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19

WAYS TO REFRESH YOUR WARDROBE

BIG FASHION ISSUE! YOUR A-Z OF THE SEASON AHEAD...

S W E AT E R D R E S S E S SUPER SLEEVES DISCO BOOTS DENIM GOES DARK PLUS

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WHAT NOW FOR TENNIS’S $1BN STAR ‘She’s making the impossible possible’ SURVIVOR STORY

‘MY SECRET ESCAPE FROM AFGHANISTAN’ ZOE KRAVITZ SHARES HER MAKE-UP MUST-HAVES from £14 S M A L L TA L K ’ S B AC K

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BOTH COVERS: PHOTOGRAPHER: ALEX BRAMALL; STYLING: HARRY LAMBERT. NEWSSTAND COVER: HARRIS REED WEARS CUSTOM-MADE HEADPIECE, HARRIS REED X VIVIENNE LAKE; TOP AND TROUSERS, HARRIS REED CUSTOM; JEWELLERY, HARRIS REED X MISSOMA. SUBSCRIBERS’ COVER: HEADPIECE, HARRIS REED X VIVIENNE LAKE CUSTOM; SKIRT, HARRIS REED CUSTOM; MODEL: ALEK MALEK. THIS PAGE: PHOTOGRAPHER: DAVID VAIL; STYLING: MOLLY HAYLOR; DRESS, BOOTS AND TIGHTS, ALL FENDI; GLOVES, ATSUKO KUDO; HEADSCARF, AMAZON; MODEL: IKRAM ABDI OMAR

contents 19 20 23 26 34

N E WS Grazia view Polly Vernon has her say Chart of lust What’s new now!

C OV E R STO R I E S

10 hot stories, including what’s next for $1bn tennis star Emma and inside the Bennifer roadshow 60 64 70

74 83

88

97 98

106 116 126 134 144 150

161 162

174

F E AT U R E S C OV E R STO RY

‘My secret escape from Afghanistan’ C OV E R STO RY

Your A-Z of the season ahead Halima Aden: ‘I was the first hijabi model, I had to take some bruises’ Why we’re nostalgic for the noughties C OV E R STO RY

Did Covid kill the art of conversation?

‘When I lost my husband, my friendships transformed the space he left behind’

FAS H I O N Your new season starts here C OV E R STO RY

The power of two: Harris Reed talks to Harry Lambert High drama A fresh spin Truly scrumptious C OV E R STO RY

How to wear it: winter coats

W E LC O M E TO T H E I SS U E after a number of false starts, it feels as if a life in which you need some wardrobe refreshers has returned. Commuting again? You’ll be in the market for some stompy boots and a big tote. Got a much-delayed wedding in your diary? Well, that’s worth a new outfit. Craving a new coat that doesn’t have to protect you from all the elements because you can now go inside? If so, our Big Fashion Issue is here: breaking down the trends worth knowing and editing the best high-street buys and designer investments. This issue is about the joy of dressing up. Designer of the moment Harris Reed understands that better than most. Previewing his London Fashion Week collection on page 98, he talks about the cause behind his clothes. It’s a lesson in the power of dreaming big…

H AT T I E B R E T T, E D I T O R

@hattie_brett / feedback @graziamagazine.co.uk

C OV E R STO RY

19 ways to revive your wardrobe Dressed up, up and away

B E AU T Y It’s new + we want it!

Natural wonder: Charlotte Mensah styles the new season in Afro and curly textured hair

SUBSCRIBERS’ COVER

C OV E R STO RY

What Zoë Kravitz did next 181 182 190 192

16 194

I T ’S T I M E TO. . .

Catch up on the latest releases Discover a house of plenty Read our Book Club pick Watch TV with Paul Flynn

A N D T H E R E ST Your letters Grazia life advice… Alesha Dixon

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AC T I O N O N D I C K P I C S

May I congratulate you and Laura Bates for campaigning to criminalise cyberflashing (‘Dick pics teach girls that men can force sex on them without consent’, 20 Sept). I’ve just signed the petition. I have personally been a victim of this and, as a transgender woman, find it just as abusive as everyone else.

Star Why someone wishes to harass me with letter unwanted messages and images, just because I am female and there is nothing to stop them, is quite frankly disgusting. I realise that many of us experience this problem on an almost weekly basis and it really is time that it was stopped, with the people responsible held to justice. Sharon R I G H T S U N D E R T H R E AT

I read Grazia View (20 Sept) and agree: everyone should fight the rollback of women’s rights. What is the matter with Texas? Banning abortions from as early as six weeks with NO exceptions, even for rape or incest? Ridiculous. As a foster parent, my mother once looked after a girl of 15 who’d been raped by her stepfather.

She had an abortion at nine weeks – how could this not be considered just or legal? Amanda T H E M AG T O B AG

I recently celebrated my 70th birthday. I’ve always enjoyed magazines, but feel compelled to say Grazia is the only one I now buy. The fashion (which I still love – my grandmother used to say you may as well be dead if no longer interested in fashion), topical stories, social, medical and beauty topics, opinion pieces – I love Polly Vernon – make Grazia the best women’s

magazine available. I recently passed on a copy to my daughter, who is taking out a subscription.

Keep up the good work and your appeal to all women. Jenny THE REAL DEAL

It was good to read Polly Vernon’s candid ‘Why I’m open about the work I’ve had done’, (20 Sept).

I’ve never had a ‘tweakment’ but I use Frownies patches, serums, suncream and a home derma needle roller. I’ve been told I look younger than my years, but I feel that is as much to do with wearing what I like, and my attitude. Thanks, Polly – maybe I’ll get some professional derma needling done and not feel bad about it. Jessica NEVER MISS GRAZIA!

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16

GRAZIA EDITOR HATTIE BRETT bsme editor of the year Deputy editor KENYA HUNT Assistant editor EMMA ROWLEY Assistant editor JESSICA BARRETT Senior editor RHIANNON EVANS Head of beauty JOELY WALKER

Creative director CAROLYN ROBERTS Digital director REBECCA HOLMAN Picture director NATHAN HIGHAM-GRADY Head of production JENNY CROALL Entertainment director SHANNON MAHANTY Managing editor SOPHIE PRICE

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Art

Production editor MARIA O’CONNOR

Senior art editor JESSICA SNOW Art editor BEN NEALE

Features 020 3879 2313 Features editor ANNA SILVERMAN Senior features writer GEORGIA ASPINALL

Pictures Deputy picture director ANNA DEWHURST Senior picture researcher SHANA LYNCH

News & Entertainment

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grazialifestyle@graziamagazine.co.uk Lifestyle editor RACHEL LOOS

Health & beauty

Fashion and lifestyle features director LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN Style director MOLLY HAYLOR Digital fashion features and news director HANNAH BANKS-WALKER Bookings director JESSICA HARRISON Fashion features and news editor NATALIE HAMMOND Shopping editor JULIA HARVEY Fashion assistant CHARLOTTE PAVITT Fashion and beauty assistant REMY FARRELL Senior fashion editor-at-large GEMMA HAYWARD Contributing fashion editors-at-large NATALIE WANSBROUGH-JONES, MICHELLE DUGUID

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Website graziadaily.co.uk Head of social media PHOEBE PARKE Social media and video producer LILLIAN SESIGUZEL Digital intern VICTORIA GILL

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Contributing editors CANDICE BRATHWAITE, ASHLEY ‘DOTTY’ CHARLES, HATTIE CRISELL, ROSAMUND DEAN, POLLY DUNBAR, LYNN ENRIGHT, AJ ODUDU

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OVER TO YOU...

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GRAZIA VIEW

21 S E P T E M B E R 2021

Time to rip up the rule book and just enjoy fashion Things we promise never to moan about ever again: feet that hurt in heels.

Coat check queues. Getting in and out of a jumpsuit. Doing our make-up in the back of a cab. Questions we promise never to ask: can I get away with this?

Is it ‘too much’? Does my bum look big in this? As we take tentative steps – in heels or flats – it’s time to celebrate the joy of clothes once more. To see and be seen. There are no rules any more, apart from one: enjoy it. Fashion’s big return calls for big energy to match – because isn’t every day worth making an effort for?

19

POLLY VERNON The one thing we can do about the Texas abortion laws after Texas enforced the most restrictive abortion laws in the US – legislation that makes abortion illegal after six weeks, when few people even realise they’re pregnant, and plops a $10k bounty on anyone helping a woman get an illegal abortion, even if they’re, say, an Uber driver, giving her a lift; and also? You don’t even have to know the pregnant woman to cash in! There’s an anonymous tip line!

When this new law kicked in, social media and news outlets erupted in anger.

TikTok users flooded the tip line with bogus deets; much reference to The Handmaid’s Tale was made. But the Outrage Cycle moves fast and now, as I write, hardly anyone’s angry about it on the socials any more. By the time you read this, the Texas abortion law will seem less of a burning issue, more a memory of the thing we were all furious about, like, three furiousnesses ago? Four?

Only: it’s still in place, still denying women that absolute cornerstone of rights, because when you force women to continue with unwanted pregnancies, on through childbirth then, to either raise a child they’re not prepared for, can’t afford, or give them up for adoption, you stop women having meaningful control over their lives, finances, mental health and… what’s the other one?

Oh yeah. Bodies. That’s it.

I W R I T E 1 0 D AY S

To be fair to us, one reason we moved past Texas rage quickly was because we felt powerless in the face of it. Unless you can impact the democratic process of an American state, really: what can you do?

Actually, there is something. You can talk about your abortions. Help dissipate the stigma and shame that still enshrouds abortion, even in places it’s legal and incredibly common (one in three British

Y L T N E R CUR ED WITH...

OBSESS

➴

JASPER CONRAN’S A G AT H A I am re-entering a cross-body bag phase.

women has had one). I didn’t talk about mine for years, because… It felt hard. I had zero shame, zero guilt, zero pain, zero regret – nothing but gratitude because of them (plural, oh yeah); but to go public? To write about them? Post on Insta? Make abortion a thing strangers knew about me, family members I hadn’t quite told? Yikes!

Yet I got to a point where I had to say it.

Partly because I realised, had there been someone like me, someone vocal, bold, unashamed, back when I needed mine…

That would have been wonderful. Partly because everyday healthcare – which, make no mistake, abortion is – should be enabled by easy, breezy, everyday chat.

So, five-ish years ago, I came out about my abortions and I am so glad! If I got (minimal) grief, it was outweighed tenfold by solidarity, support and messages from women who said my attitude (can we call it: ‘abortion chill’?) made them feel much, much better about their abortions. Nothing has made me prouder in my entire life.

If we can’t change Texas laws, we really can impact international sentiment about abortion. Eliminate the secrecy, demolish dominant, entirely unrepresentative, narratives of trauma and guilt with our stories of relief – of control, regained.

If you think you’ve got it in you: I cannot recommend it highly enough.

M I S S O M A’ S TURQUOISE NECKL ACE I may be about to break my long-term gold-chains-only policy. Don’t @ me.

ADIDAS OZE LIAS I have this thing for sneaks that make my feet look kinda alien…

Just me?

T I E - DY E CASHMERE See Crush Cashmere, for all your luxe-grunge requirements (of which you have many).

R E J I N A PYO AT M AT C H E S Not being funny, this would really suit me.

Midi Mayfair in Ivory Croc

LONDON Virtual shopping

DUBAI

SHANGHAI 0203 326 5008

ASPINALOFLONDON.COM

, Who we re loving and living for right no

CHART

UST 4 SA S I LV

3. New in DIANA TROUT

2. Non-mover R E G É - J E A N PAG E

1. Up B O B B Y C A N N AVA L E Best name in acting (give or take Claes Bang), partner of Rose Byrne, star of Nine Perfect Strangers, which is getting snobby negs critical comparisons with White Lotus, but why? It’s fab!

The artist formerly known as The Duke/our main reason for carrying on through the bleakest segments of Lockdown 3.

Announced he’s ‘respectfully exited’ the Bridgerton WhatsApp group.

Partly b never got I’m F**king also beca got hea podcast. S and com equal

As we dive deeper into blissful Comedy Central sitcom Younger, the DT quite unexpectedly wins our hearts, with particular reference to her cabaret act and her Dolly Parton karaoke.

5. New in SURANNE JONES’ EYEBROWS We can’t work out if it’s the lighting on the Vigil submarine (of the BBC drama), or if she’s had them Done Different. Regardless: they are magnificent.

9. Down KIM KARDASHIAN

6. Up AYA Z F R O M INTO THE NIGHT

Unfollowed on Instagram by Kanye West – which, in their world, might well be more definitive a statement of the end of their marriage than a decree absolute.

Season two of this odd, deft, compelling little drama hits Netflix and – even though we know it’s not a good idea to get too attached to any of the characters (they tend to die) – in Ayaz’s case, it’s too late, soz.

WORDS: POLLY VERNON. PHOTOS: GETTY

7. Up PETE D AV I D S O N There is a small part of us that lusts after PD 24/7. Even when we’re asleep.

Especially when we’re asleep. Even in this outfit. Especially in this outfit.

8. New in NICKI MINAJ’S COUSIN’S FRIEND’S TESTICLES Most unexpectedly ground zero on a rebuttal from Chris Whitty, an open VoiceNote (2021’s equivalent of an open letter) to Boris Johnson, and a Twitter spat with Laura Kuenssberg.

10. Up MEGAN FOX AND MACHINE G U N K E L LY We grow increasingly enamoured by the esthetic of their ’ship (their ‘collaborative ‘ship-chic’? Their C’S-C? Hmmm, TBC). ’s a little Pammy and Tommy Lee, a little Kurt and Courtney.

Yes, that rhymes.

23

LED O FIND ST Y

Plate, £40, Vaisselle at libertylondon.com

I’m already thinking about my Christmas table décor.

The mix-and-match selection at Liberty of London, overseen by @bryonyrae, will keep it looking anything but twee.

igh! sn’t wellery ll the arm? from

CAN’T W TO BU AIT Y

E ROB D R WA I O U R S AV

Blazer, £1,635, Alexander McQueen at net-a-porter.com

H AT T I E BRETT EDITOR

Jumper, £220, roll neck, £30, and jeans, £70, all Boden

C AT WA L K MOMENT

NE W ON STYL E AS

R

LOUIS VUIT TON

SE Sailor-style cashmere knits bring a whole new lease of life to winter layering.

I loved Nicolas Ghesquière’s trophy coats.

As the models swaggered through the Louvre to a Daft Punk soundtrack, I wanted to throw on one of those slouchy-butstatement jackets and head out to party postpandemic style.

I’m investing in a classic jacket for my re-entry outfit: something that’ll make me feel instantly pulled together and which will last forever.

L O O K I N G F O R WA R D T O The return of the Roys, TV’s most despicably absorbing family. I’m ready to hunker down with the new series of Succession this October.

U

LE

LOOKING F O R WA R D T O

It’s the simplicity and practical size of this chic shoulder bag that did it for me.

Big enough for my phone and wallet but small enough to not get in my way.

£2,700, Loewe

Misfits: A Personal Manifesto b Michaela Coel. I felt seen and inspired while watching the act and screenwriter’s MacTaggar Lecture that led to the book.

£27.99, Zara

I’ll be living in a classic teddy bear coat, soft like a warm hug, come winter. £1,980, Max Mara at net-a-porter.com

NEW SEAS O

N

BE DRO R A W OUR S AV I

YLE RUL ST E

After the year we’ve all had, I think it’s time to burn the rules…

Life’s too short!

I’ve rediscovered my love of statement gold jewellery and have Emefa Cole’s earrings, made from 18ct recycled yellow gold, on my list.

I saw a woman wearing this on the train and chased her down to find out where she’d bought it, and then ordered it in several colours. It will be my base layer for autumn.

Earrings, £5,800, Emefa Cole

CAN’T W TO BU AIT Y

£15, Coach

CHLOƒ

Bold, graphic and embroidered with sharks and unicorns, Coach wins the award for most mood-boosting face mask. I’ll l

C AT WA L K MOMENT

The best elements of British autumnal style, cleverly mashed up in a single look.

The perfect pair of jeans doesn’t ex.... £59, Arket

27

B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A Fashion Week has got me excited for the IRL season ahead. Smythson’s new Fashion Diary will be my companion throughout. £175, Smythson

CAN’T W TO BU AIT Y

My style changes according to my mood, but I always wear this perfume.

Every. Single. Day. I lived in headscarves all summer and don’t want to let go of them now. I’ll swap silk for faux leather come winter. £19.99, Mango

BE DRO R A W OUR S AV I

Blazer, £135, shirt, £59, polo-neck top, £45, and trousers, £55, all COS

I will go anywhere chef Max Rocha works. His debut restaurant, Café Cecilia in Hackney, draws inspiration from cooking with his mum, growing up in Ireland.

C AT WA L K MOMENT The colour, the volume, the print, the casting! Marc showed at a time when we desperately needed inspiration – and got me out of loungewear.

MARC JACOB S

LOOKING F O R WA R D T O

E

M O L LY H AY LO R STYLE DIRECTOR

Bigger = better when it comes to blazers. I’m coveting a supersized fit, like this from the COS runway show.

