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CARRY ON DOING GOOD WORKS

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HAVE IMPACTED MORE THAN 180 MILLION PEOPLE WITH PREVENTION, TREATMENT, COUNSELING, HIV TESTING AND CARE SERVICES.

MONTBLANC’S ICONIC #MY4810 CARRY-ON X (RED), $915, HELPS FIGHT TO END AIDS THROUGH PROGRAMS THAT HELP PROVIDE LIFE-SAVING TREATMENT TO PREVENT HIV-POSITIVE MOTHERS FROM PASSING THE VIRUS TO THEIR BABIES. THE FOUR-WHEEL CARRY-ON, MADE IN RED POLYCARBONATE WITH RED LEATHER TRIMMING, IS ENRICHED BY A INNER LINING FEATURING RED PRINTED QUOTES INSPIRED BY THE COMMITMENT’S MINDSET. THE COMPACT SIZE (15 X 21.5 X 9 INCHES), IS IDEAL FOR SHORT TRIPS. RED.ORG

STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR’S NOTE

For better or worse, the AI train has arrived, and we’ve jumped on board. Our cover girl, AILEEN , was created entirely by artificial intelligence. No one, including myself, had much to do with her existence. I keyed in a few words on my computer, and voila! Less than a minute later—like a magic trick—AI presented this stunning image. The girl’s intense look with her half-cast eyes and ‘don’t fuck with me’ attitude? All AI. The sleek one-shoulder turtleneck? All AI. The perfect hair, Anastasia-styled brows, and rich background color? All AI. Yes, it’s a beautiful cover image, but the decision to print it wasn’t so easy.

Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, the startup that developed ChatGPT, has been warning about an unfettered AI (yes, there’s some irony there). Besides those bad actors who employ misinformation to erode democracies, destroy reputations, or offer dangerous medical advice about pandemics, there will come a day when AI’s super intelligence will be ten times greater than our own when it perceives humans as we do lowly ants invading the chocolate cake. Like us, they may casually reach for the Raid.

Closer to home, when considering this AI-generated cover, I pondered whether this new digital species might eventually replace our models, photographers, stylists, makeup artists, art directors, and hairdressers who would be subjugated to the sidelines, like the checkout clerks at Ralph’s.

Photographer rep Timothy Priano must have been in my head when he proposed a softer landing on planet AI. His idea was to mix parts of AI-generated backgrounds with real-world photographs of jewelry and then bake them together in Photoshop. The no-humans-were-canceled results by James T. Murray and stylist Yuco Lacovara are a perfect portmanteau of AI and human ingenuity (p106).

Do I foresee AI enhancing the GENLUX aesthetic in the future? Probably. But to my upbeat, fun, weird, quirky, and collaborative tribe, whom I’ve worked with for 18 years, I vow to preserve the sacrosanctity of our creative sphere and never again place an AI-generated ‘person’ on the cover. There, I said it.

For now, as we happily (perhaps blindly) go about our innocuous use of AI to create pretty pictures, we might also consider placing regulatory guardrails against its existential risks to humanity— sooner rather than later. Though, many argue that that train has already left the station.

Two brilliantly similar—yet vastly dissimilar—looks from Yohji Yamamoto and Alexander

Spring 2023

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SOLE STOPPERS! Shoes to help make your red carpet entrance grand.

SOFTER SIDE UP

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SWEET DEETS!

They say it’s all in the details! We agree, and offer some chic ones.

COLOR BOOST!

Marc Baptiste captures Lexie Tapper in Spring’s bright colors!

TASTE MAKER!

Actress Tanisha Harper on her passion for all things design.

SHARP EDGE

Model Olivia Hamilton in the season’s leather and denim looks

FUTURE’S BRIGHT

With the help of AI we create some blingy jewelry images.

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