Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MICHAELA COEL
NEXT STOP: WAKANDA
Repair is change.
FOR ALL AGES, ALL SKINTONES, ALL SKINTYPES.
PATENTED UNTIL 2033.
esteelauder.com
AMANDA GORMAN
Estée Lauder Global Changemaker
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
ROMA
November 2022
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
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
RUN-
THROUGH WITH
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.”
MA D I T A N D NJI E : P HOTOG RA P HE D BY CA MP BE LL A D DY. FASH I O N ED I TO R: GA BR IE LLA KAR EFA-J OH NSON. H AIR , ISSAC POLEON; MAKEUP, CH IAO- LI H SU. PRODUCED BY JANUARY PRO DUCT IO N S. S E T D ES IG N : IBBY N JOYA.
KA N TO R A N D T WO HEY: P HOTOG RA P H E D BY SUSA N ME I S ELAS O F M AG N UM P H OTOS. S ITTINGS ED ITOR : WILLOW LIND LEY. H AIR , KIYONOR I SUD O; MAKEUP, KARAN FRANJ OLA. D ETAILS, S E E IN T HIS ISSU E .
MOV E ME N T: YAGA MOTO. CO E L: P HOTO G RA P HE D BY J UA N COSTA PA Z. FAS HI O N E D ITOR : IB KAMARA. H AIR , VIRGINIE MOR EIRA; MAKEUP, BER NICIA BOATENG. PRODUCED BY D EBON AIR AFRIK ST U D IOS.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
THE WIZARD OF OZ and all related characters and elements © & TM Turner Entertainment Co. (s22)
©2022 Lexus, a Division of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
TO P LE FT: P HOTOG RA P HE D BY HO RST P. HO RST, VOGUE , SE PTE MB ER 15, 193 9. TO P RI GH T: PH OTOGRAPH ED BY DAVID SIMS/ART PARTNER . VO GUE , OCTOBER 20 07.
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
Strong Weather
Three fall films pack a punch.
ragedy shades the domestic family drama The Son,
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.
CU 861640
CU 861640
Idyll Time
Monteverdi’s new wellness center
reimagines la dolce vita.
he beautiful Tuscan hilltop of Castiglioncello del
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.
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
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.—..
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.
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
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
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
Thing
More than any other piece, a coat can truly
go the distance—it’s outerwear for everywhere, as
model Abby Champion and her Max Mara
Teddy Coat prove. Photographed by Sean Thomas.
108
THE PROVEN PATH
Max Mara’s woven
camel-hair-and-silk
Teddy Coat (maxmara
.com), first launched
in 2013, is back and
looking more cozy-
chic than ever—here,
Champion throws
it over a long flowing
dress and boots
by Chloé; chloe.com.
Fashion Editor:
Jorden Bickham.
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
pop with a pin—or two.
Champion adorns
her lapel with Lizzie
Fortunato and Prounis
brooches—and adds a
bit of punch to her
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
SHAKE IT ON
With a fabrication so
indulgently plush it’s
likened to—well, a teddy
bear—it’s no wonder
Champion kept her
coat on indoors. Shirt by
The Row; therow.com.
LOCATI ON : W EST TAG HKA N I C D I N ER, HU DSO N, N Y.
A L L PRO DUCTS F E AT U RE D IN VOGU E A RE I N D E PE N DE N T LY S EL ECT E D
BY OUR E D I TO RS. HOW EV ER , W HE N YOU BUY SO M E TH I NG T HROUG H
OU R RE TA I L L IN KS, VOGU E MAY E A RN AN A F FI L IAT E CO M MI SS I O N.
UP IN THE AIR
Amp up the texture
with a woolly plaid
Gucci kilt and shirt
(gucci.com) and
a perfectly striped
pullover by Khaite
(khaite.com). A bag
from The Row
elevates the entire
look. In this story:
hair, Mustafa Yanaz;
makeup, Romy Scan to
Soleimani. Details, see more from
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
headband (nike.com)
and cheery green
Bottega Veneta
sunglasses. Tiffany &
Co. necklace. Coach
whistle earring.
Fashion Editor:
Gabriella
Karefa-Johnson.
PLAY
ON!
