Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2020-10-01 Vogue PDF
2020-10-01 Vogue PDF
MVP
WHY
KAMALA
HARRIS
IS HISTORY
IN THE
“TAKE MAKING
TO THE FALL
BALLOT FASHION
BOX” FOR HOW
WE LIVE NOW
LIZZO
ON HOPE, JUSTICE, AND ELECTION 2020
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40
Editor’s Letter
46
Contributors
48
Full Bloom
Actor and new
mother Jodie
Turner-Smith is
celebrating many
fresh beginnings.
By Alexis Okeowo
52
Reel Life
Odessa A’zion
shines in Netflix’s
Grand Army
54
This Woman’s
Work
Karen Elson revisits
the highs and
lows of an iconic
career in fashion.
By Lynn Yaeger
60
Reviving Rebecca
An adaptation
of Daphne du
Maurier’s novel
PHOTO GRAPH ED BY ALE X W EB B OF MAG N UM P HOTOS. FAS HION E DITO R: TON NE GO OD MAN.
62
Me Time
HAIR, LUCAS WI LSO N. MAKEUP, GRAC E AH N . DE TAILS, SE E IN TH IS ISSUE .
66
Easy Rider
Hamish Bowles
discovers a new
means of getting
around town
C O N T I N U E D >3 4
SOMEWHERE
OUT THERE
MODEL KIRSTEN
OWEN WEARS
DRIES VAN NOTEN.
PHOTOGRAPHED
BY ALEX WEBB.
The Vogue masthead can now be found exclusively online at vogue.com/masthead. VOGUE.COM O CTO B E R 2020 27
R A LPH L AUR EN
October 2020
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West Side Story’s Isaac Powell in Isaia
LIZZO: FASH ION E DITOR, CARLOS N AZARIO. HAIR, S HE LBY SWAIN. MAKEUP, AL EXX M AYO. P RO DUCE D BY WI L LIAM GALUS HA.
new place or devoting themselves to a cause they believe
in or just doing their best in a moment of tremendous
economic strain. And fashion has been disrupted as ROLE MODELS
never before. The question of what we choose to wear CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS,
and why—the fundamental role our clothing plays in PHOTOGRAPHED BY ZOË GHERTNER IN 2018. OUR COVER
SUBJECT, LIZZO, PHOTOGRAPHED BY HYPE WILLIAMS
our lives—is up for debate in ways I’ve never seen. (WITH HAIRSTYLIST SHELBY SWAIN ON SET). CHEF MARCUS
Some of that debate is practical (what do we need to SAMUELSSON WITH HIS WIFE, MAYA, AND SON, ZION.
SE T DES IGN BY MATT SOKOL E R. SAMUE LSSON: AN G IE MOSIE R . DETA ILS, S EE I N TH IS ISSU E.
wear for a Zoom call, anyway?), and a lot of it is political.
Amid a national uprising around social justice, in an
election season where our president greets the news of cookbook, The Rise, is devoted to the influence of Black
Joe Biden’s extraordinary running mate, Senator cooking on American food, a project he embarked on
Kamala Harris, with racist rhetoric, everything has while reeling after the 2016 election. As he tells Klancy
taken on a political cast. The message our clothing Miller (refusing to use Trump’s name), “The shock of 45
sends, which encompasses where it’s made and under made me ask, ‘What’s going to be my contribution?’ ”
what conditions, matters more than ever. So, yes, That is a very 2020 question, I would say. And voting
fashion is political, as Maya Singer explores in her deeply for the Biden-Harris ticket in November is probably
reported piece on the subject this month. It has always the most important contribution any of us can make.
been political, but these are historic times, and fashion It gave me such joy to see Senator Harris at the Democratic
is undergoing an equally historic reckoning. Convention. What a perfect running mate for Joe Biden
Our cover subject, the singer Lizzo, is political too, (who was himself inspiring and unifying); what a vision
effortlessly so. I love how uncompromising she is—on for America’s future. As Tracy K. Smith puts it in her
subjects of racial equity and feminist self-affirmation, moving tribute in this issue, with Harris one feels nothing
especially—even as a spirit of joy and hope runs less than “the light of a new age.”
through her music. It is no surprise that in quarantine
the force of Lizzo’s personality shines through.
The Harlem-based chef Marcus Samuelsson (who
recently became an adviser to Condé Nast on all
things food-related and a guest editor at Bon Appétit)
is another creative talent I’ve long admired. His next
Chiara Scelsi is wearing ULTRA LE TEINT in shade B40. ©2020 CHANEL®, Inc.
CHANEL.COM
Contributors
Tracy K. Smith
A day before Joe Biden confirmed Kamala
Harris as his running mate, Vogue asked former
poet laureate of the United States Tracy K.
Smith to write about the vice-presidential pick,
“whoever that might be,” she explains. Smith
is speaking from Princeton, New Jersey, where
she lives with her husband and “three, wild Claudia Rankine
young children,” and where she’s gearing up for Currently based in New Haven, Connecticut, with her husband and
a virtual fall semester as Princeton’s Chair teenage daughter, Claudia Rankine—the poet, playwright, essayist,
of the Lewis Center for the Arts (as well as the and author of this month’s cover story on Lizzo—knows well
November release of a collection of poems both the opportunities and the frustrations of working remotely.
she co-translated from Chinese, Yi Lei’s My “Suddenly I have the ability to sit at my desk literally 24/7,” she
Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree). When says, “but I find myself looking out the window.” When it came to
Biden announced Harris as his pick, Smith’s Zooming with Lizzo, however, Rankine was rapt. Virtual interviews
assignment took on new significance. “I do have their limitations—face-to-face, the writer says, you
S MITH : THIBAULT MONTAMAT, VOGUE 2018; RANKIN E : RICAR DO DE ARATAN HA/LOS AN GELES TIMES/G E TTY IMAGES.
could write about what I actually have been can “understand when an answer is going one way and the body
thinking and feeling,” she says, “about is going another”—but they also afford a different kind of
what it means, to me, to feel represented by intimacy. To connect through the screen, Rankine says, is “like
who she is and what she values.” having Lizzo in your house with you.”
Klancy Miller
It was more than a decade ago that Klancy Miller first met
Marcus Samuelsson, her profile subject in this issue. He
invited her on a press trip to his birthplace of Ethiopia, and
they became fast friends. Miller—photographed here
by Kimberly M. Wang—had recently departed her job as a
pastry chef in Paris (where she lived for four years while
studying at Le Cordon Bleu and working in kitchens) to
become a freelance food writer. Now she is preparing
to release a magazine, For the Culture, whose contributors
will be all Black women and femmes. “I want this to
be a safe place for all Black women and nonbinary people.
I want it to be a place where many stories can be told,”
Miller says. The first issue will include narratives about
how the pandemic has transformed the food industry.
Miller’s own 2016 cookbook, Cooking Solo, has found new
resonance (and is being reprinted) in this year of at-home
culinary experimentation. In her Brooklyn kitchen, Miller
has been returning to her Rustic Strawberry Shortcake
for One. “I feel like even though we’re in this very strange
time, we should give ourselves moments of whimsy.”
PRO DUC E D BY PRE ISS CRE ATIVE ; ART DIRECTION BY LUCAS LE FL ER.
J
odie Turner-Smith’s beauty breast milk in all of my face serums,” faces of Gucci’s new campaign for
routine, as of late, has been Turner-Smith says, laughing. “My its latest Bloom fragrance (Anjelica
a little unusual. After cleans- skin is very sensitive, so I use a light Huston, Florence Welch, and Susie
ing, the British actor and cleanser, and then I put on a serum Cave are the others). In the short
model uses a dash of lavender oil, with aloe and breast milk that I lit- film announcing the campaign, > 5 2
red or black lipstick—“I love when erally squeeze right into my hands
my lips are very moody and dark,” from my boob. I think it’s the lactic BRANCHING OUT
she says—mascara, cheek stain, a acid. I’ve just found that the milk Turner-Smith, in a Gucci dress and
brow pencil, and her own breast has been revolutionary.” Only a few earrings. Photographed by Ashley
Pena. Fashion Editor: Yashua Simmons.
milk. “Ever since I had my baby, my months after having her baby daugh- Hair, Kim Kimble; makeup, Allan
current beauty secret is that I put ter, Janie, Turner-Smith is one of the Avendaño. Details, see In This Issue.
*based on Nielsen sales data, units sold, year-to-date week ending 5/30/20
I
n the midst of lockdown home-improvement projects,
Odessa A’zion had a mishap with a hammer, and on
the day that we are to speak, she has to have stitches
removed. She shows me the evidence when we connect.
“I had to get stitches so many times in my life—it’s like noth-
ing,” the 20-year-old actor tells me from Los Angeles, where
she grew up the middle of three sisters. (She started acting
when she was 15 and had a regular role on the CBS sitcom
Fam.) “I think I’m very accident-prone, and I also think I
can do anything and that there will be no physical conse-
quences.” Hyperconfidence is a quality A’zion shares with
her character in Netflix’s new drama Grand Army: Joey Del
Marco, an academic star reverently orbited by a trio of alpha
boys, who takes a knee during the national anthem, stages
a “Free the nipple” protest, and delivers a feminist riposte
to a classmate’s by-rote endorsement of The Great Gatsby.
Grand Army is a high school show for the wokest generation
that avoids caricature; its kids are capable of enlightenment
and bigotry, supreme sensitivity and brutish callousness.
The show grew out of Slut, a 2013 play by Katie Cappiello
(also Grand Army’s creator) that depicts the multilayered
consequences of a sexual assault. The TV adaptation, says
Reel Life
Cappiello, allowed her to dig deeper into Joey’s character:
“To work with Odessa is to witness someone doing what
they’ve been born to do. She is a revelation.”—chloe schama
Odessa A’zion shines in Netflix’s gritty, ROCK STAR
hyperreal new drama Grand Army. A’ZION, PHOTOGRAPHED FOR VOGUE BY RYAN McGINLEY.
W
hen Karen Elson sat down to write her new Which means that the book is not just a riveting auto-
memoir, The Red Flame (Rizzoli), she wanted biography and a stunning visual retrospective: It’s also a
her book to be, she says, “a little bit different.” righteous call to arms. Elson, now 41, is telling me all this
It would, of course, feature iconic images of over the phone from her home in Nashville, where she lives
the model-musician-activist, shot by virtually every master of with her two young teenagers, Scarlett and Henry. Our
late-20th-century fashion photography, but she also planned Zoom isn’t working, and so, curious about her distinctive
to pair these incredible pictures with an unsparingly honest personal style, I ask her to describe what she is wearing.
text. “I wanted the narrative to give some humanity to the The answer is pure Elson: a vintage yellow flowered dress
images,” she explains. “As a model, you’re often thought of as and tortoiseshell Warby Parker glasses; her scarlet bob is
two-dimensional—you’re put on a pedestal. I wanted people to sporting what she calls “COVID bangs,” recently freshened
understand the depth of my experience—my very real experi- up but still hopelessly curly in the Tennessee summer. > 5 8
ence, the hard stuff.” This hard stuff included her willingness
to call out the harmful practices that have longed plagued the FACE VALUE
fashion business, as well as the need to fight for a more diverse, Elson made one of her earliest appearances in American Vogue
more inclusive, more ethical, more responsible industry. at 19, photographed by Irving Penn in 1998.
Presented by
Elson’s bohemian aesthetic is as much me on the cover—my career sky-
her trademark as the elfin charm that rocketed, but I was also viewed by
made her a great model in every sense of some as a circus sideshow freak.”
that word—her ability to inhabit char- Elson’s unconventional fairy-tale
acters yet retain her essential personal- punk-princess allure is perhaps one
ity has imbued even the most elegant, reason she is particularly sensitive to
austere ensembles with her one-off, the ways in which outmoded stan-
almost spooky glamour. In Elson’s sto- dards of beauty have to change. And
ried career she has embodied everything she is hopeful that the welcome shift
from an 18th-century incroyable to a in our current political discourse—a
1940s pinup to a soigné society madame resurgent feminism; the #MeToo
to an extraterrestrial in sequins. But it and Black Lives Matter move-
was not always a smooth road: She ments—will allow young women
writes, for example, that she was often working in the fashion industry
not thin enough for the size today to feel empowered, to
0 samples and was openly find their voices. In the past,
mocked and reviled, humil- asking too many questions,
iated and tormented by an sticking up for yourself,
industry that could make a might get you labeled as a
slender woman feel like an troublemaker or even cost
elephant. She still remem- you jobs. “People love it
bers the nasty eye rolls and when you are partying all
the cruel words that stung, night—and the crazier you
and she suffered decades of are, the more they love it,”
eating disorders attempt- she says. “But be a good
ing to conform to impos- businesswoman? No.” Still,
sible standards. It took a she remains optimistic. “I
lifetime, she says, but now think, finally, the tables are
she can almost laugh about turning. It’s really all about
it: “At shows, I am the girl who gets a seat at the table.
wearing the coat!” The spectrum of beauty is so
Her winsome proto- varied in the normal world,
grunge ensembles were and a willowy white woman
originally rooted in a lack of funds. is just one person on that spectrum.”
