who are familiar with her. I’m good friends with this Thai filmmaker, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who is one of the greats that we have. I made a documentary about him a few years ago as he was on a research trip for his most recent film which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival starring Tilda Swinton. I visited the shoot a couple of years ago and spent time with them, that’s how I got to know Tilda a little bit. I saw her again in New York a few weeks ago because the film premiered at the New York Film Festival. That’s the Tilda connection. I’m still a little Queer boy, so Tilda is obviously in the pantheon.

So no mani/pedi date set??

CJ: I’ll keep you informed, I sure hope so! We’ll see how that materializes in the real world!

I’m so obsessed with your instagram bio, it’s hilarious! It’s “straight4pay 🏳️‍🌈” which is a play on words on “gay4pay”. As a queer actor how does one prepare to be a straight man?

CJ: I didn’t do anything to prepare for that!

That’s something!

CJ: I insisted to myself that I was straight for many years while I was young so I have enough experience in knowing that vocabulary. In many ways gay people are great studies of straight behavior, because we’ve tried so hard to understand. I would trust a gay man to describe a straight mans behavior better than I would trust a straight man.

Since coming out, how freeing has it been to be yourself, especially in the industry?

CJ: More than I thought it would be honestly. More freeing than I expected. Coming out is a process, which is a phrase that gets thrown around, but only started to mean something to me recently because I came out many years ago in my private life. There’s such a big build up to that, you know? There’s coming out to your mom, and your best friend, and that felt like the important thing. Then years passed and I had convinced myself that I had come out, and then for various reasons I had decided that I wanted to come out publicly and it’s really only since then which is something that I didn’t put a lot of weight on when I did it, emotionally, that I started to feel a part of the community and connected to a heritage and really started to properly feel gay. I’m still in the process of examining exactly why coming out to people that I don’t know had the effect on me that it did.

Jumpsuit, Coat, and Scarf: Kenzo

A lot of people shared their stories with you when you publicly came out

CJ: Yeah it was two years ago when I came out on instagram. Most days people will send me messages, stories, some fragments short or long of their experience whether they’re in the closet, or freshly out, or out for decades, or in countries where you can’t come out. There’s such a variety of queer experience and not just gay people but; ace people, trans people, pan people, and others under the wonderful rainbow umbrella. Which I think contributed to me feeling a part of the community, and broadening and deepening my understanding of queerness, because my experience is so limited compared to this whole range of other peoples experiences. I think that has had a big ongoing impact on me. It’s hard to know if I feel shy about the whole thing because I have no claim. I’m just an actor, I have no expertise or training or real wisdom to share or help. It boils down to receiving these stories from people and trying to understand them through the prism of whatever tools I do have. Social media is a weird thing, this flow of information.

Getting all these messages everyday, how does that make you, Connor Jessup the person, feel?

CJ: Depends on the message. Sometimes it makes me feel really warm, and seen. Sometimes it makes me very sad. Sometimes it makes me confused and angry. Really the range of emotions. The type of messages are so varied. It goes from something as simple as someone who sent me a message the other day that just said, “Thank you for coming out. I feel less alone.” That was the whole message. That for some reason, the moment that I read it, had a real emotional impact on me. Even though there’s no information on who that person is or what their experiences are. The hard thing about social media is, which I think we all feel, is that it has a tendency to dehumanize. People are seen faceless. When you’re interacting with celebrities or even when you’re interacting with your friends, it just feels a bit separate from real life. You allow yourself to react in ways where you wouldn’t if you were talking to someone in real life. Even the comments on anything I post I’m like, “I doubt you would say this if I were to bump into you on the street.” So there’s that level of separation and it’s hard and it takes work when you’re sending and receiving to consistently remind yourself that you’re dealing with full people. Anyone sending me messages saying “I feel less alone,” or “I hate my body,” they’re just as full of a person, with just as full lives as I am, as any of us are. I have to remind myself that all the time, that’s a good exercise of mine.

Jumpsuit, Coat, and Scarf: Kenzo

This week you’ll be on Canada’s Drag Race as a guest judge! How excited are you to see the episode?

