J U N E/JU LY

The
Music
Issue

Her History-Making Breakthrough

FENDI BOUTIQUES 888 291 0163 FEN D I .CO M
 1
1. A high jewelry necklace
from Indian designer Sabyasachi
Mukherjee, who recently
opened a Mumbai outpost.
2. Garcia at Mumbai’s
Gateway of India monument,
where the Dior show was
held, wearing a Dior skirt and
Sabyasachi necklace.
3. A street vendor in Mumbai.
4. Durga I (2021) at the
Mūl Māthī // from the roots
exhibit, curated by the Asia
Society India Centre.
5. Radio Bombay Eau de Parfum
by D.S. & Durga will transport
you ($280; dsanddurga.com).
Made in Mumbai
ELLE editor- 4
in-chief Nina
Garcia gets
an up-close
look at the
work of some
of the world’s
most talented
craftspeople
at Dior’s
destination
show.
THIS SPRING, WHAT SEEMED like the entire fashion industry
descended on Mumbai for a succession of high-profile, high-
C OURTESY O F N IN A GA RCI A A ND THE B RAND S;
style events: the Dior fall 2023 show and the openings of the
Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Museum and the Sabyasachi
flagship. ELLE editor-in-chief Nina Garcia attended Dior’s en-
FO R D ETA ILS, SEE SHOP PI NG GUID E.
chanting show, where creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri,
working with the famed Chanakya atelier and school, paid
tribute to the country’s skilled female artisans (for more, see
page 118). Garcia got a closer look at their handiwork at Mūl
Māthī // from the roots, an exhibit featuring panels stitched by
Chanakya students, interpreting the work of Indian painters
Madhvi Parekh and Manu Parekh. Rounding out the trip was
an inspiring visit to the city’s street markets, where Garcia was
struck by the bold hues of their floral displays.
ENJOY THIS SPECIAL COLL AB IN FULL COLOR
 FOLLOWING IN THE
FOOTSTEPS OF ALHAMBRA
An icon of the Van Cleef & Arpels Maison, the
Alhambra collection, while ever changing, never strays
from the path it has created, one that leads to a world of
craftsmanship, textures, colors and diverse style. Its motif,
inspired by the four-leaf clover, symbolizes luck.
 ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

Vintage Alhambra ring,

yellow gold, carnelian, diamond.
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
 ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

White and gray mother-of-pearl.

© Van Cleef & Arpels SA

Van Cleef & Arpels catalog, 1972.

Over the course of

half a century, the
THE
Alhambra collection
has become an instantly
STORY
recognizable signature OF AN
of Van Cleef & Arpels.
With its motif, inspired
by the four-leaf clover
ICON
“To be lucky, you have to believe in luck,” Jacques Arpels, nephew of
shape, the collection the founders of the Maison Van Cleef & Arpels, often said. Jacques,
who alongside his two brothers, Pierre and Claude, presided over
celebrates good luck. the destiny of the Maison starting in 1936, had a habit of finding
four-leaf clovers in the garden of his house in Germigny-l’Evêque.
ELLE International Superstitious and a collector at heart, he would gift them to his
staff members. The clover, with its associations of good fortune,
reveals the origins of is a motif that goes back to the origins of Van Cleef & Arpels and

this iconic design, always

has been part of the Maison’s creations since the 1920s. In the
archives, you’ll find drawings of clover shaped pieces. Jewelry
made from bois d’amourette (letterwood) is also there, as well as
attuned to the times. creations featuring ladybugs, unicorns, phoenixes and several others.
It was in the autumn of 1968, however, that the nature-inspired This “jewelry de jour” boldly mixed materials, colors, and stylized
talisman became legendary, with the creation of the very shapes and followed, in every respect, the evolutions of fashion
first Alhambra long necklace, inspired by the four-leaf clover’s and style that marked the late 1960s and 1970s. Long necklaces
outline. The piece is composed of 20 creased yellow gold motifs made of yellow gold, malachite, or lapis lazuli were styled with
delicately outlined with gold beads. It was an immediate success, chains with large pendants and link bracelets. Layered and stacked
recognized throughout the world as an icon of good fortune on fingers, around the neck, or on the wrist, the Maison’s creations
emblematic of the Maison. complemented the day-to-
day fluidity of silhouettes
Alhambra is a name inspired in bright or sunny shades.
by the Arpels brothers’ The tactile and talismanic
passion for travel. As they element of the jewelry was
explored the world, including paramount, as illustrated
China, the Middle East, by an ad from 1977: “At the
India, and Japan, their Van Cleef & Arpels boutique,
curiosity for the elsewhere 22 Place Vendôme, you will
that characterized that find sensitive, charming and
era grew. If the Maison’s loving jewelry. And faithful
name is synonymous with jewelry that will never leave
savoir-faire and refinement, you.” The Maison succeeded
that of the Alhambra in capturing the era, its desires,
collection is distinguished and the longing for a more
by its evocative influence. modern femininity.
Over the decades, it has
conjured up a world of travel In 2012, Béatrice Salmon,
and enchanting settings. then director of Les Arts
Indeed, this attraction to Décoratifs, encapsulated the
other cultures distinguishes Maison’s visionary intuitions
the creations of that period. in the introduction to the
More than a simple piece of “Van Cleef & Arpels—The Art
jewelry, the Alhambra motif of High Jewelry” exhibition
subtly and joyfully reflects catalog. In regard to the
the spirit of the times. Maison, Salmon emphasizes

Advertisement for La Boutique Van Cleef & Arpels, 1974 © Procom

Society was evolving and women were becoming more active
and independent, or at least as much as they dared. Magazines,
such as ELLE, echoed this in its pages. In the streets, skirts were
shorter, jeans were worn with freedom, colors were flaunted, sheer
fabrics were exposed, and sweaters were tight fitted. It was the
moment of so-called youth fashion. Haute Couture became more
and more discreet and gave way to ready-to-wear. While this
newfound audaciousness prevailed, Van Cleef & Arpels disrupted
traditional jewelry conventions and influenced their history by
becoming an essential reference. With the Alhambra collection, the
Maison proposed new ways of wearing jewelry during the daytime. It
was showcased in the Parisian landmark, “the boutique,” opened by
Van Cleef & Arpels at Place Vendôme, which brought together easy-
to-wear pieces, thus becoming more accessible than High Jewelry.
“a remarkable receptiveness
to forms inspired by contemporary world events,” remarking
that “the sway of hippy culture over the young in the 1960s, or
man’s first steps on the moon in 1969–all of which inspired
Van Cleef & Arpels to produce novel forms and designs in
keeping with the beat of history.” A revolution was happening.
How can one resist the highly coveted Alhambra, which
invites optimism and plays with luck, all while being
crowned with the reputation and savoir-faire of one of the most
illustrious names on Place Vendôme? How can one resist the
variety of pieces that have enriched the collection over the years
with ever-renewed creativity? Today more than ever, the appeal
of the Alhambra collection remains, and always attuned to
the times. Timelessly modern.
Vintage Alhambra pendant, guilloché white gold.
© Philippe Lacombe

Van Cleef & Arpels boutique at 22 Place Vendôme.

© Van Cleef & Arpels SA
 ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

Magic Alhambra
earrings, 2 motifs,
yellow gold,
tiger’s eye, carnelian.
Vintage Alhambra
ring, yellow gold,
tiger’s eye, diamond.

Dress,
Prada.
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
 Crafting Alhambra creations.
© Van Cleef & Arpels SA

LUCK,
BEHIND
THE SCENES

Beyond the legend of the Alhambra collection, a multitude of
personal stories are unveiled: the memory of a mother leaning
over her child, who then plays with her long necklace; that of
an older sister proudly wearing a necklace when starting her
career; or that of the first gift, a bracelet, given by a fiancé. When
you step inside 22 Place Vendôme, the legendary residence of
Van Cleef & Arpels, all these memories come flooding back.
Since 1906, the jeweler has been a part of the greatest tales,
whether familial or romantic, including those of iconic couples
with the most demanding wishes. The key to such success
lies in one clear fact: craftsmanship.
HERALDED FROM FOUR LEAVES
In 1968, the first Alhambra long necklace appeared in the
Van Cleef & Arpels Archives. Inspired by the contours of a four-leaf
clover, this token of luck is composed of 20 creased yellow gold
motifs outlined with gold beads. Born more than 50 years ago, this
emblematic design continues to be sought after. In keeping with the
Van Cleef & Arpels’ tradition of excellence, the Alhambra collection
reflects the expertise of this High Jewelry Maison. From the choice
of materials to the final polishing, craftsmanship creates an iconic
piece, an emblem of good fortune. Over the decades, Alhambra
has continued to evolve, and now includes five different sizes, using
new materials while retaining its original characteristics. The
collection adapts to the spirit of each new era, rendering itself
contemporary and reinventing the art of wearing jewelry.
A COLLECTIVE MASTERPIECE
The Alhambra collection, an object of desire with a clear precious
quality, is inscribed with the Maison’s values of creativity,
excellence, and savoir-faire, guided by tradition and modernity,
handcraftsmanship and technological innovations. From the
lapidary to the jeweler, from the setter to the polisher, each piece
calls upon a wide range of expertise and skills. These are the experts
who bring all Alhambra creations to life, step by step, delicately,
meticulously, and lovingly. The stones are chosen and cut before
being carefully polished to reveal all their nuances and brilliance.
The gold is cast to create the beaded setting, and then the motif is
set in the gold case and the claws are folded with precision. The
chain and the set Alhambra pendant are carefully assembled.
Then, the delicate final polishing process, which highlights each of
the elegant pieces. Jewelry that is “pleasing to wear, effortless to gift,
but always treasured,” as a Van Cleef & Arpels ad in June 1974 states.
LET THERE BE COLOR
Since the early 1970s, the four-leaf motifs have been adorned
with ornamental stones: malachite, lapis lazuli, onyx, tiger’s eye,
and turquoise among others.
In the 1980s, white and gray mother-of-pearl, carnelian, and blue
agate were introduced. All these materials are still displayed in
the shop windows and the selection criteria continue to follow
the same stringent requirements as High Jewelry does. The
Maison’s expert gemologists seek the best quality and harmony
for each stone, to showcase the rich colors of nature: carnelian
with its brilliant red to orange shades, malachite with its vibrant
greens, and chalcedony, luminous in its lavender tones. In 2018,
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
on the 50th anniversary of the collection, new combinations were
released. The iridescent reflections of gray mother-of-pearl
harmonize with rose gold and diamonds, deep black onyx
with white gold, also with diamonds, which are of the highest
purity and brilliance (D to F in color, IF to VVS2 in clarity).
“CLOVERS FOR A DRESS OR FOR JEANS”
The history of the Alhambra collection is intertwined with the history
of the chic Parisienne and French style. The pieces can be worn in a
variety of ways: with “a dress or a pair of jeans,” as the Maison
suggests in a 1974 ad; as a long necklace or a short one, solo or as
a duo or layered around the neck, the wrist, or even the waist.
The icons of the 1960s and 1970s collected the necklaces, inspiring
fans with their style, which today would be described as
Instagrammable. Some actresses wore the jewelry in real life as
well as on the big screen, at public and private occasions. Forever
contemporary, unapologetically modern, truly timeless, Alhambra
adapts to different women, each with her own personal style.
VARIATIONS OF A UNIVERSAL ICON
Today, the Alhambra collection is made up of approximately
200 items: long and short necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings,
cuff links, Between the Finger rings, and watches. With constantly
renewed creativity, the collection has grown to include a variety
of creations over the years. Like many talismanic jewels, they
instill confidence as much as they adorn the body. In the 2000s,
the collection took off again with both boldness and loyalty.
The Pure Alhambra and Byzantine Alhambra lines feature
smoother, more graphic contours. The delicate Sweet Alhambra
can be shared lovingly between mothers and daughters. Enriched
with other motifs—leaves, butterflies, hearts—Lucky Alhambra is a
long-lasting commitment to love. And Magic Alhambra, which
plays with asymmetry and different-sized motifs, stands out in any
crowd. The original line has been renamed “Vintage Alhambra,”
a guarantee of endless good luck.
A LEGACY IN THE NAME OF LUCK
The Maison regularly introduces new materials and combinations
when expanding the range or creating limited editions. Expertise
and artistic craftsmanship join forces, sharing the same respect for
excellence and handing down that savoir-faire.
In 2015, Van Cleef & Arpels continued its partnership with the
legendary Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres that began in 2012,
and launched a pendant combining light pink porcelain and the
soft reflections of pink gold, with a diamond delicately set in the
center. In 2019, along came the celestial blue Sèvres porcelain—
a color created by the manufacturer more than 250 years ago—
in combination with yellow gold.
The porcelain is made from natural materials and then hand-painted
with pigments. It involves approximately 20 steps, including firing,
polishing, and enameling, to produce an Alhambra pattern in Sèvres
porcelain. A specific setting technique was developed to attach the
motif to its gold bead setting. Last year, spurred on by its success,
the Maison issued a limited-edition variation in celadon-green
porcelain and white gold. Alhambra allows freedom of expression,
without ever losing the spirit of the collection.
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS CASTS A GLOW
In the late 2010s, the Maison made another brilliant move, one
that once again explored the emblematic motif. Guilloché yellow
gold made an appearance in the 2018 collection, and continues
to dazzle with its “sunburst” in new creations: a necklace, a
bracelet, and earrings. This traditional aesthetic has been used by
Van Cleef & Arpels since the 1910s. It has been featured on
watch dials, boxes, powder compacts, and Minaudières.
A central gold bead completes the ensemble. When it comes to
small details, Alhambra excels.
Among the creations that followed are two watches that became
part of the Sweet Alhambra collection: one on a leather strap,
interchangeable with just a touch; the second radiating with
countless rays of light from a strap with alternating guilloché
yellow gold, diamonds, and gold mother-of-pearl from the
warm waters of the Australian seas. Since autumn 2022,
the Maison has offered the opportunity to be adorned with a
long necklace, bracelet, pendant, ring or earrings glistening with
the reflections of guilloché white gold.
IRREVERSIBLY BOLD
This year, in a first in the collection’s history, the Maison will unveil
a reversible Alhambra ring. The virtuosity of Van Cleef & Arpels
and its style is evident in this playful yet refined two-sided ring. Its
desirability is equal to its technical mastery. The body, composed
of three rows of beads, harmonizes with the outline of the famous
quatrefoil motif. On one side, rose gold with solar stripes radiates
around a diamond. On the other, the light of carnelian stone is
magnified by the underlying gold, as if the piece were ablaze from
a fire within. True to Alhambra’s lighthearted aesthetic, the ring
changes according to the wearer’s moods and outfits: It goes
with a blouse during the day and illuminates the night with a
black dress. Behind this grace lies a technical feat. Months of
research and development were necessary to find the best-suited
movement, which supplies a fluid and even rotation.
ALWAYS TIMELESS
It took this masterful combination of artful design and time-honored
craftsmanship for Alhambra, far from representing a solitary long
necklace, to bring six collections to life: “an entire world of color
and texture; crafted in gold, pink, yellow and white; adorned with
every natural material from precious wood to pavé diamonds. In
short, a polychromatic universe of beauty and artistic expression,
all encapsulated in one name, Alhambra, and locked into a single,
simple quatrefoil shape” as British historian Nicholas Foulkes
writes in Alhambra (Xavier Barral Editions, 2018), which traces the
fascinating history of this iconic collection.
While fashions come and go, Alhambra remains a timeless
talisman through which the contemporary blends with history, and
craftmanship with innovation. Thus, the Alhambra collection has
been a fixture for more than five decades and has stood the
test of time without a single wrinkle (how lucky!). Recognizable
at first glance yet nevertheless constantly reinventing itself, always
attuned to the times. Today, more than ever, this symbol of good
fortune continues to shine upon us.
DAZZLED BY COLOR
While the Alhambra motif is timeless and iconic, the collection
has offered a variety of stones and colors over the years.
A “kaleidoscopic” guide to finding your perfect match.
ONYX Its black is rich and deep. The Maison selects stones of great
purity with an intense and uniform color. Its smooth, seamless texture,
magnified by the polishing process, reveals light reflections, as if the onyx
were a mirror.
TIGER’S EYE Yellow and brown lines lend a silky shine to this
quartz that varies with the light. Each tiger’s eye motif selected by
Van Cleef & Arpels is in warm shades, from honey to deep brown, and
presents a beautiful harmony of light and dark, straight and regular stripes.
MALACHITE Its deep green is streaked with light and dark lines,
giving the stone a subtle vibrancy. Van Cleef & Arpels uses a refined palette
Photographer: Philippe Lacombe. Fashion Editor: Julie Chanut Bombard. Production: WSM. Words: Virginie Dolata, Lotte Jeffs, and Violette Rostand. Editorial and Creative Direction: Virginie Dolata. Art Direction: Jo Goodby.
of malachite colors, with intense hues and consistent, harmonious bands.
CARNELIAN From an intense red to the most luminous orange,
this variety of chalcedony is treasured for its beautiful translucency.
Van Cleef & Arpels selects a very small number of raw stones that offer
the most beautiful textures and the most vibrant colors, which are enhanced
by a high level of polishing.
BLUE AGATE This stone, which consists of quartz microcrystals,
offers a palette ranging from light to deep blue. The Maison carefully
Photographer: Thiemo Sander, Fashion Editor: Barbara Baumel, Model: Tess Hellfeuer, Hair: Christoph Hasenbein, MU: Angloma, Nails: Huberte Cesarion, Production: JR Associée
handpicks the most even and uniform stones, which are then polished
with care. Slight variations in opacity are natural and give these agates their
charm and uniqueness.
CHALCEDONY The advantage of this stone from the quartz family is
its mellow color. For its creations, Van Cleef & Arpels chooses the finest
pieces with soft, luminous shades, ranging from lavender to pastel blue.
MOTHER-OF-PEARL Sourced from shells, mother-of-pearl has a rare
brilliance and delicate iridescence. It is renowned for the regularity of its
surface and the subtle reflections, from pink to green, that make the stone
glisten in the sun.
DIAMONDS Reflecting the Maison’s history of excellence, pavé
diamonds are subject to the same requirements as centerpiece stones. The
fi rst selection is based on the strictest “4C” criteria for carat weight, cut,
color, and clarity. Only stones of the highest quality—from D to F in
color and IF to VVS2 in clarity—are selected. The expert eye of
Van Cleef & Arpels’ gemologists conducts a second verification, in
harmony with the Maison’s standards, to ensure the pieces possess an
extraordinary shine.
YELLOW GOLD Associated in many cultures with the sun and
divinity, yellow gold has been used since antiquity, notably for sacred and
royal objects. Worked into gold beads and carefully polished, the Maison’s
18-karat gold retains its remarkable brilliance year after year.
WHITE GOLD Distinguished by its sleek and luminous aesthetic,
white gold instills the Maison’s creations with a timeless elegance. In the
workshops, the metal is meticulously polished and plated with rhodium to
reveal its full brilliance. Admired for the purity of its reflection, the metal
blends harmoniously with, and enhances, the diamonds.
ROSE GOLD Evoking the tenderest of emotions, the pink gold used
by Van Cleef & Arpels is born of a subtle alloy of gold, copper, and silver.
Delicately polished, it gently reflects the light, giving the pieces a warm,
feminine glow.
 ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