Growing up in straitened circumstanc- Elson is fighting not just for more
es in the north of England, Elson faced room at the table but for a unified
schoolmates who considered the world code of conduct—one that mandates
of high fashion a ridiculous dream. In a workplace that isn’t toxic, that does
the book, she recalls her first trip to not tolerate sexually inappropriate
Manhattan: “I vividly remember land- behavior or permit problematic lan-
ing in New York…. I was wearing a guage on set. “Agencies need training,
ratty vintage coat and baby-doll dress casting directors need training—we
with bright orange tights and Con- need training sessions before Fashion
verse sneakers, looking like a bargain Week. We need to show people what a
basement Technicolor Daisy Buchan- safe working environment looks like.”
an.” Elson was 18 and flat broke when Oddly enough, the way the COVID
she got her big break—Steven Meisel pandemic has forced us to reexamine
shot her for Vogue Italia. “I gave him what is really important has served
everything I had,” she says. “We shot to bolster Elson’s conviction that
for two glorious hours. I had never the fashion business can transform
felt more excited in my life. I left the itself. “Everything that has happened
studio to go back into the snow with MODEL BEHAVIOR recently has made people realize
only my single subway token, but I from top: Photographed by Arthur Elgort, how unsustainable the industry was
had never felt so joyful.” Vogue, 2003; photographed by becoming—with so many collections,
Meisel had persuaded her to dye Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, 2014; in Nashville we were veering toward a collective
earlier this year.
her hair a brilliant shade of red; Pat burnout. We all felt like we were run-
McGrath turned her ivory face into ning too fast to appreciate our lives,
a spectacular canvas. She writes that she was dismissed and this tragedy has made us all slow down. Coming out
in some quarters as looking like an otherworldly alien, of this, if we can hold on to our sense of decency and to
“but I’d never felt more seen, more beautiful, and more a bigger sense of community, we can carry that care into
wholly myself.… When the magazine came out—with how we approach our business.” @
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here’s a moment in Rebecca—Daphne du Maurier’s The effect is decidedly different at Manderley, with its
haunting 1938 novel—when, dressed for a costume shadowy rooms and starchy staff. (The imposing Hatfield
ball at Manderley, her husband’s stately ancestral House, about an hour outside London, was its stand-in
home, the second Mrs. de Winter peers at herself for the film.) Like the narrow bodice of that striking red
in the mirror. In both the book and Alfred Hitchcock’s dress—a variation of which Rebecca had once worn her-
noirish 1940 adaptation, her dress, copied from a painting self—life at Manderley is uncompromising, with the steely
in the house, is a white, flouncy thing finished with puffed Mrs. Danvers standing at its center, clinging to Rebecca’s
sleeves, a sash, and a “wide floppy hat.” But in a new iter- memory. (In one disquieting scene, she urges the second
ation from director Ben Wheatley (High-Rise), the look is Mrs. de Winter to touch her predecessor’s nightclothes,
far more sinuous—a crimson velvet column out of a John which had been diligently preserved.) Yet in creating her
Singer Sargent portrait. costume, Day and Scott Thomas lingered less on Mrs.
Starring Lily James, Armie Hammer, and Kristin Scott Danvers’s severity than on her sense of loss.
Thomas as Mrs. Danvers, Manderley’s redoubtable house- “We learn from the novel that she was Rebecca’s nanny
keeper, the film, which premieres this month on Netflix, and was by her side through her teenage years, through her
offers a stylish update on du Maurier’s text that begins marriage,” Scott Thomas says. “So that affection or obses-
with the clothes—all 1930s-appropriate pieces that don’t sion or love or whatever you call it that she has for Rebecca
actually feel so 1930s-appropriate. “We didn’t want the is extremely deeply rooted. It’s passionate; it’s possessive.”
period to be the main focus,” says James. “Actually, I sort To tell that story visually, Day landed on a wonderfully
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ave Asprey, founder of the supplement com- life siphons resources and “robs us of our creativity and
pany Bulletproof and one of the many Silicon ability to contribute to work, society, the world.” Emanuel
Valley tech titans obsessed with lengthening stands by it. “You don’t want to wait until the end of your
their life spans, famously declared he wants to life and live it unconsciously,” he told me recently.
live beyond 180 years. That sounds, frankly, exhausting. But what if we could change not just the expiration date
Yet who wouldn’t want to take a languorous sip from the but the time leading up to it? Research shows that most
gerontological cup, assuming reasonable health and fitness? people are ill with disease for five to eight years before
Therein lies the catch: A long life is something that’s they die. Must they be? A wave of scientists are saying no.
desired and dreaded in equal measure. My uncle was a They maintain that aging is a disease—one that can be
rocket scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in targeted, treated, and perhaps even reversed. Longevity—a
Huntsville, Alabama. When I visited him in his final years, I quest as old as humanity itself—is the wellness world’s
did not recognize this once dynamic, brilliant man. He was latest buzzword, appearing everywhere from specialty > 6 4
confused, frail, vague. In 2014, Ezekiel Emanuel, a noted
oncologist and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics
STREAK OF GOOD LUCK
and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a Experts say that genetics account for only 20 percent
blunt essay for The Atlantic titled “Why I Hope to Die at 75.” of “health span”—the rest is exercise and lifestyle.
He argued that the “manic desperation to endlessly extend” above: Black Scarf, 1996, by Alex Katz.
ubykotex.com
gyms such as Longevity Lab NYC to NutriDrip’s $600 body into thinking we’ve been doing exercise and fasting.”
“Nutriyouth” IV formula (which promises to “turn on Of course, this is not a permission slip for bottomless bowls
‘good genes’ ”) to the Victoria Beckham–sanctioned sup- of rigatoni; too much of a good thing is too much. Dan
plements Basis NAD+. Meanwhile, big-name investors Buettner, the National Geographic Fellow who helped
(Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel) are backing companies that are popularize the idea of the “blue zones”—the five areas
designing drugs to stave off the impairments associated worldwide with the longest-lived denizens—says he fol-
with growing old: Thiel’s Breakout Labs is intent on the lows a rule practiced by the residents of Okinawa, Japan,
modest goal of “reprogramming nature.” The longevity and stops eating when his stomach is 80 percent full. And
sector, according to some industry analysis, is on track to perhaps consider occasionally skipping dessert: Research
be a multi-trillion-dollar industry. shows that sugar intake accelerates age-related inflamma-
O
tion. “The more sugar you eat, the faster you age,” says
ne morning this past summer, I met Nir Barzilai, Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the
M.D., founding director of the Institute for Aging University of California, San Francisco. (The American
Research at the Albert Einstein College of Heart Association recommends that women keep it under
Medicine in New York, at the entrance of the six teaspoons per day.)
three-mile pedestrian path of the Mario Cuomo Bridge, Other crucial life practices: adequate sleep and stress
which stretches across the Hudson River. Affable and management. In blue zones, says Buettner, “people down-
bespectacled, the 64-year-old author of the new book Age shift all day long, through prayer, meditation, or just taking
Later has suggested we exercise during our chat—exercise naps.” And scientists are also coming to more fully under-
being one of the magic bullets for a long and vibrant life, stand the role that other people play in prolonging life. A
or “health span,” as he and other experts term it. (When it 2019 study in the journal SSM-Population Health found
comes to health span, Barzilai says, genetics account for that social relationships significantly increase life span
only some 20 percent. The rest is environment and life- in older adults. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of
style.) On this morning, he has not yet broken his 16-hour this year’s Successful Aging, has found that friendships at
life-lengthening daily fast. Research has also shown that age 80 are a bigger predictor of health than cholesterol
“stressors” such as intermit- level. Friends and even neigh-
tent fasting can prompt your bors, he writes, protect your
body to activate the genes that brain, while loneliness “has
help repair broken DNA and
protect chromosomes.
Aging can be considered been implicated in just about
every medical problem you can
As we walk, he takes me a disease—one that think of.”
through his other practices:
Along with his fasts and exer-
can be targeted, treated, and But what about the factors
you can’t control? Most of us
cise, Barzilai takes a daily dose perhaps even reversed don’t know what’s lurking in
of metformin. An inexpensive our genome and are not often
diabetes medication that’s aware we might inherit some
been around since the 1950s, disease until we see the symp-
metformin is thought to mimic the calorie restriction of toms. That is changing, with tests that are leagues beyond
fasting by limiting the amount of sugar the body absorbs 23andMe. The new Preventive Genomics Clinic at Brigham
(side effects are generally mild, among them abdominal and Women’s Hospital in Boston is the first academic clinic
pain, nausea, and loss of appetite). A 2017 study of more in the country to offer comprehensive DNA sequencing
than 41,000 male metformin users found that it reduced— and interpretation of nearly 6,000 disease-associated genes,
by a significant amount—the likelihood of dementia, ranging from common cancers to the rare Fabry disease,
cancer, and cardiovascular disease. A growing number of which impairs fat breakdown in cells and affects the heart.
doctors are prescribing it off-label, but Barzilai wants the “Roughly 20 percent of people will be carrying a variant
medication to be FDA-sanctioned for every elder adult. for a rare disease, such as hereditary heart problems,” says
He’s about to undertake a six-year national trial (called director Robert Green, M.D., medical geneticist at Brigham
TAME, for “Targeting Aging With Metformin”), partially and Women’s. Where a full panel of tests used to cost many
and anonymously funded by a noted tech billionaire. hundreds of thousands of dollars, the clinic charges $250 for
If fasting is not exactly your speed, diet is still tremen- a smaller panel and $1,900 for full sequencing and interpre-
dously important. As for what you should eat, the gold tation. (These costs are not yet covered by most insurance.)
standard remains the Mediterranean diet—one that is high “In the near future,” says Barzilai as we finish our walk,
in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and “we can be healthy and vital in our 90s and beyond.” He
olive oil, and low on red meat—the only diet, says Barzi- laughs. “It may sound like science fiction, but I promise
lai, proven by clinical research to decrease cardiovascular you, it’s science.” While I can comprehend the misgivings
mortality. A recent study in the medical journal Gut found about prolonging life, I’ll admit that I’m still programmed
that following it for just one year slowed the development to crave those extra years, and will adopt what changes I
of age-related inflammatory processes. can to make them more vibrant. My role model here is
David Sinclair, Ph.D., Harvard geneticist and author of Gloria Steinem, now 86. “I plan to live to be 100,” she
the bestseller Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t once remarked. “Which I would have to do anyway, just
Have To, says the Mediterranean diet essentially “tricks the to meet my deadlines.”@
W
hile I was dunes, we cycled up semiprivate
immured in lanes to gawp at the sprawling
my downtown mansions, and through it all
apartment in I barely broke a sweat.
the unforgettable spring of Back in the city, my friend
2020, my Manhattan lullaby Thomas suggested a trip to
became an eerie, atonal sym- the Palisades, the ribbon of
phony of birdsong, ambu- dense woodland that borders
lance sirens, and the chilling the Hudson on the New Jersey
whir of low-flying surveillance side of the river. More than 100
helicopters. As the days and million vehicles a year cross the
weeks melted into months, George Washington Bridge,
however, I came oddly to enjoy and the concrete of the bike
it, to find comfort in the four path is literally crumbling at
square blocks of empty streets the edges. I couldn’t cross that
and boarded-up stores. Was it bridge fast enough, although
my very own Stockholm syn- apparently not fast enough for
drome? Was I the Patty Hearst some road hogs—self-styled
of the New York lockdown? action figurines in their Lycra
In the midst of it all I decid- onesies who had no time for
ed to embark on a closet edit— pleasantries or dawdlers. Their
by which I mean the creation urgent imprecations, howev-
of mountainous heaps of IT’S ELECTRIC! er, were mitigated by the oohs
clothing left for weeks to gath- The e-bike offers the modern flaneur and ahs this bike elicits for its
er dust and creases. In the process I a turbocharged option. Pictured here, futuristic good looks (which come
Bowles on a VanMoof.
came across an ensemble that I had at a price: $4,599). For this trip I
completely forgotten: a wisteria-and- switched to sport mode: Remember-
chartreuse steampunk biking lewk sports car of e-bikes” that emphasizes ing the strain of pedaling up those
made for me by one Nan Eastep of B. “agility and fun over utility.” It cer- steep Kentish hills as a child, I found
Spoke Tailor. Absolutely lovely, but tainly looks the part with its gleaming this a whole new dimension. I prac-
would I ever wear it? I hadn’t really white Zaha Hadid–esque carbon-fiber tically flew, delighting in the misty
been on a bicycle since childhood, frame, the battery ingeniously hidden canopies of forest and the beauty of
when I learned to ride on a borrowed in the rear-wheel hub. At a mere 26 the Cloisters seen across the water
Chopper with handlebars high as pounds it is so streamlined that there through a veil of bright-green leaves.
those of a motorbike. In the years is no room for a kickstand—let alone I took the scenic West Side cycle
to follow, my trusty three-gear sec- a basket for a sandwich and an apple. route home along the Hudson and
ondhand Raleigh proved a godsend. I decided that Eeyo would accompany discovered a whole new Manhattan.
