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NOV

THE WHIRLWIND LIFE OF

MICHAELA COEL
NEXT STOP: WAKANDA

QUEEN ELIZABETH II IN TRIBUTE


THOM BROWNE SUITS UP FOR HIS NEW ROLE
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32 64
Editor’s Letter Passion Projects
The best new
40 books explore
Contributors obsessions

42 66
Remembrance Idyll Time
Annie Leibovitz Monteverdi opens
and Hamish a new wellness
Bowles on Queen center in Tuscany
Elizabeth II
66
48 Scene Stealers
Nostalgia Renée Fleming,
In 1971, Mary Kelli O’Hara, and
Gordon found Joyce DiDonato
herself among bring The Hours to

FASHI O N E D I TO R: JO RD EN B I C KHA M . HA I R, MUSTA FA YA N A Z; M A KEU P, RO MY SO LE IM ANI. PRODUCED BY ANNA PANOVA FOR D IRTY PR ETTY PRODUCTIONS.
women brave the Met
enough to tell
their abortion 68
stories. Then Skin Deep
she found the Jared Leto’s
courage to desert-inspired
share her own beauty debut is
more than a mirage
56
View From 70

E XECU T I V E P RODUC ER : M AT EE N MO RTA Z AVI . LO CAT I O N : RI V E RTOW N LO D G E , H UDSON, NY. D ETAILS, SEE IN TH IS ISSUE.
the Top Here Comes
After years of Trouble
highs on the Three new
slopes and the streaming series
streets, Moncler cover dangerous
is launching a territory
customizing
program. Emma 70
Elwick-Bates Legion of
tries it Meret
on for size A sprawling
Meret Oppenheim
60 survey opens
Unlaced at the Museum
The corset, of Modern Art
long a symbol of
constraint, is 76
reinvented as an Gains and
emblem of body Losses
empowerment— Does a
for any gender. groundbreaking
By Liana new study change
Satenstein what we thought
we knew about
62 metabolism and
Strong aging? asks
Weather Amy Synnott
Three fall films
pack a punch C O N T I N U E D >2 6

THE SWING OF THINGS


MODEL ABBY CHAMPION WEARS A MAX MARA
TEDDY COAT. LAFAYETTE 148 SHOES
AND SOCKS. THE ROW BAG. PHOTOGRAPHED
BY SEAN THOMAS.

20 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


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ROMA
November 2022

OPPOSITES Harvey Weinstein


ATTRACT investigation
JEREMY POPE (FAR for The New York
LEFT) AND PAUL
BETTANY STAR ON Times, and how
BROADWAY IN THE art imitates life in
COLLABORATION. a stirring new film
PHOTOGRAPHED
BY TESS AYANO.
104
The Odd Couple
The Collaboration
is putting Andy
Warhol and
Jean-Michel
80 Basquiat on
On a Roll Broadway. Costars
Michaela Coel Paul Bettany and
has always set Jeremy Pope
the terms of her paint us a picture.
career. What’s By Marley Marius
next? Playing a
Black Panther 108

S P EC I A L E FFECTS M A KEUP, E LI ZA B ET H YO ON . P RO DUC E D BY A RT P RO DUCT IO N . SE T D ESIGN: MILA TAYLOR -YOUNG. D ETAILS, SEE IN TH IS ISSUE.
FASHI O N E D I TO R: MA X ORT EGA . HA I R, C HA RLI E LE M IN DU; G RO O MI N G FO R P O P E , JA I WILLIAMS; GROOMING FOR BETTANY, AMY KOMOROWSKI.
super warrior. On Just One Thing
a visit to Ghana, A coat can truly
Coel’s ancestral go the distance,
home, Chioma as model Abby
Nnadi tries to Champion and her
keep up piece from Max
Mara prove
94
Strong Suit 114
Thom Browne Play On!
ushered in a The sporting life
radical revision of gets glamorous
what tailoring as key pieces from
could be, changing the court to the
it forever. Now, track are sharply
he tells Nathan reinterpreted
Heller, he’s trying for daytime
something else
on for size as 128
the new chairman The Get
of the CFDA Outfit your
weekend jaunt
100 with neat knits
Meet the Press and adventure-
Reporters Jodi ready accessories
Kantor and Megan
Twohey open up 136
about their Last Look

Cover Look Full Flight


Michaela Coel wears a Gucci Made To Measure
Dress by Alessandro Michele. Gucci earring. To get
this look, try: Teint Idole Ultra Wear Care & Glow
Foundation in Shade 520W, Dual Finish Highlighter
in Radiant Rose Gold, Hypnôse 5-Color Eyeshadow
Palette in Bronze Absolu, Le Crayon Khôl in Black
Ebony, Le 8 Hypnôse Mascara, Sourcils Styler
in Brun, and Juicy Tubes in Framboise Pop.
All by Lancôme. Hair, Virginie Moreira; makeup,
Bernicia Boateng. Details, see In This Issue.
Photographer: Malick Bodian.
Fashion Editor: Ib Kamara.

26 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


Letter From the Editor

Role Models
AS THIS ISSUE WENT TO press, Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. It felt,
as so many have said, like the end of an era. Her reign
reaches back as long as I have memories—but a recent one
stands out. I remember sitting with her at designer
Richard Quinn’s show in 2018.
She told me she was delighted HIGH LIGHTS
to be there, remembering ABOVE: QUEEN ELIZABETH II AT
RICHARD QUINN’S RUNWAY SHOW IN
how she herself had appeared 2018. LEFT: ROGER FEDERER AND
HIS WIFE, MIRKA, PHOTOGRAPHED BY
in a fashion show before she PATRICK DEMARCHELIER, VOGUE,
became queen. She spoke with 2004. BELOW: MIRKA AND ROGER AT
THE MET GALA IN 2017.
a joyousness and a humor that
bounded around the room.
Unforgettable for all of us there.
And there was another loss in
September—less monumental,
of course, more personal
and bittersweet. My friend and
hero Roger Federer announced
that he is retiring from
professional tennis. This
news—following so soon after Serena Williams’s So raise a racket
farewell—was an added heartbreak, but also cause for with me to Roger as he
gratitude and a celebration. For no player deserves embarks on the next
retirement more. phase of an extraordinary
I remember first watching Roger play when he was a adventure. It’s not a
longhaired youth at the 2003 Tennis Masters Cup in question of who will be
Houston. There was that incredible speed, the unreal work the next Roger Federer: There is, and there will always
close to the net. And there was the way he made it all look ever be, just one.
devastatingly easy. But there was also, just as important, It is fitting to consider both of these heroic figures in an
a kindness and a grace—one might even say a dignity—in issue with such strong currents of personal confidence.
the way he carried himself on the court and off. Certainly the American designer Thom Browne knows
It wasn’t long before I managed to meet Roger. He exactly who he is. Nathan Heller’s perceptive profile of

TO P : YUI MO K- P O OL/G E T TY I M AG ES. BOT TO M: TAYLO R JEW E LL , T HEO W E NN E R.


was interested in fashion and eager to talk about it. There him (see “Strong Suit,” page 94), accompanied by images
was nothing I wanted to talk about less; I wanted to talk from Annie Leibovitz, coincides with Thom taking over
tennis. We never stopped conversing at cross-purposes leadership of the CFDA. I can’t imagine a better mentor
this way, him asking me about designers and me brushing for young American designers, nor a better advocate for
off the questions to ask about what he did on the court. our industry. And our cover star, Michaela Coel, has made
But at some point we realized that—even if we never did a reputation of working only on her own terms. Vogue’s
get the information we wanted—we liked each other Chioma Nnadi spent time with her in Ghana (see “On
enormously. I helped him with some looks, and he did his a Roll,” page 80), and Malick Bodian’s images capture
valiant best to help me with my game. her in the busy streets of Accra. We’re all excited to see
I have come to see how generous he is—to his wife, Coel in the next Black Panther movie. She plays Aneka,
Mirka, and his four children above all. They are devoted to a fearsome combat instructor who is brimming, naturally
one another, and it’s a delight to see how the many Federers enough, with self-confidence.
will often travel together, and seem to sleep all together in
a single hotel room, like a touring circus on a budget. Roger
recently told me that the upside of retirement, for him, was
that it would give his family their turn to shine. He wanted
his children to be able to go to school in one place; he
wanted them to be free to grow and define their own lives.

32 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


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A Dramatic Bow
Ava DuVernay’s QUEEN SUGAR follows the formidable Bordelon family as they navigate
tragedy, intrigue, and redemption after inheriting an 800-acre Louisiana sugarcane farm.
“To write and produce seven seasons of a modern drama centered on a Black family is a radical
act,” says DuVernay, “and a triumph that has far exceeded every hope I held.”

(pictured from left)


Hollywood Desonier played
by Omar J. Dorsey
Hollywood ‘s optimism lifts the
Bordelons even during the most
challenging situations. Dorsey
has said of his character, “Think
of him as an everyday hero.”
Ralph Angel Bordelon
played by Kofi Siriboe
Ralph Angel’s admirable
commitment to his wife and
son—at all costs—creates a series
of less-than-ideal situations.
A lesser actor might let this arc
border on futile, but Siriboe
conveys the depth of a man
trying fervently to live up to
the dreams of his father.
Micah West played
by Nicholas L. Ashe
Micah is an ambitious
second-year student at HBCU
Xavier University. As he grapples
with his sexuality, it leads the
series to ask, as Ashe puts it,
“How are Black men allowed to
love one another in America?”
ADVERTISEMENT

(pictured from left)


Nova Bordelon played by Rutina Wesley
Nova is a compelling mix of sharp edges
and vulnerability. A journalist and activist,
she doesn’t rest until justice is served.
“I meet a lot of women who just love Nova’s
rawness, and love that nothing about her
is sugarcoated,” Wesley has said.
Darla Sutton played by Bianca Lawson
In a show full of complex women, Darla’s
journey is poignant. She’s a recovering
addict against whom the cards seem
stacked, but after a beautiful backyard
wedding during the pandemic, and the
joyful news of a new baby on the way, it’s
impossible not to root for a happy ending.
Violet Bordelon played by Tina Lifford
When asked about Aunt Violet,
Lifford—the veteran actress who has
portrayed the matriarch since the series’
debut in 2016—has said, “She leads with
love, and yes, she has opinions, and yes,
she can dig her heels in, and yes, she
can sometimes overstep—but the
bottom line is she is leading with love.”
DON’T MISS QUEEN SUGAR’S
SEVENTH AND FINAL SEASON,
TUESDAYS 8/7C, ONLY ON OWN
Contributors

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Game Time
“If ever there were a time to shoot a Vogue
story, it would be during a heat wave,”
jokes photographer Campbell Addy. This
summer, he, contributing fashion editor
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, and models
Achenrin Madit, Akon Changkou, Maty
Fall, and Nyagua Ruea decamped to a
field in boiling North London to set fall’s
sportiest separates into motion (“Play On!”
page 114). Suffice to say that they and A Moving Scene
choreographer Abdourahman Njie, who For this month’s cover story, centered on Ghanaian British writer-actor
masquerades in the story as a local Michaela Coel (“On a Roll,” page 80), photographer Malick Bodian and
footballer (that’s him with Madit, wearing stylist Ib Kamara rushed headlong into the hustle and bustle of central
a Ralph Lauren RLX tank and Max Mara Accra, Ghana, shooting Coel in Makola Market, at the beach, and zooming
skirt, above), worked up a real sweat— down the streets on her Rollerblades. “It was amazing to see an African
although it hardly put a damper on the fun. woman celebrated in the way I have always believed they should be,” says
“What can I say? I feel like this shoot was Kamara, the Sierra Leone–born, London-based editor in chief of Dazed
meant to be,” Addy goes on. “All of our magazine. “I hope young Black girls will be able to see themselves in this
energies were bouncing off one another.” light—inspiring and opening doors for more African talent in the future.”

Speak Now
In “Meet the Press” (page 100), New York Times journalists
Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor—who together
published an investigation into sexual misconduct by
Harvey Weinstein in 2017—discuss how their reporting
and their 2019 book, She Said, became a major new
film starring Carey Mulligan (as Twohey) and Zoe Kazan
(as Kantor). Their landmark story earned them a Pulitzer
Prize and further ignited the #MeToo movement—
but for Twohey and Kantor’s Vogue portrait, proceedings
were happily low-key. “The great surprise was that the
New York Times newsroom, which is usually buzzing with
activity, was nearly empty, as many offices still are in
Manhattan,” says photographer Susan Meiselas. “That
was also lucky in some ways, so we could find a place
to frame Jodi and Megan together without disturbing
anyone”—and, when all was said and done, they could
quickly go back to work.

40 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


Annie Leibovitz was invited to
photograph Queen Elizabeth II at
Buckingham Palace in 2007. She took
four portraits that day—and would
photograph the queen a second time,
at Windsor Castle in 2016. Here are her
memories of her first, historic sitting.

wanted a straightforward,
Queen
I intelligent portrait. I thought
that this would be my only
chance to photograph the
queen, and I was allotted less than
half an hour. They showed me
Elizabeth II,
catalogs of her clothes and jewelry
and asked me to pick what she
would wear. I picked a long gold dress
as a base. The rest—the dark cloak
1926–2022
that Cecil Beaton photographed In honor of Britain’s longest-
her in, and the Order of the Garter
robe, and a fur coat—would be reigning monarch, Annie Leibovitz
layered on top of it and removed for and Hamish Bowles pay tribute
the different pictures.
The queen arrived late, not in a to a life of resilience and service.
terribly good mood, and was wearing
a tiara, which wasn’t in my plan
(the tiara was supposed to come later
in the shoot). I asked if she could
remove it so that the image would be
simpler. “Less dressy” was how I put
it. “Less dressy!” the queen replied.
“What do you think this is?”
She was probably the most
photographed person in the world
and we talked about photography.
I brought up Dorothy Wilding and
she said Wilding didn’t even come to
the famous shoot in 1952. Wilding
had her assistant take the photograph
of her. We also talked about Jane
Bown, who was about the queen’s age
and took her 80th birthday portrait.
Bown came to the palace alone,
carrying two bags full of equipment.
“Yes, she came all the way by herself!”
the queen said. “I helped her move
the furniture.” She remembered all
these things. I told her I was using
Beaton as a reference for working at
Buckingham Palace, and she said,
“You have to find your own way.”
In this image she is seated in the
White Drawing Room, by the
window. She was someone who gave AMAZING GRACE
herself over to the creative process, The queen in the White
to the photographer, or the artist or Drawing Room at
Buckingham Palace in
the painter, to use their imagination. 2007. Photographed
—  by Annie Leibovitz.

42 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


Remembrance
Remembrance
In an appreciation, Hamish Bowles consort in centuries not a royalty David’s stammering younger brother
recalls the late monarch’s twisting born.” Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Bertie suddenly found himself
path to the throne, her legacy of staunch daughter of the Earl of Strathmore king, crowned as George VI, and
leadership, and her unfailingly good and Kinghorne, was raised at David was created the Duke of
style, as chronicled in the pages of this Scotland’s storied Glamis Castle, a Windsor. The queen’s parents may
magazine over many decades. place of doughty stone walls and not have possessed the shiny,
spiky gray turrets built at the turn of hollow glamour of the Windsors, but
n September, Her Majesty the 15th century. She and Albert were these were not qualities that had

I Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s


longest reigning monarch, died
at Balmoral Castle in Scotland,
age 96 and surrounded by her
children, including King Charles III.
married in April 1923 at Westminster
Abbey, and their eldest daughter
was born three years later. Princess
Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret,
was born at Glamis Castle in 1930.
distinguished King George V and
Queen Mary either. Instead, the new
royal family made a virtue of their
ordinariness, presenting themselves
as a close-knit nuclear family leading
Through the 70 years of her reign— Marcus Adams also photographed lives of cozy domesticity that many
years of steadfast service to her the solo portrait published in the middle-class Britons could identify
country and the Commonwealth— May 1, 1928, issue of Vogue, in which with. When the nation wanted
the queen was globally revered Cinderella romance, pomp,
and widely beloved as she and ceremony, however,
weathered a roiling century they could provide that too.
(and some personal storms) In 1939, when she was 13,
with enduring equanimity and Vogue deemed Princess
grace. She witnessed history Elizabeth “very self-possessed.”
being made and was a part of She had now graduated from
it. Her knowledge of world coral beads to a diamond
events, politics, and power bracelet that her father had
structures was nonpareil. gifted her for this significant
Known to us all as a symbol birthday; her mother gave her
of stability, she was at once her first long silk stockings.
perceived as an extended “She has her own sitting room
member of her subjects’ families at Buckingham Palace,” Vogue
and a fierce guard of her own noted, “orders her own flowers,
inner world, remaining in many arranges menus and issues
ways inscrutable to the end. invitations for her own parties,
Princess Elizabeth Alexandra and is patroness of a charity.”
Mary (carefully named for one By the time Vogue published
distinguished British monarch, its February 15, 1943, issue,
her great-grandmother Queen however, this decorous life was
Alexandra, and her devoted over: Britain was at war, and

LE FT: LI SA S HE RI DA N /G E TT Y I MAG ES. O P P OS IT E : CECI L BE ATO N , VOGUE, M A RCH 19 46.