CJ: I’m very excited! I’m a little nervous, obviously. I haven’t seen any of it. You shoot for, well I was there for 10 hours shooting for what will probably be 15 minutes of the show. So I don’t know or have no concept of what they included, what they didn’t include, how they edited it. I’m excited, nervous, and I hope that the gays don’t turn against me!

The Drag Race fandom is notable for voicing their opinions! Good or Bad.

CJ: Yes! And so far I have yet to be on the receiving end of any gay backlash

Good! Let’s keep it that way!

CJ: Yeah exactly! I hope that this is not the first time

Shirt and Pants: Marrakshi Life, Shoes: Superga

The preview for the episode shows that it’ll be Snatch Game (a challenge where the queens have to do celebrity impersonations following the Match Game show format) which is the most beloved challenge of all time! What was that experience like not only getting to judge Drag Race but also the Snatch Game episode?

CJ: The way the episode went; there was a different guest on the actual Snatch Game but I was on the main stage. It was a scheduling thing, but I was actually there since it all happened on the same day. I was there in the morning and I watched the whole thing live. It was a great way for me to get acquainted with the queens. It’s episode 4 of the season so everyone watching will have seen 3 episodes worth of getting to know the queens, and I came in blind, so it’s a great introduction. It’s also so fascinating as a fan of Drag Race to see how unbelievably hard Snatch Game actually is. It seems hard when you watch it on the show but when you see how dry and slow and hot the actual shooting is. There’s no energy at all, there’s no flow, so to be witty and sharp and quick in that environment is impressive.

Have you watched Drag Race for a while, are you a fan?

CJ: Yeah I am, of course! I mean now though everyone is a fan. It’s relatively new to me though, I’ve watched it for about two years now.

Do you have a favorite queen from any of the Drag Race franchises?

CJ: I don’t think I have one favorite. Last season I was really bummed by the way things ended for GottMik, I was a huge GottMik fan. There are many queens I love, but they’re one of them

What was it about GottMik that you loved?

CJ: They’re enormously talented and fun! What GottMik represents; which I saw a little bit of when I was guest judging, is the broadening of what the definition of drag is. I’m not at all an expert in drag, but it seems from an outsider’s perspective that people like GottMik are leading the excavation of new territory, new ideas, new permissions, and that’s really exciting to watch

Would you ever do drag?

CJ: I would love to try! Now I have people around me that I can call, like makeup artists, that could help me. So I would absolutely love to try! I feel like I could probably make it work.

Oh you’ve got it! For sure!

CJ: Thank you! I don’t know what my style would be at all, I have no sense of that. I would like to explore.

Shirt and Pants: Marrakshi Life, Shoes: Superga

Do you have a sense of style now?

CJ: In my life? It depends on who you ask!

Well if I’m asking Connor!

CJ: I’d like to think so! Maybe it’s connected to coming out, the timelines would suggest, it’s only in the last couple of years I started to really have fun with clothes and started to care about them in a way as a form of expression at all. I’m relatively late to that idea. I had a lot of ideas when I was younger, which is partially connected to sexuality and partially other aspects of my personality, about certain levels of seriousness. I wanted to be taken seriously, and I think it’s also a symptom of being a child actor and growing up around professionals and adults. I always wanted to be seen as mature, and classy, and simple so the clothing I had reflected that. In other words, you could say, it’s boring. So it’s only in the last couple of years that I started to branch out. I don’t know how I would describe my style though.

Who are some designers that you like?

CJ: I’m obsessed with Bode, and J.W. Anderson. I’m no fashionista at all but it is something I’ve given more time, money and attention to! Hopefully I can find ways to surprise myself!

Besides acting, you’re also a director. Where would you like to take your directing career?

CJ: Forward, ideally! I’ve made shorts, documentaries, music videos and I’ve kind of tired myself of making short form stuff. I definitely want to make the next inevitable step and make a feature, which I’m working on literally right now. Hopefully in the next few years I can get a feature off the ground.

If there was nothing holding you back from making your larger than life film, what would that dream project be?

CJ: The film I’m working on right now, if it can pan out like it is in my head, that would be the immediate dream project. Last year I read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, which is a beautiful, beautiful, queer retelling of the Iliad, which is a massive story on a huge canvas. I’d love to do something like that.

What kind of stories do you hope to share?