Sweet Alhambra bracelet,

rose gold.
Sweet Alhambra bracelet,
yellow gold, white mother-of-pearl.
Sweet Alhambra bracelet,
rose gold, carnelian.
Sweet Alhambra bracelet,
white gold, diamonds.
 ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

Vintage Alhambra bracelet,

5 motifs, yellow gold, blue agate.
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
ELLE INTERNATIONAL X VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
 June/July Volume XXXVIII Number 9
64 COMEBACK KIDS
Naomi Rougeau
DRESS, ROLAND
MOURET, $950. meets the All Stars
BRACELET, VAN
CLEEF & ARPELS.
competing on
Project Runway’s
20th season.
66 GOING GREEN
Lily Kwong wants
you to know how much
plants can teach us.
By Adrienne Gaffney
68 GARDEN PARTY
Visit the outdoor
spaces where Lily Kwong
finds inspiration.
Front Row
71 ALL TOGETHER NOW
Kerensa Cadenas
spotlights the
Museum at FIT’s
new exhibit celebrating
Latinx designers.
74 INTO THE LABYRINTH
Fendi pays homage to
a visionary Italian artist.
By Adrienne Gaffney
78 GET READY FOR
ROCK GIRL SUMMER
Katy Kelleher dives into
the new music look.
Beauty
81 IT LIST: ADD TO CART
ELLE editors
share their summertime
beauty favorites.
84 STRAIGHT UP
Margaux Anbouba takes
us to Dyson’s technology
campus, where a new
dryer/straightening tool is
set to transform the game.
86 SUNSCREEN IS ONLY
GETTING BETTER
The latest takes on
sunscreen are a
whole lot more fun.
By Kathleen Hou
Perspectives
88 YES, THEY ARE COMING
FOR YOUR BIRTH CONTROL
Rebecca Grant looks
at the next battle in
the war on reproductive
rights. Artwork
by Katrina Majkut
20 NINA’S EDIT 62 EARTHLY WONDERS 90 SEARCHING FOR
Trending Jewelry designers MEG WHITE
52 EDITOR’S LETTER
59 SUIT YOURSELF experiment The legendary drummer
54 NEW ARRIVALS Choose your new swimwear beautifully with coral, has been elusive for
The latest accessories look: European glamour shells, and other over a decade. Melissa
for summer fun. or laid-back Californian. natural materials. Giannini seeks her out.
48
Fashion
98 QUEEN OF HEARTS
Karol G spent a decade
working for her overnight
success. By Chantal
Fernandez. Photographed
by Zoey Grossman.
Styled by Alex White
110 SZA HAS NOTES
The hit-producing
superstar is her
own toughest critic.
By Sylvia Obell.
Photographed by
Renell Medrano.
Styled by Patti Wilson
118 A PASSAGE TO INDIA
With Dior’s latest
collection, Maria Grazia
Chiuri turns the
spotlight on India and
its artisans. By Véronique
Hyland. Photographed
by Dolly Devi. Styled by
Rachele Regini
126 CELESTIAL SHAPES
In neutral tones,
surprising lines shine.
Photographed by Brigitte
Niedermair. Styled
by Anastasia Barbieri
136 SHOPPING GUIDE
142 HOROSCOPE
THE COVER LOOKS
Karol G wears a
corset from Andreas
Kronthaler for Vivienne
Westwood, a necklace
from Bulgari, and
rings from John Hardy.
Karol G wears a dress
from Luar, a bustier
from Agent Provocateur,
and rings from Bulgari.
For Karol G’s makeup
look, try N°1 de Chanel
Revitalizing Foundation,
ZOEY GROSSMA N: FOR D ETAILS, SE E SHOP P ING GUID E.
Crayon Sourcils
Sculpting Eyebrow
Pencil, and Rouge Coco
Baume. All, Chanel.
Photographed by Zoey
Grossman (styled by
Alex White; hair
by Evanie Frausto for
Bumble and bumble;
makeup by Yumi
Lee for Chanel Beauté;
manicure by Dawn
Sterling at E.D.M.A.; set
design by Jenny Correa;
produced by Crawford
& Co Productions
and Curt Weber).
 NINA GARCIA
Editor-in-Chief
Creative Director STEPHEN GAN
Executive Managing Editor ERIN HOBDAY
Executive Editor SARA AUSTIN
Design Director HARRY GASSEL
Fashion Director ALEX WHITE
Fashion Market and Accessories Director ALEXIS WOLFE
Visual Director CARY GEORGES
Deputy Editor KAYLA WEBLEY ADLER
Fashion Features Director VÉRONIQUE HYLAND
Entertainment Director JENNIFER WEISEL
Deputy Managing Editor JEFFREY INGLEDUE
FASHION
Senior Market Editor SARAH ZENDEJAS
Credits Editor CAITLIN MULLEN
Market Editor JADE VALLARIO
Fashion Associates KEVIN LEBLANC, ROSIE JARMAN
Fashion and Accessories Assistant MADISON REXROAT
FEATURES
Features Director MELISSA GIANNINI
Senior Fashion Features Editor NAOMI ROUGEAU
Features Editor ADRIENNE GAFFNEY
Assistant Editor JULIANA UKIOMOGBE
BEAUTY
Beauty Director KATHLEEN HOU
Beauty Editor MARGAUX ANBOUBA
Beauty Assistant TASHA NICOLE SMITH
ART AND DESIGN
Senior Digital Designer LEAH ROMERO
Designer HANNA DAY-TENEROWICZ
Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief SAMUEL MAUDE
HEARST VISUAL GROUP
Chief Visual Content Director ALIX CAMPBELL
Deputy Visual Director FIONA LENNON
Senior Visual Researcher MEGAN A. VICTORIA
Visuals Assistant BERKELEY BROOKS
COPY AND RESEARCH
Copy Chief TERRI SCHLENGER
Research Chief BRENDÁN CUMMINGS
Research Editor LAURA ASMUNDSSON
Editorial Business Director CAROL LUZ
Editorial Business Manager KATE REMULLA
Executive Director, Public Relations CARRIE CARLSON
Publicist KATHRYN COUGHLIN
ELLE.COM
Digital Director JESSICA ROY
Deputy Editor CLAIRE STERN
Digital Beauty Director DANIELLE JAMES
Senior Culture Editor ERICA GONZALES
Features Editor KATHERINE KRUEGER
Senior Social Media Editor CARINE LAVACHE
Senior News and Strategy Editor ALYSSA BAILEY
Senior Writers/Editors MADISON FELLER, ROSE MINUTAGLIO
Senior Fashion Commerce Editor DALE ARDEN CHONG
Beauty E-Commerce Editor NERISHA PENROSE
Culture Writer LAUREN PUCKETT-POPE
Associate Fashion Commerce Editor MEG DONOHUE
Senior Photo Editor YOUSRA ATTIA
Video Producer LAURA HACKER
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Editor’s Letter ON KAROL G: GOWN, LAQUAN
SMITH, $1,550. CORSET, AGENT
PROVOCATEUR, $650. PLATFORMS,
MARC JACOBS, $2,400.

Another singer-song-
writer shattering taboos is
SZA, who is refreshingly
uncensored about the fick-
leness of fame, romantic
jealousy, and the pain of end-
ing a relationship of more
than a decade. “The only way
I don’t bore myself is to bare
myself,” she tells Sylvia Obell.
On page 110, she poses for
Renell Medrano’s lens, styled
by Patti Wilson.
As I write this, I have just
returned from a life-chang-
ing trip to Mumbai (for more
on that, see page 20). I took
in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s fall
2023 Dior show, which high-
lighted the creativity of the
region’s artisans. On page
118, Chiuri takes Fashion
Features Director Véronique
Hyland behind the scenes,
alongside stunning images

PERFECT Harmony by Goa-based photographer

ll my life, we had listened to music from men,
or dedicated to men,” Latin music phenom
Dolly Devi. The shoot lo-
cation, a circa-1930s villa in
Mumbai, immediately struck
Devi thanks to its timeless
quality and brilliant colors. The interior features items picked
up on the owner’s travels; Devi calls it “a mix of India and the

A Karol G says. But those days are, thankfully,

long gone. The Colombian singer is a female
star in the male-dominated genre of reggaeton,
with her latest release, Mañana Será Bonito,
becoming the first-ever all-Spanish-language album from a
woman to debut at number one in the U.S. on the Billboard 200.
And the cover star of our music issue is now a global sensation,
collaborating with Bad Bunny, Becky G, J Balvin, and Ozuna.
Her latest linkup is with Shakira, a fellow Colombian artist she
has always looked up to. When the two filmed the video for their
single “TQG,” “my life flashed before my eyes,” Karol tells writer
Chantal Fernandez.
As someone from the same home country as both women,
I see so many parallels between these two superstars. They
have a humility about their stardom, and a sensitivity you can
sense. It’s an endearing, down-to-earth quality that’s unusual in
people at that level of fame. Both are incredibly family-oriented
whole world,” which is appropriate given the cross-cultural
nature of the collection.
The Museum at FIT’s new exhibit ¡Moda Hoy!: Latin
American and Latinx Fashion Design Today showcases both
boldface names and exciting up-and-comers. Curators Tanya
Melendez-Escalante and Melissa Marra-Alvarez talk to Kerensa
Cadenas about putting together this historic survey. Also in our
fashion pages, Fendi forges a partnership with sculptor Arnaldo
Pomodoro, and we have an advance look at the 20th season of
Project Runway, premiering on June 14.
June marks the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court
decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Now reproductive rights
advocates find themselves fighting on another front: birth con-
trol, as Rebecca Grant reports on page 88.
Features Director Melissa Giannini has been fascinated by
former White Stripes drummer Meg White since she first in-
terviewed her in the early aughts. Now that the band is nom-
LEW IS MIRRE T T; FO R D ETA ILS, SEE S HOP P ING GU ID E.

and have fathers who’ve supported them every step of the way. inated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, White is back in the
Despite growing up in a nation that went through turmoil and discourse, and subject to sexist Twitter insults about her drum-
endured all manner of negative press and stereotypes, they are ming. Giannini tracks the press-shy artist’s huge influence on
proof that creativity always prevails. In reality, our country is full young musicians like Olivia Rodrigo, who calls her “one of the
of hardworking and talented people whose contributions have best drummers of our time.” Take that, trolls.
elevated it on the global stage: Maluma, J Balvin, and many more.
When Karol and I connected on the set of her cover shoot,
we talked about everything from our favorite foods to the bold,
curve-celebrating fashion we styled her in. She told me that
when she got the call from ELLE, she could hardly believe it.
She loved being on a set filled with female energy and imme-
diately clicked with photographer Zoey Grossman and ELLE
Fashion Director Alex White. @ N I N AGA RC I A N I N AGA RC I A @ N I N AGA RC I AO F F I C I A L

52
New Arrivals

C OURTESY O F T HE D ESIGNE R.

The BAG
In woven silk and linen with crocheted jute edging, Loro
Piana’s beach-ready tote is a cut above the standard straw carryall.
Tote bag, Loro Piana, $2,575, loropiana.com.

54
swarovski.com
New Arrivals

C OURTESY O F T HE D ESIGNE RS; FOR DE TA ILS, SEE S HOPP ING GUI DE .

The WATCH
Rolex updates its Day-Date 36 timepiece with
a sunshine-bright carnelian dial and a halo of diamonds.
Day-Date 36 watch, Rolex, rolex.com.

56
 The SANDAL
Europe-bound this summer? Enter Celine with the perfect
cobblestone-friendly footwear in tasteful leather-trimmed canvas.
Sandal, Celine by Hedi Slimane, $870, celine.com.

57
 YOU’RE INVITED
to be part of an exclusive community composed of the most
FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALLIE HOLLOWAY

active readers of ELLE, Harper’s BAZAAR, Town & Country, and Esquire.
The Assembly is a place to engage with us and other members
to express your creativity, opinions, and story.
Sign up for insider access, special offers, and giveaways.

JOIN HERE
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 Trending
ELLE SHOP
Our annual
Swim Guide.
ACCESSORIES
Designers make
the most of nature’s
bounty via
ornate jewelry.
THIS MONTH
Project Runway
enters its 20th
season with an All
Stars competition.
LIVING + TRAVEL
How style star Lily
Kwong rediscovered
her green thumb.

ELL E SH OP

SUIT YOURSELF

The beach is calling. We’ve got you covered

for your next getaway, with sand-to-soiree picks
inspired by two iconic destinations.
P HOTOGRA P HED BY ASHER MOSS.

SWIMSUIT, HUNZA G, $215, HUNZAG.COM.

Trending LE SIRENUSE IN
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La Dolce Vita
Retro silhouettes and citrus hues
for day—and a dose of sequins
for evening—reach their peak
on the sparkling Amalfi coast.

BIKINI, DOLCE &

GABBANA, $645,
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SWIMSUIT,
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Wear 1

It With 2
1. Sunglasses, Balmain Eyewear
by Akoni Group, $600, balmain
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Spade New York, $398,
katespade.com. 3. Shade Slick
Tinted Lip Oil in Jeté, Merit, 4 SWIMSUIT, CIN
CIN, $193,
$24, meritbeauty.com. 4. Dress, SHOPSPLASH
Genny, genny.com. 5. Tie .COM

scarf, Akris, $160, akris.com.

6. Wineglass, Seletti, $70,
ssense.com. 7. Watch, Omega,
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BIKINI TOP, $380,

5 3 BIKINI BOTTOM, $325,
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A SEASIDE VIEW
FROM LE SIRENUSE.

L ÉON EA RRING: COURTESY OF MODA OP ERA ND I; RE MA IN ING I MAGES: COURT ESY

LE SIRENUSE: BRECHENMACHER & BAUMANN; SELET TI WINEGL ASS: COURTESY
O F SSENSE; A LIL A VEN TA NA BIG SUR: CO URT ESY O F THE V ENU E; Y VO NNE

O F T HE D ESIGNERS A ND BRA ND S; FOR DE TA ILS, SEE S HOP P ING G UID E.

7
SWIMSUIT,
GUESS, $89,
GUESS.COM
8 SWIMSUIT,
BAOBAB,
$200,
BAOBABSWIM
.COM
 BIKINI TOP,
$89, BIKINI BOTTOM, SWIMSUIT,
$95, FAITHFULL FORM AND
THE BRAND, FOLD, $210,
E L L E SH OP FAITHFULLTHEBRAND
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FORMANDFOLD
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SWIMSUIT,
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CROP SWIM TOP,

$125, BIKINI
BOTTOM, $115,
BIKINI TOP, VITAMIN A,
$125, BIKINI VITAMINASWIM
BOTTOM, $90, .COM
BOND-EYE
SWIM, BOND-
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California
Dreaming
Earthy tones, nature-inspired SWIMSUIT, DOS
textures, and a relaxed vibe feel right GARDENIAS,
$210,
at home on the rugged Pacific shore. DOSGARDENIAS
.COM

THE BEACHFRONT
NEAR ALILA VENTANA.

ALILA VENTANA
BIG SUR.

Wear It With
1. Sunglasses, Giorgio Armani,
$300, armani.com. 2. Earring,
Yvonne Léon, $535,
modaoperandi.com. 3. Slide,
Birkenstock, $140, birkenstock 6
.com. 4. Surfboard, Saint Laurent 5
Rive Droite, yslrivedroite.com. 10
5. Sweater, Nili Lotan, $1,350,
nililotan.com. 6. Sarong, 7
Matteau, $320, matteau-store
.com. 7. Clog, Givenchy, $850,
givenchy.com. 8. Watch,
Longines, $875, longines.com.
9. Tote, Coach, $550, coach
.com. 10. Natural Mineral
Sunscreen Lotion SPF 50, Salt &
Stone, $28, saltandstone.com.
9
8

2
3
 DA NI EL A V ILL EGAS
“A symbol of strength,
rebirth, and intuition, crabs
can thrive in even the
harshest environments.”
—Daniela Villegas

Necklace,
justoneeye.com.