grandmother) made her formal when the 16-year-old Elizabeth
debut in Vogue in the issue FIRST BLUSH appeared in the magazine,
published August 15, 1927, flashing A young Princess Elizabeth cuddles a posing for Cecil Beaton, she now
a beaming smile for the society corgi at home in London in 1936. wore a martial hat and the diamond-
opposite: Photographed by Cecil Beaton
photographer Marcus Adams for the March 1, 1946, issue of Vogue. set badge of the Grenadier Guards,
and even coaxing one from her of which she was the honorary
grandmother Queen Mary. colonel (“the first woman in English
The young princess had been born the infant princess—dressed in a coral history to command a senior
to a famously happy home. Her necklace, holding a silver rattle, and regiment of foot guards”), pinned
father, Prince Albert, was the backlit to accent her aureole of pale to the lapel of her tweed jacket.
excruciatingly shy, stuttering second curls—was included in a portfolio of Happily, Cecil Beaton was back for
son of the martinet King George V “Young Persons of Importance.” a photographic portrait published
and the frigidly correct Queen Mary. In 1937, the year that Princess after the war on March 1, 1946. This
His glamorous older brother, Prince Elizabeth’s uncle David was due time, “the Heiress Presumptive to
Edward—known to friends and to be anointed King Edward VIII, Britain’s throne and the handsome
family as David—was destined to be he succumbed to the jet-set charms symbol of Britain’s continuity”—now
king, and so not too many eyebrows of American divorcée Wallis 19—was pictured against one of
were raised when Albert fell madly Simpson, whom he had met in 1930, Beaton’s famous backdrops (blown
in love with a woman who would renouncing his throne in order to up from the detail of a Fragonard
become, as Vogue put it, “our first be with “the woman I love.” And so painting), wearing a dress of >46

44 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


Known to us all as a
symbol of stability, she
was at once perceived as
an extended member of
her subjects’ families
and a fierce guard of her
inner world
A LIFE IN FULL surrounded by the full resources of
clockwise from the church and royal state—gold plate
left: A 1957 on the high altar, trumpeters, glass
illustration by Carl

O P P OS I T E TOP LE FT: WO RLD HI STORY A RCHI V E /A LA M Y. O P P OSI T E TOP RI G H T: CE NT RAL PR ESS/GETTY IMAGES.
Erickson; in her coaches, tiaras, Household Cavalry,
capacity as Colonel mediaeval standards.” British Vogue
of the Grenadier surrendered its assigned press seat to

TO P LE FT: CEC I L BE ATO N /CA M ERA P R ESS/RE DUX . TO P R I G HT: C EC IL BE ATON , VOGUE , AUGUST 19 47.
Guards in 1942;
photographed by
the Polish-born expressionist painter
Cecil Beaton in Feliks Topolski, who had lately
1942; alongside distinguished himself as an official
her husband, war artist, and American Vogue
Prince Philip, in
1953; at Balmoral shared his wonderfully evocative
Castle in 1967. lightning sketches of the scene—
capturing, in his impressionistic I LLUST RAT I ON : CA RL OSCA R AUGUST E RI C KSO N , VO GUE, O CTO B ER 19 57.

brushstrokes, such recognizable


figures as the dowager Queen Mary
in one of her distinctive toque hats.
tulle fluttering with sequined Mountbatten) considered “tall, The princess was dressed by
butterfly embroidery created by blonde, with the shoulders of an Hartnell in a gown of British woven
Norman Hartnell. athlete, a firm chin, and frank eyes.” silk satin, inspired, as the designer
In 1938, the dashing, flaxen-haired The young princess and lieutenant noted, by Botticelli’s Primavera and
Prince Philip of Greece and began to correspond, she kept embroidered with seed pearls in
Denmark had entered the Britannia his photograph on her desk, and foliate designs. The bloom-shaped
Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, romance eventually bloomed. pieces cut from the dress to form the
where he first met the young Princess The couple wed on November 20, design were reembroidered onto
Elizabeth, then 13, and her sister 1947. “The Wedding became a the veil, and the effect was suitably
when they came to visit. The former pageant to refresh the inner eye,” romantic and theatrical for a nation
was struck by the young man noted Vogue in the January 1948 issue, starved of glamour through the
whom Vogue’s writer Ray Livingston “to expand the historical imagination. make-do-and-mend war years and
Murphy (a biographer of Lord At its center were two young people, the rationing and austerity to

46 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


Remembrance

“She holds the affection and


admiration of a world
which watched her grow up,” wrote
Vogue of the queen in 1953

follow. (Although fashion-forward 2017, at the age of 96, he had would stand out in a crowd and in
Princess Margaret had already completed a giddying 22,219 solo evening dresses designed to set
embraced the soft-shoulder romance engagements—and, of course, many off royal orders and jewels—and in
of Christian Dior’s New Look, more with his wife. many instances pay subtle homage
her elder sister still followed the “The catching excitement in this to host nations (wattle-flower
hard-shoulder wartime line.) Coronation of a young Queen,” embroideries for Australia, maple
Prince Philip’s role was clear: to wrote Vogue in 1953, “goes far beyond leaves for Canada, green and white
support his wife and stabilize the the people of her own Dominions, in Pakistan like the colors of that
crown. “He told me the first day he for she holds the affection and country’s flag, California poppies for
offered me my job,” Michael Parker, admiration of a world which watched a visit to the Reagans).
the prince’s first private secretary, her grow up.” Hartnell again rose to In 1957, Vogue thrilled to news
related to his feisty biographer the occasion with a magnificent of a visit by Queen Elizabeth II
Fiammetta Rocco, “that his job—first, coronation robe of stiff white satin and Prince Philip to America that
second, and last—was never to let her embroidered in silken thread and October. “There is more to this
down.” Six years after their spangles with the symbols of the four welcoming wave of excitement than
wedding—in the middle of a royal countries that compose the United pure romanticism: much more
tour of Africa, India, and Australia— Kingdom—the rose of England, than pure curiosity,” its story read.
this role became preeminent when the thistle of Scotland, the shamrock “There is also the solid, ungrudging
the self-effacing King George VI of Northern Ireland, the leek of respect that most of us feel for
died of coronary thrombosis at the Wales—and the flower symbols a young woman, barely out of her
age of 56 and his eldest daughter of the Commonwealth nations. twenties, who performs an
ascended to the throne. Forced to The dress represented the spirit of enormously complicated and taxing
give up his naval career, Prince Philip monarchy translated into cloth. job with courage and sensitivity,
instead devoted himself to public Over the decades, Hartnell, Sir industry and intelligence.”
service: Over the ensuing decades Hardy Amies, Sir Ian Thomas, Vogue later celebrated the
he became the diligent patron, Stewart Parvin, and latterly Angela engagement of the couple’s daughter,
president, or member of more than Kelly dressed the queen in daytime HRH Princess Anne, to Captain
780 organizations, and by the time ensembles of striking and uniform Mark Phillips in 1973, and
he retired from official duties in color, hat to garment, so that she subsequently C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 3 2

47
Nostalgia

Out of the Dark


In 1971, Mary Gordon found herself among women brave enough to tell their
abortion stories. Then she found the courage to share her own.

CO N TI NU U M, 2022 , OI L O N CA N VAS, 5 5 X 4 5 CM ; PA I NT E RS PA IN T I N G PA I NT I N GS, H ERTFOR DSH IR E.


t is the fall of 1971. I have just walked into a The meeting is called to order by a short, dark, wiry,

I
room in a church basement, where there is fast-talking woman. Quickly, we get down to tactics, which
a meeting of NARAL, the National Association involve organizing travel to Albany and to Washington.
for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, the organization Despite the legalization of abortion in New York,
created two years earlier by Betty Friedan. antiabortionists are tirelessly picketing the state legislature
Although abortion had been legal in New York with gruesome pictures of mangled fetuses. We sign up
since 1970, it was still illegal in most states. both for counter-protests and to speak to our local
I’ve moved to Syracuse—the first time I have lived legislators in person. Pennsylvania, a close neighbor state,
outside the New York metropolitan area. I’m feeling a will be another target of our lobbying. And we will be on
bit unmoored, not yet at home in my MFA program, and the alert for actions in DC, targeting the Supreme Court.
missing the political engagement I had experienced as a So far, so straightforward. But then our leader says,
college student at Barnard and Columbia. “What we need is to talk about why we’re all here. The
When I see my fellow attendees, I know, as Dorothy problem is no one wants to talk about abortion. But
knew that she was not in Kansas, that I’m not in New York I think it’s important to make things personal.”
City anymore. Only two of the women look like anyone She describes growing up in an Italian neighborhood
I would have ever had practice speaking to. One must be, in Buffalo. “You’d hear it whispered among the women,
like me, a student: She’s wearing jeans and a peasant ‘enceinta, enceinta…’ and not in a happy way. I got
blouse. The other is a Black woman with a luxuriant Afro, pregnant when I was 16. An older cousin forced himself
a jade green turtle necklace, a black skirt, and boots. The on me. He was making more money than anyone in the
others seem like strangers. I had not believed that I would family, and was looked up to as a success, and he >52
ever be in a room with anyone who wore flesh-colored
WOMEN TALKING
pantyhose, or who wore her hair in what was called a pixie “I THINK IT’S IMPORTANT TO MAKE THINGS PERSONAL,” OUR LEADER
cut, but here I am. Here we all are. SAYS. CATHERINE REPKO, CONTINUUM, 2022, OIL ON CANVAS.

48 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


FREE
PEOPLE
Nostalgia Truth Telling

said no one would believe me if I said anything about woman doctor, very distinguished, and it was known that
what was going on. And he said to remember that he was she would perform abortions. I volunteered to help her
lending my family money so my brother could go to because in the hospital where I worked so many women
college. I was terrified, and ashamed, but I told my sister, had experienced botched abortions—the part of the
who was older, married, with children. She said everyone hospital where they were sent was known as ‘the septic
in the neighborhood knew about a woman who took care tank.’ The doctor I volunteered for was discovered and
of things. She came with me to this woman’s apartment. jailed for a year. She lost her license to practice medicine.
We didn’t talk. The woman covered her kitchen table with She died a year later, shunned by the community, and
a white sheet, took some kind of medical instrument deprived of her work.”
out of a pot of boiling water and after an excruciatingly The one Black woman in the room speaks next. “It was
painful time, she showed me into her bedroom, where my sister. One night she came home and passed out the
I rested. My sister handed her money, and we left.” minute she walked in the door. She had aborted herself
The next woman to speak is older and the most elegant using a knitting needle. We called an ambulance, but
in the room. She wears a tweed suit; her silver hair is in a ambulances took their time coming to our neighborhood.
French twist, her accent refined, although not off-putting. She bled to death on the bathroom floor.”
It reminds me of someone, and then I realize who: Julia “I have two kids,” she continues, “a good husband, but I
Child. “It was 1937. I was 21 and working on a newspaper had a miscarriage between my kids, it was only 10 weeks.
in Washington. I was having a relationship with a I was lying in bed, and I passed something that I thought
rather aristocratic Englishman, separated from his family maybe was a heavy period. I collected what I had passed
overseas. It was a pleasant relationship, but nothing and took it to the doctor. He said that I had miscarried.
serious. I became pregnant, or ‘fell pregnant,’ in his words. And I thought of my sister, and that people were saying
There was no way we were going to marry. He told me that people like her had committed murder, and I knew
not to worry: It had happened to many that whatever it was that had come
of his friends in London and there out of my body was not a child, not
was an easy way of dealing with it. We were given a person, and since then I’ve been so
A well-known Harley Street doctor strength, knowing that furious, I just have to do something.”
had a nursing home in the country Then it is my turn. I have never
where posh girls who needed abortions what had happened spoken publicly about my abortion,
could go. It was safe, and not, he assured to us had happened to but I am full of admiration at
me, harrowing. We flew to London.
It was exactly as he said: clean, pleasant, many, many women the dignity of the women who have
expressed themselves.
even a bit bucolic. It would never have “It was the day after Thanksgiving,”
happened here, and it would never have happened if he I say, “and I had a date with a friend of a friend to see the
weren’t wealthy and connected.” movie Camelot. I wept uncontrollably leaving the theater.
The young woman who I assumed was a student speaks My date, feeling the need to comfort me, invited me to his
next. “I got pregnant and told my best friend. She said apartment. Comfort led to what was then known as heavy
she would talk to her father, who was an obstetrician. He petting. We did not have intercourse, and I didn’t know
was very kind, and said he would help me but we would then that intercourse was not, in some rare cases, required
have to say that I was threatening suicide. I was ashamed, for impregnation. I missed my period, but I couldn’t
but I knew I was safe.” imagine that I was pregnant. I consulted a gynecologist.
“I’m from California,” says a woman who seems to be He told me that in fact I was 10 weeks pregnant. If I could
somewhere in her 30s. She is wearing what I think might come up with $2,000, he could arrange for a psychiatrist
be a Laura Ashley dress: small pastel flowers on a pink to write a letter asserting that I was mentally unstable and
background. “I married young. My husband was a high therefore an abortion was required. There was no way
school teacher, money was tight, and we had three kids. I could come up with $2,000. I would literally rather have
I was only 30, and we’d agreed that when the youngest died at the hands of an illegal abortionist than tell my
went to school, I could go back to college. Then I got mother. She was a hyper-devout Catholic, a widow, and
pregnant. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we both knew I was her only child. The shame that would have fallen on
that another child would put horrible burdens on me and my mother was unbearable even to contemplate.
the family…and would be the end of my chances for an Panicked, I asked everyone I knew where I could get an
education and my dream of work. There was a group in abortion. I got a number from one of my classmates.
California that connected women with doctors in Mexico “I was told to come alone and stand in front of a movie
who would perform abortions safely. One of the women theater in the Bronx and bring $300 in cash. A car pulled
in the group accompanied you to make sure everything up and the driver told me to sit in the back. He put a
was in order. We used all our savings to make it happen… blindfold around my eyes and drove in what seemed like
and of course I was sad, but I’ve never regretted it.” circles and then stopped. I was terrified; I felt like the girl
A very pale woman with a pageboy and bangs says, “I’m who gets kidnapped in a gangster movie. Still blindfolded,
from Gary, Indiana. I’m a nurse. There was a wonderful I was led by him to the basement C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 3 2

52 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


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View From the Top


After years of highs on the slopes and the streets, Moncler is launching
a customizing program. Emma Elwick-Bates tries it on for size.

HA I R , I SSAC P OL EON ; MA KEUP, CHI AO - LI HSU. P RO DUCED BY JA NUA RY P RO DUCT IO NS.


S ET D ESI G N : I BBY NJOYA ; M OV E M EN T, YAGA M OTO. D ETA I LS, S EE I N TH IS I SSU E.
he gleaming slopes are perfect- the whippet walk, or thrown over want something that plays well on

T ly poised for self-expression,


a blank canvas for show-
off f reestylers, schussing
snowboarders—and, of course, a great
showcase for medal-worthy style
Saint Laurent cocktail minis and
barely-there blouses for evening. And
while we may have loathed athleisure
as a fashion hype word, it did give us
all license to throw a jaunty sleeping
the off-piste of home soil, too. Enter
Moncler, the luxury outerwear label
with its roots in the mountain village
of Monestier-de-Clermont, after
which it is named, but equally at home
feats. My early attempts at ski style bag over anything and get away with in music videos and the metropolis; its
were formulated on trips to Sweden it—for a while. (While down jackets new bespoke personalization service,
on school breaks when my sisters and are cozy on the inside, they can come Moncler By Me, launches online and
I lavished zinc oxide rainbows over off as a little dire from the outside.) at Moncler stores this month in Man-
our faces (the deft “color play” of Pat But with a ski trip planned for hattan, Paris, Milan, and Tokyo.
McGrath it was not). early 2023—to regain my alpine con- There are two quilted jacket designs
But the ultimate ski staple—a fidence after a long hiatus—I’ve been ready to personalize, both of them
trusty down jacket—has, along the thinking: What to wear now? Some- inspired by the iconic glossy and puffy
way, become a mainstay of the work- thing individual, yes, away from the Maya. “It’s the original Moncler—the
aday winter, and so much more: As identikit-Instagram crew—but since first jacket we made, in 1952,” says
temperatures drop, I wear mine bun- I’m not in the practice of relegating chairman and CEO Remo Ruffini
dled with knits and track pants on my skiwear merely to annual trips, I from his office in Milan. “Of > 5 8

