Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DR.JILL
BIDEN
A FIRST
LADY
FOR ALL
OF US
UNMUTE
YOURSELF
FASHION
FOR LIFE
AFTER ZOOM
HIGH IMPACT,
LOW FOOTPRINT
THE NEW YORK DESIGNER
REVOLUTIONIZING PARIS
FEN D I B O U T I Q U E S 6 46 520 2830 FEN D I .CO M
ROMA
August 2021
14 needs now. By
Editor’s Letter Jonathan Van Meter
20 54
Contributors This Woman’s Work
Rachel Donadio
on Gabriela Hearst’s
22
arrival at Chloé
Bright Idea
The joys of bold 62
eye color On Their Games
Robert Sullivan
24 spotlights three
Island in the Sun Olympic standouts
A new park opens
on the Hudson River 70
Scene Stealer
30 Alexandra Marshall
Take Me Higher on Lupin star Omar Sy
In three new shows,
characters seek 72
a secular salvation The New Bags
Plucky (and perfectly
34 useful) accessories
Ground Support
Beauty’s latest 84
It ingredient Outer Limits
This fall, jackets have
36 been reinvented and
The Myth and the reimagined
Magic
Louis Vuitton meets 86
the whimsy of Make It Work
Piero Fornasetti Chioma Nnadi
on returning
38 to officewear
Some Like It Hot
NEW DIRECTIONS
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND
DR. JILL BIDEN IN 2017; GABRIELA HEARST (WEARING
CHLOÉ), PHOTOGRAPHED BY THÉO DE GUELTZL;
OMAR SY (WEARING A LOUIS VUITTON MEN’S COAT),
PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONAS UNGER.
Meeting the
Moment
HOW INCREDIBLE TO THINK THAT President
Biden’s Inauguration was only six months ago—it feels
HE A RST: FAS HI O N E D I TOR : CA MI LLA NI C KE RSO N . HA I R, O DI LE G I LB E RT; MA KEUP, TOM PECH EUX. PRODUCED BY
proceeded with such speed that we’re headed into a summer
of relative normality (I wish this were so around the
world). Economic stimulus is also coming, as well as aid to
BLOOMINGDALE’S
Contributors
Théo de Gueltzl
This month, along with shooting the model
Anok Yai in some of the season’s wildest (but Jonathan Van Meter
most wearable) accessories (“The New Bags,” Where Van Meter’s prior profiles of Dr. Jill Biden, published in 2008
page 72), de Gueltzl captured Gabriela Hearst, and 2019, described her life at home in Delaware, surrounded by
Chloé’s new creative director (“This Woman’s family, a rather different tack was required for this issue’s cover story,
D E GU ELTZ L: COU RT ESY O F TH EO D E GUE LT ZL ; VA N M ET E R: JASO N SC HMI DT/TRUNK ARCH IVE. LEIBOVITZ : KATH RYN MACLEOD. VAN ITY FAIR , 20 17.
Work,” page 54). “We shared a lovely morning, “The Doctor Is In” (page 46). Van Meter’s reporting—which
very early, to catch the first light,” says the bade him from the Woodstock, New York, home that he shares with
photographer, who is based in Paris. “We met his husband, Andy, and their “weird cat,” Timmy, to the nation’s
around this weeping willow on the bank of capital—found our first lady endlessly in motion. “It was all on
the Seine.” They connected over their love for the the road,” he says. “Jill was working really hard, helping to sell the
environment, which plays a major role in both American Rescue Plan, opening schools, visiting vaccination sites,
Hearst’s design sensibility and a long-simmering and restarting Joining Forces,” an initiative she’d established with
project of de Gueltzl’s, examining “the Michelle Obama to support military families. The experience was a
relationships between humans and nature in whirlwind—but some things were familiar. “She’s just always this joy
ancient cultures and indigenous communities.” multiplier. Wherever she goes, she’s a very, very cheerful, funny, easy
The day, de Gueltzl says, “was a great memory.” person to be around,” Van Meter says. “That hasn’t changed at all.”
Annie Leibovitz
When, last year, Vogue asked Leibovitz what her life looked like
in lockdown, she shared a portrait of herself doing laundry. And
now? “I still do the laundry sometimes,” she jokes. “The schedule
is more of a hybrid. I don’t spend whole days in my pajamas.
There are some days in the office, some days working from home,
and then sometimes on location, like for the Biden shoot.” At the
White House, where she shot the president and first lady for
“The Doctor Is In,” a surreal scene reflected the complexities of
the moment. “When I met Dr. Biden for a fitting and a location
scout, the furniture in the historic first-floor rooms had been
placed to the side to make space for a virtual summit of world
leaders on climate,” Leibovitz says. “It was a high-tech event,
with video monitors everywhere. Due to COVID, there were no
visitors, and the White House was practically empty.” (The
picture at left comes from a shoot in 2017, a rather simpler time.)
But, like Van Meter, Leibovitz was beguiled by Dr. Jill Biden’s
warmth and authenticity, even when describing the challenges of
the job. “I know it is the first 100 days,” she told the photographer
on her husband’s 96th in office, “but it already feels like 10 years.”
s it possible to will ourselves artist Fara Homidi, noting the somber subtle washes and transparent finishes
LUXURIOUS
TEXTURE
4 WEEKS Reduces the look
of deep wrinkles.
© J&JCI 2021
Island in the Sun
After an almost decade-long gestation, Manhattan’s Little Island opened
this spring—a new kind of green space for an evolving city.
n 2012, Hurricane Sandy rav- Diller offered a counterproposal: about a half-mile of winding paths,
the pier was a ragged shadow of its Trust), Diller’s vision has been realized. disputes), in 2016, overseen by both
former self and in grave need of reha- Sprawled over 2.4 acres, Little Is- the English architecture firm Heath-
bilitation. The Hudson River Park land consists of a large central lawn, erwick Studio and the New York–
Trust approached Barry Diller, who, based Mathews Nielsen Landscape
with his wife, the designer and philan- Architects. Nested in those pots is a
PIER TO PIER
thropist Diane von Furstenberg, had kind of “maritime botanic garden,”
The “pots” of Little Island were inspired by
been the single largest donor to the the old wooden piles that once linked Piers says Signe Nielsen, a founding prin-
neighboring High Line. 54 and 56. Photographed by Stefan Ruiz. cipal at MNLA. Collectively, > 3 0
Take Me Higher
In three new shows, characters
seek a secular salvation.
A
decade ago, with Enlightened, Mike White dis-
EQUAL HOUSING
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f you have sought out less-populated pastures over Mask last year with hydrating reishi and clarifying chaga
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Some Like It Hot
A summer of love plays out in the month’s best books.
Ghosts (Knopf), by Dolly Alderton own instincts. Written in a bracing, though the encounter marks the start
The action in Ghosts, an astonishing- acerbic, and darkly comic register, the of this beguiling book, which unfolds
ly assured debut novel, takes place book is a surprisingly buoyant read, amid the ponds and poison ivy cov-
after Nina George Dean turns 32. a sly investigation of the meaning of ering the Cape. Toggling between de-
She’s a writer with a London flat that devotion.—CHLOE SCHAMA cades, the novel charts a wandering
she adores, a new book in the works, course among the scruffy socialites
two well-meaning parents, and a cir- Everything I Have Is Yours: A who populate this gin-soaked land-
cle of close friends that includes an ex Marriage (Flatiron), by Eleanor scape: salty women in their muu-
with whom she’s unproblematically Henderson Memoirs of marriages muus, men who treat divorce as “just
close. When Nina meets the doting are like confessions—the more hon- a seven-letter word,” kids largely ig-
and superhero-handsome Max, she est, the better. And this one is ruth- nored. Elle, with her loving husband
can’t believe her luck. But her house less. The love story is there: Eleanor and three children, seems to have
of cards soon starts to cave: Her dad’s falls hard for Aaron in a record shop charted a more committed path, but
health takes a turn; the proposal for in Florida in 1997. She is 17. He is her fleeting infidelity—and the sul-
her next book isn’t coming togeth- a 25-year-old straight-edge dream- try memories it provokes—illustrates
er; and after several blissful months, boat, “teeth as white as his T-shirt.” how even the most staid life can take
she’s getting radio silence from Max. She brings him to college and then to an unpredictable tack.—C.S.
Deftly observed and deeply funny, graduate school. Eleanor is ambitious,
Ghosts considers, with what might upwardly mobile. Aaron is mercurial, Afterparties (Ecco), by Anthony
well be described as haunting pre- wounded, seemingly unemployable, Veasna So A series of vignettes
cision, where we find—and how we and given to secrets. She builds a documenting the lives and loves of
hold on to—love.—MARLEY MARIUS life; he tears it apart with his mood Cambodian-Americans in California,
swings and his strange ailments. A Afterparties ricochets between medi-
Agatha of Little Neon (FSG), by medical mystery develops—does he tations on food and family, an eclec-
Claire Luchette In this romance cen- have Morgellons? Schizophrenia? tic array of pop-culture references
tered on an elusive figure of a different Some other psychiatric condition? and the emotional legacy of those who
sort, Agatha, a nun, is transplanted, Or is there something darker going fled the Khmer Rouge. So’s observa-
along with her pious sisters, to a half- on—addiction? Leave him, the reader tions on queer life are particularly in-
way house in the “tuckered-out town” thinks. But life, of course, is not so cisive: In one instance, a charming love
of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. (Lit- simple, and rarely has codependency story blossoms between a righteous
tle Neon is the former convent turned been chronicled with such precision, tech entrepreneur and a young teach-
bridge housing for recovering addicts such poignancy.—TAYLOR ANTRIM er, with the couple finding a strange
and ex-cons, so named because it’s poetry in the rhythms and routines
painted the color of Mountain Dew.) The Paper Palace (Riverhead), by of casual sex. These intimate windows
COU RT ESY O F PU BLI S HE RS.
