Text : Yann Weber
Photo : Benjamin Lennox for Antidote Magazine Now Generation
For its Summer 2016 issue, Antidote is going to release in a couple days the « Now Generation » Issue captured by Benjamin Lennox. Yann Weber, Founder & Creative Director at Antidote Magazine, introduces this new issue with his editorial.
« A generation is born at every significant event; the event is considered decisive precisely because a generation forges its identity through it, tests its contemporaneity, appropriates its time, sources its collective memory. » Pierre Favre
NOW generation, or a look at the times we live in. This is a generation in search of identity and individuality. A generation that embraces its anti-conformist desires, its taboos, without prejudice, boundaries or limitations and to whom – almost – everything seems possible.
In just a few years the tools we use to communicate with one another have progressed to such a point that today we can interact in an instant. This has changed and shaped our behavior on a fundamental level – our way of living, thinking and consuming. And as this new connective world evolves so does the fashion universe.
This is a generation without seasons. The fashion industry is in the throes of deep-seated change, at a pace that is ever-quickening. We are witnessing the beginning of a new fashion calendar, the emergence of a “see NOW buy NOW” generation. The concept of time has been altered and the fashion industry has grasped this. As I write this Christopher Bailey has just announced that Burberry will only do two runway shows a year, combining menswear and womenswear. And that the clothing seen on the catwalk will be available in stores, and online, as soon as the last model walks off the runway. This is a revolutionary act that will affect every major player in the industry.
To capture this liberated edition of Antidote we needed to have the vision of the British photographer Benjamin Lennox. He was able to translate in a natural, almost instinctive way, this notion of freedom that is embodied by youth – eager to see everything and know everything.
At the same time, the arrival of Jessica Michault as the editor-in-chief of the magazine strengthens our ability to formulate the world of fashion as it is today, and as it will be in the future.
It is right here and right now that I wanted to reinvent the magazine and its codes, by gazing in the direction of the generations of today and the worlds to come.