CJ: I don’t think there’s one descriptor, or one type of story. To me directing and writing is a way of better understanding myself. I find that most of the time what I’m fighting against is the temptation to go through life automatically. Writing and directing is a way of resisting that or forcing myself to resist automatic living. It’s a way of asking myself questions and accepting boredom. The stories I’ve been drawn to tend to be ghost stories, but not in the horror sense. Themes I come back to, that I’m interested in, deal with this relationship between loss and desire. Maybe it’s a queer thing, I mean it’s a human thing. The impulse towards it, the queer thing, this feeling of things you want but they slip away from you or they’re out of reach. Maybe that’s why ghost stories always appealed to me. I expect that to pop up in lots of things I make, but I’m not sure what form that would take.

Jacket, Sweater, Jeans: Sandro, Shoes: Prada, Necklaces: Stylists’ own

Would you ever direct and act in the same film?

No.

Why not?

CJ: A lot of reasons, I have a lot of insecurities as an actor, which requires a lot of energy to combat while I’m working, that I don’t think I’d have that energy to give while directing. Part of the exciting thing about being a director, one of the most exciting things, is working with actors and being surprised by actors. You write something, or come up with an idea or stage a scene, and then actors breathe life into it, and you’re surprised, and you have to react, or you didn’t think this scene would play out that way or that line wouldn’t have that impact. I don’t think I could surprise myself in the same way, so I think in a sense it would be robbing me of the fun of being surprised by someone else. Also there’s so many brilliant actors who I’d love to work with, and friends of mine, and people I’ve met, and people who I’ve dreamed of meeting. I know myself, why would I get in the way?

Who are some of those people?

CJ: I have good friends for example, these two young british actors Joe Locke and Sebastian Croft who are two of my dearest friends, and they’re beautiful actors

Also Netflix actors right?

CJ: Yes! They’re in Heartstopper which is coming out next year sometime. Which is gonna be fantastic and they’re gonna be brilliant, and way, way more famous than any of us! So it’s people like that who are not household names but close friends of mine who I’d be very, very excited at the idea of working with. One of the most fun parts of doing anything, whether it’s acting or directing, is making work an extension of friendship. It’s the best way of making fun. All the things that I’ve made that’s been the most fun and satisfying are things that I’ve made with friends, or with people who become friends, where the work and the friendship is almost inseparable. Beyond that I’d love to work with Tilda, there’s more actors on that level that I’d also love to work with. It’s a great world out there of people who can surprise you.

What are your favorite films?

CJ: Oh my god, that’s just a mean question!

Sorry ‘bout it!

CJ: I mean it changes all the time! The movies that I’ve seen the most are; the Taiwanese movie Yi Yi by Edward Yang. Still Walking by Hirokazu Koreeda, which is extremely tender, detailed, I’ve seen that movie hundreds of times. Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki which is the most beautiful movie ever made. You know what movie I’ve been watching a lot recently is, A Sunday in the Country, a French movie from the 80’s, by Bertrand Tavernier. It’s a beautiful movie. That’s the movie where the first time you watch it, it seems very nice but doesn’t hit you over the head, but as you think about it more, it kind of expands inside you. I’m especially interested in and moved by how the camera moves in that movie. I’ve never seen a camera move like that, it’s like it’s powered by wind and not by grips. My friends and I went to go see a screening of, In the Mood for Love, a Wong Kar-wai movie last week, which I’ve seen a few times and always loved but for some reason this time watching it in theatres with other people at this point in my life, it overwhelmed me. I was a fucking hysterical mess. It’s strange, this amazing thing about art, that something you feel like you know can completely sneak up on you.

Jacket, Sweater, Jeans: Sandro, Shoes: Prada, Necklaces: Stylists’ own

Are there dream roles that you’d like to one day play?

CJ: I should have a better answer to this question, but I don’t really. I would like to do things that are different from what I’ve done before. I would like to be pushed to do things that I don’t think I can do. Specifically what that looks like, I don’t know. It’s always hard for me. I’m always most comfortable playing characters who are fragile, vulnerable and unsure. It’d be a good healthy challenge for me to play someone who’s really, really confident. I don’t feel like I think that’s at all a tool I have control over; confidence

While in New York, you visited galleries and museums. Were there any galleries, art work or artists that stuck out to you?