UL

NE W

SON STYL A E SE

R

The iconic Chanel No.5 celebrates the big 100 this year and, to mark the occasion, I will be wearing this lucky No.5 ring.

No.5 ring in 18ct white gold and diamonds, £6,300, CHANEL Fine Jewellery

£105, Ostens

© DORON LANGBERG ‘IN MY LAP’ 2021 COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND VICTORIA MIRO

CAN’T W TO BU AIT Y

At 5ft 1in, platforms aren’t so much a trend as a lifestyle.

£2,370, Bottega Veneta

L O O K I N G F O R WA R D T O Doron Langberg’s intimate, expressive paintings explore sexuality, grief, nature and family. Doron Langberg: Give Me Love, Victoria Miro Gallery

Cardigan, £59, Autograph at M&S

I can imagine Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy carrying Métier’s understated bags.

The Market tote is my ultimate wardrobe hero. £1,650, Métier

RA NIA AN ON & YLE RES TOR

BE DRO R A W OUR S AV I

C AT WA L K MOMENT

A word I don’t want to hear for a while: athleisure.

I’m craving all-out, ultra-glam, get-into-trouble partywear now.

It’s hard to look sexy and elegant, but Kim Jones nails it with this dress from his debut ready-to-wear Fendi collection. £2,250, Fendi

LE U R

E

SON S TY SEA L W E

g cute cardi will he me transition summer dresses into autumn.

I’m daring to do short hemlines (and LVMH Prize winner Nensi Dojaka is the woman to go to).

Thank god for tights.

COPERNI

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G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Suede patchwork coat, £525, Rixo

LOOKING F O R WA R D T O

CAN’T W TO BU AIT Y

This September marks the first East and South East Asian Heritage Month, a brilliant calendar of cultural happenings put together by the grass-roots movement besea.n. NH besean.co.uk

£52, Machete at freepeople.com

This patchwork is my passpor the ’70s. CP

With vanilla, cardamom and patchouli, this earthy musk feels right for autumn. RF Vanilj, £90, Maya Njie

E ROB D R WA I O U R S AV

N ATA L I E HAMMOND HION D S R

Bella Hadid’s favourite hair accessory, the claw clip, is going to be everywhere this autumn. NH

C AT WA L K MOMENT

Gabriela Hearst’s knitwear wizardry is enough to make me dream of cold weather. CP

NE W

WA I T CAN’T UY TO B

£85, Dune London

Crochet tank, £139, and skirt, £359, both Whistles

LOTTE GABRIELA HEARST

These clogs are the best way to embrace closed-toe season. NH

Who said crochet can’t be worn in winter? CP

LE

REMY FARRELL FASHION AND BEAUTY ASSISTANT

RU

S

SON STYL A E E

31

B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A E

A vase that is technically a wine glass? Yes please!

Handmade by Nienke Sikkema.

JH £124, RiRa Objects

SEASON S TY L

JIL SANDER

W

RU

Be brave! I loved Jil Sander’s mart take on personal e – it was polished but . I want to explore clothes in, discover interesting mbos and bring on the accessories. HBW

LE

Blazer, £395, Marc Cain

The unsung hero of a capsule wardrobe, a neutral tone blazer – go a size up for an easy take – goes with pretty much everything. HBW

CAN’T W TO BU AIT Y

Tote bag, £2,650, Dior

C AT WA L K MOMENT

HANNAH BANKSWA L K E R DIGITAL FASHION NEWS AND FEATURES DIRECTOR

Autumn days call for serious stomper boots, like these ones from John Lewis & Partners’ new collaboration with Erica Davies.

Launching 5 October. JH

JULIA HARVEY SHOPPING EDITOR LOOKING F O R WA R D T O

WA R D R O B E S AV I O U R JESSICA HARRISON BOOKINGS DIRECTOR

32

Y U H A N WA N G

This Dior Book tote is one to buy once and keep forever. While some prints come and go, leopard is one that will return again and again and again. JH

Boots, £109, Erica Davies x John Lewis & Partners

The ultimate cool-girl florals at Yuhan Wang.

HBW

Continuing Nanushka’s mission to support developing creatives, photography exhibition A View By Nanushka will be held at the Hungarian brand’s London flagship store. Until 9 Jan HBW

EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A DEEP BREATH

Like the moment you go back to your routine and rediscover the joy of the little things.

Our breathable technology will be there to support you.

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M A R I LY N M O M E N T Billie Eilish in Oscar de la Renta

Dreams and dressing up are back – and it’s a bright new guard leading the charge, says Laura Antonia Jordan

Fashion’s big return difference between getting dressed and getting dressed up.

And now, the latter is back on the agenda.

At least that was the message stateside this month, heralded by the return of New York Fashion Week, the VMAs, and fashion’s big homecoming, the Met Gala – not on Zoom.

It’s easy to scoff at the Met – the wealth, the privilege, the chaotic takes on a theme – but it always says something about where we’re at. After a Covid-enforced hiatus, what is often billed as the Oscars of the fashion world returned not just to a different America, but a different world. At the 2019 event, Trump was in the White House, a global pandemic was the stuff of outlandish dystopian fiction and Bennifer was an early noughties relic. It’s hard to believe that was just two-and-a-half years ago.

The time out has made way for a new guard, who didn’t just show up on the red carpet, they owned it. The theme of this 

THERE IS A MASSIVE

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Left: Amanda Gorman, Natalia Bryant. Below, L-R: Yara Shahidi, Naomi Osaka, Megan Thee Stallion, Ella Emhoff.

Bottom: Michaela Coel, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

year’s Costume Institute exhibition is ‘In America: A Lexicon of Fashion’ and it was the night’s debutantes who had the most to offer on the subject.

Some went literal. Red, white and blue had inevitable slam-dunk appeal, as seen on the co-chair Amanda Gorman, Saweetie and Michaela Coel, looking every inch the 2021 superhero in a spangled Balenciaga catsuit.

Superhero dressing was a niche trend of the night: see also sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson in a Hulk-style Theophilio bodice, and Simone Biles in an Area extravaganza that weighed 88lbs. Make no mistake, she might be small, but she’s mighty. Pow! Some, of course, go to battle against the old ways in sportswear, another indelible part of the American sartorial identity. First Daughter of Bushwick and new fashion favourite, Ella Emhoff, went for blingy Adidas by Stella McCartney, while co-chair Timothée Chalamet wore his Cartier diamonds with Haider Ackermann track pants and Converse. Proof, then, that maybe you can dream in sweats.

Others went in for old Hollywood homages. Yara Shahidi channelled Josephine Baker in Christian Dior; Nicola Peltz, Barbie Ferreira and Megan Thee Stallion also threw back to a bygone era.

Billie Eilish, at 19 the youngest ever 36

co-chair of the event, continued her style evolution away from baggy emo layers by pitching up looking like a Marilyn Monroe for the Instagram age in custom Oscar de la Renta. At first glance it looked like she was revelling in nostalgia. Predictable, obvious?

Not quite: she wore the dress with the proviso that the brand stopped selling fur.

The new guard have something to say, but they know that action counts.

Hollywood fairy tales are one part of the American identity, but grass-roots activism and protest is another, more urgent facet – one that has only been amplified since the Met was last held and which is needed now more than ever (see the Texas abortion law).

So, unsurprisingly, several guests also used the

night as an opportunity to make a highprofile statement. Dan Levy’s Loewe look, featuring the work of LGBTQ+ activist and artist David Wojnarowicz, was a celebration of same-sex love and visibility. According to the brand notes, this was an imagining of what a ‘gay superhero’ might wear.

One of the most divisive looks was seen on congresswoman Alexandria OcasioCortez. She wore a Brother Vellies dress emblazoned with the rallying call ‘Tax the rich’ on the back, which must have made for some interesting small talk by the bar. To the detractors it was a futile or hypocritical gesture: how can she really say that when she’s attending an event where tickets cost $35,000? But isn’t a circus for the 0.1% the perfect place to make that statement? Why waste the opportunity? Searches for ‘tax the rich’ surged following the Met. Done right, fashion can make a difference.

When it comes to making a statement, who you wear matters as much as what you wear. Although the behemoth brands still dominate proceedings, there was space for young designers, such as Christopher John Rogers (on Gossip Girl’s Jordan Alexander), Area (Biles, Precious Lee), Sergio Hudson (Keke Palmer), Collina Strada (Kim Petras), Conner Ives (Natalia Bryant), Bode (Lorde, not her first time, but she’s part of that set). Naomi Osaka’s custom Louis Vuitton dress was a tribute to her Japanese heritage and featured a print by her sister, Mari. Emerging designers found an unlikely champion in Lewis Hamilton, who stumped up cash to host a table for young Black designers. It wasn’t perfect, there is still work to be done: there were no hijabs on the red carpet; most attendees were sample sized; they were all able bodied.

But perhaps the biggest triumph for the new guard was in their joyful celebration of self-expression. When ‘my body, my choice’ feels more burningly critical than ever, wearing whatever you damn well please can read like an emboldening rally cry. For Lil Nas X, that meant three regal and very camp Versace looks; for Hunter Schaffer, robotic Prada and white contact lenses; for Evan Mock, a Thom Browne gimp mask.

For you, it might mean trainers instead of heels, a short skirt for the weekly shop, it doesn’t really matter.

Love or hate the Met, for fashion to evoke a response is a triumph – and a pertinent reminder that it’s always about so much more than just clothes.

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Nine knockout moments from the (IRL) New York Fashion Week catwalks

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COACH

Comfort as only Tom Ford can (AKA ready to party). The takeaway from this joyful outing? Not all track pants are born equal.

PRABAL GURUNG

If Proenza Schouler’s super-fringed, sunshine yellow dress doesn’t spark joy – what will?

Indigenous model Quannah Chasinghorse was one of NYFW’s breakout stars.

She made her runway debut at Prabal Gurung (above).

TOM FORD

Stuart Vevers looked to the progressive attitude of Coach’s first head designer, Bonnie Cashin.

All-American classics remixed for now.

PROENZA SCHOULER

TORY BURCH

Sergio Hudson had Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama’s vote, dressing them for the Inauguration.

Fingers crossed this blue suit is next.

‘Love is in the air’ it said in the show notes. And looking at Paloma Elsesser in a floral lace bra and swishy skirt at Michael Kors (right) – who would disagree?

MICHAEL KORS

SERGIO HUDSON MOSCHINO

PETER DO

PHOTOS: GETTY

a insider te, old alumnus o’s debut e of the tickets week.

hino, Scott ladies ch – on e’d love more of Aaron ilip lease.

Queen of NYFW ory Burch was lso thinking bout American portswear – she was inspired by Claire McCardell’s aid-back elegance.

Comfort + style = what’s not to love?

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2

Game, set, match!

Emma set to earn $1bn US Open win was everything that she had wanted. The 18-year-old from south London, who was a 400-1 outsider pre-Wimbledon, somehow surpassed all the odds to get to the final of the Grand Slam tournament... and win.

It was a fairy-tale moment; the teenager who’d just finished her A-levels made history by becoming the first qualifier ever to win a women’s or men’s major. It won her £1.8m in prize money, more than a million new Instagram followers and made her a household name overnight.

But because Emma is still a teenager, none of that had been on her mind during the match. Instead, after losing her AirPods, her main thought had been, ‘If you win, you can buy yourself another pair of AirPods.’

This is typical Emma, her former coach at The Parklangley Club in Beckenham, Harry Bushnell, says. ‘She kept going, she took one match at a time and made the impossible possible,’ he tells Grazia. ‘It’s just very her. When she needs to be intense, she is, but otherwise she’s as cool as a cucumber.’

Emma was born in Canada to a Chinese mother, Renee, and Romanian father, Ian, who both work in finance. They moved to London when she was just two and she first picked up a racket aged five. She started working with Harry just a year later.

‘She’s so polite, intelligent and levelheaded. If she continues on this trajectory, the sky is the limit for her,’ he says.

Harry last spoke to her just after she’d been forced to retire from Wimbledon with breathing difficulties after the experience ‘caught up with her’. ‘It was a huge learning curve. Some people gave her stick, but her run there was just as impressive. She’s mentally robust and has big, big character

to come back and trump it in America.’

Right now, Emma is loving life, wearing Chanel to the post-tournament ball and Met Gala (with a beauty look by the house’s make-up artist), and sustainable US label Reformation for her Good Morning America interview. She is reportedly in talks with Tiffany, whose jewellery she wore on court, and could pick up further deals, having long been signed by Nike – the skirt and top she wore in the final have sold out – and talent agency IMG. ‘The fact she’s a tennis player – a sport beloved by fashion’s power nexus, including Anna Wintour and the Arnault family [whose LVMH group owns Tiffany] – gives her an advantage in a crowded field of emerging athletes,’ says Elizabeth Paton, international styles correspondent for The New York Times. Emma also has that critical ‘relatability’ factor, she adds. ‘Her perfect thank you message to fans in Mandarin will not have been lost on brands for whom China is a critical market. It’s all at a time when female tennis players appear to be finally receiving their dues when it comes to media attention. She was also an underdog, with a Cinderella-style story that landed her on the red carpet of a ball with some of the world’s most recognisable celebrities.’

Experts suggest Emma could even earn $1bn and it’s clear that the future is whatever she wants it to be. ‘Martina Navratilova has said she’s a star in the making,’ says Harry. ‘And I’m not going to argue with her.’

EMMA RADUCANU’S

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Emma with her trophy. Right: the moment she won the US Open

WORDS: RADHIKA SANGHAN. PHOTOS: GETTY

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riverisland.com

MP Stella Creasy with her three-weekold baby in Parliament

We won’t accept no to affordable childcare

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O N M O N D AY, 1 3 S E P T E M B E R ,

Westminster positively fizzed with passionate speeches from MPs on our under-funded childcare system. It was the debate we had all been waiting for since our joint petition with Grazia and The Juggle was signed by 112,000 of you, demanding an independent review into childcare’s cost and affordability.

With the Parliamentary galleries closed due to Covid, we watched via live stream, which offered the advantage of being able to audibly cheer, whoop and heckle.

The most striking image from the debate had to be Labour MP Stella Creasy, appearing with her three-week-old baby in a sling on her chest. ‘There’s an army of mums out there, mad as hell that they’re being ignored,’ she proclaimed. ‘We have to get this right because we owe it to every child and every mum in this country to see them right.’ And she was not alone – it was heartening to see MPs from the Tories, Labour, the Lib Dems and the DUP speak in favour of action to help address where the system is failing.

First up to speak was Labour’s Catherine McKinnell, Chair of the Petitions Committee and a passionate advocate for parents, who said, ‘Childcare is as necessary for parents to get to work as the roads and the rail network, so why do we not approach and fund it as the vital infrastructure investment that it clearly is?’

Theresa Villiers, Tory MP and former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, warned: ‘If the Government are to realise their ambition to level up the country, and if they are to make further progress on gender equality and 42

After 112,000 of you signed our petition, MPs this month debated our childcare system in Westminster.

Joeli Brearley and Lauren Fabianski of charity Pregnant Then Screwed share how it all unfolded...

tackle the health inequalities exposed by the pandemic, it is essential to get childcare and early years provision right and to give the sector the support it needs.’

Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse raised concerns about how, ‘in a country where parents pay the third-highest childcare costs in the world, one in 10 childcare workers are officially living in poverty’; while Steve Brine, the Tory MP chairing the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Childcare and Early Education, stressed that the APPG ‘has spoken for some time about what I would describe as a market failure in this sector, and the need for a meaningful review’.

As expected, the debate ended with the Minister for Children and Families, Vicky

Ford, agreeing that good-quality, affordable childcare is critical, but she disagreed with data shared about how standards are deteriorating due to low funding. (As Stella Creasy pointed out, this disagreement on which data is accurate could be part of a review.) With the Government working on a multi-year spending review, Vicky Ford also argued ‘it would not be appropriate to launch a separate independent review of childcare.’

But, as Catherine McKinnell argued, ‘The petition is very reasonable… they are not asking for a specific amount of money, they are asking for a wholescale review, because we can keep going on sticking plasters over the cracks, pumping some money here and there, putting a funding pot in place, but in reality we have a postcode lottery, we have a family lottery, we have parents crying out for more help and support.’

So what’s next? First, we want you to tweet your MP, as well as Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Children’s Minister Vicky Ford, to demand an independent review – we’ve set it all up for you at: tymp.uk/3liilb9 – so go, go, go. We are working with MPs to ensure this idea is raised in Parliament at every opportunity, and we’re recruiting celebrities and other influential people to support this campaign. We have hope that if we all work together, our demands will eventually be met. So come on, team – let’s show ministers that we won’t accept no for an answer.

Follow @thejuggleuk and @pregnant_then_ screwed for more on the fight for an independent childcare review

PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/STELLACREASY

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The return of cosy Welcome Autumn with feel-good wardrobe and home updates.

