I sit down to write this with a somewhat cross-eyed gaze, one eye looking at the past while the other heads straight for the future, almost skimming over the present without touching it, being here but not really. And yet today I force myself to be more present than ever, because sometimes the need to take stock imposes itself, the need to value the achievements made, to celebrate the path travelled, because as the poet said, the path is made by walking, and ours has brought us here: fifty issues and eighteen years. It’s easy to say, but suddenly it hits you with an overwhelming sense of vertigo.
How have we arrived here? I ask myself this and sometimes find no answer, it seems so unreal. A little voice in my head whispers: with a lot of hard work. Certainly, also with a bit of luck, much support, some risk, a lot of teamwork, and the unwavering belief, through good times and bad, that everything would turn out fine. Here on the opposite page, we’ve selected some of the many covers we’ve published over this time, tangible evidence of a reality that has not only survived a devastating pandemic but also the 2008 crisis, just at our beginning, which lasted over ten years and could have easily taken us down. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and today we can celebrate our coming of age with an issue that feels special. First, for having the highest number of pages and covers to date, but most importantly for what it reveals: reaching this point where we reflect on the work done and our current moment, how or where do we go from here? And although you won’t find the answer here, perhaps you might catch glimpses of what we will develop next.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, let’s stop looking to the future for a moment and stay in the now; it’s amazing what you can achieve if you set your mind to it. In our case, we’ve launched a new magazine, both offline and online, which has been on the streets for two years now, ACERO, we’ve expanded the team, improved our website, and now we’re digging through our archives because, although the content from the past eight years is available online, nothing from the first ten years is, and we’ve set out to fix that. Of course, none of this would have been possible without everyone who has helped us in one way or another over the years to get each issue out, photographers, writers, stylists, makeup artists, hairdressers, and many more who have given their best. Neither without the support of all the brands that, at one time or another, some for many years now, have stood by our side, and certainly not without the generosity of those who appear in these pages issue after issue, making room for us in their busy schedules. Many names have passed through here, and those in this fiftieth issue join the list, including Vetements’ creative director, Guram Gvasalia, actor Arnaud Valois, musicians like 070 Shake, Rico Nasty, Moses Sumney, Sega Bodega, or Mura Masa, among others, artists such as Gabriel Massan and Ariana Papademetropoulos, or the Internet celeb Mia Khalifa, increasingly present in the fashion world with her ventures as a model and her jewellery line Sheytan. To all of them, thank you. And thanks to you too for being there, to those who buy our issues whenever we launch a new one, to those who read us online and follow us on social media. None of this would make sense without you. We don’t know how much longer we’ll be here, we hope a long time, but we do know that however long it lasts, we’re going to enjoy it to the fullest.
METAL Nº 50 is now on sale.
