Manuscript - X

Here at Manuscript HQ, we have been busting to share with you all the things that we’ve been working on these past few months. Every issue is special to us, but being our tenth in print – marking three years since we began with our first 64-page newspaper – this one carries some extra weight. The cover, you’ll notice, features the inimitable actor, model and artist Tony Ward, photographed by Paul Scala and styled by Jolyon Mason. Who could have expected that some three decades after showing up in a Calvin Klein campaign that Tony Ward would still be at the top of his game? Despite the transient nature of fashion, Mr Ward has demonstrated serious longevity, and in a 10-page shoot, we salute the man that everyone still wants to sleep with.

Sex, they say, sells, but there’s a lot more to our new issue. Our newly-appointed Associate Editor, Alison Kubler, profiles three of the biggest names in Australian contemporary art right now: Daniel Boyd, who many know from his recent win of the third annual Bulgari Art Award, Michael Cook, the breakout star of this year’s Biennale of Sydney, and Tyza Stewart, who continues to develop a significant art practice despite a brouhaha at Sydney Contemporary art fair last year. Being a media partner of the Melbourne Art Fair (which opens next week), contemporary art forms a big part of the issue, and Ms Kubler also looks at the raft of high profile blockbuster fashion exhibitions set to open later this year on our shores, including the phenomenal Jean Paul Gaultier retrospective headed for the National Gallery of Victoria.

A new contributor to our pages, acclaimed author and journalist Benjamin Law examines the decline of mainstream print publishing that is contemporaneous with a growing market for independent, boutique and niche operations, profiling Broadsheet‘s Nick Shelton, The Saturday Paper‘s Erik Jensen and The Lifted Brow‘s Samuel Cooney as part of his extensive essay. Manuscript editor Mitchell Oakley Smith, meanwhile, looks at the artisans behind Hermes’ continually growing global brand, and documents the spectacular collaboration of designer Raf Simons and artist Sterling Ruby.

And being our biggest issue to date, there are countless fashion shoots in this issue, too. We welcome Australian-born, Paris-based stylist Jonathan Ailwood to our team as European Fashion Editor, and Mr Ailwood styled two stories for the issue: the first an examination of the recent Maison Martin Margiela ‘Artisanal’ collection, and the other, an epic production set atop clifftops showcasing the cultural melange of the fall collections. Back on Australian shores, Mr Mason documents the prevalence (and brilliance) of the colour grey, and highlights our country’s best womenswear stylists.

Editor-in-Chief & Publisher: Mitchell Oakley Smith
Cover Photograph: Paul Scala