COMING OF AGE BY ANNABEL NEWLAND
Annabel Newland unpacks the idea of a coming of age and romanticised nostalgia, questioning if these youth milestones really hold the same gravitas that we are conditioned to believe.
“IT” BY DAPHNE NGUYEN AND ISABELLE TRUMAN
“Throughout history, certain women have captivated society, influencing artists, designers, musicians and the masses long before Instagram created an economy out of it. But defining exactly what it' is about these It Girls is no easy feat”, writes Isabelle Truman. Daphne Nguyen shoots New Zealand born Ch’lita in “IT” for Edition N°15, IDEATE.
PEOPLE OF NOTE: MEGAN MACKENZIE AND CATHERINE VĂN-DAVIES
Commercial surfing has long been epitomised by a masculine bravado and an air of nonchalance. Theatre veteran Catherine Văn-Davies, and newcomer Megan MacKenzie inject new life to the story of 70s Australian surf culture in ABC’s Barons. Lensed by Julian Schulz, interview by Annabel Newland.
BASKING IN THE SUNROOM BY BIANCA FARMAKIS
Bianca Farmakis sheds light on Sunroom, a female-led, sex positive subscription-based platform that explores the freedom of sexually liberated content and the resulting empowerment of previously censored conversations and careers.
PEOPLE OF NOTE: BOYS OF BARONS BY ROBBIE FIMMANO
Exploring 1970s Australia, a time categorised by fluidity, free-love and rebellion, Barons is a television series that charts the tension between two friends on the precipice of billion-dollar success, and the idea of a chosen family. SIDE-NOTE sits down with Lincoln Younes, Ben O’Toole, Alexander England and Kick Gurry - friends, former house mates and co-stars.
A FRESH TAKE BY NICOLE BENTLEY
There is something energising about discovery, the sheer thrill of the new that breaks from the norm and ushers ideas out of thin air. Nicole Bentley captures fresh faces Evie Ashby and Eva Hardwick and talks to Tatiana Farley on the genesis of her process.
CONSCIOUS SELF – A PROJECT WITH CHANEL BEAUTY BY DARREN MCDONALD
A departure from excess and artifice, a feeling for the future and a reverence for the au naturale — CHANEL sets its sights high as its cultivates a change in atmosphere with the new, enduring beauty of No.1.
THE PURSUIT OF EASE BY GRACE O’NEILL AND HOLLY GIBSON
For the last two years we haven’t been in the throes of war, but at times it’s felt close. The idea that in amongst that chaos we should still spend time seeking out pleasure for pleasure’s sake
LAST ONES STANDING BY DAN ROBERTS AND ANNA VIDOVIĆ
Fast fashion is not sustainable. In truth, our perpetual pursuit of the new is about as sustainable as coal. However, many of us are using this knowledge to make more virtuous choices about how and where we shop. Our future is hardly bleak or unexciting. Quite the opposite. It is hopeful. It is honest and full of integrity.
MIND YOURSELF BY JACQUI LEWIS
A key aspect of evolution relevant to our modern world and the current digital landscape is the often missed art of being present. Our conditioning in modern society comes from workaholics addicted to social media, who fail to prioritise their emotional, physical and spiritual health. However, we can individually change this, increasing our capacity for clarity, creativity and joy, and finding a more sustainable way of being and doing.
LOST ROMANCE BY JAMIE HEATH, ADY NESHODA AND ISABELLE TRUMAN
‘90s nostalgia is more prominent than ever. But, more often than not, rewatching the rom-coms that permeated our culture in our most formative years leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Stories matter—and the way they’re told and who’s telling them influences our society more than we realise.
EN ARRIÈRE, EN AVANT- A PROJECT WITH THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET AND CHANEL
With exclusive access to the company’s archives—established with the assistance of Chanel—Side-Note and Darren McDonald travel through the last six decades of The Australian Ballet.
A BROKEN SYSTEM BY ISABELLE TRUMAN
If a young woman isn’t safe in the very building created to house those entrusted to keep young women like her safe, it’s clear there’s a huge systemic problem. Now that Brittany Higgins has opened up the Me Too conversation in Australia, where do we go from here?
PEOPLE OF NOTE: Gretta Ray
To call Gretta Ray’s career charmed would do a disservice to the years of effort she has exerted in pursuit of her goal. But magic? Well, there’s a certain dose of that present, a dash of pixie dust she carries around on her shoulder and let’s find its way into every encounter.
PEOPLE OF NOTE: Chanel Contos
Chanel Contos is taking on Australia’s antiquated approach to consent education—and winning. Side-Note catches up with a true woman of note.
PAS DE DEUX – A PROJECT WITH CHANEL BY DARREN MCDONALD AND GRACE O’NEILL
In celebration of Chanel’s living heritage partnership with the Australian Ballet, Side-Note joins forces with prima ballerina Amber Scott and photographer Darren McDonald.