Plus, the latest collection from The Little White Company

thewhitecompany.com

4 All hail the return of the street style stars New York is always the first stop on the big fashion month roadshow.

This season, its jam-packed calendar didn’t just signal an exuberant return to a more ‘normal’ style of catwalk – complete with front rows and iconic settings like the Empire State building – but also the comeback of street style. The city’s best-dressed showed off a more experimental side than we’re used to seeing in the Big Apple, ramping up their particular brand of pared-back polish with bare skin, prints and patchwork. These were the trends to take away this autumn.

AND WE’RE OFF!

PAT T E R N PA R T Y New York’s street-stylers dialled up their prints to punchy, with full-body immersion in exuberant stripes or splashy florals. Just add gold hoops and snake-print accessories for a throw-on-and-go feel.

Shirt, £25.99, and trousers, £29.99, both Zara

Sandals, £337, Wandler

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ADELINE

Bag, £495, Loewe

PA LO M A E L S E S S E R

As offices reopen, the suiting side of your wardrobe can come back to life. Aimee Song’s oversized approach is definitely the cool-girl take.

AIMEE SONG

X L TA I L O R I N G

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HOT GIRL BRA TOPS OK, our weather might not be set to swelter like New York, but we can still take style cues from the bra tops. Black bra tops were paired with cargo pants; just add an airy button-down, left partially open.

Belt, £398, Tod’s

Bikini top, £50, Les Girls Les Boys

Blazer, £80, and trousers, £50, both Ri Studio

Bag, £16, Tu

WORDS: NATALIE HAMMOND. SHOPPING: JULIA HARVEY. PHOTOS: GETTY

AMY SALL

Trousers, £69, COS

R E T R O PAT C H W O R K The ’70s is alive and kicking in this symphony of suede and patchwork. Copy Amy Sall’s example by sticking to tonal shades this autumn.

Mask, £75, Dolce & Gabbana

Shoes, £120, Vagabond

Dress, £210, Staud

Earrings,£90, Pandora Jeans, £119, Whistles

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A EW I Z I A V R G TER IN

Ashley Graham ‘I’ve always been an open book’

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has her off days. Or ‘funk days’ as she calls them.

A passionate advocate of the power of affirmations (‘I am gold. I am brilliant.

I am beautiful. I am worthy of all and I love you’ are her go-tos), she admits she skips them on those days ‘because I feel like I’m straight up lying to myself ’.

Instead she lets herself indulge in a bit of mindless TV. It’s just the type of kind, relatable confession that has established Ashley as a role model as much as a supermodel.

‘I’m passionate about keeping it real!’ she says. Real for her, like the rest of us, however, has been highly surreal these past 18 months. Not just because of a pandemic you might have heard of, but also because she became a mum in January 2020 (she is now pregnant with her second child).

Motherhood has only amplified her authenticity (sample Instagram caption: ‘Raise your hand if you didn’t know you’d be changing your own diapers too’). ‘The majority of my life I’ve been an open book and I didn’t think this part of my life would preclude me from talking about literally everything that I was going through,’ she says.

The past few months have been about learning to be more forgiving ‘especially EVEN ASHLEY GRAHAM

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when it comes to your new body, your new life, the new chaos that comes with all of it. I’m really trying to not have the pressures of the world get to me to have what social media calls “perfect”. We have our own version of perfect in this house and I love it,’ she says, adding that weekly acupuncture is currently her biggest luxury. As for getting dressed: her first thought now is ‘Can I whip a boob out [in that]?,’ sh ith th t l gh Although Earrings, £1,290

Necklace, £1,090

Bangle, £1,090, all Pandora

the red carpets (plus ‘geeking out’ over her favourite A-listers; one suspects it’s mutual) one concession to glamour has remained: jewellery. ‘I’m all for a diamond in the day,’ she says, pointing out the 17 piercings in her ears. That’s not the only reason that it feels fitting that Pandora has tapped her for its Brilliance collection of sustainable lab-grown diamonds. She has the clout – and confidence – to work with brands that align with her own values. ‘Earth just needs to be treated better,’ is how she sums up the appeal of the collection.

What we also need to treat better is ourselves. ‘It’s always, always important to be kind to yourself and love your body but it’s also very hard to do that when you feel like crud,’ Ashley says. ‘Here’s the thing about self-acceptance. It’s a journey and you may never get there.

There’s no secret. It’s you saying, “I’m going to be OK with who I am in this moment of my life,” and it’s a big statement [but] I think that those words can really counteract whatever it is that you’re going through. This past year, I had to go through what acceptance was for myself all over again. You’re never not working on yourself but I think you also have to remind yourself that’s OK.’ Ashley Graham is the face of Pandora’s Brilliance campaign

PHOTOS: RYAN PFLUGER/AUGUST, PANDORA

WORDS LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN

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1 0 S E P T E M B E R At the Venice Film Festival

9 S E P T E M B E R Loved-up in Venice

B E N A N D J E N . Jen and Ben. Bennifer. The

names that have been on everyone’s lips in the past month (hey, who are we kidding, for the past six months!). Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are a Hollywood couple who know how to give the public what they want – if what they want is huge public displays of affection, extravagant outings and impossibly good looks. Which, of course, we do. September has seen the couple make their first red carpet appearance since they reunited, at the Venice premiere for Ben’s new film The Last Duel (the Ridley Scottdirected project Ben co-wrote with Matt Damon, which also stars Jodie Comer and Adam Driver). They also created the most 2021 of 2021 moments when they posed for an internet-breaking photograph at the Met Gala, kissing through their masks. The impact was instant and obvious: no one does it like Bennifer.

Their first official public appearance since they rekindled things was significant for many reasons – not least because of Jen’s jaw-dropping white plunge dress by Georges Hobeika and her yellow diamond Cartier jewellery. Although we’ve been bombarded with paparazzi shots of the couple since the news broke that they were back together, 15 years after ending their engagement, a source tells Grazia that Ben, 49, and Jen, 52, had been very particular about whether, or when, they would step

Inside the Bennifer roadshow 6

WORDS: JESSICA BARRETT. PHOTOS: GETTY, SHUTTERSTOCK

1 1 S E P T E M B E R Marco Polo Airport

on to a red carpet together. The last time they did this was in February 2003 at the Daredevil premiere. They split months later, in January 2004.

‘Both Ben and Jen had recently ended relationships when they started exploring their romance again earlier this year: Jen had ended her engagement to A-Rod [baseball star Alex Rodriguez] and Ben had split from actor Ana de Armas. There was a bit of chatter to begin with about this relationship being something of a PR stunt, but six months later it’s clear that there are genuine feelings between these two.

There was unfinished business,’ the source explains. ‘Venice Film Festival felt like the right time to make their first public appearance together – it was a big moment in Ben’s career. It was clear to see that he and Jennifer are more in love than ever.’

Days later, Ben and Jen were in New York for the Met Gala, where Jen appeared solo on the red carpet in a custom Ralph Lauren gown, meeting with Ben inside afterwards.

Reports described their behaviour at the star-studded event as ‘passionate’, as they mingled with other guests including Kate Hudson, Rihanna and Billie Eilish.

‘Ben and Jen have certainly proved their doubters wrong at this point,’ said the source. ‘They’re totally in sync, and Ben has been making a lot of effort to change his lifestyle to fit in with Jen’s commitment to wellness, even cutting back on smoking.’

1 3 S E P T E M B E R Masked at the Met Gala

After what has been one of the most extreme whirlwind romances Hollywood has seen for some time, rumours are starting to swirl that the next step surely has to be an engagement. ‘It seems almost certain to everyone around them that an engagement is in their future,’ says our source. ‘The relationship has become very intense very quickly – mirrored by the amount of chat around them – but, unlike the first time around, it all feels very positive. They’re really happy and they’re glad everyone else seems to be celebrating that with them.

They’re enjoying the Bennifer roadshow as much as everyone else.’

Left: Bennifer at the Daredevil premiere in 2003

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7 The man behind the maison: Louis Vuitton celebrates 200 years today, his initials are iconic, his name synonymous with luxury and associated with covetable logos and designer heavyweights including Nicolas Ghesquière and Virgil Abloh. But Louis Vuitton, born in 1821, was also a pioneer (his first innovation was putting a waterproof canvas on his trunk, making it more convenient for travel). So, to celebrate his 200th birthday, Vuitton’s visual image studio gave 200 visionaries carte blanche to treat his greatest invention, the trunk, as a three-dimensional blank canvas for their creativity, continuing the maison’s reputation for exciting artistic collaborations. The resulting projects have formed window displays in stores around the world and are as unique as the visionaries who conceived them. ‘We were trying to include a more diverse spectrum, with scientists, astronauts, anthropologists and poets. Rather than being a retrospective about Louis, he really was an innovator, so it was much more about looking forwards,’

says Ansel Thompson, art director at Louis Vuitton, who deliberately built a brief that was open to interpretation. ‘What was really important for the project was to give these innovators real freedom to create,’ says Faye Mcleod, the maison’s visual image director.

Here, three of them describe their inspiration and how they were influenced by the ingeunity of the man behind the brand.

Portrait of Louis Vuitton, 1892

WORDS: NATALIE HAMMOND. PHOTOS: GETTY, SARAH STAIGER

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C O N STA N T I N PROZOROV After collaborating with brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga and Moncler, Constantin’s collage art has gained a cult following on Instagram. He created his video using Photoshop and, for the first time, he experimented with CGI. It takes the viewer on a journey through the past (Louis Vuitton’s innovation), present (Virgil Abloh’s last collection) and future (the animation itself), seen through the lens of a translucent trunk that flies into the frame like a UFO. ‘I don’t want my work to just be seen as content.

I want to entertain people, I want to bring joy,’ he says.

KAI-ISAIAH JAMAL Words are a way to explore identity for Kai, a poet who, since collaborating with Virgil Abloh, has been celebrated on magazine covers and billboards as fashion’s new star.

‘A lot of it was around finding new ways, outside of clinical or medical terms, to talk about gender and transness. I was so bored of people saying “you’re gender this” or “you’re trans masculine”. If I wake up and say, “Today, my gender feels like a Missy Elliott music video,” that’s what it is.’

Kai’s project contribution is a spoken word performance, with the sea as a backdrop; the trunk, a stage. Kai’s activism was born out of a need to find an environment in which to exist.

‘This all started as a therapeutic thing for myself, which organically turned into something that could give other people a place of solace or validation, or just a place to be. People can use you almost as a vehicle to their own liberation. I think that’s a really magical thing that humans have.’

F E N N O ’ M E A L LY Fenn’s contribution is a meditation on the importance of playfulness, a quality she’s learned to appreciate in herself – especially as a self-taught film-maker who’s earned a reputation as one of the coolest names in the industry, collaborating with brands (Nike, Chanel, Prada) and making music videos for artists such as Jorja Smith. ‘I’m realising now that [being self-taught] is a strength, not a weakness,’ she says. ‘I want people to look at how their innocence is a beautiful asset to creativity.’ The film was the perfect opportunity to work with Femi Koleoso (top left), the drummer for Ezra Collective and Gorillaz, whose thoughts about the young mind provide its narrative. ‘He’s so playful and intuitive with the way that he creates and the way that he immerses himself in his art,’ says Fenn, who has always believed that being spontaneous (she scouted the film’s other star, baby Noah, in the park) is the key to authenticity. ‘The most exciting part of what I do is embracing the moment that isn’t planned.’

View the artists’ work at louis200.com

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WWW.THOMASSABO.COM

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S E I R T STO From top: Britney in 2019; showing off her ring; with Sam in 2018

Britney’s shock engagement amid conservatorship bombshell camera and showing off her four-carat diamond ring, Britney Spears looked like anyone else who had just been proposed to: on top of the world. But, as she announced her engagement to her boyfriend of five years, Sam Asghari (with the caption ‘I can’t f*cking believe it!’), the pop legend’s happy news was overshadowed by continuing speculation about her tumultuous ongoing legal situation.

The engagement came just days after a landmark moment for the 39-year-old singer. Her father, Jamie Spears, filed an unexpected request to terminate the controversial conservatorship that has controlled Britney’s life (everything from her $60m estate to whether she can drive a car) for 13 years. In the motion, Jamie said ‘recent events’ called into question whether she still needed a court to oversee her personal affairs and finances. This follows years of campaigning by the Free Britney movement, which has always backed the end of the conservatorship, as well as a New York Times documentary, Framing Britney Spears, which

PHOTOS: PLANET PHOTOS, EROTEME, GETTY

S M I L I N G AT T H E

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shone a light on her troubled life. Britney has now twice addressed a court in Los Angeles, describing the conservatorship as ‘abusive’ and explaining that she wanted freedom to be able to get married and have another baby if she so wishes (she already has two sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline).

Now, a source says that while those around Britney are thrilled she’s taking such positive steps towards the life she has desired for so long, there are still some concerns.

‘Britney has been through such a lot over the years, everyone just wants her to be happy,’ they said. ‘But there’s also a measured concern about her rushing into any big decisions amid another huge life change: the potential end of the conservatorship.’

There’s little to suggest that 27-year-old Sam, an actor and model who Britney met on the set of the video for Slumber Party in 2016, is anything but a positive influence on her life. In fact, the source says he has ‘fought hard’ on behalf of Britney to free her from her father’s control (he had her engagement ring inscribed with the word ‘lionness’, his nickname for her because of her strength). And while many have been quick to put a cynical spin on the proposed marriage, Sam has taken everything that has been thrown at him. When actor Octavia Spencer commented on the engagement post, ‘Make him sign a prenup’, Sam simply replied with the ‘100’ emoji, then commented on his Instagram story, ‘Thank you everyone who is concerned about the prenup! Of course we’re getting an iron clad prenup to protect my jeep and shoe collection in case she dumps me one day.’

Two days later, Britney deleted her Instagram page, explaining that she wanted to take time out to enjoy her engagement.

As Grazia went to press, Britney – and Sam – were preparing for another conservatorship hearing on 29 September, which will decide whether her father is removed or suspended from the role he gave himself in 2008. ‘However this goes, Britney feels grateful to have Sam by her side,’ says another source close to the couple.

‘What they hope is that this will be the start of a new life for both of them, together.’

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Left: Gérald Marie with his former wife Linda Evangelista.

Below: Carré Otis then and now

Is this fashion’s second #MeToo moment?

WO R D S P O L LY D U N B A R

movement in Hollywood and fashion exploded four years ago, many have wondered whether the fashion industry’s reckoning would bring about meaningful change. Now, thanks to the courage of a group of former models, the movement has had a second wave.

Famous ’90s model Carré Otis is among 15 women to have accused Gérald Marie, the former European boss of the Elite modelling agency, of sexual misconduct – allegations Marie, the ex-husband of Linda Evangelista, strenuously denies.

On 7 September, Carré, 52, united with five of those women, all ex-models, for a compelling press conference in Paris. The former face of Guess and Calvin Klein claims she was trafficked to Paris and repeatedly raped by Marie, now 71, from the age of 17.

She was supported by her friend Carla Bruni, the former supermodel and First Lady of France. Carla said she ‘got lucky’ because ‘it could have happened to me’, adding, ‘It is an industry with a lot of young people, a lot of young flesh for predators. I think it is an industry where the mentality has to change. There is no regulation.’

SINCE THE #METOO

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9

Her solidarity was echoed by other leading fashion figures, including supermodels Helena Christensen, who said she stood with these ‘brave women all the way’, and Karen Elson.

Another of Marie’s accusers, British journalist Lisa Brinkworth, also travelled to Paris to give her statement to police. She alleges she was assaulted by Marie in 1998 while working undercover on a BBC exposé of the modelling industry. ‘When I heard stories from so many other women, I felt compelled to come forward,’ she said.

The women’s claims of rape, sexual abuse or sexual misconduct date from the ’80s and ’90s, so they fall outside France’s statute of limitations. By speaking out, the accusers hope that if there are other alleged victims with more recent complaints, they will come

forward, enabling the case to go ahead.

A lawyer for Marie, who is thought to now live in Ibiza, told the Mail Online in early September that he ‘refutes with dismay these false and defamatory allegations’, but would be ‘withholding his eventual statements until speaking to the competent authorities’.

Fashion and identity commentator Caryn Franklin MBE spent many years trying to expose what she describes as ‘industry complicity around the predatory and coercive behaviour’ of the photographer Terry Richardson. He denied the allegations, but has not enjoyed the same industry profile since. ‘At the time, I was contacted by ex-models who named Marie as a prolific abuser also,’ she says.

Other fêted photographers, including Mario Testino, lost significant working relationships following allegations of sexual exploitation (denied by him).

Meanwhile, model Cameron Russell shared harrowing stories of abuse from more than 60 models on her Instagram account with the hashtag #MyJobShouldNotIncludeAbuse.

Yet many questioned whether change was truly happening in the industry – one in which models are particularly vulnerable. As Caryn says, ‘Where young women are a commodity, it becomes a haven for abusers.’

The Model Alliance, formed by model Sara Ziff, launched The Respect Programme in 2018, a legally binding agreement to protect models and end sexual harassment.

