W magazine 2015 08

Taraji P. Henson The Empire Star Is One Tough Cookie

FASHION TO FOLLOW

The Trends The Looks The Likes

INSTAGLAM

Kim Kardashian’s Beauty Squad

#thepopissue

12 TV Sensations 10 Supersexy Supermodels and the 196,943,262 Fans Who s s s Them

August

From left: Sonia Rykiel jacket, turtleneck, and pants; Jennifer Fisher hoop earrings; Falke socks; Calvin Klein Collection shoes. Versace jacket, bodysuit, and pants; Jennifer Fisher earrings; Louis Vuitton bag; Giambattista Valli boots. Styled by Edward Enninful. For shopping information, go to Wmag.com/where-to-buy-august-2015.

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Now Trending Photographs by Emma Summerton

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Who 51

ON THE VERGE: Irish actress Caitriona Balfe on time travel and her upcoming film with George Clooney.

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GIO’S JOURNAL: From Mustique and beyond, Giovanna Battaglia reports on the style universe.

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BFFs of celebrities claim their own fame on social media.

Why 64

A new generation of designers is making clothes with themselves— and their cool friends—in mind.

68

Spa junkie Sandra Ballentine finds her Zen at a retreat in Thailand.

69

Detox in style at these five divine destinations.

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We’ve marked our calendar with this month’s highlights: Meryl Streep shares the screen with her daughter in Jonathan Demme’s Ricki and the Flash. The German photographer Andreas Gursky is at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York. Three must-reads to close out summer.

Where

What 56

When

A plum pout and crimped tresses make for a chic selfie.

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JANE’S ADDICTION: What W’s Beauty Director, Jane Larkworthy, is hooked on this month.

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Extraordinary timepieces make every minute count.

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Blogger and Instagram star Kristina Bazan moves into music.

Continued on page 36

August Fashion + Features 72

ONE TOUGH COOKIE Empire’s Taraji P. Henson takes the TV throne.

By Lynn Hirschberg Photographs by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

80

ONES TO WATCH The actors who are making TV truly must-see.

By Fan Zhong Photographs by Pari Dukovic

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NOW TRENDING Fur, tweed, brocade—the options for fall are limitless, so why choose just one?

Photographs by Emma Summerton

104

PRIVACY SETTINGS Ten of the most beautiful—and followed—models play pin-ups.

Photographs by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

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DOUBLE TROUBLE At the helm of both Balenciaga and his own brand, designer Alexander Wang is proving he can do haute as well as hot.

By David Amsden Photographs by Roe Ethridge

Departments

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Camera Ready Photograph by Kenneth Willardt Miu Miu earrings. Styled by Ethel Park. For shopping information, go to Wmag.com/where-to-buy-august-2015.

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42

EDITOR’S LETTER

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PARTY PEOPLE

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RICKIE’S REQUESTS

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MOOD BOARD

COVER Photographed by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott. Styled by Edward Enninful. Hair by Shay Ashual

at Tim Howard Management; makeup by Yadim for Maybelline; manicure by Michelle Saunders for Essie at Celestine Agency.

Fashion: Theory henley; J Brand jeans; (from left) Hearts On Fire bracelet, Chopard bracelet, Hearts On Fire bracelet.

Beauty: Lancôme Miracle Cushion foundation in Suede N, Star Bronzer in Golden, Artliner in Brown, Le Crayon Khôl in Black Coffee, Color Design Eye Shadow in Pose, Hypnôse Mascara in Deep Black, Rouge in Love High Potency Color in Rose Tea. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/where-to-buyaugust-2015.

THIS MONTH AT WMAG.COM

MUST-SEE TV wmag.com/celebrity

KEEPING UP WITH COOKIE wmag.com/video

Empire’s Taraji P. Henson talks about her character’s admirable “no filter” approach to life, her crush on Ryan Gosling, and more in her Screen Test interview with Editor at Large Lynn Hirschberg.

ON SET WITH SUPERMODELS

DIGITAL EDITIONS wmag.com/services/tablet

wmag.com/video

The supersocial supermodel cast of “Privacy Settings” (page 104)— including Anna Ewers, Doutzen Kroes, Joan Smalls , and Irina Shayk (above, clockwise, from top)—weighs in on selfies, celebrity, and shooting in the nude in a short video series.

W is available on your favorite e-reader.

Download current issues of the magazine for Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, Google Play, iPad, and Zinio.

W IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2015 CONDÉ NAST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. VOLUME 44, NO. 6. W (ISSN 0162-9115) is published monthly (except for combined issues in December/January and June/July) by Condé Nast, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: Condé Nast, 1 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. S. I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg, Jr., President; David E. Geithner, Chief Financial Officer. Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 123242885RT0001. POSTMASTER: SEND ALL UAA TO CFS (SEE DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to W Magazine, PO Box 3711, Boone IA 50037-0711. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to W Magazine, P.O. Box 37711, Boone, IA 50037-0711, call 800-289-0390, or e-mail WMGcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to W Magazine, 1 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007.

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MUST-SEE TV: PARI DUKOVIC; KEEPING UP WITH COOKIE: EVAN COHEN; ON SET WITH SUPERMODELS: KLOSS FILMS; KUTCHER WEARS RAG & BONE SHIRT, PANTS, AND SNEAKERS. HENSON WEARS DIANE VON FURSTENBERG ROMPER; DAVID YURMAN EARRINGS. FOR STORES, PRICES, AND MORE, GO TO WMAG.COM/WHERE-TO-BUY-AUGUST-2015

See exclusive extended interviews with the lineup from “Ones to Watch” (page 80), including Ashton Kutcher (left), Ashley Benson (above), and Mindy Kaling on Wmag.com.

STEFANO TONCHI Editor in Chief

LYNN HIRSCHBERG Editor at Large ARMAND LIMNANDER Deputy Editor ALIX BROWNE Features Director

JOHAN SVENSSON Design Director

JANE LARKWORTHY Beauty Director

DIANE SOLWAY Arts and Culture Director

RICKIE DE SOLE Fashion Market and Accessories Director

FASHION & BEAUTY

FEATURES JENNY COMITA Senior Features Editor at Large VANESSA LAWRENCE Features Writer

REGAN A. SOLMO Executive Managing Editor EDWARD ENNINFUL Fashion and Style Director

KARIN NELSON Features Editor

CLAUDIA MATA Jewelry and Accessories Director

SAM MILNER Senior Market Editor and Manager

GIOVANNA BATTAGLIA Contributing Fashion Editor

GIANLUCA LONGO Contributing European Editor

ART & PHOTO CAROLINE WOLFF Photography Director ERIN SIMON Bookings Director

CAROLINE GROSSO Market Editor ESMÉ RENÉ NORA MILCH Accessories Editor Senior Photo Editor KATIE BECKER Beauty Editor TIFFANIE GRAHAM NATASHA CLARK Fashion Credits Editor Photo Research Editor TINA HUYNH Associate Jewelry Editor SAM WALKER Assistant Accessories Editor RYANN FOULKE Assistant Fashion Editor SARAH ZENDEJAS Assistant Fashion and Market Editor JESSY PRICE MIA ADORANTE Associate to the Fashion and Style Director Associate Photo Editor

FAN ZHONG Associate Editor

BIEL PARKLEE Assistant Bookings Editor

OPERATIONS ROSEANN MARULLI Associate Managing Editor

DIGITAL CHRISTINA CALDWELL Digital Editor at Large SARAH LEON Senior Digital Editor

EVENTS & PR

JENNIFER MURRAY Production Director

ROBIN AIGNER Copy Chief

KIRSTEN ROHRS SCHMITT Research Chief

KELLY McDONOUGH Production Manager

COREY SABOURIN Copy Editor

KRISTIN AUBLE Research Editor

SUE WILLIAMSON Digital Editor

LINA WAHLGREN Art Director HANNA VARADY Senior Designer

AUDRA ASENCIO Special Projects Director

ADRIANA STAN Public Relations Director

SHARLYN PIERRE Researcher FRANCINE SCHORE Business Manager GILLIAN SAGANSKY Assistant to the Editor in Chief

EMILIA PETRARCA Associate Digital Editor

LUCY KRIZ

Publisher, Chief Revenue Officer RISA ARONSON Associate Publisher TANYA AMINI Advertising Director MARLY B. GRAUBARD Executive Director, Fashion and Beauty

MILAN LAURA BOTTA Fashion/Luxury Director 39.02.655.84.221 GIULIA GIACOBELLI Sales Assistant

PARIS ELIZABETH HAYNES Luxury Director, Europe 33.1.4411.7815 LAURENCE GUERINET Sales Assistant

KIMBERLY MICHOS Executive Director, Luxury and Retail

ROBERT ROWE International Advertising Director

KELLY M. BREWSTER Fashion Manager

LAUREN REGINA PERRY Account Manager

SASHA KRUG Digital Manager

VICTOR HARTMANN Digital Campaign Analyst

WEST COAST ALLISON JOYCE Western Director 323.965.3549 MEGAN McLAUGHLIN Sales Assistant

MIDWEST LINDA JOSEPH Midwest Director 312.649.3548 KATIE SPRIGGS Sales Assistant

DETROIT HEIDI NOWAK Detroit Advertising Director 248.458.7965 LYNN McROBB Sales Assistant

RAYLENE SALTHOUSE Executive Director, Beauty

CANADA BOB DODD Dodd Media Sales 905.885.0664

HAWAII LOREN MALENCHECK Malencheck & Associates 808.283.7122

INTEGRATED MARKETING CELIA CHEN Executive Director, Partnerships and Events HEATHER H. GUMBLEY Executive Director, Integrated Marketing RACHEL SWANSON Executive Director, Marketing and Research ALISON JAVORA Integrated Marketing Director SARAH SALVATORIELLO Creative Director MICHELLE BONDARCHUK Special Events Manager NATASHA BULLARD Senior Marketing Research Manager ANTHONY CANDELA Senior Integrated Marketing Manager ALICIA RODRIGUEZ Senior Designer TYLER REX WATSON Integrated Marketing Manager ABBY SILVERMAN Designer CHRISTINA FERNANDES Marketing and Business Associate ALEXA AGUGLIARO Integrated Marketing Coordinator BUSINESS CERENE C. JORDAN Director of Finance and Business Operations ELIZABETH DEIGNAN SCHOTTLANDER Advertising Services Director LAURA LAFON Executive Assistant to the Publisher, Chief Revenue Officer TAYLOR RAE SCHIFFMAN Advertising Coordinator

KALLEN BEIER, ALY BORI, ARADITH PEIKIN Sales Assistants PUBLISHED BY CONDÉ NAST S.I. NEWHOUSE, JR. Chairman CHARLES H. TOWNSEND Chief Executive Officer ROBERT A. SAUERBERG, JR. President DAVID E. GEITHNER Chief Financial Officer EDWARD J. MENICHESCHI Chief Marketing Officer and President, Condé Nast Media Group JILL BRIGHT Chief Administrative Officer FRED SANTARPIA EVP / Chief Digital Officer MONICA RAY EVP-Consumer Marketing JOANN MURRAY EVP-Human Resources DAVID ORLIN SVP-Operations and Strategic Sourcing ROBERT BENNIS Managing Director-Real Estate DAVID B. CHEMIDLIN SVP-Corporate Controller NICK ROCKWELL-Chief Technology Officer PATRICIA RÖCKENWAGNER SVP-Corporate Communications JOSH STINCHCOMB SVP-Sales Strategy and Partnerships LISA VALENTINO SVP-Digital Sales, CN and Chief Revenue Officer, CNÉ SUZANNE REINHARDT SVP-Financial Planning and Analysis PADRAIG CONNOLLY SVP- 23 Stories / Marketing Solutions CONDÉ NAST ENTERTAINMENT DAWN OSTROFF President SAHAR ELHABASHI EVP / Chief Operating Officer JEREMY STECKLER EVP-Motion Pictures MICHAEL KLEIN EVP-Programming and Content Strategy / Digital Channels JOE LaBRACIO EVP-Alternative TV WHITNEY HOWARD SVP-Business Development and Strategy GINA MARCHESCHI VP-Scripted TV CONDÉ NAST INTERNATIONAL JONATHAN NEWHOUSE Chairman and Chief Executive NICHOLAS COLERIDGE President

ANNA WINTOUR Artistic Director

Condé Nast is a global media company producing premium content for more than 263 million consumers in 30 markets. www.condenast.com www.condenastinternational.com Subscription Service 800.289.0390. No part of W may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written consent from Condé Nast.