I secured my trouser legs with bicycle me on my first adventure out of the How could I have lived in this city for
clips to prevent them from snagging city in 15 weeks: a weekend in Hamp- so long and not known that we had
in the oily chain and set off, with a tonia. My friend Doug drove into the our very own Seine-side promenade?
sandwich and an apple in the front city to collect us both. Once there I On full sport mode, however, Eeyo
basket, to strain up the Kentish hills. put the bike in Eco mode, which did fizzled out around the architectur-
Fast-forward to the summer of stalwart service through the flat fields ally cacophonous Hudson Yards, so
ALE X CO LER IDG E-TAY LOR
2020 and an opportunity to test-drive of Bridgehampton and required only unfortunately I was able to consider
a trio of state-of-the-art electric bikes, the mildest exertion on my part. Doug Mr. Heatherwick’s writhing copper
a notion that seemed commensurate took his manual bike, and given our conundrum in slow motion. Manu-
with the fitness levels I had sunk to in relative levels of fitness I would say al pedaling was no hardship in the
lockdown. The adventurino began we were on an even playing field. We West Village flats, but dishearten-
with a Gogoro Eeyo 1s, known as “the cycled to a lake, we cycled to the sand ingly, when I got home after > 6 8
M
artin Amis’s sprawling new autobiogra-
phy, billed somewhat mischievously as a
novel, Inside Story, is a book of gloriously
unchecked preoccupations: sex, Saul Bel-
low, literature, sex, Philip Larkin, anti-Semitism, aging,
smoking, sex, Christopher Hitchens, terrorism, suicide.
Did I mention sex? Inside Story is so twilit, so nostalgic,
so frankly death-obsessed, that Amis’s recollections of
flirting and seduction in 1970s London are like strikes of
lightning, vivid glimpses of a young writer on the make.
But they’re not the only pleasures here. Inside Story
spans more than four decades of Amis’s life, from those
swinging London days when Amis was a young editor at
the New Statesman to his hospital vigil for his lifelong com-
rade Hitchens, who succumbed to cancer in 2011. Along
the way we get...everything. His girlfriends, wives, mentors,
the homes he’s lived in, thoughts on craft (which can be
hilariously specific: “Dialogue should be very sparely punc-
tuated”), unforgiving assessments of Trump and Brexit
(and Graham Greene and Virginia Woolf). The book is
overstuffed but poignantly valedictory (Amis writes that it
will be his last long work of fiction). Fans will revel in the
excess and piling up of Amis’s sentences, which are both
wired and ruthlessly controlled. Newcomers may feel they
are reading rather a lot about, say, Larkin’s taste in porn.
This is a male book, a book about male appetites and
male decline—but its most indelible character happens
to be a woman, named (allegedly) Phoebe Phelps, whom
Amis met in a London phone booth in 1976. She would
Life Studies
COU RTESY OF K NO PF
2017. WOV E N COTTON , 62 X 32 IN . COL LECTIO N OF LY NDON A ND JAN IN E SHE RMA N BAR ROIS. IMAGE COURTESY OF T HE ART IST; VA RI OUS SM A L L FIR ES, LOS A N GEL ES / SEOU L; AN D JACK S HA IN MA N, NEW YO R K © D IED RIC K BRACKE NS.
the spirit of both kente cloth and the Unicorn tapestries.
DIE DRIC K B RAC KEN S. HOW TO RETU RN, 2017. WOVE N COTTO N AN D ACRY LIC YARN , 5 8 X 50 IN . CO LL ECT IO N O F ERIN E L IZABET H ADAMS. I MAGE COURTESY O F N EW M US EUM , NEW YO RK. PH OTO BY DA RI O L ASAG N I; T HE FL A M E G OES,
I
t feels like a home- on himself. The approach,
coming,” Diedrick Brackens explains, presents
Brackens says. After “a vehicle to talk about
a successful showing people who live lives like
last summer at the New mine.” Adds Veronica Rob-
Museum, the Texas-born, erts, the Blanton’s curator
Los Angeles–based art- of modern and contempo-
ist’s first solo New York rary art, the works “herald
museum exhibition, Dar- the complexity of Black
ling Divined, comes to the bodies and experiences.”
Blanton Museum of Art They also insert Brackens
at the University of Texas into a rich tradition. Early
at Austin this month— in his practice, West Afri-
opened at reduced capaci- can kente cloth and medi-
ty and with timed slots for eval European Unicorn
patrons. “I’m excited to be tapestries were important
able to take my family to see points of reference. Later,
my work,” he continues. “I his discovery of figures like
mean, I think there’s some Hannah Ryggen—a Scandi-
family who still don’t quite know navian textile artist most popular
what I do.” between the 1930s and 1960s—
In all fairness, Brackens’s work clued him in to the medium’s poten-
is quite complex; his graphic, tial to speak to now. When he start-
handwoven textiles—the biggest, ed, 12 years ago, “it was unusual to
around eight by eight feet—consider be weaving”—there was and still is
folklore, mythology, Christianity, a quaintness to the medium—“but
and history through the lens of I think the computer just was not in
his own Blackness and queerness. our lives the way that it is now,” he
“Diedrick’s work is singular in its says. To live in the coronavirus era,
form, mindful in its every thread, when many of us are forced to be
and generative in its message,” says even more plugged-in than usual,
Margot Norton, a curator at the “heightens the experience of doing
New Museum. The cotton yarn that things by hand.”
Brackens dyes by hand, sometimes Increasingly, his inspiration
using tea or bleach, is a nod to the comes from life—“like, going out
crop’s weighted history in the South; into the world and seeing things and
his own grandmother picked cot- then getting curious,” he says—and
ton as a girl. And when he works it leads him right back to Texas.
with human figures, his slim, dark (The region’s catfish in particular
silhouettes are mostly modeled are a frequent motif.) “It loves its
children,” Brackens says of his home
state. Returning there, he reflects,
WONDROUS WOVEN MAGIC
“I will feel all the love that I think
Two works from Brackens’s current show,
Darling Divined: top, how to return, 2017; comes with having a connection to
right, the flame goes, 2017. that place.”—marley marius
I
n the months since the killing of She’s also shown us that leadership
George Floyd, I’ve been stirred is not static; it requires a willingness
by the many statements of to evolve and to meet ever-changing
determination that have aris- circumstances with the capacity to
en out of the movement for racial adapt and to grow. These are the
justice in America. One call is for capacities by which nations not only
institutions and communities to do survive but become stronger, wiser,
more to hear and heed the perspec- and more just. These are the capaci-
tives of Black people and people of ties we need in our particular moment
color in their midst. These voices in human history.
and perspectives—our voices, our But history affirms that the work
perspectives—are key to harvesting of speaking up can be difficult, even
the many opportunities alive within dangerous. It has never been easy for
American democracy. But our nation Black women to lead in America.
must do the work of drawing near Those who have done so have endured
and listening. great resistance and even great per-
When the news reached me that sonal risk. Unfounded as they are,
Senator Kamala Harris had been today’s partisan attacks against Har-
selected as Joe Biden’s running mate, ris belong to an age-old tradition of
it struck me that the Democratic Par- threat and intimidation designed to
ty was ready to listen—and to learn. silence and distort voices of truth and
Harris’s courage, brilliance, energy, dissent. But I am firm in my certainty
and her decades of experience have that American democracy continues
long qualified her to help lead Ameri- to stand because of the sustaining
ca forward out of our current nation- work of Black women like Sojourner
al moment. And her perspective as a Truth, Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Ham-
woman of color is critical to doing er, Shirley Chisholm, Kamala Harris,
the work of helping all of us heal and the host of others who’ve met the
from the strife of racism and racial demands of their time with a selfless
division. Knowing that Harris’s voice willingness to further the project of
will be central to this dialogue makes freedom and progress.
me believe that our American union From the upheaval and loss of the
can be strengthened and deepened. COVID-19 pandemic to the ongoing
As Attorney General of Califor- national movement for racial justice,
nia, Harris secured a $20 billion set- it’s been a year of struggle and con-
tlement for California homeowners sternation and guarded faith. But
faced with predatory lending. She cre- with Harris on the Democratic ticket,
ated the Open Justice database, which I feel energized. I feel emboldened
made criminal-justice data accessible to brazenly hope. I feel the thrill of
LOOKING AHEAD
and transparent to the public. As a community coalescing around a pow-
Senator Harris in
Los Angeles,
senator, she has held politicians to an erful voice calling for change. I feel
Vogue, April 2018. exacting standard of accountability. the light of a new age. @
77
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
“I want to make music
that helps. ’Cause that’s
the way that I help. I’m
not a doctor, I’m not
a lawyer, I don’t work in
the government. I make
music.” Taffeta dress by
Moschino Couture.
Sylva & Cie earrings.
Rings and bracelets by
Chopard and Tiffany &
Co. (worn throughout).
Fashion Editor:
Carlos Nazario.
Cuz She
At a time
of unprecedented
strife, struggle, and
opportunity,
Claudia Rankine
meets up—at a
distance—with Lizzo,
the musical sage
who wants us to get
through this
moment together.
Photographed
by Hype Williams.
Loves You
I
n our new world, where travel is no longer advis- home, we are in the middle of a global pandemic and a
able and social distancing mandatory, it has been new civil rights movement, sparked by a police killing in
a bit hard to connect with Lizzo. She has been on a city Lizzo lived in not long ago. We are nearing 200,000
vocal rest in her home in Los Angeles, while I’m deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S., and the deaths
mostly isolated in my house on the East Coast. continue to mount.
When a window of time finally opens, she settles “I’m in a hot spot,” she tells me, referring to Los Ange-
in before the Zoom camera dressed casually, her sweater les, where she’s lived since 2016. “I’ve been in my house
falling off her shoulders. She looks even more youthful than every single day. I can count on my hands how many times
her 32 years, with her hair in two buns, reminding me of I’ve actually left. I’m fortunate that I am in that position. I
another princess, the fictional Leia from Star Wars. Both really had guilt about that, early on.” She is acutely aware
women took on the world and won. For Lizzo, this was that the lockdown orders can put people in dangerous
not necessarily in our national script; for a Black woman situations. “A lot of times, staying home isn’t staying
it is never a given. But Lizzo’s script is an updated one. As safe. There are so many levels to the butterfly effect of
she sings in “Scuse Me”: “I don’t need a crown to know this pandemic—not just the sickness but the emotional
that I’m a queen.” and mental effects. That is what keeps me up at night. And
This is not the first time I have encountered the singer. On that’s what stresses me out.”
my birthday last year, my teenage daughter gave me tickets What Lizzo has not indicated, at least initially, as one of
to her concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. the stresses of the moment is the killing of George Floyd
She knew I would be ecstatic because every morning, as I by Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, where her musical
pedaled away on my stationary bike, Lizzo’s music filled career ignited and where many of her friends and col-
our home. It had been a long time since I first visited Radio leagues remain. Lizzo knows the streets where Chauvin
City, on a class trip to see the knelt on Floyd as he called
Rockettes. In my memory, out to his deceased mother.
they were a line of leggy white She is familiar with the places
women kicking the air—may- “I always thought I needed at where the protests occurred.
be a woman of color or two “I saw one of my friends say,
was included, but they are not least TWO AND A HALF you know, ‘Fuckin’ cop just
who I remember. This time, shot another Black man. Let’s
the Black woman onstage WHITE BOYS to make all head out,’ ” she tells me. On
would leave an imprint. Instagram, days after the kill-
As my daughter and I a song. One to engineer and ing, Lizzo wrote: “Protest is
made our way to our seats, not the end of progress, it is
we passed through one of the one to produce. But now the beginning.” She received
most diverse crowds I have almost 300,000 likes and
ever seen at a concert: queer I can sit in my room and 3,000 comments.
men, older than I am, hold- Like all conscious Black
ing hands; suburban-look-
ing women with young girls;
BE MY OWN ENGINEER people, Lizzo says she has
“been brokenhearted by this
people who drove their SUVs
through the tunnels or across
AND PRODUCER” country” since she was a child.