What follows is an eccentric coming- Miranda Cowley Heller In the midst into this particular immigrant experi-
of-age story in which Agatha, attracted of a dinner party in the backwoods of ence leave a powerful imprint, even if
to the order for its promise of both Cape Cod, Elle steps into the shadows reading So’s work is tinged with sad-
belonging and obscurity, begins to and consummates a long-simmer- ness. The author, who died suddenly
learn that true comfort lies not in ing love affair. The next morning she last year at the age of 28, clearly had
conformity but in awareness of her declares it “the end of a long story,” so much left to say.—LIAM HESS
I d ay o n my c o u c h ,
binge-watching Netflix
and fantasizing about
cake. It was March of 2020,
and my local grocery store
event planner Jennifer Zabin-
ski and Met-gala caterer Oli-
vier Cheng and which offers
packages like “A Night at the
Opera” or “Around the Farm-
had run out of eggs, sugar, and er’s Market.” They’ll send you
flour. It was a minor grievance everything you need in a gi-
in the scheme of things. But ant box—from the asparagus
come 2021, it wasn’t exactly tarte tatin to the Jardin du
something I wanted to repeat. Luxembourg scent diffuser.
So it was with the grace of Dio- “It’s like your own little sa-
nysus that a few weeks before lon,” says Zabinski. The new
my second pandemic birthday, company Party by Numbers
I stumbled upon Savour. An will pack a midcentury bar
app that allows users to book cart with everything from the
chefs—from restaurants like Aperol aperitif to the olive-
Eleven Madison Park, Momofuku, and Noma—Savour branch arrangement to the Bose speakers piping in the
also arranges everything from menus to table mats. A few sounds of the Sanremo Music Festival. Recently they got
taps of my phone and I’d booked a family-style meal by chef the approval of the James Beard Foundation’s Zero Food-
Akiko Thurnauer, formerly of Nobu. The next Thursday, print organization for their carbon-neutral measures.
she knocked on my door, hot-pink eye shadow swiped Then there’s the fash-
across her eyes and a basket of Bao buns on her arm. ionable fleet of mobile
Right now, in many places, we’re in an awkward phase mixologists. The May-
of socializing. After a year and a half of pandemic liv- bourne Beverly Hills
ing, most of us are desperate to see people beyond our in Los Angeles fits an
bubble. As Bronson van Wyck, author of Born to Party, entire bar in the back
Forced to Work, sums it up: “We’re all ready for a true rager. of an Escalade that it
Parties—actual full-on parties—have been in a medically can dispatch to your
induced coma.” Such gatherings are not just frivolous driveway. Meanwhile,
entertainment—they are crucial to our well-being: “Much famed French chef
of what fulfills us are the bonds we create with other people, Yann Nury has turned
and more often than not, those bonds materialize through his 1985 Land Rover
physical interactions,” wrote researchers in an August 2020 into a roaming happy
rizzoliusa.com
ast summer, Nyakio Grieco had a watershed “It really comes to life with the founders,” says Grieco,
The 64 BIPOC-owned brands carried by Thirteen Lune, resonated with me as I unscrewed the cap of Liha Beauty’s
which is named for a sacred number in some African cultures Idan Oil. Its creamy tuberose scent transported me a world
and the 13 moons in a calendar year, offer more than just a away from my Brooklyn apartment, and I was reminded
vetted curation: They offer a sense of discovery and novelty, of how rarely I make time for myself. Rarer still is that I’m
itself a luxury for women of color. On the site I found Brit- encouraged to do so.—JANELLE OKWODU
ish hairstylist Charlotte Mensah’s hydrating shampoo that
is rich in Namibian manketti oil, but I also learned about ALL THE FEELS
KéNisha Ruff ’s journey from Wisconsin cosmetologist With its hyperedited curation, the site is selling the joy of discovering
to founder and creative director of Marie Hunter Beauty. BIPOC-backed beauty products and the voices behind them.
Biden visits
Families Plan President Biden proposed to Congress in
April—she likes to talk about one of her most dedicated
students, a military interpreter from Afghanistan who came
to America to start a new life. “A few semesters ago...I got
community
a text from her—it was like six o’clock in the morning. ‘On
my way to the hospital to have my baby, research paper will
be late.’ To which I replied, Excuses, excuses.” It gets a big
laugh, even from the jaded press corps.
colleges,
No one thought she could keep teaching. “I heard that
all the time during the campaign,” she told me. “Like, ‘No.
which is a lot these You’re not going to be able to teach as first lady.’ And
days, she is received in highly I said, ‘Why not? You make things happen, right?’” But as
choreographed settings by a governor, say, or members of I traveled with Dr. Biden through much of April, I saw just
the public as the nation’s first lady. But to administrators how much time her day job took up: In Albuquerque, New
and teachers, she is Dr. Jill Biden, college professor. At Mexico, the entire retinue of staff, Secret Service, and press
Sauk Valley Community College in Illinois, there were held at our hotel until well into the afternoon, when the
pink and white flowers set out everywhere, befitting her motorcade finally hit the road for a nearly three-hour drive
visit; they even matched her white dress and pink jacket. and a long evening of events in Arizona—because Dr. B
But there was also a welcome dr. biden sign so huge that was teaching her classes over Zoom. On a trip to Illinois,
the period on the Dr. was as big as her head. It felt like a her motorcade sped toward the airport as if there weren’t
subtle rebuke to that scolding she was subjected to back a second to waste. Because there wasn’t: Jill had to teach!
in December for using the title she has every right to. Meanwhile, countless editorials began marking the first
Indeed, in all the places she goes lately she is honored as 100 days of the Biden administration, many expressing
a woman with several degrees who has worked really hard surprised relief over how much was getting done, how
her whole life at the most relat- much legitimately helpful policy
able job there is. Everyone has was moving through the system,
a favorite teacher, after all. On “Oh, please, call me Jill,” how little drama, how few flubs
her visit to the Navajo Nation in or fumbles or ugly fights. Joe
April, Dr. Biden was introduced she will say to people in formal Biden is boring—and that’s not
by someone I came to think of settings who sometimes a complaint. One day, I asked
as the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dr. Biden about the mood of the
of Indian Country: chief justice stumble over how to address her country. “During the campaign,
of the Navajo Nation Supreme I felt so much anxiety from peo-
Court JoAnn Jayne, a tiny woman with hair pulled back ple; they were scared,” she told me. “When I travel around
in a tight ponytail, wearing Doc Martens: “Dr. Biden, the country now, I feel as though people can breathe again.
millions reap inspiration from your quote ‘Teaching isn’t I think that’s part of the reason Joe was elected. People
just what I do; it is who I am.’” In Birmingham, Alabama, wanted someone to come in and heal this nation, not just
she was introduced by a lawyer, Liz Huntley, a sexual-abuse from the pandemic, which I feel Joe did by, you know, get-
survivor whose parents were drug dealers. “I want to thank ting shots in everybody’s arms. But also...he’s just a calmer
Dr. Biden from the bottom of my heart for the role that president. He lowers the temperature.”
she plays not just as the first lady…but for her heart for Part of what makes the Bidens’ right-out-of-the-gate suc-
educating. She told me she’s grading papers on the plane, cesses so extraordinary is that they seem to have perfectly
y’all! What? Who does that?! You know, they say being an read the room: We have been through this enormous, col-
educator is a calling…in your life that you can’t resist, and lective trauma, and here’s a calm, experienced, empathetic
she just won’t let it go.” president, and here’s a first lady who is driven, tireless,
The December debate over titles seems awfully small in effortlessly popular, but also someone who reminds us
the face of all of this: Jill Biden opening schools, visiting of ourselves. She’s selling a new vision for how our most
vaccination sites, traveling to red states to sell the American fundamental institutions ought to work—infrastructure,
Rescue Plan, telling folks that “help is here.” The role she’s education, public health—even as she goes to extraordinary
fulfilling on these visits is, in many ways, neither first lady lengths to keep a real-world job, to stay in touch with what
nor professor but a key player in her husband’s adminis- makes her human and what matters most.
tration, a West Wing surrogate and policy advocate. “An
underestimated asset,” as Mary Jordan, the Washington Post Now it is May, an unseasonably hot Tuesday afternoon,
reporter who’s written a book about Melania Trump, put and I’m sitting with Dr. Biden under a white trellis in the
it to me. “It’s hard to imagine Joe doing this without her.” Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, just outside the East Wing
Which is not to say that Dr. Biden, who is constitutionally of the White House. She is wearing a red dress and red
shy, doesn’t take special delight in these visits. She becomes pumps. Finals were last week; the semester is over. Phew.
48
Today—teacher-appreciation day, as it happens—is the first to learn that she traveled to nearly 40 countries as second
Tuesday since moving into the White House that she did not lady. “And now I have a bigger platform,” she says, “and
have her writing class (one of three she taught this semester I feel every day, like....What could I give up? That I would
at Northern Virginia Community College). She already want to give up? Nothing. If anything, I feel like adding
misses her students, who were, for whatever reason, mostly more things, but I know it’s not possible, because you want
men this semester. “Maybe two months ago they said, ‘Hey, to stay centered, because you want to do things well. And
Dr. B.... Can we ask you a question?’ ” I said yeah. They there’s so much to do. There is...so. Much. To. Do.”
said, ‘When we write in our journals, can we curse?’ ” Dr. Biden’s trip to the Navajo Nation was, in fact, her third
They were worried it was inappropriate because you’re official visit to the tribal land—a fact that was lost on no
the first lady? one. (Business leader and Navajo advocate Clara Pratte
“I don’t know what they thought! We never said the says, “As someone who has worked in this field for a long
words first lady ever. So I said, ‘Yes, you can curse.’ Because time, I can tell you: This is not the norm. But it should be
I tell them they can write anything. And here they are, the norm.”) Dr. Biden’s last trip was two years ago, when
these young men, like, ‘Yes! she came to open “the very
We can curse!’ I loved that. first cancer-treatment cen-
After that class, I felt...good. ter on any American Indian
I’ve achieved what I wanted reservation,” as the Navajo
to achieve: They see me as Nation’s first lady, Phefelia
their English teacher.” Nez, pointed out. Her hus-
Protecting this part of her band, President Jonathan
life is “an underappreciated Nez, added that it was the
big deal,” says the journalist Navajo Nation that helped
Evan Osnos, author of the put Biden over the top in
recent Joe Biden: The Life, the Arizona, with “60, 70, even
Run, and What Matters Now. 80 percent turnout in some
“Because, you know, the iso- places.” There is a Navajo
lation and the seclusion and word, jooba’ii, that sounds
the degree to which that job like “Joe Biden” and means
messes with your head...it’s compassion, he said. “That’s
real. So to be able to step out how a lot of our elders re-
of that, to be able to negotiate membered it at the polls.”
