Dazed, Winter 2020 – Letitia Wright

Dazed (formerly Dazed & Confused) has evolved from a London street scene magazine into an internationally-recognised title that continues to identify and create leading-edge cultural trends through its challenging and often controversial editorial, design and visual identity. With its world-exclusive interviews, groundbreaking fashion editorial, peerless photography and award-winning themed issues in music, art, fashion and film Dazed defines the cutting edge of style and fashion.

In this issue:

After a year of seismic social, cultural and political change, the new issue of Dazed brings truth-telling figures together to ask, ‘What will the future look like?’ These voices remind us, amid the still-unfolding madness of 2020, that “your art and your words have the power to build and tear down worlds of your own making”.

On the covers, Letitia Wright reflects on the threads that bind Black British protest’s past, present and future with her searing turn in Steve McQueen’s new drama Mangrove. Persona-switching rapper Shygirl imagines new mutant fantasias for nightlife in the UK and beyond, and hip-hop wunderkind Pa Salieu digs deep to find hope with his gritty and playful dispatches from Coventry’s sonic frontlines. Finally, Chinese-Canadian actor and singer Kris Wu lights the way as Louis Vuitton’s new muse.

When the world has become so hard to predict, it might seem like a strange time to be thinking about prophecies. But, as the poet said to the fashion designer in the pages of this issue, “To be an artist is to be a soothsayer, to be someone who can look into the future, and is building for that. And I think that’s what we do.”

THE COVERS

LETITIA WRIGHT: “If you wait for other people to tell your story, it will never be told.” Powerfully lensed by Arnaud Lajeunie, the Black Panther star takes charge in Steve McQueen’s timely retelling of a watershed moment in British history

PA SALIEU: “This generation ain’t no joke.” The Midlands rapper lifting British hip hop to a new plane, lensed by Gabriel Moses and styled by Raphael Hirsch in one of Shaun Leane’s iconic pieces for Alexander McQueen

SHYGIRL: Slashing her way through the insanity of 2020, the shapeshifting rapper goes in for the kill with photographer Jordan Hemingway and stylist Nell Kalonji

KRIS WU: Is it all over my face? The Chinese-Canadian actor, musician and Vuitton muse sees the future writ large with photographer Yu Cong

THE FEATURES

VIRGIL ABLOH IN CONVERSATION WITH CALEB FEMI: The Vuitton prodigy and the London poet muse on the power of the Black imagination

PHOEBE BRIDGERS: Creepin’ round the neighbourhood with LA’s dark princess of dysfunction, as lensed by Clara Balzary

BLACK BLOSSOMS: In search of a decolonised future for the arts, with Black Blossoms School of Art and Culture founder Bolanle Tajudeen and friends

NYEGE NYEGE TAPES: Sonic boom! The Kampala label restlessly reshaping club culture across the African continent

CONFUSED NEWS: Retraining in cyber? New dispatches from the robot-wars frontier – plus, a soundtrack from London ear-shredder

Never Worse

ZANELE MUHOLI: Sharing images from their Brave Beauties project, the South African artist makes the case for photography as a form of activism

SALEM: Into the maelstrom with the witch-house prodigal sons, returned to us after a decade of silence

HILTON ALS: The writer and critic curates a special literary section of the poems and stories that have shaped him

ROSÉ: The BLACKPINK singer bringing rawness and realness to the K-pop machine

ONE FUTURE: For a special collaboration with CK One, young imagemakers from across the US consider life and legacies amid the tumult of 2020