Image is giving…Spring. Inside L.A.’s latest trends, culture - Los Angeles Timestwitterfacebookenvelope

We’ve taken so much — and had so much taken from us. It wouldn’t feel right to begin 2023 without an acknowledgment of what, and whom, we have lost. We love to cheer and revere the dub, but it’s necessary to validate the shared experience of an L. So, first things first: We are sorry for what happened. We’re hurt. We miss you, _______________. That’s worth repeating to yourself, to your families, to your homies, or shouting from the Dons to Westlake to Inglewood and beyond. Inhale deeply, exhale, sit with the truth. Live with what is as it really feels.

The world hasn’t been giving us what it’s supposed to. And it’s clear that not enough folks understand. In Los Angeles, the taking has been good for so long. Or so it has been described by those for whom taking is vocation. L.A. is the perfect realization of all the myths fit to print. A paper of record declared New York is the new L.A. because of a few sound baths and matcha variations. Another publication happy-to-announced that L.A. has entered a new Gilded Age because, evidently, art is happening. Meanwhile, a local supermarket read, hoping to get in the mix, giddily reported that a “massive tent home (with Jacuzzi)” on skid row was demolished as a part of a “routine cleanup.” We’re not sure what folks are getting from such prescriptive accounts. But the distortions and the discourse about the city amount to a bizarre paradox that echoes around the basin: Los Angeles has come more into view while somehow feeling more and more out of focus.

If L.A. is a phenomenon, then maybe it is time to, as the phenomenologists once said, return to the thing itself. There’s a more direct experience of Los Angeles out there. But it cannot be accessed via objectification; you can’t simply arrive empty-handed, take what you desire and be gone. Rather, you must bring something to contribute. Make your offering to L.A. and it shall give back again and again.

And lo, we present “Offering.” This issue is a welcome to you and yours. Put on your house shoes. Leave your L.A. fantasies at the entryway and we’ll find somewhere nice to place your housewarming gift while our host committee receives you, makes you feel at home. Nuestra casa es su casa. So don’t be brand new. The fam — Channel Tres, Mia Carucci, Kehinde Wiley, to name a few — is ready to give you the full tour.

May we all be at your service. Feel free to receive all you need. Just remember this is a pay-it-forward type of deal.

Ian F. Blair
Editor in Chief


Image logo by Intoflora For The Times


You may now enter the church of Channel Tres

You may now enter the church of Channel Tres

With a new EP and outlook on life, the L.A. artist is reaching toward his truest self  Read the story  🙌🏿  
House shoes are the L.A. staple for our moment of conspicuous opulence

House shoes are the L.A. staple for our moment of conspicuous opulence

Never mind wearing them at home. Whatever stereotypes you once clung to don’t make much sense the moment you put on a pair  Read the story  🥿  
Mia Carucci’s sonic collage of heaven and Earth

Mia Carucci’s sonic collage of heaven and Earth

The L.A. artist taps into the ways in which God shows up, and how to honor that in real time  Read the story  ☘️  
Issue 17 cover

Get your copy

Issue 17: Offering

 Order now 
Kehinde Wiley is reaching for a new language of grace

Kehinde Wiley is reaching for a new language of grace

With the help of his mother, Ms. Freddie Mae Wiley, L.A.’s native son is on the search for a radical freedom divorced from fixed Western notions of race, gender and class  Read the story  🌼  
An all-black wardrobe is the detox for L.A. life you deserve

An all-black wardrobe is the detox for L.A. life you deserve

In a city known for flipping the switch and letting the void do its thing, embracing darkness in your closet might be the sartorial special time you’ve been looking for  Read the story  🖤  
The body is a bundle of chaos. Their art was designed to make you feel discomfort

The body is a bundle of chaos. Their art was designed to make you feel discomfort

Panteha Abareshi’s work speaks to a contradiction: Our bodies are the only things that we have, yet they are not us  Read the story  🩼  
Art should not abstract human emotion. Ferrari Sheppard can show you how it’s done

Art should not abstract human emotion. Ferrari Sheppard can show you how it’s done

‘If I paint something and it makes me sad, it’s f—ing sad. That is the barometer of the life of the piece, so to speak’  Read the story  💐  
Fred Moten will show you what abstraction is supposed to give

Fred Moten will show you what abstraction is supposed to give

In an excerpt of the poem ‘the red sheaves’ from his forthcoming collection, ‘perennial fashion presence falling,’ the multihyphenate artist gives a sneak peak of an infinitely rich and more unruly freedom jam  Read the story  ✍🏿  
Here is a portrait of an L.A. artist having an intimate conversation among friends

Here is a portrait of an L.A. artist having an intimate conversation among friends

Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s photos are a social gathering. His pictures feel as intimate and warm as they do formal and intellectual  Read the story  📷  
7 items that’ll make you spring forward so hard you might need to fall back

7 items that’ll make you spring forward so hard you might need to fall back

From Acne Studios’ belted coat to Bode's quilted trousers, we've got the drip your closet needs for when the atmospheric rivers are behind us  Read the story  👚  
L.A. spring won’t arrive soon enough. These 12 pop-ups and events will help you get ready

L.A. spring won’t arrive soon enough. These 12 pop-ups and events will help you get ready

From the upcoming Yayoi Kusama X Louis Vuitton collab to Honor the Gift’s SS23 drop, the Drip Index got your calendar covered  Read the story  📺  
They say it never rains (in Southern California). Just in case: Canada Goose X Union

They say it never rains (in Southern California). Just in case: Canada Goose X Union

The two brands’ limited-edition capsule collection is meant to layer, reverse, detach and expand the views of what outerwear can be  Read the story  🏀  
Drawing is ultimate trust. These sketches show the magic that comes once a line is made

Drawing is ultimate trust. These sketches show the magic that comes once a line is made

Just ask L.A.-based artist Jasper Marsalis: When using ink, what you see is what happened  Read the story  🕯️