Homemaking
What is home? And how do we choose to make one? There are many answers to these questions, as the conditions of home are not only personal but also cultural, circumstantial and economic. For some, home is where they sleep; for others, it’s where they feel themselves, which might not necessarily be in their apartment or house. The stories in this issue get at the expansive notion of home — its aesthetic pleasures, its secrets, its necessity. Photographer Catherine Opie shares the object she cherishes the most in her home and, even, the world: a beautiful designer chair that perfectly molds to her body. Domestic objects with real design can transform your living experience, and artist Bailey Hikawa extends this philosophy down to your toilet seat. At home, there is “the sanctity of Inside,” as Mariam Rahmani explains in her essay on the value and luxury of dressing up to stay in.
Making a home in an expensive city like L.A. can be challenging. For some, it means perpetual renting and moving, though there is beauty to be found in this impermanence, as Diana Ruzova writes in her intimate essay about growing up as an apartment manager’s daughter. We can make home out of the very fabric of a city, gradually collecting places and street corners until they feel like our own. For Julissa James, it’s the laundromat, a haven that has become her “comfort zone” — her “own private version of the club, where fluorescent light floods from the ceiling and there’s always Amy Winehouse or SaltNPepa playing over the loudspeaker.” If we’re lucky, we become the designers and architects of our own lives, a role that Aleali May has fully assumed. In this issue’s cover story, May gets real about her design ambitions and shares her latest sparkling creations within the iconic setting of a quintessential modernist home, the SheatsGoldstein house. The 1960s house has long been admired by the fashion crowd, architects and artists, including Opie. (When she realized she’d never live in such a space, Opie made a film imagining that she set the property on fire. Luckily for us, it still stands.)
L.A., perhaps more than most cities, is many things at once — “an enigma of contradictions,” as Gotha Shakira puts it in her horoscope of the month — and so it’s unsurprising that there are so many ways to make and define home. But in Gemini spirit, we don’t need to settle on one definition. We can change our minds and reinvent it. We can live in many places at once.
Elisa Wouk Almino
Deputy Editor
Image logo by Beatriz Lozano For The Times
Catherine Opie wants to tell you about her sexy ‘big-bottom girl chair’
The L.A.-based photographer and artist tells us the story behind her rare Danish designer chair and why chairs “are everything.” Read the story 🪑The L.A. laundromat offers something special and rare: a home away from home
The laundromat is your rare “third place” — a spot to go to that’s not your house, nor your office, but a secret third thing. Read the story 🧺Get your copy
Issue 27: Homemaking
Order nowRenting used to be a source of shame to this apartment manager’s daughter. Now it’s a comfort
Los Angeles, like its residents, is impermanent, always shape-shifting, always on the verge of becoming something else. Read the story 🧸The benefits of dressing up to stay in — and why they outweigh dressing up to go out
Inside you are your main audience. The joy lies in the freedom. Be extra. Go bold. Read the story 🍒Your toilet seat doesn’t have to look boring. Bailey Hikawa’s designing ones with pizza slices and pearl necklaces
There’s something really beautiful that happens when people see a designed object in a space where they don’t expect it, like toilet seats. Read the story 🍕We’re transitioning into Gemini, and Rick Owens won’t let us lose our house keys
Homemaking is an art, a craft, a practice, a burden, a necessity, a privilege. It’s in the talismans that we arrange within our homes — including our house keys. Read the story 🔑Looking to upgrade your home with designer touches? Here’s a start
From an unforgettable decanter to an adorable ottoman, these 8 items will awaken your inner interior designer. Read the story 🛋️8 L.A. happenings in May to get you ready for summer
It’s time for May and all of its offerings. From Michael Kors Collection’s return to Beverly Hills to Mickalene Thomas at the Broad, here’s what to do this month. Read the story 👜Issue 26
Reverie
Presenting Image Issue 26: ReverieExplore the issue
Issue 25
Spring
Presenting the Spring Issue: It’s time to playExplore the issue
Issue 24
Conveyance
Presenting “Conveyance”: L.A. culture on the moveExplore the issue
Issue 23
Slipping
Presenting “Slipping”: Style for a sustainable worldExplore the issue
Issue 22
Luxury
Image Magazine issue 22: Where L.A. culture meets “luxury”Explore the issue
Issue 21
Image Makers
Meet the 2023 ‘Image Makers’ taking L.A. fashion globalExplore the issue
Issue 20
Discourse
Welcome to the New York-L.A. ‘Discourse’Explore the issue
Issue 19
Clearance
Architecture as art: Inside Image’s design issue ‘Clearance’Explore the issue
Issue 18
Mission
Presenting ‘Mission’: A travel issue without the travelExplore the issue
Issue 17
Offering
Image is giving…Spring. Inside L.A.’s latest trends, cultureExplore the issue
Issue 16
Interiority
Untold stories. Secret histories. A living archive of L.A.Explore the issue
Issue 15
Diaspora
Restaurants, fashion, art: Image explores L.A. food cultureExplore the issue
Issue 14
Elevation
Why is L.A. so tempted by and obsessed with beauty?Explore the issue
Issue 13
Image Makers
A new class of the city’s luminaries — designers, models, artists — show where clothing and style are going: to the rootExplore the issue
Issue 12
Commitment
Spirituality, faith, belief — Inside L.A. Woo Woo cultureExplore the issue
Issue 11
Renovation
What if we could redesign L.A. from the ground up?Explore the issue
Issue 10
Clarity
L.A. loves an epiphany. Enjoy this moment of “Clarity”Explore the issue
Issue 9
Function
Ain’t no party like an L.A. partyExplore the issue
Issue 8
Deserted
A journey to the end of the worldExplore the issue
Issue 7
Survival
In this installment, we imagine a sustainable future for the cityExplore the issue
Issue 6
Energy
Celebrate L.A. sports culture, with styleExplore the issue
Issue 5
Reverence
An exploration of how L.A. does beauty.Explore the issue
Issue 4
Image Makers
A celebration of the L.A. luminaries of style pushing fashion culture and streetwear forwardExplore the issue
Issue 3
Parents are cool!
A toast to the myriad ways in which L.A. parents practice the craft of care.Explore the issue
Issue 2
L.A. — We See You!
How to properly remove the blinders? A starting point is sustained looking.Explore the issue
Issue 1
Remembrance
True style, after all, is time travel.Explore the issue