Table of contents for Issue #111 in RUSSH

Frank Ocean never announced himself. He slipped in, as if by accident, and left the same way – no grand gestures; only a half-finished thought. Carving out a space between hedonistic hip-hop and something softer, stranger; something his alone. A strummed electric guitar, fog that rolls over synths. Words that feel almost offhanded, slipping through fingers like sand. He oscillates between the romantic and the braggart, between storyteller and quiet observer. The anti-promo poster child. No press rollouts, no glossy announcements. You’ll find him in the spaces between – a leak that might be intentional, a rumour of his presence. He will never beg to be heard… and yet, we lay in wait. A fashion darling, though he never cared to be one – Prada-clad, draped in Arc’teryx and Comme…

The air is thick with the scent of salt and frangipani. A villa rises from the cliffs, its silhouette against the Andaman Sea like a mirage. Inside, a glint of something impossible to ignore. High above the coastline of Phuket, Maison Cartier’s latest High Jewellery collection unfurls across 200 carefully curated pieces; a tale of mastery and homage, and of stones that hold stories older than time. Among the few granted passage into this rarefied world, RUSSH stepped through the exhibition as if traversing epochs – each room an invocation of Phuket’s past as a hub of global exchange. Our journey began in shadow. Woven rattan and dark wood cast shifting patterns across the walls of the ‘Carved Wood’ room. As you move through the room, the flicker of light…

Chris Yuille doesn’t do half-measures. The Melbournebased chef and food stylist has made a career out of pushing the boundaries of edible art, crafting show-stopping visuals for brands like Flamingo Estate and Dinosaur Designs. His foray into food began as a teenager, obsessive in his pursuit of perfecting a homemade McDonald’s bun. But that singular devotion set the tone for a career that has since leapt from restaurant kitchens to photo studios, and his recent obsession with gelatine that has captured imaginations. Equal parts nostalgic and unconventional, Yuille’s work reflects a deep reverence for the past – vintage cookbooks, Women’s Weekly magazines, and century-old bakeries are his creative muses. From capturing candy-coloured Jell-O spreads mid-wobble, to suspending an entire fruit salad in a watermelon wedge, his jelly experiments are equal…

This isn’t the first time I have tried to speak to Sharon Van Etten. Our last call was interrupted by the police, wanting CCTV footage for a hit and run on her street, and it is more than unfortunate that when we finally reschedule our conversation, that we speak against the burning backdrop of the California fires. Van Etten tells me she is safe with her partner’s family, and while I hope that disaster isn’t going to be a reoccurring part of our conversations, it does feel quite fitting to be in the company of an artist who professes she really “digs the darkness”, and so doesn’t shy away from life’s struggles or human complexity. Since releasing her debut album Because I Was in Love in 2009, Van Etten’s songs…

Our bodies are cyclical, like the natural world around us. The tides go in and out, the moon waxes and wanes, the seasons transition. Our menstrual cycle follows the same predictable rhythm, four phases that can be likened to winter, spring, summer and autumn. We are encouraged to live with the seasons; eat what’s ripe, change our pace, adjust our habits. Periods of exertion are followed by rest and replenishment. But we rarely apply the same principles to our bodies, specifically the menstrual cycle. When we value progress, it can be difficult to lean into slowness — we’re always efficient, productive, getting it done. But what would it feel like to live seasonally within ourselves? Would we feel generally better, mentally and physically, if we adjusted our life to fit…

PHOTOGRAPHY Jack Grayson FASHION Charlotte Agnew MODEL Pasha Harulia @ Viva Models HAIR Sachiko Yamashita @ ASG Paris MAKEUP Kamila Vay STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Johanna Vikblom…

“Visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success. Do not be afraid to disappear, from it, from us, for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence.”– Michaela Coel Fazerdaze – the enigmatic alter ego of New Zealand singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Amelia Murray – was an artist propelled very quickly into a whirlwind of success. Driven by the critical success of her 2017 debut album, Morningside, she was playing covetable festival slots and touring globally – all by the age of 24. But things weren’t as picture-perfect as they seemed for Murray, and the musician quietly retreated into a years-long hiatus. Fans were left to wonder if Fazerdaze was gone for good. But in 2024, Murray reemerged with Soft Power, a record she calls…

“Let me wear the day Well so when it reaches you You will enjoy it.”– Sonia Sanchez PHOTOGRAPHY Anna Victoria Best FASHION Charlotte Agnew MODEL Codey Scopes @ Viva Models GROOMING Yuri Kato Retouching Hannah Farmery PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Joel Fuentes STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Lisa Fulchignoni…

Date: 04.12.24 Location: New York City What are the chances of you and your partner planning to propose on the same day? Statistically, not very likely. But every so often – if by chance, fate, or the mysterious forces that pull two people toward one another – two perfectly considered plans align in a way that feels almost too poetic to be real. Such was the case for model Aleyna Fitzgerald and perfumer Zoë Takala. “We were on the beach at sunset in Turkey early last year,” Aleyna recalled. The moment, bathed in golden light, held no particular weight at first. No premeditated grandeur, no set plan. Just the two of them, existing in the quiet reverie of each other’s company. “I had bought a ring for Zoë about six…

Tintimates here’s an effortless intimacy to the way Lucy Folk and Joffrey Cauchy move through the world – rooted in ritual, drawn to spontaneity. Their love lives in the late afternoon glow of Marseille, where the sea and sun dictate the rhythm of the day, and in the wild quiet of Boreen Point, where connection takes on a different pace. Their story is one of movement – across oceans, between cities, through the small moments that tether them to each other. It began in Bondi, in the heady haze of a New Year’s Day party, and has since unfolded across Paris, Mallorca, and Marseille, where they’ve carved out spaces filled with light, community, and the kind of beauty that exists only when nothing is forced. Their love is both deliberate…

There are rooms that hold time, spaces that whisper of love, and light that shapes the soul of a home. For Ana Kraš, design is less a discipline than a poetry – written in woven shades, in the curve of a chair, in the hush of a Parisian morning. The designer’s journey began in Belgrade, where the language of design first found her hands – an instinctive dance between function and feeling. From the delicate geometry of her Bonbon Lamps, first wrapped in salvaged thread and later embraced by Danish powerhouse HAY, to collaborations with cultural vanguards like Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Apartamento, and Saks Potts, her work resists definition, moving fluidly between disciplines. In 2023, she co-founded Teget, a canvas for her boundless curiosity, where art, design, fashion, and photography…

MYSTERY Unseen currents of transformation There is something about the Year of the Snake that invites an elegant unravelling. A shedding of the old skin, an invitation to slip into something more elusive, more profound. Mystery lingers in the air, waiting for those attuned to its frequency to decipher its message. If 2024’s dragon soars with thunderous declaration, 2025’s snake moves in knowing silence, weaving unseen paths through the undercurrents. This is a year of revelation, but only for those willing to look beyond the surface. Mystery, at its core, is a dance with the unknown. It is the slow, deliberate act of discovery, the tension between what is revealed and what remains hidden. The Year of the Snake asks us to embrace this ambiguity, to move with the shadows…

Annika Kafcaloudis Photographer, Year of the Snake I find solace in … Turning off the big light. My ultimate beach read … It’s anything set on a Greek island with a large family dynamic. For me, rest looks like … Airplane mode. For an instant reset, I reach for … A flat white. My go-to comfort meal … It’s any type of meatball. A ritual that grounds me is … Below Deck Sailing Yacht. Nisha Van Berkel Makeup artist, Soft Power I find solace in … Lighting candles, flipping through magazines that inspire me with a homemade chai. My ultimate beach read … A good thriller or suspense novel. For me, rest looks like … A deep tissue massage, a candlelit evening at home watching a movie, or a slow…