“My dad taught me very early
the bridges, judging from on about what being Black in
the license plates of the cars this country is. When I learned
blocking the streets outside. All came to see Lizzo—in about Emmett Till, I was so young. And I have never forgot-
gold lamé pants with that bitch embroidered down each ten his face.” The formation of Black Lives Matter in 2013,
leg—probably for the same reason my daughter and I did. after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder
Her music was a part of our daily lexicon—a means of of Trayvon Martin, was a somewhat hopeful moment;
communicating a myriad of emotions at breakneck speed. BLM demonstrations seemed to signal that change could
Driving home from the concert, I was struck by the sense occur. But then 12-year-old Tamir Rice was murdered,
that I had experienced something singular. Lizzo is the and Lizzo shut down. As she describes it to me now, she
kind of artist who speaks to multitudes because—in an era was thinking, “They don’t actually care. And ‘they’—I
of fake news and lying politicians and stressed-out white don’t know who ‘they’ are. But I know that they don’t care,
Americans shouting racist words at stressed-out people because if shit like this is still happening, there has to be a
of color—she was committed to positivity. This despite ‘they.’ They don’t care about somebody’s actual life.” The
the trolls going after her for her race, her weight, her realization in part prompted her to write “My Skin,” which
sexuality. Anyone who could understand what it was like she released in 2015, just after the Jamar Clark shooting
to be targeted felt spoken to by Lizzo. They were seen in Minneapolis by police officers Mark Ringgenberg and
by Lizzo and were taking her lead to love themselves a Dustin Schwarze. “I woke up in this,” Lizzo sings. “I woke in
little bit harder. my skin. I can’t wash it away, so you can’t take it away—my
But when I speak to her in late summer, last year’s gath- skin. Brown skin.”
ering at Radio City feels very far away. Though I still do I have been thinking about this song lately because, for
the bike in the morning and Lizzo’s songs still fill our me, it speaks to the toll the violence takes against Black
80
BALLOT INITIATIVE
“My job isn’t to tell you
how to vote. But my job
is hopefully to inspire
you to vote…to activate
you, so that you can
take your protest to the
ballot box,” says Lizzo,
here in a look by Gucci
and Chopard earrings.
W
people, and because it performs the transformative achieve- hen I next speak to Lizzo, she’s
ment that Lizzo has come to stand for: The song politicizes, sitting down in her house, look-
and in a sense weaponizes, self-love, body positivity, and ing like a photograph from
sex positivity. We can’t stop the shooting, we can’t stop Carrie Mae Weems’s Kitchen
the racism, but we don’t have to take part in the hatred Table series. This day she’s with-
of us: “I love you, don’t you forget it, you beautiful Black out her Princess Leia buns and
masterpiece!” Lizzo sings. Here was Lizzo’s first message instead wearing a shimmery golden bonnet. Out beyond
to Minneapolis and by extension the country: “I’m done her patio there are pink plastic flamingos by her pool.
with the struggle. I just wanna enjoy my life now and maybe Tomatoes and zucchini grow in the garden, rosemary and
appreciate my skin.” This enjoyment, this recognition, is aloe plants too. There’s a giant screen set up so that she
for her the revolution. It’s in your face. Sometimes it’s a can project movies onto it while floating in her pool; she’s
protest. Sometimes it’s just feeling free. But whatever the just watched Beyoncé’s Black Is King.
fuck it is, it’s being alive in our beautiful Black skin. At the end of last year, Lizzo moved out of her small,
When I ask her how she’s feeling now, she responds that one-bedroom apartment into this home, which has a
she is allowing herself to be hopeful. But hope, she admits, recording studio. The writing, she says, has been thera-
is a scary word, “ ’cause I’ve been let down so much, you peutic. Previously, she jokes, she was under the impression
know.” She’s cautiously optimistic about the corporations that she needed “at least two and a half white boys to
that seem to be taking a stand, make a song. One to engineer
putting their dollars to work and one to produce. But now I
and pledging to hire people can sit in my room and be my
of color, but is tempering her
positivity with a healthy dose
“Having a Black woman as own engineer and producer.”
(“She understands the basic
of skepticism: “Mind you,
capitalism is problematic in its
vice president would be constructs of music and the
laws and theories that make you
own way and racist in its own feel certain things,” says Lizzo’s
way.” I share this skepticism: great. I’m just always rooting longtime collaborator Sophia
Segregationist attitudes still Eris.) When I ask Lizzo about
inform everything from redlin- for Black people. But I want a new album, she deflects:
ing policies to gated communi- “Oh, girl, I don’t know. I gotta
ties. There is much that keeps ACTUAL CHANGE to finish the songs. It’s gonna be
Americans separate—even good, though. I’ll tell you that.
regarding their music, which happen. In the laws. Not a It’s gonna be motherfucking
brings me back to the crowd good.” Atlantic Records, with
at Radio City. temporary fix to a deep- which Lizzo signed in 2016,
When I share with her my has nothing to add except that
initial surprise and delight rooted, systemic issue” she is currently recording. (A
with the diversity of her audi- streaming deal with Amazon
ence, she reassures me I am Studios was announced as this
not the only one who feels this story was closing.)
way. Early in her career, Lizzo says, she was told by Despite Lizzo’s celebrity, it’s as if we have known each
music-industry executives, “You can’t go white to Black. other a long time, but I know it’s just Lizzo being com-
But you can go from Black to white.” Her response: “ ‘Well, fortable with Lizzo that puts me at ease. Eris had warned
I’m a Black woman. So I can do just about anything I want me about this, that “people feel like they’re best friends
to do.’ How dare these people sit up and tell me who my with her” very quickly. Marc Jacobs, who dressed Lizzo
music is going to appeal to or not?” In part owing to the for the 2019 Met gala, fell in love with the singer through
music scene in Minneapolis—dominated by indie rock her music. “I knew from the start, from her energy—her
and Prince, rest in peace—Lizzo’s early audiences were smile and the fact that she hugs people,” he says, “I knew
predominantly younger, white crowds. In 2015, she opened that we would be able to do something really great togeth-
for Louisville rock band My Morning Jacket. “Lotta white er.” He now counts her as a friend and invited her to his
feminists,” she says of her early crowds. wedding last year.
Now Lizzo is the recipient not only of Grammys and Lizzo tells me about her childhood, and it’s ordinary in
Queerty awards but also NAACP Image Awards, Soul the best ways. Melissa Viviane Jefferson was born in 1988
Train Music Awards, and BET Awards. “When I go hiking in Detroit during rush hour. Like her idol Aretha Franklin,
or whatever,” Lizzo tells me, “it’s Black girls being like, ‘I she grew up with gospel music in the church. When she was
like your music.’ ‘Hey, that’s Lizzo.’ ” These Black fans con- nine, her family moved to Houston, where she took up the
firm for Lizzo what she already knows, that she’s “a Black flute and joined the marching band. (Lizzo’s now-famous
woman making music from a Black experience”—and that flute is known affectionately as Sasha, after Beyoncé’s alter
her message can speak to anyone. Suddenly Lizzo’s usual ego, Sasha Fierce, and resides in a Swarovski-crystal case
unflappable confidence gives way to genuine disbelief: “I in her home.)
never thought that I would have…I guess you could call Houston was also where Lizzo began free-styling, in
it ‘crossover appeal.’ ” I can’t help but grin back at her. school and on the school bus. Band music, Destiny’s Child,
82
and rapper Little Flip offered Lizzo her first sense of own- “We were walking down the street. And mind you, we had
ership over music. “Beyoncé had a major impact on me,” just gotten into a bar fight the night before, so we was all
she says now, “as an artist, period. She is the definition of banged up and shit.” There had been an altercation over
work ethic.” Lizzo was also encouraged by Queen Latifah a cell phone, and Lizzo had ended up with “a little goose
and Missy Elliot; both began as rappers—like Lizzo—and egg from hitting the concrete.” Wilson was pulling her car
neither fit the mold of other popular female performers. out of a parking lot but stopped to let Lizzo and Eris pass.
They were, Lizzo explains, “women who looked like me “I literally turned to Sophia and I said, ‘We need friends
and who were successful in the ways I wanted to be suc- like that in our life,’” Lizzo says, laughing.
cessful. I was like, ‘Okay. I can be confident and look this Eris ran into Wilson a few days later at a sneaker store
way.’ You know?” and recognized her. The twosome became a threesome,
In her senior year of high school, her family moved to with Wilson doing makeup for their shows. “I pulled some
Denver, but Lizzo returned to Texas to attend the Univer- really not-so-good looks for the first couple of times,”
sity of Houston for applied music and joined the Spirit of Wilson says. “And then I got it together.”
Houston Marching Band. Halfway through her sopho- “The three of us,” Lizzo tells me, “have been like sisters.
more year, she left school to put herself through a kind of We have gone through so much since meeting each oth-
self-reinvention, setting aside the flute and trying to teach er. And we have always made sure that the relationship is
herself to be a singer. She joined a rock band, drank lots what we prioritize. It’s never been money. It’s never been
of whiskey and Lone Star beer, and lived in her car. (She is the career.” Wilson is now the creative director for Lizzo,
quick to note the difference between having to live in your with a hand in all her projects, committed to, as she puts it,
car and choosing to live in your car. Her mother, Shari “translating her vision visually.”
O
Johnson-Jefferson, and older siblings, Vanessa Jefferson
and Michael Jefferson, were always available to take her ne gets the sense that sisterhood is of
in. The family now lives near her in L.A.) It was during utmost importance to Lizzo. I men-
this period, when Lizzo was 20, that her father, with whom tion Missy Elliot’s cameo on the track
she was very close, passed away. “I was showering at the “Tempo” from her breakthrough Gram-
gym, ’cause I had no house, when I got the news,” she my-winning 2019 album, Cuz I Love You,
tells me. “I was in a dark place, and it was a dark thing to and Lizzo says, with infectious delight,
happen.” In 2011, she decided to relocate to Minneapolis, “that was incredible. And to still have a relationship with
which had been building a reputation as a hip-hop mecca her—Missy calls me, texts me, and vice versa, just to check
since the mid-’90s. on me. And prays for me, and I pray for her. Being little
In Minneapolis, at a block party, Lizzo met Eris, who had and watching her, and being like, ‘Man, I want to be like
come to the city from Dayton, Ohio, to study business and that one day.’ Or, ‘I want to work with her one day.’ I don’t
the music business in particular; they met up again later that know what happened first. Having the thoughts because
first night, “got drunk, and bonded over karaoke,” as Eris it was gonna happen? Or having the thoughts and driving
tells it. The women quickly went on to become “like family,” myself to make it happen? But knowing that it did, yeah,
Lizzo says, forming a band is incredible.” Lizzo’s music
called The Chalice along with is “empowering, liberating,
another Minneapolis musi- and fun…with a side order
cian, who went by Claire de “It’s lazy for me to just say I’m of ratchet sauce,” Missy says.
Lune. The group started to “She shows the world what
gain traction on local radio, body positive at this point. It’s strength and perseverance
and from there the momen- look like.”
tum and opportunities snow- easy. I WOULD LIKE TO When I ask Lizzo who she
balled: “We just ran with it,” is dating, she tells me that her
says Eris. When Lizzo’s solo BE BODY-NORMATIVE. five-times-platinum single
career started to take off in “Truth Hurts” from Cuz I Love
the mid-2010s and she began
touring, she asked Eris to
I want to normalize my body” You is “damn near a profile
on a human being minus his
come with her as her DJ. “I name,” but she’s reluctant to
was like, Okay, now I need to say more; “I think it’s import-
learn how to DJ,” says Eris. ant to me as a human being to not disclose everything in
“Me and Sophia—we really were in the trenches togeth- my life.” As much as Cuz I Love You is an album about men,
er early on,” Lizzo explains, “me and her in a rental car though, it is an album about self-love. Often, in fact, Lizzo’s
driving through America, you know, touring at, like, dive songs don’t have an object of desire besides the self.
bars.” In those early years of her career, Lizzo was mainly What Aretha Franklin did with her release of “Respect”
performing, as she puts it, “rappety rap rap,” and so it was in 1967—during that decade when Malcolm X, Medgar
important to have Eris with her: “She played the music. Evers, and Martin Luther King Jr. were all assassinated—
I don’t know who else would. I couldn’t afford a band.” is not unlike the personal revolution Lizzo calls for with
Lizzo remembers the day, the moment, when she met her work. Aretha’s “Respect” functioned as an interven-
her other longtime collaborator, Quinn Wilson. “Me and tion at a historical moment, where Black women were
Sophia walked everywhere back then,” Lizzo tells me. historically invisible to everyone except themselves. Lizzo
83
TAKING CARE
Lizzo wears a beaded
top and skirt by LaQuan
Smith and Sylva & Cie
earrings. In this story:
hair, Shelby Swain;
makeup, Alexx Mayo.
Details, see In This Issue.
also is committed to “keeping the torch going,” in the same
mode as Aretha, she says, “making sure that people under-
stand that self is so important,” especially in the midst of
“this right now.”
The “this right now” is the lockdown and the coronavirus
but also white supremacy, sexism, homophobia, racism,
and fatphobia—though she does not want her message
boiled down to one of body positivity. Body positivity,
Lizzo tells me, has been appropriated to a certain degree:
“It’s commercialized. Now, you look at the hashtag ‘body
positive,’ and you see smaller-framed girls, curvier girls.