56 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


course, it’s not exactly the same—we London’s historic 100-plus-degrees- whose daring ski mix of Head and
have improved a lot in terms of tech- Fahrenheit heat wave. First, I imme- Bogner elegantly stood out in Lech
nology, weight, and quality.” This year’s diately size up by one, wanting to take and Klosters. Distributing the colors,
model has a leaner silhouette thanks to on my sports with heat-tech layers I start with the hood and immedi-
the distinctive boudin construction— underneath—but also venture into ately go for leopard—it’s detachable,
horizontally stitched quilting with the less glamorous environs of city- so goes my reasoning, so any Dame
each square centimeter filled with a park life with my jacket atop a hooded Joan Collins drama could be played
precise ratio of down, ensuring both sweatshirt or Aran knit. Next up, I at will. Keeping the body of the jacket
greater warmth and a lighter weight. choose from the four Moncler-themed fresh in minimal white, I add more
The Mir is the women’s cut and the colorways laid out onscreen like Pan- leopard to the arms, creating a gilet
Vion the men’s, but this is far from tone charts. There’s Iconic (the classic effect (which also captures that retro
prescriptive—there’s an intentional tricolor you probably associate with sports vibe I am feeling).
fluidity to the project that feels mod- Moncler branding), Mountaineering There’s a felted logo-bearing pocket
ern and in keeping with the diverse (tougher shades—emerald, white, on the one sleeve, and that’s status
aesthetic Ruffini has brought to the olive), Paninaro (a mix of nostalgic enough for me, but you can also embla-
label. Four years ago, he pioneered ’80s and ’90s notice-me-now sports- zon a larger logo, text, or a symbol—
Moncler Genius, a rotating roster of wear hues—a cool vintage orange, a snowflake, heart, star, lucky clover, sun,
designers that radicalized the Moncler bright peacock blue), and Special 70° flame, or cloud—as you wish. (The
offering and that has featured, among (lilac and turquoise, in honor of the price of your jacket—updated in real
others, Pierpaolo Piccioli of Valentino, brand’s 70th anniversary). time—reflects the level of customi-
Craig Green, Jonathan Anderson, and I’m sold on the Paninaro, named zation, and can range anywhere from
Simone Rocha. “It was a way to talk after a stylish ’80s youth subculture $1,945 to $2,670.) Experimenting
with a different crowd, different com- in Milan—think early hypebeasts with my monogram, first modest-
munities,” Ruffini says. By not relying sized on the chest and then larger on
on a single vision, Genius allowed the the back, I settle on a gothic font on
brand to speak to a wider demographic I start with the the arm in blue, playing on my après-
as each designer challenged what fash- ski reveal: an endorphin-popping,
ionable activewear could be. Perhaps hood and immediately sky blue lining. I am usually nervous
most radically, a pre-Genius collabo- go for leopard—it’s when using the term color blocking—
ration with Junya Watanabe “helped it brings to mind Lego Duplo color
us to develop new technology, new detachable, so goes my combinations—but as I click “Design
ways to work,” Ruffini says. (When reasoning, so any Dame Complete,” I feel that I have created a
he saw the early designs, the notion of nostalgic ski jacket on my own terms.
actually producing them seemed, let’s Joan Collins drama (A bit of derring-do in the design, I
say, daunting. “I said, ‘No—there is no could be played at will secretly hope, may even kick my per-
chance,’ ” Ruffini says.) formance up a notch.)
Ruffini, a consummate sportsman Three weeks later, my cocoon-like
himself—he skis everywhere from in a preppy mix of colorful, graffit- jacket arrives in a giant Moncler box
Courchevel and St. Moritz to Jack- ied Moncler and mopeds—which (perfect for stashing lesser-used gog-
son Hole and Aspen—doesn’t see this inspired Ruffini’s first Moncler pur- gles, moon boots, and the like). The
new service as about fashion per se chase at age 15 in nearby Como. jacket is slick and ultra glossy, and a
but about “freedom—it’s what I want “My mom said, ‘If you want to go to well-executed parallel stop before my
to give our customers.” Over the sum- school on the back of a motorcycle, full-length mirror appears to provide
mer, friends of the house, including you need a big jacket—it’s freezing,’ ” the perfect contrast to high-rise black
Sarah Andelman, Fabien Baron, and Ruffini tells me. (So it was practical Khaite jeans and turtlenecks (the
Karl Templer (the brand’s campaign as well as fashionable.) It also brings urban Bond-girl default look for now).
stylist), have given the service a sort me back to those early ski trips of A storm on a snowcap this is not:
of trial run. “Sarah did a great job,” mine, all mirrored shades, snoods, and Ruffini talks of endless possibilities
Ruffini says of the legendary Colette the lurid color flashes of an era when and the expansion of the service in
founder and creative consultant. She brighter was always better. (Discreet terms of both design and delivery.
customized her jacket while “thinking black jacket—begone!) I pick the “This is just a taste,” he says, and then:
of the snow, love, and happiness!” as vivid “azzuro” blue, and “leopy” ani- “Ciao!” He’s off on his boat, heading
Andelman puts it. Cue an all-white mal print, arranging them over the six for Capri and then Southern Italy.
base—decorated with several green customizable jacket sections. His own navy Moncler By Me jacket
clovers—and a big red heart. She also Onscreen 3D jacket visualization awaits him for a cooler adventure
shares my on-piste/off-piste notion of simulates shadow and light and offers later, in the Altiplano of Argentina.
the new service: “Moncler By Me— 360-degree views, and my jacket is “It’s not a typical ski,” he told me ear-
to me—means the mountains and the starting to remind me of two of my lier. Maybe we should all be aiming
city, the softness and the protection.” favorite (if disparate) sportif style ref- for peak individuality—whether on
Inspired, I try the online configu- erences: the dashing Formula 1 driver actual slopes or in Park Slope, facing
ration process—oddly, in the midst of Ayrton Senna, and Princess Diana, the elements never felt so lively. @

58 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


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Unlaced sent, Cohan had her cor-
set, which at this party she
The corset, long a wore with wide-leg cargos.
Years ago, of course, the
symbol of constraint and corset was something that

PA LOMA E LS ESSE R: P HOTO GRA P HED BY ZOE GH E RT NE R/A RT PA RT N ER . VOGUE , MA RCH 2021. BOTTOM: GO RUNWAY RTW F/W 22 D IOR .
control, is reinvented constrained not just physi-
cally but psychologically. In
as an emblem of the Victorian era, it created
the wasp waist on women,
transforming even an ex-
pansive midsection into a
tiny concave triangle. The
effects of long-term wear
were extreme: organs were
shifted; simply breath-

A
and Cali-sober younger
millennials. The looks
ing could be a challenge.
For these reasons—along
with fashion charting a
course toward the f ree-
dom (and social scandale)
were ferocious, with of flappers—the corset has
CLOSE FIT
skin showing all-round, been, for more than a century, a kind of
clockwise from top
from itty-bitty skirts to left: Horst P. Horst’s sartorial Debbie Downer.
curve-skimming dresses iconic corset image from But while yesteryear’s corsets have
1939; Giorgio Armani long been emblematic of women’s
oppression when hidden underneath
bustier-print T-shirt dresses, when worn with confidence
out in the open now, they feel like a
the Dior runway in 2022.
provocative expression of whatever
wave of feminism we’re currently
living through. And while the corset
is, historically, the most feminine of
pieces, made to accentuate and exag-
gerate a woman’s curves, it has lately
become—at a time when the land-
scape of gender and sexuality > 6 2

60 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


and personal freedom is being policed iteration so tight it made the hulking Mike Tyson–level strength to lace her
like never before—the most demo- black shirt it was styled over almost into the piece.
cratic of garments, donned by any and explode. That same season, Versace As anyone who’s been in a corset
all. Dario Princiotta, a corset maker showed saucy bone-in silk corsets in can attest, the immersive experience
based in Palermo, Italy, made his electric blues and baby pinks—and is real. “Obviously a shoe can shape
first corset at the age of 11 and often another in pinstripes—all of which your foot,” as Wiederhoeft notes, “but
models his creations on Instagram. created a sexy bull’s-eye at the waist. it mostly changes the position of your
“I love to wear them because of the Fendi, meanwhile, styled theirs over foot, whereas a corset can really change
way they make me feel—they give boyish button-up shirts. your body—it changes your posture,
me an attitude, a stronger and more Thom Browne alum Jac kson how you breathe, how you walk.”
dramatic appearance.” Wiederhoeft, who launched his And while that might not be the
Celebs love to be harnessed into Wiederhoeft label three years ago, most comfortable situation, the frock-
them, too—Dua Lipa will slip into a transformed the old-time pieces and-frill messiah Batsheva Hay of
strapless one, Bella Hadid a denim into new-era creations including a Batsheva, who has been using cor-
one; Kourtney Kardashian even mar- clubby strap dress with a built-in sets throughout her racy-Little House
ried Travis Barker (at the third of their waist-pinching corset. Wiederhoeft on the Prairie collections, says maybe
three ceremonies) in a corset minidress. even created corsets for two grooms a bit of discomfort isn’t such a bad
But no one loves a corset more than for their wedding ceremony, to “give thing. We’ve been used to it forever
Lizzo, who collects them and steps out that feeling of sculpture,” he says, like with punishing shoes, so why not with
in them and performs in them. At the “when you look at a marble statue.” a corset? Only this time the option is
2022 Met Gala, she dazzled on the red The corset works its magic not only open to everyone, on our own terms.
carpet in a black Thom Browne cor- by its shape—and its shaping—but by “It’s such a gendered move to chisel
set dress with an exaggerated peplum. the process of actually putting it on. the waist, because the waist-hip ratio
(She also owns a corset with the image Somewhere out in the ether, there is the epitome of classical femininity,”
of the Mona Lisa on it—though with exists a hilarious video of me helping Hay tells me over drinks in the East
the famous face replaced with Lizzo’s.) Vogue editor Lilah Ramzi get herself Village, “and a corset creates an artifi-
On the fall 2022 runway, Marc into one for some megawatt gala: My cial femininity—so whoever wants to
Jacobs showed corsets that whittled knee is pushing into her back to cre- feel feminine can just put it on.” And
the waist—a standout was a white ate more space, and I’m summoning what’s more liberating than that? @

Strong Weather
Three fall films pack a punch.
ragedy shades the domestic family drama The Son,

T a movie about a teenage boy’s struggle with depres-


sion that becomes—thanks to the force of Hugh
Jackman’s performance as the father—an engross-

RE KHA GA RTO N ©S EE-SAW FI LMS L I MI T E D/COU RT ESY O F SO N Y P I CT U RES CL ASS I CS.


ing tale of helplessness and confusion. This chamber piece,
costarring Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, and Zen McGrath
as the titular son, comes from the French filmmaker Flo-
rian Zeller, adapting his own stage play. Mental illness is
a whirlpool here, and Jackman, who adores his 17-year-old FAMILY MAN
but also needs to believe he is okay (even when he is very Hugh Jackman
stars in Florian
much not), finds himself drowning in it. His descent is Zeller’s The Son,
gripping to watch and unbearably sad. out this November.
Erudite and ferociously powerful, TÁR is a conversa-
tion starter of a movie about creative brilliance, obsession,
and sexual manipulation. The performance at its center Aftersun also brims with emotional power. Scottish
is from Cate Blanchett as the conductor Lydia Tár, a for- filmmaker Charlotte Wells’s feature debut is the story
midable public figure who emulates Leonard Bernstein of a young, newly single father taking his 11-year-old
and is readying a prominent German orchestra to record daughter on an inexpensive holiday in Turkey. Paul Mes-
Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. She’s convinced of her genius, cal does subtle work as the outwardly genial, inwardly
as are we—even when the film reveals the cruel manipula- broken Calum, adrift between youth and responsibility,
tions she’s engaged in. Writer-director Todd Field—this and newcomer Frankie Corio is his daughter Sophie, a
is his third film, his first in 16 years—has meticulously brave, expressive girl who desperately needs something
built a portrait of intelligence and venality that defies our from her dad she’ll never get. Vibrant and melancholy, this
judgments and confounds our sympathies. is a lovely sunlit heartbreak of a film.— 

62 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


©2022 Walmart Apollo, LLC
handlers, and hangers-on.
Passion Projects If it sounds uncomfortably
familiar, that’s because S. E.
Boyd is the nom de plume of
The season’s best new two veteran journalists and
books explore obsessions. one book editor who know a
thing or two about highbrow
dining and lowbrow media.
Befitting of its title, the caustic
hirley Hazzard once novel is an archly acidic look at

S said that she thought


literature should be

life,” and in Shirley Hazzard:


the celebrity-death industri-
al complex and all those who
seek to seize the narrative—
and the spotlight—in the wake

FRO MT TO P TO BOT TO M: COURT ESY O F V I KI N G. COU RT ESY O F RI V ER HE A D BO O KS. COURTESY OF LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. COURTESY OF ECCO. COURTESY OF FSG. COURTESY O F G ROVE AT LAN T IC.
A Writing Life (FSG), scholar of a famous per-
son’s death.
the novelist’s eventful biog- Kevin Wilson’s
raphy with the literature it new book, Now Is
became. Born into Depression- Not the Time to
era Australia, Hazzard moved Panic (Ecco), is
cleverly cute with-
Zealand, New York, and out tipping into
Europe. Olubas’s biography is saccharine terri-
more than just a map of the tory, telling the
author’s movements; it’s an story of two teen-
account, as she puts it, of “a writer age misfits who
in the process of making herself.” create a poster that
What do Prince and Charles sets an entire com-
Dickens have in common? Perhaps munity on edge
not that much except the admi-
ration of Nick Hornby, a writer anonymously
whose enthusiasms have always around town. The
fueled the best of his work. The n o ve l u n r a ve l s
two men were both staggeringly
prolific, of course, and that’s the f riends and neighbors
starting point for Dickens and imbue the poster with their
Prince (Riverhead), an ardent fan own—sometimes sinister,
letter that makes you want to reread often comic—significance,
Great Expectations while listening and the bond that ensues
to Sign o’ the Times. This slim, com- between two young adults
panionable biography champions
the creative impulse to always make secret. Though the book
more. A love letter to maximalism. has an earnest heart, it’s
In Claire Keegan’s Foster (Grove), the Irish writer colored by Wilson’s appeal-
ingly offbeat prose.
In How Far the Light
Wexford while her parents prepare Reaches (Little, Brown),
for the birth of their next child. What an engrossing debut essay
collection, the science
complex coming-of-age tale, both
intimate and richly expansive, as the considers their family and
girl’s foster family provides her with
the room and space to blossom. Bal-
ancing Keegan’s delicate prose with

heart-wrenching treasure.

the shocking suicide of a beloved bar-


tender turned writer turned culinary-

64 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


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he beautiful Tuscan hilltop of Castiglioncello del

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to pronounce. There’s the past—Etruscans, Pope
Pius II, the Medicis—and
the present, which largely belongs
to Monteverdi, the lauded hotel and
VILLAGE PEOPLE
The Tuscan retreat marries old-world
spa that spans 22 acres. Over the details with modern amenities including
last 10 years, Michael L. Cioffi, an full-body diagnostic assessments.
American lawyer turned hotelier, has
bought up the town’s ancient stone preventative (nutritional testing,
structures, refurbishing them build- immune-boosting IV therapies), and
ing by building—20 guest suites here, programmatic (multiday experiences
an enoteca there. The result is an Ital- that include diagnostic assessments
ian idyll: private villas, a slow-food and holistic treatments), all overseen
restaurant, a culinary academy and by plastic surgeon Maurizio Caval-
garden, and a 14th-century church lini. But unlike many other detox
that regularly hosts artists in residence, such as the conduc- destinations, deprivation is not on the menu. “We want our
tor Sir John Eliot Gardiner and violinist Joshua Bell. This guests to revel in something I like to call ‘epicurean well-
month, Monteverdi will enter the final phase of its reincar- ness,’” says Cioffi, explaining the idea that enjoying a plate
nation with a split-level, 1,720-square-foot wellness center of pici all’aglione and a Bach cello suite along with rejuve-
dedicated to four areas of expertise: aesthetic (lasers, fillers, nation and relaxation leads to happiness. You can have your
injections), regenerative (minimally invasive micrografting), Brunello and your Botox, too.— 

Scene Stealers

BOT TO M I MAG ES : PAO LA KU DACK I /COU RT ESY O F T HE ME TRO P O LI TA N OP E RA . BOTA NICAL ILLUSTRATIONS: GETTY IMAGES.
n 2017, the operatic she is wrestling with loss and regret
soprano Renée Flem- in a much more subtle way,” Fleming
ing bid adieu to the says of Vaughan, a character previ-
traditional canon— ously portrayed by Meryl Streep.

MO N TEV ER DI : BE RN A RD TOU I LLON , BOT H COU RTESY O F MO N T EV E RD I T USCA N Y.


