Every
April for the last 18 years, we've scoured the earth to bring you a
dazzlingly shot portfolio of people who are helping to shape their
cultural moment and looking really good while they're at it. This year,
we decided to blow things out of the water with a mega-edition of
scene-making, earth-shaking, heartbreaking creative folks across a vast
range of disciplines. And because the story happened to coincide with
our American Dream issue, we asked some of them how they define, embody
and/or subvert that elusive ideal. From white-hot fashion duo Eckhaus
Latta to lightning-rod singer and actress Zendaya to cultural critic
Ta-Nehisi Coates and beyond, here are 70 people we only have eyes for in
2015.
Text by Emily Warman, Liz Ohanesian, Abby Schreiber, James Rickman, Kate Messinger, Emily Kirkpatrick, Jacob Muselmann, Elise Gallant, Vanessa Lavorato, Cathy Erway and Leif Hedendal
Photos by Kathy Lo, Albert Sanchez, Rodolfo Martinez, Stella Berkofsky, Diggy Lloyd, Basile Mookherjee and Danny Baldwin [see individual photos for additional credits]