Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte are stepping out of the workroom to guest-edit A Magazine . The California designers have collaborated with the Belgian publication on its latest issue, following a range of collaborators that includes Riccardo Tisci, Haider Ackermann, Maison Martin Margiela, and Proenza Schouler . For their part, true to form, the Mulleavys have skewed the image of what’s expected from a fashion magazine.

While most of us were imagining Kirsten Dunst in a Vincent van Gogh print from their latest collection as the cover, the designers instead chose a bear. Not a teddy bear or a leather-clad Chelsea bear, but a massive California Grizzly, now extinct. Previously inspired by the California condor and redwood trees native to the West Coast, the duo commissioned National Geographic’s Ted O’Callahan to “ponder the bear’s habits and history, alongside a stunning Grizzly bear portfolio.”

The issue also contains an editorial by Bill Owens, featuring the designers’ 10-look couture collection, shot on—who else?—Elle Fanning, as well as an interview with John Baldessari following his stunning retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier this year. So an issue that’s part fashion, part art, largely esoteric yet conceptually granular, sounds like Rodarte to us.