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W EDITOR’S LETTER

E V E RY AG E A N D C U LT U R E H A S I T S G O D S A N D

From top: Classical sculptures in the exhibition “Serial Classic,” 2015; Kim Kardashian West and Miley Cyrus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute for the opening of “China: Through the Looking Glass,” in May; Beyoncé, at the Met event.

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goddesses. That’s what I was thinking about in May, walking through “Serial Classic,” one of the inaugural exhibitions of the mind-blowing Fondazione Prada museum, in Milan, designed by the architect Rem Koolhaas. For this exceptional show, examples of well-known classical statues like Crouching Venus, Hercules, and Discobulos were assembled from the best collections in the world and shown as a series— from the Greek antiquity originals to the Roman-period copies.

The beautifully crafted bodies were mostly nude, though some were painted in garish colors or covered in gold leaf to illustrate how historians believe they were intended to be seen by their adoring audiences thousands of years ago. Almost simultaneously, but across the globe, a different group of gods and goddesses was on display at another temple of culture—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York—to celebrate the opening of the exhibition “China: Through the Looking Glass.” Rihanna, Beyoncé, Kim, Miley, all decked out in shimmering, ultraembellished gowns that clung to their Venuslike curves, were offering themselves on the red carpet to their adoring audiences on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Celebrity worship and self-promotion are as old as mankind itself, but they have become a huge driving force in contemporary culture. When putting together this Pop issue, we started by looking at who commanded the highest number of followers on social media—and quickly realized we had already featured most of them in our pages. So we turned to a medium that is sometimes overlooked: television, which is enjoying a new golden age thanks to quirky programs that appeal to both sophisticated niche audiences and the global masses. In “Ones to Watch”

(page 80), we gathered a diverse cast of characters from wildly different shows, including a tech geek, a teen queen, and a zombie slayer. But during our TVwatching “research,” we became particularly obsessed with Lee Daniels’s hit series Empire. What would the fabulously unpredictable Cookie Lyon—fiercely portrayed by our cover star, Taraji P. Henson—do next after beating her son with a broom, accidentally ordering someone’s murder, and sleeping with her ex-husband’s head of security? Sometimes described as a hip-hop-inflected version of Dynasty, Empire has all of the elements of a classical Greek tragedy: It’s a story about brothers competing for the love of their father while dealing with a pantheon of strong-willed women. As Cookie, Henson has become an indelible pop-fashion icon. With all due respect to Kim et al, nobody is better at making an entrance in bodystrapping dresses, brightly hued furs, and dangerously high heels. Still, as Editor at Large Lynn Hirschberg discovered, there is also a drop-dead-serious side to the Oscar-nominated actress. In “One Tough Cookie” (page 72), Henson talks about challenging Daniels, herself, and, ultimately, the show’s viewers. “Cookie is living, breathing, walking truth,” she asserts.

Finally, we discovered that when it comes to today’s social media, some of the old media rules still apply: Nudity and sex are guaranteed to drive ratings.

After all, who can resist a little voyeurism? The supermodels featured in “Privacy Settings” (page 104) know exactly how to engage their followers and keep them hooked. When the photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott transformed the women into ultrasexy pinups, none of them batted a flirty eyelash. “I am the most comfortable in my own skin. Literally.

Just my own skin,” purrs Chrissy Teigen knowingly in the behind-the-scenes film on Wmag.com/video.

The Greeks knew it, and so do the new goddesses of pop culture: A great body can often inspire an even better body of work.

Stefano Tonchi, Editor in Chief

TONCHI: INEZ AND VINOODH; KARDASHIAN WEST: DAVID X. PRUTTING/BFA.COM; BEYONCE: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; FONDAZIONE PRADA: ATTILIO MARANZANO/COURTESY OF FONDAZIONE PRADA

IDOL WORSHIP

W PARTY PEOPLE

I A N SC H RAG E R / ST E FA N O TO N C H I

Debut of New York Edition and the New Issue of W Art

Top row, from left: Aimee Mullins and Rupert Friend; Iman, W’s Stefano Tonchi, and Rosario Dawson; Giada Lubomirski and Katia Aurora; Athena Calderone and Lily Kwong; Lucy Chadwick, Ben Pundole, and Duffy. Middle: Lindsey Wixson and Anais Mali; Tania and Ian Schrager; Kate Foley; Lindsay Ellingson; Emily Ratajkowski and Chrissy Teigen; Q-Tip; Hailey Baldwin; Ajak Deng. Bottom: Vinoodh Matadin and Inez van Lamsweerde; Alexa Chung; Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo; Carmen Ejogo, Grayson Perry, and Marilyn Minter; Sofia Sanchez Barrenechea and Emmanuel Perrotin.

Making the Rounds

Tired of the same old party venues? Try a new museum, a hotel debut, and a West Coast mansion.

L EO N M A X / AMBER VA L L E T TA / ST E FA N O TO N C H I

exclusivity is catnip. Since there is nothing more enticing than a peek into a private residence, Leon Max, Amber Valletta, and W’s Editor in Chief, Stefano Tonchi, chose a Beverly Hills manse as the site for cocktails toasting W Stories, a lush tome of images from the magazine. The following week, Max Mara sponsored a fete for the highly anticipated opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art building, in New York’s Meatpacking District. Actresses like Dakota Fanning and Sarah Jessica Parker mixed with artists and fashion types as they meandered through the Renzo Piano–designed building, checking out the inaugural exhibition, “America Is Hard to See.” (The museum hosted not only an intimate dinner but became a de facto club for late-night partying, too.)

And there was plenty of celebrating at the New York Edition, Ian Schrager’s first new hotel in Manhattan in almost six years. Schrager and Tonchi held a dinner there—honoring both the hotel’s debut and the latest issue of W Art— after which revelers gleefully danced on the tables. You have to get your high on where you can. vanessa lawrence

Cocktails for W Stories

WHITNEY MUSEUM/ M A X M A RA

Opening Party for Whitney Museum

Top row, from left: The new Whitney Museum of American Art; Solange Knowles; members of the Guerrilla Girls art collective. Middle: Barbara Bush; Misha Nonoo and Alexander Gilkes; St. Vincent; Vlada Roslyakova; Zoë Kravitz; Maria Giulia Maramotti and Dakota Fanning.

Bottom: Chiara Clemente; Fred Wilson; Betsey Johnson; Julian Schnabel and Brooke Garber Neidich.

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Top row, from left: Wyatt Kahn and China Chow; the scene by the pool; Kiernan Shipka.

Bottom: Amber Valletta; Yana Boyko Max and Leon Max; Jenny Slate; Hayley Kiyoko.

IAN SCHRAGER/STEFANO TONCHI AND WHITNEY MUSEUM/MAX MARA: COURTESY OF BFA; LEON MAX/AMBER VALLETTA/STEFANO TONCHI: COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES

W H E N I T C O M E S T O PA R T I E S ,

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INTERIOR LIFE

FASHION MARKET AND ACCESSORIES DIRECTOR Rickie De Sole EXPLORES COUCH COUTURE.

1. 3.1 Phillip Lim top. 2. Earrings from Fred Leighton, New York. 3. Dries Van Noten jacket; Lanvin dress; Gurhan necklace; (right wrist) David Yurman bracelets; (left wrist, from left) Gurhan bracelets, bracelet from Stephen Russell, New York; Dior boots. 4. Magnolia Hall at the Savannah College of Art and Design, in Georgia (2). 5. Erdem dress; (from top) Gurhan bracelets, bracelet from Stephen Russell, New York; Dior boots. 6. Roger Vivier bag. 7. Ileana Makri rings. 8. Diesel Black Gold jeans. 9. Callisto Home pillow from ABC Home, New York.

10. Dolce & Gabbana shoes. 11. Buccellati ring.

12. Stella McCartney clutch. 13. Chanel Watch watch. 14. Alessandra Rich bolero. 15. Tory Burch sandals. 16. Simone Rocha dress. 17. Etro boots.

For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/ where-to-buy-august-2015.

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HAIR BY EDWARD LAMPLEY FOR WELLA AT D+V MANAGEMENT; MAKEUP BY YUMI LEE FOR GIORGIO ARMANI BEAUTY AT L’ATLELIER NYC; MODEL: KASIA JUJECZKA AT IMG MODELS; SET DESIGN BY LUCAS LEFLER; DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: JOHN “DUCK” FEENEY; FASHION ASSISTANT: KYLE HAYES; 1, 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17: TIM HOUT, STYLED BY JOHN OLSON

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W RICKIE’S REQUESTS

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“Though I’ve never been one to match my clothes to the furniture, after I visited the Savannah College of Art and Design earlier this year, it no longer seemed like such an outlandish idea. The quirky mix of prints and fabrics at the school’s Magnolia Hall had me pining for fall’s richly textured brocade, tweed, and damask pieces— not to mention my grandmother’s sofa.”

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4: JAMIE BECK (LEFT), CHIA CHONG (RIGHT); 6, 9, 10: COURTESY OF THE DESIGNERS; 7, 8, 11, 12: TIM HOUT, STYLED BY JOHN OLSON

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12 Photographs by MAURIZIO BAVUTTI Styled by MICHELLE CAMERON

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HAIR BY KEI TERADA AT JULIAN WATSON AGENCY; MAKEUP BY POLLY OSMOND FOR ELIZABETH ARDEN AT EXPOSURE NY; DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: FREDDY LEE; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: GARTH MCKEE; FASHION ASSISTANT: STEPHANIE PAULO

Who What Where When Why

On the Verge

CAITRIONA BALFE As a model, Caitriona Balfe was well accustomed to disrobing in front of a crowd. Now that she’s an actress, playing the unabashed Claire in the wildly popular Starz show Outlander, the 35-year-old has discovered she isn’t quite as adept at being naked as she would have liked to think.

“It’s a very different beast,” the Dublin native says. “As an actress, you want to be brave and go as far as you can. But sometimes, afterward, you wish you hadn’t been as brave, like when you’re watching and thinking, Oh, God.” Based on the best-selling novels by Diana Gabaldon, the series, currently shooting its second season, follows Claire, a former World War II nurse who time-travels from 1945 to 1743 in Scotland. In the midst of political unrest, she becomes entangled with a Highlander, all while trying to return to the 20th century.

Balfe was doing Margaret Thatcher impressions by the age of 4 and went on to study theater. But when she was scouted by a modeling agent at 18, the promise of international travel proved hard to pass up. She doesn’t regret the detour. “I didn’t have the life experience or maturity in my 20s to bring what I can now to acting,” she says. Her next role, opposite George Clooney in Money Monster, is a PR exec for a financial company. “That was almost more alien to me than the time-traveling nurse,” she says with a laugh. “I was like, What do people do in offices all day?” vanessa lawrence Paule Ka dress. Beauty note: Show off a great complexion with Chantecaille Bio Lifting Cream +. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/where-to-buy-august-2015.

Photograph by DRIU & TIAGO Styled by LEITH CLARK

WHO GIO’S JOURNAL “In São Paulo, I fell in love with this spiral staircase [far left] designed by the famous Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld. Meanwhile, this Pink House boutique [near left] on Mustique looked like a Barbie house.”

sa Sednaoui an model-actress Eli ce, where “The Italian-Egypti an Fr , les this field in Ar looked so at home in ot her denim kn to ed pir ins s wa I we were shooting, r [above]. se in front of a tracto shirt and have her po the country-girl pinup.”

It was our take on

“The Fondaz ione Prada m us in Milan. I ju st love this ro eum recently opened om full of cars by artists [abo desi Trigère dress, ve]. I think my vintage Pa gned ulin Prada turban , and red lipst e perfectly with ick go Walter De M ar ia’s hot wheel Now all I need s. is a license!”

“This Valentino dress for fall [right] is just what I would wear to serve the glazed roast chicken [below] I found in an old interiors book.”

“These are two of my favorite souvenirs from Mustique [below]. I picked up the beaded bag from a local store, and then my boyfriend gave me the fantastic sunglasses, which quickly became part of my household uniform.”

“In preparation for a vacation on Mustique, I bought this Hermès beach cover-up [above] in Paris. It turned out the house we rented had an Hermès ashtray that matched! Obviously, I carried it around everywhere. There should be a new rule that you must match your ashtray to your ensemble while on holiday.”

MATCH POINT

For W’s glamorous globe-trotter, Giovanna Battaglia, it’s a fab, fab world.