CJ: I have this artist friend of mine who I’m obsessed with named, Bambou Gili, who’s a young Brooklyn based painter and she had a show which just ended, called The Nonexistent Night which is a riff on the Italo Calvino title, The Nonexistent Knight. She’s a beautiful, beautiful painter and also an obsessive Hayao Miyazaki fan so we bonded over that. She’s a genius and she’s gonna take the world by storm with these great sensual, figurative paintings. So I love her and was very grateful seeing her first solo show. The only other art I went to see was at The Met, which I’ve been to a few times. It always, at least for me as a non New Yorker, feels like going to a different museum.

It always feels that way!

CJ: I wandered parts of the museum I’d never seen before, there’s so much to see, and a lot of pictures to take on my phone. In the Greek section at The Met there’s this display with small glass beads in the shape of tiny fragile animals which for some reason struck me. It’s one thing for a sword or a marble statue to survive, but the fact that these tiny beads had survived 2400 years really touched me.

Did you see any glass bead animals while you were in Greece?

CJ: Not like that! The thing in Greece is like almost the same thing when you visit anywhere that has such a rich history. In Japan for example they call it “Temple Fatigue,” where you’re so inundated with history and culture that it almost becomes meaningless. Everywhere you look, everyday, you’re seeing something that has 2400 or 3200 years of history. I think the same thing happens in museums, where all these miraculous things are grouped together in such quantity that you kind of lose sight of it. But I did see some beautiful things in Greece.

As a Toronto native, tell me about what the experience was like growing up. How did it influence the person you are today?

CJ: I love Toronto more now than I ever have, I think I grew up and it was my home so I didn’t really think about it, it was just the place I lived. When I was a teenager I thought it was peaceable, but boring…but now I think it’s peaceable and boring!!! The intonations just changed! I’ve come to really value that quality. I have this weird relationship with Toronto where I don’t find it inspiring at all, no part of me is moved to tell Toronto stories, or set stories in Toronto. When I walk down the street I’m not moved by what I see unlike some other places, but I feel a great sense of safety while I’m there and warmth. My whole family’s there, I get to settle in a way where it’s really comforting. There’s an amazing film community, and amazing artists, and young people on the verge of really exciting work, so I feel really excited by them. Toronto is a major metropolitan city with about 5 million people, there’s a lot of layers to Toronto.

Finally, who is Connor Jessup?

CJ: He’s usually not sure. He’s trying to figure that out. Like I said when I was younger it was very important to me to have a clear self image and work on a brand. Not in a careerist way, but in identifying who I am, the way I interacted with the world. I never really questioned that, that it came from an honest place. Now I feel like a lot of the foundation that a lot of that was built on was not quite true. I’m trying to make less assumptions and leave more open space, and be okay with that.

Shirt and Pants: Private Policy

SCREEN TEST: CAMI, BRENDA & ERIN BY MARCUS DERRICOTTÉ

Cami Opp @camilleopp at Wilhelmina

Photos: Marcus Derricotté @mderricotte

Makeup : Madison Personette @madisonpersonette

Hair: Stefani Annaliese @stefaniannaliese

Stylist: Memsor @memsor

Models: Cami Opp @camilleopp at Wilhelmina

Brenda @brendamutoni at MUSE

Erin @erineliopulos at Next

Brenda @brendamutoni at MUSE models

Erin @erineliopulos at Next models

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN TREAD SLICK PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES

Photo: Katie Burnett

Alexander McQueen is pleased to announce a new initiative inviting a
group of photographers based all over the world to capture the house’s
signature Tread Slick boot, taking inspiration from the natural world.
Always central to the McQueen universe, now more than ever the beauty
and strength of nature and its ability to adapt and regenerate is a symbol of
hope for the future.

Photographers included are both long-standing McQueen collaborators and
emerging talent. The brief to each of them was the same: to shoot the Tread
Slick boot in an environment that means something to them personally.