S I LVIA FUR M AN OV I C H J EN NA B L AKE

“At the beginning of my career, “Coral, shells, turquoise,
I read Gift From the Sea by Anne and leather are year-round
Morrow Lindbergh, which uses staples in my collection.
shells as metaphors for patience, Their natural feel adds
love, relationships, aging, a relaxed element to per-
and faith.”—Silvia Furmanovich sonal style.”—Jenna Blake

Earrings, $9,000, Bergdorf Charm, $4,800,

Goodman, NYC. marissacollections.com.

Earthly
Wonders
Y VO N NE L ÉON
“I worked the gold texture with
lines and diamonds to create
a vintage look.”—Yvonne Léon

Earrings, $1,650,
yvonneleon.com.

Ring, $1,100, aliita.com.

DEZSO BY
C OURTESY O F T HE D ESIGNE RS; FOR DE TA ILS, SEE S HOPP ING GUI DE .

SA RA B ELTRÁN
“I love this beautiful,
bright shell. It’s
perfect with the citrine.”
—Sara Beltrán

Pendant, $6,500,
dezsosara.com.

CA RTIE R
“Grain de Café is a
testament [to] Cart-
ier’s ability to find
inspiration in unlikely
places.”—Maï Cérède

Bracelet, cartier.com.
A fragrance by Instacart
Trending
1. Anna Yinan Zhou:
A fall 2023 bridal look
from Zhou’s brand
Oraz, which was
shown during New
York Fashion Week.

2. Fabio Costa:
A striking belted
ensemble from Costa’s
spring 2023 collection.

3. Korto Momolu:
A romantic evening
look from the designer’s
fall 2022 collection.

4. Bishme Cromartie:
Cromartie rethought
suiting for spring 2022
with this tangerine
bandeau, bolero, and
miniskirt set.

Comeback Kids
Project Runway marks its 20th season by
bringing back some of the series’ biggest
talent with an All Stars competition.
2
“I’M A TOTALLY DIFFERENT DESIGNER and person than I was before,” says
Bishme Cromartie, a Season 17 Project Runway competitor who is back for
the show’s All Stars competition and grateful for the chance to show the
judges how his work has evolved. “I’ve focused on making sure I’m more
intentional with my designs,” he adds, citing his
avant-garde take on streetwear. He’s also look-
ing forward to the camaraderie with the other
participating fan favorites.

CROMARTIE : P HOTOGRA PHE D BY XA NG H O; RE MA INING IMAGE S: COURT ESY OF TH E DE SIGN ERS.

So too is Korto Momolu, who first competed
in Season 5, and even admitted to being a bit star-

FABIO COSTA MODEL: PHOTOGRAPHED BY LECA NOVO; WHITNEY MERCY WEARING BISHME
struck by some of the competitors. “Kara Saun is
a queen! She is my all-time fave,” says Momolu,
whose work has morphed into what
4
she calls “Afro-bohemian chic.” Also
joining is Season 10 runner-up
Fabio Costa, who is returning for
a record fourth season. Costa left
New York in 2018 and moved back
to his native Brazil, which turned
out to be a great strategic decision
for his business. Season 19’s Anna
Yinan Zhou, founder of the darkly
romantic brand Oraz, barely had
time to catch her breath before be-
ing called back for Season 20. “Being
a fashion designer, business own-
er, and mother can be challenging,”
Zhou says. “It’s important to me to set
an example for my son about the value
of hard work and pursuing your dreams.”
3
Tune in on June 14 to see how this group
rises to the challenges.—NAOMI ROUGEAU

64
 P RO MOTI ON

J U N E /J U LY 2 0 2 3

SPOTLIGHT ON: TIM WALKER: WONDERFUL THINGS

THE ORIANNA THROUGH AUGUST 20
OVER GETTY CENTER, LOS ANGELES
Wear-on-repeat Journey into fantastical worlds dreamed
sandals? Walk this up by fashion photographer Tim Walker.
way. Responsible This exhibition celebrates Walker’s eclectic
leathers, chunky-light photography and his creative collaborators—
soles, and contoured set designers, stylists, makeup artists, and
footbeds create muses—and debuts new photographs inspired
airy comfort and by artwork in the Getty Museum and
on-trend treads set Victoria and Albert Museum collections.
for city strolls and A V&A Exhibition—Touring the World.
park picnics. This
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V I S I T E L L E E X T R A .C O M F O R P E O P L E A N D P R O D U C T S W E A R E O B S E S S E D W I T H .
Trending
Going Green
L I V I NG
Fashion muse turned landscape
designer Lily Kwong finds art in
the plants that surround us while
making history along the way.
hen Lily Kwong was chosen to design the New
York Botanical Garden’s prestigious annual
W orchid show for 2023, it was a full-circle mo-
ment. Six years earlier, she began her career as
a student in the garden’s Certificate Program.
As both the first woman and the first person of
color to earn the role in the show’s 20-year history, Kwong kept
it personal. “Once I realized it was this groundbreaking moment,
I wanted to focus on my roots and showcase all the beautiful
practices in Chinese landscape garden design,” she says.
Kwong grew up in Mill Valley, California, where, she says,
“I always had an intuitive connection to the natural world. The
redwoods really instill this sense of awe.” Providing further in-
spiration was Kwong’s great-grandfather, who helped open up
the herb trade between Asia and Australia. Kwong also grew up
fascinated by a traditional Chinese landscape painting that her
grandfather purchased decades ago in Shanghai, one that now
hangs in her own home.
At 18, Kwong moved to New York, where she lived with her
cousin, designer Joseph Altuzarra, and quickly began modeling
66
FROM LEFT: KWONG
AT HER ORCHID
INSTALLATION AT THE
NYBG; KWONG’S
TRANSFORMATION OF
VANDERBILT HALL.
“I’VE ALWAYS
HAD AN
INTUITIVE
CONNECTION
TO THE
NATURAL
WORLD.”
for brands such as Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein. There, her
biggest exposure to the outdoors was lunch in Madison Square
Park (she’s now a member of the park’s sustainability commit-
tee). “I got disconnected from the natural world and swept up
into the fashion industry,” she says. Kwong eventually pulled
back from fashion and enrolled at Columbia University, study-
ing sociology and urban studies. A job at a landscape design firm
rekindled her love of plants, and in 2017, she founded Studio Lily
Kwong with the goal of creating works that would help people
connect to nature.
One of her firm’s first projects was an installation on New
York City’s High Line, which saw Kwong and her team fill the ur-
ban park with over 13,000 flowers. The commission was accom-
panied by a musical composition from Charles Derenne and a
dance piece by artist Mafalda Millies. “People were really moved
by it,” she says. “That really cued me in to a whole new dimension KW ON G: GESI SCHIL LI NG; GRA N D CE NT RA L T ERMINA L: KE VIN FA BRI Z I.
and opportunity for our studio that was about a whole full-bod-
ied experience.” Equally striking was Kwong’s transformation
of Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal, which she filled with
mounded forms of moss, native grasses, and heather, confronting
urban commuters with an unexpected earthy scene. “The in-
tense olfactory awakening of walking into that space [made you]
realize how dead a lot of our built environments are,” she recalls.
Now based in L.A. with her husband, actor Nick Kroll, and
young son, Kwong is finding new inspiration, creating an instal-
lation at Milan Design Week for jeweler Buccellati and an arrest-
ing work for the National Resources Defense Council and Art at
a Time Like This at Expo Chicago. The latter, called Motherfire
and featuring 55 shou sugi ban posts and native California sap-
lings, was a direct response to the West Coast’s wildfire crisis.
“People protect what they love and what they understand,” she
says. “By helping them to understand their role in the ecosystem,
the hope is that stewardship evolves.”—ADRIENNE GAFFNEY
 A LOVE Trending
LETTER
Garden Party
T R AVEL

T O I TA LY
Lily Kwong shares her
must-visit outdoor spaces.
Villa Borghese
While Kwong was working
in Italy this spring, she fell
in love with the naturalistic
style of the famed Roman
garden. “There’s just an in-
formality and a wildness to
Italian gardens that is really
impacting me right now.”

The Huntington
GA RD ENS: HA NS GUT KNE CHT/ME DIA NEWS GROU P/GE T T Y I MAG ES; MUIR W OOD S:
VILL A BORGHE SE : MOC KFORD & BONE T T I/ UIG/ GET T Y IMAGES; THE H UNTIN GTO N
Experience Paranza. The latest
Botanical gardens are always
culinary creation by Michelin- the first place Kwong goes
when visiting a new city, but
CHA D Z IEMEN DORF/SA N FR ANCISCO CHRON ICL E/G ET T Y I MAG ES.

starred chef Michael White. the 130-acre themed gardens

at The Huntington in San
Marino, California (which
An elevated expression of includes one of the oldest col-
lections of cacti and other
Italian regional cuisine with a succulents in the world), are
a favorite much closer to home.
passionate focus on seafood. “I take my son there at least
Muir Woods National once a month,” she says, “and it
Monument provides endless inspiration.”

One of the Bay Area’s last remaining

ancient redwood forests, the 558-acre Muir
Woods, where trees reach up to 250
feet and are 400 to 800 years old, “is just the
core of everything for me,” Kwong says.

T H E C O V E PA R A D I S E I S L A N D B A H A M A S
COVEATLANTIS.COM/ELLE
877.485.0871
 SUNGLASSES COLLECTION

Available at ellesunglassesshop.com and at your eyecare practitioner

@ellesunglasses
 A LOOK FROM
BRAZILIAN LABEL
APARTAMENTO 03.
Front Row
ALL Together NOW
PHOTOGRAPHED BY GUSTAVO MARX.

A new FIT exhibit celebrates the

Latinx fashion community. By Kerensa Cadenas
Front Row CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: LOOKS FROM SÁNCHEZ-KANE’S 2019 COLLECTION,
LAS PUERTAS AL SENTIMENTALISMO; A FALL 1988 CAROLINA HERRERA
GOWN; A SPRING 2015 SNEAKER BY RICARDO SECO AND MAURICIO
CARRILLO; A 2019 PTRA LOOK; WILLY CHAVARRIA’S BALLROOM CHINO FROM
SPRING 2022; A 2022 KIKA VARGAS DRESS AND 2018 EQUIHUA COAT.

BY T HOMAS IA N NACCON E/W WD / GE T T Y IMAGES; PT RA M ODE L: COURTESY O F TH E DE SIG NER; WIL LY CHAVA R RI A
n 2019, Tanya Melendez- the museum’s permanent collection as
“[EACH PIECE

SÁ NCHEZ-K ANE MOD ELS: P HOTO GRA PHED BY PAOL A VIVAS; CA ROL INA HE RRERA MO D EL: PHOTOGR A P HED

Escalante planned a
I dream trip. The senior
curator of education
and public programs
at the Museum at FIT
wanted to introduce two of her col-
leagues to her native country of Mexico.
Melissa Marra-Alvarez, curator of educa-
tion and research, and Elizabeth Way, as-
sociate curator of costume, joined her for
a journey full of fashion and food. After
seeing (and eating) the best that Mexico
City had to offer, the three piled into an
Uber back from the airport, giddy over
what they’d experienced. That’s when
Melendez-Escalante had an idea: What
if they curated an exhibit at the museum
on Latinx designers?
The result is ¡Moda Hoy!: Latin
American and Latinx Fashion Design
Today, which opened on May 31 at
the Museum at FIT. (An accompany-
ing book from Bloomsbury will be re-
leased in early 2024.) The show, curated
by Melendez-Escalante and Marra-
Alvarez, includes over 60 objects from
well as new acquisitions. Expect bold-
face names such as Rick Owens, Proenza
Schouler, and Willy Chavarria, but also
carefully selected works from design-
ers who are lesser-known stateside, like
a gray suit from Carla Fernández, de-
veloped with Chamula artisans from
Chiapas in southern Mexico. (Every
piece they acquired, Marra-Alvarez ex-
plains, had to be “the type of fashion that
makes fashion history.”)
When setting out to highlight all the
multitudes that Latin American and
Latinx fashion contains, a linear time-
line wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, one
of the main goals was “challenging the
idea that there is one monolithic Latin
American style,” as Marra-Alvarez puts
it, with the curators structuring the
show around themes that came up in
their research: Indigenous heritage,
sustainability, art, gender, politics, ele-
gance, craftsmanship, and popular cul-
ture. While their research uncovered
these through lines, it also allowed them
to see how fluid the work was, and how
MODEL: PHOTOGRAPHED BY SELW YN TUNGOL; REMAINING IMAGES: COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM AT FIT.
HAD TO BE] THE
TYPE OF FASHION
THAT MAKES
FASHION HISTORY.”
–COCURATOR MELISSA
MARRA-ALVAREZ
many themes could overlap in just one
design. For instance, when planning the
popular culture section, they includ-
ed a pink pantsuit from LGBTQ+ de-
signer Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, which
Melendez-Escalante calls “a funny take
on the bodybuilder’s physique. It has
volume on the front to refer to the pecto-
rals of a bodybuilder and wide legs,” she
explains, “but it’s a pink suit”—some-
thing that also could have made sense
in the gender section. “It’s this inter-
play between femininity, masculinity,
and what’s appropriate for the genders.”
Melendez-Escalante and Marra-
Alvarez also wanted to highlight how

72
designers have embraced their heritage.
A pair of beaded New Balance sneak-
ers, for example, a collaboration be-
tween Mexican designer Ricardo Seco
and Wixárika artisans led by Mauricio
Carrillo, showcases an ancestral beading
technique. This emphasis on craft under-
scores how sustainability has long been
central to the work of Latin American
and Latinx designers, well before it be-
came an industry buzzword. Uruguayan
designer Gabriela Hearst has partnered
for years with a nonprofit women’s co-
operative in her home country, while
Brazilian brand Osklen has worked to
sustainably source materials from the
Amazon region. Another new acquisi-
tion, from Jonathan Cohen, a Mexican
American designer known for working
with deadstock materials, has an incred-
ible backstory: It’s a leather dress that
has been sustainably treated with acti-
vated silk from the biotechnology firm
Evolved By Nature—as opposed to the
usual method, which involves harsh
chemicals and pollutants.
The curators saw the exhibit as a
place to underline the sense of commu-
nity between Latinx creatives in fashion.
For Narciso Rodriguez, the son of Cuban
immigrants, the Dominican-born design-
er Oscar de la Renta served not just as
a mentor, but
as a potential
template for his own
career. Rodriguez says he was inspired
by the Cuban women he grew up around,
but also by his peers in the industry, par-
ticularly designers Isabel Toledo and
Maria Cornejo. “They each had a unique
vision and made extraordinary things,”
he says. He sees a commonality between
their work and his: “There’s this appre-
ciation for the woman that we dress,
a celebration of women.”
While Melendez-Escalante and
Marra-Alvarez drew from collective
wisdom—hosting a symposium with
members of FIT and the general pub-
lic, and creating an advisory board of
Latin American and Latinx figures with-
in the industry—the process was ulti-
mately deeply personal. One piece on
view, from Luar’s spring 2023 collection,
particularly stood out to Marra-Alvarez
when reflecting on how her upbringing
in a half–Costa
Rican household influenced
the exhibit. “[Designer Raúl Lopez]
was thinking about family parties when
he was growing up, and all the family
members coming together and how
dressed up they would get. That really
resonated with me,” she says. “That is
what’s so interesting with a lot of the
newer designers that we’re featuring:
all of these personal stories that come
into their collections.” The curators saw
themselves represented in the pieces
on display, and they hope viewers will,
too: “They resonate. They make you
feel seen and heard,” Marra-Alvarez
says. Rodriguez, for his part, is excited
to be included in a retrospective where
“it isn’t just a Latinx designer mixed in
with a group of other designers. That
we can have our own show is pretty
amazing, and shows how far the indus-
try has come.”
73
Front Row
ARTIST ARNALDO
POMODORO PUTS
HIS SPIN ON FENDI’S
PEEKABOO BAG.
Into the Labyrinth
A new collaboration brings the magic of sculptor
Arnaldo Pomodoro to Fendi.
irst came Fendi, then came Arnaldo Pomodoro.
The famed Italian sculptor was born just
F a year after the historic Italian fashion house
that has taken inspiration from his work over
a decade-long relationship. Now Fendi is cel-
ebrating the interplay between the two with
Arnaldo Pomodoro: The Great Theatre of Civilizations, an exhibi-
tion of the artist’s work on display through October 1 at Palazzo
della Civiltà Italiana, a rectangular architectural highlight
known as the Square Colosseum, which serves as the brand’s
Rome headquarters. The show traces themes of history and
mythology seen throughout Pomodoro’s work and includes
pieces created over more than 70 years, among them never-
before-seen archival materials.
The connection between the two began in 2013, when Fendi
opened its Milan showroom in Via Solari 35, a former steel
plant that later housed the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation.
Fendi maintained a space for Pomodoro’s large-scale piece
Ingresso nel labirinto (“Entry Into the Labyrinth”), which
served as a source of fascination to visitors. “The space was
proposed to us as is, with black bridges designed to have
74
spectators go through the museum and see Pomodoro’s huge
artworks from different heights. This labyrinth stayed in the
basement, and we always kept it accessible to the public,”
says Serge Brunschwig, who has served as Fendi’s chairman
and CEO since 2018.
The Great Theatre of Civilizations began with Brunschwig’s
first meeting with the 96-year-old Pomodoro. “I proposed
to the maestro maybe we could do a beautiful exhibition at
Palazzo della Civiltà, and then the discussion started,” he says.
“When you are fortunate enough to be introduced to some-
one with this extraordinary legacy and you have dreamed in
front of his pieces of art all around the world, and suddenly
the person is in front of you—it’s a great moment.” The show
is part of the house’s continued commitment to art, exempli-
fied by earlier projects like a partnership with Rome’s Galleria
Borghese that resulted in shows by artists such as Giuseppe
Penone and Caravaggio.
The exhibit marks the launch of an ongoing relationship
between Fendi and the Pomodoro foundation that includes a
Pomodoro interpretation of the house’s beloved Peekaboo bag,
as part of the Fendi Canvas Peekaboo project, which began
 in 2014. Pomodoro’s take explores the concept of function in trilogy; two of Pomodoro’s Greek costumes created for the the-
objects and adds exaggerated spikes to the design of the bag. ater; and his more characteristically monumental works, like
The exhibition is spread across both the interior and exteri- Movimento in piena aria e nel profondo.
or of Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, and its staging is inspired by Despite their different approaches, Brunschwig considers
theater. In bringing together Pomodoro’s sculptures and pieces Fendi and Pomodoro to be very much alike. Fendi started out as
from his archives, it aims to encompass the essence of his career “a couple of artisans who together opened an atelier and
and vision. The 30-odd artworks shown explore the concepts of small boutique in Rome to design and sell objects in fur and
civilizations past and future, as well as mythology. Among them leather. That’s the story. It’s a continuation of the story from
are four bronze sculptures known as the Forme del mito, each Mr. Pomodoro. He has started to work with metal and other
of which is named after characters from Aeschylus’s Oresteia materials in a very specific way. He has crafted these spec-
tacular pieces with time and pa-
tience,” Brunschwig says. “I’d like
to call Fendi a master of material.
Mr. Pomodoro is a heck of a master
of materials.”
Brunschwig hopes the exhibi-
tion inspires a love of Pomodoro’s
work in Fendi fans worldwide,
imploring them to “look for
the Pomodoro that is nearest to
them somewhere in the world—
in New York, in Milan, in Rome,
in Tokyo and in so many plac-
es,” he says. “I think it could be
an interesting game: Look for
your closest Pomodoro piece.”
—ADRIENNE GAFFNEY