Lotta white girls. And I feel no ways about that, because
inclusivity is what my message is always about. I’m glad
that this conversation is being included in the mainstream
narrative. What I don’t like is how the people that this
term was created for are not benefiting from it. Girls with
back fat, girls with bellies that hang, girls with thighs that
aren’t separated, that overlap. Girls with stretch marks.
You know, girls who are in the 18-plus club. They need to
be benefiting from...the mainstream effect of body posi-
tivity now. But with everything that goes mainstream, it
gets changed. It gets—you know, it gets made acceptable.”
When I ask Jacobs about this, he speaks carefully: “I think
what is so inspiring is the way she delivers the message,”
says Jacobs. “Her positivity—putting the word body before
it is just another part of her positivity, and that’s what’s
really contagious.”
“I think it’s lazy for me to just say I’m body positive
at this point,” Lizzo says. “It’s easy. I would like to be
body-normative. I want to normalize my body. And not
just be like, ‘Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is
body positive.’ No, being fat is normal. I think now, I owe it
to the people who started this to not just stop here. We have
to make people uncomfortable again, so that we can con-
tinue to change. Change is always uncomfortable, right?”
Malcolm X famously said, “The most disrespected per-
son in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected
person in American is the Black woman. The most neglect-
ed person in America is the Black woman.” He meant thin
or fat, tall or short, big or small, citizen or undocumented,
senator or vice president—and so I have one last question
for Lizzo regarding how she feels about our Democratic
vice-presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. I am thinking
about the avalanche of disrespect Harris will have to nego-
tiate as a woman and as a woman of color.
“Having a Black woman as vice president would be
PRODUCE D BY W IL LIAM GALUS HA; S ET DES IG N BY MATT SOKOL E R.
85
CAN FASHION
BE POLITICAL?
ALWAYS—but now more than ever. As the world undergoes a radical
TRANSFORMATION, Maya Singer looks at how the INDUSTRY
is reckoning with MOMENTOUS and much-needed CHANGE.
T
here are decades where nothing happens, and there skirts sublimated Reaganite corporate triumphalism. There
are weeks where decades happen.” The famous are countless examples of this kind of intertwining.
Lenin quote is acutely resonant in 2020, amid “Fashion functions as a mirror to our times, so it is inher-
a global pandemic that has killed hundreds of ently political,” notes Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator
thousands and ongoing protests sparked by the deaths in Charge of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan
of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and the shooting of Museum of Art. “It’s been used to express patriotic, nation-
Jacob Blake. Borders are closed, millions are unemployed, alistic, and propagandistic tendencies as well as complex
and whole industries have been decimated. Meanwhile, issues related to class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.”
the strangest and perhaps most consequential presidential What’s radical today, Bolton goes on to point out, is the
election in American history is upon us. way social consciousness and environmental concerns are
What does any of this have to do with fashion? informing fashion: Designers worldwide, whether indie
Everything, it turns out. Fashion is a planet-spanning start-ups or internationally famed maisons, are incor-
$2.5 trillion business that employed more than 1.8 mil- porating politics at every level of their brands, from the
lion people in the United States alone before COVID-19 fantasies spun on the runway down to the nuts and bolts
reached our shores. Its touch extends from the starry realm of how collections are produced. These designers aren’t
of the red carpet to sweatshops as far-flung as Bangladesh just making clothes—alongside activists and organizers,
and as near as Los Angeles. By some estimates, the industry they’re making change. And that’s a selling point.
is responsible for as much as 10 percent of annual global “Every choice you make as a company will influence
carbon emissions. Fashion also conjures society’s dreams, the world,” says Marine Serre, one of the designers at the
challenges its norms, and reflects back what it believes forefront of fashion’s new wave. “What you make, how you
about itself. And yet the question persists: Can fashion make it, how you speak about what you’ve made—for me,
be political? To which the proper reply must be: Wasn’t it everything is politics.”
always? In the Middle Ages, sumptuary laws prohibited “I think people are getting it now: Politics isn’t binary,”
commoners from dressing above their station; during the says Virgil Abloh of Louis Vuitton and Off-White. “It’s
French Revolution, sansculottes wore hardy trousers as this system we’re in and all the ways it manifests. There’s
a badge of working-class pride. Nearer our own era, the the politics on your phone and the politics on your street.
Black Panthers used clothing both to seize power and to And, yeah, there’s the politics of your clothes.”
resist it, adopting a uniform of leather jackets and berets By “binary,” Abloh is alluding to America’s partisan
to signify their deputization as a counter–police force— divide, the polarization of Republican and Democrat, Fox
while in the “Greed is good” 1980s, power suits and pouf News vs. MSNBC, that most people refer to when they
talk politics. But as he notes, the partisan is only one ele-
ment of the political, and “the politics of your clothes”
NEWS COVERAGE today can mean everything from buying one of Off-White’s
Marine Serre has always used face coverings (like this i support young black businesses T-shirts—with
upcycled sweater from fall 2020) in her collections, evoking
proceeds this quarter going to the anti–gun violence orga-
everything from the traditional burka to balaclavas worn
by protesters worldwide—something which has provoked nization Chicago CRED—to not buying much of anything
both praise and criticism. Illustration by Christina Zimpel. at all out of a dedication to sustainability. Fashion politics
87
1900s: The fight for the right
to vote started with the
women’s suffrage movement.
1960s:
may mean signing the #PayUp petition launched by the ambiguous by design. Martine Rose’s promising britain
organization Remake in the wake of reports that brands tee is more direct: Featuring a cartoon clown emerging
were stiffing factories post-COVID, leaving already vul- from a circle of E.U.-flag stars, the shirt debuted as part of
nerable garment workers in the lurch; it can mean wearing a spring 2020 collection Rose showed just as the U.K. was
a black gown to the Golden Globes in support of Time’s hurtling toward Brexit. “As I see it,” Rose says, “fashion
Up or dressing to affirm a genderqueer identity—all of in the absence of opinion and argument is just…merch.”
RES E RVE D L EE MILLE R.CO.U K; DIOR: AP/S HU TTE RSTO C K; P ROT EST: © MARC RIBOU D/FON DS MARC RIBOU D AU MNAAG/MAG N UM PH OTOS.
which is to say: The politics of fashion are in the eye of the Maria Grazia Chiuri seems to agree. Seizing the reins at
SU FFRAG E : MUS EU M O F LO NDON /H ERITAGE IMAGES/G E TTY IMAGES. MILLE R : © L E E MILL E R A RC HIV ES, E N G LAN D 2020. ALL RIGH TS
beholder. But they are there, acknowledged or not. Dior in 2016, she opened her first show with a statement of
intent, printing the title of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
“I’m not about screaming an opinion, but obviously my essay “We Should All Be Feminists” on tees sent down the
BO HO: MAURIC E H OG E NBO O M. VO GU E, 1968. YS L: © J EAN- CLAU DE SAUE R/ARTISTS RIG HTS SOC IE TY ( ARS ), NEW YO RK .
work is engaged with conversations about race, about class, runway alongside looks that pointedly updated the aesthet-
about justice,” explains Samuel Ross, designer of British ic codes of a house built on the ur-femininity of founder
menswear label A-Cold-Wall*, a 2018 finalist for the pres- Christian Dior’s New Look. “Declaring my—and the mai-
tigious LVMH Prize. “Through the look and feel of my son’s—wish to step away from the stereotype of women by
clothes, I’m trying to capture an expe- integrating feminist ideas is a way
rience often overlooked by fashion.” of keeping Dior’s heritage relevant,”
Ross points to a childhood spent in “After so many years of Chiuri explains. “At this stage, being
part on London council estates of bru- fiddling around the edges feminist should be the default.”
talist structures of poured concrete; Feminism, pluralism, eco- and
in transforming that experience into of the familiar,” says class-consciousness: Designers such
something aspirational, he’s affirming Martine Rose, “it seems as Ross, Rose, Serre, and Chiuri are
the dignity of poor and working-class joining in crucial debates. For Vir-
people living in tower blocks today. like something genuinely gilda Romero Vasquez, however, the
Serre, meanwhile, has the climate
on her mind. She dedicates at least 50
new might come in” intersection of fashion and politics is
a matter of life and death. A mother
percent of her runway collection to of four who began working in L.A.
upcycled clothes—creating a slick frock out of vintage Fair garment factories when she arrived from Guatemala 19 years
Isle sweaters sourced from the Netherlands, for example— ago—and who still makes only about $300 a week—Romero
and her current collection imagines new communities Vasquez was, on July 29, impatiently awaiting the result
emerging, phoenix-like, from a burning world. It’s a theme of the California Assembly Labor Committee’s vote on
of hope and unity that’s also reflected in Serre’s crescent SB-1399, a bill that would eliminate the piece-rate payment
moon logo, made famous by its appearance in Beyoncé’s system that allows factories in the state to pay sewers well
Black Is King. “It’s an ancient symbol—it crosses East and below minimum wage. Romero Vasquez was also recovering
West; you see it in Arabic culture and in Greek. Anyone can from symptoms related to COVID and going to work in a
recognize themselves in this logo—and you can appropriate small, airless building where, she told me, it’s often too hot
it like I have, because it’s totally free.” to wear a mask. “We had 40 people working,” she says, “and
Serre’s moon serves as a riposte to ethno-nationalism— seven of us got the virus, but only six came back—the other
if you choose to interpret it that way. The symbolism is passed away.” (SB-1399 also includes provisions to make
88
1970s: The second wave of
feminism, championed by
activists like Gloria Steinem
(near left, with poet Maya
Angelou), empowered women
to rethink how they dressed
for the workplace (below).
89
Brother Vellies founder Aurora James to commit retailers
to upping their inventory from Black-owned businesses.
Talk and empty gestures just won’t cut it anymore. “Give a LOVE &
PROTEST
little money, post a black square on Instagram, then back
to business as usual—it started to feel like a big PR push,
as though the uprising was just a temporary blip,” says
stylist Law Roach of the corporate solidarity statements
issued amid the Black Lives Matter protests in June. “That
hurt,” he adds. “That hurt me a lot.” Janaya Future Khan’s activism
Roach, who works with such stars as Zendaya and Celine
Dion, says the demand for accountability extends to celeb-
is as politically uncompromising as
rities and influencers. “You can’t just post a photo of your- it is spiritually generous. Carvell
self wearing a BLM T-shirt—people are onto that; they’ll
be up in your comments, like, What have you actually done
Wallace reports. Photographed by
for the movement—and who made that shirt, anyway?” Melodie McDaniel.
“Look—posting those selfies helps normalize previously
radical concepts,” says Apryl Williams, assistant professor
T
of communication and media at the University of Michigan
and a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Inter- here is no small talk with Janaya Future Khan,
net & Society. “I’m not dismissive of any of that, but I do unless you count the first thing the Canadi-
worry that people overestimate its power. If you’re not really an-born, Los Angeles–based Black Lives Matter
engaged with the issues, all you’re doing is performing.” activist says to me, which is “What a time to be
The diffusion of politics into performance is, of course, alive, huh?” They are climbing down a grassy hill in L.A.’s
an ever-present danger when fashion takes up a cause. Griffith Park, an open place we’ve chosen to meet due to
Another is that politics itself becomes “fashionable” and COVID restrictions, and when they look back at me, their
thus subject to fashion’s trend metabolism. “What happens eyes blazing intently above a light-blue medical mask, I am
when an issue becomes passé?” asks author and activist startled into silence.
Naomi Klein, whose seminal 2000 book No Logo: Taking Khan (who came by their nickname by always thinking
Aim at the Brand Bullies anticipates many of the conver- about what might come) has arrived several minutes late
sations about accountability reemerging now. “Inevita- to the Griffith Park Carousel, a place that factors heavily
bly, that’s what happens, because what fashion wants is into my memories of being both a high school student and
novelty—and what movements need is time.” As Klein later a parent of small kids in L.A. I recall it with gaggles
points out, the fight for workers’ rights has been building of children, ice cream cones falling to the hot concrete,
for decades, advancing in tandem with the globalization tantrums, a 94-year-old calliope playing 94-year-old music.
of supply chains, and over all this time, the fundamental Now, of course, that whole thing feels like something out
demand—the right to unionize—hasn’t changed. “That’s of a dream. The carousel is silent. Shuttered. Metal gates
the game-changer,” Klein says. “Workers are always their drawn. Fallen leaves and growing weeds. While I wait, I
own best advocates, whether the issue is unpaid overtime listen to the disconsolate calls of ravens and the rustling
or unsafe conditions. The trick,” she adds, “is how do you of trees. And I remember that, despite everything, L.A.
force brands to uphold that right?” can, in the right light, be a beautiful place.
Before this I’d known Khan mostly by their writing, their
One way to ensure that you can “tell the story” of your interviews, and the Sunday Sermons they began delivering
wardrobe, as Firth puts it, is to know who is making live on Instagram earlier this year, which have attracted an
90
FUTURE VISION
“This is not just racial
justice work. This is
the work of being alive,”
says the Black Lives
Matter activist. Louis
Vuitton vest and
pants. Mejuri pendant
necklace. Hair, Marcia
Hamilton; makeup,
Tasha Reiko Brown.