‘Despite the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, the fashion industry has largely escaped any serious scrutiny,’ said Sara. The organisation has offered support to Marie’s accusers, including legal counsel, and it hopes the case will open the door for further criminal investigations. Sara added, ‘If we can’t win protections against child sex trafficking for some of the most privileged and visible women in the world, then, more broadly, where does that leave us?’

PHOTOS: GETTY

10 HOT

S E I R STO

SOFAS . BEDS . CHAIRS www.love-your-home.co.uk

loveyourhomeuk

Precious Lee models Marco’s looks for Marina Rinaldi

10 HO

10

S E I R T STO

Skirt, £350

Coat, £1,860

A new luxury to fit all

Jumper, £300

Blouse, £570

was a child, he would find it upsetting to go shopping with his mother. ‘As a plus-size woman, she didn’t find anything fun, anything beautiful in the stores,’ he explains. ‘She had the impression that fashion wasn’t for her.’

That was just one of the reasons that he jumped at the opportunity to design a capsule collection for Marina Rinaldi (he wanted to create something that contrasted from the experience he remembered and ‘make a happy moment. An experience that means fun, love!’). The Italian label is most often described as a ‘plus-size brand’, but that’s a woefully inadequate description – what it offers are luxurious, elegant clothes that just happen to go up to size 28.

Indeed, the Marina Rinaldi ethos has always been that style shouldn’t be dictated by size. And surely model Precious Lee (who stars in the Marina Rinaldi by Marco de Vincenzo campaign) and Barbie Ferreira’s knockout looks at this year’s Met Gala are proof that the rest of fashion is finally catching up with that. As Marco puts it, ‘The body really doesn’t make a difference in terms of creativity.’

Starting work on the capsule, Marco gave WHEN MARCO DE VINCENZO

WORDS: LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN

Sweater, £290

himself the instruction to ‘be yourself. I felt very free to express my codes.’ That means splashes of colour, zippy prints and glamour, seasoned with a touch of eccentricity. There is nothing apologetic about it. Second-skin ribbed knits, pencil skirts with daring slits and a just-the-right-amount-of-sexy shirtdress aren’t made for hiding away.

Another definition Marco wants to rewrite is what classics look like. It should be possible, he says, to make clothes that are designed for real life that still surprise and delight. ‘It’s tricky to find a balance between that reality without losing the touch of fun,’ he says. He finds that balance in the collection’s outerwear – particularly the degradé striped cashmere and eco-fur coats. Buying for the future, he says, can still be driven by creativity. ‘I am sure in 10 years you could still wear the multicoloured coat’.

It’s part of an exciting moment for fashion, one where inclusivity is not considered a trend, but a necessity – something to be celebrated rather than merely tolerated. ‘The rules are being broken,’ says Marco. ‘You have to reconsider everything – and that’s an inspiring and interesting moment for me.’

Coat, £1,190

Skirt, £415 All Marco de Vincenzo for Marina Rinaldi A/W ’21

59

MY SECRET ESCAPE FROM

AFGHANISTAN

Shaqaiq Birashk, 37, an Afghan-American, was working in Afghanistan when she was forced to evacuate last month. Here, she reveals how she made her terrifying journey

G R A Z I A F E AT U R E

Left: Shaqaiq captures the moment she leaves Afghan soil; at home in her apartment in Kabul

to reach India, and then a few years later we settled in the US. I returned to Afghanistan in November 2020 as part of a US AIDfunded Afghan NGO project with the Afghan government. Now, despite the calls to head to the airport, I’ve always known I won’t go through the trauma of fleeing that way again – I want to leave with respect. I’m staying put until the airport stabilises.

19 AUGUST

15 AUGUST

There’s chaos outside my apartment and from my window I see crowds fleeing and cars honking. I check Twitter and read that the Taliban have taken the city where I live, Kabul. Outside, Taliban soldiers have replaced my building security. Everyone knew this day was coming but no one predicted it would happen so fast. Friends across town tell me they’re rushing for the airport. I start getting panicked calls from family telling me to get to the airport as quickly as well. I’m not going, though. The airport is a deathtrap and I’ve already fled Afghanistan, where I was born, once that way – in 1989, when I was four and civil war broke out after the Soviets left. I still have haunting flashbacks to that terrifying day, clutching my mum’s hand as we were crushed in the chaos at the airport trying to get out.

We became the first wave of Afghan refugees

Taliban soldiers on the street outside Shaqaiq’s home

It’s 11pm and dark when I get a call saying there’s a car downstairs waiting to collect me for an undercover rescue mission with US special forces. For the past three days I’ve been in my apartment, huddled together with friends and neighbours, some of whom I didn’t previously know, gathering for comfort. I’ve been ignoring evacuation emails from the US embassy because I don’t want to leave the others, but I’m told this is my last chance. My heart breaks as one of my new friends pleas for me to take her with me, but I can’t; she doesn’t have a US passport.

I share my live location with the special forces and they follow the vehicle that has collected me. Every side street is heaving with people carrying backpacks making their way to the airport. I’ve never seen so many women and children out this late. It’s terrifying to see Taliban have taken over Afghan police cars. After an hour-and-a-half drive we reach a US base and I have to temporarily hand my phone over so our location isn’t revealed.

20 AUGUST

After a night at the base, I’m driven to an open field and join dozens of other Westerners and Western-passport holders.

We’re herded on to Chinook helicopters; around 30 pile into the same one as me. I sit on the floor and watch the mountains whirl past out of the window. The helicopter’s blades spin noisily and I break down thinking of those I’ve left behind and whether I’ll ever be able to return. We land at Kabul airport and after processing I’m handed over to Hungarian military, avoiding the chaotic crowds outside. There’s rubbish 61

F E AT U R E G R A Z I A Afghanistan has been handed over to the same terrorists they didn’t want to negotiate with after huge bloodshed. If they had negotiated 20 years ago, Afghans wouldn’t have had to die at the rate they have and there wouldn’t be this mass exodus then and now. What was the point of the last 20 years? Afghanistan has been played and betrayed by this political game.

26 AUGUST

everywhere and mothers comforting screaming babies. I’m tortured by a feeling of guilt, aching for the people outside who don’t know what their next move is. An hour later, I’m put on a plane with 30 others, but we don’t know where we’re heading; when we land two hours later, someone says, ‘Welcome to Uzbekistan.’

There’s media with cameras waiting to capture the weary faces of evacuees. We’re shown to tents outside the airport, where we’ll wait until there are enough people to fly to Hungary. The Uzbekistan government has provided tents and food while we wait in what feels like no man’s land between Afghanistan, where our hearts still are, and the Western countries we’re lucky enough to be heading back to.

Above: tents at Uzbekistan airport for evacuees waiting for flights to the West. Below: bound for Denver; Hungarian soldiers on the flight to Uzbekistan

It’s past 1am when I land in Denver. As I edge closer to my safe and loving family the guilt follows me. Even though it’s the middle of the night, my parents are up and Mum has prepared dinner for me at home. I can barely look them in the eye, thinking of the pain I’ve put them through by choosing to return to Afghanistan against their wishes. I think back to an early morning in Kabul 10 days earlier, when I stood on my balcony at sunrise looking out over the city with tears in my eyes, thinking about how my family must feel having me there. That afternoon, I noticed the Afghan flag on the hill had been cut down by the Taliban. Now I’m home, I have breakdowns in bursts thinking about the state of the country I went back to help and then left behind, but I keep those emotions to myself. I want to be strong for my family, to protect them from any pain. I sleep, but only for a few hours. I can’t stop checking my phone for updates from my friends and colleagues who are still trapped there.

24 AUGUST

After three nights in the tents we fly to Budapest in Hungary, where we’re taken to a hotel for processing before we’re all sent on our separate ways. I board my flight to Denver, where my family lives. I’m the only evacuee on the flight. The weird sense of normality exacerbates my survivor’s guilt.

I watch an affectionate couple next to me returning home from their holiday in Budapest and think about how one part of the world has continued their normal lives, while another has just entered a period so uncertain and terrifying they don’t know if they’ll ever see peace again. A rush of emotions comes over me and I start jotting down my feelings on my ticket because it’s the only paper I have: the disappointment that was the Afghan leadership; the irresponsible American administration withdrawal; the false promises from Western leaders saying ‘we’ll always be with you’; the way the Bush administration said, ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists,’ and then fast forward 20 years and

‘THE WEIRD

SENSE OF NORMALITY EXACERBATES MY SURVIVOR’S GUILT’

This morning, I saw a haunting video of what’s left of Kabul airport. There are backpacks full of clothes and the remnants of people’s lives strewn across the ground after robbers have taken whatever valuables they can find and discarded the rest. Who knows where the owners of the backpacks are now and whether they made it out alive.

I’m more in touch with the people I left behind than I am with people here; I’m glued to my phone, desperate to help, but all I can do is check in with them, leaving VoiceNotes. They’re in my thoughts constantly. At some point, I’ll begin work again and rebuild my life in the US. I’m physically here now, but part of me will always be in Afghanistan.

18 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian help; you can make a donation at donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/afghanistancrisis-appeal

AS TOLD TO ANNA SILVERMAN

TO DAY

In cinemas and on Now showing

A TO Z All the fashion cues you need to know this autumn

WORDS LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN & NATALIE HAMMOND

A

ALPINE ADVENTURE

MIU MIU

OF THE SEASON AHEAD

EUDON CHOI

YOUR

Get set to go off-pis this season. Chanel Eudon Choi and M Miu, whose catwalk imagery was staged the snow-blanketed Dolomites, channell big ski energy for A/W ’21, with streamlined balaclav layered thermals an heavy-duty boots ide for high (fashion) altitudes.

RICHARD QUINN

G R A Z I A F E AT U R E D

B

BURBERRY

BALENCIAGA

DRESSING DILEMMAS

Richard Quinn’s sublime take on evening gowns featured beyondgigantic bows. Swoon.

GUCCI

MARNI

zoom earrings vs razzle dazzle belts

Bow, £65, Shrimps

C

MOSCHINO

supersized totes vs hands-free bags D O LCE & G A B BA N A

CAPES LL HEROES R CAPES ARE S)

VICTORIA BECKHAM

CELINE

MOSCHINO

GUCCI

Now Gabriela Hearst presides over not one but two highly influential houses (he own eponymous lab and historic maiso Chloé), sustainabili has well and truly ent the establishment Meanwhile, the new names-to-note when comes to clothes that about people and th planet include Ahluw Conner Ives, Marin Serre, Matty Bovan a Renaissance Renaissa

F FILM CLUB

leopard vs zebr a

THEBE MAGUGU

EARTH GODDESSES

GABRIELA HEARST

BOW DOWN

CAROLINA HERRERA

BALMAIN

silver vs gold

hiking boots vs disco boots

It’s lights, camera, action for cinemas as the blockbusters come thick and fast. From Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch to the delayed (and delayed) No Time To Die, it promises to be a thrilling return. For style notes, look to Lady Gaga’s bug-eyed sunglasses and padded shoulders in The House Of Gucci or Anya Taylor-Joy taking on the Swinging Sixties in Last Night In Soho.

And November’s Spencer promises yet more Princess Diana mania, as Kristen Stewart takes on the role. 

Anya TaylorJoy (above) and Lady Gaga

£415, Ahluwalia at matchesfashion.com

MARC JACOB S

CELINE

F E AT U R E G R A Z I A

G

£110, Levi’s

BALMAIN

If the closest you’ve got to a long-haul trip in a long-haul time is bingeing The White Lotus and Nine Perfect Strangers, then satiate your wanderlust with collections that are a love letter to travel. Full-look Balmain or Louis Vuitton is something to strive for on your next EasyJet flight.

Timothée Chalamet

HAUTE CASUAL

It all started on the red carpet at Cannes. Timothée Chalamet mixed a wardrobe of shiny tailoring from Tom Ford with baseball caps, worn tees, sports jackets and trainers. We’re calling it haute casual – bringing megawatt polish to the most basic basics. Also spotted at Celine, Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton. Fetch me my polo neck and crystal prom queen skirt, stat.

£250, Tod’s

£36, Sandralexandra

I

K

I N S TA T R E N D S T O T R Y Phoebe Buffay’s ‘one for each finge approach to ring-buying is having moment on Instagram, largely than brands that encourage a pile-it approach (see @_blobb, @goo_ @la_manso for how it’s do

KNITTING CLUB

RA AND LEX SAN

DRA

LOUIS VUIT TON

Dua Lipa

£32, Blooming Dreamer

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Sweater weather better be on the agenda for autumn. From the puffball dresses at JW Anderson to peekaboo sweatpants and matching leg warmers at Acne Studios, get cosy in this season’s hit knits (maybe even pick up a pair of needles?).

A L B E R TA F E R R E T T I

You’ve been warned for a while, but now it’s official: time to swap your skinnies for slouchy styles. Indigo washes elevate denim to luxe territory.

JW ANDERSON

GOING SOMEWHERE?

H

JEANS QUEENS

ACNE STUDIOS

Nine Perfect Strangers

£29.99, New Look

O

GUCCI

ON OUR OD BOARD

Jodie Turner-Smith

MINISKIRT SUITS

Olivia Rodrigo wore one to the White House, Jodie Turner-Smith took hers to Cannes. The miniskirt suit is back.

Seen on the catwalk at Chanel, Michael Kors, Ports 1961 and Schiaparelli, it will bring some much-needed fun to the office return.

2.

3.

4.

5.

ETRO

Jimi Hendrix

ERDEM

1.

N

Gwyneth Paltrow

6.

Margot Fonteyn

P

POWER PUFFERS

Floor-sweeping padded coats so fabulous they deserve their own aria on arrival are big news. See Marc Jacobs, who sent XXL inflatables down his catwalk, or Dolce & Gabbana, whose quilted space suits looked lift-off ready. MARC JACOB S

LOOK, NO HANDS! THIS SEASON’S S TAT E M E N T TO P S COME WITH S U P E R- LO N G SLEEVES. PEAK COMFORT DRESSING.

1. Ella Emhoff: the Inauguration scene-stealer made her catwalk debut at Proenza Schouler and collaborated with Batsheva.

2. Nabhaan Rizwan: like his Anna X co-star Emma Corrin, Nabhaan knows Fashion. Loves a major Loewe look.

3. Tommy Dorfman: name someone else who would look this good in sheer Jil Sander. We’ll wait.

4. Taylour Paige: if her MTV Awards look is anything to go by, the Zola actor is set to be an exciting red carpet force.

5. Chinenye Ezeudu: the newseason Sex Education star has already worked with Stella McCartney.

6. Camille Cottin: fans of Call My Agent already loved her, but roles in Stillwater and House Of Gucci mean Camille is about to go stellar.

DOLCE & GABBANA

ACNE STUDIOS

NEW FROW F AV O U R I T E S

No, not the fleecy onesies you wore (a lot) more often than you’d care to admit last year. Secondskin catsuits have ninja-style swagger.

Think of them as the right kind of one-hit wonder.

MAXIMILLIAN

Bella Hadid

U N I TA R D S

GUCCI

QUEEN SCARVES YO U R C H I C EST A N T I D OT E H A I R DAY T H E R OYA OF APPR

U

MAX MARA

Q

£195, Aspinal of London

S S H OW YO U R ALLEGIANCE

EMILIO PUCCI

DIOR

It’s all go for logos right now, seen everywhere from Versace and Fendi to Gucci and Max Mara, and on everything from slips and skirts to stockings and scarves. Wear head-to-toe – you can’t have too much of a good thing

R RAISE SHOE £875, Louis Vuitton

£49.50, M&S

£425, Coach

KNWLS

LOEWE

Your first steps into a brave new world demand bold new shoes.

Enter post-pandemic platforms, perfect for striding, stomping and sashaying everywhere (and welcome relief after going nowhere for so long).

T

TERM TIME Sharpen your pencils. Ta September’s back-to-sc spirit in pleated skirts, crisp white shirts, varsity jackets and neat blaz berets are £59.99, Mango

68

£660, Emporio Armani

W

Evisu cut-offs and Juicy Couture hoodie, both @lolaaviva at depop.com

WOW WORKWEAR

As Gen Z continues to ride the nostalgia wave, Y2K heroes are selling like hot cakes on Depop.

Make early noughties Paris Hilton proud by scoring old school (yet somehow very 2021) gems from Juicy Couture, Miss Sixty, Evisu, True Religion, Von Dutch and Ed Hardy.

£90, Pandora

£16

MICHAEL KORS

Old is the new new, don’t you know?

Rihanna masterfully mixes old and new, peppering her looks with yesteryear pieces from Dior, D&G, Chanel and Versace. Hailey Bieber takes archive D&G lace slips on her travels, while Bella Hadid swears by scavenged Jean Paul Gaultier and Gucci.

OFF-WHITE

WA L E S B O N N E R

V I N TA G E

X- R AY D R E S S I N G

GUCCI

S U P R I YA L E L E

You’ll have to have some sheer nerve (and a willingness to forgo underwear) to go out in this season’s show-it-all-off looks – but why not try?