Those taking part are:

Katie Burnett – Images shot in Brooklyn, New York

Gwen Trannoy – Images shot in East London

Malick Bodian – Images shot in Lac rose, Sénégal

Charlie Gates – Images were shot in Hackney, East London

Max Farago – Images shot on Rock, Leo Carillo Beach in Malibu

William Waterworth – Images shot on the Jurassic Coast, Dorset

Photo: Gwen Trannoy

Photo: Malick Bodian

Photo: Charlie Gates

Photo: Max Farago

Photo: William Waterworth

QUINTANA BY EMILY HLAVAC GREEN

Outfit by Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, Hat by Sorella

Photographer: Emily Hlavac Green @emilyhlavacgreen
Fashion Stylist: Rap Sarmiento @rapisoffensive
Make up: Mitch Yoshida @mitchyoshidamakeup
Hair: Ava Mihaljevich @hey.babe.your.hairs.alright

Model: Quintana/One Management

Coat by Altuzarra, Vest by St. John, Bodysuit by Kenzo, Shoes by Blondish

Blazer Dress and belt by Balmain, Skirt by OxygeneUs, Shoes by Beautisoles

Dress by Christian Siriano, Shoes by Juliana Heels, Leggings by Calzedonia, Earrings by Erickson Beamon

Top and pants by Isabel Marant, Necklace by Erickson Beamon

Bodysuit by GCDS, Top by Agape by Simona, Boots by Beautisoles, Necklace by Erickson Beamon

Gown by Christian Siriano, Boots by Isabel Marant, Earrings by Erickson Beamon

IN THE HEIGHTS STAR MELISSA BARRERA

Dress – Paco Rabanne

Photography by Dennis Tejero @ ADB Agency

Styling by Marc Sifuentes

Makeup by Talia Sparrow @ Kalpana NYC

Hair by Cameron Rains @ Forward Artists

Interview by Evan Ross Katz

Melissa Barrera, one of the leads on Starz’s Vida and the upcoming film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, opens up about her journey to success and prioritizing her Latin roots within and outside of her work.

Dress, Belt and Boots by Versace

“It feels like so much more than an acting job,” Melissa Barrera says of her starring role on Starz’s hit series Vida. “I feel like it was a gift that I was given.” Barrera stars as Lyn Hernandez on the series which was recently renewed for a third season. “Barrera’s performance in particular blooms with searing clarity,” Vox wrote. The Hollywood Reporter called Barrera’s performance “absurdly funny.” The A.V. Club called the actress “a force to be reckoned with.”

“It’s important to see Latin stories out there and to see the dreams that our people have and how hard we work. There’s more to us than just the negative things you see in the media or what certain people want to say about Latinx people.” But it’s not just Barrera’s work on Vida. Whether her upcoming role in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical In the Heights, her time on popular telenovelas like Siempre Tuya Acapulco and Tanto Amor or in regional theater productions in her hometown of Monterrey, Mexico, much of the conversation with Barrera seems to circle back to her Mexican roots—and it’s no coincidence.

“I’m Mexican. I’m fully Mexican. I was born and raised in Mexico and now I happen to work in the United States. And I am proud to be a part of this Latinx wave of shows and films that are finally starting to get made and people that have never seen themselves represented on screen are finally getting to see themselves and I get to be a part of it. So I feel that it is important to wear my identity on my sleeve and be one of the faces of this movement and help people see themselves because a lot of people have felt erased in their stories or their stories are never told. I feel like it’s a responsibility of mine to be a voice for those people who have not had one for so long. And I want to.”

Dress by Off-White

It’s this passion that emanates from Barrera, who thinks long and hard before responding to questions, constantly aware of the possibilities and pitfalls of a first impression and desiring to represent both herself and her roots with pride. This, according to her friends that I spoke with, is the Melissa they’ve always known.

Though acting and singing seemed like the natural trajectory from an early age, Barrera did not limit her possibilities. “There was a point where I wanted to be a doctor,” she says, adding that architecture, interior design, even biomedical engineering were all career aspirations at various times. “I even at one point wanted to be a secret agent. I’ve wanted to be so many different things throughout my life. But that’s the thing about being an actor, you get to be everything.”

She started auditioning for local regional productions in high school and was quickly cast in a musical version of Romeo and Juliet in Monterrey. That was her first taste of the rigor of the theater: working six days a week, with two-shows a day often the norm. It didn’t dissuade her, only making her hungry for more. She furthered her education attending New York University to study theater. She left New York University’s prestigious CAP21 musical theater program two years in after making it into the top 20 on La Academia, a popular Mexican competition reality series that catapulted her star meter.