her way out of that, I’m sure, Distances here are vast.
took some stubbornness— The Navajo reservation is
FAMILY VALUES
productive stubbornness.” larger than West Virginia,
Dr. Biden with her grandchildren, Naomi, Finnegan,
He adds that she has a kind Hunter, Maisy, and Natalie, in Delaware. with nearly 400,000 mem-
of “fortitude that most peo- Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, 2019. bers. One of the pool pho-
ple didn’t really pay that much tographers told me that in
attention to”—and this is something I saw on the road. his 15 years of covering the White House, the nearly three-
I watched her hold the hands of nervous women in Albu- hour motorcade ride from Albuquerque was the longest
querque as the vaccine needles went in their arms. (“Look he’d ever taken—an indication of the slog and why hardly
at me,” said Dr. Biden. “It doesn’t hurt. Really. It’s mostly in anyone at Jill Biden’s level ever comes to visit. But the way
your head.”) She is the designated driver on the piece of the she was received here was beyond touching. She gave a live
American Families Plan meant to cut child poverty in half. radio address in front of the red sandstone arch—Window
She is working in tandem with the Secretary of Education, Rock—after which the tribal capital is named. As the sun
Miguel Cardona, “reimagining our education system from was setting, and the speeches from the nation’s dignitaries
preschool to college.” dragged on, the temperature plummeted and the wind
She has also restarted Joining Forces, the military family– picked up—it quickly became teeth-chattering cold. Jill,
support initiative she launched with Michelle Obama who was wearing a dark suit with nude pumps and bare
10 years ago. And it won’t be long before her East Wing legs, looked like she was going to freeze to death. Someone
operation, which is still staffing up, plans state dinners and came over and draped a Navajo blanket around her, which
cultural events, fussing over menus and seating charts happened to perfectly match her Jimmy Choos, enveloping
and Christmas decorations, because someone still has to her like a sleeping bag. “We heard it here today,” said Seth
be the nation’s hostess at the end of the day. Damon, the speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, from
It’s a lot, I say. “Well, don’t you think that I always had a the stage. “You are a fierce warrior.”
lot going on? I like that kind of energy,” she says. “When I “It was more than cold!” says Biden when I ask her
became second lady—and there was so much I wanted to about that evening. “Oh, I couldn’t stop my knees from
do—I always said, ‘I will never waste this platform.’” Most shaking.” She laughs. “Didn’t it feel emotional to you? It
people had only a vague idea of who Jill Biden was during wasn’t just a visit. I feel a real emotional connection to the
those years, except sort of maybe knowing that there was Navajo Nation. They knew I was cold, and the woman
a nice teacher lady who was married to the vice president. came up behind me and put that blanket around me. They
I’d written two profiles of her, and even I was surprised cared about me.”
STOLEN MOMENT
The first couple on a
patio off the Oval Office.
Dr. Biden wears a
Michael Kors Collection
sweater and skirt.
“During the campaign, I felt so much anxiety
from people; they were scared,” she told
me. “When I travel around the country now,
I feel as though people can breathe again”
he night before I started following Jill MAKING TIME
T
Biden around the country, I decided to “We still light the candles, still have the conversations, still put
the phones away,” she says. In this story: hair, Sally Hershberger;
take a walk around the newly fortified makeup, Francelle Daly. Details, see In This Issue.
White House to figure out exactly how to
get in the next morning. I was dumbfound-
ed to see the brutal black fencing, as high country was a part of everything he did, and he inspired
as the towering old trees, and to realize how far I would us, his five daughters, to see America through his eyes.”
have to walk to get to the checkpoint, like something When she finished, she silently walked off the stage. “And
out of Cold War Berlin. The White House perimeter so we begin!” she said to no one in particular, and then
keeps pushing farther out—security creep, with all of laughed. In many ways, Dr. Biden is perfectly calibrated
the attendant police-state vibes—scooping up ever more for this moment—thus far, a nearly pomp-free presidency.
of the city grid. “Oh, please, call me Jill,” she will say to people in formal
But once I was inside the White House the next morn- settings who sometimes stumble over how to address her.
ing, I was greeted by nothing more forbidding than a “Sit down,” she says, laughing, when people stand for a
bunch of nice, nerdy career D.C. people—working. That second too long in her presence. “There’s an unadorned
day Dr. Biden was giving a speech for the Joining Forces thing that I think she values,” says Osnos. “And she’s quite
relaunch in an empty auditorium in the Old Executive suspicious of artifice in others.”
Office Building, next to the West Wing. A handful of After the speech, her 12-car motorcade, sirens blaring,
press, staff, and Secret Service would be on hand, but no sped across the Potomac to Arlington, Virginia. (I said to
eager, tittering audience, thrilled to be invited to the White her, “It must be exhausting to always travel at the speed
House—only the now-familiar wall of human video tiles of motorcade.” “It’s funny,” she replied. “On the way to
behind the podium. When Dr. Biden appeared onstage, the airport, I said to Joe, ‘Where’s all the traffic?’ And then
a production person’s voice came over the sound system: I realized...oh, yeah, they stop the traffic.”) In Arlington,
“Whenever you’re ready to go ahead and start….” She she would be greeted by Charlene Austin, the wife of the
gathered herself and launched in. “This work is personal Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, among others, to take
to me,” she said. “My dad was a Navy signalman in World a tour of Military OneSource, a resource hub and call
War II and went to college on the GI Bill. His love for this center for service members and their families. Among the
52
White House reporters following her today—all women, emotional as I relayed this coincidence of timing. When
many of whom covered the Trump administration—there I composed myself, I looked up at Jill, and she, too, had
was a lot of chatter, almost complaint, about how much tears in her eyes.
more information they now receive: so many emails! Full
readouts of calls President Biden has with foreign leaders t’s very early on a stormy Monday morning in ear-
I
arrive in their inbox the same day—as opposed to five ly May at Joint Base Andrews, and the press corps
days later with just one sentence saying that it happened, that follows the president (mostly middle-aged
which was usually as good as it got with the Trump folks. white guys) is standing under one of the wings of
As Dr. Biden toured the call center, a woman who works Air Force One trying to keep dry. When Marine
here thanked her for her time and attention. “No,” said Dr. One—the helicopter that flies the president from
Biden, “thank you. We need you. Really. These families are the White House to his plane—lands and then roars up
desperate…if your child is not happy, your whole world just to disgorge POTUS and FLOTUS (and the man carrying
falls apart. You’re giving them hope and joy.” As the tour the football), it feels like a show of muscularity that is
was ending, she talked to a member of the military who told particular to the United States—one that is no longer in
her that he used the call center to find a counselor when he the hands of someone for whom that seemed to matter
and his wife were having a “very hard time adjusting to mil- too much and for all the wrong reasons. The quasi-march
itary life.” “Did you go into counseling with your spouse as across the tarmac, the crisp salute to the commanders and
well?” asked Jill. Not at first, he said, but eventually. “Well, sergeants in place to greet him—it suits Joe, in his aviators,
you have to,” she said. “You’re in a relationship.” so tall and thin in his impeccable blue suit.
Two days later, the first lady was on yet another trip—to The president and first lady are traveling to southern
Birmingham, Alabama, quite purposely traveling to a red Virginia today, a double act, both of them to give speech-
state as part of the “Help Is Here” tour, meant to amplify es meant to highlight the Biden administration’s jobs
how the American Rescue Plan ad- and families plan. Their first stop
dresses child poverty. In nearly every is at a magnet school, Yorktown
way, it felt like a campaign stop: a “She came in knowing Elementary—and Mrs. Bertamini’s
speech in a gymnasium in a YWCA, the experience of being fifth-grade class in particular. There
with local dignitaries, like former are 18 students in their third week
Democratic senator Doug Jones, vice president,” says Biden, of in-person learning. All of them
and a speech from Birmingham’s
mayor, Randall Woodfin. But it was
“knowing the power of the have three-sided plexiglass shields
perched on their desks, along with
Congresswoman Terri Sewell, in her presidency—knowing that elaborate weather-related science
bubble-gum-pink suit, who stole the
show with her volume and intensi-
she could change things” projects they’ve just completed. Press
and staff, who are cordoned off in a
ty. “I am so proud to have been the corner of the room, outnumber the
only Democrat in Alabama’s delegation to vote in favor students, who seem startled into silent amazement by this
of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan,” she said on- once-in-a-lifetime intrusion into their precarious world.
stage. She talked about the big infusions of money the After the Bidens enter the classroom—introduced as the
state, county, and city would soon be receiving. She talked Very Special Guests they most certainly are—Jill makes a
about the child tax credit, how the Biden administration beeline for a girl in the back of the room and then heads over
is “expanding it, by providing direct payments in the to a student named Andrew. She hovers over his project, asks
form of a child allowance. This year, families will receive a series of thoughtful questions, while her husband, shifting
$3,600 per child under the age of six and $3,000 per child from one foot to the other, looks a little out of place—letting
between the ages of six and 17.” (The checks, for more the wife take the lead on this one. Not a chance. “Come on,
than 65 million children, begin landing in people’s bank Joe!” says Jill, waving him over. He hesitates for a moment
accounts in July.) “This is a big plan…. Good governance and then, perhaps realizing there are cameras trained on
creates an environment that allows all of our people—all him, takes control. “What do you want to be when you
of our people—to reach their full potential.” grow up?” he says to one of the kids.
On the flight home to D.C., Dr. Biden came to the “Fashion designer,” says the student. He turns to
back of the plane for an off-the-record gaggle. It’s some- another kid. “How about you?” A music artist mumble-
thing I saw over and over again—her solicitousness with mumble-mumble. “A what?” Someone on his staff says
reporters, the times she apologized for keeping us wait- it louder: A MUSIC ARTIST. “Well, I’ll be darned!”
ing. “I’m trying to get to know them,” she told me later. says the president. “And you?” A hairstylist, says the kid.
