Issue 59

Issue Fifty-Nine of Kinfolk considers the meaning of “clean” as a ritual, a feeling and an instinct. If you’re starting to think about spring cleaning, you can read our longform essay, which examines how clean we really need to be; or else find solace in Dirty Habits, which turns its attention to the universal pockets of imperfection we all have—dead plants, missing mugs or a junk drawer.

We chart the boom in public bathing culture among younger generations in Tokyo and ask five perfumers and an expert to identify what “clean” actually smells like. We also meet David Bronner, whose soap company has taken on a life of its own: a family business turned countercultural force. And while you may expect to see an issue full of “clean lines” and minimalist design, we instead speak to Leonard Koren, one of the world’s leading aesthetes, who has an entirely different proposition.

Elsewhere, we meet Jessie Ware—the down-to-earth, bluntly funny British pop star who turned her mother’s weekly Friday night dinners for family and friends into a beloved podcast. Plus, our contributors spend time with a dry cleaner, a dermatologist and a saxophonist, ask whether culture is dead, and try to make sense of Theseus’ paradox.