Artist Julie Rrap has spent decades bending the frame – disrupting, reimagining, and inserting herself into the art historical canon with a trickster’s touch. Now, at 74, she turns the lens on herself once more, asking: what does it mean to be seen? Julie Rrap and I share something in common: we struggle to watch horror movies. Between our addresses on Gadigal Land/Sydney, Rrap at her home studio in Leichhardt and me at my Darlinghurst apartment, a mutual shudder ripples through our video call at the thought of doing so. Our conversation has taken a brief detour from the portrayal of the female body in contemporary art to its prevalence in cinematic horror and has arrived at French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. The film follows the story of a…

Area Silenzioeat-girls(BUREAU B, 2024) Am I a sucker for French bands with synths evocative of Deux? Yes. But eat-girls are a lot more than that. Born out of the global imprisonment of 2020, eat-girls have cultivated a murky, sparse, eerie but exciting sound. Area Silenzio is self-recorded and feels like it has an uncompromising sense of purpose. The record could be labelled as atmospheric Postpunk, but it demonstrates much more complexity than merely straight eights on the bass and obscure lyrics contained within the box of a drum machine. There are elements of cinematic romance that makes me think that the late David Lynch would have enjoyed this record. The Purple BirdBonnie Prince Billy(NO QUARTER RECORDS, 2025) This is definitely a Country record, with all that one would sonically expect…

HOURGLASS Unlocked Instant Extensions Mascara “For an instant refresh and a boost of energy, mascara has always been my go-to. After trying countless options, Hourglass has earned its place as my favourite. Buildable, lightweight, and tubing — this formula ticks every box. Maybe it’s the blue eyes, but I find mascara completely transforms my complexion, adding brightness and definition in seconds.” - Samantha Corry, Assistant to the Editor in Chief OFFICINE UNIVERSELLE BULY Fragrant Bath Salts Scottish Lichen “Whenever I need to unplug and reset, I turn to a bath infused with these bath salts. There’s something transformative about sinking into warm water, letting stillness wash over me. I feel instantly revitalised, deeply relaxed, and completely detoxified.” - Samantha Corry, Assistant to the Editor in Chief MEDIK8 Liquid Peptides “This…

There is no one in the skincare industry with more conviction than April Gargiulo. Raised by winemakers in California’s Napa Valley, it was instilled in her from a young age that luxury is not speed but time; it’s not choice, but curation. Ten years ago, she launched a skincare brand with a single face oil, The Active Botanical Serum, inspired by the wine-making principles she’d witnessed in her youth. It’s won numerous awards and Vintner’s Daughter, now in its 11th year, still only has three products. In an industry obsessed with newness, it’s essentially an act of rebellion. Gargiulo is incredibly talented when it comes to formulated, efficacious skincare, but also an advocate for ‘less is more’ – an antithesis to the otherwise superfluous industry. We spoke to her about…

PHOTOGRAPHY Sam Armstrong FASHION Hannah Cooper MODEL Lea Lukek @ Priscillas HAIR & MAKEUP Georgia Ramman PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Judith Leclerc STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Koby Dulac-Daley CREATIVE STUDIO & CAMPAIGN MANAGER Olivia loewe Repaci shoes.…

Somewhere between breath and stillness, between the delicate flutter of a butterfly’s wings and the poised grace of a prima ballerina, there is movement. It’s not just a matter of mechanics – it’s a philosophy, a way of seeing the world. And for over a century, Van Cleef & Arpels has mastered this language, translating motion into precious metal and gemstone. Now, for its first Patrimonial exhibition in Oceania, Sydney will play host to this storied craftsmanship as The Art of Movement. Van Cleef & Arpels, Living Instants, Eternal Forms makes its debut. For Alexandrine Maviel-Sonet, Director of Patrimony and Exhibitions for Van Cleef & Arpels, curating this exhibition was never about simply arranging a collection of pieces – it was about telling a story. A collection of nearly 3,000…

