JORDAN TURNER

Tag: mr turner

  • NIGHTCALL FANTASY

    NIGHTCALL FANTASY

    An exploration of the night and its accompanying nocturnal moods with PRADA FW21.

    For the nights where love and lust float through the air. It becomes tangible, like something you can pick up and eat. It tastes sweet and tart and easy.

    For the nights where confidence flows through our veins. He occupies a world where he knows what to dress and for what occasion. And it was always with a Prada garment.

    For the nights of fantasy. A brown boy. A mother’s son. Creating from his heart. Looking at the world from the wrong end of a telescope. It was nonsense and beauty and he liked it that way.

     

  • I DON’T REALLY TALK ABOUT THIS (BUT I PROBABLY SHOULD)

    I DON’T REALLY TALK ABOUT THIS (BUT I PROBABLY SHOULD)
    When I was growing up, I had a gigantic collection of Barbie and Bratz dolls that were the envy of my friends. I was into wearing dresses, turning a turtleneck or skivvy into a wig, and walking around the house in my Grandmother’s and Mother’s shoes. I can still remember the smell of my Mum’s perfume that lingered on the fabric of a scarf I used to tie around my head to create long hair.

    My Elementary school accepted me with open arms. Teachers, parents and friends in my class understood that this was simply who I am. My Mother, Grandmother and Sister let me run free. It was at this time that I began to explore more of what was so fascinating to me.

    Looking back on it now, I realise how lucky I was to have had so much acceptance.

    Glamorous people and objects drove my creativity. I wanted to be a fashion designer when I turned 6. Sophistication, elegance and beauty were my kryptonite. Sailor Moon was my favourite TV show, and I had to be Posh Spice when playing pretends with friends. I even started sketching wedding dresses outside wedding shops and created my own magazine to showcase and write critiques on my own designs.

    When I arrived at secondary school, the game changed. I was attending an all-boys private school, and masculinity was the aim of the game. I started hiding my interests, praying no one would ever find out about that person who I used to be and definitely no longer was. I’m a man now; I do boy things.

    But everyone knows the truth always comes out.

    This progresses into a story that is like so many others, some more fortunate and some worse. Yet they all follow the same plot: knowing you’re different, being targeted for it, and paving the way for yourself in your world until you find others like you.

    Why do people target those who are different? Why are we made to feel less than when we are nothing less than exceptional. We are the people who push boundaries and swim upstream. We constantly test what’s tolerable and take it a little further. We are the ones making sure the future generations of us do better than we have done.

    I always wonder what my creativity would be like had there been no outside influence. What if no one thought a boy playing with dolls was wrong? What if dressing up and experimenting with expression had no boundaries? That fashion and art were genderless, or the concept that anybody could be anyone and that they could do anything was a liveable truth. What if there was no idea of what was or what is normal?

    What if the birds sang love and the leaves on trees listened? What if the wind could pick up its song and carry it like pollen? What if people listened to its sound and felt its message?

    What if we could all just be?

    I imagine it would be a Utopia.

    I’ll live with the truth to these questions as unanswered. I wonder if I am poorer for having lost an explanation. Maybe I am richer for having gained a mystery.

    This editorial is an exploration into the idea of what is considered normal and why we feel pressured to be it. Written and directed by Jordan Turner of MR TURNER.

    I styled this editorial with Wynn Hamlyn‘s Resort 2022 collection. Although the Macrame dress and top is a unique and beautiful garment on its own, it has a symbolic representation of a barrier or cage in I don’t really talk about it (but I probably should). It is to communicate the idea that there is something holding one back, yet at the same time, there is a sentimental longing or affection for one’s true self.

  • HONG KONG: WITH MR PORTER & ROSEWOOD

    HONG KONG: WITH MR PORTER & ROSEWOOD

    From the moment I landed in Hong Kong, I was in a constant state of bliss.

    I had only visited Hong Kong once before, years ago when I was 19, but this voyage felt like my first time. And I wonder now whether that’s because I have a greater appreciation for anything that’s different to Western influence. This time I saw Hong Kong in all her grandeur. 

    I found the charm in her government housing and it’s colourful concrete recreational spaces. I looked to the sky and marvelled as the buildings cut geometric shapes amongst the clouds. I fell for the pastel colours that brightened every space, and the neon lights which glowed from shop fronts, building tops, and LED advertisements that constellated Hong Kong Island’s starry skyline at night.

    I live for beauty. I believe it doesn’t always have to be materialistic. There are many experiences which are beautiful. Words, sentences, and sounds the are beautiful. Textures, feelings, and energy. When you walk past a stranger in the street and smell Soleil Blanc. Even little moments like when sunlight cascades through a window casting beautiful shadows, or when it hits glass or crystal and plays with colour in its reflection. The euphoria of beauty – however fleeting it may be – is what I live for. 

    Then there is Rosewood. Warm and alive with heart, opulence, and absolute beauty. I roamed the hotel and its spaces, walked through it’s Grand Ballroom, and ran my fingers along an abundance of marble – too much, which is also never enough.

    I breathed in and lived Rosewood’s atmosphere. Hermes wallpaper, an original Picasso, silver trays of crystal glasses, and the books: giant coffee table masterpieces, Haruki Murakami classics, Chang’s Love in a Fallen City, and Botton’s Art of Travel among a few. 

    When I thought there couldn’t be anything more, I met Lotus. Who’s kindness and love for Hong Kong was as enamouring as Hong Kong itself. The Rosewood concierge team – which Lotus was a part of – showed me beauty in Hong Kong I didn’t know existed, and Lotus taught me more than I’d have ever hoped to learn within my few days. 

    Lotus showed us around Hong Kong. I couldn’t get enough of what I was experiencing. I watched and listened in rapt attention. I tried storing all the information I could from Lotus in little bottles to keep in my head, ready to open again whenever I wanted. I found golden nuggets from listening to her talk about Chinese Herbal medicine, and her education Master in Guangzhou. And things like the way she was taught to cook fish; “if it is fresh and killed in front of you it can be steamed, otherwise if it’s not fresh it is to be grilled.”

    The most encompassing learning of them all was of Qi. It’s the belief that everything that is, should be in balance – much like that of Yin Yang. There are thousands of Chinese herbs that tend to different ailments for, or workings of, our bodies. Yet I loved that Qi can also exist in a space, or in a home. I believe it exists in Rosewood because the flow and energy was something I could feel inside and out. 

    The discovery of food I’ve never eaten before. I had chicken feet, deep-fried milk which became a sweet and crunchy custard, wok-fried milk that felt silky on the tongue, as well as Nai Wong Bao, a steamed custard and cheese bun which was a signature to the Moon Lok restaurant we ate at in the Xiqu Centre. I also had You Tiao, a deep-fried dough accompanied with hot soy milk that was comforting to my travelling soul. 

    I made a promise this year to never stop doing things I’ve never done before, and I hope to continue this in more experiences that give me the feeling of gratitude as I write this. The feeling of which I find just as enveloping as beautiful. 

    Thank you, MR PORTER, and Rosewood, and Lotus, for sharing your city with me, and giving me the gift of Qi.  

     

  • PARIS: “TU AS LE SOLEIL DANS LA GORGE”

    PARIS: “TU AS LE SOLEIL DANS LA GORGE”

     

     

     

     

  • MR. TURNER’S ODE

    MR. TURNER’S ODE
    A shoot inspired by portraits of my icons and their signature characteristics. Stylistically formed from the indisputable and distinct beauty of Balmain’s blazers, to the contemporary style of the Annex’s designs.

    (more…)