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MOVIMENTO

IN PIENA ARIA E NEL PROFONDO
(1996–1997); ROTATIVA DI BABILONIA (1991);
LA PROFEZIA (CASSANDRA) (1983).

“MR. POMODORO IS A
MASTER OF MATERIALS.”
—FENDI CHAIRMAN AND CEO SERGE BRUNSCHWIG
PEEKABOO BAG: CARLOS AND DARIO TETTAMANZI; MOVIMENTO IN PIENA ARIA E NEL PROFONDO

BY WA LT ER ZERL A; L A P RO F E Z I A ( CASS A N D RA ) (198 3): PHOTOG RAP HE D BY VACL AV S EDY.

(1996–1997): COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; ROTATIVA DI BABILONIA (1991): PHOTOGRAPHED

75
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Front Row

Get Ready for

ROCK GIRL
CLOCKWISE FROM
LEFT: A SHOT
FROM PARTY
PHOTOGRAPHER
MARK HUNTER
AKA THE COBRA
SNAKE; KAREN O

SUMMER
PERFORMING
IN 2003; KATE
MOSS IN 2002.

A new breed of musical style melds aughts nostalgia with 2020s DIY. By Katy Kelleher
etting dressed is, in a sense, always a prelude
to a performance. It’s your daily pregame

G routine, the moment when you pull on a pair

of flared pants or a crochet dress, add a scarf
or earrings, take off one thing, then brace
yourself for leaving the house. Musicians
know this better than anyone, which is perhaps why they so
often lead the way into new style territory. For the past several
seasons, when it came to the intersection of music and style,
the street sign might as well have been emblazoned with the
words “indie sleaze.” But something softer, more like “in-
die sweet,” has been brewing backstage, sending the 2010s
club-kid cliché in a new direction—one that is texture-rich,
craft-forward, and brushed with the glittering, sepia-tinted
gold of Daisy Jones & the Six’s Laurel Canyon look. It’s glam
rock meets art school, vintage-inflected but still contemporary,
complete with lean lines and impeccable construction. It’s
a hit song, and we’re all listening.
While there’s plenty of variation in this new iteration of rock
style, certain elements have taken center stage. From the exag-
gerated fringe in LaPointe’s fall 2023 collection to the slinky red
fishnet dress at Ferragamo prefall 2023, designers have been
embracing the bold textures of ’70s funk and ’80s glam, as well
as the happy-go-lucky art-school ethos of Ella Emhoff and her

78
 CLOCKWISE FROM
FAR LEFT: BATSHEVA
PREFALL 2023;
A LOOK FROM
CELINE'S SHOW AT
THE WILTERN; SKY
FERREIRA AT THE
CELINE SHOW; SUKI
WATERHOUSE
PROMOTING DAISY
JONES & THE SIX.

generational cohorts. But rather than looking haphazard and
sloppily boho, the new version is elevated through self-imposed
limits. At R13 prefall 2023, this meant a neutral color palette to
evoke “simplicity and edginess,” explains designer Chris Leba.
At Celine, Hedi Slimane returned to his signature stream-
lined silhouette, which he zhuzhed up with plush shearling
jackets and glittering metallics, and turned classic L.A. concert
venue the Wiltern into a runway—with Iggy Pop, Interpol, and
the Strokes performing, and the Kills deejaying. Blumarine’s
Nicola Brogano chose to highlight a similarly elongated form
for prefall 2023, with plunging V-neck dresses and dangling
B ENET T/GET T Y IMAGES; BATSH EVA MO DE L: CO URTE SY OF T HE D ESIGNER ; CE L INE MO DE L : P HOTO GRA P HE D
distinct from fashion. “Rock stars carry the confidence,” she says,
taking the designer creations “above and outside, elevating it.”
Though fashion has always loved rock stars, that love wasn’t
always mutual. Even during the OG indie sleaze years, it was
considered a bit shallow for a performer to focus heavily on their
wardrobe. “Authentic” artists weren’t interested in something as
mainstream as fashion. Like Hay, stylist Ron Hartleben has fond
memories of his scenester days, and he’s drawn on his firsthand
knowledge of this bygone era to help style rock goddesses, in-
cluding Sky Ferreira. “I’m from a suburb of L.A. You couldn’t
throw a rock without [hitting] someone listening to Peaches or

fabric belts. “Since my first show, the Y2K aesthetic has served having a layered haircut,” he jokes. Yet Hartleben also remem-
PART YGO ERS: P HOTOGR AP HED BY THE COBRA SNA KE ; KARE N O : J O HAL E/G ET T Y I MAG ES; MOSS: DAVE

as a constant inspiration in this bers the schism that existed between

BY ALBERTO MADDALONI; FERREIRA: KEVIN MAZUR/GET T Y IMAGES; WATERHOUSE: NDZ/GC IMAGES.

evolving journey of the Blumarine “serious” punks and performers

woman,” Brogano says, “and there who didn’t want to “cross-pollinate”
are some elements of indie sleaze with the fashionable hipsters or
that match the self-awareness and camera-ready scenesters. Now la-
strong attitude of her personality.” bels have become less important,
For designer Batsheva Hay, the and gatekeepers aren’t as obsessed
central trope for her prefall 2023 col- with checking the authenticity box.
lection was the ideal of the “grunge Serious musicians can embrace in-
doll.” Hay has been working at the die sleaze style, Hartleben says, and
forefront of various “-core” fash- “no one will blink an eye.”
ions since 2016. But this time, she Inclusive, textured, thoughtful,
cut back on the cottagecore ruffles and personal—these are the hall-
in favor of a sharper, more down- marks of the post-twee, post-sleaze,
town look. The pigtails were long, post-punk ideal. In many ways, the
the ribbons were plentiful, and the craft-focused, lighter-hued, and
overall vibe was one of measured, playfully subversive looks have
polished chaos, embodied by the more to do with the riot grrrl greats
doe-eyed Charlotte Kemp Muhl. than with mass-marketed festival
“She’s not really a model; she’s style circa 2010. Like a game of ex-
a musician. I’m drawn to musicians,” quisite corpse, the influence has
says Hay, whose list of inspirations been passed back and forth be-
includes Courtney Love, Yoko Ono, tween fashion and music, swapping
and Melissa Auf der Maur. These concepts, trading ideas, and gaining
are envelope-pushers who embody momentum. Just in time for Rock
style, which, according to Hay, is Girl Summer.

79
 I T LI ST

Add to Cart ELLE’s editors are

serving up the summer’s most
exciting launches. Dig in.

1
P HOTOGRA P HED BY VAN ESSA GRA NDA; SE T DE SI GN BY GOZ DE E KER.

1. CHANEL LE VERNIS NAIL LOOKS 2. TATA HARPER LIP CRÈMES, $50

SET, $105, CHANEL.COM
“I bring this nail kit to my biweekly
manicure. The Chanel-branded
stickers are so fun, and my nails are
healthier with the reformulated
polish (now with ceramides added).”
—Margaux Anbouba, Beauty Editor
EACH, TATAHARPER.COM
“Clean beauty genius Tata Harper
has done it again. These
creamy satin lipsticks add just
a touch of color and leave
lips soft all day.”—Nina Garcia,
Editor-in-Chief
 4

3. ARMANI BEAUTY LUMINOUS

SILK GLOW BLUSH, $38 EACH,
ARMANIBEAUTY.COM

6
“Pro tip: Wear this silky powder
where you’d brush on a highlighter
(above the apples of your
cheeks). The glowy flush will
instantly lift the face.”—M.A.

4. LOUIS VUITTON PACIFIC

CHILL EAU DE PARFUM, $300 FOR
100ML, LOUISVUITTON.COM
“Master perfumer Jacques Cavallier
Belletrud was inspired by the
experience of drinking a detoxifying
juice with L.A. artist Alex Israel
to create this scent. I am shocked
by how much it actually smells like

5
one. Perhaps it can become
a signature scent for Erewhon.”
—Kathleen Hou, Beauty Director

5. LA DOUBLEJ PANTELLERIA
CANDLE, $180, LADOUBLEJ.COM
“Italian fashion brand La DoubleJ
is known for its lively prints, which
can now adorn your coffee table.
I can’t think of a chicer housewarm-
ing gift to take to a friend.”—N.G.

6. ROSE INGLETON MD
SUPERFRUIT EXFOLIATING TONIC,

L A DO UBLEJ CA ND LE: MAR IE L A ME DINA; BON D NO.9 BOT TL E: STE VE N D EVILBI SS;
$48, ROSEMDSKIN.COM
“This exfoliating toner, created by
the dermatologist to models
like Iman and Adriana Lima, is easy
to use and effective. It features
Ingleton’s signature Jamaican
SuperFruit Blend and 8 percent
glycolic acid, as well as licorice root
extract, which is soothing for my
sensitive skin.”—Danielle James,
R EMAI NING IMAGE S: C OURT ESY OF THE BR AND S.

ELLE.com Beauty Director

7. BOND NO. 9 NEW YORK FLOWERS,

$460, BONDNO9.COM
“The clementine and pear notes
and vibrant floral bottle capture
a New York spring. It’s the perfect
scent for new beginnings, and
reminds me of the joy I felt when I
moved to the city last May.”—Tasha
Nicole Smith, Beauty Assistant

8
8. FARA HOMIDI ESSENTIAL
LIP COMPACT IN NUDE 2, $88,
FARAHOMIDI.COM
“I love this ‘choose-your-own-lip-
adventure’ palette. One side is
a moisturizing balm, the other a rich
pigment. Mix together to create
your lip look.”—K.H.
 NEW

no digital
distortion
Beauty

Straight Up
Put down the dryer. Dyson’s
newest device can give
you a sleek blowout right out
of the shower.
signed two nondisclosure agreements, flew
seven hours from New York City to London,

I and took a two-hour bus ride to bring you this

story. Welcome to Malmesbury: population
7,181, and home to D9, one of the biggest inno-
vation centers in the beauty space.
The D refers to Dyson, the inventor of the bagless vacuum
cleaner and the brand that made airwrap a verb. D9 is just one
small part of the company’s 75-acre technology campus. At
Dyson’s invitation, I visit an acidic-smelling room filled with
millions of dollars’ worth of 3-D printers; meet a scientist who
grew his hair down to his shoulders to self-test everything he’s
developing; and eat in the company cafeteria, where there is a
pizza oven enameled in the exact same shade of fuchsia as the
brand’s hot tools.
For the last six years, “Project 553,” now known to the world
as the Dyson Airstrait ($499; dyson.com), was coming to life
here. Former jet engine and automobile engineers worked on
the handheld tool, which went through thousands and thou-
sands of prototypes—all made on those 3-D printers—and
harnessed 25 years of airflow research started by the brand’s
founder, Sir James Dyson. (Dyson was knighted in 2007, and
in 2019, Queen Elizabeth II was photographed at Buckingham
Palace with a Dyson fan in the background—which proceeded
to sell out almost instantly.)
Airstrait is a straightener-like device that’s not really a
straightener. It’s made for someone who wants straight-ish
hair (like if your go-to look at Drybar is the Manhattan) without
the risk of damaging it. “There’s nothing else in the world like
this device,” says Dyson’s head of product design for hair care,
Sam Czerpak, as he’s unsnapping the locks on a black safety
briefcase. Inside, the Airstrait is perched on a foam cushion,
and at first glance the blue-and-copper device doesn’t look that
much different from the straightener I have waiting for me back
in my hotel room.
But once I hold the Airstrait in my hand, there’s clearly
something missing: hot plates. If you’ve ever used a straighten-
er right out of the shower, you’ve probably ended up with fried,
or literally sizzling, hair. When hair is wet, it’s in its most fragile
state, and applying hot plates can break the bonds beyond repair.
But that’s not something to fear when using this device.
Instead, the Airstrait employs Dyson’s signature air manipula-
tion. Grab a section of wet hair, and in the second it takes for you
was too steep, hair was smooth but took a long time to dry; too
shallow, and it dried quickly, but the results were frizzy. (Note:
While there might not be a device exactly like Dyson’s on the
market, fellow British hair care brand GHD has its own wet-
to-dry device, the Duet Style [$399; ghd.com]. The difference
is that the Duet Style relies on low-temperature hot plates in
addition to airflow.)
While its designers tested Airstrait on all hair types, it may be
less ideal for those with curly or coily hair. During the tour, my
group stopped at Dyson’s on-property salon, and I was the first
U.S. beauty editor to try out the device for myself. I sat near curly-
hair content gurus and Canadian sisters Mell and Amanda Guido
(whose total audience numbers 1.8 million people) to see how it
worked for them. They first applied a leave-in conditioner and
detangled their hair before using the device; hit the dry setting to
finish; and completed styling with a serum. It took Mell 45 min-
utes to style her 3B/3C hair, while Amanda’s 3B curls (and much
longer hair) took an entire hour. Still, those results saved them
styling time. My chin-length Italian bob? A breezy 15 minutes.
Regardless of hair type, the finished look with the Airstrait
is a softer take on straight hair. Think less the pin-straight hair
seen on Dua Lipa at the spring 2022 Versace runway, and more
the bodified Gigi Hadid style seen at the Versace Los Angeles
show. “We saw a need for those who wanted a natural straight
style and didn’t have the necessary time and skill set to style
their hair in a traditional way,” explains senior design engineer
Low Chen Nyeow. “It’s a breakthrough for gymgoers, moms,
J EFF TSE/GA LLERY STOCK

to clamp the 2.27-pound device across it, the engine switches
from passive to active mode, moving air across the heater until
it reaches a non-damaging temperature of 175°F. The air hits
hair strands at precisely a 45-degree angle, which tests found
was “crucial to being able to straighten and dry at the same
time,” according to Czerpak. In development, when the angle
and anyone who wants to look styled.”
At the end of 2022, Dyson announced that it was invest-
ing another half a billion British pounds into the beauty space
and planning to launch 20 more products in the next four
years. There’s a whole lot more innovation waiting for us in D9.
—MARGAUX ANBOUBA

84
Beauty
Sunscreen Is
Only Getting Better
Vitamin C–infused
sun protection,
highlighter-like SPF,
and what to get
if you miss Bain
de Soleil.
xcuse me! You with the
sunscreen tube? I’m

E looking to speak with

the new head of the wa-
ter slide commission?
The president of lazy
river leisure yachting? The beach ball
inflation analyst? Welcome to the world
of Vacation, where the out-of-office
reply is always turned on, the fruit gar-
nishes for poolside drinks are always
pre-prepped, and most importantly, the
“leisure-enhancing” sunscreen is easily
blendable and more fun to apply.
“The Office crossed with Jimmy
Buffett’s brand world” is how Vacation
cofounder Marty Bell once described the
brand, which combines dermatologist-
approved SPF with ’80s beach club and
margarita-loving dad vibes. Its prod-
ucts include Classic Whip (a sunscreen
mousse whose packaging is meant to re-
semble a can of Reddi-wip); SPF 30 Baby
Oil (a glossy sunscreen oil that winks to
the memory of a front lawn lie-out); and
Classic Lotion, with notes of swimsuit
Lycra and coconut, which Vacation calls
the “world’s best-smelling sunscreen.”
One of the brand’s goals is to make
wearing SPF feel like less of a chore.
“We want a ‘candy store’ of wild, fun
sunscreen products to exist in the sun-
screen aisle,” says cofounder Lach Hall.
The environmentally friendly offerings
are all SPF 30 and above, reef-safe, and
paraben-free, and the spray and mist
sunscreens are aerosol-free (from $18;
vacation.inc). If you miss Bain de Soleil,
the ’80s beauty mainstay that featured
South of France marketing and an icon-
ic scent (beloved by Michael Kors), then
Vacation could be a good substitute.

