New Icons: I’ll Be Your Mirror
New Icons: How the Mykita x Bernhard Willhelm “Daisuke” Glasses Embody the Double-Edged Sword of Contemporary Narcissism
When Narcissus fell in love with his reflection in the water of a river, it could also be said that the river simultaneously fell in love with its reflection in Narcissus’ eyes. Novelist Paulo Coelho thought so. Today, our electronic landscape now features a wide variety of such double-mirrored surfaces, perhaps exemplified best by the all-too-magnetic selfie-cam in the corner of our video conferences. This impulse to see both our self and others has penetrated the sartorial consciousness within each of us. We now must simultaneously consider how to view and be viewed. The half-mirrored face offered by the Mykita x Bernhard Willhelm “Daisuke” visor is a plane that allows for such double-access. It grants friends, lovers, and passersby a view of both your face and their own, all warped by a rainbow burst lens. This merger, half you and half onlooker, is not a lack of transparency. It’s a gift. Project anything, but have empathy. These are hard times.Mykita’s Mylon lens offers reflective generosity. Floating weightlessly in front of your face, the "Daisuke" visor also offers privacy in semi-public spaces. They are perfect for long-haul flights from Los Angeles to Dubai, or Beijing to New York, routes that fly over the North Pole, where the sun sometimes does not set. “Rainbow Eye” flights like these require proper head gear. Semi-hidden from stir-crazy passengers, you revel in such a moment of preparedness. You are living what rhyme-slingers dare to dream: the baller life. But being a baller is about so much more than being jet set, it is about a raging commitment to self-care. A body that is thoroughly lotioned, conditioned, tucked, and blinged takes on an intimidating reflective quality, much like the ominous sight of a police officer’s mirrored Ray Bans. If our eyes are windows to our souls, why not keep them safeguarded from haters and trolls? And while we’re at it, why not respect our cheekbones and protect them from hazardous rays of sunlight? Sometimes just covering your eyes is not enough.
Amina Blue: Diary of an It Girl The 23-Year-Old Model Visits a Monster Truck Rally and Reflects on Overnight Celebrity, Solitude, and Her Pitbulls “As far as the Kardashian circle, I think we’re a lot more different than we are similar,” says 23-year-old Brooklyn native Amina Blue. It’s a comparison that she has heard many times, for a few reasons. Although Blue isn’t the child of a modern-day stage mom growing up in California, it’s hard to find a surface-level factoid about her that couldn’t also be said of a Kardashian or a Jenner. 
20 Below Zero Capturing Neil Barrett’s Spring/Summer 2017 Ski Collection on the Slopes of St. Moritz Pleasure and pain are often one in the same—and sometimes the picturesque panoramas of St. Moritz are best felt with a harsh windchill. Here, high-performance gear becomes a matter of hedonism rather than practicality. It is a ticket to explore the boundaries of nature and altitude without interference.In his latest SSENSE editorial, photographer Lukas Wassmann captures Neil Barrett ’s Spring/Summer 2017 Ski Collection at work. 
Wet Look Stutterheim Raincoats and a Hydroponic Future The controversial claim that we evolved from water gives testimony to the prevalence of aquaphilia. Wet-look latex; being dewy, moist or lush; hydroponics; all are emblematic of a fetishization of water. Rubber and raincoats afford us the convenience of exploring water without it hindering our quotidian needs. A fundamental constituent of and simultaneously essential for our bodies, water is life. But fetish and aversion mark different sides of the same coin—a magnetic pull toward either extreme.