(Kelli O’Hara and Joyce DiDonato
costar as Brown and Woolf, roles
once played by Julianne Moore and
Nicole Kidman, respectively.) “The
film starred arguably the three best
actresses at that time, and we have
arguably the three best singing
actresses of our time,” says Yannick
itan Opera. Based on Michael Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s magnetic
Cunningham’s 1998 novel and music director, who will conduct. He
hopes the book and film will bring
new visitors to the Met—in addition
to those just keen to see Fleming.
“Renée is a major event,” he adds.
For her to trade Wagner for Woolf
GETTING THEIR
FLOWERS on opera’s biggest stage has stakes
The three stars of the Met’s worthy of any bel canto story line.
new production. — 

66 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


Skin
Deep
Jared Leto
has entered the
beauty game.
But his desert-
inspired product
debut is more
than a mirage.

ou would think we’d be immune to the famous-

Y
IMMERSION THERAPY
founder story at this point in its saturation. Yet I The gender-neutral line of skin care and hair care
was still surprised to receive Twentynine Palms, an essentials features prickly pear, aloe vera, and evening
primrose. Photographed by Julia Noni.
11-piece range of gender-neutral skin care, body
care, and hair care products from Jared Leto. I had ques-
tions. “Twentynine Palms, like the town at the entrance to violet-hued glass, aluminum, and post-consumer recycled
Joshua Tree National Park?” (Yes.) And, “Is this eye cream plastic bottles nod to its purple skies at twilight. The for-
actually $97?” (Also yes.) mulations follow a similar script. “Because of this chal-
“I know I’m a student here, but I think that’s the best lenging, unforgiving environment, these ingredients have

FASHI O N E D I TO R: TOBI AS FR ERI C KS. HA I R, L A RRY K I N G; G RO OM I N G, LUCY HA LP E RI N. PRODUCED BY MAMMA TEAM.


place to be,” Leto says of his entry into a very crowded to be incredibly resilient to survive,” Leto says, relaying the
space when I interrupt his vacation in Tuscany via Face- restorative benefits of the line’s desert botanicals. (That
Time in late August. Swatting away mosquitoes in a wide- aforementioned eye cream is packed with brightening
brimmed sun hat, the Oscar-winning actor, Gucci muse, prickly pear extract as well as retinol and ceramides, and,
and Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman is sporting a scruffy to Leto’s credit, it leaves my eye bags looking smooth and
beard and a loose dressing gown, chiseled chest on view. my dark circles minimized.)
But it’s his skin that draws the eye: At 50, Leto has the Leto’s willingness to learn and his dedication to both
porcelain-smooth complexion of a Renaissance cherub. clean formulas and clean living is what persuaded Kate
“I’ve never been really interested in beauty products,” Forbes to join Twentynine Palms after years of heading
insists Leto, whose initial drop has a lot of them, includ- up innovation for Aesop. “If I could adhere to some of
ing a detoxifying kaolin powder clay mask and an impres- Jared’s strict guidelines, I think I’d be much healthier,”
sive exfoliating solution to gently resurface skin. “But I’m laughs Forbes, a veteran product developer with a PhD in
interested in the idea of taking care of ourselves in the most chemistry. “He is 100 percent committed to anything that
natural way possible,” he continues. he decides that he wants to do,” confirms Jimmy Chin, the
Leto is known for going all in on anything he does. codirector of the Oscar-winning rock climbing documen-
(He reportedly gained 67 pounds to channel disturbed tary Free Solo, who met Leto six years ago.
Beatles fan Mark Chapman in Chapter 27 before Master That commitment will soon take Twentynine Palms
Cleansing himself back to his normal weight, and one can beyond beauty, Leto tells me with such enthusiasm he
only imagine what madness will transpire when he goes briefly drops his iPhone. He is planning a partnership with
Method to play Andy Warhol in an upcoming biopic.) His High Desert Test Sites, the ambitious Coachella Valley–
wellness-oriented way of life is no exception: He is a vegan adjacent artist residency, as well as limited-edition home
who abstains from both alcohol and caffeine, and when he and design objects in collaboration with a rotating list of
discovered the “rugged beauty” of the desert while direct- multidisciplinary creators. Fragrances that build on earthy
ing a 2016 documentary series about rock climbing, his aromatics (smoky Japanese vetiver, eucalyptus, myrrh) will
interest in the sport snowballed into a full-blown obses- come next. It’s a convincing performance in which Leto
sion. Leto bought a home in Nevada to further immerse plays the part of wellness apostle; maybe it’s the beard. “It’s
himself in the Mojave Desert, and his new brand’s refillable just the beginning,” he suggests.— 

68 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


*Recommended for retinol users and not for beginners **See improved look of wrinkles © J&JCI 2022
GENTLE
ON SKIN*

RETINOL PRO+ SERUM


W R I N K L E R E S U LT S I N O N E W E E K * *

FOR PEOPLE WITH SKIN TM


Here Comes
Trouble
Three new series cover
dangerous territory.
villain story is a mutable thing,

A as the endless revisions of old


IP demonstrate. (See Malef i-
cent, Joker, Cruella, et cetera.) In
Mammals, a Prime Video miniseries from
playwright Jez Butterworth, the nefarious
character is a bit more mysterious: Who,
exactly, is sleeping with Amandine (Melia
Kreiling), the wife of Jamie ( James Cord-

1977– 82 , O I L O N CA N VAS. 6 FT. 8 1 1 /16 X 8 FT. 1 13 /16 I N . KU N ST MUSEU M B ERN . ME RET OPPENH EIM BEQUEST. COURTESY OF TH E MUSEUM OF MOD ER N ART. BOTTOM LEFT: COURTESY O F STARZ.
en)? He’s a chef opening his first restaurant

TO P : T HE A RT I ST M ERE T O P P E N HEI M AT WOR K I N HER ST UD I O IN O BE RH OFE N , CA NTON BER N, 1958. KEYSTONE/WALTER STUD ER . PAINTING: MER ET OPPENH EIM, N EW STARS (N EUE STER NE).
and discovering his wife’s infidelities at the
very same moment. Corden is sharp and
surprisingly dark here, the troubled heart Legion of Meret
of a story about the many things that can
go wrong in a modern marriage.
A sprawling Meret Oppenheim
Dangerous Liaisons, meanwhile, a new survey opens at MoMA.
series from Starz, invents a richly realized
prologue for the 1782 novel of the same he story behind Object, the fur-shrouded teacup, spoon, and
name. The show charts how the Marquise
de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont came
to be such scheming cynics, ruining mar-
riages all over 18th-century Paris. Alice
Englert is the marquise, avenging heart-
T saucer for which Meret Oppenheim (1913–1985) is best
known, goes like this: In 1936, Oppenheim met Pablo Picas-
so and Dora Maar for a meal in Paris, turning up to the
Café de Flore in a bracelet she’d covered in ocelot. (In 1935, when
money from her parents—who were then fleeing Nazi Germany—
break through wiles she learned from a wise, stopped coming in, Oppenheim began designing jewelry to support
if embittered, mentor (Lesley Manville). herself.) Her companions compli-
Vengeance is also central to The English, mented it, moving Oppenheim to
a Prime Video drama set in the Great Plains wonder what else she might coat
at the end of the 19th century. Created by in fur, and the result was Object,
Hugo Blick, it stars Emily Blunt as Lady which she sold to the Museum of
Cornelia Locke, an English aristocrat hunt- Modern Art a decade later.
ing down the person who killed her son That and nearly 200 other
with the help of a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout. beguiling creations form “Meret
It’s a Western worthy of Wayne, thick with Oppenheim: My Exhibition,” a
heady adventure.—  survey opening at MoMA this fall
after stops at the Kunstmuseum
LOVE AND WAR Bern and the Menil Collection in
Alice Englert as the Marquise de Merteuil Houston. Spanning paintings, drawings, sculptures, assemblages,
in Starz’s Dangerous Liaisons. poetry, and works on paper, the show makes a persuasive case for
Oppenheim as more than just a Surrealist wunderkind—although
Object set a kind of precedent. “That object provides a key to threads
that run throughout her tremendously varied body of work,” says
Anne Umland, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Senior Curator
of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA. “She is interested in works
that make domesticity walk on the wild side.” She also had a won-
derful sense of humor, a sharp eye for color, and the good sense
not to fade into obscurity after her early success. “At our opening,
I asked who had met Meret at least once, and one third of the audi-
ence raised their hand,” says Nina Zimmer,
IN THE ABSTRACT director of the Kunstmuseum Bern. “Every
from top: Meret 15-year-old who had the chance to shake
Oppenheim at her her hand lovingly remembers it.” Now, sur-
studio in Oberhofen, rounded by the artifacts of Oppenheim’s
Switzerland, in
1958. New Stars (Neue inventive career, New Yorkers can make
Sterne), 1977–82. some memories of their own.—..

70 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


KITCHEN
CONFIDENTIAL
Weight gain as we
age has less to do
with numbers,
and everything to
do with diet,
exercise, and
hormones.

t is a blistering Thursday after-

I noon in August and I am sitting


at my desk on Manhattan’s Upper
West Side, glistening in sweat as I
wait for David Borenstein, MD, with
my Zoom camera on. “Thank you so
much for agreeing to speak with me
today,” I say when he appears. I’ve
been gently fanning my face with a
Gucci Lovelight floral-print fan that
was gifted to me for my 50th birthday
a few months ago—an omen of hot
flashes to come.
For the last year, I’d been a hot
mess, literally: anxious, moody, prone
to waking at 4:32 a.m. swathed in a
damp tangle of sheets. My hair was
P HOTOG RA P HE D BY PA ME LA HA N SO N, VOGUE , JU N E 19 92 .

thinning, my “elevens”—vertical gla-


bellar lines Manhattan dermatologist
Dendy Engelman had been zapping
Gains and Losses with Botox since my early 40s—now
resembled 12s, and perhaps most
unnervingly, my waist seemed to
For years, women have been warned that their be expanding.
metabolism will inevitably slow as they get Like countless other women swan
diving into their 50s, I was entering
older. Does a groundbreaking new study change the twilight zone that is menopause.
the equation? asks Amy Synnott. I could deal with the hot flashes
(thank you, Pause Well-Aging Cool-
ing Mist). But the weight gain >7 8

76 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


no digital
distortion
around my midsection—the moti- reflect broad trends across huge num- apparently isn’t doing my metabolism
vation for today’s consultation with bers of people, they do not account any favors. So for the next few months,
Borenstein—troubled me. “I feel like for individual differences,” says I trade in my long jogs through Cen-
I’m eating and exercising the same Raffaele—most notably body mass tral Park for two metabolism-boosting
way I always have,” I tell him. “But I’m and fat percentage. So could locking classes at Equinox: Stronger, a new
still gaining weight, especially here,” in on the impact of my own diet, strength-building group class focused
I continue, motioning toward a small exercise, and hormone levels on my on low reps with heavy weights, and
bulge under my cream-colored Chloé individual body mass and fat per- Tabata Max, a HIIT class featuring
blouse. Borenstein nods as he peers centage help speed up my metabo- intense bursts of cardio that’s the best
through his screen. “There’s very good lism, or at least keep it steady—even thing to happen to my core since Kim
data associating menopause with a at 50—I wondered? Kardashian introduced the Skims
decreased metabolic rate.” waist trainer. Mark Hyman, the best-
I was, of course, grimly aware of irst up, I was checked for hypo- selling author of UltraMetabolism
this conventional wisdom regarding
metabolism: Our body’s ability to
efficiently convert calories into usable F thyroidism. Perhaps I was and senior adviser at the Cleveland
one of the nearly 5 percent of Clinic Center for Functional Medi-
Americans suffering from the cine, also suggests that I eat at least
energy decreases with age, taking a condition that slows down your metab- 25–30 grams of protein per meal
particularly cruel dip during meno- olism? Nope: My thyroid-stimulating (think: chicken breasts, egg whites,
pause, at which point most women hormone (TSH) levels were just fine. and wild salmon) as protein-based
gain 5 to 8 percent of their baseline My insulin, a key metabolic hormone diets can also enhance metabolic
body weight. When you are young that regulates blood sugar, also proved functioning by helping to build mus-
and flush with estrogen, “excess cal- to be “within range.” Looking over my cle. While I’m at it, he recommends
ories are distributed into sub- reducing inflammation and
cutaneous fat around the hips blood sugar imbalances—
and the butt,” explains New “It’s possible people are which can compromise met-
York age-management spe- abolic functioning—with a
cialist Joseph Raffaele, MD. just eating and drinking more “pegan” diet that combines
As you lose estrogen, Raffaele as they get older and paleo (whole, low-glycemic,
suggests, that fat makes a bee- phytonutrient-rich foods) and
line for your abdomen. that’s why they are gaining vegan principles (no dairy, lots
But a groundbreaking study weight,” Pontzer posits of nutrient-rich fruits and veg-
recently published in the jour- gies). I haven’t eaten gluten in
nal Science largely refutes just years, so that isn’t a problem.
how early this process starts. The rate lab work, Borenstein zeroes in on my But eschewing all dairy? I’m not sure
at which your body converts the food vitamin D levels. “You need a supple- how I will go without my favorite aged
you eat into energy is often deter- ment, big-time,” he says. In addition Asiago, but I can try.
mined by genetics, explains Herman to jeopardizing bone health, vitamin And that willingness may be the
Pontzer, PhD, an associate profes- D deficiencies can negatively affect crucial variable. If the new findings
sor of evolutionary anthropology your metabolism, he adds, recom- are not exactly a magic bullet, they
and global health at Duke Univer- mending more tests: estrogen, tes- have made me think differently about
sity and the study’s lead researcher. tosterone, growth factor, leptin levels, what was previously thought to be an
Pontzer and a team of researchers ghrelin (the list is long and daunting, inevitability. “It’s possible people are
discovered that basal metabolic rates requiring about 30 vials of blood to just eating and drinking more as they
(BMR)—the amount of energ y be drawn the following morning). get older and that’s why they are gain-
expended on basic functions like “All of these hormones, which tend ing weight,” Pontzer posits, prompt-
breathing or circulating blood—don’t to fluctuate as you get older, can ing me to similarly consider how the
drastically change until much later affect your ability to lose weight,” he creaky joints, sore knees, and all the
in life than previously thought. “Our explains. The decrease in testosterone, other fun aspects of aging also likely
BMR stays pretty consistent from for instance, can lower muscle mass. contribute to less time at the gym.
age 20 until 60,” says Pontzer. The In terms of metabolic functioning, But actively pushing back against all
findings have been lauded by some this is very important: Not only does of these inclinations has led to tangi-
as being among the most import- muscle burn more calories per pound ble results: My core is tighter, I feel
ant studies about metabolism ever than fat, it also helps lower the risk stronger and more toned, and while
conducted, and seem like very good of insulin resistance, which can lead it is certainly comforting that the
news—for me, and for the number of to the accumulation of abdominal fat benchmarks for my body’s eventual
friends who have been interested in (among other, far scarier cardiovas- decline may have receded, I am more
my reporting on this subject. cular issues). encouraged by something else: a sense
The reality is a bit more compli- I work out regularly but tend to favor of control over the way I look and feel,
cated. “While those numbers may cardio over strength training, which BMR be damned. @

78 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


ADVER TISEMENT
HOME AGAIN
Actor, writer, and director
Michaela Coel in Accra,
Ghana’s capital, with her
father, Derek Kwesi
Coel, and grandmother
Jemima Andam (in an
Erdem dress). Coel wears
a Dolce & Gabbana blazer
and top. Louis Vuitton
dress. Dior shoes.
Fashion Editor: Ib Kamara.
Michaela Coel has always set the
terms of her career. What’s next?
Playing a Black Panther super warrior.
On a visit to Ghana, Coel’s ancestral
home, Chioma Nnadi tries to keep up.
Photographed by Malick Bodian.

On a Roll
ichaela Coel quads, I quickly realize that in-line school’s history to join the team,

M
doesn’t like to sit skating is a totally different beast. performing at the talent show the
still; she’s a self- Coel compares it to switching from same year. Skating is more than that
described mover, Android to iPhone. And she’s not though—it gives her a mind-body
the type to run wrong. I’m struggling to control my connection, a sense of liberation,
a half-marathon limbs and rapidly perspiring in the especially here in Ghana, she says,
in the middle of the night for fun. unrelenting heat. Aside from a cou- where she moves with a particu-
So I’m not all that surprised when ple of trees flanking the entrance of lar kind of ease. “I’d been to Africa
the 35-year-old actor-writer-director the lot, there’s little shelter from the before—Kenya and Uganda—but
suggests meeting for a Rollerblad- sun—but Coel’s basically doing pir- when I came here I was really see-
ing session on a Sunday morning in ouettes and has barely broken a sweat. ing people who looked like me,”
Accra, Ghana’s capital city. “Totally “There’s some sort of slow euphoric says Coel, who first came to the
down for that, sounds like fun!!!” I feeling that I get when I skate. It’s just West African country to film Black
respond via WhatsApp, adding one my time,” she says, breezing past. “I Earth Rising, Hugo Blick’s searing
too many exclamation points out feel like skaters are never stressed or 2018 drama series about the Rwan-
of apprehension. To be honest, it’s agitated. They’re on good vibes.” dan genocide. “A f riend of mine
a terrifying idea. The day before, in As a little girl, Coel would skate was with me, and he remembers us
Accra’s historic Jamestown, I’d wit- around the East London council getting off the plane and me walk-
nessed Coel flying through traffic on estate where she grew up with her ing around as if I knew where I was
her skates, her polka-dot going.” On that trip, she
Burberry cape flapping traveled the length and
wildly behind her, pho-
tographer Malick Bodian In Ghana, Coel moves breadth of the country,
discovering places even
and his crew in hot pur- her mother and father,
suit. It was a daredevil
stunt suited more to an
with a particular kind who emigrated to Lon-
don before she was born,
action movie than a Vogue
cover shoot.
of ease. “I’d been to didn’t know. “I remember
looking at all the kids
Looking every inch the
athlete, Coel shows up
early for our meet, slen-
Africa before—Kenya playing and it hit me, like,
Wow, this could’ve been
me and I think I would
der but strong in black
r unning shor ts and a
and Uganda—but have really enjoyed that,”
she says. “Yes, there are a
sports bra, a purple base-
ball hat thrown over her when I came here I was lot of sad things; poverty,
unemployment, struggle.
closely cropped ’fro. She There’s also a lot of peace,
shows me her skates—
white with gigantic lilac
really seeing people f riendliness. There’s a
lack of anxiety.”
wheels—and tells me that
big wheels equal great
who looked like me” By midday I’m feel-
ing less wobbly, and my
speed. “The balance is teacher Rashaq thinks
tough, but the enjoyment is max,” she mother and older sister. But it wasn’t we’re ready to hit the road. Coel
says, grinning. We’re in the parking until March of last year, while visit- knows all the best routes in the city,
lot of Decathlon, a sprawling French ing her grandmother in Accra and and suggests we head to Canton-
sports-supply store where she’s per- inspired by a group of kids learning ments, an affluent neighborhood
suaded me to buy my first ’blades. The to Rollerblade, that she picked up the with smooth tarmac perfect for Roll-
pair I’ve chosen have small wheels— sport again. Before ascending to the erblades. She navigates the streets like
the better to keep me grounded, I impressive custom gear she’s wearing a local because she practically is one;
think. With guards on my wrists and today, she bought her first grown-up last year she lived around here for six
elbows and kneepads strapped over pair of skates at Decathlon. “This is months. I do my best to keep pace
my baggy jeans, I look like an over- what happens when you’re not risk- as we skate past the organic grocery
grown teenage boy. Still, safety first— averse,” she deadpans pointing to store where she buys all her vegan
Coel insists on it. “If my skate teacher the scars on her knees, the result of supplies, an upscale eatery called
saw you he’d be like, ‘Where’s the hel- a tumble she took last spring shortly Bistro 22, and an Irish pub popular
met?’ ” she says. For now though, the before she flew home to London for with the expat crowd. Mercifully,
bucket hat is a fair compromise. the BAFTA awards. there are very few cars on the road
Luckily, Rashaq, one of several Coel has always been a fast learner, and we quickly find ourselves cruising
skater-boy types on the store’s staff, the type to throw herself headfirst down a virtually deserted residential
has agreed to give me a crash course into new challenges: As a teen- street. I fail to realize a pretty steep
before we take to the streets. As some- ager, she took up Irish dancing, the decline—and before I know it, I’ve
one who’s only ever used old-school only Black girl in her London high lost control of my skates and, arms