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COLLAGE BY TIM HOUT; HARLEQUIN CHICKEN: BEADLE/CONDÉ NAST ARCHIVE; RUNWAY: COURTESY OF THE DESIGNER; ALL OTHERS: COURTESY OF GIOVANNA BATTAGLIA

“I came acro ss these tins of seafood [right ] at a restaura nt in Arles. Aren’ t they cute? I especially love the headgear .

If Carmen Miranda had promoted a line of canned goods, this is exactly what it would have looked like!”

WHO STYLE SETTERS 1

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ENTOURAGE

You’re nobody until somebody, well, likes you.

Meet the hardest-working BFFs on social media.

You may not remember their names, but you may be following them—or their famous mentors.

1. Cheyne Thomas (@cheythom). Followers: 305,000. Insta-besties with: Miley Cyrus. These two crazy kids are 4eva. They even gave each other tattoos. So what if Cheyne is Miley’s assistant?

And so what if gossips think he and Miley are cuckolding her man du jour—be it a Hemsworth or a Schwarzenegger—especially after they were photographed grinding onstage? Miley will regale almost anyone or anything with her derriere— just ask that poor giant teddy bear.

2. Melissa Forde (@mdollas11). Followers: 492,000.

Insta-besties with: Rihanna. RiRi’s baddest girl from back home in Barbados is never farther than a blunt roll away, whether front row at Fashion Week or courtside at a Lakers game. Now she’s even got a bucket-hat collection for Wrkng Title, sold at Opening Ceremony, to call her very own. Everyone has to start somewhere; she chose up top.

3. Alexa Luria (@lexie1225). Followers: 414,300.

Insta-besties with: Ariana Grande. A word of caution: If you take too many selfies with your BFF,

you will start to look exactly like her. Of course, that may have been Lexie’s secret plan all along.

4. Lil Za (@theworldshero) and Lil Twist (@liltwist).

Followers: 522,000 and 637,000, respectively.

Insta-besties with: Justin Bieber. These rapper brothers and alleged roommates of the Bieb’s have been by his side during every step of the pop star’s descent into infamy. Za was busted for drug possession at Bieber’s manse, Twist for a DUI in Bieber’s car.

5. Courtney Barry (@courtneyjbarry), Raquelle Stevens (@raquellestevens), and Ashley Cook (@ashley_cook). Followers: 71,000, 62,800, and 130,000, respectively. Insta-besties with: Selena Gomez. These three may not quite have been the inspiration for Selena’s Spring Breakers cast— although, if you think about it, those girls seemed pretty wholesome at first, too. During the tough times when Taylor and Cara aren’t around, they’re always available to hang with Selena pool- or yacht-side. fan zhong

CYRUS: INSTAGRAM/MILEYCYRUS; BIEBER: INSTAGRAM/THEWORLDSHERO; RIHANNA; INSTAGRAM/MDOLLAS11; GOMEZ: INSTAGRAM/SELENAGOMEZ; GRANDE: INSTAGRAM/LEXIE1225

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WHAT LOOK OF THE MONTH

Camera Ready

When a particular beauty look spreads across celebrity Instagram feeds like a virus, there’s a good chance the hairstylist Jen Atkin or the makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic was at the source. With sizable fan bases of their own (Atkin has more than a half-million followers, and Dedivanovic boasts a cool million), the two primp and prep some of social media’s most-followed glamour girls, including Jennifer Lopez, Chrissy Teigen, Jessica Alba, and the Kardashian crew. So what should we expect to like this fall? “We’ll be seeing a dark, rich plum lip on the red carpet a lot,” says Dedivanovic, noting that the color tends to work well with any skin tone. “It’s inspired by the fall runways, but in the celeb world we make it a little more polished, with pared-down eye makeup and flawless skin.” Try Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Téméraire or Anastasia Beverly Hills Lip Gloss in Venom (shown here). Hair will be equally refined—picture a low ponytail, but with unexpected texture. “Crimping is easy and can read very romantic,” Atkin explains. “But less is more.

Use an odd number of sections throughout the hair— not too symmetrical—and instead of going from the roots to ends, crimp from the roots to midway on some sections, and from midway to the ends on the others.” Final step: selfie. katie becker Graff earrings. Beauty note: Chanel Sublimage L’Extrait leaves skin immaculate, no filter needed. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/where-to-buy-august-2015.

Hair by Jen Atkin at the Wall Group; makeup by Mario Dedivanovic for Anastasia Beverly Hills at the Wall Group; manicure by Sunshine for Dior at ABTP.com. Model: Laura Julie at Next Management. Digital technician: Alex Verron.

Photography assistants: Eric Hodgman, Mark Luckasavage.

Fashion assistant: Mary Manley.

Photograph by KENNETH WILLARDT Styled by ETHEL PARK

WHAT JANE’S ADDICTION

SHEER ENERGY

WHAT W’S BEAUTY DIRECTOR, Jane Larkworthy, IS HOOKED ON THIS MONTH.

HOME IMPROVEMENT Prettifying in the privacy of your own home just got easier. Makeup legend Vincent Longo and hair guru George Kyriakos have teamed up to launch StyleBookings, an online service offering house calls from top artists and stylists, whose handiwork is viewable on the site (stylebookings.com). I tried it out recently, selecting Stephania Parent because I admired her ability to play up eyes. She didn’t disappoint in that department, and she also pulled off some skillful contouring, prompting a friend to ask which derm had done my work.

A BUMPY RIDE After my torture session on the reformer at her eponymous Manhattan studio, Pilates guru Karen Lord (below) had me use a foam roller on my hamstrings.

When she dropped the “c” word, I stopped complaining and said “Hi!” to my new favorite cellulite smoother. “The pressure softens muscle attachments so they can rebuild in a healthier way,” explains Lord, who’s seen impressive results on clients’ thighs. “It also helps rid the body of tension, so it’s like giving yourself a deep-tissue massage. You just have to learn to breathe through the pain.” Better breathing is another thing Karen and I are working on, so you might say foam-rolling is like killing two birds with one foam. (karenlordpilatesmovement.com)

OUT OF THE WOODS I thought I had heard of every botanical beauty ingredient, but the German dermatologist Timm Golueke recently introduced me to another one: Scottish royal fern. The plant is the star of his line, Royal Fern skincare ($195–$295, royalfern.com), which he developed after reading a study about how fern extracts protect cell DNA from UV rays.

Golueke mixed the Scottish variety with other ferns, as well as hyaluronic acid and oils of sea buckthorn and wild-rose blossom, to create a protective and calming moisturizer, serum, and eye cream. A sulfate-free cleanser comes out next month.

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Illustration by STINA PERSSON

LARKWORTHY: ROBERT MASSMAN; LARKWORTHY WEARS LOLE; LORD AND LARKWORTHY: BIEL PARKLEE; STILL LIFES: TIM HOUT

SILENT PARTNERS Summer is all about stripping down— when it comes to beauty products, at least. These are so ultralight, you’ll barely notice they’re there (from left): Nuance Salma Hayek Mamey Fruit Texture Enhancing Finishing Spray ($13, cvs.com): One blast tames my flyaways without even a hint of stiffness or sticky residue.

Kiehl’s Daily Reviving Concentrate ($46, kiehls.com): Apply this gingerroot, sunflower, and tamanu-oil blend at 9 a.m. and your skin will still look fresh at cocktail hour.

Dior One Essential City Defense SPF 50 ($59, dior.com): The main job of this lotion is to protect skin from airborne toxins, but it also works as a primer, imparting a lovely soft-focus effect.

Zoya Naked Manicure Perfector ($9, zoya.com): This sheer polish comes in a variety of skin-tone shades, some of which neutralize or brighten discolored nails, so they look simply buffed clean.

Smashbox Camera Ready BB Water ($42, smashbox.com): The pigments in this oil-free formula are suspended in water, making for a featherlight base.

Onomie Bright Concealing Elixir ($26, onomie.com): A load of botanicals tackles dark circles and puffiness, and mineral pigments give the illusion of slept-well brightness.

AmorePacific Sun Protection Mist SPF 30 ($75, us.amorepacific.com): This clear spray looks and feels almost like water, and sinks right in.

WHAT HOT PROPERTY

L’Heure Bleue With watches this extraordinary, it’s always the magic hour.

Clockwise, from far left: Dior Timepieces; Hublot; Fabergé; Graff. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/where-to-buy-august-2015.

Photograph by HORACIO SALINAS Styled by CLAUDIA MATA

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WHAT IT TREND, IT GIRL

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BEAUTY MUST-HAVE

“This Aerin lipstick is the most gorgeous color I’ve ever found. It’s so natural.”

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CHILDHOOD MEMORY

“When I was little, I was so obsessed with pink!”

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The Girl

KRISTINA BAZAN PUTTING ON THE GLITZ

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KRISTINA BAZAN, THE CREATOR

of the fashion-and-travel site Kayture (a mash-up of her nickname, “Kay,” and “couture”), is the first to admit that blogging is often for the self-absorbed.

“I constantly show my face and tell people what I’m wearing. The nature of it is very narcissistic,” says the 21-yearold, who boasts more than 1.7 million followers on Instagram. In the small Swiss town of Begnins, where Bazan grew up, “everybody wants to be discreet and just blend in. I wanted to stand out,” she says. And so, in 2011 she founded Kayture with her thenboyfriend, James Chardon, who is now her business partner. Within two years, she was cast in a wildly popular Louis Vuitton digital campaign, and other brands like Hugo Boss, Piaget, and Cartier soon came calling. But fashion isn’t the be-all and end-all for this native of Minsk, Belarus. She recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career and hopes to debut an “edgy pop” EP in 2016.

“People think of me as a bubbly, smiley person,” says Bazan, who plans to continue Kayture but with a focus on her music. “They will see another side of me that’s much darker and more vulnerable.” vanessa lawrence

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FAVORITE ARTIST

“Salvador Dalí—I just love surrealism.”

6 8

10 Portrait by HUGH LIPPE Styled by SOPHIE PERA Edited by SAM MILNER

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Bazan wears Michael Kors Collection shirt and pants; Gucci rings; Emilio Pucci pumps; her own bra. Beauty note: Create waves that are uniquely yours with Shu Uemura Art of Hair Wonder Worker. 1. Bazan, age 7, in Switzerland. 2. Aerin Rose Balm Lipstick in Perfect Nude. 3. Dries Van Noten skirt.

4. Sergio Rossi pumps. 5. Olivia von Halle pajama top. 6. Kimberly McDonald earrings.

7. Giulietta pants. 8. Valentino Garavani clutch. 9. Salvador Dalí’s The Hallucinogenic Toreador, 1969–1970. 10. Marc Jacobs sweater.

11. Salvatore Ferragamo dress. 12. (From left) ring from Stephen Russell, New York; ring from Kentshire, New York. 13. Chanel bag. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/ where-to-buy-august-2015.

HAIR BY OWEN GOULD FOR SACHAJUAN; MAKEUP BY OZZY SALVATIERRA FOR CLE DE PEAU BEAUTE AT STREETERS; MANICURE BY KIYO OKADA FOR DIOR; DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: MICHAEL TESSIER; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: JORDAN JAMES, JAMIE STRACHAN; FASHION ASSISTANT: DYLAN HAWKINSON; 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13: TIM HOUT, STYLED BY JOHN OLSON; 1. COURTESY OF BAZAN; 2: COURTESY OF AERIN; 9: SALVADOR DALI/ FUNDACION GALA–SALVADOR DALI, ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY, 2015/COLLECTION OF THE SALVADOR DALI MUSEUM; SPECIAL THANKS TO 30 PARK PLACE FOUR SEASONS PRIVATE RESIDENCE NEW YORK DOWNTOWN

The Look

WHY STREET SMART

Personal Best When designers make clothes for themselves and their friends, everybody wins. Karin Nelson reports.

From left: Faustine Steinmetz top and skirt. Vetements coat, turtleneck, jeans, and boots. Coperni sweater and pants.

Clara Deshayes, the willowy 25-year-old Parisian DJ known by her futuristic nom de spin, Clara 3000, is obsessed with Chet Baker, the films of Josh and Benny Safdie, and the work of the rising photographer Harley Weir. She cools a bit on the subject of fashion. “I buy one pair of pants a year,” she says, adding begrudgingly that they’re Céline. “And I wear them with ratty old T-shirts.” Her style has less to do with labels than with attitude, she insists. And in spite of her reluctance to be designated as such—or perhaps because of it—she has become something of a muse, inspiring a handful of young designers whose collective ambition is to directly address their generation and its concerns, curiosities, and cultural references. “I think we’re all trying to create things that are part of our time,” Deshayes says. “It’s almost an urgency.”

