A letter from Highsnobiety Editor-in-Chief Noah Johnson...
Every day I ask myself the question: What is real? You have to. We’re in the era of artificiality. Slop is plentiful. Reality is scarce. That’s what makes it aspirational. And that’s what this magazine is all about.
If you’ve made it this far — you picked up this issue, flipped through a few pages, landed here and read one paragraph — you’ve already embarked on mission reality. In these pages you’ll find real people, real places, and real stories. This is not an escape. This is not a fantasy. It’s something cooler, more special.
Making a reality-based magazine has its challenges. We don’t hire models, we don’t shoot in studios, we don’t construct elaborate sets or dress people in ridiculous clothes. You might think it would be easier to make a magazine this way, but my team and I can assure you that it is not. Reality has become increasingly harder to access. And its close and overworked cousin, authenticity, is equally hard to come by.
It’s not just the prevalence of AI and chat bots and self-driving cars and automated salad-making machines. Artificiality runs deeper than that; it’s more pervasive. It’s baked into the hyper-commercialization of our lives. It’s the way consumption habits have replaced personality. Brands have replaced style. Marketing has replaced product. Feeds have replaced long walks on the beach. It’s the overall homogenization of culture. It’s made people more guarded, less themselves, less real.
So here we come with the Reality Is Good issue. Fill your home with beautiful scents. Take a hike with someone you love. Wear the same sneakers you wore 20 years ago. Make a funny face (like our <3 Jamie Demetriou). Rediscover something you love (like Sage Elsesser). Chase a dream ’til it chases you (like Talia Ryder). Take off your shirt and bare your soul (like Kaytranada). Be as real as possible. Aspire to it. Reality is good.
Discover the issue (and order your copy) here.