82
ALL WITHIN SIGHT
Joining Black Panther:
Wakanda Forever is
something of a wish fulfilled;
while in drama school,
Coel was one of the many
who auditioned for Ryan
Coogler’s 2018 blockbuster.
Undercover earring.
Saint Laurent by Anthony
Vaccarello bangles.
FASCINATING
RHYTHM
“Michaela can really
do anything she wants,
have any role she
wants,” says Donald
Glover, “because of the
choices she’s made.”
Michael Kors Collection
gown. Loewe shoe.
Chanel earring.
JOY RIDE
“Everyone talks about
her genius talent,”
says her friend Paapa
Essiedu, “but the
thing that impresses,
inspires, and moves
me most about
Michaela is the size of
her heart.” Saint
Laurent by Anthony
Vaccarello jacket.
Christopher John
Rogers shirt and pants.
85
IN MEDIAS RES
Coel stops traffic
in Accra’s bustling
Makola Market
wearing a Michael
Kors Collection wrap
and Gucci jacket,
shirt, pants, gloves,
and shoes.

flailing, I’m zooming on a direct col-


lision course with a garden fence.
Somehow, Coel manages to rescue
me, grabbing both my elbows just in
time to bring me to a stop. “Learning
to break is the hardest part,” she says
as I giggle nervously with embarrass-
ment. “You know, every time I think
about that, I think about my career.
Taking rest, learning to do that—
learning to break,” she says. “It means
something on every level.”
Coel has had a lot of practice in
setting professional boundaries, in
trusting her instincts. To maintain
ownership of her work, she famously
walked away from a $1 million deal
with Netflix in 2017 to make what
would become I May Destroy You,
the earth-shattering BAF TA- and
Emmy Award–winning drama based
on her experience of sexual assault.
She also severed ties with her talent
agency that year, who she claims had
pressured her to sign that deal. It was
the BBC who agreed to give her full
creative control and rights for the
show, with HBO signing on as a co-
producer. “No is the only power you
really have in this industry, that’s the
only way to carve a path,” says her
f riend Donald Glover. “Michaela
can really do anything she wants,
have any role she wants. She means a
lot because of the choices she’s made,
and I don’t think she takes those
choices lightly.”
Later in the day, after a well-
deser ved nap, I head out to join
Coel for a sunset dinner in Kokro-
bite, a town on the Atlantic coast
an hour away known for its white-
sand beaches. According to her, the
grilled-fish platter at this one spot

86
is worth the drive alone. I’ve been By the time Black Panther was I’m here to support.” Her castmate
encouraged to pack my bathing suit; released, Coel was making a name and friend Winston Duke describes
she’s hoping we can squeeze in a dip for herself with Chewing Gum, the the emotional experience as a bond-
before we eat. When I arrive though, hilarious one-woman play turned ing moment. “She really became part
it seems all bets are off. The sun’s BAF TA award–winning sitcom of the family,” he says.
already low on the horizon, and I find she created that follows the life of Coel wasn’t the only newcomer
her at the bar on the beach under a Tracey Gordon, an amateurish 20- on set. Ultimate Fighting champ
big Jacquemus straw hat, dressed in something on a mission to lose her Kamaru Usman has a cameo in the
a peasant-style Ganni sundress and virginity. She remembers attending movie, and the pair became fast
flat sandals. Without her enormous the London premiere of Black Pan- friends. “We’re like brother and sis-
skates, she appears petite and delicate, ther in a halter-neck dress she’d made ter,” says Usman. In the midst of
though her energy still radiates. “You out of wax print fabric her mother filming in Atlanta, Coel and Duke
should try some of this, it’s home- had brought back f rom Accra. “I traveled to see Usman face his UFC
brewed,” she says, tapping the side of thought to myself, I’m def initely rival Colby Covington at Madison
her glass. The owner of the lodge, a going in something Af rican,” she Square Garden in New York. She
cheerful barrel-chested man named says. Unbeknownst to Coel, director was immediately enthralled. “I was
Lion, pours me a shot of Akpeteshie, Ryan Coogler already had his eye on going through a rough time, and
a Ghanaian liquor Usman said, ‘You
made from distilled need to go fight-
palm wine. The taste ing,’ ” says Coel,
is sweet with a sur- who picked up the
prisingly strong fin- sport a month later
ish, a drink better and now trains with
sipped than slammed. a Canadian mixed
The place has a martial arts fighter
reassuringly soulful in London. “It’s like
vibe. There are lights physical chess.”
strung from reclaimed In comic book
wooden beams, col- lore, Aneka is a
orful murals deco- captain and combat
rating the walls, and instructor in the
thatched beach huts Dora Milaje, the
festooned with flags. fearless all-female
The backdrop—lush crew of warriors
coconut groves and who protect the
endless sandy beach—looks like BREAKING MOLDS kingdom of Wakanda. As the story
something from the movies. If you “That sold me on the role, the fact that goes, she falls in love with her war-
can believe it, the restaurant’s name is my character’s queer,” Coel rior colleague Ayo, played by Flor-
says of playing the combat instructor
Wakanda, after the fictional African Aneka in Black Panther. ence Kasumba, and their forbidden
country of superhero legend Black affair causes disruption in the ranks.
Panther. “My 10-year-old son came her, and he noticed how easily she “That sold me on the role, the fact
up with it,” says Lion proudly. mingled with cast members. “Aneka, that my character’s queer,” Coel says.
In November, Coel will appear in the character Michaela plays, is kind “I thought: I like that, I want to show
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the of a rebel,” says Coogler. “It made that to Ghana.” Like many African
second in Marvel’s wildly popular a lot of meta sense with Michaela countries, Ghana has draconian anti-
Afrofuturist series. News of her role being someone who is pushing the gay laws dating back to the colonial
immediately lit up the internet, ener- industry forward and carving out her era. Most recently though, a bill has
gizing Coel fans and comic book afi- own space.” been put to parliament calling for
cionados alike. For the actor, joining The role Coel would play in the some of the most oppressive anti-
the ensemble cast was a wish fulfilled; Black Panther sequel was still taking LGBTQ + legislation the continent
COU RTESY O F M A RV EL STU D I OS. © 202 2 M A RVE L.

she’d been one of the many young shape when Chadwick Boseman, has ever seen. If passed, it could make
hopefuls who auditioned for the first who starred as the beloved titular identifying as gay or even an ally a
Black Panther movie while she was superhero, died at the age of 43 after second-degree felony, punishable by
still a student at the Guildhall drama a long battle with colon cancer. When five years in prison. “People say, ‘Oh,
school in London. “I think for a lot of filming began last year, “it felt like the it’s fine, it’s just politics.’ But I don’t
people it was the first time we’d seen entire cast was processing grief,” she think it is just politics when it affects
some sort of representation on a very says. “There was a sense that we have how people get to live their daily lives,”
mainstream platform about the magic to bring this baby home in the name she says. “That’s why it felt import-
of Africa, the magic of the people, our of Chadwick. I thought to myself, I’m ant for me to step in and do that role
ancestors,” she says. “Coming here, rolling up my sleeves and I’m getting because I know just by my being Gha-
you do feel something magical.” in. I don’t need to be front and center, naian, Ghanaians will come.”

88
he’s challenged conven- gap,” she says. She doesn’t remember unflinching series, Osborne was com-

S
tions before: I May Destroy falling, as her character does in the pelled to share her experience with
You struck like lightning in show. “There’s no memory of fear.” sexual violence, a family secret she had
2020, just as the world was Coel first shared her story publicly all but buried. “For Michaela to turn
shutting down, igniting at the Edinburgh International Tele- what happened to her into a show—
searching conversations vision Festival in 2018, where she was for a lot of people to see and be
around sexual violence and consent. invited to deliver the prestigious key- touched by it, and for some to come
In fact, the series’ cultural impact is note speech, known as the MacTag- out and say, ‘This happened to me,’ is
still being felt. In January, a bill to gart lecture, the first Black woman in just so inspiring,” says Osborne, a
legally classify stealthing—the act the event’s 42-year history to do so. In mental-health nurse who suffered
of removing a condom during sex the address, she spoke candidly about abuse at the hands of someone she
without consent—as a crime was the experiences that had shaped her knew when she was a child. “And
passed in Chile as a direct result perspective, including her harrowing because it touched me personally, I had
of a scene Coel had written. Maite assault, the racism she faced at drama to open up and tell her everything.”
Orsini, a congresswoman from San- school, and the isolation she felt in Coel describes her relationship
tiago, was inspired to lobby for the the entertainment world. The speech, with her mother in loving terms. “I
law after watching one particularly which formed the basis of her 2021 mean, that’s my whole twin,” she says,
chilling episode of the series. Coel book Misf its: A Personal Manifesto, pulling up a picture of them together
compares the experience of seeing would also serve as a creative spring- outside her mom’s home in London
the world react to her work to flying board for I May Destroy You. Its import on her phone. The resemblance is
a kite—an act she set in motion but was clear: The industry needed to be uncanny : the wide-set almond-
that has taken on life of its shaped eyes, the sy m-
own, buoyed by a collective metrical face, and those
force. “There’s this huge
thing in the air and maybe
Black Panther is extraordinary high cheek-
bones. I recognize Osborne
at one point I was holding
the string, but now I’m just about “representation as the elegantly dressed
woman of ten pictured
gazing up with everybody next to Coel at awards
else,” she says.
The real-life events
on a very mainstream shows. For a long time,
Osborne would make the
that I May Destroy You is
based on took place when
platform,” Coel says, African-print dresses Coel
wore on red carpets before
she was working on sea-
son two of Chewing Gum.
While up late writing at
“about the magic of she was being dressed by
the likes of Balenciaga and
Christopher John Rogers.
the office, she headed
out to meet a friend at a
Africa, the magic of the “Michaela is really good
with fabric even though
bar. Sometime that night,
her drink was spiked, she people, our ancestors” she doesn’t know how to
sew herself,” says Osborne,
says, and she was sexually who learned the trade from
assaulted. As she tells it, the emo- held accountable, to be more transpar- her own dressmaker mother. “When
tional trauma she suffered has been ent, to lift up voices like hers that had the dress doesn’t fit, she knows.” She
tempered by confronting it head-on. been silenced for far too long. made clothes for Coel when she was
“I don’t think I really understood how And yet physically her voice was a little girl too—as a way to connect
much making a show would make this failing her. “I don’t know if you lis- to their Ghanaian heritage—and she
thing lose its power,” she says. “Now tened to the audiobook of Misfits, but told stories of her own childhood
it’s just a scar like these ones.” She I’m so hoarse. I have so many nod- in the small village where she was
points to her knees. ules and a blood blister on my vocal raised, and the high school where
And yet certain injuries linger. Since chords,” explains Coel, adding that, she met Coel’s father. “I didn’t think
the assault, she’s experienced unex- in preparation for our interview, she my daughters would love Ghana
plained blackouts, most recently while was prescribed medication and two because I grew up there and left,”
having dinner with her cousin and a days of vocal rest in order to be able says Osborne. “But when they went
friend in New York, an episode her to speak. It’s part of the reason Coel, themselves and fell in love with the
doctors say could have been triggered a theater kid at heart, has more often country, I loved it so much.”
by another spiked drink. “All I can tell than not found herself in front of a Though separated for most of
you is that it’s the most scared I’ve camera and not on the stage. “My Coel’s childhood, her parents have
ever been,” says Coel, who remembers voice is too fragile for theater.” an amicable relationship now, and
stumbling toward the restaurant’s exit Fo r C o e l ’s m o t h e r, Kw e n u a in recent years, the actor has gotten
before losing her vision for 15 min- Osborne, I May Destroy You signaled closer to her father, who has moved
utes. “The strange thing is when I was the moment she would find her own back to Ghana. “I started to imagine
spiked, there’s a complete memory voice. Empowered by her daughter’s my parents as people, not parents,

89
and what a crazy life it must have recognized by European and Amer- something wasn’t gelling. “I couldn’t
been to emigrate to England. Imag- ican transplants on the night scene— figure out what my motivations were;
ine you’re a smart, intelligent man and that suits her. She has a healthy money and creating jobs are fine,
like my dad, but you are just seen as aversion to celebrity; up until a few but that’s not it for me,” says Coel,
someone who cleans. You face this years ago, she still lived in London who remembers being in her office
glass ceiling,” she says. “And so I have with a roommate, Ash, who she met in Central London, surrounded
to thank him for everything he did, on an apartment-sharing app. “Ash by flowers and cookies sent by her
because he made me who I am.” lives in Northampton now, and I go producers, and a feeling of unease
Coel plans to build a house in her up there and stay at his house,” she overwhelming her. “There was the
father’s village and is toying with the says. “We cook the same meals that assumption that, okay, so now I May
idea of buying an apartment in Accra we used to make when we were liv- Destroy You has happened, you’ve
as well. I ask her if the vision of her ing together.” She balks at the mere got this window and you have to
future home includes a partner. She mention of an entourage, preferring capitalize on it. And when I hear
responds with her trademark wry the meaningful exchanges that can that, it sounds like the root is fear,
humor—the annoying thing about spring from striking up conversa- because the assumption is the win-
having a house in rural Ghana, she tions with strangers instead. Her dow is going to close. And I don’t
tells me, is that you will eventually circle is an eclectic mix of old and feel comfortable making decisions
need someone to help you kill all the new, friends she’s known since high based on fear,” she says. Instead, she
creepy-crawlies, if nothing else. Then school and people she’s connected did what felt right at the time: She
her tone changes: “I do want a life with along the way. Much like took a break, traveled to Iceland, one
companion,” she says. “I love romance the characters she’s written, Coel of the few places that wasn’t in lock-
and I love when romance down, hired a car, found
turns into something deeper, an Airbnb, googled the
a relationship where there’s
understanding, transparency,
“There’s some sort of top 20 scenic places in
the country, and visited
forgiveness, openness. But
you have to find that per- slow euphoric feeling each one.
There are revelers
spilling out onto the
son, and I personally haven’t
seen many healthy men. So
I don’t know if I trust myself.
that I get when I sidewalk when we arrive
in Accra, and the street
I’m trying to do the work. I
talk about this in therapy all skate,” she says. “Skaters is chock-full of local
taxicabs. Her cousin has
the time, and actually, per-
son by person, they’re get-
ting healthier and healthier.”
are never stressed sent word via text that
the venue is packed. It
might be best for her to

t’s well after dark by


or agitated. They’re on go a little incognito. I
offer my bucket hat as a

I good vibes”
the time we’re done disguise and she happily
with dinner, and the accepts. As we finish
already quiet beach touching up our makeup
is empty. To Coel, though, tends to be emotionally porous, not in the car, she shares a thought that’s
the night is still young. She guarded, at once fearless and fiercely been on her mind lately: What if
suggests I tag along with her to her vulnerable. “Everyone talks about her the concept for her new show was a
favorite lounge in the city where she’s genius talent, which is true and can’t woman sitting at the bar? Of course
planning to meet a few friends. “You be underestimated, but from the first she’d be amazing looking—huge
took a nap earlier didn’t you?” she says, moment I met her, the thing that shades, somewhat elusive. Coel’s mis-
ribbing me. My energy is waning, but impresses, inspires, and moves me sion, as she sees it, is to get to know
the invitation is tempting for two rea- most about Michaela is the size of this woman, find out her story. But
sons: Accra is known for its vibrant her heart,” says friend and collabo- she can’t do that unless her intentions
nightlife, and Coel has a reputation rator Paapa Essiedu, who has known are pure. “When I make a show, it’s
for her taste in music. (Some of the Coel since drama school and starred because I’ve sat at the bar. I’ve looked
songs she handpicked for the I May opposite her in I May Destroy You. “I across at her. I’ve let her know I’m
Destroy You soundtrack were written think it knows no limits, and she’s not going anywhere. No contracts or
by Ghanaian artists such as Lady incredibly courageous in the way she money involved, it’s just me and her.
Jay, a singer she met on a night out chooses to share it.” But when that’s not true, she doesn’t
much like this one.) “In Ghana, I like W hat exactly she’ ll choose to come over,” she says. Right now she
it when I’m creating things for other do next is something that Coel is has a good feeling, her head and heart
people,” she says. “That’s what I like not quite ready to talk about. She are aligning, there’s a sense of forward
about making TV.” had begun work on a project on motion. “It feels like she’s slowly turn-
Coel moves with relative ano- the heels of I May Destroy You in ing her face toward me,” she tells me.
nymity here—only occasionally 2020 but ended up setting it aside; “She’s slowly opening up.” @

90
GOTTA MOVE
She’s an in-line skater,
runner, and, most
recently, mixed martial
arts fighter, inspired
by UFC champion
Kamaru Usman. “It’s
like physical chess,”
Coel says of the sport.
Burberry coat and
skirt. Gucci earring.
SUDDEN IMPACT
Seeing the world react
to her work is like flying
a kite. “There’s this
huge thing in the air and
maybe at one point I
was holding the string,
but now I’m just gazing
up with everybody else.”
Gucci dress. Alberta
Ferretti jacket and
pants. Chanel shoes.

