What does it mean to defy when the rules no longer make sense, when the old systems are cracking and the world as we know it is shifting beneath our feet? For our upcoming issue, DSCENE turns its lens to DEFIANCE: not as a trend or a posture, but as a mode of survival, a tool for reinvention, and an act of beauty in resistance.
In a moment where the fabric of reality seems to fray, ecological disaster, political unrest, systems of power unravelling, we no longer ask who dares to defy. We ask who doesn’t. Defiance now lives in the everyday: in how we dress, create, love, fight, and refuse to look away. It’s found in silence as much as in protest, in vulnerability as much as in provocation.
The Defiance Issue opens with a cover teaser featuring model Anastasia Kirikova, photographed by Zhou Chuan in a sculptural look from Junya Watanabe Fall Winter 2025. Creative direction and styling by Lan Tanaka reshapes rebellion into something poised and exacting, an image that holds its ground without raising its voice.
This issue asks not for permission, but for presence. It’s about finding the grace in disobedience, the art in refusal, and the future in those who break away from the expected.
The DSCENE Defiance Issue is coming soon.
Photographer Zhou Chuan
Creative Director and Stylist Lan Tanaka
Makeup Artist Shinya Kumazaki
Hair stylist Asahi Sano
Nail artist Moeko Nakamura at Home Agency Tokyo
Model Anastasia Kirikova at West Management Inc.
Stylist Assistant Minori Yuhara
Makeup Assistant Hanabi
Hair Assistant Se-ka Taki