RETURN TO COUNTRY BY CHARLEE FRASER AND NICOLE BENTLEY
Model and First Nation Fashion + Design ambassador Charlee Fraser discusses her poignant, transformative journey of cultural discovery.
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE BY ISABELLE TRUMAN
When it comes to the way we view and respond to cases of violence against women, our response is overwhelmingly influenced by the way the story is told to us through media and the language used to describe the occurrence. For too long, words have discretely shifted the blame from the perpetrator onto the victim. But used correctly, words can be a political force.
MALLORCAN YOUTH CULTURE BY BEN MORRIS
Ben Morris documents Mallorcan youth culture, exploring with Nina Cohen, what it is like growing up in and being in that stage of life where all ideas are exciting and possibilities are endless, on an island with such a schizophrenic personality.
PEOPLE OF NOTE: Gabrielle Penfold in partnership with Emma Lewisham
A modern woman in many ways (Penfold’s break, and subsequent momentum has been helped along by social media), the 27 year old is quick to affirm her reverence for tradition, preferring to sell her work by way of galleries rather than DM’s. Instagram has proved a seminal and ongoing asset to her commercial success, and yet, Penfold is adamant “I don’t want to be an influencer, I want to be an artist.”
SEX, LIES, AND RED TAPE BY GRACE O’NEILL
Instagram’s increasingly strict “community guidelines” have been slowly pushing sex workers and sex educators off its platform. It’s the latest Silicon Valley scandal to call into question who gets to decide which voices we see and hear online.
PEOPLE OF NOTE: Nathalie Morris and Carlos Sanson Jr
When we catch Nathalie Morris and Carlos Sanson—breakout stars of the breakout Australian dramedy Bump—they’re on the Pacific Highway, headed back from a four-day short film shoot on New South Wales’ South Coast. In person, the pair mirror the same easy chemistry that has made Bump such a blockbuster success. The series—a Stan original created by Australian TV veteran Claudia Karvan—broke viewing records within days of its January release. It was quickly renewed for a second season. The story hinges around a ‘will-they won’t-they’ love story between teenagers Oly and Santi (Morris and Sanson), who are in their final year of high school when their lives are upended by Oly’s cryptic pregnant—a phenomena in which women don’t know they are pregnant until they give birth.
STAND FOR SOMETHING – ZIGGY RAMO BY VANESSA SWEDÉRUS, RHYS RIPPER AND GRACE O’NEILL
Ziggy Ramo recorded his year-defining album, Black Thoughts, in 2015 — but he held on to it for five years, told by the music industry that an Australian public so in denial about their own racist past (and present) couldn’t handle its contents. On May 25th, as a global race reckoning began to take shape, he uploaded the album in full —it’s gone on to be dubbed the most important Australian album of 2020. Grace O'Neill spends an hour in conversation with the magnanimous rapper.
THE SOCIAL DILEMMA – YAN YAN CHAN BY PIERRE TOUSSAINT & GRACE O’NEILL
Social media gets a bad rap these days. Justifiably so, for anyone who has seen The Social Dilemma and then fallen into a dark hole of existential despair, convinced Facebook is slowly melting our minds and chipping away at the foundations of modern democracy. But our ‘social media = bad’ conversations tend to lack a little nuance. Grace O'Neill talks to Sydney Creative and Digital Influencer, Yan Yan Chan on the evolving dynamic that is social media.
THE LOST ART OF DIALOGUE BY GRACE O’NEILL
I still believe that the only way to real progress is to effectively out-argue the people we disagree with; I believe that treating straight white men as if they’re ‘the enemy’ is childish and unhelpful and I believe that many complicated social issues have been reduced to opaque good/bad binaries, and that this is driving people further along the extremes of the political spectrum. Grace O'Neill considers American politics, now.
HOME GROWN BY KELLY GEDDES AND LAURA AGNEW
“Prosperity is not a thing to grab, but an idea to cultivate; a mindset and a way of life”, Laura Agnew maps her path to Permaculture.
STATELESS BY NADINE VON COHEN
Imagine you’re a pregnant refugee with chronic pain and little to no English. You’ve spent the last seven years in a prison camp and all you know of Australia is the inside of a detention centre. Writer and refugee advocate, Nadine Von Cohen documents who she's fighting for.
STILLNESS IN MOTION BY ISAAC BROWN & GRACE O’NEILL
Grace O'Neill talks to Australian model, Agi Akur on the changing pace of her profession.
THE BEST OF MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Curated by Publicist and Producer, Jess Carrera, SIDE-NOTE wraps up the best of MIFF 68½, the digital iteration of Melbourne's acclaimed International Film Festival.
I HAVE MEASURED OUT MY LIFE WITH COFFEE SPOONS BY VICTORIA PEARSON AND ANNA POGOSSOVA
There is a semi-deflated black orb gathering dust on a shelf in my home that taunts me whenever it veers into my eyeline. Its pearlescent sheen and accompanying yoga mat are silent and still, but may as well be shrieking and shaking with the force at which I’m confronted by their daily cry: We have been abandoned. Victoria Pearson considers how history will remember our time.