When two of your favourite things come together to form one, an overwhelming rush of emotion rapidly barrages its way right down to your very core and strikes your waiting heart. This feeling has been awakened by FFF, a print zine like no other celebrating all things food and fashion. It manages to balance an effortlessly contagious fun feel with stunning photography and boasts contributions from Maisie Williams of Games Of Thrones, Blood Orange, Charli XCX, John Waters, and Twiggy in the first issue. Creators Zac Bayly and Stacia Hadiutomo speak to us about who they’d pester for a recipe, eating kebabs in bed while watching David Attenborough documentaries and the concept of a Lasagne West offering.
Following the success of your first issue, how do you top a witty tagline like Arya Hungry?
Zac: Oh goodness, do we have to top it? I hope not, otherwise we’ll have to keep picking people with funny names or actors that play characters with funny names for the cover. Maybe we could ask Kanye to contribute a recipe called "Lasagne West"?
How did working together at Oyster influence the creative direction of the project?
Stacia: It didn’t, to be honest. We made most of the first issue of FFF before we worked closely together at Oyster. And then we got distracted working on Oyster so it took us a long time to get the magazine out.
Is the concept of a magazine that encompasses food and fashion something that developed over time or was it a moment of genius that you decided to investigate further?
Zac: Well, I hope it was a moment of genius. I do remember emailing Stacia and our friend Shane Sakkeus to say, “wouldn’t it be fun to make a fashion cook book?” And, since we share a similar sense of humour and similar aesthetic sensibilities, it all came naturally from there.
There’s so many assumptions that fashion people don’t eat. Do you see FFF as a way to combat the negative stereotypes or was your intention purely artistic?
Zac: I’m not sure if it was either, to be honest. Food and fashion seemed like an unlikely and silly pairing at the time, and so we thought it would be funny. Also, like many human beings, we love good food, and our Art Director Stacia is the most stylish woman in the Southern hemisphere, so we just combined our passions and tried to make the most fun product we could imagine. There are times in the magazine that are actually quite beautiful and less silly, though. Maya Villiger and Clare Byrne’s shoot (in which the women of New York’s China Town were styled in high fashions) is really special. I guess a big part of the magazine is really enjoying your food and not taking diets and ‘lifestyle recommendations’ too seriously, but we weren’t out to make a point.
If you could pester anyone in the world for a recipe who would you pick?
Zac: Missi Pyle. She’s phenomenal. I think I have pestered her. If I haven’t, I plan to.
Stacia: Rei Kawakubo.
Stacia: Rei Kawakubo.
Some of your instagram pictures compare runway garments to different foods based on their appearance, namely Margiela/kiwi and Givenchy/cheese comparisons. If you could make a piece of clothing out of any food, what food would you chose and why?
Zac: I really struggle to keep food off my clothes. The idea of having clothes made of food is really awful, to be honest. Although mango is a delicious colour.
Stacia: Wasabi kit-kat.
Stacia: Wasabi kit-kat.
What sparks more of an interest for you: good fashion or good food?
Zac: I spend almost all my money on food. It’s not necessarily ‘good’, though. It’s usually cheap and filling and relatively healthy and readily available. If I had more money, I’d like to say that I’d spend more on clothes, but actually I probably would just spend more on food and transport.
Images of food and fashion together aren’t easy to come across, yet you manage to have a picture of Karl Lagerfeld eating a cheeseburger on your instagram feed. How do you approach researching the pictures and where do you find them?
Zac: I still have not worked out how Stacia finds them all. She has a sixth or seventh and possible even eighth sense for it. I have been banned from updating our instagram account after posting a blurry picture of my feet whilst drinking. It’s all her!
Stacia: They’re everywhere on the internet. Plus, lots of our friends send in instagram "submissions" now.
Stacia: They’re everywhere on the internet. Plus, lots of our friends send in instagram "submissions" now.
Where are your favourite places to eat out?
Zac: I always prefer to eat in with take out, usually in bed with television or a book. Tonight I plan to watch an episode from David Attenborough’s “Life” series with a kebab in bed.
Stacia: Anywhere that serves good fried chicken and beer!
Stacia: Anywhere that serves good fried chicken and beer!
With the pressure of the first issue out of the way, what should we expect next from FFF?
Zac: You can expect contributions from a glamorous NASA scientist, a well-known Hollywood character-actor, an Abu Dhabi-based veterinarian specializing in birds of prey, a courageous South East Asian politician, a hunky British footballer, a voluptuous Portuguese botanist, and an anonymous Australian librarian. I just made that up then but it sounds like a great issue!
Stacia: All of that plus more colour, more haikus, and more delicious ugly amazing food!
Stacia: All of that plus more colour, more haikus, and more delicious ugly amazing food!
You can purchase it online via their website or in places such as American Apparel stores, Do You Read Me?! (Berlin), Librairie Yvon Lambert (Paris), Bonjour Records (Tokyo) or Closing Ceremony (Shanghai), among others.