I’m not typically one to believe in New Year’s resolutions – I’ve never understood the concept of waiting to make a change. But as the final days of December rolled around, I found myself being pulled back to one recurring wish: this year, I wanted to be a better lover and friend. Not because I believe I’m doing a terrible job of it currently (there’s the Scorpio in me), but because frankly, I wanted to be the best at it. Not the most ideal source of motivation in hindsight. On the first day of the year, I wrote a list of all the items I believed would get me there. I made a promise to explore journaling, vowed to be more spontaneous. I even briefly considered responding to text messages…

PHOTOGRAPHY Jake Terrey FASHION Thomas Townsend TALENT Salvatore Aljaidi and Lorenzo Maioli, Sean Brady and Zoran Jevtic, Marlo Hsieh and Jarvis Aivali, Tilly Lawless and Janet Anderson, Judith Leclerc and Sam Armstrong, Archer Rose and Zachary Ryland, Nina Treffkorn and Edward Woodley, Melissa Neufeldt and Tehillaw Wijangco HAIR Jesse Wakemshaw MAKEUP Carly Lim using Sisley Paris PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Ryan Flanagan STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Lexi Mantzios CREATIVE STUDIO & CAMPAIGN MANAGER Olivia Repaci…

There’s an ease to Violette Meima, a softness that lingers in the spaces between her words. She moves through the world with a quiet kind of confidence – unrushed, unbothered, absorbing rather than chasing. Paris is home for now, its energy a pulse she thrives on, but Berlin calls to her in a different way. Maybe it’s the freedom, the edge, the promise of something unknown. She isn’t stressed about it – Cancerian by nature, she lets the tides pull her where they will. Mornings begin in the quiet company of a book, and nights end the same way. She watches Goodfellas for comfort? To relax? We couldn’t love her more. She’s effortlessly French – fashionably late, a novel always nestled in the crook of her arm. Solitude soothes her,…

Fashion can be an ‘out of the pan and into the fire’ experience, but it can also serve as a retreat. A ‘retreat’ can imply comfort in the physical interaction we have with clothes: how they sit, soothe and support, giving us a break from the diurnal. It can also mean using clothes as an emotional escape, with certain styles, fabrics or colours evoking feelings, triggering nostalgia, and blending or disconnecting us from our surroundings. In 1916, Gabrielle Chanel ended the depressingly restrictive norms for womenswear by making dresses with a soft, flexible jersey fabric previously relegated to the men’s underpants section. She prioritised comfort over the strictures of the time, pushing for autonomy and functional femininity. Later, in 1975, Giorgio Armani reinvented the suit by removing the internal padding…

All Fours Miranda July (riverhead books) In All Fours, July offers a retreat from the social narratives that define female experience, particularly those explored in one of my all-time cherished books Simone de Beauvoir’s The Woman Destroyed. July’s protagonist retreats into a motel, a sort of cocoon moment, where she reclaims her body, sex, and desire through moments of vulnerability – especially in a sensual, horny tampon scene that challenges expectations of female propriety. Rather than folding herself to fit inside a nuclear family, July transforms to celebrate a person’s right to evolve and exist unapologetically, offering a radical, messy version of self-liberation. – Lynn Mathuthu, stylist As Rich as the King Abigaïl Assor (Pushkin Press) Poised in a café, desperately attempting to escape the Saigon humidity, Abigaïl Assor’s sensual,…

“How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.”– Virginia Woolf, The Waves Beauty notes — Skin-first beauty in the form of DR BARBARA STURM Hyaluronic Serum, DIOR BEAUTY Dior Addict Lip Maximizer Hydrating and Plumping Gloss 002 Opal and KLORANE Face Smoothing and Anti-Fatigue Eye Patches with Organic Cornflower. Beauty notes — Moulded magic in the form of MAKANAI Goldays 24-Carat Gold Leaf Mask. Beauty notes — Skin prepped using DR BARBARA STURM Hyaluronic Serum followed by DIOR BEAUTY Dior Forever Skin Perfect Multi-Use Foundation Stick in 1N…