S ET D ES IG N , MA RY HOWA RD ST UD I O.
53
Gabriela Hearst’s arrival at Chloé has ushered in a whole new era for the
French house. On the eve of Hearst’s debut, Rachel Donadio meets a designer
intent on creating with clear-minded purpose. Portrait by Théo de Gueltzl.
This Woman’s
Work
O
N A SUNNY WINTER AFTERNOON IN “I didn’t expect there would be so much of her handwrit-
Paris, Gabriela Hearst, the new creative ing so quickly,” says Natalie Kingham, the global fashion
director of Chloé, buzzes around the officer for MatchesFashion, who singles out the knitwear
house’s atelier in the 8th arrondissement. and the ponchos with parka collars. Hearst, she says, has
She’s about to present her first Chloé offered “a very elegant, grown-up version” of the Chloé
collection with an atmospheric video woman, who, while free-spirited, also wants to know where
shot at night in pandemic-empty Saint-Germain-des-Prés, her clothes come from. “I think that’s how women want to
and models are parading into a room lined with racks of feel and want to look,” Kingham says. “They want to wear
clothes while assistants in masks put the finishing touches clothes that are going to get them through the day, but in
on each look: There’s a flowy marbleized red-and-green an ethical way—a way that makes them feel wonderful.”
silk crepe dress, a chunky knit ankle-length dress, a long Hearst designed the collection in record time and showed
coat of scalloped brown-leather scales that looks, in the it only three months after being named to the job, while
best way, like Joni Mitchell might have worn it in 1971. also running her own label. She keeps a dry, playful sense
Every so often, someone asks Hearst a question, and she of humor about the insanely intense schedule. “I’m not
nods and offers a “Oui, merci” in slightly Spanish-accented creatively unsatisfied,” she tells me as we sit on the side-
French. “My French is ‘Oui, merci,’ ” Hearst says, a bit lines of the atelier. When Hearst was named to Chloé last
apologetically, as she urges me to feel a soft, thick poncho December, many wondered why she would want the job. She
made from recycled cashmere with a zippered parka neck. already had her own successful house, which has become
Reusing existing materials to make impeccably tailored popular with powerful women like Dr. Jill Biden, who wore
new creations is classic Hearst. Raised on a cattle ranch a white Hearst dress with floral embroidery on the night
in her native Uruguay—hence the ponchos—and married of her husband’s inauguration and a navy iteration for his
to a scion of one of the most storied families in America, first address to Congress. While women are often held to
Hearst, who founded her eponymous label in 2015, has a different standard than men when it comes to juggling
come to embody a certain kind of intelligent, sustainable careers and families, taking on a second job, in Paris, was
luxury. She communicates an urgency around the climate still a lot for Hearst, who lives in Manhattan’s West Village
crisis—but she does so with elegance, joie de vivre, and with her husband, John Augustine Hearst—who goes by
something of a frontier spirit. Hearst’s mandate at Chloé is Austin and is an executive and a grandson of William
to bring a current of engagé environmentalism and purpose Randolph Hearst—their six-year-old son, Jack, and her
13-year-old twins, Mia and Olivia, from her first marriage.
P RO DUC ED BY KI T T E N P RO DUCT I ON .
54
Photographed by Zoë Ghertner.
Hearst communicates an urgency
about the climate crisis—but
she does so with elegance, joie de vivre,
and something of a frontier spirit.
SLEEP NO MORE
Hearst created, with Bas
Timmer of Sheltersuit
Foundation, repurposed
sleeping-bag parkas
(which are not for sale)
and backpacks (which
are, with a portion
of proceeds going to
Sheltersuit). Model
Adut Akech wears a
Sheltersuit & Chloé
coat. Chloé dress.
she says. Hearst tells me she had a dream in 2017 that she cannot allow that as a species,” she continues, nor can she
would design for Chloé, and later lobbied the house’s CEO, abide by it “as a businessperson, as a woman, as a mother.”
Riccardo Bellini. (“He thought I was crazy,” she says.) The house has a long tradition of strong women design-
But her emphasis on sustainability and her track record ers, with the notable exception of Lagerfeld, who blazed
of strong accessories were a good fit with Bellini’s plan to a trail at Chloé with softly feminine dresses before leaving
refocus the brand with what he calls a “purpose-driven for Chanel in 1983, and Paulo Melim Andersson, who led
business model.” Hearst leveled with her family: If she the house briefly after Philo. Under McCartney, it became
took the job, “the ones that are going to be screwed are the go-to French house for the joyous flirtatiousness of the
you, because I have less time for you,” she told them. If late ’90s; Philo, who took over in 2001, virtually defined
they had said no, she says, “I wouldn’t have done it—that’s the boho-glam look of her era. More recently, creative
the reality.” They told her to go for it. directors Clare Waight Keller and Natacha Ramsay-Levi
Hearst is tall, with high cheekbones, chin-length ash- produced well-received collections. With Hearst, though,
blonde hair, and pale eyes. On the day we meet, she’s dressed Chloé is telegraphing a new focus on values as much as on
in her first Chloé collection: a chunky, mustardy-green knit trends—or at least signaling that values are the latest trend.
pullover, a long off-white pleated wool skirt, and cream-col- Today’s Chloé woman has different priorities. Bringing on
ored crepe wedge-heel boots. Large gold cutaway earrings Hearst is “very courageous,” says Olivier Gabet, the director
frame her face, which has little makeup. For all the stage of Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs. “She’s less known to
management of launching a new collection, Hearst is ines- the public, but she has the guts and the vision to bring Chloé
capably herself and bracingly open about the challenges back to what made it strong in the ’60s and ’70s.”
she has faced. The house was founded in 1952
She tells me she sees the Gabrie- by another Gaby: Gaby Aghion,
la Hearst line as Athena, the Greek “For me, it’s about a Chloé a vivacious entrepreneur from a
goddess of wisdom and war—a more Greek-Italian Jewish family who, with
cerebral femininity; clothes for wom-
woman,” Hearst says. her husband, Raymond, left her native
en who are running companies— “And as a woman, Alexandria, Egypt, after World War II.
while Chloé is Aphrodite, the In Paris, Aghion and Raymond, a gal-
goddess of love, a more sensual
sometimes we want to feel lerist and anti-fascist activist, frequent-
power, younger. In pitching Bellini, younger, sometimes we ed Left Bank cafés and intellectual
she produced a 92-page booklet of circles. (Their son, Philippe Aghion,
images with a Venn diagram of where
want to feel older. is a world-class economist known for
the two houses would overlap in What we never want to his theories of how creative destruction
concepts, including “Handcrafted,” can lead to economic growth.) Aghion
“Sustainability,” “Wholehearted,”
feel is boring” didn’t need to work but saw a gap in
and “Purpose-driven.” But she also the market between haute couture and
articulates clear stylistic differences. “You will never see a bespoke tailoring and began designing fresh cotton dresses
Gabriela Hearst woman in a pair of sweatpants in the air- that reminded her of home—the pink and beige of the Egyp-
port,” she tells me. You’ll never see a scallop, a key element tian sand, which she said “feels like silk in your hands”—and
of Chloé’s stylistic DNA, in Gabriela Hearst. Hemlines selling them to boutiques with her own label. Thus was born
for Gabriela Hearst will never go above the knee; Chloé’s high-end prêt-à-porter. Chloé was always “very feminine,
will. It sounds like the mythical Chloé girl is growing up. very sensual, chic, very intelligent,” Gabet says. And while
“For me, it’s about a Chloé woman,” Hearst says, though Chloé was born in the heyday of French existentialism, he
she wants Chloé to keep its youthful spirit. She draws inspi- says, “now it’s a question of environmentalism.”
ration from her 13-year-old daughters and from friends in
their 80s. “As women, sometimes we want to feel younger, orn Gabriela Perezutti Souza in 1976, Hearst
B
sometimes we want to feel older,” she says. “What we never is the fifth generation of her family raised
want to feel is boring.” in Uruguay. Her father’s family emigrated
Now she aims to apply the sustainability approach of from northern Italy, her mother’s from Por-
her own smaller house at the much larger Chloé. “Doing tugal via the Azores and Brazil. Her mother,
it successfully, for me, will mean having a luxury brand Sonia, still lives in Uruguay, off the grid,
at a much higher scale in volume than Gabriela Hearst,” on a solar-powered ranch. (Family snapshots of Hearst
she says. “It’s a very ambitious target but something as a girl with her mom on horseback sometimes show up
that wakes me up every morning to want to do this job.” on the Gabriela Hearst Instagram.) Hearst is the eldest
For all Hearst’s drive, though, the most important thing of four. For first grade, she was sent to Uruguay’s capital,
in her life isn’t fashion but family and friends. Her com- Montevideo, to live with her grandmother and attend the
mitment to sustainability comes from a place of righteous posh British School. “This was pre-globalization,” Hearst
anger. She tells me about a 2017 trip she took to Turkana, says of her childhood. “We didn’t have cable TV until I
in northern Kenya, with Save the Children, a charity that was 15.” From early on, she knew she would leave. “It
she and Austin support, where she saw malnourished was very predictable, my future, if I didn’t make changes,”
children and women who had to walk for miles for water. she tells me. “You would marry someone from a similar
“It was infuriating to think that—today—families have background, you would send your kids to the same school,
to choose between migration and famine,” she says. “We you would become a member of the lawn tennis club.”