86
 “We want a ‘candy
store’ of wild, fun
sunscreen products
to exist in the
sunscreen aisle.”
—VACATION COFOUNDER LACH HALL
SCI-FI SUNSCREEN
Vacation is one of several sunscreen
brands making the use of SPF a more
pleasant experience. Serial entrepreneur
Sophie Bai, founder and CEO of Pavise,
took to the lab to formulate the key tech-
nology in Pavise’s Dynamic Age Defense
SPF ($128; pavise.com). Bai, who has a
planet named after her by NASA and
MIT Lincoln Laboratory (“a minor one,”
she modestly clarifies to me), created
and patented a new zinc oxide molecule
named DiamondCore. Most zinc oxide
particles used in sunscreen vary in size
and shape, resulting in uneven coverage
SU NBATHE RS: SLIM A A RONS/GET T Y I MAGE S; RE MA INI NG IMAGE : CO URT ESY OF T HE BRA ND.
and a chalky look. It took Bai two years
of 16- to 20-hour days in the lab to invent
DiamondCore, whose uniform, spherical
shape makes it more blendable. It also has
higher UV absorption than traditional
particles, blocking more of the sun’s rays.
Bai turned her scientific energies to
skin care following a public-speaking
competition in her native China. The
topic was “How Youth Can Contribute
to Society,” and one of the judges made a
negative comment about Bai’s appearance
during the evaluation. The experience led
her to become less outspoken and confi-
dent. When she became a teaching assis-
tant at MIT, she saved to buy “high-end
skin care products that never worked for
me in my teenage years,” she says. “After
a decade of working in both science and
business, I started my own company to
bring true pharmaceutical innovation to
the beauty and personal care industry—
because I believe skin care is health care.”
SKIN CARE MEETS SPF
Other brands are trying to make sun-
screens more powerful by amping them
up with vitamin C, the powerhouse skin
care ingredient that brightens and pro-
tects skin. Ron Robinson was a cosmet-
ic chemist for companies like Clinique
and working on his beauty blog when he
discovered a new stable, potent form of
vitamin C. The discovery led him to quit
his day job and found his own award-
winning company, BeautyStat. The
brand, beloved by Hailey Bieber (Rob-
inson also consults on product de-
velopment for her Rhode line), in-
corporates 20 percent encapsulated
ascorbic acid into a mineral SPF. “It’s
only when you combine sunscreen
with a very powerful antioxidant that
you’re really getting total protection
from both UV rays and free radical
damage,” he says. Universal C Skin
Refiner Vitamin C Serum + SPF50
Mineral Sunscreen ($85; beautystat
.com) took nearly three years to devel-
op and launched when Robinson was
satisfied with its ability to blend into
all skin tones.
Shiseido’s new Urban Environment
Vita-Clear SPF 42 also incorporates
vitamin C (via an ethyl form) into its
formula ($38; shiseido.com). Described
as more of an emulsion, it comes out
of the bottle in a creamy white col-
or but goes on clear when applied to
the skin. And Ole Henriksen is per-
haps best known for its top-selling
Banana Bright+ Eye Crème, which has
illuminating pigments and a vitamin C
complex to enhance skin radiance and
reduce the appearance of dark unde-
reye circles. The brand’s new Banana
Bright Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30 ($35;
olehenriksen.com) is like a new mem-
ber of the family: It takes many of the
same ingredients found in the Eye
Crème, but adds 16.3 percent zinc oxide.
EVEN GLOWIER SUNSCREEN
The newest crop of tinted sunscreens
ensures that you look dewy, rather
than ghostly. Supergoop! Glowscreen
SPF 40 sunscreen has long been loved
for its ability to double as a highlighter
and a primer. Two new tinted shades,
Dawn and Sunset ($38 each; supergoop
.com), are now part of the range. The
pearlescent tones provide a hint of sun-
kissed color. RMS has just launched its
SuperNatural Radiance Serum Broad
Spectrum SPF 30 Sunscreen, a com-
bination of SPF and tinted moisturiz-
er that filters out imperfections ($48;
rmsbeauty.com). And if you find your-
self looking for sunscreen in a drug-
store, there’s Neutrogena’s Purescreen+
Mineral UV Tint Face Liquid Sunscreen
($17; neutrogena.com). It comes in four
different shades, from light to deep, to
provide more seamless blending with
skin tones.
Whichever sunscreen you choose,
there’s no shortage of new offerings this
summer that are easy to apply and great
for your skin. So turn around—I’ve got
your back.—KATHLEEN HOU
87

YES, THEY ARE COMING FOR
YOUR BIRTH CONTROL
The antiabortion movement
succeeded in overturning Roe v. Wade.
It’s going after contraception next.
BY R E B E C CA G RA N T
A RT WO R K BY KAT R I N A M A J K U T
t was after 4 p.m. on Friday, September 23,
2022, when assistant professor Johanna
I Gosse received an email with the subject line
“Guidance on Abortion Laws.” The email was
addressed to all employees of the University
of Idaho, where Gosse teaches art history, and
contained a memo from the university’s Office of the General
Counsel, summarizing Idaho state laws regarding abortion. The
memo stated that the university prohibited employees from pro-
moting abortion, counseling in favor of abortion, referring for
abortion, dispensing emergency contraception (except in the
case of rape), and advertising or promoting services for abor-
tion. But it didn’t stop there: It also warned employees that “the
prevention of conception” was against the broad language of the
state’s law, and recommended that the university not provide
“standard birth control” at all. The memo also noted that those
who violated these laws could face a misdemeanor or felony
conviction, mandatory loss of state employment, and a perma-
nent bar from future state employment.
Gosse was appalled. The memo came off “not as a friendly
warning from your university legal team, but actually a kind
of slap in the face,” she says. It felt like a threat—don’t say the
a-word, or else—wrapped up in a package of legalese. It was hard
not to be confused by the university’s memo. Did mentioning
88
KATRINA MAJKUT’S IN
CONTROL 5 (2017),
WHICH WAS VETTED BY
ADMINISTRATORS AT
LEWIS-CLARK STATE
COLLEGE IN LEWISTON,
IDAHO, BUT ALLOWED
TO BE DISPLAYED AT AN
ART SHOW THERE. SOME
OTHER WORKS IN THE
SHOW, WHICH EXAMINED
TOPICS SUCH AS
DISABILITY, PREGNANCY,
AND ASSAULT, WERE
CENSORED DUE TO
CONCERNS THEY MIGHT
VIOLATE IDAHO’S
ANTIABORTION LAW.
the location of the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic—about
15 minutes away in Pullman, Washington—constitute “promo-
tion”? Would resident advisers be jailed for telling a student
that Plan B was available at Walmart? Were condoms and birth
control pills now contraband? Those questions seemed dystopi-
an and absurd, and yet this is our new post–Roe v. Wade reality.
The memo was sent three months after the Supreme
Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
Organization, which a year ago on June 24, 2022, overturned
Roe v. Wade. At the time, 26 states, including Idaho, had trigger
bans or other legislation proposed or in place to restrict abor-
tions. Now, after accomplishing its long-held dream of ending
Roe, the antiabortion movement has turned its focus to a new
target: birth control, with several states introducing legislation
that could restrict or outlaw certain forms. If left unopposed, it is
clear that some politicians, judges, and activists would not only
deny people the ability to end unwanted pregnancies, but also
the ability to prevent pregnancies in the first place.
In his concurring opinion in the Dobbs case, Justice Clarence
Thomas wrote that the court should reconsider all cases based
on the same right to privacy precedent, including Griswold v.
Connecticut, which granted married couples the right to access
contraception. Even before Dobbs, there was a series of court
cases that involved plaintiffs who defined certain birth control

as “abortifacients” (meaning they induce abortions), including
the 2014 Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
Stores, Inc., which ruled that small for-profit corporations could
not be required to pay for insurance coverage for forms of con-
traception they opposed on religious or moral grounds. (Hobby
Lobby’s owners targeted the morning-after pill and hormonal
IUDs, believing incorrectly that they amounted to abortion.)
Some people in the antiabortion movement have conflated
abortion and contraception for years, with the goal of outlawing
both. Back in 2017, Kristan Hawkins, the founder of Students for
Life, went on MSNBC and said she personally didn’t believe that
many forms of contraception—including the birth control pill
and IUDs—should be legal. Students for Life’s website labels
oral contraceptives, IUDs, and other hormonal methods like im-
plants and rings, as well as morning-after pills, as abortifacients.
Birth control, to be clear, is not abortion. Most hormon-
al birth control methods, as
well as emergency contra-
ception, work by preventing
or delaying the body from re-
leasing an egg, and by prevent-
ing sperm from reaching eggs.
They prevent fertilization—
not implantation—aka preg-
nancy, which the American
College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists defines as when
the fertilized egg attaches to the
lining of the uterus. Jennifer
Lincoln, MD, an ob-gyn in
Oregon, said that while such
claims have no basis in sci-
ence, lumping contraception
and abortion together is part
of a long-term strategy to pass
laws that are ever more ex-
treme. “We know that they just
MAJKUT’S IN CONTROL 2 (2012), DISPLAYED AT THE LEWIS-CLARK
don’t want to stop at abortion,” SHOW. A CAPTION ACCOMPANYING THE ARTWORK NOTED THAT DESPITE
Lincoln says. “The next thing to MISINFORMATION, “BIRTH CONTROL IS NOT A FORM OF ABORTION.”
go for is contraception.”
This is a radical stance. Around 90 percent of Americans
support access to birth control pills and condoms, 81 percent
support access to IUDs, and 70 percent believe emergency
contraception should be legal, according to a 2022 poll from
FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos. Further, a 2022 Gallup poll found 92
percent of Americans believe birth control is “morally ac-
ceptable.” Yet despite the popularity of contraception, poli-
ticians in red states are actively attempting to curtail access
to it. Less than 48 hours after the Dobbs decision leaked in
May, Republican state legislators in Louisiana put forward
a bill that would not only classify abortion as homicide, but
also had the potential to be used to outlaw birth control pills,
IUDs, and emergency contraception, as well as in vitro fer-
tilization. In Missouri, conservative legislators tried to strip
away Medicaid coverage for emergency contraception and
some IUDs. In Texas, a federal judge issued a ruling that made
it nearly impossible for teens to access contraceptives through
Title X programs without their parents’ permission. In Idaho,
the chair of the House State Affairs Committee has pledged to
hold hearings on banning emergency contraception, and said
he was not yet certain where he stood with regard to IUDs. On
the federal level, Republicans blocked the passage of the Right
to Contraception Act in 2022, which would have protected the
PERS PEC TIV ES
right to birth control. “[It is] crystal clear that anti-choice activ-
ists and far-right lawmakers are targeting access to birth con-
trol,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) told ELLE. “Federal
legislation is essential to protect the right to birth control, but
Democrats will need to take back full control of the government
and increase our margins [to pass it].”
Although no state has yet managed to ban contraceptives
outright, incremental efforts have already created a chilling ef-
fect. The University of Idaho memo noted the “new and evolv-
ing legal landscape” and that certain statutes were “unclear and
untested” in the courts, citing a law passed by the state legisla-
ture in 2021 that prohibited state employees from counseling
in favor of abortion, making referrals to abortion providers, or
dispensing emergency contraception, and another, from 1972,
that banned anyone who wasn’t a licensed physician or health
care provider from “advertising medicines or other means for
preventing conception.” In re-
sponse to such measures, the
administration was advising a
“conservative approach”—one
that seemed to make it difficult
to have even basic conversa-
tions about reproductive health
on campus. Any class at U of I
where abortion and contracep-
tion might come up—women’s
history, film, biology, philoso-
phy, criminal justice—as well
as extracurricular activities,
was potentially impacted. One
club that handed out free con-
doms on Fridays was advised
to say they were for preventing
STIs instead of pregnancy. No
one knew where the bound-
aries were, and it felt risky to
test them. “In general, advis-
ing anybody on abortion care
in Idaho, you have to tread very
lightly,” says sophomore Lily
Payne. “Even contraception is definitely a gray area here.” The
student health center is still providing birth control, but not
emergency contraception.
The Idaho memo led to an outcry from students and faculty;
even President Joe Biden weighed in: “Folks, what century are
we in? What are we doing? I respect everyone’s view on this—
personal decisions they make. But, my Lord, we’re talking about
contraception here. It shouldn’t be that controversial.” The
university administration has received most of the blowback.
But even students and faculty who were alarmed note that it’s
really Idaho’s legislature that should take the heat, because they
passed these laws in the first place. Deeply conservative politi-
cians have gained power in the state and are enacting ever more
extreme policies. In early April, Idaho became the first state to
pass a law explicitly restricting out-of-state travel for abortions
for minors. Two hospitals in the state have recently stopped
providing labor and delivery services, citing doctor shortages
and the “political climate.” “It’s all being done incrementally, so
people maybe don’t notice,” says Terri Pickens, a lawyer who
has served on the board of the regional Planned Parenthood af-
filiate. “And then all of a sudden, there’s no reproductive health
care, period, in the state of Idaho. That’s their endgame. And
it’s not just Idaho. That’s what they want to do nationwide.” ▪
89
searching

for

meg

white TWENTY YEARS AFTER

THE RELEASE OF
ELEPHANT, THE WHITE
STRIPES’ BREAKOUT
ALBUM, THE IMPACT OF
THE DUO’S DRUMMER
IS COMING INTO FOCUS.

It’s been over
a decade since
we’ve heard
from the elusive
White Stripes
drummer. Could
a Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame
nomination coax
her back into
the spotlight?
BY M E L I S S A G I A N N I N I
eg really doesn’t think she feels
up for any interviews. She never
M liked them.” This message is con-
veyed to me thirdhand, via the
guy who ran the small Detroit
label that put out the first White
Stripes seven-inches back in 1998, who has spo-
ken with the band’s extremely introverted drum-
mer’s close friend, who apparently has delivered
my request to the woman herself. After roughly
three years of persistent (yet respectful) inquiry
into whether Meg White might be open to talking
about her legacy, I’ve inched closer to the inner
sanctum. Plus, I’m told, she’s agreed to give my plea
“some more thought.” It’s thrilling, to say the least.
That said, the content of this most recent
response is by no means privileged. Meg’s dis-
W HIT E: PAT RICK PANTAN O; BUT TON S: P HOTOGRA P HE D BY D ON P EN NY.
comfort with interviews is widely known. A few
months ago, before the search results under her
name were flooded with tributes defending her
minimal drumming style against a critical tweet,
one of the first links to come up was a YouTube
video titled 15 Minutes of Meg White. “I’m quiet.
What can I say?” she’s seen asking at the 1:19 min-
ute mark, in footage pulled from The White Stripes
Under Great White Northern Lights, a documen-
tary film that chronicled the band’s 2007 tour of
every province in Canada. Less than a minute
later, she can be seen squirming in her seat across
from Charlie Rose, eyes down, whispering a fear
of having accidentally cursed (she had not).
For those unfamiliar with the White Stripes’
origins and trajectory, here’s a crash course: In the
mid- to late 1990s, Jack White asks his then-wife,
Meg, to drum a simple beat in their Detroit attic
C ULTURE
while he plays guitar, sparking creative lightning. The duo plays a few shows
around town, records a couple of albums, heads out of town for a few tours,
and then divorces in 2000. Next, they start referring to themselves as brother
and sister, record four more studio albums (two of which reach gold status;
the other two, platinum), collect four Grammys, and land three singles on
the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They appear on countless magazine covers, and
Meg is tapped by Marc Jacobs for a 2006 campaign, shot by Juergen Teller.
And then, on July 31, 2007, following a celebratory toast before the last show
of a series of Southern U.S. tour dates, Meg confides to Ben Blackwell, Jack’s
nephew and the band’s official archivist, that he’s about to see the final White
Stripes show. “I was like, ‘Oh, you mean of this leg?’” Blackwell recalls now.
“And she said, ‘No, I think this is the last one,’ and just walked away.”
Later, a statement from the band would announce the cancellation of
their fall U.S. tour due to Meg’s acute anxiety. While today, the practice of
scrapping tour stops to prioritize mental health has become somewhat
commonplace, in the mid-aughts, it felt quietly revolutionary. By 2011, the
White Stripes would officially call it a day, stating that the end of the band
was “not due to artistic differences or lack of wanting to continue, nor any
health issues as both Meg and Jack are feeling fine and in good health. It is
for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special
about the band and have it stay that way.”
Jack, of course, would continue performing, with the Raconteurs and
Dead Weather, and as a solo artist. He’d also expand his Third Man Records
enterprise, opening additional stores, a vinyl-pressing plant, and a bar. But
aside from a brief White Stripes performance for the last episode of Late
Night With Conan O’Brien in 2009, Meg would disappear from public life. In
a 2014 Rolling Stone story, Jack expressed frustration over Meg’s hermit-like
existence, but admitted “all the not talking didn’t matter, because onstage?
Nothing I do will top that.”
This past February, when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame listed the duo
among its annual nominees for induction, it seemed that finally the world
had come around to realizing what Jack knew all along. While they didn’t
make the final list, getting nominated in their first year of eligibility solidified
one thing: The White Stripes have reentered the chat. And I figured, may-
be, just maybe, awash in a sea of long-overdue accolades, Meg might finally
agree to talk to me.
IN A WAY, I’VE BEEN TRYING to get Meg to talk for more than two decades. As the
White Stripes were getting ready to release their third album, White Blood
Cells, in 2001, I was the staff music writer for an alt-weekly in Detroit, as-
signed a cover story on the band. On couches inside the home whose attic had
birthed their band, we talked about their growing influence outside the city,
and how the name of the album represented “this idea of bacteria coming at
us—or just foreign things coming at us, or media, or attention on the band,”
Jack told me then. When the story came out, the most common feedback
I received from readers was that it was the first White Stripes story
tearing up while watching a video an elementary school
teacher had sent of her class singing “Apple Blossom.”
scheme of red, white, and black.
Before White Blood Cells, the band had been, for the most
part, an underground secret. Dave Buick (who ran the local label
that put out the first White Stripes seven-inches) recalls being
among only a handful of witnesses to their earliest shows,
dent punk and garage CONTINUED ON PAGE 138
BUTTONS FROM
THE BAND’S
WHITE BLOOD
CELLS TOUR.
Karol G has won fans all over the world by being herself.

