The Aura Issue
Issue 49 (Winter 2025)
Currently, culture is sorted by aura – mood, vibe, aesthetic; it’s the language we use to navigate culture, and it’s having a cultural moment. Part science of light, part language of feeling, this issue of Sorbet explores all the ways we interpret aura – how we protect it, perform it, photograph it, and decode it. Talismans and symbols are back: eyes against envy, stones for steadiness, sigils and cards for counsel. We’re all smudging and everyone’s got some palo santo on the mantelpiece or in a drawer somewhere. Loewe just launched a candle scented with it. And luxury has always been into aura. Scarcity, story, and craft have an aura. When something feels charged by place, by hand, or by myth, we feel it.
So we’ve tuned the dial to high frequency and gone searching – not so much for filters, as for fields. We question dark vibes and how to shake them. We talk crystals, tarot, sound, and the soft science of charisma. We meet the makers who can capture an energy signature on film, and the artists who’ve tried to bottle light since long before algorithms learned the trick. We have shoots with talents that explore all the aura. In the hills of Lebanon with artist Remi Akl, or light-painting with Dior. And our cover star surely has the biggest aura of all. When Lucien Laviscount walks into a room with that megawatt smile, it’s aura amped to the max. His energy hits you like a big happy hug. Words like “magnetic” and “charismatic” don’t even do him justice. He is such a vibe. From British TV to big screen films in Hollywood (via a low-key show called Emily in Paris; maybe you’ve heard of it?), his rise from small town Lancashire boy to globally-celebrated star is so aura.
