2015 was a great year for Wonderland. We don’t like to boast, but we partied all night with Lindsay Lohan at our 10th birthday, we made 10 covers for our anniversary issue, we collaborated with the likes of Hedi Slimane, Ryan McGinley and Petra Collins and worked with superstars like Katy Perry, Little Mix, Kristen Stewart, Selena Gomez and Lucky Blue. We’ve been busy.

Don’t worry, 2015 wasn’t all about us. Culture went well and truly pop around the world with the stratospheric rise of Justin Bieber breaking records set by The Beatles, the global sob when One Direction announced their hiatus and we all became obsessed with Lily Rose Depp, because, well, she’s Lily Rose Depp.

While pop might have ruled this year, 2015 was also the opportunity to break out of the norm. Kanye West headlined Glastonbury despite an angry mob of petition-signers trying to stop him. Grime climbed the charts in the UK and US and Britain’s MCs started to get the recognition they deserved. Finally our favourite revolutionary, Caitlyn Jenner, instantly became the poster-woman for trans-rights after her Vanity Fair cover and pioneered to increase everyone’s awareness surrounding the issues transgender people often have to face.

All in all, it’s been a pretty good year for pop culture. We can’t wait to see what 2016 has in store. Here’s our favourite moments from the 2015.

Best Music Video

Winner: Rihanna – “Bitch Better Have My Money”

Ok, so we haven’t got the album yet but BBHMM was almost enough to keep us satisfied all year. Ri’s saturated offering of nudity, drugs, violence and adventure sparked a thousand think pieces and we almost had as much fun reading them and rolling our eyes as we did making gifs of the video. An anthem and a badass one at that.

Runner Up: Drake – “Hotline Bling”

It’s Drake, dad dancing, what more could you ask for? If you say you haven’t tried to replicate this dance when the song comes on in a club then you’re a liar. Or just boring.

Best Song

Winner: Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”

We could have put almost any song from To Pimp A Butterfly in the top spot with no regrets. “Alright” is a rip roaring call to solidarity that was poignantly chanted by protestors at the Black Lives Matter conference and stuck with us ever since.

Runner Up: Fetty Way – “Trap Queen”

Just a bit of a banger tbh. Don’t think anyone can really argue with that.

Best Comeback

Winner: Justin Bieber

Well Biebs hadn’t really gone anywhere, it’s his transformation we’re admiring him for. This year he got up to all sorts including being ridiculed on TV in the name of entertainment, landing a CK campaign, making tracks with Diplo and Skrillex, giving tell-all interviews about how he’s a grown up now and finally, dropping an incredible album. JB’s a man now and a talented one at that having smashed records set by The Beatles when 17 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top 100, the most in one week by one artist since the Fab Four had 14 at once in 1964 (a total that Drake managed to match twice this year too).

Runner Up: Adele

She’s just the queen really, whether you’re like Adele’s music or not, there’s no-one who can do what she does. “Hello” has had 857million views in 2 months, anyone else managed that, hands up?

Honorable Mention: Agyness Deyn

We couldn’t leave out Aggy after we put her on our Winter Issue cover! She made the most stylist comeback of all, bejewelled and on a Saint Laurent catwalk, the stuff of dreams.

Best Collection: Gucci Menswear SS16

Alessandro Michele has gone beyond our wildest dreams for what Gucci could have become in 2015. Taking over the reigns rather speedily, he transformed the tired conventions of one of the world’s most revered fashion houses into a youthful, vibrant and most importantly, a playful indicator of what luxury fashion can be in 2015 (or rather to be worn in 2016).

Runner Up: Vetements RTW SS16

Demna Gvasalia is calling all young things, and old things, any things who don’t take themselves to seriously. All things who could burn up and dance floor, or any floor, basically. The club kids have been dissected for SS16. Gosha Rubchinskiy led the show down the runway in a DHL t shirt and leather trousers, why? Why not. Cropped hair, Titanic hoodies, anything and everything goes. It just needs to be Vetements, or obscure enough for you to pretend that it is.

Special Mention: Loewe’s eponymous print and Miu Miu’s boots

Just obvs.