Hailey Bieber

PHOTOS: GETTY, BACKGRID

Y2K

Rihanna

GIVENCHY

V

If you’re loath to resurrect the power dresses of old, Tory Burch proposes wide-collared shirts layered over turtlenecks, while Wales Bonner featured the most kick-ass tuxedo suit known to man, and Off-White sent out Honey Dijon in a tangerine leather coat layered over matching trousers to brilliantly smart effect.

Z

ZHUSH AND ZING! YO U H AV E A Y E A R O F MISSED OPPORTUNITIES A N D C A N C E L L E D PA R T I E S TO MAKE UP FOR. W H AT B E T T E R T I M E TO GO FOR IT?

‘i was the first hijabi model,i had to take some bruises’

Fashion’s first Muslim supermodel, Halima Aden, on why she suddenly quit the industry – and what’s next WORDS HANNAH LUCINDA SMITH PHOTOGRAPHS MODANISA / EMRE GUVEN

halima aden holds herself with the poise of a woman who, aged 23, had the conviction to walk away. ‘I don’t know if it’s self-sabotage but, in any career, I’m always ready to walk,’ says Halima, who rose from a childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp to make history wearing the hijab on the catwalks of Milan and New York, and appeared in a burkini on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Last November, she shocked the fashion world by quitting, leaving her contract with modelling giant IMG and turning her back 70

on a career that others would covet. In an emotionally raw Instagram post, she explained that she could not reconcile her faith with the demands of the industry that had made her a star. ‘Being a minority inside of a minority inside of a minority is never easy,’ she wrote, before talking of leaving shoots sobbing because she felt so compromised.

She had told no one what she was about to do. As her finger hovered over the post button, she steeled herself as many of us might in such a situation: by tucking into

a bowl of ice cream. The reaction was, predictably, instant and huge.

‘If I could go back and tweak things about the way I quit, I would. I was at my most vulnerable and honest,’ she says.

‘But the support was overwhelming – from the Muslim community, from the industry. People like Rihanna and the Hadid sisters, they had my back. And let me tell you something – I said I’m walking away and, no kidding, my emails flooded.

I had offers from fashion brands, to do the cover of X-Y-Z magazine. And I turned 

A EW I Z I A V R G TER IN

them all down. Like, “Nope – you’re not going to use me now.”’

From the outside, it had seemed that Halima was changing fashion. Raised by a single mother who had fled violent turmoil in Somalia, she was granted asylum in the US with her family aged seven. She was spotted during a beauty pageant in her home state of Minnesota in 2016, mentored by Carine Roitfeld and was soon walking runways for Max Mara, Yeezy and Dolce & Gabbana. Brands believed that she was their gateway to a vast untapped market of Muslim women who want style without compromising their faith, just as mainstream fashion was also having a modest moment.

In many ways she was able to forge an untrodden path for Muslim women in the fashion industry; clauses in her contract ensured her a private space to change outfits backstage, and she turned up to shoots with a suitcase full of hijabs and other modest accessories. She was branded the first Muslim supermodel, and touted as a sign that the industry was changing for the better.

Away from the spotlight, though, it was a different story. ‘In the first two years I had a lot of control, but for the last two years I was getting comfortable and trusting the styling team to put me in outfits and play with my hijab any which way they wanted to. Fashion is a very creative space so I don’t want to blame them. But I saw my hijab shrinking to something I didn’t even recognise any more.’

Looking back through Halima’s archive, the transition is clear. In the pageant and her early modelling days, when she was wearing her own hijab and styling herself, her head coverings are stylish but simple. In later images, they have been replaced by jeans, tulle or intricate jewellery – symbols of fashion, not faith. On set, she was the only Muslim, always bearing the burden of explaining to stylists and photographers what is and isn’t compatible with her faith.

‘I identify with a hijab that covers my neck, ears and chest. This is my unique way,’ she says. ‘But my aunties wear turbans, my mom wears the jilbab. The hijab is personal to each woman.’

Her epiphany about the industry eventually came from within her close-knit, traditional family. ‘My little cousin wanted to model; she was asking me to introduce 72

her to my agency. And I said no, absolutely not, because of what I’d seen behind the scenes. So when I said no to her, I started to think, “Why am I in this industry?’ That was the tipping point. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite.’

Ten months on, Halima says she has no regrets about quitting. And now she is coming back to fashion – ‘coming home’, as she puts it – with a string of collaborations with modest fashion houses that she has hand-picked. On the one hand, it is a great business move: the Islamic fashion market is booming and is projected to be worth $400 billion by 2024. On the other, it is a natural fit for a woman who has worn the

On the runway for Tommy Hilfiger in 2019 (left) and 2020

hijab since she was six, and found herself becoming an inspiration for Muslim women, as well as a lightning rod for the interminable debates over what they wear.

‘Did I sign up at 19 to be a role model for Muslim women? I didn’t. I wore the hijab, it’s part of my culture. I’m grateful but it was certainly tremendous pressure,’ she says.

Her new approach to the industry is, she says, ‘simple: I’m not a prop, I’m a person.

With modelling it’s all about being seen and not necessarily heard. I want to support brands that I truly believe in, where 100% our values align.’

Halima has had great poise from the start, of course – a luminous presence so absorbing on camera that her small frame, just 5ft 5in, is surprising when you meet her in person. She is still an enormous talent in front of the lens, but something has changed in her latest shots: she is smiling.

Radiant, in fact; a broad beam of happiness shines out from her, a million miles from the stone-faced poses she was told to adopt during her years in mainstream fashion, which resulted in pictures in which she often found herself unrecognisable.

When Grazia joins her on set for Modanisa, a Turkish modest fashion house that has signed Halima as its global brand ambassador, she looks like the beautiful girl on the street. Several of the crew are also wearing hijabis, and the headscarf that Halima is wearing is once again her own choice. As she looks through her shots with the team, she leaps on one where she is laughing, mischievously, beneath the hood of an urban-inspired transparent cagoul.

‘Yes!’ she exclaims, delighted.

It is the smile of a woman who has seized back control of her life and career in an industry where models are too often left without agency over their own bodies.

Her decision to quit resonates far beyond religion: abuse scandals have been uncovered across modelling, where girls as young as 14 have been catapulted into a world where strangers have access to their bodies.

‘On Instagram it looks glamorous, but burnout is real. Young men and women who are sometimes at their most vulnerable are entering this industry. People come and touch you, fix you without permission. I had so many models, some of them even bigger than me, reaching out and saying thank you for speaking up,’ Halima says.

‘I think there has been change, for sure, but I would like to see even more change.

I was the first hijabi model; I had to take some bruises. I have to give high fashion some credit for still working with me.’

PHOTOS: GETTY

I N T E RV I E W G R A Z I A

ZIA

WHY WE’RE NOSTALGIC Welcome back to the halcyon days of 2003 – and who wouldn’t want to return to that world right now?

WORDS LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN

a slashed and stretched Roberto Cavalli outfit, but will settle for pulling up your super-lowcut jeans on a Friday night. You are embarrassingly invested in J-Lo and Ben Affleck’s romance and excited for the forthcoming season of Sex And The City.

Leonardo DiCaprio is dating a 23-year-old; everyone is talking about Britney Spears.

The year is 2003 – or, hang on, is it 2021?

This year, fashion and pop culture bears an uncanny resemblance to the early

YO U A R E C OV E T I N G

noughties. In Sigmund Freud’s 1919 essay, The Uncanny, he positioned the psychological phenomenon as something that is both familiar and alien. It can be eerie, frightening even – a fair assessment of the terrifying comeback of trucker hats.

So why 2003? Why now? Inevitably, part of it is that fashion is cyclical. What is cool has a short shelf life; but eventually it has been in the uncool wilderness long enough to be welcomed back. It becomes surprising, ironic, knowing. None of us are strangers at raiding past decades for inspiration – newness is an illusion.

But there is also something particularly comforting about throwing back to 2003.

After the discombobulating somersaults of the past 18 months, aren’t we all craving familiarity and frivolity, just as we could find solace in lightness in a post 9/11 world? For those who remember it, 2003 is recent enough to evoke nostalgia, but sufficiently small in the rearview mirror for us to forgive its crimes against taste. For

Gen Z (born from 1997 to 2006) it is ready to be discovered afresh.

Looking back, there is also a touching naivety to 2003. Five years before the 2008 crash, when it was ordinary people with big dreams who went on reality TV (Girls Aloud won Pop Idol that year), these were also the last days of a world not run by social media (MySpace was founded that year; Facebook came in 2004). Instagram in particular has homogenised personal style, back then our fashion mistakes could shuffle off into obscurity.

Of course, celebrities would disagree.

There was no Twitter, but bitchiness was given space to thrive courtesy of Perez Hilton and ‘Worst Dressed’ lists. With the benefit of hindsight we can see that the way Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and their ilk were treated in the tabloids – torn apart as a new millennium blood sport – was deeply damaging. Now we’ve got a chance to rectify that, which seems like the best reason of all to give 2003 a second chance.

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Britney and Madonna kiss at the 2003 VMAs (centre). Plus (L-R): Paris, Britney, Chloé S/S ’04, Beyoncé , Sienna, Christina Aguilera, Roberto Cavalli S/S ’04, Bennifer at the 2003 Oscars, Naomi Campbell and Victoria Beckham, Gucci S/S ’04 and A/W ’03

FOR THE NOUGHTIES BRING ON BEYONCÉ

Crazy In Love could fill a dance floor in 2003 and can still do it today (ditto Sound Of The Underground, Hey Ya!, In Da Club and Breathe). In homage to Beyoncé, Zendaya – possibly the best dressed woman of 2021 – wore a S/S ’03 Versace dress to this year’s BET Awards, a version similar to the one Queen B wore 18 years earlier.

‘Get you a stylist with a ARCHIVE!!!! [sic]’ the man behind the look, Law Roach, wrote on Instagram.

BENNIFER REBOOT

The ultimate modern love story or a cynical PR exercise? Who cares. The Bennifer reunion – after an 18-year hiatus – transports us straight back to our teen dreams of what True Love would look like. Emotional petrol for the unbreakable romantics among us.

THIS OLD THING?

Zendaya is not the only Insta-gen star

with a taste for early noughties vintage.

Kylie Jenner loves 2003’s Louis Vuitton collaboration with Takashi Murakami.

Bella Hadid rocks archive Jean-Paul Gaultier and Galliano-era Dior; Addison Rae wore 2003 Tom Ford Gucci to this year’s Met (also google: Phoebe Philo’s Chloé and Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga). The new-old name to drop right now however is Roberto Cavalli: Kim Kardashian has several pieces, Paloma Elsesser has a mini-and-bandeau set, Leomie Anderson the jeans, Iris Law wore a cut-out Cavalli gown to a gala dinner this summer. In her video for Brutal, Olivia Rodrigo shows her allegiance to Britney Spears by wearing a Cavalli look that Brit wore back in, yep, 2003. Set your eBay alerts immediately.

H AT S O F F T O T H E PA S T

Proof that redemption is, indeed, possible for all sartorial crimes: the Von Dutch trucker cap is also back (see Nicola Peltz).

Please let the jaunty fedora stay where it belongs, though – in the past.

FOOTBALL CRAZY

An 18-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Manchester United; he has just returned to Old Trafford. In other football(ish) news: this summer’s Euros prove that ’00s pin-up hair still has the capacity to make us thirsty – thank you Jack Grealish.

W E ’ L L A LWAY S H AV E PA R I S

The Simple Life landed on our screens. Its premise? Two rebellious rich girls – Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie – slumming it with ‘ordinary’ folk. Since then we’ve become enlightened to the fact that Paris was in on the joke all along; she’s not the baby-voiced bimbo she appears, but she knows how to ham it up for her brand. This year, Paris returned to our screens in her best pink, glitter and bouncy blonde hair form in Cooking With Paris. Flummoxed by the most rudimentary kitchen utensils, 75

F E AT U R E G R A Z I A Clockwise from far left: Bella Hadid; Paloma Elsesser and Leomie Anderson in vintage Cavalli; Lizzo

a more accurate title might be ‘Cooking’ With Paris. Nevertheless, she was and still is TV gold. That’s hot! (Or not, Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a 25% rating.)

Legend has it, if you click your Manolos together three times, you will be transported to the Manhattan of 2003, where Cosmopolitans were downed, writers got paid $4 per word and fabulous people still said ‘fabulous’. But, if you’re yet to brave heels post-pandemic, no problem – filming of Sex And The City reboot, And Just Like That…, is now underway in New York. It was the 2003 series that gave us one of the most memorable cameos: Jennifer Coolidge as newly divorced Victoria and deliverer of the iconic line, ‘Because of that f**ker, I’ve discovered I’m Fendi.’ No word yet on whether ‘purse parties’ are due to become a thing (were they ever?), but it’s been a thrill to see Coolidge thrive in similarly highlystrung comedic top form in The White Lotus.

FRIENDS ZONE

Friends’ final season began. Proof that we still can’t get enough of the sitcom, this year’s highly-anticipated reunion was a star-studded affair. As an added bonus we even got the gossip that would have made us combust in 2003: Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer admitted they had both fancied each other. Alas, rumours this summer that they were dating IRL were nothing more than wishful thinking.

STYLE IT LIKE BECKHAM

Today, we can’t get enough of Victoria Beckham’s polished sophistication. But for a new breed of red carpet stars, it’s her 2003 looks they’ll want on their mood boards. In particular, see her fondness for Dolce & Gabbana’s corseted dresses that year – in spangled white or zebra print. And do you remember 2003 documentary The Real Beckhams? Well, one reason to look forward to 2022: a Netflix one is coming.

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Addison Rae (right) and Zendaya wearing 2003 Gucci and Versace on the red carpet

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a ‘themed’ living room bedecked with MDF. After 13 seasons, Carole Smilie departed Changing Rooms in 2003. This year, it returned to Channel 4 with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen intact. The lesson: being stuck inside during lockdown might have been bad, but it could have been worse.

TEENAGE KICKS

2003 was a bittersweet year for teen angst.

It was farewell to Dawson’s Creek and hello to The OC. We still can’t get enough of the antics of privileged teens: 2006’s Gossip Girl has been rebooted and landed on our screens in August.

S I E N N A’ S B O H O S T Y L E

Jude Law started dating Sienna Miller and a whole industry of knock-off coin belts and gladiator sandals was born. She has long moved on from Jude, though is yet to be fully estranged from the ‘boho luxe’ epithet.

And the look has enjoyed a resurgence this year (crochet, patchwork, Uggs).

MICRO TRENDS

B U T T E R F LY E F F E C T

Nelly Furtado and Christina Aguilera loved them in 2003; Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Lily Rose Depp wear them now. The belly chain is back. See also: dresses over trousers, tube tops, rimless sunglasses.

The true millennium bug was the butterfly.

Fast-forward to today and Lizzo, Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid love them.

INTERIOR DESIGN CRIMES

If you care about interior design, hell is

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LESS IS MORE

Cropped tops with super-low-slung jeans were big news. We regret to inform you that the revival nobody asked for is here. It wasn’t until 2004 we got Jodie Marsh’s belt look, but – warning –this may be next.

PHOTOS: GETTY, SHUTTERSTOCK, INSTAGRAM

ANOTHER BITE OF THE BIG APPLE

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

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S O F T P OW E R

Soft tailoring is the chic way to do smart.

We love the designer looks of this blouse (left) and this trouser suit is so versatile – ideal for the office, you could dress it up for a wedding, too. karenmillen.com

DAY D R E S S

With an asymmetric emline, whimsical print nd made from recycled, ustainable materials, this maxidress ticks all our oxes. Team with stomper oots to give a tough-girl dge to its whimsical rint and soft silhouette. llsaints.com

CO SY CO O L

The best bit about autumn? Slipping into a pair of Uggs again. The Scuffette slipper in grey suede is as chic as it is cosy and has a pure sheepskin liner for maximum luxe. schuh.co.uk

SA D D L E U P

In striking emerald with metal hardware, the Equenia cross-body mini saddle bag makes quite the statement. Start with it and build your outfit from there! tedbaker.com

C H E C K M AT E

Is it a shirt? Is it a jacket? No, it’s the perfect hybrid, the shacket, ideal for the transition from summer to autumn.

We’re into the genderless vibes of this Asos Design one. asos.com

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FAMILY PORTR AITS DISCOVER THE STORY AT MANGO.COM

G R A Z I A F E AT U R E

None of us is feeling our most silver-tongued right now – but help is at hand from Laura Craik

DID COVID KILL THE ART OF CONVERSATION? you’re happy the world has opened up again; of course you are. It’s been wonderful to reconnect with your beloved family and friends. Only… it’s A Lot. And sometimes, you’re not sure how to be. You feel rusty: your train of thought falters and your opening gambits have all the finesse of a toddler starting nursery. As for your tone, it seems to swing from unexpected soulbaring to a false jollity you’re not sure you even feel. Maybe you recognise someone in these post-pan character types. Maybe you even are one…

AW K WA R D A L I S O N

She loved lockdown, and really can’t get back into the swing of this ‘other people’ thing. Try as she might to listen to her friends, she can’t stop talking over them, interjecting her opinion on Bennifer (are they still together? Should she know?)

too early in a bid to avoid any awkward pauses. How do conversations work again?