There is something about being mentally and physically laid bare, scrubbed, cleansed, massaged, poked, prodded and reconfigured that appeals to me. I have always been interested in holistic wellness. My Grandmother was years ahead of the wellness boom: she drank flaxseed oil, practised Tai Chi, put calendula on grazed knees and hooked me up to her TENS machine whenever I had a cold. She loved apple cider vinegar, always walked the beach with her shoes off, and shopped for produce locally. A hot bath and some Rescue Remedy was her panacea for all kinds of ills. It’s probably why I’m drawn to the idea of a retreat; someplace far away that’s entirely dedicated to self. I’ll willingly submit to institutionalisation if it means I’m going to feel lighter, calmer and…

“Nothing bothered me, not even the things that bothered me.”– Patti Smith, Year of the Monkey Beauty notes — Celine beauté Le Rouge Celine Satin Lipstick in 10 Rouge Danaé. Beauty notes — CELINE BEAUTÉ Le Rouge Celine Satin Lipstick in 10 Rouge Danaé. PHOTOGRAPHY Crista Leonard @ Cadence FASHION Charlotte Agnew MODEL Violette Meima @ DNA Models HAIR Kazue Deki @ Calliste MAKEUP Lauren Aiello NAILS Chloe Momi ART DIRECTION Sarah Bassett STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Lisa Fulchignoni PRODUCTION Producing Love…

PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Tennent FASHION Hannah Cooper MODEL Muna Mahamed @ Priscillas HAIR Kyye @ AP—REPS using Oribe @ Rouge Beauty MAKEUP Sean Brady using NARS @ Mecca PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS Adian Ouma-Machio and Fergus Locke STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Koby Dulac-Daley Special thanks to The Cross Art + Books.…

PHOTOGRAPHY Mia Rankin FASHION Hannah Cooper MODEL Zinnia Kumar @ Priscillas HAIR Madison Voloshin @ Assembly Agency using Davroe MAKEUP Isabella Schimid @ Assembly Agency using Emma Lewisham PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Matt Sitas STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Koby Dulac…

PHOTOGRAPHY Mia Rankin @ LIMINAL REP FASHION Hannah Cooper MODEL Kukua Williams @ Priscillas HAIR Madison Voloshin @ Assembly Agency using Davroe MAKEUP Sean Brady @ AP—REPS using NARS @ Mecca PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Chelsea Oh STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Koby Dulac-Daley CREATIVE STUDIO & CAMPAIGN MANAGER Olivia Repaci…

Date: 23.12.24 Location: New York City There was something serendipitous about the way Melissa Levy Young and Jordan Levy Young met – a swipe, a spark, and a first date in the languid heat of a New York summer. Two and a half years later, in the depths of a Manhattan winter, they found themselves at City Hall, wrapped in the kind of love that makes even the coldest days feel warm. Melissa, a stylist and photographer, and Jordan, an actor, had often spoken about marriage. It was not a matter of if, but when. The ‘when’ came quickly, last November, with the pair deciding that a wedding before the year’s end felt right. City Hall had one date left: December 23rd, at 2:30pm. Later, as the details settled in,…

The Nagas: Hill Peoples Of Northeast IndiaJulian Jacobs (Thames & Hudson, 1990) We recently bought a collection of about three or four hundred books on South Asian art, and this was one of them. The Nagas resisted the British Raj and made distinctive textiles, jackets, jewellery and statues. They remind us of the complexity of India and the ways a culture’s beautiful clothes, beadwork and weapons create individual, tribal and national identities. Isabella BlowMatina Rink (Thames & Hudson, 2010) One for the fashionistas. Preaching beauty, elegance and creativity, Blow nurtured and inspired lots of designers, supermodels, photographers and artists like Philip Treacy, Alexander McQueen, and Hussein Chalayan. An original with a whiff of Vreeland’s outrageousness, she created spaces for people to fly. Meanwhile, she cleaned her desk every night with…