The fashion image likes to pretend it arrives fully formed. A perfect frame, a considered gesture, everything just so. But look beyond its edges and another world is in motion: phones ringing, shirts being pressed, shoes slipped on and abandoned, sweaters pulled overhead between takes. For our September 'Let Taste Live' issue, we turned our attention toward the spaces before and in-between the final images – and the people, instincts and small decisions that bring it into being.
At the centre is Josephen Akuei, photographed by Daphne Nguyen and styled by Hannah Cooper in Tiffany & Co. Moving between subject and participant, Akuei inhabits the rhythms of a fashion set as though they are entirely her own. She takes a call just beyond the frame, tries on shoes, pulls on a sweater, irons a shirt. One moment she is the image; the next, she could be the person making it. There is something wonderfully ordinary about it all – and, in turn, something distinctly glamorous.
Tiffany & Co. jewellery moves with her throughout, no longer just an ornament reserved for the final frame than something embedded into the everyday. Diamonds meet rolled sleeves and half-dressed moments; precious objects exist alongside the practical business of getting ready. The distinction between behind the scenes and centre stage begins to disappear.
Taste, in our vision, has never lived exclusively in the finished product. It is in the choices made before anyone is looking: what we reach for, what we keep, what we discard, the way a sweater is worn or a shirt is pressed, the jewellery we put on almost without thinking. Taste is instinct made visible. And here, Akuei is our everywoman on set – working, waiting, dressing, deciding.
Experience the Let Taste Live issue in its entirety this September, available on newsstands from Monday 7 September 2026, and through our online shop. Find a stockist near you.
PHOTOGRAPHY Daphne Nguyen @ B&A
FASHION Hannah Cooper
MODEL Josephen Akuei @ Priscillas
HAIR Pete Lennon @ AP—REPS
MAKEUP Isabella Schimid
DIGITAL OPERATER David Deas
PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSSITANT Nick Shaw
SECOND PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSSITANT Marcus Solomon
STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Koby Dulac-Daley
SECOND STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Jade Carpenter
Feature image (left): NICOL & FORD dress; TIFFANY & CO. earrings and rings. Feature image (right): KRISTIE WANG top and skirt; EMPORIO ARMANI shoes; BALENCIAGA glasses; TIFFANY & CO. bracelets and rings.