By CHANTAL FERNANDEZ
Photographed by ZOEY GROSSMAN
Styled by ALEX WHITE
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 ew York City is a special place for Carolina
Giraldo Navarro, better known as Karol G, the open-hearted Colombian
superstar with a penchant for breaking barriers. Eleven years ago, disil-
lusioned with the music business, Karol came to the city to study English
and start over. She had spent six years struggling to break out as a singer
in her hometown of Medellín with the help of her father, Juan Guillermo
Giraldo Ramírez, a local musician, who saw her potential for stardom
when no one else did. Few in the Latin music industry thought audi-
ences wanted to hear a woman sing reggaeton, the dance-friendly genre
dominating the airwaves with a multicultural combination of hip-hop,
reggae, and dembow beats. When she packed her bags for New York,
Karol was ready to say goodbye to music.
But that stint turned out to just be a detour along the way to what
came next—a major record deal, global hit singles with Nicki Minaj
and Shakira, and headlining tours across Latin America and the U.S.,
including a main-stage performance at Coachella. These days, Karol’s
signature waist-length, vibrantly dyed hair has become something of a
liability, thwarting her anonymity in New York City and Paris.
After so many years of pushing forward against all odds, Karol can
still catch herself surprised by her own success. When the singer, now
32, tucked into a late lunch in the quiet café at her Tribeca hotel on a
recent spring afternoon, news had just come through that her fourth al-
bum, Mañana Será Bonito, the first all-Spanish-language album from a
female artist to ever debut at number one in the U.S. on the Billboard 200
chart, was holding its position as the most-played album in the world on
Spotify for the fifth week in a row. “We never sat down and said, ‘Okay,
let’s think of an album concept que rompe, that will be number one,’”
Karol tells me, speaking Spanish in her melodic paisa accent. “I was just
singing about my life. How can that be meaningful for people? If peo-
ple are connecting with the album, they are connecting directly, liter-
ally, with me. Because that is the album: stories from my life, in songs.”
Recently, the stories in Karol’s life have involved healing from per-
sonal struggles amid professional triumphs. In 2021, her two-and-a-half-
year relationship with fiancé Anuel AA, a Puerto Rican rapper, ended.
Around the same time, her third album, KG0516, became her first to
debut atop Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, driven by her megahits
“Tusa” (with Nicki Minaj) and “Bichota,” the blustering female anthem
that became synonymous with the singer as she embarked on her first
headlining U.S. tour in the fall of 2021.
In the aftermath of the breakup, Karol learned to project confidence
publicly, despite her private heartache and the scrutiny that came
with her rising fame. She channeled the experience into Mañana Será
Bonito, a perreo-ready dance album with melancholic undertones. Karol,
working with her longtime producer Ovy on the Drums, experimented
with more musical influences than ever before, weaving in traditional
Mexican banda sounds, electric guitars, Afrobeats, and electronic mu-
sic. She named the record after a mantra that got her through that time:
“Tomorrow will be beautiful.” “I could never have imagined that such a
dark period in my life would transform me into the person I am today,”
Karol says. “The situation challenged me to learn, to appreciate what
I had, to find happiness within myself, not in someone else.…I think
that is really the soul of the album and what has made it so successful.”
On Mañana Será Bonito, Karol also collaborated with one of her idols,
Shakira, on the kiss-off hit “TQG,” short for Te Quedó Grande, loosely
translated as “I’m Out of Your League.” The two Colombian stars had
been eyeing a partnership for some time before Karol sent her the track
last year. Riding a catchy chorus and sultry music video—and public
interest in Shakira’s high-profile split from soccer star Gerard Piqué—
“TQG” debuted at the top of both Billboard Global charts (Billboard
Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US) in February and landed Karol
her first top 10 hit in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. “When we were
filming the video, and [Shakira] was shooting her scenes, I was sitting
and watching, and my life flashed before my eyes,” Karol says. “I was
thinking about the World Cups she performed in; I watched Wizards
of Waverly Place, and she was in an episode. I couldn’t believe it.”
Karol is venturing onscreen this year, too. A few years ago, she was
considered for the role of Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story
(a role for which Ariana DeBose went on to win the Oscar for Best
Supporting Actress). Now Karol is making her acting debut as a drug
mule on a new Netflix series, Griselda, which stars Sofía Vergara as
the head of a powerful Colombian cartel, due out later this year. She’s
setting aside time to explore new business ventures and has big plans
for her nascent company, Girl Power, including brand deals and invest-
ments. (The company recently opened an office in Medellín.) She also
appeared in her first luxury campaign this year, for Loewe.
But mostly, she is itching to perform Mañana Será Bonito in front of
more audiences after seeing its reception. While she initially planned to
take a break from her relentless touring schedule this year, she changed
track in late April, announcing half a dozen stadium shows in the U.S.
in August and September. She will also be a headliner at Lollapalooza
this August. And, naturally, Karol is already thinking ahead to her next
album. An English-language project probably isn’t coming anytime
soon. She is more excited about playing around with different genres.
“If tomorrow I make a song that sounds like it should be a tango, I
will do it as a tango,” she explains. “I’m not afraid of experimenting.”
KAROL WAS BORN IN MEDELLÍN in 1991, the youngest of three
sisters. Her father, Juan Guillermo, always knew he had a talent for
music but found few opportunities to pursue it as a career. When his
daughters were young, he performed in a band in his free time, sing-
ing music from the 1960s, ranchera, rock, and salsa. The family often
came along to his shows, and when Karol was only five years old, her
father noticed she had rhythm and a strong voice. Soon she was join-
ing him on some of his performances, singing duets by the popular
Argentinian duo Pimpinela, and performing at all manner of events,
even her grandmother’s wake. “That’s when I fell in love with singing,”
says Karol, who grew up listening to Colombian folk music, reggaeton,
salsa, and American music like the Backstreet Boys.
When Karol’s father showed her the 1997 film Selena, about the
unlikely rise of the Mexican American singer Selena Quintanilla Pérez,
“there was no turning back,” Karol says. “That movie made me believe
I could do something huge.” Her father believed it, too. In 2006, when
Karol was 15, Juan Guillermo suggested she audition for a Colombian
spin-off of The X Factor. She made it through the initial stages but was
cut before the final rounds of competition. The experience gave her
confidence and emboldened her to pursue a career in music.
Karol’s resolve would be thoroughly tested over the next 10 years.
She faced rejections from music executives and radio deejays who
were not interested in hearing women sing what was quickly becom-
ing Latin music’s most popular genre, reggaeton. The Puerto Rican
singer Ivy Queen, who broke through in the mid-2000s, was the rare
exception. Juan Guillermo was undeterred. “[It was like] cutting a path
through a jungle with a machete,” he says, describing the Latin music
industry as machista, or prejudiced against women.
A contract Karol signed with a label in 2006 proved to be a dead
end, and her father eventually bought her out of the deal. She contin-
ued to perform anywhere she could—nearby schools, radio stations,
city fairs—and handed out her CDs to passersby on buses and trains.
By 2008, Karol had landed a meeting with Universal Music Latino, but
the record label only wanted her as a songwriter, not a performer. Her
father insisted she decline, and she did. “I saw her as a well-rounded
artist,” he says. “I wanted her to sing her own music.”
103
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 “We’ve already taught women how beautiful it is to be self-confident
and empowered. But it is also beautiful to use
a platform as global as mine to tell people that it is okay not to feel good.”
“I was discouraged,” Karol says. “The industry is so difficult, truly.”
In 2012, she went to New York, resolving to leave music behind, to learn
English, and to study marketing or business. But during her long train
commute to the city from her aunt’s house on Long Island, Karol was
confronted by an advertisement for a music business conference. After
much deliberation, she attended the conference. It was a turning point.
“She came away totally changed, ready to work and with an amazing
motivation—even I was impressed,” Juan Guillermo says.
Karol credits the support of her parents for getting her through
these years. “My father, always, even when I didn’t want to, he would
say, ‘Yes, let’s go, we are going to make it,’” she says. “For so many
years—not one, not two, not three, many years—everyone thought my
goal of becoming a singer was a joke. It was a challenge to keep believ-
ing in myself. And if it wasn’t for my parents convincing me that I could
make it, I would have felt ashamed and abandoned the whole thing.”
When Karol returned from New York in 2013, Medellín was emerg-
ing as the center of a new form of pop-oriented reggaeton. The genre
became more poetic and romantic, and more likely to incorporate
different sounds, like electronic music and acoustic guitar. Karol was
determined to be a part of it, and got her first taste when Nicky Jam,
a reggaeton star who had relocated to Colombia from Puerto Rico,
put her on a track. “Amor de Dos” was her first breakout song. Her
Colombian fan base grew, and Universal came calling again.
Karol signed a record deal with the label in 2016 and started making
the music that truly represented her, incorporating reggaeton, trap, and
pop. In 2018, her song “Mi Cama,” which samples a beat that imitates
the sound of a squeaky bed frame, became an instant hit that drew
some controversy from Latin media for its suggestive lyrics. The song
proved Karol was not afraid to speak frankly about sex from a woman’s
perspective, now one of the hallmarks of her music. “All my life we had
listened to music from men,” she says. “But really, we as women say
things differently, and we feel things and think about things differently.
I was talking about it as a woman without taboos, without obscuring it.”
In 2018, after becoming one of the first women to collaborate with
reggaeton stars, including J Balvin, Ozuna, and Bad Bunny, Karol won
Best New Artist at the Latin Grammys, cementing her arrival in the
industry. She accepted the award onstage with her father. Even today,
whenever Karol calls him with another update about her career, she
asks him if he is standing or sitting, because he gets emotional about
how far she has come. “He says, ‘Bebé, I told you so,’” Karol says.
HOW DID KAROL COME TO DOMINATE a Latin music indus-
try that is notoriously difficult for women? Part of her success is due
to timing; she ascended in the U.S. just after streaming broke barriers
for Latin artists, who had struggled to get airtime on American radio
stations or distribute their CDs in mainstream record stores. Latin
stars once needed English lyrics to find success here. Shakira’s break-
through 2001 album Laundry Service, for example, featured her first
fully English-language songs, and some of the tracks were released in
both English and Spanish. Today, American listeners are more recep-
tive to listening to music in a foreign language, particularly Spanish. As
of 2020, Latinos represented 19 percent of the U.S. population, up from
13 percent in 2000. Another part of the answer is Karol’s resilience, and
the years she spent honing her rich voice and confidence onstage. She is
also meticulous, according to her sister Jessica Giraldo Navarro, a law-
yer who joined her management team full-time in 2019. “Everything
you see onstage, in a video, in a commercial—she was involved in every
detail,” Jessica says. Her dad describes Karol as a perfectionist, espe-
cially on her latest album, for which she wrote 40 extra songs.
But what really differentiates Karol from other artists, especially in
Latin music, is her approachability. “Her superpower is being so real
and authentic that it makes people fall in love with her,” says J Balvin.
He and Karol first met when he performed at her cousin’s quinceañera
in 2008, and they later became close friends.
108
Karol’s vulnerability is never more apparent than on Mañana Será
Bonito. “This was a moment when I wanted to say we’ve already taught
women how beautiful it is to be self-confident and empowered,” she
says. “But it is also beautiful to reach this point, to use a platform as
global as mine, and tell people that it is okay not to feel good. It’s nor-
mal.…That’s my personal experience.” As she sings on arguably its most
personal track, “Mientras Me Curo del Cora,” “Está bien no sentirse
bien”—it’s okay to not be okay.
Karol brings a similar honesty to social media, where she wants her
fans to see what she really looks like and acknowledges her appearance
can change if she’s on a strenuous tour schedule or on vacation. “That’s
why, sometimes, you might see me más rondita or más flaquita,” she
says. “I have my cycles.”
Jessica says she is surprised by how little Karol has changed as her
career has escalated. “I don’t know how to explain it, but as her sister,
I see it,” she says. “When you see her speaking to the audience at her
concerts, and see people connecting with her, it’s because the person
who is speaking is not Karol G, but Carolina.”
The Latin star Becky G, Karol’s collaborator on the 2022 smash
song “Mamiii,” noticed a similar phenomenon. “Karol is Karol—no
matter the color of her hair, her heart stays the same,” she says. “I think
that that’s really what resonates with her audience and with her peers.
I know I’ve experienced it.” Leila Cobo, who oversees all of Billboard’s
Latin music coverage, said she recognized Karol’s unique influence
during her first headlining tour in the U.S. in 2021. Many fans wore
bright blue wigs to match her look at the time. In the U.S., fans of oth-
er major artists like Taylor Swift frequently attend concerts dressed
like the artist, but this is less common in the Latin music space, Cobo
notes. “I think the Taylor Swift parallel is a good one,” she says. “Karol
has been able to build that kind of rapport, where the fans really relate
to her. They think she’s talking to them. And I think she is.” Karol feels
that bond with her audience, too. “I’ve gone onstage crying because
of personal things,” she says. “I leave the stage and I know the prob-
lem hasn’t gone away, but I feel so much joy. And that infusion of joy
is something I’m really missing when I’m not on tour.”
Even fans who cannot speak Spanish are finding ways to connect
with Karol, who says she can easily spot her English-speaking audi-
ence members during her concerts by how they dance and sing. She
grew up doing the same, as a recontra fanática, or superfan, of Britney
Spears and the Backstreet Boys. “I could sing a Britney song without
singing the correct words, but just how it sounded,” Karol explains.
“It’s crazy to see that happening now with our music, and not just in
the U.S., but across the world.”
As Karol’s fame grows, she is also learning to be more protective
of her privacy. She declined to talk about her relationship status, of-
ten the subject of speculation and rumors, and says she wants to keep
more of her personal life off the internet. “As time goes on, I share less
on social media.…Before, I was being too accessible,” she says. “There
are things that I can save for myself and enjoy without anyone’s opin-
ions.” Social media can also make her feel like she should never take a
break—something of a problem for a workaholic. “If I’m not on social
media, I’m more focused on me, my things, my work, my ideas, my
creativity,” she says. “That, right now, is gold.”
In March, just three weeks after Mañana Será Bonito was released,
Karol performed in Puerto Rico’s largest outdoor stadium, Hiram
Bithorn, where she became the first female artist to sell out three con-
secutive shows. On the first night, she only planned to perform four
new songs, since the album was still so new. But the crowd request-
ed more songs by name, including “Amargura” and “Carolina.” Karol
made a last-minute decision to sing parts of them, mostly a cappella. As
the crowd sang along to every word, she looked on in disbelief and joy,
her smile filling the jumbo screen behind her as she let out one of her
favorite phrases—Colombian slang that describes something amazing,
never more apt than in that moment: “Qué chimba!”
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By SYLVIA OBELL
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Styled by PATTI WILSON
The SOS singer has reached meteoric levels of success, but shhh—don’t tel
IT WAS NIGHT ONE OF TWO SOLD-OUT SHOWS SZA would be
performing to close out the first leg of her SOS Tour, and fans were
lined up for miles in the streets surrounding Los Angeles’s Kia Forum.
Making my way into the venue that evening, I asked one of the hordes
of teens standing in line what they were doing out there, since it was
just past 8 p.m. and the doors had already opened. They told me they
had been in line all day, some with chairs and blankets, in hopes of get-
ting whatever cheaper tickets might be released at the box office or by
resellers once the show began. I don’t know if I was more surprised
that these California residents had the fortitude to withstand the rain
earlier in the day, or by the fact that acquiring affordable seats online
has become so hard that Gen Z is now forced to take part in the age-
old Gen X ritual of camping out for concert tickets.
It was the Grammy winner’s first arena tour run, and the increase
in her star power was evident everywhere. Outside the Forum, a huge
digital billboard image of SZA starring in the latest Skims campaign sat
high in the sky. Inside the arena, fans were screaming at Apple Watch–
alert decibels in anticipation of her hitting the stage. Among them were
A-list celebrities like Adele, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Justin and
Hailey Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo, Pedro Pascal, and Avril Lavigne. “You left
the mansion to come to this, to slum it...” SZA says in disbelief while
recalling the night. “Oh, Pedro Pascal, I was so excited about, because
he’s on my favorite show, The Last of Us—and Narcos,” she adds.
SZA (born Solána Imani Rowe) was probably the only person in the
building that night surprised that her concert had become one of the
hottest tickets in town. The fanfare makes sense when you consider the
massive success that her album has garnered since its release. With 23
tracks (“I will never do that again,” SZA says, laughing), an ever-wider
set of genre-bending sounds, and soul-baring lyrical content, SOS takes
the baton from its predecessor, Ctrl (a five-time Grammy nominee),
runs with it, then smashes the sophomore curse to bits at the finish
line. At the time of our interview, the double-platinum album had just
finished an incredible run on the Billboard charts, spending 10 non-
consecutive weeks as the number one album in the country—making
her the first solo female artist to have a streak like this since Adele’s
album 25 was number one for 10 weeks back in 2015–2016. No oth-
er Black female artist has done that since the Whitney Houston–led
Bodyguard soundtrack held the number one spot for 20 nonconsecu-
tive weeks in 1992–1993.
One might think banking these sorts of rare achievements would
have her celebrating. But during our time together, I realize that no
one is harder on SZA than Solána. That 10-week run at number one?
“I want to know what kind of criminal activity happened where I’m
not at 11 weeks, or I’m not at 12 weeks. Someone did criminal activity,”
she half-jokes. “People are like, ‘Aren’t you happy?’ And I’m just like,
‘No, I have to put out a better body of work.’”
She seems more caught up in the heaviness of the crown than its
shiny jewels. There’s also a sort of mistrust of fame inside her that’s
causing her to be apprehensive about putting too much faith in the
concept that, in all fairness, is known to be fleeting. “It’s all really
fickle.…Had the first three shows of my tour gone poorly, would the
rest of my dates have been sold out? Would those people be outside
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 waiting in line by the time we got to L.A.? No. All it takes is, what, three
poorly shot TikTok videos to basically decide that this tour is not worth
coming to see,” she tells me matter-of-factly. “I know that people don’t
love me because love is really unconditional, and I’m one scandal away
from being canceled indefinitely like anyone else. I’m grateful that they
like my art and that it speaks to them, and it connects and tethers all
of us together in this weird way. It’s dope, but it’s also still a string that
could be cut at any moment. Literally, sometimes there’s no rhyme or
reason to it. Remember Susan Boyle? Like, what if I’m Susan Boyle?!”
SZA and I are seated at a table across from each other inside a suite
at the Chamberlain West Hollywood hotel. It is the first Monday after
the first leg of her tour wrapped, and she is already back on the grind.
She has just come from a fitting with stylist Patti Wilson for the ELLE
photo shoot, which is scheduled to take place the following morning,
and is regretfully missing the iHeartRadio Music Awards to make time
for our interview. “I couldn’t do both that and this. I need time to prepare
myself to be perceived…like, I need to mentally prepare. I need space
and time,” she explains. And she doesn’t mean this in a Diva™ way. It’s
more about her internal struggle. “Some people think that, like, me hav-
ing anxiety or me being shy or struggling with self-esteem is an act,” SZA
says. “I’m just, deadass, a person. Everybody else has feelings and fears.
Why wouldn’t I be scared to be famous? Would you be scared to be fa-
mous? Because I’m famous, I’m not allowed to be scared? I wasn’t born
famous. I had regular quiet-ass parents from a small town like everybody
else. And I guess at some point I’m supposed to acclimate to all of this?”
It was a little after 8:30 p.m. when she showed up to the suite, and
I could tell by the way she took off her shoes and kicked her feet up on
a chair that she was thankful for a moment to sit back and chill. She
arrived eating a Shake Shack burger that she’d been trying to finish for
a while. The fitting had gone longer than expected. “I hate trying on
clothes,” she admits. “I don’t shop anywhere. I just wear whatever is
free in my mail. I’m like, ‘Is it an extra large? Great.’” (“If I can feel like
I’m under a blanket when I’m outside, that’s ideal,” she adds.)
“The only way I don’t bore myself is to bare myself,” SZA says.
On the rare occasion SZA feels like dressing up to go out, she focus-
“It’s freeing and empowering AF.”
SZA says her version of that is, “I did deserve less. I did terrible things.
es on accentuating her favorite accessory: “I treat my butt like a purse,”
she says with a slight smile. “It’s just there to enhance whatever else.
And that’s why I paid for it, because it works all by itself.” The singer
hinted that she’d had a Brazilian butt lift on the intro of her SOS album.
“That ass so fat, it look natural/It’s not,” she raps. In our conversation,
SZA makes sure to note that the decision to have the surgery was hers
alone. “I always wanted a really fat ass with less gym time,” she says. “I
didn’t succumb to industry pressure. I succumbed to my own eyes in
the mirror and being like, No, I need some more ass.”
I ask her about her decision to rap her way through that entire track.
She kind of shrugs before declaring, “That’s some Jersey shit. You know
what I’m saying? When I feel like I have too much to say and I don’t
want to say it cute.”
I do know what she means. SZA and I both grew up in the New Jersey
suburbs. She went to Columbia High School in Maplewood, about an
hour north on the NJ Turnpike from my hometown. As a Jersey girl of
the same age, I am deeply aware of our affinity for sarcasm and talking
shit; it’s a love language, really. I also have an understanding of how the
Garden State can fertilize a certain defensive pride. “I have a deep de-
sire to shut everyone up,” SZA says. “And that probably comes from high
school. My mom always told me that I’ve always been the kind of person
where people either really fuck with me or they just don’t like me at all.”
SZA’s mother, Audrey Rowe, was an executive at AT&T when she
was growing up, and her father, Abdul-Alim Mubarak-Rowe, worked as
a producer at CNN. She grew up in a conservative interfaith Christian-
Muslim home, but was raised orthodox Muslim and even wore a hijab
for a time. Unlike a lot of artists who grew up always wanting to be a
singer and/or famous, SZA’s path to music wasn’t linear. After grad-
uating high school, she enrolled at a nearby HBCU, Delaware State
University, to study marine biology. She says she earned straight A’s for
two semesters, then lost interest. “I’m like, ‘I told you I was smart and
I proved my point. I have to leave now,’” SZA says. She stopped going
to class and “completely flunked out of school and stopped working at
jobs that make any sense to other people,” she explains.
She regrets what she put her parents through back then. “I really
disrespected my parents for a long time.…Me telling my mom I would
rather go run in the streets and bartend at the strip club so I can pay for
studio time [than go to school]. It’s crazy,” she says, shaking her head.
She released her first mixtape on SoundCloud in 2012, and also dab-
bled in the fashion world, doing a summer semester at FIT in New York
City, an internship with Billionaire Boys Club, and later a job working
for Scott Sasso’s streetwear brand 10.Deep. One day, while SZA was
making a delivery to Top Dawg Entertainment, president Terrence
“Punch” Henderson Jr. overheard her voice on a track that one of SZA’s
friends was playing and was impressed. They kept in touch, and two
years later, he signed SZA to the indie label. Today he’s her manager.
“I didn’t know that I was going to get my opportunity” to be MVP at
the male-dominated label, she says. But brick by brick, hit by hit, SZA
has become a top artist for TDE and its partner label, RCA.
SZA has managed to free herself from the need to be seen as “good,”
to make herself or her music more digestible or marketable, and that
signature bravado is on full display on SOS. Whether she’s singing about
wanting to choose violence over therapy (“Kill Bill”), detailing past
sexcapades at the MGM hotel (“Nobody Gets Me”), or channeling the
despair you feel when you realize you’ve given the best of yourself to a
loser (“Special”), her music lives in the uncomfortable admissions that
must be made before you get to the healing. “The only way that I don’t
bore myself is to bare myself,” SZA says. “It’s freeing and empowering
AF.” She compares her method to the scene in 8 Mile when Eminem’s
character gets on the mic during a rap battle and reclaims his power
over everything that would otherwise be used as a diss against him. For
him it was, “I am white and I do live in a trailer park with my mom.”
I do miss my ex. I do got acne, I got eczema, like, whatever the fuck.”
At times, it almost feels like SZA is incapable of not impulsively say-
ing or doing whatever is on her mind. Sometimes it’s taking to Twitter
to vent about frustrations; other times it’s pouring her feelings out to
a packed arena. “My ex’s father just texted me and was like, ‘My son is
really hurt about what you said about him to the crowd in Portland,’”
SZA says, adding that she told the crowd that her ex blocked her, but
doesn’t see the problem with it since it is the truth. “You don’t get to
block me on everything. Tell our mutual friends terrible things about
me like I’m a monster, or whatever the case may be. And then I don’t get
to speak my piece in my way. You go do your healing and I’ll do mine.”
This sort of rap-battle mentality tracks with SZA’s personality. She
operates best when challenged. “If it was time for me to go to war with
a bitch based on my talents alone, I would come out victorious, because
there’s something inside of me that wants to devour someone’s soul,”
she says. Getting the respect she deserves for the points she has put
on the board matters more to SZA than being liked or popular. “I try
not to care too much, because I really had some deep disappointments
when I would just be so invested. But I can’t invest, because none of it
is real. Even if I win a bunch of Grammys, that shit doesn’t matter. It
would be so cool. But I also would not be surprised at all if I didn’t win
any. Because that’s just how shit goes. But that’s why the tour matters
to me. ’Cause it’s like, No, we packed out these stadiums all over the
country and that was real. That’s why I can’t let up, because at the end
of the day it was like, Yeah, [whatever haters say] is well and good, but
just make sure you add, we have sold-out dates in all arenas. Make
sure you tell them that we sold out the Forum twice and we could
have done it four times. Make sure you tell them that I was in the air,
and that my mic was on.”
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 Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri (center) with (from far left) Chanakya Atelier director Anisha Shetty and senior design manager
Ami Mehta; (from center left) Rachele Regini, Nehal Shah, Karishma Swali, and Vinod Shah; Chanakya Atelier craftspeople; and Chanakya School
of Craft students.