Best Pop Culture Moment: Shia LaBeouf Watching All His Films In Succession

This was peak 2015. Shia is our favourite hot mess. After him shouting “JUST DO IT” and before he opened his phone line so you could touch his soul, his personal marathon ensued. It’s still a bit of a mystery why he wanted to spend three days watching all of his own cinematic moments with a live audience, but he did, and the reactions provided us with enough memes to last until 2016 is over.

Worst Pop Culture Moment: One Direction Announcing Their Hiatus

Ok so Zayn’s gone, we’d just about recovered from that, now the rest of One Direction have decided is the right moment to have some time off. Our tiny aching hearts are still healing. At least we’ve still got Bieber, for now.

Best Film

Winner: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Runner Up: Tangerine

The film that’s taking on the Academy Awards, Tangerine is pioneering in more than one way. Firstly shot entirely on iPhones (don’t get any ideas, we’re not all directors waiting to be discovered), this dark comedy follows two transgender women on the less than shiny streets of Hollywood, working the corners. Caitlyn Jenner is campaigning for Mya Taylor to receive an Academy Award as supporting actress. Watch this space.

Best Wonderland Moment

Winner: FKA twigs’ Six Pack

One of the weirdest and most wonderful things we’ve ever done, reuniting Matthew Stone, Matthew Josephs and FKA twigs brought us a mixed gender mythological creature dressed in Givenchy haute couture. We hope you’ve got the poster on your wall.

Runner Up: Katy Perry’s Eyebrows

You would not believe the scandal we caused by bleaching Katy Perry’s eyebrows. Have a little scroll online at the posts about this cover and you can see for yourself. Here’s some advice for 2016, if you get your hands on a global pop icon, don’t bleach their brows, unless you’re ready for the backlash.

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“That one was ghetto,” spits Mya Taylor, as she throws a glass aside. I waited in the lobby of a fancy hotel for 40 minutes to see the star of Tangerine. Now we’re together, we’ve spent the first three of our precious 15 minute slot looking for a clean glass between us in this sweaty room. The first two – I might add – were not acceptable.

I’m not sure what I was expecting of Taylor. In Tangerine, Sean Baker’s no frills trans comedy (although some parts will tug at your heartstrings), Taylor plays Alexandra, a prostitute and lead character Sin-Dee Rella’s (played by Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) best friend. Alexandra is sensitive, holding onto a failed singing career. Yet, she’s anything but vulnerable, working the less shiny streets of Hollywood and ready to backhand a customer at any point. In the flesh, Taylor’s a little more of a diva. With few major acting credits to her name, I naively expect humility.

I ask her what it was like to film a feature with iPhones, one of the major selling points of the movie. “I know what I’m doing,” Taylor says flatly. “It felt like any other thing, people think just because it was filmed on an iPhone it makes it much easier for me to act. I’m like, ‘No!’ It’s just obvious, don’t look at the fucking camera.” So that’s told me. “I’m sweating,” she bursts out. Taylor’s makeup looks airbrushed, her hair is perfectly curled and she’s wearing a fur cape. I can’t remember if I brushed my hair this morning. I tell her she still looks better than me even if the temperature’s a little high, while I stab at an air con button on the wall. “You’re really pretty,” she says, minutes ticking away while she’s keen to discuss anything but the film. “What are we talking about?” She sighs as I try to ask about the dark side of Hollywood — the grimy, sticky backstreets you don’t see on screen all that often.

I wait long enough for her to feel the need to fill the silence after I’ve repeated my question, “Well for one, Hollywood when you see it on TV it’s normally like Beverly Hills or Westwood and the Hollywood sign,” she accompanies this with an eye roll, “You see it as more glamorous than it really is. That part is glamorous, if you have $50 million in your bank account and your house is paid for. Yeah it’s glamorous, but not everybody has that. Where I come from in Hollywood, I didn’t have that. My parents pretty much had everything that they wanted through certain ways that they wanted it. But for me, growing up in my household I was abused and I moved out on my own and I struggled, a lot. Being homeless and everything, it was hard.” Was it easy for her to fall into a character that had to struggle too? “That’s not me. I’m not that sensitive, if you haven’t been able to tell, I’m really not.”