Details, see In This Issue.
Fashion Editor:
Yashua Simmons.
I LOVE NEW
JUST FOR KICKS
In front of Radio City
Music Hall, four Rockettes
(from far left: Jackie
Aitken, Tiffany Billings,
Alicia Lundgren, and Katie
Hamrah) strike a pose
in scarlet swimsuits by
Solid & Striped, $148
each; solidandstriped
.com. Watch the video
version of this story, with
a script by playwright
Jeremy O. Harris and
voiceover by Whoopi
Goldberg, on Vogue.com.
Fashion Editor:
Jorden Bickham.
In a tribute to the
unbreakable spirit of
the city, we dressed
a few of our favorite
locals in fall’s chic
suiting, extraordinary
eveningwear, and
everything in between.
Then we let them
do the rest. Directed
by Bardia Zeinali.
W YORK
WALK THIS WAY
Quite literally dancing
in the street on Sixth
Avenue, American
Ballet Theatre’s Misty
Copeland wears an
Alaïa jacket, shirt, and
skirt; maison-alaia.com.
Jimmy Choo bag.
STATE OF THE ART
Actor Indya Moore
sweeps through the
Metropolitan Museum
of Art’s Mary and
Michael Jaharis Gallery
in a floor-length Oscar
de la Renta dress;
saksfifthavenue.com.
Gucci gloves.
ON THE TOWN
top: Sashaying through the Upper East Side, actor and artist Julia Fox (left)
and model Paloma Elsesser look very much the part of two uptown girls.
Fox wears a Dolce & Gabbana dress, $1,995; dolcegabbana.com. Jennifer
Fisher earrings. Elsesser wears a Fendi coat and bag; fendi.com. Miu Miu
belt. Both wear Proenza Schouler boots. above: Model Dara Allen (seen
with her pooch, Louis) in a Chanel jacket, top, skirt, and sunglasses; chanel
.com. Marc Jacobs scarf (on head). Balenciaga bag. Miu Miu clutch.
96
SHE’S WITH THE BAND
At the Park Avenue
Armory, model Joan
Smalls joins the rhythm
section of Brooklyn’s
Soul Tigers Marching
Band, wearing a Miu Miu
coat, necklace, and
gloves; miumiu.com.
READ THE SIGNS
clockwise from
above: YouTuber
Ashley (a.k.a.
bestdressed),
wearing Celine by
Hedi Slimane,
voguer Leiomy
Maldonado,
filmmaker Nicolas
Heller’s Manhattan-
centric tattoo, and
photographer
Eman Abbas.
THIS MUST BE
THE PLACE
Musician David
Byrne, in his
own clothes.
CASTING, NIC HO LAS H ELLE R.
A LEAGUE OF
OUR OWN
from far left:
Rapper Paperboy
Love Prince,
street performers
Tic and Tac, writer
Raquel Willis
(wearing Proenza
Schouler),
and musician
Sean Bennett
(wearing Telfar).
DIRECTOR O F PHOTOG RAPHY, CHAYS E IRVI N. S E T DESIG N , H AN S MAHARAWAL.
MOV EME N T DIR ECTO R, VINSO N F RAL EY. P RO DUCE D BY 138 P RODUCTIO N S.
I
t’s the last day of July, and there’s a heat wave in responsibility, providing jobs and connecting people. I felt
New York City. I wake up at 7:30 a.m. to roast bell like we were doing it. But the shock of 45 made me ask,
peppers and prepare my mise en place. I’m about ‘What’s going to be my contribution?’ For me it felt import-
to have a Zoom video cooking lesson with Marcus ant to document the authorship of Black cooking and how
Samuelsson, chef and co-owner of Red Rooster and author diverse it is. If it’s not documented, that has consequences.”
of numerous cookbooks, including this month’s The Rise: The Rise is more than a cookbook; it is a conversation, a
Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food. collaboration, and, above all, a declaration that Black Food
Marcus is an old friend, and normally we would talk over Matters. The recipes bear influences from southern cook-
a meal at Red Rooster, but we’re doing a virtual meetup ing, West Africa, the Caribbean, and East Africa, and are
because I’m in strict quaran- accompanied by a collection
tine, and his landmark Har- of chef profiles and essays by
lem restaurant is undergoing Samuelsson’s cowriter, Osayi
COVID-related renovations Endolyn. These introduce
(as the lockdown began last readers to figures such as the
spring, it began providing historian Jessica B. Harris, a
meals to Harlem residents in personal hero of mine, whose
collaboration with the hun- work focuses on the foodways
ger nonprofit World Central of the African diaspora; chef
Kitchen). I arrive to our Zoom Mashama Bailey of The Grey,
with oily fingers, having just in Savannah; Michael Twitty,
peeled the last of the peppers; author of The Cooking Gene;
Marcus, meanwhile, has his Leah Chase, queen of Cre-
ingredients neatly laid out on ole cooking and former chef
the restaurant’s stainless-steel and owner of Dooky Chase’s
kitchen counter. Two assis- Restaurant, in New Orleans;
tants film him as he shows me activist Shakirah Simley; Ste-
how to pickle blueberries for phen Satterfield, cofounder of
Chilled Watermelon and Red Whetstone magazine; wine-
Pepper Soup With Pickled maker André Hueston Mack;
Berries, one of more than 150 and chef Nina Compton of
recipes in The Rise. Compère Lapin in New Orle-
Marcus, in true pandemic ans. The Rise begins with a
fashion, is dressed casually in a look to the future, exploring
baseball hat, black T-shirt, and where Black food is head-
DINNER IS SERVED
drop-crotch sweatpants. He ing, and then pays homage
The Rise brings together more than 150 recipes,
explains that I should bring like Grilled Piri Piri Shrimp With Papaya and to cooks on whose shoulders
vinegar, sugar, cardamom Watermelon Salad, above. opposite: Samuelsson Black chefs stand, and the
pods, mustard seeds, and water at Red Rooster in Harlem. migration stories that make
to a boil, and coordinates with the cuisine so diverse and rich.
his assistants to figure out which angle best allows me to I ask Marcus which five ingredients in the cookbook
see his mixture bubbling on the range. He points out that he would advise people to put in their regular rotation.
the peppers and vinegar should be the first things I pre- “Everybody should have a jerk mix at home,” he says, “a
pare: “Get the time-intensive things out of the way first.” good Jamaican jerk you can rub on fish, you can rub on
I proudly announce that I did my peppers in the morning. vegetables, you can rub on anything. A really good pickle, a
In terms of pickling the fruit, he says, it’s about celebrating southern pickle. The acid—whether it’s a Haitian pickle or
the season you’re in—and since it’s summer, “Get your southern pickle, I think there’s something universal about
berry game on.” that. Grits: We learned how to have polenta at home; why
He recalls pickling berries as a boy growing up in Sweden can’t we have grits at home? Broken rice came to us from
and then dives into talking about The Rise, a book he’s been South Carolina through slavery. The grain teff, so you can
ANG IE MOS IER
working on since the 2016 election. “The moment of 45 make injera, an incredible flatbread from Ethiopia.”
shocked me to the core,” he says (he will not use President To appreciate how Marcus is uniquely positioned to
Trump’s name). “I always thought Red Rooster was my push this particular conversation C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 2 7
102
Brigette Lundy-Paine
This was not Brigette Lundy-Paine’s first
virtual shoot. The actor, who broke out
in Netflix’s Atypical, is the cofounder of
the digital art magazine Waif and is often
digitally “on set.” It was, however, the
first time Lundy-Paine was the subject of
the photo. “They sent so much beautiful
stuff,” they said. “But I chose the suit
because I’ve been watching a lot of videos
and interviews with Fran Lebowitz.” In the
background is Lundy-Paine’s partner,
Jacob “leaf” Levy, who wandered through
the room after a shower.
Loren Nicole earrings; loren-nicole.com. Bvlgari rings; bulgari.com. Balenciaga jacket, $1,750; balenciaga.com.
Rachel Brosnahan
“Video calls and animals are an interesting combination,” says the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star, whose film The
Courier is out this month. “It was a full family effort. My husband, Jason, was hiding in the corner, holding dog treats
above the computer. My puppy Winston [left] got a very dapper bow tie, and Nikki [right] had a very pretty bow
in her hair. Thank you for the gift of belly laughter through this bonkers photo shoot. I will treasure these photos.”
Ana Khouri ear piece; anakhouri.com. Michael Kors Collection dress; michaelkors.com.
108
Makeda Saggau-Sackey
“A part of my brand is helping other brands, as well as influencers, gain visibility and shape their image,” says the
Glamazon Diaries blogger Makeda Saggau-Sackey, pictured here with her fiancé, Thomas Rabioux. “When the quarantine
happened, so many of my friends were stuck in a rut. And I was like, What do you mean you can’t create content because
you can’t go outside? You have your house. There are so many things that you can do to be creative. You have to be scrappy.”
Tiffany & Co. earrings and necklace; tiffany.com. La Ligne dress, $395; lalignenyc.com.
Lolo Zouaï
“I did a lot of dyeing of my hair by myself,” says the singer Lolo Zouaï of her early quarantine experiments. “I started from black, then
bleached my ends, slowly transitioned into honey blonde, and now I just dyed it pink. I’ve been making myself cute, even if I’m
just going to the UPS Store. It’s really important for me to feel like myself. It’s easy to feel lost during this time, so just remembering
who you are and what makes you happy when you can’t see your friends—putting yourself together—is so important.”
Marlo Laz necklace; marlolaz.com. Have a Heart x Muse charm necklace; musexmuse.com.
Philosophy Di Lorenzo Serafini dress; fivestoryny.com.
Nia DaCosta
“The pandemic has been an unprecedented interruption of everyone’s lives, and I feel lucky because I’ve
had a job to do throughout,” says Nia DaCosta, who directed the upcoming Jordan Peele–written
Candyman and is shown here with her friend Catrin Hedström. “A lot of it has been just trying to figure out
how to make it work for myself and how to continue to stay connected to the people that I love.”
Cartier earring, necklace, and ring; cartier.com. Miu Miu dress; miumiu.com. In this story: hair for H.E.R.,
Theo Barrett; makeup for H.E.R., Kisha Augustine; makeup for Nia DaCosta, Mimi Quiquine; hair for Rachel Brosnahan,
Jemma Muradian; makeup for Rachel Brosnahan, Bob Scott. Details, see In This Issue.
Clean Scheme
Spas of the past traded in intimacy and a hands-on, holistic approach.
Today it’s practitioners behind plexiglass and Clorox between clients.
Naomi Fry considers what it means to indulge.
W
hen the opportunity arose to see what it felt reopened in early July, masked employees treated a reduced
like to get pampered during this unprec- customer load, in observation of social-distancing orders,
edentedly grim time, it struck me as just and extra sanitary measures appeared to be in full effect.
surreal enough to be intriguing. You see, After having my temperature taken (a normal 98.6) and
even under the most regular of conditions, I veer toward receiving a health questionnaire confirming that I hadn’t
self-denial. I consider a mani-pedi at a hole-in-the-wall been in contact with a person ill with COVID and that
nail salon a relative extravagance; the last time I received I would continue to keep on high alert for symptoms, I
a massage must have been a half-decade ago; and, though sat down to receive a gentle, skilled manicure, given by
I’m nearing my mid-40s, I’ve had a facial only once, pur- a P.P.E.-wearing technician through a plexiglass panel
chased as a gift from a friend. And certainly the current with an opening at the bottom, the chair and table Clo-
circumstances—even in New York City, where Governor roxed vigorously before and after my appointment. The
Andrew Cuomo gave the go-ahead to commence spa oper- setup—half bank-teller station and half glory hole—felt
ations again in early July—enhanced my usual puritanical unfamiliar yet somehow reassuring, as did the sharp scent
squeamishness. Would receiving a wildly nonessential spa of cleaning products that permeated the manicure station.
treatment, I asked myself, cross the fault line from self-care For my nail-polish shade, I selected Essie’s orangey-red
to plain selfishness, shutting out the harsh realities of risk Fifth Avenue, perhaps to remind myself of a fabled version
and suffering for the sake of mere indulgence? of the city that seemed to have little to do with conditions
Still, I had to admit, if there was ever a time in which I on the ground. “People are so grateful they’re able to come
yearned for a spa treatment, this was it. I was extremely in again,” Danuta Mieloch, Rescue’s founder, told me
fortunate—I had a job and a home, and I had remained as I lay down on a treatment table swathed in pristine
healthy, as had my family, and while I’d hardly left my cream-colored linens in one of the spa’s 14 private rooms.
house in months, I knew that being able to hunker down “Everyone is so anxious right now—when will this be over,
was in itself a privilege. And yet I was also climbing the how do I stay healthy, are we going to be okay?—and all of
walls. The uncertainty and precariousness, the constant this affects not just your mood but your skin too.”