CHIUR I A ND ART ISAN S: BRIGIT TE L ACO MBE.

WHERE YOU MIGHT SEE STITCHES, Maria Grazia Chiuri sees a
language. Specifically, “a language of women.” The painstaking work
that they have been doing in domestic spaces, without fanfare or rec-
ognition, is like an oral history handed down via needle and thread. “In
fashion, we were more focused on the volume, the shape, the cut,” she
says. Meanwhile, craft “was not so much celebrated in fashion. There
was an idea that it was only decoration, that it was not language.”
When Chiuri took over as Dior’s first female creative director in
2016, she made it a point to speak in that female language, working
with female photographers to reverse the long-standing tradition of
the male gaze that has dominated fashion imagery. “They don’t do
pictures where the woman is an object, but a subject,” she says. Chiuri
has collaborated with artists such as Mickalene Thomas and Judy
Chicago, designer Grace Wales Bonner, and feminist poet and author
Robin Morgan—women, she says, who’ve “helped me to reflect upon
the relationship between the body and the clothes.” And she has high-
lighted the work, and the worth, of regional women artisans—who
may not be boldface names but who have always had a bold, if little-
acknowledged, impact on fashion and beyond. Their craftsmanship is
“in conversation not only with fashion, but also with art,” she says. Her
fall 2022 couture outing featured delicate embroidery inspired by the
work of Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko, while the cruise 2020 show

118
 At Dior’s fall 2023 show in
Mumbai, Maria Grazia
Chiuri unveiled a paean to craft.

Dress, earrings, necklace, $2,150, ring, $530, sandals, $790, DIOR.

Photographed by DOLLY DEVI

Styled by RACHELE REGINI
Story by VÉRONIQUE HYLAND 119
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$2,150, ring, $530, DIOR. Opposite: Blouse, $1,950, skirt, $4,100, earrings, $560, ring, $530, sandals, $790, DIOR.
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120
121
 “To be a creative director means to work with
a big community. And I want this community to be visible.”
—MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI

in Marrakech included a partnership with Côte d’Ivoire textile company speaking a lot about cultural appropriation, I think it is very important
Uniwax. Part of Chiuri’s legacy has been to confer the credit that fashion to show how these elements connect all the different countries and
owes craftspeople, and to spotlight their contributions alongside those how much we have in common.”
of the famous artists she works with. “It’s very important for them to Therefore, it was crucial to her to collaborate with and cred-
understand that they can use their skill not only to create clothes and it Indian artisans every step of the way, not to simply use the
beautiful evening dress- country as a backdrop.
es,” she says, “but to cre- She sees this season as an
ate a piece of art.” exchange between her-
It’s also been a way self and Chanakya—she
for her to shift the fo- calls Swali “my codirec-
cus away from the male- tor for this show.” Three
driven auteur theory of women who themselves
design, in which a genius had cross-cultural ties
with a pencil is the only helped inspire Chiuri:
one who gets the credit. textile collector and
“To be a creative direc- scholar Krishna Riboud;
tor means to work with the Maharani of Indore;
a big community. And I and Indian member of
want this community to parliament Gayatri Devi.
be visible,” she says two The trio were all “pio-
weeks before the fall neers in some way,” she
2023 show, perched in says, “because they im-
her Paris office in front mediately understood
of bookshelves so ex- the value of [Indian]
tensive the setting could craft, and they tried to
be mistaken for a re- promote it around the
search library. “The nar- world.” The designs, too,
rative very often is only reflect a cross-cultural
about the sketch; the cre- exchange, with tech-
ative director alone with niques such as Zardozi
Chiuri in front of two “Tree of Life” embroidered artworks by Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko. They were
the sketch. But this is not created as part of the set design for the fall 2022 couture show and made by Chanakya Atelier. mirror-style embroidery;
real. The sketch”—and silhouettes like sari-in-
by extension, the designer—“is only the starting point.” spired skirts; and a toile de Jouy that depicts Indian landscapes. A se-
For her fall 2023 collection, Chiuri made the journey to India—one quence of colorful silks was intended as a tribute to Bohan.
she’s taken many times since her first voyage, when she fell in love with The show location was an imposing one: the Gateway of India in
the region. On that trip, she found herself musing about the similarities Mumbai, a towering landmark facing the Arabian Sea. Models emerged
between the country and her homeland of Italy: Both valorized craft through the Gateway onto a runway before an audience of more than
and boasted recognizable, region-specific artisanal techniques. Chiuri 800 guests, among them actresses Freida Pinto and Simone Ashley.
soon began what would become a three-decade-long relationship Despite the imposing setting, Chiuri wanted her guests to feel very
with Chanakya in Mumbai, its director Nehal Shah, and its managing much at home. Since she believes that a dress is, as she says at one
director and creative director Karishma Swali (who is Shah’s sister). point, “like a house for your body,” she made sure the set had a domes-
Chanakya Atelier has provided textiles for houses including Dior, Fendi, tic aspect to it. A toran, or traditional Indian drape placed over a door,
and Valentino, while the Chanakya School of Craft has a mission of em- is a way of saying, “Welcome to my house,” Chiuri says, and is typically
powering women through craft skills—to date, more than 800 pupils made by women and personalized with emblems like Ganesha, the
have passed through its doors. god of beginnings. For the show, artisans from the school and atelier
CHIUR I: BR IGIT T E L ACOMBE .

The house of Dior, fittingly enough, also has a long-standing history
with India: Christian Dior himself showed an Indian-inspired ensem-
ble as part of his first show in 1947. Marc Bohan, the house’s artistic di-
rector from the 1960s through the ’80s, held presentations in Mumbai
and New Delhi in the early ’60s. That said, “I think our trip today is
different,” Chiuri says. The goal is to “celebrate the cultural aspect and
also the [design] heritage that they have,” she says. “Now, when we are
collaborated on a giant version draped over the Gateway, the product
of 35,000 hours of handwork employing 25 distinct craft techniques.
“My dream was to make one on the front of the port of India...to say,
‘Welcome,’” Chiuri explains. “Because I felt that every time I went to
India, they were saying to me, ‘Welcome.’ And so I would like to give
the same mood to the guests who are coming to the show: Welcome
to this beautiful country.”

122
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123
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125
 CELESTIAL
SHAPES

IT’S ALL ABOUT

THE SILHOUETTE,
AS ETHEREAL,
NATURE-INSPIRED
LOOKS IN
NEUTRAL TONES
TAKE ON
EXCITING NEW
PROPORTIONS.
Photographed by BRIGITTE NIEDERMAIR
Styled by ANASTASIA BARBIERI

126
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 Dress, bracelet, HERMÈS. Necklace, D’HEYGERE, $474. Pumps, DSQUARED2.

128
Top, $1,505, tank top, $460, skirt, $3,440, RICK OWENS. Earrings, D’HEYGERE, $760.
Pumps, LOEWE, $790.

129
 Gown, $6,075, swan stole, MOSCHINO. Earrings, CHANEL HIGH JEWELRY. Boots,
PHILOSOPHY DI LORENZO SERAFINI, $735.

130
Coat, brief, pumps, PRADA. Tops, ALIX HABRAN JENSEN. Socks, FALKE, $33.

131
 Top, $2,100, skirt, $4,500, VALENTINO. Pumps, VALENTINO GARAVANI, $1,980.
Necklace, BULGARI.

132
Hooded gown, Y/PROJECT. Earrings, COURRÈGES, $850.

133
 Jacket, $1,245, bodysuit, $830, skirt, $1,220, veil, $1,700, SIMONE ROCHA. Earrings,
GIVENCHY, $450. Pumps, ROGER VIVIER, $750.

