Drawn by our fascination with the luxurious and enigmatic concept of time, The Four Seasons Issue explores the blur between fantasy and reality, between dreams and needs, between the now and the new. Embodying this feeling we met eight women whose life is embedded in myth, leading us to wonder who do we love more: their real or fantastical selves? Judge for yourself when meeting the Maharani Gayatri Devi, Sada Abe, Queen Victoria, Anita Garibaldi, Princess Leia Skywalker, Josephine Baker, Yang Guifei and the Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna. After all, beauty transcends time and season: so we invited the Courtin-Clarins quartet ( a.k.a. Virginie, Claire, Jenna and Prisca) to inaugurate the issue and Mathilde Laurent, the in-house perfumer at Cartier to close it.

Influencing the likings of contemporary fashion, we introduce tastemakers of today, meeting their icons from the past and working their way into their future: Miroslava Duma, Elena Perminova, Noor Fares and Eugenie Niarchos, pose with their influencers.

Nine women, portraying themselves with their very own words, grace our pages, I AM – Self Portrait With Words features Coco Brandolini D’Adda, Solange Azagury Partridge, Alexia Niedzielski, Oroma Elewa, Mathilde Laurent, Fabienne Martin, Amy Smilovic, Claire Distenfeld, Joana Preiss.

The Four Seasons are a classic dictator of fashion in art and (in theory). Our version aims to change the tunes of the most famous of their notes.

All for one, one for all.