struggle to juggle work and childcare, and the lack of real- As we spoke, the masked and gloved Mieloch was admin-
life engagement and community had all taken a toll, and I istrating, with the sure but lulling motions of a true expert,
was depressed and anxious. I had barely slept a full night Biologique Recherche’s exfoliating, hydrating P50 lotion
in months, and my shoulders were permanently hunched to my forehead, eye area, and upper cheeks, as well as to
around my ears—perhaps the only reminder that I still had my upper chest and neck. My nose and mouth, meanwhile,
a body. (As for a face, forget it!) “People are scared, people remained tucked beneath my mask. A mandatory prohibi-
are tired, and people are desperate for touch,” Kathy Van tion on any treatment that requires the full uncovering of
Ness, the COO of the famed Golden Door in San Marcos, the face—whether it be lip piercing, mustache waxing, or
California, which, as I write, is planning to reopen in early a facial—had remained in place; and so, while some spas
September, told me when I spoke to her over the phone have decided to take facials off the menu completely, others
about spas in the age of COVID-19. “Our clients want to have found creative twists on the service. (Caitlin Girouard,
feel better.” I decided to take the plunge closer to home. Governor Cuomo’s press secretary, stated in mid-August
To arrive at Rescue Spa, in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, that they “are continuing to monitor how and when high-
I took the half-empty subway in from Brooklyn for the first er-risk spa services like facials can safely resume.”) Since
time since the advent of the coronavirus, a once-familiar reopening, Haven Spa, in SoHo, has launched a service
routine now rendered uncanny, with masked commuters named, aptly, the 2020, in which clients can receive a treat-
forgoing their usual bullish tactics and keeping a tentative ment that edges around their face covering; and Rescue,
distance from one another. Was this even present-day New too, has begun offering what the C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 2 7
York? I wondered as I made my way down a ghost town–
like Broadway, passing branches of Equinox and WeWork,
TESTING THE WATERS
onetime citadels of aughties triumph that were, at least for
At spas, caution is the new Zen. Two bathers wear Marysia
now, standing disused like so many faded mom-and-pop swimsuits and Illesteva face shields at a private California pool.
shops. At the all-white, high-ceilinged Rescue, which had Details, see In This Issue.
114
HOLDING THEIR GROUND
Billie Rose (near right) layers
a shearling Isabel Marant Etoile
sleeveless jacket ($2,490;
isabelmarant.com) over a
dusty-floral Officine Générale
dress ($730; officinegenerale
.com). Kirsten Owen (far
right) warms up with a quilted
Weekend Max Mara coat
($1,075; weekendmaxmara
.com). opposite: Owen wears
a coat by Stella McCartney
(stellamccartney.com) over one
by Etro (etro.com). Max Mara
pants, $1,040; maxmara.com.
Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman.
Counting on
the Country
Model turned organic farmer Kirsten Owen
has spent much of the last 15 years
growing blueberries in Vermont. Dressed
in fall’s rustic delights, she and her
daughter, Billie Rose, show us around the
farm. Photographed by Alex Webb.
TIMBER LANDS
right: This macramé
Dolce & Gabbana dress
(dolcegabbana.com)
looks as at home in the
country as it would in
Capri. Chan Luu scarf.
below: Owen enshrouds
herself in a cape by
Philosophy di Lorenzo
Serafini ($1,625;
intermixonline.com)
and a paisley-printed
Etro dress (etro.com).
Filson belt.
118
EARTH-SHATTERING
above: Owen slips on a
plaid printed dress by
Rokh (rokh.net) and finishes
her look with a leafy
yarn-embroidered knit dress
by Salvatore Ferragamo
(ferragamo.com). It’s
a look best displayed on a
body in motion. left:
Versace sweater ($1,450;
versace.com), Acne Studios
plaid scarf. Shinola belt.
MOTHER LODE
Owen wears a Dolce &
Gabbana pullover ($2,395;
dolcegabbana.com), a Michael
Kors Collection skirt ($990;
michaelkors.com), and
Weekend Max Mara pants
($375; weekendmaxmara
.com). Billie Rose wears a Dior
vest (dior.com), a Coach
cardigan ($350; coach.com),
and an Etro dress (etro.com).
Isabel Marant shoes. In this
story: hair, Lucas Wilson;
makeup, Grace Ahn.
Details, see In This Issue.
121
Index 2
Safe Travels
There are plenty of ways to skip town
responsibly this fall, from
packing for a cross-country road trip
to setting up camp somewhere
10
9
8
5
7
4
6
CUZ SHE LOVES YOU Other new brands have consciously millions of tons of apparel dumped
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 85 structured their business to give back. in landfills annually. Other answers
thing to me. Because there’s a lot of Lidia May, a luxury leather-goods line include upcycling—retrieving fibers
upset people, and there’s a lot of peo- based in Bangladesh, was cofounded from fabrics to make new ones—and
ple who have power. There’s a lot of by May Yang and Rasheed Khan with “regenerating,” as Marine Serre terms
voter suppression in Black commu- the explicit aim of “uplifting the local her innovative method of re-crafting
nities. But there’s a lot of angry white maker community,” as Yang puts it, old garments and textiles.
kids now. And I’m like, ‘Yo, register to working with a Dhaka-based grass- Frankly, it feels a bit odd to be
vote. Go out. You won’t get suppressed roots organization to train women writing about the perils of fashion
if you try to go to your ballot box.’ You in higher-wage skills like embroidery overproduction and overconsump-
know? I think it’s important to remind and hiring them to produce the fili- tion when, in the midst of COVID,
people of what they can do. My job gree embellishments on the brand’s orders have been canceled, stores are
isn’t to tell you how to vote. But my job handbags. (Full disclosure: I am on going under, and shoppers are hitting
is hopefully to inspire you to vote…to the Lidia May advisory board.) “We’d the brakes on spending. But at some
activate you, so that you can take your like to serve as a model other brands point, the global fashion machine
protest to the ballot box.” can copy,” says Khan. “Most compa- will start spinning again—and the
But first, she knows that in order nies come to Dhaka for the cheap wag- industry will have to decide whether
to save and serve the culture, she has es; what would happen if they started it needs to spin as fast and as furious-
to save and serve herself. “I think it’s investing in this community instead?” ly as it did. Many designers say no:
important that I take full responsibil- According to Dorothée Baumann- Dries Van Noten, Erdem Moralioglu,
ity for the way the world perceives me Pauly, director of the Geneva Center and Tory Burch are among those who
because that is the way they’re gonna for Business and Human Rights, this signed an “Open Letter to the Fash-
perceive someone who looks like me mindset is already trickling up to larg- ion Industry” in May that insisted
in the future. Maybe, hopefully, that er brands. One she cites is the French on a collective slowdown, with fewer
would give some young girl someone firm Decathlon, which makes long- and smaller collections and clothes
to look up to and take away the oppor- term commitments to its suppliers delivered in tune with the seasons for
tunity for someone to weaponize her and collaborates with them to devel- which they were produced.
uniqueness against her. I had to travel op business models that allow both For shoppers, this means fewer
the world and I had to meet people brand and workers to prosper. “Savvy discounts and more saving up for
and read DMs and look into their eyes companies,” says Baumann-Pauly, beautiful clothes—a forgotten habit
and really hear their stories to believe “see the writing on the wall: You’d we might all relearn. And as design-
that I was making an impact in a pos- better align your practices with what ers reorient toward more purposeful
itive way. And now that I believe in this young generation of consumers is pieces with a longer life cycle, expect
myself in that way, I’m gonna continue going to consider legitimate.” to see high fashion continuing the
to just push that conversation by being The health of the planet is one con- process the streetwear revolution
a better me every single day.”@ cern weighing on those consumers’ began, creatively reimagining sta-
minds. In her 2019 book Fashionopo- ple items and dispensing with the
CAN FASHION BE POLITICAL? lis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the idea that every new collection must
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 90 Future of Clothes, Dana Thomas notes erase the last. You can already see
the label’s expansion has been grad- that in 2018, the average American this approach on the Gucci runway,
ual, with Comey’s ambitions hewing shopper bought 68 garments—more where Alessandro Michele evolves
more to fostering customer loyalty than one item of clothing per week. It’s ideas and motifs over time—think
within her artsy niche than to attain- a chicken-and-egg question whether of his irreverent takes on the GG
ing fashion-superstar status—and companies have boosted production to logo or his continual romancing of
many younger designers appear to be meet consumers’ apparently insatiable the awkward-chic pantsuit, a look he
emulating her. Amid the summer pro- appetite for new things, or whether that promotes as gender-neutral. Novel-
tests, designers behind some of New appetite has been whetted by the vast ty for novelty’s sake is out; what’s in
York City’s buzziest labels—Eckhaus increase in goods on offer (Zara alone is happy-making fashion intended
Latta and Jonathan Cohen, to name produces about 450 million garments for everyone, no matter size, race, or
two—joined Comey in pledging a each year)—but the follow-up question gender. “The task that fashion has,”
portion of their proceeds to organi- is the same: What are we going to do as Balenciaga’s Demna Gvasalia put
zations supporting Black Lives Mat- with all this stuff? it recently, “is to bring excitement to
ter. Never mind the fact that, due to Secondhand shopping is one the person wearing it. My upcoming
COVID, their own bottom lines had answer. Gen Z’ers are flocking to apps seasons are full of light, even though
been shattered. (This isn’t without like Depop that let them thrift from we’re in this deep hole of horrible
precedent: During the 1990 recession, their peers’ closets, and sources from a things. Through the work we do we
New York designers banded togeth- 2019 McKinsey report predict that the can talk about this hope—the light
er for the three-day Seventh on Sale resale market a decade from now could at the end of the tunnel.” That it will
bazaar to raise money for the fight be larger than that of fast fashion—a soon seem par for the course to see
against AIDS.) cheering prospect if you fret about the boys traipsing down the catwalk with
125
LOVE & PROTEST They still train constantly and tell me serving in the Provincial Parliament
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 90 that their favorite downtime watch is at the time and feels that protest per-
person, but it feels biblical to me...the old boxing matches on YouTube and manently shifted the government’s
way they speak about life.” that their morning routine consists of approach to racial equity. (Ontario
Given all that, it is something of a a cup of matcha, reading the news, has since established an Anti-Racism
surprise to watch Khan shuffle down and 100 push-ups. “All your shit comes Directorate.) “I have a lot of respect
the hill to a bench for our interview, up,” they say of boxing. “If you rage for those young people who were not
and be struck first of all by the huge- when you are confronted, it comes up. given a lot of respect at the time,”
ness of their pants, light-blue jeans If you shut down, it comes up. If you Coteau told me. “They went through
held up as if by magic, paired with weep, it comes up. And so boxing is all intense pressure...they were on those
a simple black T-shirt and black about control. It is all about control, steps for weeks, in the cold, and no
Gucci Flashtrek boots. Their long strategy, and adaptiveness.” one would talk to them. [But] they
hair is unbraided and unrestrained, When Khan was a teenager, they were strong, brave, and I think really
in a mossy halo reaching out into were placed in group homes, some- thoughtful on how they brought this
the world around them. As we talk times sleeping outside. “Something message to the people, and if it wasn’t
about their activism and what this happened to me when I was around for them I don’t think we’d be in this
moment means, as their huge, derpy 16 and on a park bench much like this environment today.”
dog, Sula, lumbers about, sniffing the one,” they say. “I was hungry, and I One way people think of a strident
grass, breathing loudly on my tape had been on that park bench may- Black Lives Matter activist is as a
recorder, squeezing herself uninvited be seven nights in a row. And I just young fired-up person demanding jus-
but entirely welcomed on my lap, as thought, If I died right now, no one tice, taking every microaggression as a
Khan says, “That’s what I’ll always would even notice.” call to arms, constantly calling for peo-
love about us…the unpredictability This was not a far-fetched idea for a ple to be canceled, screaming “Burn it
within us…we either become the most poor, Black, nonbinary kid in Toronto. all down” until they get their way. But
hideous of things or the closest thing A year or so earlier Khan had been this is just a script that’s been written
to the grace of God,” it feels less like stopped by police and carded, the over years, over generations. Power—
I’m at my job and more like I’m skip- Canadian law-enforcement practice of most especially the power of white
ping first period to hang out with the asking for ID and questioning citizens supremacy, patriarchy, heteronorma-
coolest skater in the school. at random. Studies have shown that tivity, capitalism—protects itself, and
Khan grew up in the projects of Black Canadians are carded at a rate it does so by labeling everyone who
Toronto as one of three kids born to substantially higher than their white challenges it, no matter who they are
a single mother with mental illness and counterparts. But Khan hadn’t just or why they are fighting, as either an
the autoimmune disorder Graves’ dis- been carded, they were strip-searched. irritating thing to be disregarded or a
ease (they have a twin sister and an old- “And I didn’t know that I could say fearsome thing to be destroyed. It can
er brother). Childhood was unpredict- no,” they recall quietly. “They were never acknowledge that the person
able, chaotic and difficult in the way the first people I was ever fully naked challenging it is simply human.
