October 18, 2026
The issue of October 18, 2026
Every question from this issue, with the answers, the hints and the reading behind them.
Play the October 18, 2026 issue
House: Calvin Klein · Designer: Raf Simons · Season: Fall/Winter 2018 - Landscapes
On February 13, 2018, Raf Simons turned New York’s old American Stock Exchange into a snowbound farm. In a set that could have been stolen straight from the production of Misery or The Shining, around 50,000 gallons of popcorn stood in for snow, scorched, blood-splattered barns loomed over the guests, and artist Sterling Ruby’s crimson pompoms “hung like dripping blood,” as Suzy Menkes put it.
Simons wanted “typical references, for example, the American landscape,” and he traversed all of it: the 1960s space race, in space-blanket foil, astronaut gloves and goggles; firefighters, in orange hi-vis coats and thigh-high fire boots; the frontier, in Western shirts and prairie pastels; and Looney Tunes, with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner on droopy knits. An ankle-length fur coat nodded to old Hollywood, with a hint of 60s Sharon Tate glamour, while the soundtrack sampled Simon & Garfunkel and “California Dreamin’.” Simons called the collection “an allegory for a meeting of old worlds and new worlds,” from the discovery of America to the space race to the information age, adding that “the mixes emancipate clothing and references from their meanings.” The campaign that followed, shot by Willy Vanderperre in an isolated Utah landscape, made models look larger than the mountains behind them. Calvin Klein described it as having “a nostalgic, but also an alien/otherworldly feeling,” and FashionUnited summed it up as “the familiar American landscape through the eyes of aliens.” It’s as if 60s visitors landed to study the place before making contact. How has America changed? How has its landscape changed? And what are American values, anyway?
A lot of the looks resemble the mishmashed outfits you put together in a Fallout game, when you willingly give up good stats because you want your character to look cool. The 60s were the mod era, and anyone who knows me knows I nuclear bombed my copy of New Vegas with hundreds of mods. “Reflecting the notion of democracy, there is no cultural hierarchy,” Simons said. Above all, he was looking for heroes: “I wanted the show to be about heroes. All kinds of heroes.”
When I see the Wile E. Coyote piece in this context, I think about the Iranian cleric Shahab Moradi, who, asked on state TV in 2020 how Iran could retaliate in kind for Qassem Soleimani’s killing, said: “Are we supposed to take out Spider-Man and SpongeBob? They don’t have any heroes… All of their heroes are cartoon characters.” Maybe the aliens look at Mr. Coyote the same way. If America can’t tell a hero from a villain, how could they?
What does the average American look like to an outsider? To those across the world, or those in space? A wealthy, working-class, hardworking bohemian who is both at the mercy of the landscape and merciless to its inhabitants. Manifest Destiny on whose behalf? Tremendous and haunting!
Sources: AnOther · Vogue Portugal (Suzy Menkes) · Hypebeast · LUXUO · Fashionista · FashionUnited
Answer: Rihanna
On May 20, 2009, Kanye West posted a paparazzi photo of Rihanna stepping into a yellow New York City cab and gushed over it in his signature all caps: “YO WHY CAN’T ALL PAPARAZZI PHOTOS BE THIS GOOD? WELL OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE MOST CELEBS JUST AREN’T RIHANNA LOL!” He praised the city in the background, criticized photographers who “OVEREXPOSE THE LENS,” and declared, “I LOOK AT OUR CURRENT SUPERSTARS LIKE LEGENDS IN THE MAKING.” Then he listed them: Justin Timberlake was the new Michael Jackson, Beyoncé the new Tina Turner, Lady Gaga the new Madonna, Jay-Z the new Sinatra, Lil Wayne the new Hendrix, and Thom Yorke the new Roger Waters. The timing was ironic, since it came just days after he pleaded not guilty to assaulting a TMZ photographer. Rihanna was a fitting subject: she had been the muse in the video for his song “Paranoid.”
The post came from KanyeUniverseCity.com, Kanye’s famously unfiltered blog. For about three years, from 2007 to 2010, he posted several times a day: thousands of posts about fashion, art, architecture, furniture and design, alongside photos of receipts, his house and designers he admired, plus the occasional all-caps rant. It championed names like Raf Simons, Margiela and Takashi Murakami. It was early to Givenchy’s rise, helped make Common Projects a menswear staple, and gave street style photographer Tommy Ton a boost. It’s often credited with helping popularize the all-caps internet rant. The site went down in 2010, and its archive went with it, but for a generation of fashion fans it was a digital alma mater.
The Blog Era was something else. Bring it back. Make a Who'Studios account! :)
Sources: Rolling Stone · VICE (Noisey) · Complex
Answer: Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin
This is Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, photographed by Francis Giacobetti for the December 1974 Christmas issue of Lui, France’s answer to Playboy. The issue ran a spread called “Noël avec Jane Birkin” (“Christmas with Jane Birkin”), and Gainsbourg himself conceived the photos and wrote their captions. Birkin called the project an act of love. The staged, theatrical pose, with him grabbing a fistful of her hair as she arches back in a long satin gown, captures the playful provocation that defined their public image. Giacobetti was a defining photographer of Lui’s glamour era. He worked for the magazine under 14 different pseudonyms and also photographed stars like Jane Fonda and Grace Jones.
The two met in 1968 on the set of Slogan, Birkin’s first French film. At first she found him “complicated and arrogant,” but she said her feelings changed in a single evening. Gainsbourg had originally recorded “Je t’aime... moi non plus” with Brigitte Bardot, who asked him not to release it. He re-recorded it with Birkin, and it became a hit. They never married, but they lived together until 1980 and had a daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, in 1971. Birkin eventually left because of his drinking and his hard-partying alter ego, Gainsbarre: “I could live with Gainsbourg,” she said, “but not Gainsbarre.”
Sources: Artcurial · Design You Trust · John Baxter · Hunger
Answer: Seán McGirr
On October 15, 2026, Kering announced that Seán McGirr was leaving Alexander McQueen after three years as creative director. The Irish designer, formerly head of ready-to-wear at JW Anderson, succeeded Sarah Burton in October 2023, after her 13 years leading the house. Kering CEO Luca de Meo thanked him for his “contribution and dedication,” and brand CEO Gianfranco D’Attis credited him with respecting the label’s heritage and bringing it back to London.
The exit is part of de Meo’s shake-up of Kering. McQueen has struggled: Bernstein estimates its annual sales have fallen from a peak of about €800 million to under €200 million. De Meo reportedly considered selling the brand before choosing cost cuts and store closures. Kering says the next creative director, who will be based in London, will be announced soon.
As for who’s next, it’s unconfirmed but rumored. The day after McGirr’s exit, Puck reported, citing multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, that Kering has chosen Virginia Burlina, most recently head designer at Maison Margiela. Burlina spent four years at Dries Van Noten, followed by stints at Burberry, Acne Studios and Loewe, and she’s known for her experimental work. Puck’s Lauren Sherman argued that hiring a “special number two” makes sense for a smaller brand like McQueen, as long as the new designer captures the spirit of the house’s original designs without copying them and focuses on its core strengths, tailoring and eveningwear.
Sources: FashionNetwork · Manila Times (AFP) · Puck
Green Lantern's Ring