Certainly, that compulsion is what led Demna Gvasalia, 34, a Georgian-born, Paris-based designer who has worked at Maison Martin Margiela and, more recently, Louis Vuitton, to launch Vetements last year. Frustrated with the fashion system and its imperative to produce more collections for an increasingly abstract global customer, Gvasalia started meeting with an intimate group of former colleagues and fellow grads from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. “We were beginning to hate our profession—which isn’t right, because we love fashion,” he recalls. “So we would have some wine and ask, ‘What’s wrong? How do we fix it?’ ” The answer, they decided, was to start a line of singular pieces that met their own needs and wants, rather than those of retailers and editors. “We began by defining the basic items we were craving—a men’s double-breasted coat, for instance,” explains Gvasalia, who initially ran the company out of his living room. “Then we would figure out what we could do with it to make it relevant and stand out.” To that end, faded blue jeans were given jagged hems, sleeves on a ribbed turtleneck were lengthened to cover the hands, and said coat was cut way oversize. “By making the sleeves look like they’re falling off, or the shoulders like they’re slouching, you create a nonchalance,” Gvasalia says. “The construction dictates the attitude.” And the overall result is a smart, streetwise uniform for an individualistic new style generation. Three seasons in, Vetements has become the coolest thing going, and the collective’s fall presentation, held at Le Dépôt, a grimy subterranean gay club, where editors and buyers perched on bar stools and Clara 3000 Photographs by WARD IVAN RAFIK Styled by VANESSA CHOW

WHY STREET SMART

Top, from left: Eckhaus Latta sweater and jeans.

Vetements jacket, sweater, and boots. Bottom, from left: Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh coat, sweater, and bag; Vetements boots.

Coperni jacket, sweater, and skirt; Missoni shoes.

For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/ where-to-buy-august-2015.

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glamorous woman,” says Steinmetz, whose line is in its second year. “Rather, I wanted to make normal, downto-earth clothes in a unique and interesting way.” And, as with the Vetements collective, her dissatisfaction with the industry—in Steinmetz’s case, its wasteful and unethical tendencies—spawned her fast-fashion-in-aslow-manner philosophy: “Clothing needs meaning; it needs to be justified. I don’t like fashion where there is no thought process.”

For that reason, Coperni’s Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, who have just been tapped to be the artistic directors of Courrèges two years after launching their label, spend time before each collection contemplating what their “girl” needs. “It’s not about just doing a beautiful dress,” says Vaillant, 25, adding that the challenge is to design wearable clothes that are also creative and experimental. For that, they rely on clean, modernist lines and unexpected details, as in fall’s patchwork skirts made from circles of kangaroo leather, and knit tops with extra-long sleeves that can be wrapped around the wrists or left to hang. For ideas, they regularly turn to friends such as Lolita Jacobs, a studio manager for the stylist Marie-Amélie Sauvé, who, like her close buddy Clara Deshayes, is a de facto poster child for fashion’s new youth movement. “Lolita is this cool Parisian girl,” Vaillant says. “She’ll come by the studio, try things on, tell us what she likes.”

Change is afoot in other fashion capitals, as well.

Off-White’s Virgil Abloh, a 34-year-old Chicago native who works out of Milan, rightfully earned a place on the short list for this year’s LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize—alongside Vetements, Faustine Steinmetz, and Coperni—for his very modern incorporation of pop culture references, both high and low. “Girls wearing Céline and their boyfriends’ Air Force 1s” was how he described his street-chic muse to The New York Times. And then there’s Eckhaus Latta, the product of Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta, two recent Rhode Island School of Design grads, now based in New York, who present their crafty creations on musicians, artists, and transgender models whom they consider part of their inner circle.

“Everything is about the new generation,” surmised the renowned fashion plate Anna Dello Russo in a video interview following Alessandro Michele’s undone and rather quirky debut for Gucci. Dressed in leather hot pants and a pair of gold platforms, she was not above admitting, “I feel a little bit old-fashioned.”

HAIR BY SHIN ARIMA FOR R + CO AT FRANK REPS; MAKEUP BY MARLA BELT AT STREETERS LONDON; MODELS: MARINE DELEEUW, ROS GEORGIOU, ROSE SMITH, DAGA ZIOBER AT THE SOCIETY MANAGEMENT; DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: ALLAN E. SCHOENING; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: SHADI BEST, JOHN “DUCK” FEENEY; FASHION ASSISTANT: ALBAN ROGER

“I wanted to make normal, downto-earth clothes in a unique and interesting way,” Faustine Steinmetz says.

played thumping tracks, was the must-see show of Paris Fashion Week.

In fact, the most talked-about collections for fall were not from the usual bigwigs but rather from a small camp of newcomers who are staging a slow-burn revolt. Among them is Faustine Steinmetz, who, like Gvasalia and crew, puts an arty, avant spin on familiar, everyday clothes. The 29-year-old French designer, who is based in London, spends endless hours dyeing, shredding, knotting, painting, and weaving yarn into nubby white T-shirts and trompe l’oeil jeans. Her fall collection, inspired by the lush digital works of the British artist Matthew Stone and presented in a gallery setting created by the British design darling Thomas Petherick, included brushed-wool “jean” skirts and pants covered in goopy strokes of indigo silicone. “I wasn’t interested in fantasizing about a

WHERE SIAM I AM

Fit to Be Thai

IF I HAD A DOLLAR FOR EVERY TIME I’VE HEARD THE WORD “DETOX,”

I’d be able to afford my own raw chef, a bespoke infrared sauna, and a year’s supply of organic young-coconut water. Seriously, you can’t turn around in cardio-box class without bumping into someone raving about a new cleanse, fast, or “reboot.” But not all regimens are created equal, as I recently discovered on a trip to the mother of all wellness retreats: Kamalaya, on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand. My experience there was so special—profound, even—that (and this probably goes against some sacred journalist’s code) I almost didn’t share it with you.

I’d been hearing about Kamalaya from my glamorous and irritatingly well-balanced friend Caroline Legrand, a busy London-based interior designer who kicks off each new year with the resort’s comprehensive detox program. “It isn’t about starving yourself but about feeding your body and soul,” she had told me, and she was right. The hotel is in a beautiful setting, brimming with tropical flora and fauna, attentive staff, sublime food, and a coterie of next-level energy healers, nutritionists, naturopaths, massage therapists, lifestyle coaches, yoga teachers, fitness instructors, Chinese-medicine doctors, and Ayurvedic specialists—all there to help ease you into healthier, happier habits. What more could a Nirvana-seeking sojourner ask for?

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Well, proximity, for one thing. I arrived at the resort dazed, confused, and completely ravenous after more than 36 hours of travel (New York–Hong Kong–Koh Samui). Waiting for me at reception was my designer friend (and habitual cleansing cohort) Eva Karayiannis, who had been savvy enough to break up her trip from London with a stay at the Siam, a stylish new hotel in Bangkok. Another friend was due in imminently on her private jet.

(Clearly, I had miles to go in the transportation department.) We sipped iced lemongrass tea and mopped our foreheads with chilled towels, taking in the polyphonic din of night birds, geckos, and frogs in the surrounding jungle.

After a quick tour of our villa and the hotel’s palm-fringed crescent beach, we wandered up to Soma, one of the resort’s open-air restaurants, for our first taste of Kamalaya’s deliciously guilt-free cuisine. I had a sweet-tart green juice, a bowl of Thai-herb-laced glass-noodle soup, and an Energy Salad (baby lettuces with dried garlic, ginger, avocado, wakame, goji berries, Asian pear, and millet), while Eva had tom kha pak (a coconut milk and veggie soup), grilled fish, and a glass of wine. For dessert, we drank fresh coconut water from the shell, greedily scraping out every trace of the meat with our spoons.

Kamalaya, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, is the brainchild of Karina and John Stewart, who met at a meditation retreat in the

THIS PAGE: ALEX CAYLEY/TRUNK ARCHIVE. OTHERS COURTESY OF THE SPAS (9)

After cleansing and detoxing her way around the globe, spa junkie Sandra Ballentine finally finds wellness Nirvana—in the Far East.

Himalayas in 1982 and married in 1993. A synthesis of his spiritual background (he’s a former yogi monk) and her integral-health expertise (she’s a nutritionist and a master of acupuncture and Oriental medicine), the resort’s programs are informed by Eastern and Western healing modalities. Carved into a hillside and centered around a cave where Buddhist monks used to meditate, the property has staggering sea and sunset views—even from the colon-hydrotherapy rooms—and attracts a sophisticated, international crowd, from social and fashion types (not too long ago, a certain famous designer came to stay following his well-publicized fall from grace) to corporate honchos. “Our strength is our soft touch,” Karina says. “We empower people; we don’t force them. Everyone has the opportunity to run with the health program as much or as little as they want.”

Food is a serious part of the proceedings, and chef Edmond Kwan makes vegan fare taste almost decadent. There are exotic salads, soups, and juice concoctions, as well as yummy Thai- and Indianinspired curries and stir-frys. “Our approach is more scientific, the opposite of counting calories,” Karina explains. “The aim is to increase cellular metabolism, minimize toxic intake, reduce inflammation, and improve digestion and organ functions.” Treatments like Taoist abdominal massage, colonics, herbal supplements, and lymphatic drainage work in tandem with the diet.

The place seems to have something for everyone, including special programs like Comprehensive Detox, Ideal Weight, Embracing Change, Stress and Burnout, Sleep Enhancement, and Optimal Fitness. You can also create a custom itinerary, weaving as many (or as few) therapy sessions, activities, and fitness classes into your schedule as you like. Some people (like me) cram in loads of coaching and energy work, while others prefer to just do yoga or hang out by the pool.

Caroline had given me a short list of her favorite practitioners and modalities, with one mandate: “You must see Dr. Song Qinggeng. He’s a human scanning machine, and there is nothing he can’t see or treat.”

She also suggested I do chakra meditation with Rajesh, the resort’s meditation and life-enhancement mentor, and try some release therapy and past-life regression with Wayne Walker, a spiritual healer.

It sounded a bit out-there to me, but I took her advice and booked the three wise men. Dr. Song peered at my tongue, listened to my pulse, and basically looked right through me before announcing that my yang was completely overpowering my yin and that my hormones were out of whack. He said I needed more sleep and that I should start meditating. Walker and Rajesh both went deep into my psyche, with results too personal to reveal. Suffice it to say that after several days of being tended to by healers (and massaged and cosseted by one incredible therapist after another), I felt physically lighter, spiritually more connected, and more mentally centered. I became mindful enough to recognize how scattered I’d been.

Usually, I can’t wait to retox after detoxing, but not this time. I would have willingly stayed at Kamalaya for another month. “It’s incredible how everyone looks so much healthier,” Eva said as we were packing to go. “Our skin looks better; we all seem more relaxed.” I thought about my final session with Dr. Song.

I had asked him why he chooses to work at Kamalaya, when he could be anywhere else. “I’ve been here for nine years,” he said. “I go away, but inevitably I miss it. Something always draws me back.” I know just what he means.

OM DELIVERY

You don’t need to go as far as Asia to find your inner chi.

THE RETREAT, ALTO DEL MONTE, COSTA RICA

theretreatcostarica.com Everything from the whitewashed decor to the breathtaking views of the Pacific whispers, “Chill out.” Days begin with meditation, followed by one of several different types of yoga. Facials and massages are on the menu at the spa, but we were more tempted by the kitchen classes, including the subject du jour, Feeding Your Microbiome.

GOLDEN DOOR, SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA

goldendoor.com The crown jewel of American spas since the 1950s, Golden Door recently underwent a $15 million facelift. Some aspects didn’t require much updating, however, like the Inner Focus program, which features biofeedback, tai chi, and silent-meditation hikes, or the theme weeks, like Inner Wisdom, led by the Door’s mind-body guru, Annharriet Buck.

ABADIA RETUERTA LEDOMAINE, VALLADOLID, SPAIN

ledomaine.es Surrounded by 1,700 acres of vineyards, this five-star resort offers Iyengar, Ashtanga, and hatha yoga, as well as meditation and pranayama-breathing classes. Tucked beneath the former stables is a spa focusing on treatments including Le Grand Cru, a two-and-a-halfhour body exfoliation, wrap, and massage with grapes and grape seed.

