At this time last year, "Love"'s online holiday countdown calendar video series has just been launched for a few weeks. Every day, a sexy, semi-nude supermodel is celebrating, according to editor-in-chief Katie Grand: "We like women to enjoy everything for women." In December of this year, when we visited this website again - or its channel on YouTube - this story has changed dramatically. The calendar has become #movingLOVE, consisting of 44 short films, and the cast has a textbook-style diversity in age, race and gender.

Some of them perform, and some just tell their stories. Grand's favorite is the 83-year-old transgender pioneer April Ashley. She may be an iconic character, but for many fans of Love, this is the first opportunity for them to get in touch with Ashley, whose footprint is brighter than ever before in the current social turmoil. Together with Kate Moss, she became the protagonist of the last day of #movingLOVE. “This is one of the decisive moments in my career, and I can put these two people together,” Grand said.

Considering that Grand's career has laid a decisive moment in many fashion circles, she has collaborated with Marc Jacobs, Miuccia Prada and many others, as well as her past record in the magazine. So far, she has experienced the publication. 5 magazines. Everything she did was saturated with the spirit of the times. With the rise of the Instagram model, this "Love Magazine" is also evolving, from Jenner, Hadid sisters, to Karlie, Cara and Stella. These magazines frequently appear in these magazines, recording their work and personally. life. But after #MeToo, everything changed. Last year's festival countdown calendar video, Emily Ratajkowski wearing underwear is eating spaghetti with relish, no longer suitable for today's female image.

The ensuing controversy confirmed that Grand firmly believed that it was time to act. “There is a general atmosphere of revolution now. I can’t think of any such changes in fashion over the past 10 years like last year.” There is no doubt that this year’s calendar can’t be shot in the same way, although at this point Grand is not sure how to replace it. But there is absolutely no need to do it. Over the years, "Love" has brought such a wonderful visual feast in December every year to make everyone look forward to it. The answer is under her nose, in her kitchen.

For the past three years, her husband Steve Mackey has been working with other musicians Douglas Hart and Jeanette Lee to name callthis_number and create a gorgeous guerrilla movie. They have been shooting the Pop Group, Peaches, Dennis Bovell and Jon Spencer in a garage in West Hampstead. They edited the movie, showed it, and then deleted it, all in one day. “I’m frustrated with the literal meaning of the Internet. It needs to categorize everything,” Mackey said. “In fact, you can turn off the TV after 90 seconds and then go back to the TV, which means there is no excitement. I want the excitement that I can't repeat at that moment, let things be what it is. Just like the sharp dance culture, if you want, you have to know where to find it. You have to call this number."

Grand and Mackey maintained their respective influences until they took a set of short films for the latest collection of fashion brand Miu Miu, which matched the originality and spontaneity of callthis_number. This is Grand's inspirational moment, letting her see the possibility of #movingLOVE. "I think this is because my good friends are very excited about what we are doing, and this kind of excitement is something I haven't felt for a long time."

#movingLOVE has a similar effect on her. "This is probably the most work I have ever done. It has been a lot of stress for me to make this magazine for many years." In the first week of December, David Beckham took the lead and was modeled by Kim Jones. Jones himself has also become the protagonist of another video story. This separation is well thought out compared to last year's countdown calendar. "This makes sense because he is not from the same fashion world, so he always pulls away from the world," Grand explained. "But I think it would be a great thing to let him apply blue eyeshadow into the studio."

Mackey and Douglas Hart promoted the idea of ​​storytelling, so each participant was interviewed in front of the camera. "It's just a matter of connecting a person's voice to his image," Mackey said. "Before the four cameras, you have nowhere to hide, except for yourself, you don't have to shoot anything. They ask 'What do you want me to do?' But we didn't guide them too much. You will find out what they can do. "When we heard their voices in the soundtrack, the camera watched them without fear, and April Ashley was sitting in danger with the music of Velvet Undergound. Throughout the #movingLOVE series, it was Andy Warhol’s past “exploration” of visitors to his factory, and the rough, ready-made video that his followers made during a public visit to YV in New York in the 1980s. .

As the lyrics say: "When I am optimistic, I imagine all of this - the original, spontaneous, resistance to everything that has been perfectly trimmed - as a green shoot of new creativity."

“It’s like carpooling karaoke, but updating,” this is Grand’s view of the project. Some performers did what they did best, Liv Tyler took off his shoes and danced, Sandra Bernhardt gave a speech, Stella Maxwell put on Prada swimwear and did what she was supposed to do. New York's radical behavioral artist Kembra Pfahler also appeared, and of course Ashley, she is even more difficult to predict. As an elegant veteran who has worked with Avedon, Penn and Bailey, she obviously has no interest in the garage culture. Grand once worried that she would leave, but in the end, Mackey and Douglas spent the longest time with her.

Along with Hart, Mackey took still photos throughout the shoot, and his idea was to finally release a print. “Imagine how happy we are to coexist, and it’s not easy to shoot 50 movies and 250 pages at the same time.” But what is happiness – a movie and a magazine, the remains of old media, Celebrate the advent of new things and prove that nothing is truly dead. The magazine will issue a limited edition of 20,000 copies, and only a Celine brand advertisement will appear.

This series of launches has disrupted the style of "Love", and I can't help but think about what the next step of this magazine is. “I think the 20th issue (the tenth anniversary of the fall publication) is the end of the first chapter,” Grand said. "Before I came up with the #movingLOVE name, this series was tentatively called "Chapter Two"." Nevertheless, she admits that this is a challenge. “For a long time, I have always thought that magazines shouldn’t be dead anymore. Sometimes it’s good to do projects that don’t require two hundred pages. We’re working very flexibly in finance and time. No. What is the real limit. This is the largest project with no boundaries and the most expensive project we have ever done."

That's right, say the numbers. In Grand's opinion, one of the biggest benefits of working with YouTube is the numbers, which are very helpful in all back-end transactions, such as click-through rates. Last year's countdown calendar video series totaled 89 million unique views. In the first week after the launch of the new series, there were 11.6 million unique visitors, exceeding the total for the full year of 2016. This number is slowly approaching last year.

Grand admits that there are always people asking some strange questions on Instagram. Some people want to know when Adriana Lima or Doutzen Kroes (always they are) will appear naked. In a series of controversies last year, Lima issued a statement saying she is reluctant to take pictures of sexy videos on social media. This was interpreted by competitors as a call to "Love". Even if Lima worked with Grand for many years, the statement was not directed at "Love". In fact, she did appear in this #movingLOVE, talking about the concept of beauty. .

“I never wanted to make a magazine that nobody looked at,” Grand said, pointing out the obvious facts. "But I have already launched five magazines. If I don't do this, I don't think it will be another magazine to solve the problem. In addition to the plane, there are more interesting ways to post content, even though I am very Like and respect magazines, and the entire process of creating magazines."

Grand accepted the challenge. “It’s obviously difficult to educate young viewers about Kembra, April Ashley, and Andie McDowell. But people always find a way to do it. I want to know what they are going to say. What does Finn Buchanan say? He is 16 years old and he thinks he is a boy. Anita Bitton (who participated in the project with Greg Krelenstein) found him in a school in England, and he was filming a transgender story for W magazine. This is the fourth project I did with him. ”

I once again returned the topic to the data. For millions of people who have watched #movingLOVE, can they be as obsessed and enthusiastic about Kembra Pfahler and April Ashley as Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid? This possibility is exciting, the world is full of sincerity and soul... and the eager desire for the stories they have created, even in the fashion world.