podium studio is a biannual lifestyle magazine that explores fashion, art, culture, and travel through a unique and original perspective, structured over a theme for each issue.
ELEGANCE
We explored a freer and more diverse idea of “elegance”—one that goes beyond beautiful attire or refined manners, and emerges from what a person chooses, how they think, and how they live; from strength and sensitivity, intellect and feeling, humour and individuality, and from each person’s own aesthetic sensibility.
We feature interviews with Los Angeles–based artist KELLY AKASHI, Kohana, a geiko working in Kyoto’s Gion district, and Kyoto-based calligrapher Mikiko Kayama. We also ask people working across a range of fields, “What does elegance mean to you?”, introducing the values and aesthetic sensibilities that shape each of their perspectives.
In fashion, we explore elegance from different angles: dressing in a way that moves beyond established rules and embraces a self-directed, free sensibility; boldly focusing on the curves and forms of the female body; and expressing refinement through the poised structure of tailoring. Moving beyond clothing itself, these stories consider contemporary elegance through the body, silhouette, and the presence of the individual.
The issue also develops the theme of ELEGANCE through beauty, art, culture, and travel, alongside “7 days” with actor Ryo Matsuura. For this issue’s island journey, we turn our attention to Yakushima, where timeless nature continues to breathe.
Rather than defining elegance through a single answer, this issue considers what ELEGANCE can mean today through the aesthetics and values that reside within each individual.
podium studio magazine ISSUE 5 2026 AW
Featuring ; Kelly Akashi, Kohana, Mikiko Kayama, Kenshin Asano, Sumire Hirotsuru, Chisono Sekine, Yuki Nanye, Hiroko Matsubara, Kanade Hamamoto, Kazumi Miyamae, Kengo Shimizu, Kodai Ikemitsu, Marcus Mam, Mitsuo Okamoto, Naoto Usami, Saki Omi, Takako Noel and Zero Wang
-Size: 220mm x 290mm x 10.5mm / 144 pages.
-Language: English with Japanese pages