childhoods under those circumstances in front of, outside of my parents as I think here about a 16-year-old
can be, with episodes of homelessness a child…. And they made jokes about Black, queer, nonbinary child alone
and time spent in women’s shelters. my body, made jokes about me…and on a park bench. It occurs to me that
(Khan says they remain close with I was humiliated in a way that I just if our systems of inequality continue
their mother and sister: “My moth- didn’t know I could feel.” to make kids feel they have no worth,
er did the best she could for me, and With that in mind, Khan says, they no agency, no homes, then these
now I do my best for her as a caregiv- fully accepted the idea that no one will be people who will spend their
er, advocate, and friend.”) A move to was coming to help them. “And the lives training to fight. The problem,
Florida to live with their grandmother only way I could live is if I fought to.” of course, is that this idea suggests
did not bring the stability and relief that only the oppressed suffer, and
they had hoped it would. It was in Most people know Janaya Future therefore it is only on the oppressed
Florida, however, that Khan discov- Khan as a fighter. Their prominence to resist. Khan believes otherwise.
ered athletics. “I played basketball in the Black Lives Matter movement It is not uncommon to hear them in
with the desperation of someone who can be dated to 2014, when they interviews or on the Sunday Sermons
needed something to believe in. My helped organize an action outside referring to “scripts,” as in the “script”
gender identity was a basketball,” they Toronto’s U.S. Consulate after the of whiteness, the “script” of heter-
tell me laughing. “If you threw a ball to shooting death of 18-year-old Michael onormativity, the “script” of capi-
me now, I would still have handles.” (It Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, and talism. They argue that these roles,
is the first of two times they will make the much less publicized police killing these ways of being, are pre-written
a “My gender identity is…” joke. The of 33-year-old Jermaine Carby, during lines, and no one among us can be
second time, they will say, “My gender a traffic stop in Brampton, Ontario. fully human while following them.
identity is just…intensity.”) Thousands of people showed up to “I took a long time to step off-
Then, years later, back in Toronto, the Toronto action. Ontario legislative script,” Khan tells me. “It takes a while.
Khan became obsessed with boxing. assemblyman Michael Coteau was It takes a while to be strong enough, to
127
Here was blatant, seductive commerce, of massages, scrubs, wraps, and hydro- impeccably pebbled entrance lot,
which in a metropolitan environment therapy treatments, as well as yoga and beautifully landscaped with cryptome-
so often stands in for life, and which, tennis and a slew of “healing arts,” ria and London plane trees, and punc-
for months, I had nearly forgotten including sound baths, guided medita- tuated by a large stone Buddha and
about. Eyeing the goods on display, tion, and shamanic and crystal rituals. three black Teslas, presumably ready
I felt suddenly flush with pleasure, if The urban-spa experience had been a to ferry guests to their private aircrafts
not necessarily with capital. A fleet of trippy inversion of the usual stepping at the East Hampton Airport. As I
Byredo perfumes were arranged on away from the grit and grime of the approached the entrance, I was wel-
one table, their pleasingly squat glass crowded city; there were no crowds comed by mask-clad, whites-wearing
bottles promising transporting scents to escape. And so I wondered if a spa employees in a nifty golf cart, who
like Oud and Black Saffron. I lifted one excursion would feel more natural in were set to guide me to my room,
of them to my nose; through my mask, more secluded and greener pastures. directly after taking my temperature
I couldn’t smell a thing. On the open road, on a clear and with a non-contact assessment ther-
A few days later, with my thirst for beautiful summer day, it was almost mometer and clamping my pointer
calming but invigorating treatments possible to forget about the pandem- finger into a pulse oximeter.
for body and soul not yet slaked, I ic; whether that was a good thing or “When you close your eyes, imag-
drove to Water Mill, in the Hamp- not, I wasn’t sure, but for the moment, ine that everything that’s outside the
tons, to spend the night at Shou Sugi I pushed my hesitations away. This wood gates, you’ve left behind. All the
Ban House, a Japanese-inspired lux- seemed easy enough to do as, two things you need to concentrate on are
ury wellness retreat and spa, which neat hours after departing Brooklyn, here,” an esthetician named Nicole
opened last year and offers a variety I approached Shou Sugi Ban House’s told me, sotto voce, while she readied
In This Issue
gucci.com. Manicurist: I LOVE NEW YORK Panconesi by Marco
Thuy To. Tailor: Susie’s 92–93: On all: Balneaire Panconesi ear cuff,
Custom Designs. swim caps. 94–95: $415; net-a-porter.com.
Jacket ($3,520), shirt Ana Khouri ear pieces
CUZ SHE LOVES YOU ($2,660), and skirt ($9,000–$21,600);
78–79: Dress, $9,360; ($3,310). Bag, $995; anakhouri.com. Gloves,
Table of contents: Custom Designs. moschino.com. Sylva & jimmychoo.com. $590; gucci.com.
27: Turtleneck ($705), Editor’s letter: 40: On Cie earrings, $78,500; Marc Jacobs shoes, 98–99: Large photo: On
shirt ($600), and skirt Lizzo: LaQuan Smith top Mitchells, Westport, CT. price upon request; Smalls: Coat ($4,250),
($2,245). Turtleneck ($2,275) and skirt Chopard rings and marcjacobs.com. necklace ($1,490),
at net-a-porter.com. ($3,800); laquansmith bracelet, priced upon 96: Top photo: On Fox: and gloves ($320);
Shirt and skirt at .com. Sylva & Cie request; chopard.com. Earrings, $295; Marc Jacobs shoes,
saksfifthavenue.com. earrings, $15,750; Wilkes Tiffany & Co. rings jenniferfisherjewelry price upon request;
34: Top ($4,600) and Bashford, Palo Alto, CA. ($17,500–$70,000) .com. Miu Miu bag, marcjacobs.com.
skirt ($2,750); (800) Chopard rings and and bracelet $1,820; miumiu.com. Bottom row of photos:
550-0005. Tailor: Cha bracelet, priced upon ($350,000); tiffany Boots, $975; On Willis: Coat ($3,490)
Cha Zutic. Cover look: request; chopard.com. .com. 81: Top ($4,200) proenzaschouler.com. and top ($1,290);
34: Dress, $5,900; Tiffany & Co. rings and dress ($7,500); Coat ($11,700) and bag proenzaschouler.com.
Valentino, NYC. Earrings, ($17,500–$70,000) and gucci.com. Earrings, ($2,890). Belt, $320; Gypsy Sport beaded
$16,995; jasonofbh bracelet ($350,000); price upon request; miumiu.com. Boots, chain-link mask, $30;
.com. Chopard rings and tiffany.com. Mia Becar chopard.com. 84–85: $975; proenzaschouler therealreal.com. On
bracelet, priced upon sandals, $695; Top ($2,275) and skirt .com. Bottom photo: Bennett: Blazer ($816)
request; chopard.com. miabecar.com. ($3,800); laquansmith Jacket ($5,350), top and pants ($715); telfar
Tiffany & Co. rings Manicurist: Eri Ishizu, .com. Earrings, $15,750; ($4,600), skirt .net. Hanes tank
($17,500–$70,000) and using Red Carpet Wilkes Bashford, Palo ($2,750), and undershirt, $16 for 6;
bracelet ($350,000); Manicure. Tailor: Susie’s Alto, CA. In this story: sunglasses ($670). target.com. Marni
tiffany.com. Shoes, Custom Designs. Manicurist: Eri Ishizu, Chanel Airpods box (on socks ($65) and shoes
$695; manoloblahnik 48: Dress (price upon using Red Carpet Balenciaga bag), $950; ($590); marni.com.
.com. Manicurist: Eri request) and earrings Manicure. Tailor: Susie’s (800) 550-0005. Scarf, Top left photo: On
Ishizu, using Red Carpet ($790). Dress at select Custom Designs. $295; marcjacobs.com. Ashley: Coat ($3,250),
Manicure. Tailor: Susie’s Gucci stores. Earrings at Lanvin earrings, $420; blouse ($1,700), pants
LOVE & PROTEST lanvin.com. Mejuri ($890), bag ($4,650)
91: Vest and pants, bracelet, $60; mejuri and boots ($1,050);
Editor’s note: For “Dreaming Out Loud” priced upon request; .com. Balenciaga bag, celine.com. Coat, similar
(pages 292–293) in the September 2020 issue, louisvuitton.com. $2,790; Balenciaga, styles at celine.com.
the artist Eric N. Mack was credited as only Necklace, $85; mejuri NYC. Miu Miu clutch, 100: Top photo: Jennifer
a set designer. He provided creative direction .com. Zoë Chicco $2,700; miumiu.com. Fisher huggies ($195)
bracelet, $995; Marc Jacobs shoes, and hoops ($200);
for that shoot. Due to an editing error, zoechicco.com. price upon request; jenniferfisherjewelry
the photographer Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.’s Retrouvai ring, $1,255; marcjacobs.com. .com. Gentle Monster
name was incorrectly spelled. retrouvai.com. 97: Dress, $6,990. sunglasses, $330;
gentlemonster.com. ear piece, price upon ring ($2,270). Dress, bergdorfgoodman Echo scarf, $89;
Gucci sandals, $850; request. Dress, $2,690. price upon request. .com. Shinola belt, echonewyork.com.
gucci.com. Bottom 108–109: Tiffany & Co. $95; shinola.com. Belt, $125; shinola.com.
photo: Dress (price upon Extraordinary Tiffany CLEAN SCHEME 117: Stella McCartney 120–121: On Owen:
request), scarf ($295), platinum-and-diamond 115: On model sitting coat, $2,875. Etro coat, Polo Ralph Lauren
and stole ($750). earrings and diamond- at edge of pool: Maillot, $3,330. Max Mara turtleneck, $248;
101: Dress, $7,650. and-pink-spinel $379; marysia.com. top, $895; maxmara ralphlauren.com. On
Tailor: Cha Cha Zutic. necklace, priced upon On model in pool: Bikini .com. Acne Studios Billie Rose: Vest, $5,400.
request. 110: 14K-gold top ($162) and bottom bandana, $300; Dress, $3,040. Filson
RING, RING, necklace with turquoise, ($162); marysia.com. acnestudios.com. belt, $75; filson.com.
BLING BLING orange sapphire, and On both: Face shield, Blundstone boots, Dolce & Gabbana socks,
104–105: 18K-rose- pink tourmaline stones, $49; illesteva.com. $210; blundstone.com. $575; dolcegabbana
gold-and-diamond $7,300. 18K-gold 118: Top photo: Dress, .com. Isabel Marant
THAN THE AUTHORIZED STORE, THE BUYER TAKES A RISK AND SHOULD USE CAUTION WHEN DOING SO.
earring ($10,800 charm necklace, COUNTING ON $4,695. Scarf, $145; clogs, $730;
MEN TIO NED IN ITS PAG ES, WE CANN OT GUARAN TE E TH E AUTHE N TIC ITY O F ME RC HAN DIS E SOL D
for pair) and choker $43,020. Dress, $2,595. THE COUNTRY chanluu.com. Filson isabelmarant.com.
BY DISCOUN TE RS. AS IS ALWAYS THE CAS E IN PU RC HAS IN G AN IT EM FRO M A N YWH E RE OTHE R
($72,900). Jacket, 111: Gold-and-diamond 116: On Billie Rose: belt, $85; filson.com.
A WO RD ABOUT D ISCOUN TERS WHIL E VOGUE THOROUGHLY RESE ARCH ES THE CO MPANIES
price upon request. earring ($17,900 for Gabriela Hearst sweater, Bottom photo: Dress, INDEX
106: 22K-gold earrings pair) and gold bracelet $890; gabrielahearst $4,720. Belt, $85; 122–123: 12. Cashmere
with garnet, pink ($37,000). Dress, .com. Linea Pelle belt, filson.com. 119: Top knit jogger pants,
tourmaline, and price upon request. $90; lineapelle.com. photo: Skirt, price $5,100.
morganite, $19,800. 112–113: Cartier On Owen: Max Mara upon request. Sweater,
Bvlgari Serpenti ring Reflection de Cartier turtleneck, $525; $10,600. Officine LAST LOOK
($7,900) and High High Jewelry earring maxmara.com. Polo Générale pants, $280; 130: Boot;
Jewelry Serpenti Ring (price upon request for Ralph Lauren skirt, bergdorfgoodman.com. toryburch.com.
(price upon request). pair), necklace (price $498; ralphlauren.com. Bottom photo: Acne
107: Diamond-and-blue- upon request), and Officine Générale Studios scarf, $240; ALL PRICES
paraiba-tourmaline Cartier Clash de Cartier pants, $280; acnestudios.com. APPROXIMATE
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129
Last Look
©J&JCI 2019