Maybe there’s a course. Alison loves courses.

She’s already done a Danish course and is about to sign up to Banana Bread 101: The Definitive What Not To Do. What she really needs is a course on how to handle Zoom. But then, if she ever did figure out how to switch on her computer mic, she’d be bereft of those useful conversational gambits, ‘Is it on yet?’ and ‘Can you hear me?’ And then she really wouldn’t have anything to say at all.

Tips Don’t overthink your conversations: hard, after being cooped up at home, but try to remember that everyone feels similarly at sea. Even the confident people are probably winging it. As for tech: everyone struggles with it sometimes, and will judge you far less harshly than you’re probably judging yourself. 83

F E AT U R E G R A Z I A

C RY I N G C AT E

No judgement, obviously – the last 18 months have been tough on all of us – but Cate is struggling more than most.

Her partner’s a dick, her boss is a narcissist and her job has never felt more challenging, much as she loves it. And then her mum’s been ill: not Covid, but worrying nonetheless. No doubt about it: Cate has a lot on her plate, and for whatever reason, has a tendency to start crying as soon as the pudding is served. Third G&T? She’s gone.

Much as her friends sympathise, and try to comfort, it doesn’t seem to help. Is she unhappier than those who bottle it up, or just more unguarded? Crying is good for you, right?

Tips If you feel embarrassed about your crying episodes, and want to avoid them, it might be worth considering the role of alcohol – a depressant that can make everything feel worse. If you find crying cathartic, carry on: nobody should feel guilty about their tears, and good friends will always allow you space to emote. Just remember they may be struggling too, whether or not they share it with you.

PA N D E M I C P R I YA

She knows the pandemic is over – well, it’s not, obviously, but at least in the sense that she’s able to go out and socialise – and she knows that there are finally lots of other exciting things to talk about. But for some reason, she’s stuck in a loop. At dinner the other night, she found herself asking which testing companies her friends had used for

‘YOUR OPENING GAMBITS HAVE THE FINESSE OF A TODDLER’

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Too many tears?

Too angry? Too smug? Has the pandemic affected your ‘banter’?

tongue on others, for fear of starting WW3.

Tips It’s great to have opinions, but are you arguing for the sake of it? If you’re angry about everything, your friends may worry you’re angry at them, too. We all need to vent, but if you’re taking up all the emotional bandwidth, your friendship group could feel short-changed. And also exhausted. Anger is wearing when it’s relentless. Um, have you tried boxing as a release? Running? Swimming? Exercise raises endorphins, mitigates stress and can help with anger management. Better still, stay off Twitter.

H O M E I M P R OV E M E N T H O L LY

their PCRs: hardly cheery bantz. And does anyone really need to know that she just bought a three-pack of pretty face masks from Boden? Surely she has better small talk to offer than conjecturing about the efficacy of the AstraZeneca jab. Yet whenever she does veer off on to another topic, she worries it’s equally dull. No one needs to hear another eulogy on Schitt’s Creek.

Tips Be kind to yourself. There’s still a huge appetite for talking about the pandemic: it’s a shared global experience of unprecedented magnitude. But if you’re really struck for convo, there’s no shame in prepping some topics before you go out.

A N G R Y AVA

She was always a passionate believer in something: chairperson of the debating team, social justice warrior, never not arguing with several strangers at once on Twitter. But lately, Ava’s strident opinions on everything from politics to pharma have given way to something new – an anger that’s never far from the surface. Postpandemic, everyone’s a c*nt, from dog walkers to joggers to anti-vaxxers to second homeowners to the Government. And while friends agree with her on some issues, they’re increasingly having to bite their

Holly and her partner, Krish, were one of those lucky couples who remained fiscally unaffected by the pandemic, having eschewed arty jobs for careers in finance.

This has placed them in the enviable position of being able to get their Victorian terrace renovated, a project so exciting that it apparently warrants its own Instagram account. No matter that their interior design tastes run to the pedestrian: @HolandKrishAtNumber49 is faithfully updated on the regular. As are their friends.

Going for a drink with Holly? You’d better book a big table, for it’ll be covered in fabric swatches and laminate samples before you can say ‘DIY SOS’. There are only so many things that you can say about a sofa, surely?

Apparently not: it’s closing time, and she’s still banging on about the Squisharoo.

Tips Are you talking about home improvements because delving into the emotional stuff feels scary? If so, maybe examine whether you’re using them as a displacement activity. And if you really just genuinely love talking about interiors, fab: it’s great to have an interest. Just make sure your friends get their chance to speak, too.

After all, friendship is a two-way street.

F E AT U R E G R A Z I A

‘When I lost my husband, my friendships transformed the space he left behind’ When Kat Lister’s 41-yearold husband, Pat Long, died three years ago after battling a brain tumour, her friendships taught her to love again i wasn’t alone in the rowboat on the day that I scattered my husband’s ashes, three years ago. As I cradled the willow urn tightly between my knees, my best friend Andy rotated the oars, slicing the water back and forth. A silent presence on the river bend that gave me comfort and reassurance as I dipped my hand into the wicker and released handfuls of sparkling

stardust trails on to the surface below.

We’re often told that our friendships will inevitably loosen and drift as we get older, nudged to the outer periphery of bimonthly catch-ups and hurried WhatsApp messages.

But for me, my closest friendships have become as deep-rooted and intimately explored as any romantic relationship I’ve ever been in. They’ve become a way of gathering all the pieces in a world that has often overwhelmed me. And when my husband died of a brain tumour, leaving me a widow at the age of 35, those pieces were scattered so far and wide that it was only through these friendships that I was able to reconstruct myself, and my surroundings, fragment by fragment, bit by bit.

I call my three closest friends my chosen family because that’s what they are. A trio of dazzling individuals who are so woven into the fabric of my life that to even call them friends seems to downplay this kinship in some way. I’m constantly looking for alternative ways to describe our connection, for words that will do it justice. Recently, I stumbled across The New Yorker’s Hua Hsu who wrote that ‘stories about love offer models for how you might commit your life to another person. Stories about friendship are usually about how you might commit to life itself.’ I scribbled these words down as soon as I read them. Because when I think

PHOTOGRAPH SUKI DHANDA Left: Kat with husband Pat on holiday in Venice, 2015

HAIR AND MAKE-UP: VIORELA COMAN AT GARY REPRESENTS USING LIVING PROOF HAIRCARE

THROUGH THESE FRIENDSHIPS I WA S A B L E TO RECONSTRUCT M Y S E L F, FRAGMENT BY FRAGMENT

about the ways in which my relationships have grown and intensified since my husband died, this philosophy comes incredibly close to encapsulating just how expansive they’ve dared to be.

It’s easier for me to list the seismic events of the last few years than to condense the hundreds of tiny, beautiful moments that have occurred between them. Glimmers of companionship that have kept me moving at times when I questioned whether I could.

Ask me about any particular period in my grief and my three friends will never be far away from the subsequent narrative. Read my grief memoir and you’ll see this as you flick from page to page. It’s a devotion that is never usually discussed when we talk about platonic love. We rarely refer to tenderness or intimacy, either. On the day that I opened my husband’s wardrobe and gathered his trousers and shirts, it was Andy who was sitting on my bed, ready to bag and fold. On my sixth wedding anniversary, our first one apart, it was Jon who met me at Paddington station, who later took my hand as we meandered through the bluebells in Bisham Woods. And on the evening that my husband was dying, it was Zoë who was waiting for me outside the hospice, who let our footsteps do the talking as she slowly walked me home.

In Ancient Greece, the word philia, meaning ‘the highest form of love’, was attributed to the bonds of close friendship.

These days, it too often plays second fiddle to the cult of eros, the god of sex and desire.

Over the last year that I’ve spent writing a book about grief and widowhood, I’ve come to question what anthropologists call ‘the hierarchy of love’, the limiting and reductive pecking order that still insists on positioning parental and romantic connections above all others. In favouring these top two tiers of the triangle and diminishing the rest, I can’t help but feel that we’re missing out on the enormous potentiality of love in all its alternative forms.

When my husband died, my friendships didn’t just fill a void as if they were a temporary and transitional substitute for what had been lost. These relationships have become far more radical than that. Over the last three years, my friendships have transformed the space he left behind into something so light-filled it has reminded me of the love that I’m capable of giving.

Glittering trails that are as abundant and multitudinous as the ashes I scattered on the water in those early days of my widowhood.

Rippling and swirling, showing me the way.

‘The Elements: A Widowhood’ by Kat Lister (£14.99, Icon) is out now 89

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YO U R N E W S E A S O N s t a r t s h e r e / T H E 19 t r e n d s T O K N OW N OW / C OAT S t o c o v e t / M O S T-WA N T E D AC C E S S O R I E S / I N S P I R AT I O N A L a u t u m n d r e s s i n g /

PHOTOGRAPH JACOB MCFADDEN FASHION M O L LY H AY LO R

a full diary (remember them?) calls for accessories that can rise to the occasion.

Chanel’s glittering gold bag ensures that every night out is one to remember.

Mesh bag, £8,080, jumpsuit, £4,825, necklace, £4,015, and bracelet, £1,060, all Chanel

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THE One has had a meteoric rise that has seen his boldly genderdefying work adorn the world’s most influential A-listers. The other is one of the leading stylists in fashion (and Hollywood) right now. In an exclusive preview of a look from his debut London Fashion Week collection, Harris Reed talks to friend and collaborator Harry Lambert about their path to becoming two of British fashion’s most thrilling new voices PHOTOGRAPHS ALEX BRAMALL STYLING HARRY LAMBERT WORDS KENYA HUNT

Custom-made headpiece, Harris Reed x Vivienne Lake; top and trousers, Harris Reed Custom; jewellery (worn throughout), prices from £49, Harris Reed X Missoma; unless otherwise stated, all prices throughout are available on request

B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A

It’s impossible to make it through a scroll of pop culture in recent years and not see the proverbial eight-inch-high platform bootprint of Harris Reed. Harry Styles in an outsize satin ball-hoop skirt. Selena Gomez in a flying saucer-sized hat. Lil Nas X in an enormous silk moire bow. Harris’s stamp is as recognisable as it is unmissable.

To understand the young designer behind some of pop culture’s most standout fashion moments in recent memory, you have to know his backstory, which is as compelling and attention-grabbing as his clothing. In a study into the psychology of superhero origin stories, clinical psychologist Robin Rosenberg wrote that every good origin story has three elements: adversity, a sense of destiny and chance. Harris describes his with the endearing charisma of a raconteur.

Picture this: a little boy faced with the inevitable milestone of starting a new school.

Again and again. And again. And again.

‘I had to get really good at the elevator pitch. “Hi, I’m Harris Reed. I’m nine. I’m gay. And I like clothes,”’ he tells me, chin stretched upward as a make-up artist draws a thick graphic kohl line around his left eye, on set for this cover shoot. He’s recounting his childhood, moving to places like Arizona, Seattle – 28 moves in total! – in his words: ‘all the time’.

‘It was like, I had to completely crystallise everything I was in order for me to make friends. Which is a sad thing but it also really helped me later in life, because I knew really quickly who I was. If anyone was making fun of me in the playground I was like, “Bitch, I know enough of who I am not to play your game! And if I do, I would play it way better!”’

He credits that unwavering clarity of self partly to a deep sense of belief and partly to plain old good parenting. ‘I wouldn’t be where I am without my mother, who saw from a really young age that I was queer and different and that we were going to get a lot of hate and people were not going to understand it,’ he says of the former model and perfumer (his father is a documentary film-maker). An internship with the legendary PR denizen Kelly Cutrone at the age of 14, where he worked the door for New York Fashion Week shows such as Jeremy Scott’s, sharpened his can-do spirit.

Eventually, he enrolled in Central Saint Martins to study fashion in London, a city

he says fundamentally changed him.

‘I had this vision of what fashion was and this super-Americanised way and London was like a kick in the f **king face. It was a slap in the face that I needed!’

And that leads us to the element of chance. A model casting with Harry Lambert, a man The Sunday Times described as one of the most influential stylists in the world, would set the fashion student on a course that would eventually place Harris at the heart of one of the UK’s coolest squads, a loose, shimmering network that includes music and Hollywood A-listers Harry Styles and Emma Corrin, as well as emerging, critically

Harris at the GQ Men of the Year Awards on 1 September with Emma Corrin (top); at the Met Gala with Iman, who was wearing his design

acclaimed designers such as SS Daley.

‘It was 2016 and we were casting an editorial, looking for students who made art,’ Lambert recalls. ‘What’s great about him is that the first time I met him, I kind of already knew who Harris was, just from a really small interaction with him. What Harris designs is what Harris wears. Harris fully embodies what he puts out in the world in terms of fashion, jewellery, the boots – I think that’s why I’m drawn to certain designers or people. How they create a world that you can step into.’

So he started following Harris on social media, eventually pulling his signature hats for shoots before later commissioning him to make pieces for his client, Harry Styles.

‘People like to say, “You discovered Harris.”

But Harris was always going to be discovered. He was always going to be a star.

I just helped a little bit along the way,’ he says. ‘A lot of bit!’ Harris adds.

Together, they’ve produced influential, conversation-shaping work that is inspiring a generation to think about the way they dress, and gender norms, a lot less rigidly.

And it’s proving wildly successful. Earlier this month, Harris won GQ’s Designer of the Year award, a trophy presented to him by his date, Emma Corrin. And he has a sprawling jewellery collection of 49 demifine, gender-fluid pieces, and a capsule of 15 fine jewellery rings, earrings and necklaces, launching with Missoma this month – all inspired by his modus operandi, ‘romanticism gone non-binary’. A day after this issue hits newsstands, he’ll stage his first physical London Fashion Week show, a demi-couture collection made of upcycled bridal pieces sourced from Oxfam – exclusively previewed here – with nearly 400,000 Instagram followers and counting following his every move. Here, the friends and collaborators discuss the journey.

Harris: I am currently wearing the first thing I ever made for you.

Harry: I was doing a shoot and commissioned you to create a blouse for me and that is kind of how it started.

Harris: You were the first person to fully support me. The first person to pull the first look I ever made when I had like 12 followers on Instagram at CSM. That is what started this waterfall.

Harry: I could tell that Harris, even at a 

‘IF I’M GOING TO PUT SOMETHING OUT THERE, I ASK, “WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?”’ Harris

Harris with friend and collaborator Harry Harris wears jacket and trousers, Harris Reed Custom; boots, £2,600, Harris Reed x Roker

101

B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A

‘I TRY TO INJECT THE DREAM AND ESCAPISM WITH A QUEER MESSAGE’ Harris

young age, had a world of experience and personality, which was exciting and I just wanted to find out more.

Harris: If I am going to put something out there, I ask, ‘What is the purpose? What do I have to say? What is my work saying about me? My identity and sexuality. But it wasn’t until I worked with Harry Lambert and Harry Styles and his team that people saw the commercial viability of what I was doing. A lot of people were like, ‘You’re a costume designer.’ But the second people saw Harry in my clothes on stage, they clocked that maybe fashion is different now. It is about celebration and feeling good in what we’re wearing, rather than 45 black suits on a catwalk.

Harry: I commissioned Harris early on to make some stuff for Harry’s tour and I was working with loads of different brands, like Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Saint Laurent, but also mixing in Charles Jeffrey and the like. Introducing Harris to clients and magazines I work with is like finding someone who is already insanely talented and already has the vision and helping them put their work on a bigger platform. And that is a really important part of fashion.

I didn’t realise how important it was before, even when I was working with Harry.

Harris: We need more people like you in the industry. It excites me to see people with your vision supporting talent and not trying to crush or push us into a pre-existing mould. Harry was a great thing because, all of a sudden, people realised I don’t just do massive hats and bows. I can do a Matches collaboration. I can do a MAC collaboration.

Harry: It’s hard because people sometimes don’t take the risk on someone until they see that thing at a commercial stage. It’s about supporting talent and showcasing it.

Harris: It’s helping people voice a greater purpose than just the clothes. From the beginning, I designed work for me when I felt like there was no representation of the person I was at the time. I made a pair of flairs and a top and headpiece. I put it on 102

Instagram and the response was so much greater than when I was doing an evening dress for ‘womenswear’ or when I was doing tailoring for ‘menswear’.

Harry: You’re really clever on social media.

You created a filter with the hat [for Harris’s graduate show, Thriving In Our Outrage, last May] and used all of your contacts to create this buzz around it. During lockdown, everyone was craving something and you created something beautiful and interesting with a new way of presenting stuff. I try to curate it and make it look nice.

The whole ‘no carpet’ thing that I did with Emma Corrin [where she wore the looks she would have worn for premieres on Instagram] gave us more control to shoot and make it look nice. But it is hard to judge what is more impactful: the red carpet image or the shoots you set up. I’m excited for red carpets to return. I think after the pandemic everyone is craving memorable experiences. People want to document things even more now.

