Strawberry Smash

With tasting notes of elegantly styled digital outfits courtesy of Ralph Lauren x Poolsuite, a vintage design store, the world’s most unusual neighbourhood design, youthful skaters and surfers in Lagos, a very delectable piece of hardware, a vintage-filled Parisian home, vibrant travel guides just in time for summer and the closet tour behind the sale of the decade.

The good life beckons once more!

Hot Hyperlinks

☼ The Poolsuite x Ralph Lauren “RL-3000” is ready to be taken for a spin! Immerse yourself in a stylishly crafted virtual dress up experience to design an iconic 80s airbrush version of yourself

☼ Same Old is a vintage and contemporary design store focused on elevating the modern living space with objects and furniture created by the world’s most renowned contemporary designers of the 20th century

☼ Delve into the world’s most unusual neighbourhood design in The Netherlands, where residents live in giant concrete spheres that were once affordable housing experiments

☼ The sexiest piece of hardware in recent times… Teenage Engineering releases the TP-7, an “ultra-portable audio recorder”

SUMMER-ENHANCING PEOPLE

Girl Gaze: Petra Collins

Petra Collins has been working since she was 17, and over a prolific decade has racked up a host of accolades from shooting everyone under the sun to art shows to clothing lines to directing. A photographer, artist and model, Petra became known for her dreamy female lens shooting intimate moments of adolescence in her home city of Toronto, going on to define a new generation of photographers.

Fellow iconic photographer Ryan McGinley (who is an inspiration for her) says of Petra: “She’s kind of Warholian: somebody who curates and is also an artist and a model. It started with Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, Nan Goldin. Now it’s her turn to interpret what it means to be a young artist in downtown New York City, to create a community and photograph that community.”

Highlights

More from the world of Petra Collins…

• On shooting on 35mm: “It’s what I learned on and what was the most inexpensive for me as a student. I also come from a dance background, so for me, physicality is important. 35mm is tangible to me: the whole experience of taking the photos to holding the finished negatives are key to my process. I love having to really focus on each photo I’m taking (because of how much film I have).”
• NOWNESS presents: Photographers in Focus with Petra Collins
• On her infamous early aesthetic and “girl gaze”: “There was a period when it was very bright and there was a lot of pastel and pink. But even before that, I've had this through-line of darkness, which is where I came from. And I think the reason the images have held up, or why people still love them is because you can't point at one emotion. The aesthetic that I cultivated was a mix of all of that. So it was me wanting to make something beautiful, but also needing to look at this darkness. That's something that I've never moved away from.”
• Coming of Age, Petra’s retrospective photo book with Rizzoli
• On creating art: “The one light in my life really is creating art. And so no matter what I've been through, I've always been able to express myself, which I guess is really crazy, but there's nothing that's ever made me want to stop because it's the thing that helps me the most.”
• A deep dive into Petra’s work with i-D
• On depicting girlhood: “It’s so important for women to create images of women, or any group at that. We live in such an image-heavy world that not seeing yourself in that landscape can really make it tough to feel human, to feel like you are part of the world. My feelings are always changing, and as I grow I am constantly learning. That’s something that I always try to explain to people; my images are an evolution, they are not a permanent state and they are also not a representation of everyone.”
• Petra’s exclusive collaboration with SSENSE titled “I’m Sorry” — “It was heavily inspired by my love and obsession with rural life,” she says.
• On working with Cadillac: “Working with Cadillac on this was interesting because their car played a massive part in my childhood. I grew up with Cadillac. It was my family’s prize possession, but it was also my safe space. Even when my home life crumbled, I could still get into that car and feel like we had something.”

Hotter Hyperlinks

Reserved with utmost care for the most discerning followers of leisure...

☼ Palm Report summer muse Jacquemus launches a dreamy pop up store on Lake Como

☼ Trippin is an ecosystem that empowers people to travel more consciously through local travel guides, resources, films and podcasts

☼ Vintage galore: Step inside the Parisian home of a French fashion designer filled with rich textures, vibrant colours and collected furniture pieces

☼ i-D travels to Lagos to meet teenage surfers, skaters and musicians as they talk about their dream careers and the expectations of being 16 year olds in their hometown

☼ After the reluctantly-labelled New York “It Girl” Chloë Sevigny hosted the famed “the sale of the decade”, revisit her earlier closet tour

SUMMER-ENHANCING ART

EXHIBIT A: Gianfranco Curioni from JCA Annual 5 (1984) • EXHIBIT B: Ramon Gonzalez Teja from JCA Annual 5 (1984) • EXHIBIT C: Shohei Higuchi from JCA Annual 5 (1984)

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