The Kings of Ijburg for Issue 14

It’s those last high temperatures. The looming autumn clenches summer for as long as it possibly can. The breeze cools while the sun still willingly connects with our bare skin. It isn’t quite ready to leave even though the moon takes its place earlier than what has become procedure over the summer months. The water doesn’t hold onto heat the way it used to. A temperature below twenty is now inevitable.

Photographer Sophie Ebrard second nature is documentary photography, but in our new AW18 print issue, she collides her nature with fashion - documenting the animated boys on the cusp of autumn in an editorial that seeks to detail the resilient friendship that exists between young men. They are the Kings of Ijburg, an artificial island in Amsterdam. Ivo, Freek, Thom, and Laurens construct their reality, enjoying the last bits of freedom before autumn’s responsibilities linger too heavy on each ones’ shoulder.

Kings rule Ijburg and so they decide when summer must end on this island. Mother nature doesn’t have its say in Ijburg - the artificiality of its origins and the paradigm that’s been laid out by these Dutch boys, engineer life according to their principal theories. Stylist Suze Kuitz acknowledges the boys’ sovereignty, curating a fashion that won’t deter them from enjoying the last bits of imagined summer in autumn’s bitter grip.

For more of 'The Kings of Ijburg', take in the full 12-page editorial, beyond the few teasers below, in our brand new Autumn Winter '18 issue ‘The Dreamers’ - now available to buy online and in selected stores worldwide.