EREMITO, PARRANO, ITALY

From top: Tom kamin pak, a soup served at the resort; the vista from one of the on-site treatment rooms; the pool at Kamalaya; an ocean-view villa nestled in the trees.

designhotels.com/eremito Eremito was built to resemble a 13th-century monastery, with stone walls and singleoccupancy “cells.”

Delicious vegetarian dinners are eaten in silence, and there are plenty of nooks for reflection and reading.

KICHIC, MANCORA, PERU

kichic.com This sleepy seaside stretch on Peru’s northern coast brings to mind Tulum before it was colonized by the masses. Offerings include Ashtanga yoga and poolside stretching, healthy-cooking classes, and kayaking. For the more adventurous, surfing, snorkeling, and whale watching are a five-minute drive away.

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Solway Selects

ARTS AND CULTURE DIRECTOR DIANE SOLWAY’S MUST-SEE FOR AUGUST

nd THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL

At a time of year when we are all looking to escape, Andreas Gursky’s highly detailed and dizzyingly expansive photographs allow the eye to travel to extraordinary places (Salerno 1, 1990, above). So it’s no wonder that the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, has chosen the dog days of summer to mount an exhibition of the German artist’s most transcendent images. Opening August 2 (through October 18, 2015), “Andreas Gursky: Landscapes” focuses on color-drenched vistas captured from elevated perspectives and heightened through digital manipulation. No passport required. karin nelson

OCEAN’S DOUBLE ACT

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After his sultry, sensitive major-label debut, Channel Orange, in 2012, the R&B singer Frank Ocean (left) found himself recording with “superpower” Beyoncé, winning a Grammy, and, more than anything else, becoming the hot-button frontman for the gay community within the highly straight hip-hop scene. In many ways, he and his music were being used to incite sociopolitical debate—which may be why he proclaimed that he distrusted journalists. It may also explain why the first issue of Ocean’s magazine, Boys Don’t Cry, will drop this summer, right on the heels of his as-yet-untitled follow-up album. fan zhong

th

MOTHER LODE

If any director can turn the homecoming of a family’s wayward black sheep into a music-filled reunion alive with comedy and pathos, it’s Jonathan Demme. Think 2008’s Rachel Getting Married—in reverse. In Ricki and the Flash (out August 7), Meryl Streep (above, right) plays an aging rocker who hasn’t really been a parent for some time when her daughter—played by Streep’s actual offspring Mamie Gummer (above, left)—needs help through a difficult time. f.z.

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SUMMER READS If you’re already nearing the end of your summer reading list, don’t despair: Three fresh works of fiction beg to be added. Parnaz Foroutan’s scorching debut novel, The Girl From the Garden (Ecco), takes us to Iran, where a couple’s inability to conceive pits a young wife against her tyrannical husband, who will stop at nothing to secure an heir.

Meanwhile, Ann Beattie’s gorgeous story collection The State We’re In (Scribner) makes a strong case for the significance of place—in this instance, Maine. (“Who hasn’t sat outdoors on a summer night and known—known without questioning it—that through the impenetrable black sky, someone or something is looking down at you?”

Beattie writes.) And the overlooked Lucia Berlin, who died in 2004, gets her due with A Manual for Cleaning Women (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a collection of wry, riveting stories that are “not necessarily autobiographical, but close enough for horseshoes,” says her son in the book’s foreword, penned by the virtuoso Lydia Davis, who rightly declares that, eventually, “the best writers will rise to the top, like cream.” marnie hanel

The career of Sylvie Guillem, arguably the most celebrated ballerina of her generation, is something of a feminist parable. In 1984, at the age of 19, she became the youngest dancer in the history of the Paris Opera Ballet to be given the top rank of étoile, a promotion awarded by the troupe’s then-director, Rudolf Nureyev. A technical prodigy who pushed her body to extremes, Guillem was branded headstrong and difficult early on when she insisted on having a say in creative decisions. In 1989, the glamorous ballerina decamped for London’s Royal Ballet, where she not only infused classical roles with a modern sensibility but also parlayed her box-office clout into pressing the company to commission bold, contemporary new works. She was the only dancer who had approval (or, in her case, refusal) over partners, ballets, costumes, and photographs. For that she was dubbed Mademoiselle Non, a sexist sobriquet that cost her opportunities, she told me, because her reputation made people wary. Still, rather than minimize risk, as dancers are wont to do as they age, Guillem, at 41, retired from ballet while still at her peak, and went on to design her own programs as a modern dancer and expand her repertoire to include even more physically taxing roles. Now 50, Guillem is retiring for good. Not for her the prolonged goodbyes of other great stars

whose final performances extend for years. She will bow out with a world tour that travels this month to London, the Edinburgh Festival, and Sydney, before making a stop in New York (November 12–14), and wrapping things up in Japan in December. Fittingly, her farewell is called, simply, Life in Progress.

(Above, Guillem in Mats Ek’s Bye, 2011.)

SOLWAY: VICTORIA WILL; GUILLEM; ROBBIE JACK/CORBIS; SALERNO I: 2015 ANDREAS GURSKY/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/VG BILD-KUNST, BONN/COURTESY OF GAGOSIAN GALLERY; THE GIRL FROM THE GARDEN: COURTESY OF HARPER COLLINS; A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN: COURTESY OF FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX; THE STATE WE’RE IN: COURTESY OF SIMON AND SCHUSTER; RICKI AND THE FLASH: SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT; OCEAN: FRANKOCEAN/TUMBLR

WHEN CULTURAL CALENDAR

Chopard ring.

ONE TOUGH COOKIE EMPIRE’S

REIGNING QUEEN, TARAJI P. HENSON, HAS FOUND HER SWEET SPOT. BY LYNN HIRSCHBERG PHOTOGRAPHS BY MERT ALAS & MARCUS PIGGOTT STYLED BY EDWARD ENNINFUL

This page: Theory henley; AG jeans; (from left) Hearts On Fire bracelets, Chopard bracelet. Opposite: Equipment blouse; David Yurman earrings.

Roberto Cavalli dress; Chopard earrings; Hearts On Fire bracelet.

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hen the director, producer, and provocateur Lee Daniels asked Taraji P. Henson if she was interested in playing Cookie Lyon, the outrageous, captivating, and highly theatrical ex-wife of the hip-hop mogul at the center of Empire, his outrageous, captivating, and highly theatrical dynastic melodrama on Fox, her answer was a flat-out no. Daniels and Henson had met once before: She had auditioned for his awardwinning 2009 film Precious, about a 350-pound black teenager who is HIV-positive and pregnant by her father for the second time. “Lee wanted me for the thin, pretty teacher in Precious,” Henson told me in late spring, with her usual mix of confidence and enthusiasm. She was wearing a short blue romper that showed off her great legs and made her seem much younger than her age (44). “And I was like, ‘Well, I want to play Precious—because that’s the role in this piece.’ Lee thought I was nuts. I was like, ‘Look, they turned Charlize Theron into a monster! I could be this girl!’ When I think about that now, it was such a Cookie move.”

Daniels turned Henson down, but he remembered her. Unlike a lot of directors or producers, Daniels is fueled by profound self-invention, and his characters are extensions of himself. On Empire, his DNA is in Lucious Lyon, the strong-headed father/kingpin; in Jamal, the musically talented gay son; even in Andre, the oldest child/businessman with the severe bipolar condition. But Daniels is, most of all, one with Cookie: Her extremes are his extremes—from her fierce persistence to her outspoken honesty to her love of peacock fashion and attention. Like Cookie, Daniels loves to be the center of his (often crazy) worlds.

Originally, Empire was pitched as a movie to him by Danny Strong, the screenwriter of The Butler, Daniels’s 2013 hit film about the life of the head servant to seven presidents. Daniels, who started his career as a producer (Monster’s Ball, his 2001 drama about bigotry and interracial love, won Halle Berry an Oscar for her performance), was intrigued by Empire but saw it more as a TV show, along the lines of popular ’80s series like Dallas and Dynasty. In the past, the idea of segueing from a successful movie career to one in television would have been considered risky, if not a total mistake.

But TV today, from the creative talent inventing the programs to the stars acting in them, is a kind of mecca. The parts, especially for women, are more complicated and diverse than in the superhero-saturated cinema. Unlike studio films, which are usually very expensive and geared to a global (read: male) audience, television can afford to be quirkier. On TV, there are real housewives, killer zombies, and Silicon Valley nerds. In considering Empire, that kind of fluidity greatly appealed to Daniels. “And I wanted to finally make some money,” he told me. “You don’t make any money doing independent films, even if they get nominated for the Oscars and the world says you’re a genius. Doesn’t pay the bills.”

Daniels knew that casting Cookie was crucial to the success of Empire, so he persuaded Henson to audition. “I was like, This is stupid,” recalled Henson, who had just left CBS’s successful Person of Interest and wanted to return to her first love, theater. “Hip-hop—dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. But then I started to think, Cookie is going to piss so many people off! She hits her son with a broom; she talks back.

Clearly, this was a challenge.”

During her audition—a Skype session with Daniels, who was in Japan— Henson insisted that the Academy Award–nominated actor Terrence Howard play Lucious Lyon, Cookie’s ex. Henson had worked with Howard in 2005’s Hustle & Flow, in which he played a pimp who dreams of becoming a rap star, and she, one of his prostitutes. At the Academy Awards, Henson performed the film’s Oscar winning song,

Sportmax dress. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/ where-to-buy-august-2015.

Hair by Shay Ashual at Tim Howard Management; makeup by Yadim for Maybelline; manicure by Michelle Saunders for Essie at Celestine Agency.

“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” “I sang that in front of my peers,” Henson said. “It was both amazing and embarrassing. But I think the song won for the same reason that people love Cookie. It was about coming from nothing, having goals, and going after them.” She paused. “And it was extreme. People love extremes.”

When Henson demanded that Daniels hire Howard, Daniels remembered thinking, “This bitch just Cookied me! So I made them do a screen test to see if they had chemistry.” Henson, to her credit, put her ego aside and played along. “If I hadn’t, I would have missed out on Cookie. Or, they would have missed out on me, honey.” She laughed. “You can see my head growing!”

In truth, there is no Empire without Henson. From the first episode, where Cookie emerges from a 17-year prison stint in a three-quarter-length white fur coat over a skintight jaguar-print mini, she is instantly riveting. And that’s before she even opens her mouth. Cookie is the queen of the hilarious put-down: When she tries to get rid of Lucious’s new fiancée, she quips, “If you want Cookie’s nookie, ditch the bitch.” Then there’s the episode in which she beats an artist on their label in a drinking contest, throws her legs in the air in the backseat of an SUV, and seduces her newest love interest with the order “Take these cookies!”

Cookie, as embodied by Henson, has become the reigning heroine of 2015. She’s maternal, sexy, honest, and always up for a cat fight. Largely because of Cookie, Empire is the season’s No. 1 broadcast series with adults 18 to 49 and has unseated The Big Bang Theory. More than 17 million viewers watched the season finale, a bizarre mash-up of revealed secrets, attempted murder, quasi-incestuous sex, and a sudden plot twist involving an incurable disease, which prompted 2.4 million tweets in the space of two hours. The audience must like the speed of the plot contrivances—the show’s ratings have increased steadily by the week, as has its viewership online. The show’s soundtrack was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. And Henson, who in June won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for best actress in a drama series, has 3.49 million followers on Twitter alone. “They want Cookie,” Henson declared. “They see her heart. They see her intentions. And they love her style—her style is 17 years behind the fashion curve, which makes the clothes a character on the show. As Cookie grows, you’ll see her fashion grow. And people love that—she’s a work in progress. The only thing that never changes is her spirit: To me, Cookie is living, breathing, walking truth.”

Nevertheless, Henson has attracted a lot of criticism, especially from the black community, which feels Cookie is not a proper role model. “When I hear that Cookie is a bad representation of black women, I don’t get involved. Maybe Cookie makes you uncomfortable because she reminds you of yourself. People miss the bigger picture when they start judging.”

In real life, Henson has similarities to her character. She grew up in a working-class family in Washington, D.C., and, from the age of 5, she knew she wanted to be an actress. After a failed foray into electrical engineering (“It sounded like I was going to make a lot of money”), Henson majored in theater at Howard University. During her junior year, she became pregnant. When her son was still a toddler, they moved to Los Angeles so she could pursue acting. “It was a struggle,” Henson remembered. “But my son grew as my career grew. I never had a nanny—I did TV so I could be home with him. I wasn’t making my millions, but I was able to fulfill my dreams and be a mother.”

