Editors’ letter

When we founded System, in the spring of 2013, our aim was to document the people, dialogues and culture at the heart of the fashion industry.

We imagined each biannual issue as a kind of ‘deep-thoughts’ time capsule of the season. By using long-form journalism, we wanted to chronicle the designers and CEOs who lead the way, the brands for which they once generated millions and now billions, the creatives shaping how fashion is presented to the world, the next generation of talent striving to break through, and the stories confined to history that seemed worth re-examining.

We wanted System to be informative yet conversational. To have a point of view but no agenda. To be a magazine that simply held a mirror up to the many facets of fashion: the inspired, the absurd, the memorable, the instantly forgettable, the historical.

To mark the magazine’s tenth anniversary, we decided to produce an issue focused primarily on Paris Fashion Week, which we saw as a symbol of the seemingly unstoppable growth of luxury fashion over the past decade. It features 122 industry insiders sharing personal memories, reflections, statements and imagery; 14 writers, editors, commentators, and creatives, paired up and in conversation; and a 288-page portfolio of photographs taken by Juergen Teller during Paris Fashion Week between 28 February and 7 March 2023.

We’d like to thank all of them for their time and their precious contributions, as well as everyone who’s contributed to the magazine over the past decade. System only exists because you do.

Taken from System No. 21.