Purple Magazine
— F/W 2013 issue 20

LA Essential

photography by NICOLAS ALAN COPE

All pictures are from Whitewash, powerHouse Books, Brooklyn, New York, 2013

 
I moved to Paris from Los Angeles 10 years ago and haven’t been back since. But this is exactly how I remember it. Bright, hot, incessant clear light casting blackety-black shadows from Brutalist blocks, which take the history of architecture and silently reduce and contain it, like lunar tombs. Or Aztec temples morphed into foam-core cartoons. This kind of light makes decisions easier, more black and white: good vs. bad; pure vs. impure; aspiration vs. collapse; determined, grim optimism vs. self-indulgent despair. The suggestion of a monolithic old Hollywood black-and-white movie set encourages self-invention and feelings of self-consciousness as you make your way down an imaginary long white staircase. There’s not another living soul around and the spotlight is on you, wiping away any flaws or imperfections: you hallucinate into who you wanna be… Exactly how I remember it…

— RICK OWENS

[Table of contents]

F/W 2013 issue 20

Table of contents

purple EDITO

purple NEWS

purple BEST OF THE SEASON

purple INTERVIEW

purple FASHION WOMEN

purple FASHION MEN

purple DOCUMENT

purple BEAUTY

purple TRAVEL

purple SEX

purple PHILO

purple NIGHT

purple STORY

purple VISUAL ESSAY

Subscribe to our newsletter