After Hustle & Flow, she was asked to read for the part of Queenie, the adopted mother of a man who ages backward, in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. “I didn’t take it seriously,” Henson told me. “I mean, they had Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt—why would they want me?

I thought it was a runaround, and I decided to hold an epic garage sale that day instead. I had mannequins. I had glasses with wig heads. I had champagne ready. And then my agent called and said, ‘Shut that garage door! Fincher wants to see you.’ ” She got the part and was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress. “I lost, but it was the best time of my life,” Henson declared. “Brad and Angelina rushed up to me and said, ‘Are you okay?’ I was like, ‘Yes! Can I get some more wine?!’

They were more concerned about my name not being called than I was.”

After the high of Benjamin Button, Henson expected a surge in feature-film parts, but it was not to be.

“Not only would I never be offered a character like Cookie in a movie, but she doesn’t exist,” Henson said. “Cookie is bold and crazy, and she loves the struggle. She started from nothing, and now she’s at the top. In that way, we’re alike: Cookie is the American Dream.”

PRODUCED BY ACROSS MEDIA PRODUCTIONS. L.A. PRODUCTION BY LOLA PRODUCTION. DIGITAL TECHNICIANS: NICCOLO PACCILLI, JERONIMO DE MORAES. PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: MATT EASTON, SINCLAIR JASPARD MANDY. FASHION ASSISTANTS: RYANN FOULKE, DENA GIANNINI, SAM WALKER, TINA HUYNH. HAIR ASSISTANT: TAICHI SAITO. MAKEUP ASSISTANTS: MONDO LEON, MARISOL GARCIA

“Cookie is bold and crazy, and she loves the struggle…In that way, we’re alike: Cookie is the American Dream.”

BENSON: HAIR BY TAMARA MCNAUGHTON AT MANAGEMENT & ARTISTS; MAKEUP BY OZZY SALVATIERRA FOR CLE DE PEAU BEAUTE AT STREETERS; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: AMY MOORE, MATT HARTZ, BRADEN MORAN; FASHION ASSISTANT: JENNIFER AUSTIN; SET DESIGN BY JULIET JERNIGAN. SPECIAL THANKS TO CHATEAU MARMONT. MIDDLEDITCH: HAIR BY DENNIS GOTS FOR ORIBE HAIR CARE AT THE WALL GROUP; MAKEUP BY JO STRETTELL AT THE MAGNET AGENCY; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: AMY MOORE, ANDREW HALLINAN, BRADEN MORAN; FASHION ASSISTANT: HESTER HODDE; SET DESIGN BY JULIET JERNIGAN

This page: Cohan wears a Salvatore Ferragamo dress.

Opposite: Middleditch wears a Marc Jacobs blazer, shirt, and turtleneck.

Lauren Cohan AMC’s The Walking Dead, in which week after week characters run for their lives in the wake of a zombie apocalypse, is one of the highest-rated cable shows in the United States. It has spawned a program devoted solely to discussing its many deaths and intrigues (Talking Dead), as well as an upcoming spin-off (Fear the Walking Dead). “I don’t know what this obsession with zombie culture says about us,” says Lauren Cohan (opposite), the British actress who plays the headstrong Southerner Maggie Greene in the series. Onscreen, she constantly battles the hungry undead; in real life, she must contend with the show’s no less voracious Comic Con–storming fans. “I get anxious sometimes,” she admits. “But I believe that when I wear my glasses, I’m invisible to them.”

Thomas Middleditch HBO’s Silicon Valley, which won a Critics’ Choice Television Award for best comedy series, is set in a company town—one ruled by geeks-turned-billionaires. It’s a weird, insular, paranoid culture that hasn’t been adroitly satirized until now. “Some things are exaggerated for comedic effect, but I’ve had interactions with bona fide programmers and felt like I was living in the TV show,” says Thomas Middleditch (above), who stars as Richard Hendricks, the creator of an algorithm that might just put him, in the show’s parlance, in the “three-comma club.” Still, his path is littered with sharklike corporations, sacrificed ideals, and a parade of techies blessed with big brains but zero social skills. “I don’t want to generalize this inability to be socially normal to all of Silicon Valley,” says Middleditch, who admits to a more traditional nerdiness (video games, Renaissance fairs). “But some of the guys are shockingly bizarre.” »

ONES TO WATCH

The most popular shows on television today have their lovely, talented, and social media–savvy stars to thank.

By Fan Zhong Photographs by Pari Dukovic Styled by Patrick Mackie

When she joined the cast of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in the reality program’s third season, Yolanda Foster (above) was expecting to have more than her share of trashy fun. But almost immediately thereafter, she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. “I had much more glamorous plans for myself, obviously,” she says with a resigned laugh.

Instead, the former model parlayed her celebrity into a platform for greater awareness of the condition. She’s extended her campaign onto Instagram—a tool that’s been kind professionally to both Foster and her daughters, the ubiquitous models Gigi and Bella Hadid. “When I was modeling 30 years ago, we didn’t have that,” Foster says. “You went around with your portfolio, begging for jobs. Now, these kids establish themselves on social media and they just run with it.”

Derek Hough Before he became a regular on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, the hugely popular live competition that has brought ballroom dancing to the masses, Derek Hough (right) was wary of reality TV. “It just seemed absurd to me,” he admits. But his sister, Julianne, convinced him to appear as a guest dancer, and he hasn’t looked back in 15 seasons—even if the show, on which Marie Osmond fainted and Bristol Palin shed bitter tears, can be physically and emotionally taxing. “If you try to be cool, if you worry about being embarrassed, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons,” Hough says.

“You’ve gotta embrace it—and sometimes that means going for a ridiculous song.”

Ashton Kutcher “If you want to know what the future looks like, build it.” This sounds like something Steve Jobs might have said, but, actually, these words were spoken—with as little irony as any Jobsian pronouncement—by the actor who once portrayed him on film, Ashton Kutcher (opposite).

And coming from Kutcher, it’s not such a laughable idea. Always quick to embrace new social media platforms—famously, he was the first to rack up a million Twitter followers, in 2009—the 37-year-old runs venture capital funds that invest in tech start-ups and recently launched A Plus, a Buzzfeed-like site peddling feel-good motivational stories to a surprisingly large audience. “We figured out how to make inspiration play on the Internet,” Kutcher says.

And although he made his name on cable and network TV, he’s now at work on a secret project designed to take advantage of our current streaming, binge-watching predilections. Says Kutcher, “I’m trying to do something that’s never been done.” »

FOSTER: HAIR BY DENNIS GOTS FOR ORIBE HAIR CARE AT THE WALL GROUP; MAKEUP BY JO STRETTELL AT THE MAGNET AGENCY. KUTCHER: HAIR BY NINA PASKOWITZ AT THE CRITERION GROUP; MAKEUP BY TRACEY LEVY AT FORWARD ARTISTS; FOSTER AND KUTCHER: PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: AMY MOORE, ANDREW HALLINAN, BRADEN MORAN; FASHION ASSISTANT: HESTER HODDE; SET DESIGN BY JULIET JERNIGAN; HOUGH: HAIR BY TAMARA MCNAUGHTON AT MANAGEMENT & ARTISTS; MAKEUP BY OZZY SALVATIERRA FOR CLE DE PEAU BEAUTE AT STREETERS; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: AMY MOORE, MATT HARTZ, BRADEN MORAN; FASHION ASSISTANT: JENNIFER AUSTIN; SET DESIGN BY JULIET JERNIGAN

Yolanda Foster

This page: Kutcher wears a Rag & Bone shirt and pants.

Opposite: Foster wears a Carolina Herrera top and skirt. Hough wears a Dsquared2 shirt and pants.

wears a Narciso Rodriguez dress.

Opposite: Kaling wears a Prabal Gurung dress; Maximilian cape; L’Dezen ring. Smollett wears a Tom Ford jacket and turtleneck.

BENSON: HAIR BY TAMARA MCNAUGHTON AT MANAGEMENT & ARTISTS; MAKEUP BY OZZY SALVATIERRA FOR CLE DE PEAU BEAUTE AT STREETERS; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: AMY MOORE, MATT HARTZ, BRADEN MORAN; FASHION ASSISTANT: JENNIFER AUSTIN; SET DESIGN BY JULIET JERNIGAN. SPECIAL THANKS TO CHATEAU MARMONT AND BOUCHON, BEVERLY HILLS

This page: Benson

Mindy Kaling The protagonist of Mindy Kaling’s sitcom The Mindy Project, which recently moved from network TV to Hulu, is a 30-something ob-gyn also named Mindy, who, like so many rom-com heroines, is great at her job but terrible at life. Still, she’s learning and growing, in fits and starts—just like the show, now in its fourth season. “A lot of people say you shouldn’t serialize TV comedy, that you should be able to turn on an episode of, say, Seinfeld, and have it stand on its own,” Kaling (above) says. “But it would be hard to have this woman who wants so badly to change in a show that doesn’t. I want you to keep checking in with these characters.” And there’s still some work to do: The Mindy she plays is shameless, self-centered, and shallow. “She’s one of the worst-behaved female leads in the history of television— and that’s something I’m proud of.”

Ashley Benson It makes sense that one of the mosttweeted-about TV shows—ABC Family’s prime-time teen soap Pretty Little Liars—also attracts some of the network’s youngest viewers. “Our fans who started watching from the beginning, five years ago, are all now going into college,” says Ashley Benson (opposite), who stars as one of a clique of four high school girls whose outlandish behavior seems tailor-made for the social media era. But the Liars are growing up. In the second half of the next season, the show will jump ahead in time to reconnect with the girls four years later.

“We get to play more of our actual age,” says the 25-year-old Benson. “I can’t wait to be out of high school!”

Jussie Smollett There is no shortage of talented musical performers on Fox’s hip-hop opera Empire (see “One Tough Cookie,” page 72), but few of its stars have as much invested in the drama’s catchy jams—the soundtrack went to No. 1 on Billboard’s 200 chart—as Jussie Smollett (above), who plays the fiery singer Jamal Lyon, the gay son of the entertainment tycoon at the center of the show. “Jamal is very much like me in that he’s an autobiographical songwriter,” says Smollett, who cowrote several songs that have become hits, including the Lyon clan’s de facto anthem, “You’re So Beautiful.” “Many of my own stories parallel his.” But while Jamal’s public coming-out during a performance of that track was an emotional high point for the series and its fans, Smollett, who is gay, wants to make it clear that he was never actually in the closet. What he appreciates most about Empire is that it simultaneously offers fizzy diversion and serious conversation. “These things go hand in hand.” »

Jay and Mark Duplass As television trends ever soapier and more plot-packed and over-the-top, it could be argued that the most emotionally affecting shows are no longer the big-ticket prestige dramas but the modest, intimate comedies. Think Louie, Girls, and Transparent, the Golden Globe–winning Amazon series costarring the filmmaker Jay Duplass in his first significant onscreen role. Then there’s HBO’s Togetherness, created by Jay (above, left) and his brother Mark (above, right, who stars in it). This sitcom’s rather conventional log line—throw some volatile characters together under one roof, stir—belies the wild, brutally honest revelations of the often-improvised performances wrung from the cast. “We’re setting a dramatic bar that’s lower than, say, people getting killed,” Jay notes.

“What’s always appealed to us is what’s going on inside our heads and in our relationships. That’s the big stuff.

To us, that feels like life and death.”

For someone who once turned her nose up at television, Gillian Anderson (opposite) is on the tube quite a lot. When the muchanticipated revival of the cult sci-fi program The X-Files—which made her famous and won her an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and two Screen Actors Guild awards more than a decade ago as the FBI agent Dana Scully—premieres as a six-part miniseries on Fox in January, the London-based actress will be on no less than three shows. There’s also NBC’s Hannibal, in which she plays Hannibal Lecter’s psychotherapist, and the BBC’s The Fall, where she stars as a detective tracking a serial killer. All three characters, by nature and by profession, seem to be coated with Teflon. “The challenge is to keep these women out of Scully,” Anderson says.

“Especially when I’m having equally fearless conversations with other law enforcement officials.” She laughs and admits that reprising the meticulous Scully—whom she inhabited for nine seasons and two films—is a bit like riding a bike. “Somewhere before the first read, it’ll just click into gear.”

