July is wearing an archive top by Norma Kamali

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in

Everything moves at once - the beauty, the chaos, the endless scroll of ordinary miracles. It’s difficult to find stillness in a world that never quiets. We try to make sense of it, even as sense itself starts to feel outdated. Still, we keep reaching for something that feels like meaning, knowing how strange that is.Perhaps clarity is overrated. Perhaps all we can do is notice - the absurd tenderness of it all, the humor tucked inside the exhaustion. There’s a kind of grace in continuing, in staying open to what shouldn’t make sense but somehow does.Beauty doesn’t erase despair; it coexists with it, refracting it into something momentary and real. So we stay awake. We find light where it lands - uneven, imperfect, a little ridiculous, and completely real.

PHOTOGRAPHY COLIN PATRICK SMITH @colinpatricksmith
STYLING JESPER GUDBERGSEN @yessirjesper @favorite.managementusing only vintage, archive and personal pieces
HAIR DENNIS GOTS @dennisgots @forwardartists
MAKEUP JOHANNA NOMIEY @johannanomiey @homeagency using @submission.beauty
Highlighter Lucid and Deep, Balm Shiny and custom mixed Glitter
CASTING MOLLIE MAGUIRE @molliemaguirecasting
MODELS DAISY @daisy.lagunas @minellimanagement JULY @julywallin @statemgmt NYAWUTA @nyawutac @fordmodels
STYLING ASSISTANT
ABIGAIL JONES @bendattheneck

“There are days when it all feels too loud to hold. Yet here we are, tracing the outline of something fragile and calling it real. Maybe stillness isn’t found in silence, but in attention. The way the world softens when we actually look at it.”

  • Nyawuta is wearing a bodysuit from stylist's archive
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“The absurdity of caring, still, is almost funny. We know too much and yet not enough. The tenderness we keep returning to feels both impossible and inevitable - like laughter in the middle of an argument, or a sudden beam of light on a face that wasn’t waiting for it.”

  • Nyawuta is wearing an archive bodysuit by Norma Kamali and stylist's own tights, July is wearing a bodysuit and vintage skirt from stylist's archive
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  • Nyawuta is wearing a vintage bodysuit by Michael Kors from stylist's archive, an archive harness from Melissa Baumeister and July is wearing a top by Mission (Merge)iela
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“There’s no perfection here, only proximity: a reaching toward something that keeps moving away. Maybe that’s what beauty is: the pursuit itself, the willingness to keep reaching.”

“We live surrounded by contradiction, and maybe that’s what keeps us human. To want to question, to stay curious even when it hurts. It’s all the same gesture, repeated differently each day.

The world asks us to move faster; tenderness asks us to slow down. Between the two, we keep learning how to stay awake.”

  • July is wearing an archive top by Norma Kamali
  • July is wearing a bra top and dress by Vaquera and trousers, all from stylist's archive
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