“That show definitely prepared me for the industry. It was a very difficult experience because it brought all my insecurities to the surface. It made me doubt if I had what it took to be in this business. It made me fight for it really hard. I’m very grateful I had that experience, even though sometimes I have PTSD about it. Whenever I have to sing in public I get stage fright and I never feel good enough because of all of the harsh judgments I had while I was on that show.” But she’s careful to stress the positives that came from it, like learning to fight for her dream. It’s also the place where she met her future husband, musician Paco Zazueta.

Dress by Georgine

That show proved a career springboard, landing her roles in a number of popular telenovelas. “I’ve always felt that telenovelas, especially in Mexico, are looked down upon as a genre….but I personally love them,” she says, describing the rigor of the production process as boot camp. “It’s literally shooting 30 scenes a day, one after the other, and it forces you to go through a crazy rollercoaster of emotions, more so than anything else I’ve ever done. I think because of that school of telenovela, it made everything that’s come after much easier for me.”

And thankfully, the “everything” that has come after has been plentiful, from Vida to a recently-announced contemporary reimagining of the opera Carmen opposite Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan, to the upcoming In the Heights, a role Barrera has been eyeing for over a decade before she was cast. “I remember going to see it on Broadway at least ten times. I remember the first time that I saw it, what I felt, it was as though my heart was going to explode with pride and hope. All my dreams of being on Broadway after seeing that show just felt so much more tangible.” From there, she set out to be casted, attending open calls for the show, but never quite landing a spot…until now, nearly a dozen years after the show’s first bow on the Great White Way.

Dress by Tom Ford

“It’s going to be very different from the stage version,” she says of the movie, set for release next summer. “It’s been updated to reflect the situation of immigrants today, so it has appropriately been adapted to take place in 2020.” For Barrera, it’s about leveling out the audience with the content, noting the disparity between Latinx content consumption and shows casting Latinx actors, created by Latinx people and/or telling Latinx stories. To that end, Barrera says she hopes to begin producing her own work down the line. “Because [Vida creator] Tanya [Saracho] gave opportunities to people like me, I’m going to make sure that I follow in her footsteps.”

And with that, Barrera is back to set to shoot the final week of filming In The Heights. Though she’s not filming any scenes on this particular day, she says she just wants to be around it all, near the cast, watching the process unfold around her. Like much of the pride Barrera so often spoke about, it’s not necessarily about her, but about who she can be to and for those who come after her.

Dress by Victoria Hayes

Interview from Issue 12 of IRIS COVET BOOK available in stores and online by clicking —> HERE!

CLOSER : A PHOTO ESSAY BY ANASTASIA GARCIA

When quarantine started in the early Spring of 2020, I like many, thought I’d be home for two weeks. I couldn’t fathom a reality where I’d spend months at home alone, unable to leave my 500 sq ft, Brooklyn apartment. After two weeks, restrictions tightened, and photoshoots quickly became too risky and stopped, thus halting my work entirely. And I, like so many others faced financial hardship, separation, depression, and anxiety. My experience isn’t unique. Quarantine was and remains still incredibly challenging and lonely for all of us.

Pre-pandemic I took my life for granted. I couldn’t fully appreciate the bonds that being a fashion photographer has allowed me to form with my subjects. For the last year, a photographer being in close quarters with anyone, let alone a model was a luxury. A luxury, that forced me to the realization that no amount of designer objects can equate to the value of human connection. Fashion was no longer the commodity, closeness was. This work explores that realization through polaroids and film images of intimate moments captured, in New York, during the COVID 19 pandemic. Shot over the span of six months, to safely allow for quarantines and COVID tests, the project explores what happens when fashion is not the commodity, closeness is. These shoots on rooftops, in bedrooms, and in dark hotels were my lifeline to human interaction and creative expression. These moments behind the lens were more than just documenting my quaranpod during a pandemic. These women, these shoots were the breath that sustained me. On my darkest days, it was these women who in trusting me and allowing me in, lifted me out of the dark.

Anastasia