58
She wanted more. She spent a year of high school in the size that it is, but we’ve decided to go slow because it
Australia, came back to Uruguay to study communi- didn’t make sense from a sustainable perspective.”
cations, tried modeling in Paris and Milan, and then Chloé is trying the same approach and has committed to
moved to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood reduce its carbon emissions and water consumption by 25
Playhouse—the Meisner Technique. “It’s about perform- percent by 2025 (its headquarters and its Paris boutiques
ing from a place of honesty,” she says. While excellent already operate on 100 percent renewable energy). The
training, it wasn’t for her. “I was not very good at taking house has also begun a collaboration with the Sheltersuit
direction,” she says. She worked as a waitress and in a Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit that has made a parka
retail showroom. In 2003, in Brooklyn, she started her with an attachable sleeping sack for the homeless and
first clothing line, Candela, silk-screening T-shirts—the for refugee camps—a creative solution to a desperate
first one depicted a winged woman riding a horse, inspired problem. For Hearst’s first Chloé collection, Sheltersuit’s
by her mother. founder, the Dutch designer
As the label started to take Bas Timmer, designed a line
off, Austin Hearst became of colorful backpacks using
an investor. The two had Chloé deadstock fabrics, with
met through mutual friends a percentage of the sales sup-
at a party in Buenos Aires porting the nonprofit, whose
in 2004. “I didn’t like him at Dutch workshop is staffed
first—he knows that,” she by refugees. (The sleeping
says, direct as always. But parkas themselves are not
they stayed friends. In 2011, for sale.) “She calls it altruis-
her father died. They had tic design,” Timmer tells me
been very close. There were when we meet for a chat in the
inheritance lawsuits, and Place des Vosges. He’s wear-
when Gabriela ultimately ing a rain jacket and a hood-
prevailed and inherited his ie sweatshirt he’s fashioned
ranch, Austin sent her a giant from fabric in the Chloé ware-
bunch of white flowers with house. “With this collabora-
a note that said, “Nobody tion, there’s a chance that we
fucks with my baby.” The can disrupt a bit the fashion
couple married in 2013—a industry, even the nonprofit
City Hall wedding (she wore industry,” he says. “If Chloé
Valentino), then a big party takes this step, we can inspire
at the Museum of Natural more brands.”
History (she wore Dior). While Hearst doesn’t have
Austin Hearst is also a formal design training, she
cofounder and investor in sketches copiously. She
the Gabriela Hearst label. keeps a dream journal to
She had wanted to name it EARNING HER STRIPES gather ideas and operates
simply Perezutti, her sur- Akech exudes joyous sophistication in an electric knit frock. largely on instinct. She also
name, but a friend told her Chloé dress and mules. works closely with her best
that no one would be able to friend and muse, Stephanie
pronounce it, so she settled on Gabriela Hearst: her design, de Lavalette, a cofounder of the Gabriela Hearst brand
his investment. “It was never a ‘Let my wife have a hobby’ who has joined her at Chloé. The two met in the early
situation,” she tells me. “This is a business.” I ask her how aughts and were roommates on Bank Street when de
she and Austin balance the marriage and the work, and Lavalette, who is French, still worked in finance. “Gabri-
she rolls her eyes. “Do you like to have budget meetings at ela likes to say that I’m the president of GSD—getting
11 o’clock at night in your own bed?” shit done,” de Lavalette tells me with a smile. She helps
In 2019, LVMH became a minority investor in Gabri- produce the fashion shows and the bags, oversees market-
ela Hearst. The brand is sold only at a few retailers and ing and communications, and is an all-around sounding
her own two shops, in New York and London. Hearst’s board. “My role has also changed as the company has
Nina bag, produced in small quantities and inspired by grown,” she says. Hearst is the godmother to de Lavalette’s
the sculptures of Botero (and named after Nina Simone), son, who is close with Hearst’s son. They’ve been there for
has long waiting lists. Oprah wore one to the wedding of each other through the births of children and deaths of
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry; Markle herself wore parents. Talking to de Lavalette, I understand why another
one a few months later. Hearst is savvy and seems to have word in the Venn-diagram overlap between Hearst’s label
found the sweet spot where sustainability and exclusivity and Chloé is “Friend-Tribe.”
meet. “We had many opportunities for very rapid growth, De Lavalette and I are sitting over green tea in Hearst’s
and we declined those,” she says when I ask how she rec- office at Chloé. There are family photos and art and poet-
onciles sustainability with producing four collections a ry books on the shelves: Allen Ginsberg, Pablo Neru-
year for two different houses. “My business could be triple da, Hilma af Klint; a book on C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 0 1
59
EDGING FORWARD
Chloé’s scalloped edges
once signified girliness;
with Hearst’s debut, they
now delineate grown-up,
thoughtful glamour. Chloé
leather dress and belt.
FRINGE BENEFITS
Hearst looked homeward
to her native Uruguay
for Chloé’s all-enveloping
artisanal ponchos. Chloé
puffer-poncho. All
clothing and accessories
at chloe.com. In this
story: makeup, Ana G de V.
Produced by Alexis
Piqueras at AP Studio Inc.
Details, see In This Issue.
S ET D ES IG N , E MMA V I V I A NA G ON ZA L EZ.
LO CA L P RODUCT I O N BY H A BI TA NT;
ON THEIR
GAMES
For American swimmer Simone Manuel, gymnast
Sunisa Lee, and sprinter Noah Lyles, the Tokyo Olympics
can’t come soon enough. By Robert Sullivan.
GOLDEN
OPPORTUNITY
“You go through
these roller-coaster
emotions,” says
Simone Manuel, a
sprint freestyle
swimmer who took
two golds and two
silvers at the Rio
Olympics in 2016.
Free People bralette.
Commando bikini
briefs. Hair and
makeup, Kaori Nik.
Fashion Editor:
Tonne Goodman.
PRO DUC E D BY ST E PH A N IE O’CO N N OR .
D
though they are
poised to take place
in 2021, the Olym-
pics that we’ve all
been waiting for
are still the 2020 Olympics. From
the perspectives of the athletes, it’s
as if they’ve been at the starting
blocks all along, waiting to burst
out, to dive or mount, throw or take
one long last leap. From the point of
view of everybody else, the notion
of athletes returning feels like that
next moment in a relay, when a baton
from life before the pandemic gets
passed on to a runner after, the teams
joyfully picking up speed in a new
world—and, somehow, speeding us
along with them.
Sure, logistics are always changing,
with health precautions like so many
crucial hurdles, but the anticipation
is building, with more competitions
and the return of qualifying meets.
“Me, personally, I am somebody who
loves to be social,” says Noah Lyles.
America’s 200-meter sprinting star
has already won in New York and
surged ahead late—his trademark—
to win at the USATF Golden Games
in California. “I love to go out and
hang out—and practice—with other
people. I love it! To train with others
and get that excitement, that…edge!”
As was the case for everything
else, the schedule for the 2020 Olym-
pics did not go as planned. At the
beginning of March 2020, Simone
Manuel, who won two gold and two
silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olym-
pics and was planning on continuing
her streak in Tokyo, had just finished
up a swim meet in Des Moines while
talking to her mom. Rumors about
the virus were flying. “My mom
64
RUNNING START
For Noah Lyles, a
200-meter sprinting
star, training within
COVID protocols was
tough. “I’m somebody
who loves to be social,”
he says. Louis Vuitton
Men’s coat, shirt, tie,
and pants. Grooming,
Jennifer Beverly.
Fashion Editor:
Alex Harrington.
was saying, ‘Should you be taking She did her best to keep things in
pictures with fans? Should you be perspective, but like everyone, she
signing autographs?’ ” Manuel, 24, missed the least extraordinary things,
recalls. Three days after she got back like a trip to the mall or to the nail
to her home in California, the pool salon—and if you follow her on In-
she trained in closed up, the 2020 stagram, you already know that she
games still theoretically on. “And is not fooling about her nails, a tiny
nobody had a plan,” she says. detail that makes her photo finishes
A gymnastics version of that hap- even more impressive. Fortunately,
pened to 18-year-old Sunisa Lee, swimming is a kind of therapy for
who goes by Suni. A veteran of the her, but Zooming with her mother
U.S. team that won the gold at the and father in Texas did not replace
2019 world championships in Stutt- hugging them. “I went on walks, and
gart, Germany, Lee was practicing I’m not a walker!” Did she turn into
her uneven-bar magic at her gym one? She breaks into laughter. “No!”
in the suburbs of St. Paul one day Perspective reminds us that, for
and doing Zoom workouts at home better or worse, perseverance is in
the next. Time stood still—until it the definition of an Olympic athlete,
didn’t. “It’s crazy how fast the time and for these games, perseverance is
has gone,” she says. being tested, only more. Lyles and
One by one, athletes everywhere his brother, Josephus, who is also
concocted new ways to train or res- a professional sprinter, played just
urrected old ones. In Florida, Lyles about every sport growing up, but
worked out on grass and on week- it was during the USATF Nation-
ends took up roller-skating—a hob- al Junior Olympic Championships,
by that initially shocked his trainers, when Noah lost during the high-jump
until they saw that it was less about finals, that his mother, Keisha Caine
speed and more about a vibe. “I fig- Bishop—herself a standout runner—
ured out that a bunch of my friends, saw the 12-year-old transforming
like, love to roller-skate. I actually into a champion. “After he lost, he
got pretty decent.” Lee started run- came over to me,” Bishop recalls, Bolt–like tendency that Bolt himself
LYL ES: P H OTOG RA P H ED BY H YP E W I LLI A M S. LE E: P HOTOG RA P HE D BY JOSH O LI NS. MANUEL: PH OTOGRAPH ED BY DANA SCRUGGS.
ning with her teammates, outdoors, “and I said, ‘Hey, Noah—how’re has noticed, along with Lyles’s speed.
and cooking with her mom, indoors. you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m great.’ I (“He looks like he wants to do great
“It’s just so much healthier,” she says. said, ‘Are you disappointed that things,” Bolt told USA Today this
(She reports, also, that it tasted great.) you didn’t win?’ He said, ‘Nope, I’m spring.) It’s a pre-race strategy that
Thanks to her coach, Manuel man- good—I’ll come back next year.’ ” It Lyles compares to that of a lion,
aged to find a backyard pool seeming- doesn’t hurt that Lyles has an Olym- which rests by day but comes out
ly designed for her needs: two lanes, pian’s physical mechanics (in stride strong when it’s time to attack and
with poolside race clocks and starting frequency and length) or that he (like amaze. Forgoing a mane, Lyles was
blocks. “You’re in California, and you Lee and Manuel) is a student of his recently spotted wearing a leopard-
have really big swim and water-polo sport. “You hear this a lot,” says his and-camo-print running suit—and,
fans, so everybody has these massive coach, Lance Brauman, “but he is as always, entertaining socks. “I’m
pools,” she says. Was she surprised at built to run.” heavily into fashion,” he says, “and
such a made-for-closed-swim-centers The first Olympics that amazed it’s funny, because in my high school
setup? “Yes,” she says, “but at the him were the 2012 London games, years, all I wanted to do was run, so I
same time, if this were to be anywhere, when he was 15 and mostly watched very much didn’t care about how
it would be in California!” gymnastics. “I just thought Gab- I looked. I basically dressed like a
The pool’s owners donated its by Douglas was the coolest person dad—a non-cool dad.”
