For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by our relationship with clothes.?

That was my starting point for this issue – the communication in and of clothes.?

Among my greatest professional pleasures is seeing someone who feels good in something that we made. That really is fulfilling. For me, it is important that we think about what we are saying, about what it means – to my team, to my collaborators and finally to the wearer of each piece.

Feeling good is about thinking as?well as looking

That idea feels especially important now. With so much of our collective experience and social interaction reliant on a digital culture, clothes, for me, represent almost the polar opposite. Clothes are tactile, emotionally resonant, personal and, on so many levels, anything but remote. The person wearing the clothes wears them against their?skin. The person designing them is proposing garments that may be life-enhancing, protective, revealing, seductive – arousing many different feelings, both inwardly and outwardly. ?

The people I have chosen to feature in this magazine are all passionately dedicated to their vocation. They are people whom I admire for their talent, their knowledge, their discipline, their complexity and their distinctive expertise, whether that be an artist in Los?Angeles or a film director based in Paris, a curator in Cape Town, a gallerist in Mexico City, a writer in London or an artist who spent years carefully mending clothes for friends and strangers on the streets of San Francisco. They are brilliant and true to themselves. I am honoured to share that brilliance with all of you.

Feeling good is about thinking as well as looking.

The HTSI guest edit by Phoebe Philo is on newsstands 3 May