How did she get into character then, I press. “I don’t know. It’s hard for me to explain how I got into this character. I know you’re probably like, ‘Ok come on this bitch in this interview, come on.’ But it’s hard for me to really explain because I just act natural, acting just comes so easily to me.” As difficult as this interview is, I’m progressively coming to like Taylor more and more.

Tangerine focuses on Sin-Dee as she comes back to the curb after leaving prison. Upon her return she learns her boyfriend has been sleeping with another woman, a biological female and the film follows her one woman hunt for this girl and her intent to corner her pimp boyfriend with the girl by her side on Christmas Eve, all culminating in a suitably everyday donut shop. Spoiler alert – Alexandra has been sleeping with Chester, the pimp, too. The friends fight but Alexandra follows Sin-Dee and after she’s attacked by a passing car, Alexandra hands over her wig to a bare-headed Sin-Dee, a metaphorical olive branch.

Does Taylor have any friendships strong enough to overcome something like that in real life? “Overcoming something like that? No. Oh no! Hell no! If my best friend messed around with my man, I’m gonna beat his ass, and I’m gonna beat my friend’s ass. And they both better hope that they don’t get stabbed in the face. Because, you know, if your best friend messed with your boyfriend, would you still be friends with them? No, hell no! I wouldn’t do all that and I definitely wouldn’t be taking off my wig to give to her, no!” Taylor eventually pauses to take a breath, “The story is about friendship but what I would want is for people to see the way the transgender people live out there, it’s not easy and we’re so discriminated against, just ask yourself, why are these girls street working? Because they can’t get jobs. I’ve experienced that myself, that’s why we came up with all of this.”

I’m a teenager who’s luckily been brought up in a place and time where I’ve been taught that everyone’s equal and that’s the end of the discussion. It’s interesting to see films classified by the gender of their stars, confusing even, that they’re in some way separated. Without disputing the importance of Tangerine, trans leads included, wouldn’t it have more impact if it were treated as less of a, dare I say it, (for want of a much better word) novelty? Or is that time coming in the near future? Am I, again, being naive? I say all of this aloud, realising I’m undecided. “Would you want the film to be defined by the fact that you and your co star are transgender?” I conclude to Taylor. “That’s the first time I’ve been asked that question, I’m shocked,” she smiles. “I don’t really want it to be separate. Because, sure I’m transgender, but that doesn’t define me.” A publicist drops through the door to tell us we’ve got a minute left.

“I really want to give you more time, girl ask another question,” Taylor’s beginning to soften, finally.

If she doesn’t want her work to be separated, then how does she feel about her personal life? “Do you want to be seen as an activist for trans people, like Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner?”

“Yes. Most definitely. If we don’t do it, us celebrities don’t do it, who else is going to do it? I’ve made it out of the homelessness and all of that, and now I have a platform, so instead of being selfish and just using it for myself, I really want to help other trans people because I know what it’s like to be in that position… This is what I feel like. I feel like it’s fucked up that people say ‘Caitlyn Jenner’ is the face of transgender. I love Caitlyn Jenner, I love the fact that she’s white, I love the fact that she’s rich, but, you can’t just say, ‘Oh this is the face of trans people!’ She doesn’t know all of the issues, she’s going through her own set of issues but Laverne Cox came out before her and Laverne has accomplished more, to me. So I feel like Laverne would be the face, because Laverne inspired Caitlyn.”

In turn, Taylor’s hoping to inspire a few of her own. After we meet, a campaign has been launched to get both her and Rodriguez nominated for Academy Awards. It’s the first Oscar campaign in history for openly trans actresses, backed by the Duplass brothers who produced the film. Whether they are recognised by the Academy or not, the campaign is receiving the attention it, and the stars, deserve. Hell if the Academy isn’t going to pay attention, Taylor’s going to make sure the rest of the world certainly will, she’s developing a TV show based on her transition, watch this space.

‘Tangerine’ is out in UK cinemas Friday 13th November.

Words: Lily Walker

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