T5H8PZ0
PRO DUCE D BY D EBO NA I R A FR I K STU D I OS.

92
SO LONG,
FAREWELL
Chanel cardigan,
shorts, glove, earring,
and necklaces.
In this story: hair,
Virginie Moreira;
makeup, Bernicia
Boateng. Details,
see In This Issue.
STRONG
SUIT
Thom Browne ushered in a radical revision of what tailoring could be.
Now, he tells Nathan Heller, he’ll be trying something else on for size: the
new chair of the CFDA. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz.
hom Browne is sitting

T
in his office, waiting
for a model to appear.
Across the marble table,
a design director, Thi
Wan, sits with a thick
sheaf of sketches. They are reviewing
looks for their October show; Browne
is quietly attentive, with his glasses
riding high on his nose. It hardly bears
mentioning—and yet seems impos-
sible not to mention—that, on one
of the hottest, haziest days of New
York’s late summer, Browne is dressed
impeccably: a light gray cardigan vest
with the top two buttons fastened, a
pale seersucker tie with stripes on the
diagonal, a matching pair of pressed
shorts, and a pristine white shirt. Since
launching his distinctive line 20 years
ago, Browne has yet to be spotted in a
sub-impeccable state.
The model, Helen Henderson,
appears, wearing a pink taffeta coat
over a second, powder blue Oxford
coat with a pale green striped tie.
Wide, high-hemmed trousers hang at
garter height, below her underpants.
Browne looks closely as she turns
around, then doffs the first of her two
coats. A gentle smile of satisfaction
appears at his lips.
“I think it works,” he says at last.
One might posit that there are
two Thom Brownes, distinct yet, like
the faces of a silver dollar, somehow
joined. On one side is the designer
who has made a uniform of his unique
take on the gray American business
suit; who works in cold, clean spaces
of his own design (terrazzo floor, gray
marble hallways, venetian blinds); and
who seems to be, in manner and habit,
a model of unworldly self-control.
This is the Browne who, whenever he
visits any of the world’s great cities—
Paris, say, or Rome—stays at exactly
the same hotel and eats his meals
within it to avoid any surprises on
the plate. He’s “the worst creature of
habit,” he explains apologetically. “I
don’t have an interest in exploring.”

ÉMINENCE GRISE
Browne, photographed at home in
New York, has long loved gray of every
hue—but as his designs reveal,
his imagination works in Technicolor.
Fashion Editor: Jorden Bickham.

95
At the moment, though, Browne confidence to Thom that is so inspir- evolve, but not to change,” Browne
is in a different state of mind. “There ing, and a self-belief that is so natural,” says. Whether through evolution,
might be a last-minute addition,” he says. “But if someone says to him, transformation, or something more
he murmurs to Wan, who looks ‘You should lower the hem of your like quiet ambition, Browne has
up sharply. This is the other Thom trouser an inch,’ he’ll raise it an inch.”) become one of the pillars of the
Browne, the one who now chuckles Browne has been known to chase fashion industry, so it’s appropri-
and wrinkles his nose in impish judg- provocation on the theory that any ate that this January will also mark
ment; the one who has designed looks strong response is better than none. “I Browne’s ascent to one of fashion’s
based on Bugs Bunny; who, in his last would rather someone really hate my most emblematic roles. He has been
men’s show, oriented the entire collec- work than them just ‘liking’ it,” he says. named the new chair of the Council
tion around tweed kilts and trousers “If you want to move things forward, of Fashion Designers of America,
hanging off jockstraps. That show, like you have to challenge people in both succeeding Tom Ford. The position—
many of his, was also a fourth-wall- positive and negative ways.” part standard-bearing, part organiza-
breaking theater piece, with a stream In his younger years, with his buzz- tional, part mentor-like—amounts to
of well-known women—Marisa Ber- cropped hair and his Clark Kent a deanship of the American fashion
enson, Anh Duong—arriving late and jawline, Browne looked like the col- industry, and for Browne, a board
making a fuss. lege athlete turned briefcase-toting member of the CFDA who partici-
Generally speaking, Browne’s col- businessman that, in a sense, he had pated in some of the first years of its
lections can be understood this way, become. (Unusually among design- CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and won
as a riff on a material (such as tweed) ers in growth mode, Browne owned several of its awards over the years
plus a plotline, with each look designed 100 percent of his label until 2009, (he’s now on the jury), the posting has
to represent a character. The collection when he sold a majority share to the a full-circle quality. “Thom wanted to
in progress, to be shown at the Paris Cross Company of Japan.) Now, with give something back to an organiza-
opera house, is based on Oxford cloth a salt-and-pepper gray and the gravi- tion that he has been a beneficiary of
(which, in Browne’s mind, is and a member of,” Steven Kolb,
quintessentially American and the CFDA’ s chief executive,
associated with flatness and “My design team is like, explains. “And Thom has the
tailoring) and silk taffeta (in experience and the ideas.”
Browne’s mind, quintessen- ‘Pretty is not always so bad.’ As Browne describes those
tially French and associated But I don’t want pretty! ideas, they center on emphasiz-
with volume and draping). The ing the qualities he finds unique
story line is “Cinderella”—with Sometimes I want it to be ugly. to American design. “The most
a touch of the American prom In it being ugly, it could interesting thing about American
added—in deference to the fashion is the diversity in Amer-
opera, by Jules Massenet, that be so interesting and, in a ican fashion,” he says. Michael
was performed at the venue in weird way, pretty” Kors, a longtime CFDA member,
the spring. Browne’s looks are lauds Browne’s appointment for
designed to show the major his experience “building a busi-
characters—the fairy godmother, the tas of middle-middle age—Browne ness from the ground up” and his “firm
evil stepsisters, the mice—and, because recently turned 57—his visage has a grasp on how global business is today.”
he considered the trousers-hanging- bullish, magisterial air, and it is easy (“Being empathetic to designers who
from-jockstraps of his men’s show a to imagine him as the lord of a large are at different points in their careers,
success, he’s now playing with a related manor: an image that, likewise, is not with different types of businesses, is
idea in his women’s collection: Many these days wildly untrue to life. A year key to the job, and I find Thom to be
of the looks feature skirts and trousers ago, Browne and Bolton moved to a very empathetic human being,” Kors
hung from male briefs. one of the grand old brick mansions says.) Commerce is important, in
“I want the men’s collection to be as in Sutton Place, on the East Side of Browne’s view, but this messy, crowded
feminine as possible and the women’s Manhattan, with a shared private gar- sphere of talent must also be protected
collection to be as masculine as pos- den overlooking the river. Browne’s from its smothering demands. “I want
sible, because I love the idea of men’s empire, meanwhile, has continued to to create more of a balance, so that
and women’s worlds becoming con- grow. This past July, it was announced the creativity is not sacrificed to the
nected,” Browne explains. “My design that Zegna, its current owner, was commerce,” he says. He sees himself,
team is like, ‘Pretty is not always so aiming to double the revenues of the more than ever, as a coach for the home
bad.’ But I don’t want pretty! Some- label, benchmarked at some $260 mil- team. “My overarching idea is for the
times I want it to be ugly. In it being lion last year, by 2027. In 2021, sales world to look again at New York, and
ugly, it could be so interesting and, in grew by 47 percent—the largest leap at American fashion, and to give it the
a weird way, pretty.” (Browne’s partner, in Zegna’s stable—carrying Browne credit it’s due.”
Andrew Bolton, the head curator of into a mainstream far from his origins
the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s at the industry’s fringy edge. Thom Browne is sitting in his office,
Costume Institute, describes him “I always looked at my work as liv- reflecting on his past. “I think I prob-
as “incredibly stubborn.” “There’s a ing art that kept moving forward—to ably will always be perfecting what I

96
started 20 years ago, and that proba-
bly will go on forever, because I don’t
think I’ll ever be able to perfect it,” he
says. He is wearing a tightly tailored
gray jacket over a dark gray sweater,
a dark gray tie, a white shirt, pleated
shorts, and black brogues with no vis-
ible socks: the look on which his work
has played in ever more extravagant
variations.
“For me, the most important design-
ers over the last hundred years, when
you think of them, you have a clear
image in your head,” he says, naming
Karl Lagerfeld, Rick Owens, Miuccia
Prada, and above all Coco Chanel as
models in their lifelong elaborations
of a norm-shifting theme. “When you
create an image that people can always
identify,” Browne says, “it opens up so
many things that you can do within
that frame.”
His looks have been inspired by
everything from his childhood stuffed
animals to the sportswear that he lived
in as a young athlete. His restive, some-
times vaguely perverse fantasies—
from tunic dresses with sleeves of
various uneven lengths to stovepipe
hats paraded before an audience of

EARNING HIS STRIPES


Browne’s distinctive silhouette—sharp,
lean, and short, short, short—as seen in
Vogue in 2018 (above) and 2006 (left).

course on his work devised in consul-


tation with him; it will include guest
speakers and pieces from the Thom
Browne archive. “It’s very selective,”
Browne says with a delighted grin.)
TO P : M I KA E L JA N SSON . VOGUE , 201 8. BOTTO M : N O RMA N JEA N ROY. VOGUE , 200 6.

Browne’s siblings grew up to become


lawyers, businesspeople, doctors, and, in
one case, a current Republican Penn-
sylvania state senator. After a flirtation
with Japanese studies, Thom majored
in business. Even then, he says, the idea
of becoming a designer, or even work-
ing creatively, had barely struck him. “I
had no creative expression,” he says.
While living in L.A. in his 20s—
trying to make it as an actor but barely
uniformed teddy bears—are often becoming a fashion designer. Reared breaking into TV commercials—he
subject to nostalgic memory. “I like to in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the decided he wanted to dress in the old
take my past—or the past—and use ’70s, one of the middle of seven chil- gray-flannel-suit style but couldn’t
it as much as possible, but the most dren, Browne swam competitively find the vintage suits he had in mind.
important thing is that you don’t really through school before heading off to In New York, he began working with
see the specific reference,” Browne says. do the same at Notre Dame. (This year, a tailor, Rocco Ciccarelli, to make
The one thing the young Browne Browne will be the artist in residence at these suits, and only later realized that
never dreamed of, he says, was the university, which is also debuting a they were new C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 3 2

97
ICONS ONLY
Start with a suit—and
then go to the outer
reaches of fantasy and
creativity. Longtime fans
Erykah Badu and Russell
Westbrook both wear
Thom Browne. Grooming
for Browne, Shin Arima;
barber for Westbrook,
Marcos “Reggae”
Smith; grooming for
Westbrook, Kumi Craig;
hair for Badu, Chuck
Amos; makeup for Badu,
Melanesia Hunter.
Details, see In This Issue.
SE T D ESI G N : MA RY HOWA RD ST U D IO.
MEET
THE
PRESS
REPORTERS JODI KANTOR AND MEGAN TWOHEY
OPEN UP ABOUT THEIR HARVEY WEINSTEIN
INVESTIGATION FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES, AND
HOW ART IMITATES LIFE IN A STIRRING NEW FILM.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY SUSAN MEISELAS.
TRUTH AND
CONSEQUENCES
Kantor and Twohey
in the New York
Times newsroom.
She Said is in
theaters this month.
Hair, Kiyonori Sudo;
makeup, Karan
Franjola. Details,
see In This Issue.
Sittings Editor:
Willow Lindley.
What happens when journalists become the story? That’s the
question Vogue posed to reporters Megan Twohey, 46, and MEGAN TWOHEY: When I fielded
Jodi Kantor, 47, whose 2019 book She Said has become a new that first phone call from Jodi, I was
film, directed by Maria Schrader and starring Carey Mulligan in rough shape. The hope and joy I
and Zoe Kazan. Twohey’s and Kantor’s personal lives are on felt being pregnant had turned to
display, alongside the bravery of the victims who talked to them terrifying dread once my daugh-
about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual predation. Here, Twohey and ter was born. There’s a scene in the
Kantor take us behind the scenes of their Pulitzer Prize–winning film where Carey is sobbing to her
investigation, and its journey to the screen. husband, not quite able to articulate
what’s wrong. It plunged me back to a
day in early motherhood when I asked

T
h e fi r s t c l u e t h a t o u r shifted since 2017: The #MeToo my husband to come home from work
investigation into Har- movement has exploded, endured, and because I felt too shaky and scared to
vey Weinstein might one suffered backlash. Like many work- be alone with the baby.
day turn into a film came, places, the New York Times newsroom Jodi helped me bear the load. She’d
oddly enough, f rom the has been upended by the pandemic. suffered postpartum depression a
producer himself. Harvey Weinstein is a convicted rap- decade before, and gave me the name
It was back in October 2017, the ist serving a decades-long sentence. of the doctor who had treated her. In
day before we published our investi- But the film’s focus on process and return I offered her the phrase I had
gation into his treatment of women, on truth feels just as relevant now— used before, a reporter’s attempt to
and Variety had somehow gotten and it serves as a reminder of what give courage to victims: I can’t change
word of what we were up to. The journalists and courageous sources what happened to you in the past, but if
piece revealed that our story was in can accomplish together. It also may we work together, we may be able to use
the works and quoted Weinstein pre- reach people who have never heard your experience to help other people.
tending not to know a thing about these stories before. We both have The call helped me realize how
it. He quipped, “The story sounds so daughters who were babies during much I needed to go back to work,
good, I want to buy the movie rights.” the investigation, and after the film’s how I needed that sense of self. In
At the time, the idea of a movie trailer, they each had the same ques- the film, there’s something about the
sounded preposterous. We were tion: “Who is Harvey Weinstein?” way Carey yanks open the door to the
rewriting drafts, coaxing reluctant newsroom on her first day back from
sources, and struggling to force JODI KANTOR: Megan and I laugh maternity leave that captures exactly
Weinstein to respond to allegations. about it now—our initial perceptions how I felt.
We were also exhausted, subsisting of each other. I had built my own lit- But I admit I was skeptical of Jodi’s
on takeout and the chocolate almonds tle world at the paper, and she was investigation. A lot of my reporting
our editor stashed in her desk, and new, arriving from Reuters in 2016. I had focused on women and children
could barely see beyond the strict noticed her because she broke some of on the margins of society who are
obligations to facts. One night, as we the first sexual misconduct allegations ignored or overlooked. The plight
shared a cab back to Brooklyn, we against Trump while pregnant. of famous actresses like Ashley Judd
wondered aloud: Would anyone even I had been through contentious sto- and Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t feel as
care about what we were doing? ries during pregnancy too (an Amazon urgent—and I wasn’t sure what Wein-
Five years later, the film She Said, investigation, published when I was stein’s pattern of behavior amounted to.
based on our 2019 book, depicts so 38 weeks). Reporters usually keep the I also wasn’t sure what to make
much of what we witnessed and expe- focus on our work, and we don’t want of Jodi, who wore girly dresses and
rienced, including the takeout, that to complain. But I knew that feeling of talked a lot more than I did. But
late-night cab ride, and a few personal trying to hold the story with one arm, I knew she had a track record: In
truths we’ve never shared before. In a new life with the other. response to that 2015 examination of
fact certain details are shown pre- So I brought a bag of maternity Amazon, the company had granted
cisely as they were, down to the font clothes to the office for Megan, hand- paternity leave to its entire workforce.
on an incriminating document one me-downs from a group of Times col- And soon all her talk made an impres-
of the victims read to us. The actors leagues. She left the bag untouched at sion on me. I saw that her reporting
Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan con- her desk. I was like, Who doesn’t take had promise.
vey emotions and moments we never the clothes? There was something a lit-
thought could be captured, and Jen- tle guarded about her, a little reticent. JK: Megan knew about investigat-
nifer Ehle, Samantha Morton, and Early in the Weinstein investiga- ing sex crimes; I had delved into the
other actors embody our sources’ tion, I called her for advice. Movie workplaces of powerful companies.
tenacity, deep reflection, and risk. stars were confiding in me, sharing We would spend an hour polish-
It’s not a documentary. There are upsetting stories—but also saying that ing a text message to a source. The
differences, compressed chronolo- coming forward would be unlikely, film shows how we became glued
gies, a couple of completely invented maybe unthinkable. So I was holding together—how we began to finish
scenes. And some of the moments terrible secrets, and a dawning sense each other’s sentences. We shared
that feel like playback have nuance of how big this was, with no path to everything: I had won Gwyneth Pal-
now. That ’s because so much has making any of it public. trow’s trust on the phone, but when

102
the time came to visit her in the GETTING THE STORY Several months ago, Dean retired as
Hamptons, I wanted Megan along, Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as executive editor, and much of the staff
to hear the unfamiliar sound of a Twohey and Kantor in She Said. returned to see him off. It looked like
star speaking with complete candor. the old newsroom, colleagues crowded
On the drive back to the city, we Watching the film made me realize together—and it felt like another
shared a junk food binge and our own how physical our bonds were during moment to take stock of all that was
dead-honest observations about the the investigation. In some of the lost to the pandemic. I had to slip into
Times, marriage, motherhood. moments in which Zoe and Carey the bathroom to hide my tears.
Have you ever met a woman you square off against Weinstein and his
assumed was different from you, then team, they are physically surrounded JK: The film’s portrayal of the victims
realized you had a common core? by their editors. I remembered how is not about replaying stories of abuse,
That was us. empowering and poignant it was to but showing these women as individ-
Also, I had been wrong about have our bosses—Dean Baquet, Matt uals working through a choice—they
Megan’s reticence. Let’s just say the Purdy, our editor Rebecca Corbett— didn’t do anything to cause the pre-
woman has a talent for confrontation. literally at our backs. dation, so why was it on them to risk
P HOTOG RA P HE D BY SUSA N M EI SE LAS O F M AG NU M P HOTOS.