Harris: Instagram is great because it’s like a creative dumping ground, whereas TikTok is just too much. I did one TikTok and had a million views and I was like, this is becoming addictive, I’m stopping. So I’m mainly on Instagram. I think if you can show yourself in an authentic way, social media is crucial for business. We never cared about a set gender. I try to inject the dream and the escapism with a queer message. And I think you naturally have this air about you, that you don’t even fully realise that putting Emma [Corrin] in an amazing fabulous suit would be deemed more masculine. For you, it just seems like you are happy and playful and it is just a natural thing.

Harry: I never see my work as political or serious. I like to have humour and fun. I just never wanted to be boring, I guess. I think that is the biggest crime sometimes. I don’t want to be negative and be like, ‘Everyone has to dress like this.’ But I think if you have the opportunity to be more creative in

The big reveal: Harris Reed gives an exclusive preview of his debut LFW collection with this gown, worn by model Aek Malek and photographed for Grazia Headpiece, Harris Reed x Vivienne Lake Custom; skirt, Harris Reed Custom

Headpiece, Harris Reed x Vivienne Lake Custom; tulle top and trousers, Harris Reed Custom; boots, £2,600, Harris Reed x Roker Model Alek Malek at Wilhelmina Harris Reed’s hair Terri Capon at Stella Creative Artists using Hair by Sam Mcknight Alek Malek’s hair Alisha Ferguson Make-up Joey Choy at Future Reps using Glossier Casting and production Jessica Harrison Stylist’s assistant Ryan Wohlgemut Fashion assistant Remy Farrell First photographer’s assistant Michael Furlonger Second photographer’s assistant Sam Robbins Digital John Munro

PHOTOS: HARRY STYLES BY HÉLÈNE MARIE PAMBRUN. OTHER PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK, GETTY, INSTAGRAM/EMMALOUISECORRIN, HARRIS_REED

G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

certain spaces then that is really exciting.

I think we’re all craving more fantasy and fun and I would rather people not get it and talk about it and be a bit confused than not talk about it at all.

Harris: Now, especially with social media, you can see when it’s obvious and when it’s coming from an authentic place that’s joyful.

Harry: I never want to be like ‘I am going to do this because people are going to say that.’ But if something starts conversations about gender, I think that is amazing. I think that is important.

Harris: When people are putting something on and just wearing it and being fabulous, it is less homework for someone trying to explore themselves. That level of accessibility and ease, even if that ease is huge over-the-top sleeves and more of a play on the traditional gender norms.

Harry: It’s back to that idea of designers creating worlds. Another interesting thing you are doing is presenting a collection at fashion week that is demi-couture – oneoffs that build the world of Harris. And then you’re doing things like candles and your new jewellery collaboration with Missoma that present a much more accessible way of being a part of Harris’s world.

Harris: Missoma was a really organic thing.

We didn’t have to compromise on the extravagance and extreme design element with it still being an accessible price point.

When it came to doing the campaign, I needed someone who understood the vision to the extreme and that was Mr Lambert.

Harry: I’ve been very lucky because I came out of Covid better than I’d ever been.

Which has been a privilege. Some of the goals I dreamed about doing this year have happened. It’s now about setting new goals and trying to achieve them. At the moment I am working on Harry’s [Styles] tour and going to America to put that together.

Harris: I’m getting ready to attend my first ever Met Gala, then I’ll be back in London for my first ever physical London Fashion Week show, then launch my jewellery and then fly to Italy for a unique collection that will be coming out in the fall. Knowing every day that what I’m fighting for has a greater message and purpose and not losing sight of that and hopefully bringing all my young queer friends along the way.

Harris Reed x Missoma is in stores now; missoma.com, harrisreed.com

SIGNATURE HARRIS

Selena Gomez (above), Harris himself (right), Emma Corrin (below) and Harry Styles (below right) in trademark Harris pieces

Left: Emma Corrin with the designer

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B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A

Dress and bodysuit, price on request, both Richard Quinn; boots, £1,940, Saint Laurent; headscarf (seen throughout in various colours), £16.99, Amazon; necklace, £12,400 and bag, £2,150, both Cartier

The new season’s dress code? Extra! Volume! Glamour! Joy! Autumn’s explosion of conversation-sparking gowns, capes and accessories promise to turn the pavement into a catwalk

H PHOTOGRAPHS DAV I D VA I L

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FASHION M O L LY H AY LO R

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Dress, £1,550, boots, £1,150, and tights, £175, all Fendi; gloves, £191.67, Atsuko Kudo; headscarf as before

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G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Cape, £3,700, bustier, £1,900, shirt, £1,250, and trousers, £1,700, all Christian Dior; watch, £12,500, Dior Watches; ring, £21,900, Dior Joaillerie; headscarf as before

B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A

Cape, £5,200, Louis Vuitton; headscarf as before

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Coat, £1,300, roll neck, £190, and gloves, £250, all Emporio Armani; hat, price on request, Noel Stewart

Dress, price on request, JW Anderson; roll neck, £39, Kettlewell; tights, £6.99, Calzedonia; shoes, £825, Loewe; headscarf as before; rings, £21,900 each, and bracelet, £22,900, all Dior Joaillerie

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G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Jacket, bra and skirt, all price on request, turtleneck top, £930, and boots, £930, all Celine; tights, £25, Falke; headscarf as before

Leopard-print bodysuit, £1,200, high-neck top, £645, trousers, £375, and belt, £1,350, all Dolce & Gabbana; headscarf as before

Model Ikram Abdi Omar Make-up Emma Broom using Byredo and Zara Beauty Casting and production Jessica Harrison Photographer’s assistants Ollie Radford, Nicolas Roques Fashion assistant Remy Farrell

G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Jacket, £840, and trousers, £355, both Marina Rinaldi by Marco De Vincenzo; high-neck top, £32, Aligne; shoes, £495 ,Tod’s; hat, price on request, Noel Stewart; bag, price on request, Marni; tights,£20, Falke

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A FRESH SPIN PHOTOGRAPHS ALEX BRAMALL

FASHION NATALIE WANSBROUGH-JONES

The new season is the perfect excuse to revisit old, much-loved classics, mixing vintage hero items with autumn/winter’s most alluring styling ideas

T H I S PA G E Shirt, £1,415, and pantaboots, £4,810, both Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello; vintage sweater top, £130, Viva Antiques; diamond earring, £3,500 for pair, Jessica McCormack OPPOSITE Poncho, £2,572, Chloé; boots, £890, Giuliva Heritage

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B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A

Swimsuit, £665, Chanel; heart earring, £1,450, Vashi; diamond stud, £7,900 for pair, Jessica McCormack

Vintage shirt, £50, Fang LDN; scarf (worn as belt), £395, and Birkin bag, £10,400, both Hermès; heart necklace, £750, Vashi; diamond earrings, £7,200, diamond necklace, £6,600, and diamond ring, £7,800, all Chanel Fine Jewellery; boots, Giuliva Heritage as before

119

Vintage Ted Lapidus dress, £795, Circa Vintage; diamond earrings, diamond necklace and diamond ring (ring finger), all Chanel Fine Jewellery as before; heart necklace, Vashi as before; ring (index finger), £1,550, Dior Joaillerie

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G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Coat, £1,150, Tod’s; shoes, £350, Raiz Atelier; heart earring, £1,450, Vashi; diamond stud, £7,900 for pair, Jessica McCormack; (model’s left hand) bracelet, £26,900, Cartier; rings, Chanel Fine Jewellery and Dior Joaillerie as before; (right hand) ring, £860, Dior Joaillerie

Jumper, £350, Coach; vintage trousers, from a selection, Mairead Lewin Vintage; diamond stud, Jessica McCormack, bracelet, Cartier, and ring, Dior Joaillerie, all as before

122

G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Dress, £6,650, Moschino; sandals, £650, Hermès; bracelet, Cartier as before; (model’s left hand) rings, Dior Joaillerie and Chanel Fine Jewellery as before; (right hand) stack of rings on ring finger, from £575 each, all Jessica McCormack; index finger ring, Dior Joaillerie as before

B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A

Swimsuit, £665, Chanel; skirt, £1,050, Max Mara; heart earring, Vashi, and diamond stud, Jessica McCormack, both as before

Vintage waistcoat, from a selection, Mairead Lewin Vintage; shirt, £415, Nili Lotan; necklace, £5,520, Venyx; heart necklace, Vashi as before; diamond pendant, £11,000, and stack of rings, as before, all Jessica McCormack; bracelet, Cartier as before

Model Gem Refoufi Hair and Make-up Camilla Hewitt at One Represents using Chanel Casting Nick Forbes Watson Lighting assistant Michael Furlonger Digital John Munro Fashion assistant Conor Bond Second fashion assistant Camilla Ridgers

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Autumn’s standout accessories are your ideal plus-one for the season ahead

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Mallow shoes, £816, Givenchy

G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

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Down-padded mules with DG Pop heel, £795, Dolce & Gabbana

WITH THANKS TO AVE MARIO, THE WOLSELEY, LADURÉE COVENT GARDEN, LARRY’S PECKHAM, SKETCH LONDON AND BERNERS TAVERN

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HOW to WEAR IT B E H O L D T H E S TAT E M E N T C OAT S T H AT P R O M I S E TO WA R M U P YO U R W I N T E R WA R D R O B E

W INTE R COATS

PHOTOGRAPHS DANIEL FRASER FA S H I O N M O L LY H AY LO R

G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Red ahead Why blend in when you can stand out?

Head-to-toe red amplifies autumn’s bold attitude.

Coat, £59, Marks & Spencer; roll neck, £65, Guess; leggings, £175, Coach; shoes, £330, Ancient Greek Sandals x Zeus + Dione

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Belt up Blanket dressing is back and newly elevated.

Wear your scarf tucked into a slimline belt.

Coat, £369, Marc Cain; dress, £99, Guess Jeans; scarf, £30, Monsoon; belt, £9.50, Marks & Spencer; bracelet, £79, and charm, £59, both Thomas Sabo

G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Punchy print Contrary to popular opinion, florals aren’t just for spring. Winter blossoms in printed velvet.

Coat, £298, Boden; turtleneck, £65, Guess

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Keep it simple A pared-back palette can still make a statement.

Exhibit A: this off-white skirt suit.

Coat, £920, Longchamp; turtleneck bib, £19.99, and boots, £39.99, both H&M; sunglasses, £385, Linda Farrow

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G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

New lengths A cinch-waist coat (with supersized collar) sharpens up the swish of a maxi shirtdress.

Coat, £499, LK Bennett; dress, £405, Tory Burch; shoes, £395, Studio Nicholson

B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E G R A Z I A

Fade to grey Softer than black but not as highmaintenance as white, this superchic neutral is not to be underestimated.

Coat, £30, hat, £6, and scarf, £14, all Primark

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Square root Forgotten what to wear to work?

Sharp suiting and a graphic overcoat will lift your return to the office.

Coat, £379, All Saints; blazer, £100, shirt, £79, and trousers, £69, all Warehouse

Take flight The aviator jacket becomes a transitional weather hero when worn with bare legs.

Coat, £1,700, Coach; shoes, £100, Ugg; sunglasses, £175, Gigi Studios

Model Eman Deng at PRM Management Hair Wilson Fok at Eighteen Management using Living Proof Make-up Emma Broom using Guerlain Abeille Royale Advanced Youth Watery Oil, L’Essentiel High Perfection 24hr Foundation, Terracotta The Bronzing Powder, Mad Eyes Contrast Shadow Sticks, Mad Eyes Mascara and Rouge G Luxurious Velvet lipstick Casting and production Jessica Harrison Photographer’s assistants Andreas Parperis, Cameron Jack Stylist’s assistant Jack O’Neill

G R A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E

Blue-sky thinking A bold coat that’s big on texture and colour is a foolproof way to brighten even the dullest days.

Coat, £62, Next; jacket ( just seen), £475, and trousers, £250, both Paul Smith

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19

WAY S T O R E V YO U R WARD R

CARGO PANTS ARE BACK. BOOTS ARE DRESSY. AND STATEMENT TRAINERS ARE GOING NOWHERE. NAIL THE NEW SEASON IN A/W ’21’S POWER PIECES

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EDITED BY JULIA HARVEY

THE SUPER L O N G S W E AT E R

You might call it a maxi jumper dress; we prefer to call it a chic blanket you can leave the house in. Warning: you won’t want to wear anything else this winter.

£55, Y.A.S at Marks & Spencer

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Remain at least five inches off the floor at all times and stomp to your next soirée.

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THE H I -TO P

Though done with trai Think again. The new kicks are understated, up-for-anything and surprisingly chic.

£500, Celine

£30, Next

£34.99, H&M £69.95, Nike at very.co.uk

CELINE

£85, adidas

GR A Z I A B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E £390, COS

5.

TIN FOIL TROUSERS

Behold the triumphant return of waist-down dressing. Nothing says ‘Bye, Zoom!’ like metallic pants.

£80, Weekday

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n eing bel shed – you tery r coat.

S A LV A T O R E F E R R A G A M O

£280, Saks Potts

MICHAEL KORS

£750, Anouki

6.

£695, Dolce & Gabbana

THE LITTLE RED DRESS

£135, Kitri

If Little Red Riding Hood was going out-out, this is what she would wear.

Tomato, scarlet and crimson guarantee a look to remember.

£119.20, Karen Millen

£29.99, Zara

£90, adidas by Stella McCartney

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B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E GR A Z I A £195, Kate Spade New York

£139.99, Mango

TORY BURCH

9.

THE ’00S LITTLE BITTY

£60, Monki

Fashion’s early noughties flashback continues. If belly chains and thongs are too much for you,

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£99, Guess

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£2,150, Fendi

10.

£269, Massimo Dutti

£595, RED Valentino

Part padded jacket, part cape.

Turn the volume to the max with a padded hood.

8.

THE DISCO BOOT

£55, Weekday

£480, Miista £270, Tommy Hilfiger

LOUIS VUIT TON

Shiny, sparkly and ready to dance (and dance), silver boots have gold

JIL SANDER

BELL OUTERWEAR

£950, Isabel Marant

£215, Russell & Bromley

THE BFD

£225, Ganni

It’s not just big; it’s f**king big.

This season’s party dresses star look-at-me bights, sequins and layer upon layer of tulle. Size.

Does. Matter.

£155, Daily Paper

12. £25.99, New Look

For those who refuse to go back to bags: consider cargos. One pocket for your mask, one for your hand sanitiser, one for £25, George at Asda your sanity.

M O L LY G O D D A R D

11.

CARGO PA N T S

£1,930, Ashish

169, Coast

13.

THE BUSINES BOX

£395, Aspinal of London

A briefcase, but make it fashion.

Smart, structured bags mean the business for the office return.

£1,800, Loewe

£195, Marina Rinaldi

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B I G FA S H I O N I S S U E GR A Z I A

14.

D AV I D K O M A

£40, very.co.uk

£141, Miaou

£195, Frankies Bikinis £195, Miscreants

THE MINI

£34, Next

STELLA MCCARTNEY

Hemlines are on the up and up for A/W ’21.

As the fearless brave a winter bare thigh, 80 deniers make the super-short a lot less scary.

£30, River Island

£1,290, JW Anderson £88, Free People

What better way ease yourself bac into bags than wi slouchy styles in so leathers and bright colours.

CELINE

15.

THE HOBO BAG £340, Natasha Zinko

16.

XXXL BELL BOTTOMS

The leaves are brown, the sky is grey, but you’re California dreamin’ in ’70s-inspired super-flares.

1 7.

THE GOTH LACE- UP

18.

LE O PA R D P R I N T

The real question is: why wouldnÕt you want a leopard print coat in your wardrobe? Quite literally fierce.

The chunkier, the better. Wrap the laces around the ankle for a cool-girl finishing touch

£149, AND/OR at johnlewis.com

£345, The Kooples

£410, Zadig & Voltaire £298, Marc Cain

R13

£275, Ganni

£199, Dr Martens x Heaven

by Marc Jacobs

£1,390, Balenciaga

£5, Matthew Williamson at johnlewis.com

Bright, bold and big enough to fit your entire life in, think of these shoppers as a bag for (real) life. £1,750, Gucci

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Bimini photographed at home wearing a Vivienne Westwood dress and hat, Natacha Marro boots and Ruby Jack jewellery

G R A Z I A FA S H I O N F E AT U R E

dressed up, up and away

BIMINI BON BOULASH Drag performer and musician

‘You don’t have to compete with others. It’s more punk to do it for yourself ’

While the world was in elasticated waistbands, these joyful dressers stayed true to their glamorous selves. Their lessons about optimistic style are ones we can all learn from in a (fingers crossed) post-pandemic world…

BIMINI SHOOT: STYLING, ELLA LYNCH; HAIR, ROSS KWAN; MAKE-UP, BYRON LONDON

PHOTOGR APHS TRISHA WARD WORDS LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN

not a joke, just a fact: Bimini Bon Boulash deserves a public service award for uplifting spirits during the grimmest of times. The runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season two was a potent dose of dopamine thanks to their impeccable comic timing – and excellent looks, from Alexander McQueen homages to a sexy spin on a Norwich City FC kit. ‘To be able to light up people’s lives a bit, that’s why we do it,’ says Bimini on performing, ‘And if I can open someone’s mind then I’m very lucky to be able to do that.’