DUPLASS BROTHERS AND ANDERSON: HAIR BY DENNIS GOTS FOR ORIBE HAIR CARE AT THE WALL GROUP; MAKEUP BY JO STRETTELL AT THE MAGNET AGENCY; PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: AMY MOORE, ANDREW HALLINAN, BRADEN MORAN; FASHION ASSISTANT: HESTER HODDE; SET DESIGN BY JULIET JERNIGAN

Gillian Anderson

This page: Anderson wears a Bottega Veneta dress. Opposite, from left: Jay wears a Brunello Cucinelli suit, shirt, and tie; his own sunglasses; stylist’s own pocket square. Mark wears a Brioni suit, shirt, and tie; stylist’s own belt. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/where-tobuy-august-2015.

Now Trending The fall collections go from modest to extreme.

Photographs by Emma Summerton Styled by Edward Enninful

AMAZING LACE

Some like it demure, others like it diva.

This page, from left: Dolce & Gabbana dress and slip; Vita Fede hoop and pearl earrings (throughout). Valentino gown. Burberry Prorsum dress; Jennifer Fisher hoop earrings (throughout).

Erdem dress. All wear Giambattista Valli boots.

Opposite: Altuzarra blouse, skirt, and belt; Princesse Tam.Tam bra; ChloĂŠ boots.

FUR REAL

Woolly and wild meets tame and tailored.

This page, from left: CĂŠline coat. Marni coat, collar, and skirt.

Both wear CĂŠline shoes. Opposite: Louis Vuitton coats, boots, and trunk cases.

TOTAL ECCENTRIC

To make the look street-legal, follow Coco Chanel’s advice and take one thing off.

From left: Bottega Veneta sleeveless top, shirt, pants, and shoes; In God We Trust NYC hat; Dior bag; Tod’s glasses.

Miu Miu top, skirt, bag, and shoes; Balenciaga glasses; Dries Van Noten necklace (worn as brooch). Chanel parka, top, and skirt; Dior glasses; Burberry Prorsum scarf; Loewe bag; Miu Miu shoes. Miu Miu sweater, top, and skirt; Paul Smith Spectacles glasses; J.W. Anderson bag; Miu Miu shoes. Gucci sleeveless top, shirt, skirt, and shoes; Inverni hat; Paul Smith Spectacles glasses; Dior bag. Maison Margiela jacket, jumpsuit, top, trousers, and shoes; Maison Margiela Artisanal hat; Oliver Peoples glasses; Sweet Pea Jewellery earrings; Loewe bag.

COUCH COUTURE

To stand out from the crowd, blend in with the furniture.

This page: Oscar de la Renta dress; Salvatore Ferragamo shoes. Opposite, from left: Dries Van Noten jacket, shirt, skirt, belt, and bag; Hilfiger Collection hat; Stella McCartney boots. Donna Karan New York jacket, turtleneck, and trousers; Lanvin hat; Dries Van Noten bag and boots.

Lanvin vest, jacket, trousers, and boots. Alberta Ferretti gown; Stella McCartney clutch. Etro coat, vest, shirt, pants, belt, clutch, and boots.

BOSS TWEEDS

Work it well into the weekend.

This page, from left: Balenciaga dress; Salvatore Ferragamo bag; Church’s shoes. Michael Kors Collection jacket, shirt, skirt, belt, and shoes; Giorgio Armani bag. Proenza Schouler jacket, culottes, and shrug; Salvatore Ferragamo bag; Marc Jacobs shoes. Opposite, from left: Prada dress, gloves, and shoes. Prada top, pants, gloves, and shoes. Prada coat, sweater, blouse, hair clips, and shoes. Prada top, sweater, blouse, pants, gloves, bag, and shoes. Wings of Steel sculptural chair by Laurie Beckerman Design.

BEYOND THE PALE

Crank up the volume or tone things down.

This page: Carolina Herrera gown; Alexander McQueen booties.

Opposite, from left: Narciso Rodriguez dress; Loewe bag. Dior dress.

ChloĂŠ blouse and overalls; Marc Jacobs boots.

Giorgio Armani top and pants; Balenciaga bag. All others wear Dior boots.

TOP COATS

Now available in small, medium, and XXL. This page, from left:

Max Mara coat and dress. Calvin Klein Collection coat and dress. Both wear Calvin Klein Collection boots. Opposite: Fendi coat, bag, and boots.

PERIOD DRAMA

From left: Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci jacket, corset, trousers, and clutch; LaCrasia Gloves gloves; Altuzarra boots. Tom Ford dress and choker; No. 21 gloves; Givenchy

by Riccardo Tisci clutch; Altuzarra boots. Marc Jacobs coat, skirt, belt, and bag; Stephen Jones Millinery for Thom Browne hat; Tia Mazza veil; Cornelia James gloves; (right wrist) necklace from Camilla Dietz Bergeron, New York; (left wrist) Oscar de la Renta necklace; Alexander McQueen boots.

Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci jacket, corset, trousers, and clutch; (from top) collar from Camilla Dietz Bergeron, New York; La Soula necklace; LaCrasia Gloves gloves; Altuzarra boots. Marc Jacobs coat, skirt, and belt; Loree Rodkin necklace; Cornelia James gloves.

Alexander McQueen dress and bra; Cornelia James gloves; Altuzarra boots. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/ where-to-buy-august-2015.

Hair by Jimmy Paul for Bumble and bumble; makeup by Dick Page for Shiseido at Jed Root; manicures

by Dawn Sterling for Chanel at MAM. Set design by Stefan Beckman at Exposure NY. Produced

by JN Production.

DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: NICK BEAN AT MILK STUDIOS. PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: ED SINGLETON, ALEX CRADDOCK, CINDY LEAF, WILLIAM TAKAHASHI. FASHION ASSISTANTS: RYANN FOULKE, DENA GIANNINI. HAIR ASSISTANTS: LUCAS WILSON, RO MORGAN. MAKEUP ASSISTANT: GINA DADDONA.

Victorian romance for 21st-century girls.

MODELS: AJAK DENG AT IMG MODELS, ANAIS MALI AT DNA MODEL MANAGEMENT, BINX WALTON AT NEXT MANAGEMENT, AYA JONES AT THE LIONS NY, AMILNA ESTEVﾃグ AT THE SOCIETY MANAGEMENT, TAMI WILLIAMS AT ELITE.

PRIVACY SETTINGS The world’s most beautiful—and followed— women show a side you won’t see on social media.

Photographs by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott Styled by Edward Enninful

“You have to love your body.

This is the secret to the best selfies.�

Emily Ratajkowski followers: 462,000 followers: 2,500,000 likes: 2,537,478 Rosamosario onesie; Loewe cardigan; Luna Mae London thong; Alexander McQueen booties.

Irina Shayk followers: 677,000

likes: 6,138,994 followers: 3,000,000 Rochas blouse; Christopher Kane shoes.

“When you’re shooting nude, there’s always a sense of empowerment.”

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley followers: 584,000 followers: 3,400,000 likes: 792,720 Josie Natori chemise; Martin Katz earrings; (left hand) David Webb ring; (right hand) Vhernier ring.

Bella Hadid followers: 99,000 followers: 917,000 Prada sweater; Eres briefs; Agent Provocateur stockings; (right hand) David Webb ring; (left hand) Sylva & Cie. ring. Beauty note: Get cheeky with Urban Decay Afterglow 8-Hour Powder Blush in Quiver.

Anna Ewers followers: 87,200 likes: 24,968 Ashish bra and knickers; (right hand) Alison Lou ring; (left hand) ring from Beladora, Beverly Hills.

“If I have a sleepless night, I check my Instagram.”

Lily Aldridge followers: 2,200,000 followers: 549,000 likes: 519,746 Diane von Furstenberg top; Victoria’s Secret briefs; Falke tights; bracelet from Beladora, Beverly Hills; David Webb ring; Manolo Blahnik shoes.

“People say, ‘You’re prettier in person,’ and I’m like, ‘Is that a compliment?’”

Joan Smalls followers: 216,000 followers: 1,000,000 likes: 218,020 Rosamosario bra and briefs; Delpozo blouse; Irene Neuwirth ring; Miu Miu shoes.

Barbara Palvin followers: 862,000 followers: 2,300,000 likes: 264,172 Gucci dress and shorts; Carine Gilson bra and corset; Agent Provocateur stockings; Solange Azagury-Partridge ring; Prada shoes.

“The most uncomfortable I’ve ever been on set was having to model coats. I actually am better in less clothing.”

Chrissy Teigen followers: 794,000 followers: 2,400,000 Dolce & Gabbana briefs; Stephen Webster bracelet; Chopard ring; Altuzarra boots. Beauty note: For an allover glow, reach for Jergens Wet Skin Moisturizer with Refreshing Coconut Oil.

MODELS: EMILY RATAJKOWSKI AT FORD MODELS; DOUTZEN KROES AT DNA MODEL MANAGEMENT; ANNA EWERS AT WOMEN MANAGEMENT; IRINA SHAYK AT THE LIONS NY; JOAN SMALLS, ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY, LILY ALDRIDGE, CHRISSY TEIGEN, BELLA HADID, BARBARA PALVIN AT IMG MODELS. SET DESIGN BY ANDREA STANLEY AT STREETERS. PRODUCED BY ACROSS MEDIA PRODUCTIONS. LOS ANGELES PRODUCTION BY LOLA PRODUCTION. DIGITAL TECHNICIANS: NICCOLO PACCILLI, JERONIMO DE MORAES. PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: MATT EASTON, SINCLAIR JASPARD MANDY, RASMUS. FASHION ASSISTANTS: RYANN FOULKE, DENA GIANNINI, SAM WALKER, TINA HUYNH

followers: 863,000 likes: 1,597,083 followers: 3,100,000 Rodarte dress; Pomellato ring from Beladora, Beverly Hills; Miu Miu shoes. Beauty note: Clean up your act with L’Oréal Paris Advanced Haircare Nutri-Gloss 2-in-1 Shampoo and Conditioner. For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/where-to-buy-august-2015.

Doutzen Kroes

To see Kloss Films’ revealing video of our supermodels-turned-pinups, go to Wmag.com/video. Hair by Jimmy Paul for Bumble and bumble; makeup by Yadim for Maybelline; manicures by Michelle Saunders for Essie at Celestine Agency.

DOUBLE TROUBLE Three years ago, he was a controversial choice to helm Balenciaga.

Now, on the eve of his own brand’s 10th anniversary, Alexander Wang is proving he can do haute as well as hot. By David Amsden Photographs by Roe Ethridge Styled by Sarah M. Richardson

MANICURE BY HONEY AT EXPOSURE NY. LIGHTING DESIGNER: CHRIS BISAGNI. DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: JONATHAN NESTERUK. PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANTS: JOHN CIAMILLO, BRENT LEE, BAILEY ROBERTS. FASHION ASSISTANT: MICHAEL BESHARA

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lexander Wang usually starts his day with an anxiety attack. His panic is fleeting and contained, however, since there is no space allotted for it in a schedule that would dampen the palms of a seasoned air-traffic controller. On this afternoon in late May, for instance, Wang is in Paris, in the midst of a 12-hour “check-in” at the Left Bank headquarters of Balenciaga, where he has been the creative director since 2012. Last night he was in New York, shooting the lookbook for his own label’s resort line, and in three hours he will fly to Rome to film a scene for the Zoolander sequel, a fitting cameo for someone who makes a point of not taking fashion too seriously. “We’re not in the business,” he says, “of curing cancer.” Seated at a glass table in the spare, whitewashed chambers adjoining his office, wearing a version of what has long been his de facto uniform—a black sweatshirt draped over his lanky frame, slim black jeans, chunky black sneakers—Wang comes across as perky and amiable, unperturbed by the pressures that have been the undoing of many a designer before him. “Honestly, when I see it all written out, this looong list my assistant gives me in the morning, I can’t help but freak,” Wang says. “But then the day gets going, and I get in the motion of it and…” A sly grin breaks out across his fine-boned face. “My friends call me the Energizer Bunny.”

When it was announced that Wang would be filling the shoes of Nicolas Ghesquière, whose 15-year tenure at Balenciaga was summarized by Style.com as “the standard by which other big house revivals are judged,” the fashion community responded with a haughty, dismissive gasp. Did Wang, then 28, have the required experience? Would he be stretched thinner than his beloved jersey T-shirt dresses? And, most critically, was he too—how shall we say?—American to oversee a storied French luxury house?

