MITCHELL OAKLEY SMITH

Manuscript - XI


Troye Sivan, might be one of those bright young things you’d write off for being young, using the internet to his utmost advantage and, most importantly, being damn successful as a result of both of those factors. But in my interview with Mr Sivan (page 50), he shows himself to be a thoughtful, intelligent, ambitious (scarily so), curious and creative human being. It stands to reason that his is the second most popular YouTube in Australia and that he has in excess of two million Instagram followers – quite simply, people really like him.

Mr Sivan is a busy man to pin down, what with recording part of his album in Los Angeles, shooting a film in South Africa and living with his family in Perth, but he very kindly made time for our cover shoot, and as evidence of his artistic spirit, basically let us do whatever the hell we wanted with him. It’s with thanks to that trust that two icons appear on the cover: Mr Sivan and, on his back, Thom Browne, the New York-based menswear designer that has, during his decade in the business, completely thwarted, subverted and radically altered the way that we dress today. The sharply structured, ice creamcoloured suit worn by Mr Sivan, from Mr Browne’s spring 2015 collection, is a most overt example of the designer’s collection, a standout piece, but when we saw it on the runway in Paris last June it was obvious that we needed to shoot it. It’s those unbridled, original ideas that we so appreciate at Manuscript.

This issue is, I hope you’ll agree, literally brimming with those kinds of things. I’m delighted to welcome film critic and scholar Huw Walmsley-Evans to our stable of writers as a contributing editor. Mr Walmsley-Evans is one of the sharpest, most knowledgeable voices in film literature today, and as a resident of upwardly mobile Brisbane, he’ll be first in line to see the terrific David Lynch retrospective exhibition when it opens at the Gallery of Modern Art this autumn. Be sure, too, to read Mr Walmsley-Evans’ essay about the current proliferation of comic book film adaptations.

Elsewhere, we profile, as always, some of the most talented men in contemporary culture, this issue including curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot, artist Lucas Grogan and menswear consultant Nick Wooster; the four handsome finalists of our inaugural model search are revealed, expertly photography by Jordan Graham; and contributing editor Jonathan Seidler profiles another brilliant Australian musician, Jack Ladder, whose commanding voice and poetic lyrics are fast making him one of our country’s greatest stars.

Editor-in-Chief & Publisher: Mitchell Oakley Smith
Cover Photograph: Liz Ham