THE SPORTING LIFE
GETS GLAMOROUS
AS KEY PIECES FROM
THE COURT TO THE
TRACK ARE SHARPLY
REINTERPRETED
FOR DAYTIME. LET THE
GAMES BEGIN.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY
CAMPBELL ADDY.
FINE LINES
Make like model
Maty Fall and show
off your racing stripes
from Balenciaga’s
collaboration with
Adidas. Balenciaga/
Adidas T-shirt
and parka as skirt, and
Balenciaga boots;
all at balenciaga.com.
Adidas customized
by Matty Bovan
yellow jacket;
mattybovan.com.
#GOALS
It’s up…and it’s
good! Model Akon
Changkou goes
long in an Adidas x
Gucci corset,
dress, and bonnet;
gucci.com.
BOTH SIDES NOW
A deft bit of layering
lends an already-playful
evening look some
extra muscle. Model
Nyagua Ruea wears
a Valentino gown;
Valentino boutiques.
Tory Burch jacket and
top; toryburch.com.
117
GAME, SET, MATCH
Changkou serves up
a winning combination
in her silky Tom Ford
hoodie and skirt;
tomford.com. Nike
top and shorts; nike
.com. Necklaces
from Chrome Hearts
and Jack Vartanian.
Versace shoes.
118
PITCH PERFECT
With an assist from
choreographer
Abdourahman Njie,
Fall kicks things up a
notch in her Puma x
Dua Lipa tee (puma
.com) and Loewe
shorts (loewe.com)—
while Ruea gets in on
the action in a Puma x
Dua Lipa jacket and
shorts (puma.com)
and Prada skirt (prada
.com). Both wear
W Nike Premier/
CDG shoes.
FANCY FOOTWORK
How’s this for changing
the game? Ruea moves
and grooves in a sherbet-
colored Roksanda dress
and hood; roksanda
.com. Roksanda x Fila
bag; fila.co.uk. Balmain
boots. Ear cuff from
Paula Mendoza Jewelry.
120
PLAYING THE FIELD
Clear eyes, full hearts,
Fall’s rugby-inspired Louis
Vuitton polo T-shirt and
fanciful floor-length dress
(select Louis Vuitton
boutiques) can’t lose.
Tiffany & Co. earrings.
ON THE DOUBLE
It’s no secret that the
world of athleisure
has evolved leaps and
bounds in recent
years. Madit proves as
much in a Burberry
jacket and matching
skirt (us.burberry.com)
with Versace shoes,
while Fall spreads the
good word in a Rokh
jacket (shopbop.com)
and Balenciaga boots.
PHOTO FINISH
Madit wears a Miu Miu
knit, tops, skirt, briefs,
and belt. Christian
Louboutin shoes.
123
MADE YOU LOOK
Let’s put it this way:
Ruea doesn’t need
much warming up in
her body-conscious
Versace top (versace
.com) and high-waisted—
and high-visibility—
Paco Rabanne shorts
(pacorabanne.com).
124
BEST PRACTICE
A few reps (and a little
vamping) later, Ruea
cools down again in a
cozy matched set from
Diesel; diesel.com.
Adidas x Gucci shoes.
LET’S GET LIVE
Fall roots, roots,
roots for the home
team—and makes
a persuasive case for
monochromatism—
in a Jean Paul Gaultier
Haute Couture
by Olivier Rousteing
jumpsuit; 325 Rue
Saint Martin, Paris.
beauty note
Go for gold. Revlon’s
So Fierce! Prismatic
Eye Shadow Palette in
966 The Big Bang
features high-impact
metallic pigments in
a powder-to-gel formula
for a winning payoff.
POLE POSITION
What’s black and white
and red all over? Why,
a chic Ralph Lauren
Collection column dress
(ralphlauren.com)
and cropped Versace
puffer (versace.com),
of course! In this story:
hair, Issac Poleon;
makeup, Chiao-Li Hsu.
Details, see In This Issue.
SE T D ESI G N : IB BY N J OYA . M OV E M E NT: YAGA M OTO.
PRO DUCE D BY JA N UA RY PRODUCT I ON S.
127
2
11
5
6
Away We Go!
129
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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.
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.
VOGUE IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT © 2022 CONDÉ NAST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. VOLUME 212, NO. 10. VOGUE
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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
E M M A W AT S O N
OPEN TO
DISCOVER
THE NEW
FRAGRANCE
BY PRADA
E M M A W AT S O N