BOYS LIKE US

*Kwesi* wears Polo Ralph Lauren trouser, Adidas socks, sneakers. *Fraser* wears Polo Ralph Lauren trouser, Bottega Veneta boot and own jewellery. *Pierce* wears Polo Ralph Lauren trouser, Adidas sneaker.

SMOKE AND thistles

**PHOTOGRAPHER:** **Oliver Begg** **@ Saunders & Co**
**CREATIVE DIRECTOR / STYLIST:** **PATRICK ZACZKIEWICZ** **@ DLM**
**Grooming:** **Darren SummORS** **@ AP REPS**
**TALENT:** **AIDEN**, **ALEX**, **ETHAN**, **FRASER**, **Kwesi**, **LOUIS**, **Pierce** & **ryan** **@ KULT**
Stylist Assistant: Leyla Shani

Louis wears Alix Higgins cocoon polo, Verner skirt, Zara cargo denim, Tod’s loafers

“The city spits us out -  grim towers and narrow eyes,  too suffocating, too clean,  too polished for boys like us.

The wild grass jeers at us,  its untamed freedom a cruel reminder  of everything we’ll never hold.  It sways without purpose, without chains,  while we sink beneath the weight of ourselves.
 Ivy strangles rusted edges,  its grip tighter than the hands  that ever reached for us.  Above, the sky bruises grey,  a canvas for everything lost  and never found.

A cigarette dangles,  its ember burns like our torch.  Fingers learn the ritual -  tap, light, inhale, release.  It isn’t about the taste,  but the pause. 
Oversized shorts stamped with grids,  trousers dragged through the dirt.  Nothing matches, and yet, it does.  Each piece a fight  against the uniformity we fled.

We are statues of gilded youth,  our unspoken pact  to belong only here, only now.  But beyond this makeshift Eden,  the city hums a distant, hateful song,  one we cannot sing anymore.

Yet we remain untouchable.  We have the thistles,  the smoke,
and in this moment,  we are more than boys.
 We are an escape,  we are art,  we are.”

— Charlie Bekhor