daily use to Manuel and her former because, one, she was young,” Lyles As a young girl, Lee was always
Stanford teammate Katie Ledecky, says. “Two, she was Black, and three, grabbing her mom’s phone to watch
but the initial rush of fortunate feel- she was the first to do something.” gymnasts flip, then repairing to
ings gave way to more complicated (She was the first Black woman to the nearest couch or bed to try one
emotions in the shut-down world. win the Olympic all-around gymnas- out. Her father spotted her in those
“Sometimes I felt a little guilty,” tics title.) “I just thought, Yeah—I days and then, as her gymnastics
Manuel recalls. “It was hard doing want to go out there and be some- improved, organized fundraisers at
it knowing that the Olympics were body who’s the first to do something. local Hmong restaurants to help pay
postponed. You go through these The Olympics hits everybody.” He for travel to national and then inter-
roller-coaster emotions—you’re also wants to entertain, his race national meets, coaxing Lee to sing,
thinking, Ah, it’s another year to plan so closely mind-mapped that which she loved. “My dad would pick
get better, and the next you’re like, his way of keeping cool is putting some songs,” she remembers, “and
But I was ready for it right now.” on a show for the cameras—a Usain I’d say, ‘What is this song?’” (Once it
66
BY AIR, BY LAND, AND BY SEA
right: Gymnast Sunisa Lee in a Dion
Lee bodysuit. below: Manuel in a
Givenchy dress. above: Lyles in Adidas.
PASSING THE BAR
For Lee, Zoom
workouts have
given way to Tokyo
travel plans. “It’s
crazy how fast the
time has gone,” she
says. Alaïa dress.
Hair and makeup,
Peter Phung. Details,
see In This Issue.
Fashion Editor:
Max Ortega.
hen I talked
W
with the
was Bette Midler’s version of “Wind on water so much that they win,” athletes as
Beneath My Wings.”) The Twin Cit- Manuel says, “but it’s okay.” the sum-
ies area is home to the largest urban After she finished Stanford, where mer was
Hmong community in the U.S., and she studied communications and ab o u t t o
when Lee wins, she is winning for the African and African American stud- begin, Manuel had been to a meet
Hmong neighbors who supported her ies, 2020 was to be Manuel’s year and remembered all the things you
in the gym and supported her father: to concentrate on the Olympics, forget—hotels, logistics—and had
While helping a friend, he fell off a with summertime the final lap of just returned from a three-week rest.
ladder, suffering a spinal-cord injury four years of prep. The summer, of She’d gone back to Sugar Land, Tex-
that paralyzed him from the chest course, marked the beginning of his- as, her hometown, to binge-watch
down a few days before Lee won a toric mass uprisings, and as the first Good Girls (“They’re not good
gold, a silver, and a bronze medal Black woman to win an individual girls!”) and savor Shipley’s glazed
at the national championships in medal in Olympic swimming, she doughnuts (“a pillow of goodness”).
2019. Her father FaceTimed Lee at was acutely aware of the swimming Lyles had just begun to run 200s
the nationals from his hospital bed pool as a historic site of racial con- again too, and watching him come
to cheer her on, but no one knew test in modern American history: out of the first turn was like watch-
what she was going through as she The pool was like the lunch count- ing someone turn on a jet pack, an
attempted a bar routine that she had er at the start of the Civil Rights explosive speed he describes like a
upgraded in difficulty. As she aced movement, when, for instance, acid physicist: “When you come out to
the landing, the commentators pre- was poured in a pool in the vicinity the straightaway, if you stay in the
dicted Tokyo gold. of Black bathers. Later, as suburbs middle or come even closer to the
The very sound of water would expanded and cities continued to inside of the lane, you will actually
cause Simone Manuel fits of joy as segregate, the ability to swim marked take all that speed that you built up,
a child—she laughs as she remem- both access and privilege, as it does and it will force you out.”
bers fierce attempts to fling herself today. (The percentage of Black Suni Lee had just aced the bars at a
into the tub, anybody’s tub, whether members in USA Swimming is, by meet in Indianapolis, a 10-hour drive
undressed for it or not. “Whenever I their own accounting, somewhere with her teammates to an event that
heard the water running, I would just in the single digits.) Immediately was spectator-less but televised—a
get super excited, kind of like when following her wins at Rio, Manuel strange and pressure-making com-
a dog is ready for a walk,” she jokes. was on MSNBC encouraging Black bination—and her coach was rav-
Her older brothers were on the swim children in the U.S. with little or no ing. “She really puts everything into
team, and after watching them she swimming ability—69 percent—to it—not just the gymnastics but to
announced to her parents she could learn. (“You can do it,” she said, be everything she can be,” says Jess
swim. She wasn’t kidding. “Why is still standing poolside.) Later she Graba. She came with a new bar
Simone not doing what the others are noted that, according to the CDC’s routine and, as per her custom,
doing?” her mother asked the instruc- last study, in 2014, Black children spoke to nobody beforehand but at
tor when she spotted her daughter are 5.5 times more likely to drown last, when she landed, broke open a
swimming across the pool on day two in swimming pools. Television huge, winning smile. After all, she
of lessons. “Why isn’t she…floating?” announcers throughout her ascent in had left the earth, launching into
The response: “Some kids are just the sport tended to describe Manuel her Nabieva—the technical term for
ready to swim.” Her brothers can still as “coming out of nowhere,” when when, to the layperson, she is soaring
beat her—but not because they’re she was there—usually, after the like a bird. “I am literally flying over
faster. “Their technique is so terrible, finish, on a podium—all along. In the bar and catching it,” Lee says. “It
and then I’m laughing and choking her own telling, it’s a bias she has feels so cool.” @
69
Omar Sy’s sensational, stylish turn in the Netflix series Lupin has made him
more than the leading man of our moment. Alexandra Marshall reports
on a French star at the forefront of a new wave. Photographed by Jonas Unger.
Scene Stealer
“M
y sense of adventure comes from generation came into its own, a different view began to take
the place I grew up,” says Omar Sy, hold. Sy is 43; his cohort includes stars like Debbouze, who
the star of Lupin—the Netflix series went on to have a huge career in comedy, and the stand-up
that has become an international comedian Gad Elmaleh; actors like Aïssa Maïga and Tahar
phenomenon—and easily the most Rahim; and filmmakers like Roschdy Zem. As they gain
beloved actor in France. (Three times success and creative recognition, the drab, grim, piously
Sy has been voted France’s favorite person, on an open well-meaning banlieue dramas of French cinema have given
ballot.) The place he’s talking about is Trappes, one of the way to shows like Lupin, which are aspirational, gorgeous,
infamous banlieues about 20 miles west of Paris, which, col- upbeat, and not at all preachy. “Thank God people of this
lectively, occupy a complicated place in the French national generation now have the means to express ourselves in fash-
imagination. Banlieues are suburbs outside major cities ion, literature, and art,” Sy says. “We speak of ourselves,
filled with housing projects that were cheaply construct- and we’re stylish and sexy.”
ed for immigrant workers during France’s postwar labor Lupin is certainly stylish and sexy—a breathlessly paced
shortage. As jobs dried up in the 1980s and ’90s, austerity caper series loosely based on Maurice Leblanc’s belle
settled in and xenophobia flared, giving the banlieues a epoque literary character Arsène Lupin. “Lupin is one
forbidding reputation, either to be pitied or shunned. “In of those characters who’s been done so many times, he’s
Europe, city centers are for the rich,” explains Sy, the third really part of the French firmament,” says Sy, a creative
of seven children born to a Senegalese father and Maurita- producer alongside showrunner and writer George Kay.
nian mother. “The more outside you live, the more outside (“Netflix wanted Omar Sy attached to that IP,” says
the bubble you are, and it’s hard to come in.” Kay.) It was Sy’s idea to use Lupin as the inspiration for
But Sy was happy in Trappes, where soccer pitches a modern character, Assane Diop, the son of a Senegalese
opened onto pastures and forests, and his friends had immigrant whose father passed on his love of Leblanc’s
immediate family from everywhere. “Mediterraneans, West novels. Diop’s race, and the social invisibility it sometimes
Africans, Greek, Polish, Romanians,” Sy says. “I heard so provides, adds another layer of subtlety to the idea of
many languages and tasted so much food! I’d go up to the the master thief. Diop, who can disappear in many ways,
fifth floor and be in Greece, downstairs in the Maghreb. uses it to his advantage as he avenges his father’s death.
It pushed me to have an open spirit.” It was a friend from “I wanted Assane to win all the time and have great
the neighborhood, Jamel Debbouze, a comedian with a victories and stick two fingers up at the establishment,”
lunchtime show on the national station Radio Nova, who says Kay. “Omar was down for that completely, but he was
gave Sy his big break, inviting him on to impersonate a also encouraging of his failures. Why not have a character
retired football star. (“I’d have loved to be a player,” says who could win without breaking a sweat but can’t work
Sy, who was 19 at the time, “but I wasn’t any good.”) At out what to buy for his kid’s birthday? Those conversations
the station he met the comedian Fred Testot, and soon the were cool to have with Omar.”
two became Omar et Fred, an improv and sketch-comedy Sy wouldn’t have had the clout to develop a splashy
P RO DUC ED BY KI T T E N P RO DUCT I ON .
duo who starred in a series of shorts on the national net- TV series were it not for The C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 0 2
work Canal+. Minor comedic turns gave way, bit by bit, to
meatier roles—anything the young actor, with his sparkling
charisma and impeccable timing, could get. ON TOP OF THE WORLD
France has no legal recognition of ethnicity, and cultural Sy, photographed in Paris, is easily the most beloved
actor in France—even before his breakout role as
difference has historically been difficult to affirm, much
Assane Diop in Lupin. Dior Men coat. Dolce & Gabbana sweater
less celebrate, without being seen as a threat to an idealized, and cap. Boss pants. Hair, JAYR; makeup, Angloma.
implicitly white notion of universal Frenchness. But as Sy’s Fashion Editor: Michael Philouze. Details, see In This Issue.