134
 HAI R BY TOMOHIRO OHASHI AT M A+TAL ENT; MA KE UP BY K A R IM RAHM AN AT W ISEANDTAL EN T ED ; MA NICUR E BY ELSA D ESL A NDE AN D N ELLY F ERR EIRA , BOTH FOR MA JEURE PROD; CASTING BY SHAUN BEYEN AT PLUS THREE T WO;
MOD ELS: NYAUE TH R IA M AT A PM A ND NYAG UA RUEA AT W OME N; S ET DES IG N BY LILLY MA RT HE EB E NER AT SO REP RE SEN T; PROD UCED BY LOUIS 2 PARIS.

Dress, earrings, $2,000, platforms, SCHIAPARELLI. For details, see Shopping Guide.

135
Shopping Guide

MODEL ON LEFT: SHIRT, $1,950,

SKIRT, EARRINGS, NECKLACE,
$2,150, RINGS, $530
EACH, SANDALS, $790.
CENTER: SHIRT, $1,950, SKIRT,
$3,600, EARRINGS, $850,
NECKLACE, $2,150, SANDALS,
$790. RIGHT: SHIRT, PANTS,
EARRINGS, NECKLACE, $2,150,
SANDALS. ALL, DIOR.

COVER
KAROL G
Corset, Andreas Kronthaler
for Vivienne Westwood,
$4,065, Vivienne
Westwood, NYC.
Necklace, Bulgari, $69,000,
bulgari.com. Rings, John
Hardy, from $795,
johnhardy.com. Dress,
Luar, $1,090, luar.world.
Bustier, Agent Provocateur,
$650, agentprovocateur
.com. Rings, Bulgari, from
$1,690, bulgari.com.
NINA’S EDIT
PAGE 20: Necklace,
Sabyasachi, $62,320,
Sabyasachi, NYC.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE 48: Roland Mouret,
rolandmouret.com.
Bracelet, Van Cleef &
Arpels, $54,500,
vancleefarpels.com.
EDITOR’S LETTER
PAGE 52: LaQuan
Smith, saksfifthavenue
.com. Agent Provocateur,
agentprovocateur
.com. Marc Jacobs,
marcjacobs.com.
NEW ARRIVALS
PAGE 56: Watch, Rolex,
$58,700, rolex.com.
SHOP
PAGES 60–61: Surfboard,
Saint Laurent Rive
Droite, $7,000, yslrivedroite
.com. Watch, Omega,
$6,300, omega.com.
ACCESSORIES
PAGE 62: Necklace,
Daniela Villegas, $28,000,
justoneeye.com. Bracelet,
Cartier, $44,600, cartier.com.
QUEEN OF HEARTS
PAGES 98–109: Standing
Ground, standing-ground.
com. LaQuan Smith,
saksfifthavenue.com.
Van Cleef & Arpels,
vancleefarpels.com.
Luar, luar.world.
Agent Provocateur,
agentprovocateur.com.
Bulgari, bulgari.com.
Marc Jacobs, marcjacobs.
com. John Hardy,
johnhardy.com. Andreas
Kronthaler for Vivienne
Westwood, Vivienne
Westwood, NYC. Bottega
Veneta, bottegaveneta.com.
SZA HAS NOTES
PAGES 110–117: Mowalola,
mowalola.com. Bulgari,
bulgari.com. Luar, luar.
world. Who Decides War,
whodecideswar.com. Tiffany
& Co., tiffany.com. Miaou,
miaou.com. Balenciaga,
balenciaga.com. Rick
Owens, rickowens.com.
Andreas Kronthaler for
Vivienne Westwood,
Vivienne Westwood, NYC.
A PASSAGE TO INDIA
PAGES 118–125: Dior,
800-929-DIOR.
CELESTIAL SHAPES
PAGES 126–135: Burberry,
burberry.com. Heather
Huey, heatherhuey.com.
Chanel High Jewelry,
800-550-0005. D’Heygere,
dheygere.com. Hermès,
hermes.com. DSquared2,
dsquared2.com. Rick
Owens, rickowens.eu.
Loewe, loewe.com.
Moschino, select
Moschino boutiques
nationwide. Philosophy
di Lorenzo Serafini,
Neiman Marcus stores
nationwide. Prada, prada.
com. Falke, falke.com.
Valentino, Valentino
Garavani, Valentino
boutiques nationwide.
Bulgari, bulgari.com.
Y/Project, yproject.fr.
Courrèges, courreges.com.
Simone Rocha,
simonerocha.com.
Givenchy, givenchy.com.
Roger Vivier, rogervivier.
com. Schiaparelli, Maison
Schiaparelli, Paris.
Prices are approximate.
ELLE recommends that
merchandise availability be
checked with local stores.

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136
DELISH.COM/COCKTAILSBOOK
C ULTUR E | WOMEN IN MUSIC
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 9 1
self-stylized, rad garage-rock duos” populating dive
bars around the country. “But when White Blood
Cells came out, we were like, Wait, what? Hang on.
I think they might be geniuses.” On that album’s
tour, she saw the band play at Philadelphia’s
Trocadero Theatre. “I was standing in the balco-
ny, and I vividly remember the power of that gui-
tar sound,” she says. “It felt scary in the way that
you want music to—like titillating, animating, but
also sort of like, Is it safe to be this excited? And
there was something about the dynamic between
the two of them: Like, here’s this guy who is just
this unleashed force of nature, and then here’s
this small, feminine woman playing the bro-iest
of instruments, and she seems to somehow be in
charge, like she’s a conductor or something.”
The 2003 release of Elephant, which includ-
ed “Seven Nation Army,” a song whose opening
riff riles up sports fans to this day, would send the
band hurtling into the mainstream. Pavement’s
Kannberg recalls catching a White Stripes show at
the Seahawks Stadium Exhibition Center in Seattle
that same year. Backstage, he says, “they were just
sitting by themselves, smoking cigarettes. Maybe
it was just nerves from having to perform in front
of, you know, 10,000 people, but they looked kind
of miserable. They were like, ‘Spiral, rescue us!’”
Jack and Meg’s friends back home also no-
ticed their growing unease with fame. “I never
really talked to Meg about it, but as their career
went on, you could sense she was having a hard
time dealing with the celebrity part of it. I mean, I
don’t think I could deal with it either,” Buick says.
The White Stripes were being heralded as a
raw return to rock in an era of airbrushed pop.
But Meg’s indie cred did not make her immune to
the casual misogyny and rampant objectification
lobbed at her more polished peers. (At one point,
a risqué video supposedly featuring Meg—but
which turned out to be fake—circulated among
the more disturbing music blogs.) Goodman calls it
138
TWO OF THE WHITE
STRIPES’ EARLY SEVEN-
INCH RELEASES.
ward me back then don’t even know it,” she says. “Imagine what Meg White
dealt with. I just can’t even.”
In a somewhat full-circle moment, Blackwell, who manned the White
Stripes email list in the early days, and who would later shadow me at work
while he studied journalism at Detroit’s Wayne State University, emails to let
me know Meg White is trending on Twitter. Apparently a politics reporter
had responded to a tweet from National Review linking to an article prais-
ing “Seven Nation Army” by stating that “the tragedy of the White Stripes
is how great they would’ve been with a half decent drummer.”
“Don’t get me started,” says Kid Congo Powers of legendary bands like
the Gun Club and the Cramps. “It’s just sexist. People have been saying the
whole time that her drumming was simplistic, but the band was just guitar
and drums. The music they’re mining is simple music, and she’s playing it
exactly right and exactly great.” To Powers’s point, the reporter’s sentiment
was nearly identical to a conversation I’d overheard in the production room
of the Detroit alt-weekly as we were working on my White Stripes cover
story over 20 years ago. Since social media hadn’t yet been invented, all I
could do then was roll my eyes. But in 2023, the reporter’s tweet was swiftly
pounced on by everyone from Questlove to model-musician Karen Elson,
who concluded a supportive response with “keep my ex husband’s ex wife’s
name out of your f*cking mouth.”
“That poor man got ratioed to death!” says Jessica Hopper, director of
last summer’s Women Who Rock docuseries on Epix. “But it sucks. Meg’s
heard that her entire career, and it’s like, I’m sorry, if you’ve ever seen them
live, it’s not so much about anything other than how these two people sound
together. Here is a woman who is one half of a landmark, era-defining rock
band. How much more deserving does she have to fucking be? When the
White Stripes came down the pike, you could see it—nine months, a year
later—so many more women, more teenage girls, were playing drums.”
IN 2003, KARISSA TALANIAN WAS 12 years old and “one of, like, four other weir-
A LBUMS: P HOTOGR A PHED BY DO N PENN Y.
dos who cared about listening to music more than paying attention in class”
in her small central Massachusetts town. One day, her mom brought home
a copy of De Stijl, the White Stripes’ then three-year-old sophomore album,
and it changed her life. Her aunt and uncle took her to one of the band’s
shows at the Boston Opera House a few years later. “I was hyperventilat-
ing the whole time,” Talanian says. She went home and found a list of every
band that had ever played with the White Stripes and added them all on
Myspace. Eventually, she taught herself to play the drums along with Meg’s
beats. Today, she plays the instrument in a band called Plum, books shows
at a venue in her current hometown of Chicago, and runs an independent
C ULTUR E | WOMEN IN MUSIC

cassette label called Eye Vybe Records.
Four years ago, through the Myspace friend-
ships she’d developed over time, Talanian found
herself backstage at a Raconteurs show. “I wound
up in this super dark room, and Meg was there and
all these other people I kind of knew,” she says.
“When I met her, I played it super cool.” They end-
ed up talking for hours, about their dogs and how
great Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was.
Talanian and I talked days before the tweet involv-
ing Meg went viral, but one of the last things she
said to me felt awfully prescient: “I can’t speculate
at all, and I feel weird even saying it, but maybe if
she hadn’t had such harsh feedback all the time,
maybe the White Stripes wouldn’t have ended.”
Alt-pop star Olivia Rodrigo was less than two
months old when Elephant came out, but she grew
up listening to the album and remembers falling in
love with “The Hardest Button to Button.” “Meg’s
drums really shine on that one, and from there I
dove into all their other incredible albums and be-
came a massive fan,” she says. “Meg’s drumming
and the White Stripes in general [provided] a huge
lesson to me on the value of simplicity in music.
They taught me that a truly great song doesn’t
need to have crazy production or layers of sound.
It just needs to move you. You can sense her pas-
sion in every song she plays, and it’s so special. I
think she’s one of the best drummers of our time.”
respect the most about Meg White is that it just doesn’t seem like she has
any interest in whether you or I or anyone else understands her at all. She
really does walk to the beat of her own drum. And doing that in life in gen-
eral is difficult. But doing it when you have been as famous as she has, and
have gotten used to people telling you how great you are—it’s just very hard
to walk away from that.”
By this point, I’ve pretty much come to terms with the fact that I may
never know what makes Meg White tick, other than what I’ve projected
upon her as a fellow shy person and interminable mumbler—albeit one who
unfortunately did not achieve a level of success in my twenties and thirties
allowing me to not leave my house. But I take solace in something Buick
witnessed at a 2018 Detroit arena show Jack White played while promoting
his third solo album. At one point during the show, he spotted Meg sitting
by the side of the stage. As she listened to Jack’s new band play an old White
Stripes song, “she was like, really, really getting into it,” Buick tells me. “Like
kind of drumming along, like a spark might be sparking. Hopefully someday
we’ll see her back behind a drum kit.”
The day after my deadline, I receive a text from Meg’s friend. She apolo-
gizes for not getting back to me sooner, and confirms that Meg has declined
to answer the questions I’d texted because it’s still technically an interview,
and she’s said “no” to so many that she can’t start saying “yes” now. I thank
her, tell her I understand, and ask her to do something that suddenly seems
very important, which is to send Meg my best. ▪
WHITE AT THE
HOMETOWN
RELEASE SHOW
FOR DE STIJL
IN 2000.

AT LONG LAST, I GET MEG’S friend on the line. She

asks not to be named in this story, but assures me
that Meg is fine and that she’s human, and as such
has good days and bad days. To further ease my
mind, she adds that Meg eats a Honeycrisp apple
every day to keep the doctor away. “She spent 15
years traveling and touring and playing. It’s not
that odd to think that she just likes to be home,”
she tells me. I also learn that Meg is aware of her
viral moment, and that her response was some-
thing along the lines of “Oh, that again?” I ask if
it might be okay to send some questions for Meg
over text. She tells me to send whatever I want
and that she’ll pass it along.
A few days later, Blackwell, who in addition
to his archivist duties is also a cofounder and
co-owner of Third Man Records, consoles me
with the fact that he also tried and failed to get
Meg to do an interview a couple of years ago timed
to the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut al-
bum. “On the one hand, the journalism dropout
in me feels that. I’m like, ‘Yeah, she needs to talk,’”
Blackwell says. “But on the other hand, God, it’s so
much fucking cooler that she doesn’t. It’s not like
she’s living on a tropical island and no one sees or
talks to her or anything like that. But her current
operational way forward—this media blackout—is
W HIT E: D OU G COOMB E.

fucking badass, and it’s rock ’n’ roll.”

Goodman, who is very much not a journalism
dropout (and whose 2017 oral history book, Meet
Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll
in New York City 2001–2011, was recently adapt-
ed into a documentary), agrees. “I think what I

140
Horoscope
JUNE
The Summer of Love kicks
off on June 5 as the celestial
sweetheart planet Venus
embarks on a four-month-
long journey through
the passionate and
romantic sign of Leo.
GEMINI
MAY 21–JUNE 21
While Venus spends four
months in your coquettish third
house, flirt responsibly.
During the July 22 to September
3 retrograde, be sure to avoid
starting fires you can’t contain.
CANCER
JUNE 22–JULY 22
As Venus swings into your
luxurious second house until
October 8, your lust for all
things attractive intensifies.
But mindless indulgence won’t
fulfill you: Use this cycle to
create a budget that will satisfy
your whims while setting you
on a long-term path to savings.
LEO
JULY 23–AUG 22
Glamorous Venus will be in Leo
from June 5 to October 8, turning
you into a walking love magnet.
Your sphere of influence will
expand, but during the midcycle
retrograde from July 22 to
September 3, your good fortune
could rile up the haters. Sidestep
their drama by being generous.
VIRGO
AUG 23–SEPT 22
With Venus lounging in your
healing sector from June 5 to
October 8, summer is officially
a verb, so read a great book
or float down a lazy river. And
during the July 22 to
September 3 retrograde, do
therapeutic work on your
body, emotions, and energy field.
LIBRA
SEPT 23–OCT 22
From June 5 to October 8,
Venus logs into your zone of
community and technology.
With your celestial ruler playing
superconnector, creative
collaborators and romantic
prospects eagerly ping you.
Warning: This may include a
figure from your past during
the midcycle retrograde.
142
G-TIMELESS
MOONLIGHT WATCH,
GUCCI, GUCCI.COM.
SCORPIO
OCT 23–NOV 21
As Venus struts through Leo
for four months, networking
will raise your visibility. And
if you’re looking for love,
there’s no better pool to draw
from than fellow achievers.
Turn on the charm, but hurry—
when Venus turns retrograde
from July 22 to September 3,
progress could grind to a
temporary halt.
This made-to-order
watch allows you to
customize each
design with the place,
time, and date of
your birth. The wonder
of our cosmos is
further exemplified
by the blue
aventurine glass dial.
JULY
A midcycle retrograde from
July 22 to September 3 could throw
best-laid plans into a tailspin.
Maximum creativity is advised.
SAGITTARIUS
NOV 22–DEC 21
The whole world is in your
hands—and your nomadic
heart—as romantic Venus
checks into your global
ninth house on June 5. You
may find romance abroad,
perhaps with sand between
your toes. If you’re already
paired up, get your juices
flowing with a passionate
getaway before October 8.
CAPRICORN
DEC 22–JAN 19
Allure, appeal, and seductive
power? Those are your big
three starting on June 5,
as romantic Venus touches
down in your erotically
charged eighth house until
October 8. If you connect
with someone who checks
off the trio of mind, body,
and soul attraction, things
can turn serious very fast.
However, keep an eye out
for a former lover who may
reappear during the July 22
to September 3 retrograde.
AQUARIUS
JAN 20–FEB 18
Whether you’re mending
fences or moving on to greener
pastures, aim to be the best
negotiator possible. Creative
compromises emerge when
you listen without reacting, so
work to separate past trauma
from present-day upsets
when Venus retrogrades from
July 22 to September 3.
PISCES
FEB 19–MAR 20
Venus paddles through your
wellness zone starting on
June 5, and this summer is
all about redefining what
a healthy relationship means
to you. Get to work on
any issues so they don’t blow
up during the July 22 to
September 3 retrograde.
ARIES
MAR 21–APR 19
What good is a romantic story
if it doesn’t contain a few
exhilarating arcs? While Venus
fans the flames of your dramatic
fifth house, passion burns hotter
than white coals one minute—
and chills like dry ice the next.
During the midcycle retrograde
from July 22 to September 3,
apply vigilant temperature control.
TAURUS
APR 20–MAY 20
While exquisite Venus cruises
through Leo this summer,
surround yourself with genuine
companions who share your
salt-of-the-earth values. A diamond
in the rough could be hiding
in plain sight. For coupled Bulls,
C OURTESY O F T HE D ESIGNE R.
feathering your love nest may
become an outright obsession.
Spruce it up and entertain often.
See the AstroTwins, Tali and
Ophira Edut, in Cosmic Love
on Amazon Prime Video.