Check Out the Big Brain on Brad

October 09, 2019

When you picture one creative interviewing another, you’d probably imagine something resembling a Freudian process of extraction: author Brad Phillips sprawling on a sofa while writer Gideon Jacobs picks his brain with strictly intellectual questions for an office issue 10 editorial. You’d envision a run-of-the-mill Q&A on Phillip’s new book Essays and Fiction, on creating a false sense of identity on Instagram, and even, sure, DMT. (Purely academic, of course).

Now, you’ll never have to wonder how it went down again. Phillips and Jacobs have shared the firsthand material that comprised much of their exclusive office issue 10 interview. It’s not really as empirical as we thought, and frankly, it’s bizarre, even by our standards. Following the string of texts and interviews, reproduced here, feels a lot like watching a tennis match between Phillips and Jacobs where no one ever really makes contact with the ball but both players keep cheering senselessly. It can be summed up by a rather poetic section of Phillips’ own texts:

Text by Savannah Whitmer

I like funny. Thanks for this. Makes me feel active. Cardio.” Gideon replies, “Cardio is good.

We’ll just leave this here to let you decide how you feel about this sort of...intellectual cardio.

Culture

Martin Parr's Autoportrait

November 03, 2026

SAINT LAURENT Montaigne presents Autoportrait, a selection of works by British photographer Martin Parr, curated by Anthony Vaccarello in Paris.

Encouraged from early childhood by his grandfather, George Parr, Martin Parr went on to study photography at Manchester Polytechnic. Across his career, he has explored the absurdity and beauty of everyday life through universal themes like tourism, holidays, mementos, and gag pictures, while developing his own style and approach to questioning social habits and contemporary life.

From 1966 to 2015, Parr turned the taboo subject of tourism on himself, creating self-portraits on his travels that were captured by professional studio photographers, local amateurs, and photo booths. Remixed together, they form Autoportrait, a body of work steeped in creative, timeless irony.

Words by Bernice Nguyen

Culture

Converse Puts the Chuck Taylor to Work

November 02, 2026

A good pair of shoes should be able to keep up with you. For their latest release, Converse is looking at what that means in a working environment, reworking its iconic Chuck Taylor All Star through At Your Service, a collection designed for the pace of everyday work.

To introduce the collection, Converse brought a group of press to Paris for an evening that traded the usual media dinner for something a little more hands-on. Guests stepped into the kitchen to prepare their own multi-course dinner, mixing up cocktails and mocktails along the way, before taking on hosting duties and serving hors d'oeuvres and drinks to their fellow guests. All of this took place while wearing the new Chucks, putting the collection to the ultimate test.

The idea behind At Your Service is simple: take a silhouette that has long existed across different scenes and wardrobes and adapt it for the demands of a working day. With slip-resistant soles, extra cushioning, and water and oil repellent canvas or easy-to-clean leather uppers, the collection introduces a more functional side to the familiar design without losing what makes the Chuck Taylor so recognizable.

Designed for front of house, back of house, and everywhere in between, At Your Service brings a new perspective to a shoe that has never really belonged to just one setting.

Text by Dylan Andrews
Photos courtesy of Converse

The At Your Service collection launches November 3 at Converse.com and at select retail partners.

Culture

Lily Allen: Sex Toys, Butt Plugs, Lube Inside

October 31, 2026

"Duane Reade bag with the handles tied / Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside / Hundreds of Trojans, you're so fucking broken / How'd I get caught up in your double life?"

Lily Allen sang those very words last year on "Pussy Palace", a damning track widely believed to be about her marriage to David Harbour. A year later, she has teamed up with Lovehoney to reclaim the butt plug, reimagined in the style of Lily's iconic blue polka-dot puffer jacket from the West End Girl album cover. Their new collection, "Love, Lily", isn't limited to this butt plug alone; it's a full range—personally tested by lily—created not only to give women pleasure but to empower them to find it guilt-free.

According to Lovehoney, men spend twice as long as women do on self-pleasure each month, while more than a third of women report feeling guilty about making time for their own pleasure. Lily wants to play her part in changing this—pleasure should not need to be earned.