Growing up in Great Yarmouth, the teenage Tommy Hibbitts was a keen charity shop rummager and used clothes to help them find their voice and identity. ‘Where we were, it wasn’t really part of the culture so we were seen as weirdos. But I’d rather be seen as a weirdo than like everyone else.’ Post Drag Race the fashion world has come knocking (they worship at the Vivienne Westwood altar) but Bimini still enjoys conjuring up looks with pals, in particular longtime creative collaborator and flatmate Ella Lynch. ‘We were doing it when no one cared and now people do care a bit!’

Actually they care a lot.

Fast forward to today, and Bimini – who has a book coming out in October – is in no doubt about the power fashion can have in elevating one’s mood. ‘I’ve gone through dark times when I’ve felt very anxious and low and depressed, but getting dressed up – even if you’re just doing it for you – makes you feel better,’ they say. ‘We are conditioned to think we have to compete with other people. It’s more punk to do it for yourself.’

Bimini doesn’t believe in the notion of being overdressed. ‘People like getting dressed up.

Why should it just be when you go on a night out, why shouldn’t it be every day?’ they say.

‘That quote from Coco Chanel where she says, every time you leave the house take an accessory off. I don’t agree. I’m like, put more on!’ 151

Tiffany photographed in Covent Garden wearing Jacquemus trousers, cardigan and bag, and a Magda Butrym jacket

TIFFANY HSU Fashion director of MyTheresa

swapping fashion weeks for lockdown walks, the one thing Tiffany Hsu really missed wearing was ‘heels! All my fabulous heels.’ Previously, she could wear a 10cm heel all day, no problem; now she says she thinks she’s lost the tolerance – finding even a lowly (for her) 4cm a challenge.

Despite her newfound appreciation of flats, Tiffany, who says when it comes to fashion she’ll ‘try anything if it makes sense to me’, has maintained a commitment to dressing up when possible – even if it’s just for dinner at home with her husband. ‘I think it just makes things a bit more exciting. It changes your mood as well because you’re in something fun.’

Sales at MyTheresa suggest she’s not the only one with an appetite for something special right now. ‘People are buying really exciting things. We’re selling crazy party looks, sparkly shoes, I think people are just a bit bored of beige sweatsuits.’

Dressing up, she suggests, is also one way to soften re-emergence anxiety – not least because it gives you something to talk about other than Covid. ‘It’s a bit of a mood changer and a conversation piece when you wear something fun. And it kind of prompts you to dance; if you’re wearing boring stuff you just want to sit down and be a bit “meh’’.’

And her advice for post-pandemic fashion? ‘Dress as loud as possible. Make the most of it! I think when I make an effort it makes me happier. It’s not to impress other people – everyone has had a downer of a year so anything that makes you feel more positive walking out of the door is good.’

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TIFFANY SHOOT: JACKET, £1,105, MAGDA BUTRYM. CARDIGAN, £225, TROUSERS, £375, BAG, £620, ALL JACQUEMUS. ALL AT MYTHERESA. DAISY SHOOT: HAIR AND MAKE-UP: KENTARO KONDO

‘Dressing up makes things exciting – it changes your mood’

DAISY HOPPEN Founder of DH-PR

‘Fashion doesn’t always have to be about new things’

for daisy hoppen, getting dressed (properly) has been a non-negotiable over the past 18 months. ‘I maintained that if I was going to do this lockdown living by myself and didn’t know how long it was going to last, then I had to have some sense of ritual and getting dressed was that,’ she says. ‘If I was going to get up in the morning and spend nine hours on Zoom, I wanted to wear something that I really like. I guess there was a bit of “fuck it. I’m going to wear a really nice dress.”’

Looking after clients such as Simone Rocha, Ganni and The Vampire’s Wife means Daisy does have an enviable collection of ‘really nice’ dresses. Remotely,

that became about connection as much as style. ‘A lot of clients are friends – to wear their clothes every day felt quite special.’ Her look, she jokes, can verge towards ‘peak witch’. One thing she doesn’t want is the limelight. ‘I don’t like looking like I’m the centre of attention, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with that, but I don’t feel any shame about putting on big sleeves.’

She might be plugged into the style zeitgeist, but Daisy says fashion ‘doesn’t always have to be about new things’ and balks at the idea that it’s precious.

‘Fashion doesn’t have to be frivolous, it can be things that you can wear every day, even if they look a little bit “extra”.’

Daisy photographed in her office wearing her own Simone Rocha dress and shoes

Hannah photographed at home wearing her own Kwaidan Editions dress

HANNAH TINDLE Fashion writer and consultant

‘Dressing up is closely tied to self-care’ during lockdown, Hannah Tindle embarked on the cultural odyssey of watching The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills from the very beginning. Has she taken any style notes from Lisa, Kim and crew? ‘Absolutely!’ she says.

‘What I really like about them is they really pull a look at all times. Dressing up is not just for going out’.

Hannah likes dressing up too, veering towards ‘a Helmut Newton vibe’ (no look is complete without a red nail and lip) – sexy with a swish of old Hollywood glamour.

‘I don’t want to be explicitly S&M-y but there’s a hint of it

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without it being like I’m going to Torture Garden.’ She might be a contender for north London’s hottest bombshell today, but Hannah admits she got ‘quite lazy’ during the pandemic. ‘I know when I’m at my lowest I can’t be arsed to even bother putting a lip on or doing anything. I know that’s a sign I’m not doing so well. For me it’s closely tied to self-care’.

Now she’s leaning into dressing up with gusto once more. Working in fashion, she enjoys appreciating other people’s looks – it’s about connection. ‘Obviously in the pandemic we all lost that.’

What’s different is that she’s now doing things on her terms.

‘Sometimes, you can be like, “Is this too much?” and before you might have changed. But now I’m like, “I’m not changing.” If that’s what I want to wear, I’m going to wear it,’ she says. ‘I’m going to dress for how I feel.’

G R A Z I A FA S H I O N F E AT U R E

ZEZI IFORE Artist and broadcaster

‘I want to feel virile when I get dressed’

HANNAH SHOOT: HAIR AND MAKE-UP: KENTARO KONDO. ZEZI SHOOT: SHOES, £995, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN

a self-confessed emotional dresser, Zezi Ifore describes her style as ‘expressive, joyful, maximalist and virile. That’s how I want to feel when I get dressed, virile!

Blood pumping through my veins, alive!’

Always a ‘big time dresser’ with a tendency to wear all her favourite things all at once (those pieces are like ‘talismans,’ she says, ‘They all evoke something in me’), post-lockdown that has been amplified even more. Now, she says, she feels a ‘sense of urgency for something a bit sexy. It’s that natural reaction to re-emergence, you want to bloom; it’s spring after that dark, long metaphorical winter we’ve had. You want to feel sensual – you’ve spent a lot of time in your head – now is the time to feel in your body.’ She’s also hungry to see what other people are wearing again. ‘When I see someone who looks amazing I think that person is giving me a gift. My eyes are delighted and I am always very grateful when I see someone who looks great,’ she says, fizzing with joy. ‘They’ve extended themselves one way or another to you and I think that’s amazing. We need it more than ever.’

Zezi read Emily St John Mandel’s apocalyptic 2014 novel Station Eleven during lockdown and the line ‘survival is insufficient’ has stuck with her. ‘When it comes to getting dressed, putting a look together, giving something – survival is insufficient. We’ve been surviving, we’re out of low-power mode now. Full charge, let’s go!’

Zezi photographed in Vauxhall wearing her own Roubi L’Roubi dress and Christian Louboutin shoes

The statement blouse – hero of so many Zoom calls – is just as impactful IRL. Top, £35, Per Una; jeans, £29.50, M&S Collection; belt, £17.50, Marks & Spencer

LEGENDS OF THE FALL

PHOTOGRAPHS JACOB MCFADDEN ST Y L I N G M O L LY H AY LO R

Sumptuous layers, ’70s silhouettes and investment outerwear are the power trio in the new autumn/winter collection at M&S

P R O M OT I O N

A red-hot knit is the perfect partner for winter florals.

Jumper, £59, Autograph; dress, £45, Per Una

The longline shacket is set to be your hardest working trans-seasonal layer.

Shacket, £59, and dress, £39.50, both M&S Collection; jumper, £49.50; Per Una

Slouchy knee-high boots, worn with a belted sweater, are the grown-up way to do boho.

Sleeveless jumper, £25, and mididress, £39.50, both M&S Collection; boots, £125, and belt, £17.50, Marks & Spencer

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P R O M OT I O N

Pop a crisp button-down under a leather shirtdress for extra polish.

Leather dress, £250, Autograph; shirt, £25, M&S Collection

Repurpose florals for autumn and beyond by switching sandals for stomper boots.

Faux-fur bomber jacket, £59, and boots, £69, both M&S Collection; dress, £45, Per Una

For days when you’d rather stay in bed, a padded coat will be your saviour.

Coat, £79, M&S Collection; jumper, £59, Autograph See the collection at marksandspencer.com

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Model Zoe Ose Hair Yoko Setoyama Make-up Polly Mercer Digital Lisa Bennett Lighting assistant Harry Burner

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BEAUTY

WORDS: PHOEBE MCDOWELL. AVAILABLE FROM 15 OCTOBER AT CHANEL.COM

IT’S NEW + WE WA N T IT!

TO C E L E B R AT E 100 YEARS OF NO.5, ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST ICONIC FRAGRANCES, CHANEL HAS REIMAGINED A SELECTION OF ITS MAKE-UP. EACH METALLIC SHADE OF THE LES 4 OMBRES EYESHADOW, £49, CAN BE WORN ALONE, OR AS PART OF A SOFT AND SMOKY EYE. PHOTOGRAPH DENNIS PEDERSEN

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H E A LT H + B E AU T Y G R A Z I A

NATURAL Award-winning hair artist, brand founder and salon owner Charlotte Mensah reveals the new season’s freshest looks and ideas for Afro and curly hair textures

PHOTOGRAPHS RUTH GINIKA OSSAI HAIR CHARLOTTE MENSAH B E AU T Y D I R E C T I O N & WO R D S J O E LY WA L K E R ST Y L I N G M O L LY H AY LO R

ONDER STRAIGHT SHOOTER Blunt cuts aren’t only a conversationworthy style for autumn, they’ll protect your curls. ‘When your curls start to frizz rather than “hold” at the ends, you know it’s time for a trim,’ says Charlotte.

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HEAD FIRST Go big with volume on top for a retro spin on the classic ’fro. And don’t forget to hydrate.

Charlotte advises a nightly scalp massage with her Manetti Oil, £48, to stimulate circulation and oil production. ‘Your hair will thank you,’ she promises.

Dress, Dodo Bar Or at Matches Fashion

G R A Z I A H E A LT H + B E AU T Y GET TWISTED Twists rivalled box braids as the most popular protective style of summer. For autumn, push the style forward by gathering in statement knots. Crop top, Dior

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H E A LT H + B E AU T Y G R A Z I A

CURLED AND CROPPED The look is short, shaggy and gamine. Charlotte suggests keeping the curls fresh with ‘a cocktailing approach to your haircare. My go-to mix is the Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil Pomade, £52, followed by Kérastase Curl Manifesto Gelée Curl Contour, £28.30, and finally Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil, £48. This combo allows for supreme hold without leaving your hair dry and crunchy.’

Top, Youx

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BR AID PAR ADE The plaits of your youth take on an edge that is wholly grown up when curled and twisted at the ends.  Top and skirt, Marni

queen of coils the door to Hair Lounge, Charlotte Mensah’s iconic Portobello Road salon, is open. Inside are starkly beautiful people – models readying for a shoot, a mother-anddaughter pair in for their usual appointment and Charlotte’s team of stylists. It’s a luscious space: polished hardwood floors, leather chairs and, at the centre behind a desk, Charlotte herself.

Charlotte is a multi award-winning hairstylist, entrepreneur and author. Already a three-times winner of the Afro Hairdresser of the Year award, in 2018 she was inducted into the British Hairdressing Awards Hall of Fame, becoming the first Black woman to receive this accolade. ‘She’s a pioneer,’ says Funmi Fetto, beauty director of The Observer.

‘She’s infiltrated spaces that a lot of people of colour haven’t been able to get into.’

Charlotte has styled for many magazine covers, including Vanity Fair, Elle and Paper and counts everyone from Janelle Monáe and Michaela Coel to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as clients. Zadie Smith, also a client, describes her as ‘legendary’ in the glowing foreword to Good Hair, Charlotte’s gamechanging treatise on Afro and textured hair. Despite her huge industry stature, the moment I step into the salon, I feel at ease. I’m offered a large slice of the salon’s famous cake which, somehow, Charlotte finds time to bake herself. ‘When I’m not working, I cook,’ she says. ‘It’s like therapy…

I’m not thinking about anything but the Charlotte in action on our shoot

‘ I BELIEVE IN EXCELLENCE. I WANTED SOMETHING BRILLIANT’ ingredients of the cake.’

For our chat, we’ve perched at the pavement table outside her salon. Every five minutes, a passerby will stop to say hello. ‘It’s a community,’ Charlotte smiles. ‘We’ve been here 19 years, we’re like a pillar here.’ She’s clear that hers was not an overnight success story. ‘People say, “Oh, it’s been so easy,” but I’ve built this for 30-something years.”’ She goes on, ‘Most people right now, they’ve got like two minutes. Nobody wants to wait.’

It took Charlotte six years to develop and launch her Manketti Oil hair range, after conceiving it in 2010. Why? ‘I believe in excellence,’ she says plainly. ‘I wanted to get it right and put something brilliant out there.’ It is brilliant indeed: a luxury range specially formulated for Afro hair textures, with gorgeous glass packaging. ‘I love to use glass because it’s not throwaway.’ The products are made in the UK with manketti oil sourced direct from local producers in Namibia. ‘That’s so important to me, the fact we’re able to go straight to them and purchase from them.’ Fans of the in-salon hair scrub treatment – deemed ‘amazing’ by

Vogue and currently with a wait list – will be delighted by the news that the forthcoming new product line-up will include an at-home version of the treatment. Charlotte beams. ‘It’s our most requested service!’

Social enterprise is at the heart of everything Charlotte does, as evidenced by the LOVE Naa Densua charity she founded, providing hairstyling craft and business classes to young women in Ghana. She cites her mother’s commitment to helping others as the inspiration. ‘I saw as a kid that, even though it was hard for her, she believed this needed to be done.’ Aged 28, Charlotte was offered a grant and mentoring by the Prince’s Trust as she launched her salon. ‘That was such a good start,’ she says. ‘I remember walking into the Prince’s Trust offices and just listening to all of the conversations we were having about starting my own business.’

Her story has come full circle. ‘It was like a seed that was sown in me then, and now I’m sowing seeds in people’s lives.’ Even with so many successes under her belt – her book, the forthcoming Middle East launch of her Manketti Oil range – Charlotte’s enthusiasm for helping others shines through. ‘I get more inspired, more spiritually lifted, when I see the difference I’ve made in people’s lives.’

She’s about to return to Ghana’s capital Accra to run another training programme on an even larger scale. And then, ‘Next stop is Lagos. We’ve got plans for touring the whole of Africa, I can’t wait.’

HAIR BY CHARLOTTE MENSAH USING KÉRASTASE CURL MANIFESTO. MAKE-UP: ANDREW GALLIMORE @AGENTOFSUBSTANCE USING KARLA COSMETICS AND YSL BEAUTY. NAILS: MICHELLE CLASS AT LMC WORLDWIDE USING DIOR MANICURE COLLECTION AND PRESTIGE HAND CREAM. MODELS: ESTHER, AJ AND KORA AT MILK MANAGEMENT; SASKIA AT PRESENT MANAGEMENT. CASTING AND PRODUCTION: JESSICA HARRISON. FASHION AND BEAUTY ASSISTANT: REMY FARRELL. LIGHTING ASSISTANTS: LUKE KENE AND LORRAINE KHAMALI. DIGITAL: RYAN COLEMAN. SHOOT PART-SPONSORED BY KÉRASTASE

WORDS NATASHA BROWN

G R A Z I A H E A LT H + B E AU T Y

the curl edit Star products to enhance, nourish and protect curls and coils

Slip silk sleep turban, £70

Top, Valentino

Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil Pomade, £52

Kérastase Curl Manifesto Refresh Absolu, £28.30

Charlotte Mensah Manketti Hair Oil, £48

Charlotte Mensah Manketti Oil Shampoo, £24

Kérastase Curl Manifesto Fondant Hydratation Essentielle, £28

Kérastase Curl Manifesto Concentré de Forme, available in salons nationwide

Afroani wide-tooth comb, £10.99

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