There’s a moment in the film when At one point, Jodi and I were on helping us?
she tells off a drunk man at a bar. It the phone with a Weinstein lawyer Take Zelda Perkins—she’s a force,
doesn’t matter that the scene is fiction. who was obfuscating on his behalf. a former Weinstein assistant who
As I came to learn, she’d done that Furious, Dean grabbed the phone spent decades prohibited by a heavy-
before—even more forcefully. from my hands and barked into the handed legal agreement from telling
speaker: “Cut the shit.” After Ashley her story. In those years of enforced
MT: The pandemic has, for the Judd called Jodi to say she would go silence, she gained a remarkable abil-
moment, hollowed out the physical on the record, Jodi broke down crying ity to look beyond herself. From the
newsroom of the Times, but the office in front of us. When I ran through the first moment I called Zelda, startling
comes roaring back to life onscreen. newsroom to tell Rebecca that I had her on her work phone, she placed
You see not only the bustling cubicles, confirmed the number of settlements responsibility on our shoulders: This
coffee-machine banter, and beautiful Weinstein paid to silence victims, she isn’t just about Weinstein, she said.
view from the cafeteria, but also cama- sprang from her desk and threw her You have to blow open the entire legal,
raderie that is impossible over Zoom. arms around me. financial, and C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 3 4

103
PORTRAIT OF THE
ARTISTS
Jeremy Pope and
Paul Bettany play
Jean-Michel Basquiat
and Andy Warhol
in The Collaboration,
which opens at
the Samuel J.
Friedman Theatre
on December 20.
Sittings Editor:
Max Ortega.
The Odd Couple
After a hit run in London, The Collaboration is putting Andy
Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat on Broadway. Costars
(and fast friends) Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope paint us a picture.
By Marley Marius. Photographed by Tess Ayano.
he posters framed it as a fight; a challenge no common ground at all, finding common

T
between two heavyweights. At left was ground and kind of falling in love.”
Andy Warhol, wearing shiny Everlast box- It’s also about fame, race, addiction, police
ing gloves, shorts, a black turtleneck, and a brutality, and, of course, art—what it’s for,
vaguely haunted look on his face—he was, who it’s for—spending most of its time
by then, a frail 56—his arms crossed like in either Warhol’s Factory, or at the loft he
Tutankhamen’s. At his side was Jean-Michel Basquiat, loaned to Basquiat on Great Jones Street.
shirtless, impassive, and not yet 25, in the same gloves, Fear is in there, too, at least on Warhol’s end;
shorts, and stance. In other imagery, their gloves are raised, he hadn’t put paintbrush to canvas in about 20
or Warhol (softly) lands a blow on Basquiat’s jaw. It was years when he began working with Basquiat.
1985, and paintings from a collaboration between the two Bettany, who has been a mainstay of the
artists—orchestrated by Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischof- Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2008,
berger, who formally introduced them in 1982—were lately as the superhero Vision, could under-
headed to Tony Shafrazi’s gallery on Mercer Street. stand the feeling: Before the play opened at
The critical response to their project was not warm. the Young Vic in February, he hadn’t been
When, the year before, paintings that Warhol, Basquiat, onstage since 1998. Yet his queasiness about
and Italian artist Francesco Clemente worked on together portraying Warhol had other underpinnings.
were shown in Zurich, Artforum deemed them “disap- “A dear old friend of mine, Denis O’Sulli-
pointing…Basquiat’s scribbles, Clemente’s sensuous van, a producer, he called me up and he said,
figures and faces, and Warhol’s silkscreen techniques all ‘Do you wanna play Andy Warhol?’ And I
display visual brilliance, but rarely do they engage in any said, ‘Absolutely not,’ ” Bettany recalls, his
real dialogue”; and after the Shafrazi show opened in Sep- lanky frame folded into an armchair at New
tember, The New York Times called its 16 untitled canvases York’s Lowell Hotel. He had long admired
“large, bright, messy, full of private jokes and inconclusive.” the artist’s work, but was put off by the per-
(The insinuation, in the same review, that Basquiat had sona. “I didn’t know if I could get out from
become a feckless “art world mascot” proved especially underneath the wig and the glasses and the
hurtful; he broke ties with Warhol not long afterward.) monosyllabic thing.”
In the end it was less a creative showdown, pitting Pop Pope, 30, who also leads a new film this
art’s studied flatness against the barely controlled chaos of fall, Elegance Bratton’s military drama The
neo-expressionism, than the creation, at least for a while, Inspection, had his own reservations. After
of an unlikely friendship. That’s the subject of The Collab- an extraordinary year on Broadway in 2019,
oration, Anthony McCarten’s absorbing new play starring when he starred in both Choir Boy and Ain’t
Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope and directed by Kwame Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations (earn-
Kwei-Armah. After a buzzy run at London’s Young Vic ing Tony nods for both), he wanted to pick his next show
(where Kwei-Armah is the artistic director), it begins carefully. “I read the script, and there were a lot of beautiful
previews at New York’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre this things, but I had questions,” he tells me. We’re in a quiet
November; a film adaptation with the same main cast, corner of the Civilian Hotel in the Theater District—two
director, and writer is also in progress. minutes from the Friedman—where the afternoon light
The Collaboration is the second entry in what McCarten makes his eyes flash amber. “I wanted to know how they
calls his “Worship Trilogy,” focused on stories about were going to interpret telling these two stories.”
“two people who occupy the same métier but who have, But something broke open once the actors, Kwei-
often, diametrically opposed positions.” His first was Armah, and McCarten were all in the same room, looking

Bettany calls The Collaboration a play “about two people, with seemingly no
common ground at all, finding common ground and kind of falling in love”
The Pope, about Popes Francis and Benedict XVI (later over the material. “I’ve gotta tell you, we had a four-way
adapted into Fernando Meirelles’s Oscar-nominated film affair,” Kwei-Armah says. “I have seldom worked with
The Two Popes); the next will be a project about Warren actors that intelligent; I have seldom worked with people
Buffett and Bill Gates. In each work, the dialogue that who work as hard as they do. The four of us just dived into
emerges is the point. “Here was a master in his 50s who the script and discussed the ideas, and literally the play was
had done everything and was right at the top, and here was reborn through us.”
a young, brilliant new prince about to be crowned king,” Bettany, who was familiar with the context—he had
says Kwei-Armah of Warhol and Basquiat, The Collabora- seen some of the paintings that Warhol and Basquiat made
tion’s two poles, “and there is something about them both together at a Whitney show in 2019 (“Andy Warhol—
looking at each other and seeing a bit of themselves in From A to B and Back Again,” which McCarten saw,
the other person.” Bettany, who will make his Broadway too)—got a handle on Warhol’s voice through his diaries,
debut at “the blushing age of 51” with this production, calls which also informed the script. “They were basically him
The Collaboration a play “about two people, with seemingly downloading his night before to Pat Hackett, his assistant,

106
with the clanging emotionali-
ty of Basquiat’s canvas—there
was, as Pope puts it, a “one-way
channel from his heart, mind,
and soul” to his paintings—
both were strangers in a strange
land: Warhol, as a queer son
of Eastern European immi-
grants burdened by Catholic
guilt; Basquiat, as an art-world
phenom who was also a young
Black man. (In the play’s back
half, Basquiat confronts the fa-
tal beating of his friend Michael
Stewart, another Black graffiti
artist, by New York transit police
officers in 1983.)
Both Pope and Bettany credit
McCarten, and Kwei-Armah—
himself a playwright and an
actor—for letting them find
their own ways into the piece.
Early on, McCarten was con-
stantly rewriting scenes as new
ideas took off in the room, and
Kwei-Armah gave his company
not notes but “observations.”
“I think Kwame is one of the
most gifted individuals I’ve ever
worked with,” Pope says. “He
allows space for you to explore
and to play and feel safe.” Bet-
DIFFERENT STROKES tany lights up describing Kwei-Armah’s magnetism. “I was
Pope and Bettany onstage at the Young Vic in London. getting changed, and I left my wife”—the actor Jennifer
In this story: hair, Charlie Le Mindu; grooming for Pope, Jai Williams; Connelly—“with him for five minutes, and later she went,
grooming for Bettany, Amy Komorowski for Circa 1970 Beauty;
special-effects makeup, Elizabeth Yoon. Details, see In This Issue.
‘Oh, my God, I think I just fell in love.’ I said, ‘Oh, you’ve
been Kwame’d.’”
The chemistry between Bettany and Pope was another
and he speaks in these long, circuitous sentences…nothing happy surprise. Unlike Warhol and Basquiat’s yin-and-
like the sort of monosyllabic public persona,” Bettany says. yang thing, the actors are more like two sides of the same
“He sounded more like Truman Capote—the diaries are coin. “From day one, I loved that man so deeply,” Pope says
deliciously witty and bitchy at times.” of Bettany. “There’s nothing like working with someone
Pope had a similar wall to climb with Basquiat, whose onstage who is generous—they make every scene about you,
legend—from the crazy locs to his early death from a her- and in return, you make it about them.” “Working with Jer-
P HOTOG RA P HE D BY M A RC B REN N ER /COU RT ESY OF T H E COL L ABO RATI ON.

oin overdose in 1988—loomed large. But as Pope went emy has been like flying in your dreams,” Bettany says, with-
P RODUC E D BY A RT P RO DUCTI O N . S ET D ESI G N : M I LA TAYLO R-YOU NG.

through the text, he felt a powerful affinity form. “There out a hint of irony. “I was kind of terrified the whole way
is the commercialized idea of who Basquiat is; you see his through rehearsals…but I just had this moment of thinking,
prints, and his artwork on Converse,” he says. “But diving None of this fear is helping me. I’ve got this great scene part-
into who he was just as a human, outside of his artistry, ner with whom I do 90 percent of the stuff onstage.”
and how he navigated the late ’80s in New York City as Like the canvases that Warhol and Basquiat painted
a Black artist—a lot of those things felt very parallel to together, layering words and figures over logos for Para-
my experience, where you’re just trying to take space in a mount or General Electric, The Collaboration is, itself, a
predominantly white industry. How do you make strides? labor of love—and as its run on Broadway nears, the work is
How do you get attention? How do you stay authentic and ongoing. “We can’t walk into New York with a level of com-
true to yourself?” placency, just because it was a hit in London,” Kwei-Armah
“There’s something really conflicted about Basquiat,” Bet- says. “We’re building it new, and I’m every bit as anxious
tany says. “We think of him as this homeless graffiti artist and every bit as focused on making it the best we can.” So,
who exclusively does graffiti in SoHo, the center of the art too, are the actors—although they look at their chief task a
world; and Andy seems so alien, you feel he’s never going little differently. As they shook off their nerves before the
to fit in. And suddenly, these two are together.” If Warhol’s first preview in London, Bettany remembers, Pope laid out
fixation on banality and ubiquity in his art had little to do a credo that still stands: “He just went, ‘Only for the fun.’” @

107
Just One
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108
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by Chloé; chloe.com.
Fashion Editor:
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LOCAT I O N : GR E EN PO RT CON S ERVAT I O N AR E A , N Y.

109
PUT A PIN ON IT
Make your outerwear
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Champion adorns
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Tory Burch two-piece
set (toryburch.com)
with Tiffany & Co.
pendants and Brother
Vellies heeled oxfords.

LOCAT I O N : T HE S EC RE T GA RD E NE R , HU DSO N , N Y.

110
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see In This Issue. this story.
P RODUC E D BY A N NA PA N OVA FO R D I RTY P RET T Y P RODUCTI O N S.
E XECUT I V E P RODUC ER: MAT E EN M ORTA ZAV I . LO CAT IO N : R I V E RTOW N LO D G E , HU DSO N , N Y.

113
WHISTLE WHILE
YOU WORK
Model Achenrin Madit
sounds off in a Nike
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Fashion Editor:
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY
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117
GAME, SET, MATCH
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118
PITCH PERFECT
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Paula Mendoza Jewelry.

120
PLAYING THE FIELD
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Madit wears a Miu Miu
knit, tops, skirt, briefs,
and belt. Christian
Louboutin shoes.

123
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hair, Issac Poleon;
makeup, Chiao-Li Hsu.
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SE T D ESI G N : IB BY N J OYA . M OV E M E NT: YAGA M OTO.
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QUEEN ELIZABETH II, I know I have to say something One in four American women has
1926–2022 that is in the air, but unspoken. “If had an abortion, and for nearly half
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 47 you had money, you could go to a century they have done so safely.
the marriage of her elder brother, then England, or Mexico, or get a doctor Women have always had abortions
the Prince of Wales, to winsome Lady to say you were suicidal. If you didn’t, for very good reasons, and they have
Diana Spencer, and in turn the mar- you risked your life.” often died in the process. The specta-
riages of their sons Prince William and Everyone is silent. People hug, and cle of thousands of deaths must spur
Prince Harry to Catherine Middleton there are tears, but the group leader people of goodwill, people who value
and Meghan Markle, respectively. was right: We are energized for the life to stand together.
The queen was a beloved mother, fight, however long it takes. Talking And tell our stories. Like the women
grandmother, and great-grandmother, about it has made what we had gone in the room. @
and in his first address as sovereign, through seem more normal; we were
her son King Charles III acknowl- given strength, knowing that what STRONG SUIT
edged “the most heartfelt debt any had happened to us had happened CONTINUED FROM PAGE 97
family can owe to their mother; for to many, many women—women we rather than old: The perfect vintage
her love, affection, guidance, under- admired, loved, mourned. suit he had been chasing was an image
standing, and example.” Two years later, Roe v. Wade was he’d invented. It marked the moment
But above all, she was the mon- passed, and we believed that we had when his imagination turned inward;
arch. To celebrate the queen’s silver won the fight. We knew a majority he began taking cues from his inner
jubilee in the May 1977 issue, Vogue of Americans were with us. We were fantasy life.
ran a portrait by Andy Warhol and unprepared for the relentlessness of Browne’s first major innovation was
commissioned the 84-year-old writer the antiabortion movement, and for in the proportions. His suit jackets
Rebecca West to consider that reign. the money behind them. We didn’t were startlingly short, with shoulders
“She is,” West opined of Her Majesty, expect that evangelicals, who at first that—rather than being constructed
“one-third a constitutional monarch, were not important to the movement in the English style, or straight and
one-third a myth, one-third a woman.” (even Billy Graham refused to join boxy in the American ’90s way—
“I have in sincerity pledged myself antiabortion activists in their cam- were snug and largely unconstructed,
to your service,” the queen avowed paign), would align with Catholics as if extending from the armholes
in a broadcast on the day of her cor- in hijacking American religion in the of a vest. “I remember Savile Row
onation, “throughout all my life and name of a minority belief. being appalled by it,” says Bolton,
with all my heart I shall strive to be We were unprepared for the weak- who bought his first Browne suit not
worthy of your trust,” and the solemn ness of our democracy. long after moving to New York from
compact that she made then with her And we were unprepared for the London. By then, Browne had used
people, she stayed true to through murder of doctors, the bombing of $100,000 raised from his siblings to
eight decades. Two days before she abortion clinics. We were unpre- set up an appointment-only shop on
died, the queen was performing offi- pared for a fear that our beliefs could West 12th Street; Bolton got cold
cial duties, appointing Britain’s new bring danger to us and to the people feet on the approach. “It was such an
prime minister—the 15th of her reign. we loved. unwelcoming exterior—deliberately
“What has to be the extent of her ded- I often think of that small, wiry so—that I lost courage and bought
ication only she knows,” wrote Eliz- group leader. She was right that the suit from a much jollier tailor at
abeth Bowen in 1953. “How dare we talking about abortion takes it out of Bergdorf Goodman,” he says. “I’d
compute the weight of the crown?” @ the scary dark. It has occurred to me been seduced by the images Thom
that one reason that gay rights and was putting out at the time. He was
OUT OF THE DARK gay marriage became mainstream very savvy in placing his suits on par-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 52 was because courageous people came ticular people around town, and they
of an apartment. I had no idea where out and spoke about the truth of their were very noticeable. You’d see them,
I was. lives. You realized that Uncle Jim you know, in Pastis or at Soho House.”
“He removed the blindfold only wasn’t just a confirmed bachelor, that What everybody noticed first about
when I was inside. The room was small Cousin Sarah’s roommate Bess was Browne’s suits—or, rather, about the
and anonymous; a fluorescent light on more than just a roommate. people wearing them—was ankles.
the ceiling buzzed. Several women As a mother, mother-in-law, Browne cut his trousers high and
were seated on salmon-colored plastic godmother, and retired teacher of urged men to wear them without
chairs. One by one, they disappeared beloved students, I am enormously socks. “I felt very, very self-conscious
into a room and after a time walked distressed to realize that the dangers when I first wore the suit, because of
out, looking white and shaken. I was I had thought were past are still a the ankle—it’s amazing how people
the last to be called. A man in a white present fear. And that it is no easier would say something in the street or
jacket, who spoke no English, offered to “come out” about having had an stop and stare and laugh in airports,”
me a Darvon, a mild painkiller. I got abortion than it was 50 years ago. Bolton recalls. “To play with those
on the table, and the excruciating pro- Harder, perhaps, because America is proportions was shocking.”
cedure began. a more violent country than it was “I had f riends say, ‘Thom, why
“Then, the man who’d driven me 50 years ago, and many more Amer- would I want it? It doesn’t even
blindfolded me again, and left me in icans are armed with ever more dan- look like it fits you,’ ” Browne recalls.
front of the Bronx theater.” gerous weapons. But he held his line. Several early

