Perfect Issue Nine | Patrick Schwarzenegger

Perfect issue Nine is a celebration of the people who make fashion, the people who wear fashion and the people for whom fashion is everything. In the tumultuous, often cyclonic gossip cycle of the industry, it is sometimes easy to forget that at the heart of all this intense, artful creativity are actual human beings, with thoughts, feelings, lives and responsibilities. The more atomised we become online, the easier it is to dismiss people as two-dimensional thumbnails, whose value is decided by our approval and disapproval. “Issue Nine is both homage and provocation,” says Perfect Founder, Katie Grand, “reverence for those who endure, acknowledgment of what’s been lost, and a side-eye at the theatre that keeps us transfixed.” 

Here is a three-dimensional, deeply considered, paper reminder that behind fashion’s incredible fantasia there is a whole pantheon of reality. This is your timely reminder that in a world of artificial intelligence, fashion comprises flesh and blood. 

The cast list is as epic and iconic as ever: Giorgio Armani, Tate McRae, Rosé, Quen Blackwell, Haim, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Goldie Hawn, Gwendoline Christie, Honey Dijon, Duran Lantinkyo, Tom Hurst, Peter Copping, Miley Cyrus, Charlize Theron, Garett Wilson, Sheila Bawar, Anok Yai, Nadege Vanhee, Giovanna Engelbert, Maria Klaumann, Uffie. 

Photographed by incredible talent: Rafael Pavarotti, Willy Vanderperre, Joe McKenna, Paolo Roversi, Petra Collins, Bryce Anderson, Morgan Maher, Alex LaCruz, Songyi Yoon, Yasmine Diba, Juergen Teller, Thibaut Grevat, Phil Poynter.    

Let’s give Katie the last word on the opening of a new season’s one stop, one shop fashion mania. “Fashion is elegance with a dash of carnage, discipline with a splash of drama — and always, a reminder that behind the spectacle are human beings with everything on the line.” Period.