70
The New Bags
(and boots and
belts and baubles)
are graphic,
oversized,
textured, plucky,
and, perhaps
strangest of all:
perfectly useful.
75
SUPERSIZE ME
There’s a golden haze on the
meadow—and a huge
crimson bag smack-dab in
the spotlight. Marni bag;
marni.com. Bottega Veneta
dress; bottegaveneta.com.
WORKS LIKE
A CHARM
A magic mushroom,
but make it fashion.
Yai wears a Marni
necklace and knit
bodysuit ($1,490);
marni.com.
77
HEAD CASE
Classics go fantastic
when an arresting clutch
by Louis Vuitton x
Fornasetti (louisvuitton
.com) meets a Kenzo
oversized sweater (kenzo
.com)—all bold lines and
blown-out proportions.
79
SOFT FOCUS
An S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA.
bag (srstudio.com) that,
joyously, resembles
something out of a
childhood toy box is the
perfect vessel for
flowers—and a worthy
companion for this
shapely Alexander
McQueen knit dress
(alexandermcqueen.com).
80
VINE AND DANDY
Yai heads up an ivy league
all her own with Valentino
boots ($980; valentino
.com) below a voluminous
JW Anderson dress
(jwanderson.com).
ABOUT FACE
Don’t be fooled by its
homespun, seemingly
hodgepodge coziness;
this two-toned balaclava
is pure, immaculate,
joyful Miu Miu ($510),
as are the twisted,
crocheted face masks
worn as a bandeau top
($725 each). All at
miumiu.com.
82
READY TO ROLL
Yai is heaven on wheels in
a Bottega Veneta belt
($2,500) and roller skates
($2,100; both at
bottegaveneta.com) over
and under a Dolce &
Gabbana dress ($1,895;
dolcegabbana.com).
In this story: hair, Christian
Eberhard; makeup,
Cécile Paravina. Details,
see In This Issue.
P RO DUC ED BY KI T T E N P RO DUCT I ON ; SE T DES I G N , I BBY N JOYA .
GOOD SPORT
Bieber’s Alexander
McQueen jacket
(alexandermcqueen
.com) features
surprisingly roomy
sleeves—all the
better to move in it.
Alo biker shorts
($56; aloyoga.com).
Jennifer Fisher
earrings.
Fashion Editor:
Camilla Nickerson.
Outer Limits
This fall, jackets have been reimagined: Bombers
come in tweed, capes are quilted in nylon—and Hailey Bieber
models them all. Photographed by Stefan Ruiz.
THE MORE THE
MERRIER
Bieber’s multilayered
look is as polished
as it is easy to wear.
Louis Vuitton
jacket, embroidered
dress, T-shirt dress,
and balloon skirt;
louisvuitton.com.
MAKE IT WORK
By Chioma Nnadi
86
HINT OF GLINT
Graphic printed knits
serve as a base layer
for a satiny bomber
and tweedy blazer.
Stella McCartney
jacket ($1,750) and
blazer ($1,895);
stellamccartney.com.
Prada long johns;
prada.com. Jennifer
Fisher earrings.
PUFF PIECE
The hue of this
quilted jacket ranges
from energizing to
attention-grabbing,
depending on your
perspective. Eckhaus
Latta jacket, $575;
eckhauslatta.com.
Max Mara blazer
$1,690; maxmara
.com. Fendi skirt,
$1,850; fendi.com.
MAKE ROOM
With voluminous
tangerine-colored
satin sleeves and
single-breasted body,
this jacket makes a
statement all by itself.
Why complicate things
by adding anything
else? Junya Watanabe
jacket, $2,355; dover
streetmarket.com. In
this story: hair, Jimmy
Paul; makeup, Fara
Homidi. Details, see
In This Issue.
P RO DUC ED BY P RE I SS C RE AT I V E.
We’re sliding back
into the swim of
going out—and getting
spruced up for it.
So put on your spikiest
heels and most
feathery frocks—it’s
high time for fashion
that pulls no punches.
Photographed by
Oliver Hadlee Pearch.
give me
SHAPE SHIFTER
Long and lithe or graphic
and voluminous? Model
Mona Tougaard does
on-the-town dressing in two
dramatically different—but
similarly striking—ways.
Loewe dress and shoulder
bag; loewe.com. Andy
Wolf Eyewear sunglasses.
Pomellato earring.
Charlotte Chesnais ring.
opposite: Marni bodysuit
($1,590), skirt ($1,690),
and boots; marni.com.
Fashion Editor:
Carlos Nazario.
the night
RISING TO code, were straightforward in cut,
color, and texture—like a sensible
I’ve read them; I understand the sen-
timent. I beg to differ: I do not dress
A
fter a year when chain mail; Louis Vuitton’s sequined felt when returning to social settings.
evening dress was sirens stalking through the Louvre to While I once knew that my Marc
re p l a c e d by t h e the tune of Daft Punk’s “Around the Jacobs tweed blazer works with my
nap dress, aren’t we World” (when the only place I was navy Belgian loafers, which can be
all desperate to be going was around the block to the swapped out for suede pumps for din-
glamorous again? bodega for more Reese’s). Carbon- ner, now everything was a blank slate.
During the five years that I covered ated with the newly liberated frisson, I was surprised to find myself gravi-
events for Vogue from my post on the everything on the fall runways seemed tating toward pieces I loved, rather
editorial staff, I dressed up in black to be fringed, feathered, or bejeweled. than tried-and-true closet workhors-
tie three times a week. Sometimes I The collective message appeared es. I reached for my father’s mono-
had time to go home or get my hair to be “Go big or stay home”—and grammed Charvet shirt, layered under
blown out, but often I simply dragged considering how sick we are of the the bugle-beaded Michael Kors cardi-
my borrowed sequins or satin to the latter, it’s time to embrace the former gan that long ago migrated from my
office in a garment bag—along with a with the same vigor we embraced mother’s closet to mine. I added me-
tote stuffed with Manolo BB pumps, sourdough starters. tallic Tabitha Simmons Mary Janes
a pair of earrings, and my makeup Dressing up again is emotional and a passementerie-appliquéd Alix
bag—and under the harsh lighting because it signifies coming togeth- of Bohemia bolero. When I finally
of the Condé Nast bathroom scraped er again. And while the new clothes checked myself in the mirror in my
my hair back into a tight bun, slicked may be fantastical, designers such building’s lobby, it was too late—I
it with pomade to tame the flyaways, as Jonathan Anderson saw them as made Helena Bonham Carter look
and swiped on an additional coat being more about “projecting what a like Phoebe Philo. The muscle memo-
of mascara. Like most routines, it new reality will hopefully be,” as he ry was gone. C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 0 3
became second nature and, some- said at the time of his show in March.
times, tedious. Now, though, years “Believe it, and it will happen.” The
later and after months curled on the collections celebrated hand-wrought LET’S GET TOGETHER
couch in nothing more coordinated romance and, yes, tactility—the abili- from near rhght: Model Malick Bodian
wears Dries Van Noten. Model
than the two pieces of an Entireworld ty to finger the pearly shell shards on Chili Dia wears a Louis Vuitton dress
sweatsuit, I pine for those days—even a friend’s Bottega dress IRL. (louisvuitton.com). Tougaard wears
the fluorescent bathroom lighting. Over the past several years, a a Givenchy dress (givenchy.com). Model
Ifrah Qaasim wears a Louis Vuitton
For all those many galas and fêtes, raft of essays and manifestos have dress and boots (louisvuitton.com).
I tended to wear borrowed sample emerged centered on reclaiming the Musical artist Luv Resval wears Celine
dresses that, while up to the dress power of dressing solely for oneself. Homme by Hedi Slimane.
92
FULL FEATHER
Tougaard is
extraordinarily,
exuberantly in plume
in a Bottega Veneta
dress and earrings;
bottegaveneta.com.
beauty note
Stand out from the
flock with a contoured
pout. Hourglass
Panoramic Long Wear
Lip Liner in Eden’s
creamy, water-
resistant formula
provides a rich
color payoff that
doesn’t smudge.
SITTING PRETTY
Tougaard and Dia offer
two glinting, winking
examples of the kind of
all-out glamour we’ve
been missing. Dia wears
a Chopard earring and
Brother Vellies sandals.
Tougaard wears a
Milamore earring and
Del Core sandal.
95
P RO DUC ED BY FA RAG O P ROJECTS ; SE T D ESI G N , SATI LEO NN E FAU L KS.
PARTY PEOPLE
Bright colors, bolder jewels. tbp left:
Dia wears a Bottega Veneta dress;
bottegaveneta.com. Swarovski necklace.
Bodian wears a Lanvin jacket, shirt, and
pants. abbve: Tougaard wears layered
tops and a bracelet, all by Paco Rabanne;
pacorabanne.com. left: Del Core jacket,
pants, and sandals; delcore.com.
96
FLASH MOB
The more shimmer,
the better—no matter
where it is you end up.
from far left: Tougaard
wears an Ambush
dress; ambushdesign
.com. Milamore earring.
Qaasim wears a Loewe
dress; loewe.com. Agmes
earring. Dia wears a
Paco Rabanne dress;
pacorabanne.com.
Chopard earring. In this
story: hair, Yann Turchi;
makeup, Hiromi Ueda.
Details, see In This Issue.