Wang became downtown New York’s prince of cool by elevating streetwear staples—nonchalant sweaters, slouchy denim—with a high-goth (and highly commercial) sensibility. Impressive as his rise has been—not quite a decade after launching his line as a capsule knitwear collection, he now has 23 stores worldwide, with annual sales estimated at just over $100 million—there were concerns about how his insouciant aesthetic would translate into the more rigid, precision-oriented universe of European couture. “It was kind of annoying, because the minute I got this job, I was suddenly reduced to someone who just made T-shirts and jeans,” says Wang, who dropped out of the New School’s Parsons School of Design at 21. “I knew exactly what people would say, and my attitude was: I’m not going to respond, I’m not going to give interviews. What I’m going to do is prove them wrong.”

Three years in, he has largely done that. His collections have been praised for being both reverent and irreverent, and for infusing the iconic bubble skirts and cocoon jackets created by the company’s founder, Cristóbal Balenciaga (aka fashion’s Picasso), with an edge all his own.

“I’m much more confident now than when I first got here, and feel like I really hit a stride with the fall collection,” Wang says, gesturing to the mannequins scattered about the room, sheathed in pieces from the show that commenced with Lady Gaga sauntering down the catwalk in an obsidian black power dress. Everything from the “fur” collars made from piercing rings to the “tweed” made from woven rubber and Lurex speak to Wang’s embrace of the subversive. “Oh, and look closely at this embroidery,” he says, proudly thumbing a shimmery metallic bodice. “It’s actually made to look like cut razor blades. There’s something quite dangerous about it.” While Wang has squelched any fears that his tenure at Balenciaga would be overly casual or commercial, he approaches his role there with the same ethos he brings to his own company. “I feel that fashion doesn’t need to be pretentious, even at this level,” he says. “So the challenge is: How do you keep the integrity of the craftsmanship while pushing for a new standard of luxury?”

Wang credits his life in Paris—or, more accurately, his lack of a life in Paris—with allowing him to move between two harried worlds without suffering debilitating vertigo. Never one to turn down a late night of dancing in New York, where his Fashion Week parties are notoriously libertine extensions of his personal life, he has carved out an almost monastic existence in Paris. He doesn’t speak the language and still can’t name the neighborhood of the hotel where he stays, always in the same room, for a week or two a month. “I haven’t yet figured out the whole arrondissement thing,” he says, sounding more like a tourist than an appointed arbiter of

the country’s culture. Unlike, say, Marc Jacobs, who when running Louis Vuitton created a home in Paris and spoke rhapsodically about how the city’s unique rhythms inspired his designs, Wang describes Paris as a kind of non-place where he can work without distraction—an approach that would have been blasphemous in a more precious era but dovetails with today’s corporate climate, where there’s little patience for creative eccentricity if it gets in the way of machinelike output. “I take the red-eye on Sunday and go straight to the office on Monday,” he says. “Then it’s back to the hotel, eat, sleep, and back to the office. People ask why I don’t get an apartment here, but in my personal life I like to consolidate. One home, one bank account—clean and simple. I’ve got enough responsibility without having to think about furnishing another place, you know?”

Wang is equally streamlined when it comes to his inner circle, which has not expanded much beyond the same 10 friends he’s had since high school and college. Being single, he refers to his friends as “my vacation, my everything” and appreciates their frankness: “They have no problem telling me when they hate a collection.” Among his closest allies is Vanessa Traina Snow, a high school classmate and a daughter of the novelist Danielle Steel.

Traina Snow was at Wang’s first fashion show, which he put on at age 15 during his older brother’s wedding, and now joins Wang during his stays in Paris, serving as a stylist and consultant. “She’s the woman most prominent in my mind when I’m designing for Balenciaga,” says Wang, who cites the actress Zoë Kravitz, another pal, as Traina Snow’s inspirational counterpart for his own line. Traina Snow and Wang have a symbiotic relationship, always fused at the hip, finishing each other’s sentences, speaking in coded whispers, constantly breaking out in laughter. “As a designer and a businessman, Alex has grown so much,” Traina Snow says. “But as a person?

He’s the same guy: loyal and fun. We are always aware of the fact that, if someone had told us in high school that this would be our lives, we would have died laughing.”

Isabelle Guichot, Balenciaga’s president and CEO, agrees that Wang has grown more self-assured on the job—both in the boldness of the collections, and, with a double-digit growth in sales, his respect for the bottom line. “In fashion, we always say that men are more loyal to a brand than women,” she says. “I think Alex is very smart in wanting to change that, to make this a place where the same woman comes to get dressed season after season.” For Wang, this has meant focusing on what he calls the “essentials”—an oxford shirt, a peacoat, a trench—that return every season in familiar shapes. “I like the idea of a woman coming here not just to buy the It bag, because that’s not sustainable, but to be wardrobed,” he says, using a word uttered with philosophical gravity around the offices.

Yet for all the talk of Wang’s increased confidence, there is one subject that remains sensitive: the legacy of Ghesquière, whose introduction of high-tech fabrics infused Balenciaga with the sci-fi elegance that rescued the brand from obsolescence. Bring up Wang’s predecessor with anyone in the company today, for instance, and what you’ll invariably hear is—actually, scratch that. In order to meet Wang and visit the atelier, one must first agree not to mention “NG,” as if doing so would cause the regal building’s plaster walls to crumble. This is understandable: Ghesquière’s departure, in 2012, was abrupt and acrimonious. Still, with all the present talk about the importance of heritage, of mining a fashion brand’s past to inform its future, there’s a tetchy awkwardness in trying to avoid uttering the name of the man who, after the haloed Cristóbal, was a key figure in the story of a house that, in 2017, will celebrate its centennial.

But Wang, it turns out, doesn’t mind discussing Ghesquière’s influence.

“Look, that was obviously a very important part of the history of this company,” he says as he takes a stroll through the neighborhood to show off the 17th-century former hospital that is being refurbished to accommodate Balenciaga’s future headquarters. “I have so much respect for what he did, and there’s no denying the stamp he left on this brand. But right now my focus is on the future, on taking this opportunity to see what I can do.”

It seems he has something more nuanced to offer aside from such boilerplate musings, but further talk on the subject is nixed by a searing look from Balenciaga’s ever-hovering public relations rep, who has drifted within earshot. “I’m always afraid I’m going to say the wrong thing around her,” confides Wang, though he doesn’t appear to feel particularly handcuffed by this level of micromanagement. Creatively, he owes his success to being preternaturally dialed in to the constantly mutating definition of cool; but perhaps his most critical strength, in his role at Balenciaga, is an

EURO STARS

At Balenciaga, Wang has deftly updated the house’s ultra-sophisticated codes.

“I like the idea of women coming to Balenciaga to be wardrobed,” Wang says. understanding of the business of fashion now. In the wake of scandals like the one faced by Dior, in 2011, when John Galliano went on a drunken anti-Semitic tirade, the big fashion houses have stepped back from promoting the cult of personality of their head designers. “My own company bears my name, and I’m the end point of everything that happens there,” Wang says. “But here, I’m a variable in a very different equation—one that was in place before me and will continue on after I’m gone. Essentially, I’m just another employee.”

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f Wang doesn’t exude the mystique long associated with fashion’s most prominent personalities—the embattled artist struggling to actualize his whimsical fantasies within the constraints of a corporate power structure—the reason may be that he is the rare talent whose story does not include a hand-to-mouth chapter.

Born and raised in San Francisco, the youngest son of Taiwanese parents who worked in plastics manufacturing, Wang launched his company with $10,000 of family money. “It wasn’t like my mom just bought me an office and said, ‘Have fun,’ ” says Wang a few days later, back in New York, where in a span of 48 hours his duties include shooting the latest lookbook for T by Alexander Wang, his label’s more casual line; meeting with the Balenciaga team to begin hammering out the spring collection; and participating in a shoot for this magazine. “We made a line of six sweaters; they sold, we all got paid, and it’s been growing ever since.”

Wang’s eponymous company, which has thrived without help from outside investors, now occupies five floors of a building on Broadway, in lower Manhattan, not far from his SoHo boutique. While touring the headquarters, where teams of patternmakers work on designs that will be manufactured in Asia, Wang talks about how he has always been keenly aware that fashion is, above all else, a business. “When I started, we had to sell, simple as that, and when you’re using your own money, you’re very aware of costs,” he says. “Obviously, it’s different at Balenciaga, but I try to approach that job the same way.” This year marks the 10th anniversary of his label, and while Wang is planning a number of surprises to mark the milestone, he’s much more interested in focusing on what’s ahead than in basking in the afterglow of successes. Working for

NEW YORK DOLLS

Wang captures a downtown, edgy sensibility with his signature line.

For stores, prices, and more, go to Wmag.com/where-tobuy-august-2015.

Wang became the prince of cool by elevating street staples with a goth sensibility. a global powerhouse has made him all the more eager to see how he can scale up his own brand. “I’ve always seen fashion as more than just clothing,” says Wang, who in the past has done several collections for H&M and constantly cites Ralph Lauren’s balance of scope and consistency as his model. “He can do furniture, he can do restaurants—a whole lifestyle,” Wang says. “People know what he wants without him having to even say it.”

Wang’s older brother, Dennis, who has long served as his chief principal officer, found the space currently housing the company’s headquarters in 2008. “He saw it on Craigslist, of all places,” recalls Wang, taking a break after preparing his resort line for a press preview, his black Range Rover idling out front, ready to whisk him to his next appointment. To celebrate the signing of the lease, Wang attended a “pop-up German rave” that pulsed into the early-morning hours. “It was one of those awesome nights of partying where you don’t really know where you are,” he says. “Anyway, when the party ended, they ushered us out a different entrance than the alley where we entered. Suddenly I realized I was in the lobby of my new offices.” For Wang, this was a positive sign. “It’s a cliché, but I work hard and I play hard.” Two days earlier, he had attended the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards ceremony. He found the afterparty, held at the Boom Boom Room, atop the Standard hotel, to be a lackluster affair. “It was one of those parties meant to look amazing in photos, but actually being there you were just smashed up against too many people under bright lights,” Wang says. “Me, when I throw a party, I want to be able to disappear into it and let my hair down.”

Two years ago, Wang celebrated his 30th birthday in Thailand, dancing with friends and 30,000 strangers on the beach until sunrise. Later this summer he plans to visit the Greek island of Mykonos, known for its raucous seaside parties. Still, what he likes most about this phase of his life is that it affords him a chance to grow professionally, to show that he can transcend trends and be a sustained force in the industry. “A lot of the time the word everyone uses to describe me and my brand is ‘youth,’ ” Wang says.

“Well, that’s great and all. But I want to do this for a long time, and now I have a chance to show my maturing process.” He lets out a burst of laughter. “Because youth, we all know, doesn’t last forever.”

Hair by Esther Langham; makeup by Seong Hee Park for MAC. Set design by Andy Harman at Lalaland Artists.

Models: Hanne Gaby Odiele at IMG Models; Annika Krist at the Society Management; Leila Ndabirabe and Sarah Brannon at New York Model Management; Grace Bol at Elite; Hedvig Palm and Binx Walton at Next Management; Sally Jonsson at Major Model Management; Lexi Boling at Ford Models; Issa Lish at Muse Management.

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3 2 4

9

5

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IN THE MOOD FOR…

“My fall Moschino collection is about the energy of old New York graffiti, boom boxes, and icons like Madonna, TLC, and the Beastie Boys,” the designer Jeremy Scott says.

“I named it #street.”

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1. Madonna, 1983. 2. Beastie Boys, 1986. 3. Kriss Kross, 1992. 4. TLC, 1995. 5. Kenny Scharf’s Boom Box, 1985.

6. Mark Wahlberg, 1991. 7. A lock assortment. 8. and 9. Photographs of graffitied New York subway cars with passengers by, respectively, Christopher Morris (1981) and Bruce Davidson (1980).

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120 WMAG.COM

TO CREATE YOUR OWN MOOD BOARD, GO TO WMAG.COM/MOOD-BOARD.

SCOTT: GIAMPAOLO SGURA; 1: RICHARD CORMAN/CPI SYNDICATION; 2: LYNN GOLDSMITH/CORBIS; 3: SIPA PRESS/REX; 4: NORMAN NG/CORBIS; 5: KENNY SCHARF; 6: THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; 7: PATRICIA VOULGARIS; 8: CHRISTOPHER MORRIS; 9: BRUCE DAVIDSON

STREET CULTURE