132 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


customers describe buying a Thom it just works well.” The top hat and and a selection of furniture reaching
Browne garment as a process of sub- the chain, he says, were additions back to the 18th century. To one side
mitting to his control. of his own. (And while Westbrook of the entry hall is a sitting room; to
“I remember going in and seeing has become one of Browne’s most the other is a dining room fitted with
a rack of these gray suits and going, consistent champions in the NBA, gilded mirrors, which extends to a
‘These are cool—is there any way he is not the only one—in 2018, patio and then the garden. Browne
we could make the legs longer? And LeBron James led the entire Cleve- opens the door, and Hector runs
can I get this in black or navy blue?’ land Cavaliers team during the NBA out merrily, then pauses in apparent
And Thom goes, ‘No—and no,’” says playoffs in coordinated gray Thom self-restraint: Dogs are not allowed
Jimmy Fallon, who started buying Browne suits.) to tread the pristinely mowed, bright
Browne’s suits in the early 2000s Badu understands Browne’s atten- green lawn, so he satisfies himself
when he was a cast member at Satur- tion to uniformity and consistency with the paved edge. Inside, some
day Night Live. “The first time I wore as being ironic and thus liberating: antique silver (a gift from Bolton) is
it, people were like, ‘Wow—where’s By calling out the constraints, she set on an antique inlaid side table. An
the flood?’ ” What Browne had real- thinks, his work invites the imagina- elegant hearth (Bolton and Brown
ized by then was that offering a gray tion to break free. “When everything imported fireplaces from England) is
suit that many people found prepos- is going too smoothly, you want to topped by an ornate mirror. Opposite
terous was much better than offering deviate from that—to me, that is his the entryway, a vast and glorious spiral
just another well-tailored gray suit: whole aesthetic.” It was Browne who staircase ascends, covered by a stripe
What was distinctive could, in time designed Badu’s divine all-white look of black carpet up the middle.
and by the laws of fashion, stir desire. for the Soul Train Awards in 2017—a Upstairs, Browne—an architecture
That public skepticism now long white suit-dress trimmed with nut with a particular taste for midcen-
seems long ago. Over the years, the great clouds of frayed fabric, white tury and Georgian design—wanders
Browne collections grew: Womens- boots, and big white stovepipe hat through the main sitting room and a
wear launched in 2011 (within two topped with a brass-colored metallic study in a masculine style (black mar-
years, Browne had dressed Michelle sculpture of her own. For the 2021 ble hearth, black carpet, midcentury
Obama for her second inauguration), Met Gala, he put her in black: a down black leather chairs), all of it perfectly
and menswear expanded far beyond stole, a twill jacket and suspender and pristinely arranged. Hector has
the suit. Today there are sporty car- skirt, and lace-up patent- leather discreetly gone to a corner to chase
digans and polo shirts with the sig- boots. A black hat, a Browne-tricolor his tail once more.
nature quadruple stripe on the left headband, and a sausage-like leather Browne and Bolton describe them-
sleeve. There’s knitwear, swimwear, bag in the form of Browne’s pet selves as having a domestic life that
athleticwear, loungewear, and—for dachshund, Hector, finished the out- is both simple and preternaturally
want of a more precise term—wry fit. The look was both elegant and placid. “Thom is the calmest person
preppy wear. (A recent collection ominous, gloriously and unsettlingly I’ve ever come across,” Bolton says,
featured a lobster print on various exaggerated, as in a dream. “and there’s a specific, soft cadence
styles of cotton and wool.) There’s a to our lives.” They rise early to exer-
natty, much-coveted childrenswear Thom Browne is standing in his new cise. (Browne runs; Bolton cycles.)
collection, for the rising generation house, admiring the fruits of a lengthy Browne breakfasts at Sant Ambroeus,
of Browneans. Along the way, the renovation. “I’ve known about this an upscale café chain, and then heads
allegiance of Browne’s customers house ever since I’ve lived in New to his offices in a nondescript build-
has assumed a cultlike quality, the York,” he says, gazing at the beautiful ing on a loud, crowded block of West
cultishness not minimized by the black-and-white-checkered marble 35th Street, beside a lunch buffet and
uniformity of what they wear. floor of the atrium, on which sits, atop opposite a fabric store. At the end of
Browne describes himself as ambiv- a pedestal table, a statue of Diana draw- the day they converge at home, have a
alent about dressing celebrities— ing back her bow which mirrors one drink, and try to relax. “We live a very
“It depends on who it is”—but does that used to sit over Madison Square boring life,” Browne says. According
it often, across an electric range of Garden. The house was designed by to Bolton, Browne’s two great non-
personalities and styles: His posse at Mott Schmidt and built for the heir- athletic hobbies are scrolling through
last year’s Met Gala alone included ess Anne Vanderbilt, in 1920. Browne StreetEasy, the real estate listing
Fallon, Erykah Badu, Pete Davidson, and Bolton bought it three years ago, website, and being a “CNN addict.”
Lee Pace, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, then spent two years renovating it When they’re out, they sometimes go
Amandla Stenberg, and Lil Uzi Vert; under the guidance of their friend the to shows on Broadway. (“Funny Girl is
this year’s roster included Lakers star interior designer David Kleinberg— great,” Browne says. He also liked The
Russell Westbrook, who wore a top a pandemic project that Browne, Lion King: “The entrance? Is amaz-
hat, a gold chain, black-and-white- unusually for people undertaking ren- ing.”) More often, though, they’re in,
striped socks, and white-tie kit with ovations, says he enormously enjoyed. and dining together; neither of them
a long black pleated skirt. “The skirt I ask what was redone. “Everything,” cooks much. “We have mastered cav-
is unique in that a lot of people don’t he says. Behind him, Hector is run- iar delivery,” Browne says. “The pan-
like to wear it,” says Westbrook, ning in tight circles, chasing his tail. demic taught us how.”
who has taken to wearing Browne The Sutton Place house has dark It wasn’t always thus. In 2009, when
skirts off the court. “And for me, brown herringbone floors, tall win- the economic crash struck the luxury
because of my length and my height, dows (with venetian blinds, of course), retail sector, Browne’s label was “days

133
away” from going under. “There were by it,” he says. “I’m more of an instinc- late to his summer show, he says, he
a lot of business people who suggested tual designer—I create things that are was thrilled, even moved; it opened
that I go out of business and start interesting to me.” his mind and his heart. “What they
over,” he recalls. “I just told them that Browne and Wan, the design did was even better than I thought,”
there’s no way I could do this again. director, head into the next room, he says. “They brought a really nice
There was so much emotion and work where exactly 102 swatches and life to it that”—he offers a big, won-
that went into those first eight years.” some sketches for the collection are dering grin—“I just didn’t expect.” @
Instead, he sold a majority share to the mounted on boards against the wall.
Cross Company, which sold to Sand- Many designers generate lots of ideas MEET THE PRESS
bridge Capital, which in turn sold, and edit many away to hone the col- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 103
in 2018, to Zegna, which now holds lection to its strongest core. That’s not cultural system constructed to keep
85 percent. Browne’s style. “These will all be in the women silent.
This decade, Browne’s business show,” he says. At the start, he creates a She’s played by Samantha Morton
challenges are different. In order to fixed number of basic looks and iterates in the film, which depicts an actual
meet his half-billion-dollar retail them into a fixed number of variations. meeting in a London restaurant
targets by 2027, he is opening a new Design, from there, is about refining when Zelda again delivered that
round of shops, starting with his first the details. His working sensibility charge. In Zoe’s face, especially her
French outpost, in St. Tropez. (It spe- is, in this respect, quite academic—it eyes, I felt the layers of my own reac-
cializes in tennis wear.) And after a shares more with a LeWitt sequence tion in that moment: I’m sitting here
couple seasons of showing abroad, his than a Brancusi bronze. with a notebook, going up against huge
label is coming home: His fall-winter And so the looks before him forces. The scariest part is the prospect
2023 show next February will take become ever more colorful, ever more of failing. I believe in this process. I am
place in New York. whimsical, ever further from the tight, honored by your trust. And we are not
controlled profile of the gray suit. To going to let you down.
Thom Browne is sitting in his office, see them is to have a sense of Browne’s In life, and the film, there’s an
studying the garments he has designed own aspect—his perfect tie, his primly implicit but powerful contrast
for one of Cinderella’s impeccable buttoned cardigan—loosen and, with between the way women like Zelda
mice: a short, blooming fuchsia taffeta a boom, explode outward. were treated by Weinstein and the
coat with a French bow in back, worn As his retinue of designers stand level of support our own editors gave
over a hooded bodysuit of white tulle behind him, all dressed in iterations us. That gap has always been a little bit
strung with elastic to create a matrix of the uniform, he walks slowly of a heartbreak. Creative, enterprising
of squares. He is quick to cast him- around the room, peering at sketches women like Zelda were erased from
self as an outsider. “I don’t know that and feeling swatches with growing the film business. Nothing can change
much about fashion, and I consciously delight. He offers notes; he trades that. But the filmmakers have returned
don’t want to know that much about ideas about the theater of the runway. them to Hollywood and given them a
fashion—I was never really schooled When the fashion figures—Berenson, level of respect and dignity they were
in it, and I didn’t grow up surrounded Duong, et al.—pretended to come never granted the first time around.

In This Issue
Chanel earrings and Rowan glove; paula MEET THE PRESS
bracelet; select Chanel rowan.com. Earring; 100–101: Tailor: Hailey
boutiques. On Andam: gucci.com. 92: Dress; Desjardins.
Dress; erdem.com. gucci.com. Jacket and
83: Earring; Dover pants; Alberta Ferretti THE ODD COUPLE
Table of Contents: 20: (paulamendoza.com) Street Market. Bangles; boutiques. Shoes; 104–105: Tailor:
Coat; maxmara.com. and Gucci (gucci.com). ysl.com. 84: Gown; select Chanel Cassady Rose Bonjo.
Khaite sweater; khaite Top right photo: On michaelkors.com. boutiques. Erdem
.com. Gucci shirt; Coel: Gucci Made To Shoe; loewe.com. earrings; erdem.com. JUST ONE THING
gucci.com. Shoes and Measure Dress By Earring; select Chanel Versace choker; 110: Shoes;
socks; lafayette148ny Alessandro Michele; boutiques. Alexander versace.com. 93: brothervellies.com.
.com. Bag; therow.com. available upon request. McQueen cuff; Cardigan, shorts, glove, Pins from Lizzie
Cover Look: 26: Dress; Gucci shoe and alexandermcqueen earring, and necklaces; Fortunato (lizzie
available upon request. earrings; gucci.com. .com. 85: Saint Laurent select Chanel fortunato.com) and
Earring; gucci.com. View From the Top: 56: by Anthony Vaccarello boutiques. Manicurist: Prounis (prounisjewelry
Contributors: 40: Top Jacket and pants; jacket and bangles; Nails by Mimoberry. .com). Pendants; tiffany
left photo: On Madit: moncler.com. ysl.com. Shirt and .com. 112–113: Bag;
Ralph Lauren RLX tank Manicurist: Simone pants; net-a-porter STRONG SUIT therow.com. Lafayette
top and shorts; Cummings. Tailor: .com. Miu Miu earrings; 98: Jacket, turtleneck 148 New York shoes and
ralphlauren.com. Skirt; Eleanor Williams. miumiu.com. 87: Wrap; sweater, skirt, socks; lafayette148ny
maxmara.com. michaelkors.com. headpiece, and bag; .com. Mateo necklace;
Balenciaga sunglasses; ON A ROLL Jacket, shirt, pants, thombrowne.com net-a-porter.com.
balenciaga.com. 80–81: On Coel: Blazer gloves, and shoes; for information.
Christian Louboutin and top; dolcegabbana gucci.com. Versace 99: Coat, shirt, skirt, PLAY ON!
shoe; christianlouboutin .com. Dress; select earrings; versace.com. necktie, shoes, and tie 114: Sunglasses;
.com. Earrings from Louis Vuitton stores. 91: Coat and skirt; bar; thombrowne.com. bottegaveneta.com.
Paula Mendoza Jewelry Shoes; Dior boutiques. us.burberry.com. Paula Manicurist: Alexis Maye. Necklace; tiffany.com.

134 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


MT: People always ask me and Jodi JK: Zoe, who understood she was But as reporters, we’re also cautious
if we were scared of Weinstein. But dealing with a reporter who wanted about sweeping statements of where
the movie captures a common trait to know everything, was generous things stand. That same week, the
of investigative reporters: We relish and clear: She wasn’t mimicking the Southern Baptists, the largest Prot-
squaring off against wrongdoers. precise me, but using certain things estant denomination in the country,
about me to build a character of her were in turmoil over #MeToo issues,
JK: The most f requent reaction own. Her questions were half tech- and there are other signs of the dura-
we’ve gotten to our book, and now nician, about the details of reporting, bility and scope of the movement.
the film, is that going through this and half shrink, about my deepest The final accounting on what has and
recent histor y is less depressing motivations. In that second category, hasn’t changed in the past five years is
and more galvanizing than people she went to places we never could. not done, and the question of where
assumed. Perhaps that’s because the If I try to explain in prose how my we go from here is unknown.
story answers the perennially difficult relationship with my older daughter,
question of how you confront a bully: Talia, fueled this work, it would come JK: Megan and I are on fresh report-
You do it together. out treacly. Zoe’s version onscreen ing quests now—she has delved into
is slightly fictionalized, but sharp, online dangers to vulnerable teen-
MT: As she prepared for her role, beautiful, and true. agers, while I have returned to my
Carey combed through my public obsessions with Amazon and the
interviews and observed me over MT: Along with everyone else, Jodi workplace. As the film was being
Zoom from her home in England, and I watched with wonder as the made, the two of us were enduring
then over meals and playdates with #MeToo movement that Tarana the pandemic, trying to channel that
our children in New York. I’ll confess Burke had founded a decade earlier newsroom energy from corners of our
it all made me a bit self-conscious. accelerated with breadth and speed Brooklyn bedrooms. We coped in part
But I can now see that research no one could ever have predicted. by meeting for long loops in Prospect
paid off. If this story was just a movie, it Park, developing our own shared ideas
Take the scene where she fields a would have stopped there: Women about investigative journalism and
surprise visit from Weinstein and his triumph. The end. But as reporters where it could go in the future.
lawyers in a Times conference room. well know, stories are rarely that tidy. We hope the film will help bolster
As they frantically scramble to try And sure enough, as the movement the case for this work. Our job is to
to smear Weinstein’s accusers, Carey progressed, it became increasingly build people’s confidence in telling
watches calmly, a slight smile spread- complicated—and controversial. the truth. We want people to feel as
ing across her face. When we watched this film for the deeply as we do that facts and stories
By that point, we knew we had first time last summer, Johnny Depp matter, that change can happen. If a
the facts and the backing of a pow- was successfully suing Amber Heard single truth-teller gains the confidence
erful news organization. There was for defamation, as his supporters to call a journalist because of this film,
nothing Weinstein could do to flocked the courthouse and viciously that would be the best possible reward:
stop us. attacked her online. the cycle beginning anew. @

Earring; coach.com. 119: On Fall: Tiffany & Co. nike.com. Shoes; Hats; kangol.com.
115: Paula Mendoza necklace; tiffany.com. versace.com. Tiffany & Manicurist: Simone CONDÉ NAST IS
Jewelry hoops; Coach whistle (coach Co. necklace; tiffany Cummings. Tailor:
CO MPA N I ES ME NT I O NE D I N I TS PAG ES, W E CA NN OT GUA RA N T E E T HE AUT HE N TI CI TY OF

COMMITTED TO GLOBAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
A N I T E M FRO M A N YW HE RE OT HER TH A N TH E AU TH OR I ZE D STO RE , T HE BUYE R TA KES

paulamendoza.com. .com) and Balenciaga .com. On Fall: Boots; Eleanor Williams. SUSTAINABILITY. SCAN
ME RCHA N D I SE SOLD BY D I SCOU N TE RS. AS I S A LWAYS T HE CASE IN PU RCH AS I NG

118: Versace shoes; ring (balenciaga.com), balenciaga.com. 123: HERE FOR DETAILS.
A WOR D A BOU T DI SCOUN TE RS W H IL E VOGUE T HO ROUG HLY RES EA RC HES T HE

versace.com. Ear cuffs both as pendants. Polo Ralph Lauren THE GET
by Paula Mendoza On both: Shoes; Dover cap; ralphlauren.com. 128–129: 5. Suitcase,
Jewelry; paulamendoza Street Market. 120: Shoes; christian price upon request.
.com. Gucci earrings; Boots; Balmain louboutin.com. 124: 11. Tennis bag, $4,300.
gucci.com. Necklaces Madison. Ear cuff; Adidas x Gucci shoes; 12. Bag, $3,750.
from Chrome Hearts paulamendoza.com. gucci.com. Puma
(chromehearts.com) 121: Earrings; tiffany guards; puma.com. LAST LOOK
and Jack Vartanian .com. 122: On Madit: 125: Shoes; gucci.com.
A RI SK A N D S HOU LD US E CAUT I O N W HE N DO I N G SO.

136: Boot; Dior


(us.jackvartanian.com). Nike headband; 127: Hat by Kangol boutiques.

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135
Last Look

Dior boot
S ET D ES I GN : JO CE LY N CA BRA L .

The great outdoors seems even more beautiful in—or on—Dior’s floral-patterned
rubber-coated boots. With ski boot–style buckles and lug soles for heft,
along with fanciful images of clematis flowers and sparrows, they’re a natural
harmony of form and function, perfect for a hike, a birding adventure—
or for bringing the country scenery to the city for a rainy or snowy commute.
P H O T O G R A P H E D B Y R YA N J E N Q

136 NOVEMBER 2022 VOGUE.COM


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