Index 2
13
11
8
10
99
THE DOCTOR IS IN I could have. . . . I think part of that got intoxicating. The Bidens are gardeners.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 53 knocked out by being vice president. Joe once planted a rose garden for Jill at
including a group of Navy ROTC, flags And I realized that I probably—whether their house in Wilmington for her birth-
erect. The guys in the press vans leap I’m right or not—knew more about the day, and Jill has put in a “little cutting
out and race toward the front of the issues than most people because I’ve garden” here at the White House “so
motorcade, and by the time I get there, been around so long.” that if I go to visit somebody, I can make
the Bidens are just stepping out of the Jill was hesitant to take on the “role them a bouquet.
armored Cadillac known as the Beast. of the wife of the United States sena- “The flowers here…I mean…I’m out
I watch, with some trepidation, as Pres- tor,” he says—even as she would cam- here every morning at six with the dogs,”
ident Biden walks off down the road and paign by his side in those Senate years. she says. Do they run around? “Yeah.
into the grass. He crouches into a deep “But it was clear to me that she knew I throw the ball. They get water.” She
knee bend, impressive for a 78-year-old, exactly what she would do if she were insists we take a stroll over to look at
as a little boy carrying a tiny American first lady. And so she came in, I think— the roses. “They just popped this week.”
flag comes toward him. He embraces knowing the experience of being vice Everyone got so bent out of shape over
the child as Jill lingers on the macadam president, knowing the power of the Melania redoing the Rose Garden, but
behind him in black-and-white stilettos, presidency—knowing that she could I think she made it better, I say. “Appar-
looking every inch a goddess at 69. It’s change things.” He remembers the first ently she put in these walkways. Are
moments like this with the Bidens— time she spoke in front of a truly big these, like, some of the most beautiful
hugging children!—that bring home just crowd, “and I was like, That’s my girl. roses you’ve ever seen?” Suddenly a few
how incomprehensibly irregular and out So proud. She would just go do it, and Secret Service guys and her senior advis-
of place our previous president and first she got better and better. And she started er, Anthony Bernal, come pouring out
lady really were. saying, ‘Joe, you gotta put a little more of the West Wing. “Somebody was like,
I had talked to Joe Biden on the phone emotion into what you’re doing.’ ” ‘Stop! The first lady’s out there,’” says
a few times—once at their beach house in I ask if becoming president and first Bernal, laughing. “I’m like, ‘What is the
Delaware, the grandkids swirling around, lady affected their marriage. “Yeah, first lady doing...?’ ” It is a reminder of
eating cheesesteak hoagies, when some- it has,” he says, and an almost pained what a tight ship they’re running, espe-
one handed me a cell phone: Joe wants to expression crosses his face. “I miss her. cially today, with three different camera
talk to you—but I had never met him in I’m really proud of her. But it’s not crews setting up around the White House
person. On the flight back to D.C., I am like we can just go off like we used to. and the president preparing to give a
fetched from the back of AF1, brought When we were living in Delaware and televised speech in the East Room.
to somewhere in the middle of the plane, married, once a month we’d just go up Back under the trellis, I ask Dr. Biden
and deposited in a conference room in the to a local bed-and-breakfast by our- how she’s adjusting to life in the White
sky: all burled walnut, plush carpeting, selves, to make sure we had a romantic House. “You know, it has this sort of
and dim table lamps. When the presi- time to just get away and hang out with magical quality to it. One room is just
dent and first lady appear, I tell him that each other.” more beautiful than the next, and you’re
I think I’ve met every person in his family You might need to schedule that in, sort of in awe. Everyone here works
over the past 13 years. “God, it doesn’t I joke. so hard to create this world because I
seem that long,” he says. “But all kidding aside, that’s part of think that they understand the kind of
“You have,” says Jill. “You met Mom- the problem. You can’t. I’m not com- pressure that Joe and I are under. They
Mom and Val,” Biden’s mother and sis- plaining. It’s part of the deal. But this make the rooms beautiful, and the flow-
ter, “all the kids.” life prevents it.” He looks at Jill. “It’s ers and the food are perfect. And you
I ask if he’d given any thought in all just harder. Don’t you think that’s right?” have the balconies. And, of course, our
these years to what kind of first lady “Oh, yeah,” she says. grandkids had been here a lot with the
Jill would be. “We never talked about “And the other thing is, she’s been Obama kids. So they knew it but not
this, so I’m probably going to get you traveling all over the country,” says as intimately, of course, as us living
in trouble,” the president says to Jill— Biden. “And doing major events for here ourselves.” Suddenly you can hear
before insisting that he never wanted to me…and for the country. And so I’ll find Champ and Major, the Bidens’ German
live in the White House. It was part of that I’m working on a hell of an import- shepherds, barking in the distance. Jill’s
his reluctance to run for the office in the ant speech and I’m distracted. And then ears perk up.… “Listen,” she says, smil-
first place. “It was ‘Hail to the Chief’ and I may not be working on one and I want ing, “the dogs.”
all that stuff when I was a young senator. to go and hang out with her, and she’s In most couples with pets, there’s usu-
But I never had a desire for that piece of working on an important speech! Or ally one person who pays them a little
it.” He adds that he thinks the Obamas grading papers. We have to figure out a more mind, senses their needs—even
kind of had a similar view. “There was way—and I mean this sincerely—to be expresses feelings through them. (Timmy
no real upside to living physically in the able to steal time for one another. I think is bored, I will say when I’m the one who’s
White House. It’s the greatest honor in that’s the deal.” bored.) It’s a pretty good bet that per-
the world…but there’s no privacy. And son is Jill. Unbidden, she says, “…and
the pomp-and-circumstance part is not The next day, I’m sitting in the Jackie then there was all the dog drama.” She
something we’ve ever gone out of our Kennedy garden with Jill. Like its coun- lets out a mordant chuckle (both dogs
way to look for.” But Trump vanquished terpart, the Rose Garden, which is on temporarily left the White House after a
his reluctance. “I think the same thing the other side of the South Portico, just pair of nipping incidents by the boister-
was sinking in with you,” he says to Jill. outside the West Wing, this one was ous Major). “I knew it was going to be
“About the state of the country.” He redesigned in the ’60s by Bunny Mellon. hard for the dogs. I mean, Champ’s going
turns to me. “Jill said, ‘You gotta run. It has been tinkered with over the years, on 14, you know? And to move him in
Because there’s so much at stake.’ So this but it remains fundamentally the same: and have him get used to it? And then
was the first time I ran…without think- ridiculously beautiful. And because it is Major....I mean, let’s face it. He hadn’t
ing about any of the accoutrements of, early May, there are enormous, perfect been around so many people in forev-
you know, I could have Air Force One or blooms everywhere you turn, the smell er. But now, at every turn, somebody’s
101
and motherhood. Nearby, pink trees are me earlier, “have a big problem on their Shahidi saw The Intouchables at 11, and
coming into leaf. Hearst, who is wearing hands because the generations that are it not only became her favorite film but
a tweed cashmere knit dress and no coat, coming up are really not interested in worked as a sort of way forward for her
has long been inspired by strong women, consuming, in having too much of any- as a comedic actress. “There’s a level of
from the medieval mystic Hildegard von thing.” We’re walking back from the park realism Omar hits, even in comedy,” Sha-
Bingen to the journalist Oriana Fallaci, to her hotel now, and have met up with hidi says. “The effect that film had on
famous for her tough interviews with de Lavalette along the way. When I ask me. . . . I’ve always been a creative person
world leaders. She’s proud of having Hearst what would define success, she and didn’t know whether acting was the
designed a suit for Chelsea Manning turns to de Lavalette and laughs. She’d avenue, but seeing his work in that movie
for her first major interview after her like to live a good long life, she says— showed me exponential possibilities.”
release from prison. maybe even get a good night’s sleep. Sy, his wife, Hélène, and their four
Hearst’s identical-twin girls were But then she focuses. As ever, she kids moved in 2012 to Los Angeles,
monoamniotic, she tells me, and shared has a mission: “Can we really make a where he has picked up supporting
both a placenta and an amniotic sac—a low-impact global business? Obviously roles in Hollywood franchises like
very high-risk pregnancy. “I have nev- I have the idea, but it takes a lot of peo- X-Men and Jurassic World. (A fifth
er been so scared in my life,” she says, ple to execute it,” she says. “That’s what child has since been born, while Hélène
“because I didn’t know if I could psy- we’re striving for.” @ runs CéKeDuBonheur, a nonprof-
chologically overcome losing them. I it that works to bring classes, events,
never prayed so much.” She went into SCENE STEALER and celebrity visits to children’s wards
Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital CONTINUED FROM PAGE 70 at French hospitals, and Siyah Organ-
in Manhattan at week 26 and spent Intouchables, the 2011 comedy in which ics, a Sénégalo-American organic-
the next eight weeks there, monitored he played a home-care aide to a wealthy food-supplements company.) But it is
around the clock. “The risk is that they’d quadriplegic. Sy’s performance was a in French cinema, where Sy remains
strangle themselves with the amniot- sensation (The Intouchables remains the prolific, that he continues to stretch his
ic sac,” she says. Her then-husband, most widely seen French-language film talent. The sumptuously filmed 2016
Franklin Isaacson, who works in ven- in the world), making him the first Black drama Chocolat required a new level
ture capital, slept at the hospital every actor to win a César Best Actor award, of preparation. It’s based on the true
night. The twins were born healthy. “I’ve France’s version of an Oscar. In her 2020 story of a 19th-century Black clown who
lived through a lot of things that put documentary Où sont les Noirs?, about became a national sensation, only to feel
things in perspective,” she says. the long road to inclusion in French the deep sting of racism and end his life
Her reshaped priorities come through pop culture, the author and filmmaker in obscurity. “Chocolat was the first film
in her designs, which are for women with Rokhaya Diallo titled a whole chapter where I was telling myself, I’m an actor,”
a strong sense of self—women who know “The Omar Sy Effect.” “The cinema is Sy says. “Before that, I said, I’m a comic
what it means to feel joy as much as to still so white in France,” she tells me, “but who does movies. It was a lot of physical
have fun. When she’s in Paris, she has vid- it’s gotten better for Black actors in the work, and big physical preparation for
eo calls with her twins. They help point last 10 years. Omar is a locomotive.” a role isn’t something we do much of in
the way to the future. They don’t want The Omar Sy effect wasn’t limited to France. It wasn’t easy. It was based on
fast fashion. Fashion houses, she told France. The actress and producer Yara a real person, and I felt his ghost with
In This Issue
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M EN T I ON ED I N I TS PAG ES, W E CA N N OT GUA RA NT E E T HE AU TH EN T IC I T Y O F ME RC H AND ISE SOLD
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Last Look
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