SUMMER 2021
Becoming
KATY PERRY
WOMEN OF WONDER
MAY 2021
Becoming
LAURA HARRIER
WOMEN OF WONDER
JULY 2021
Becoming
WILLOW SMITH
WOMEN OF WONDER
omegawatches.com
SEAMASTER AQUA TERRA
A L E S S A N D R A’ S C H O I C E As one of the world’s top models, Alessandra Ambrosio has become an icon and an inspiration. Choosing to live each day with a vibrant Brazilian spirit, she has made a striking impression on the fashion industry, while also VWHSSLQJ LQWR GLYHUVH UROHV DFURVV ÿOP DQG television. Always captivating and forever positive, she is a true role model for the next generation of talent.
1921–2021
In celebration of its Centennial anniversary, L’Officiel invites you to
IOO Dreams of Tomorrow A virtual exhibition of 100 years of Fashion An auction of 100 NFTs of the best covers of the Century An evening celebrating 100 ideas in an interactive House of Dreams A live finale from Paris' 100-year-old Théâtre Daunou on September 30th, 2021 #LOFFICIEL100
KATY PERRY PHOTOGRAPHED BY GREG SWALES AND STYLED BY DANIELLE GOLDBERG MAKEUP:
Michael Anthony HAIR: Jesus Guerrero NAILS: Kim Diem Truong PROENZA SCHOULER Earrings HARRY WINSTON ABOVE—Dress, shoes, hat, and socks PRADA
ON THE COVER—Jacket
Volume 4, Number 20 | lofficielusa.com | L’OFFICIEL USA | 9 W 57th St New York, NY 10019
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CONNECTING THE DOTS BY Michael
Cuby PHOTOGRAPHY BY Myles Loftin STYLED BY Jason Bolden
After shedding her anxieties, Willow Smith is ready to bare her transparent soul.
TIME AWAY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Alessandro STYLED BY
Lo Faro
22
Marco Costa
A dreamy escape full of gorgeous pastels and soft flounces is a much-needed reset for the senses.
RADICAL SIMPLICITY BY Laure Ambroise PHOTOGRAPHY BY
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Jules Faure
Newly appointed artistic director of Courrèges Nicolas Di Felice brings the famous space-age fashion house back to life.
THE ART OF KNOWING BY Cristina
Manfredi PHOTOGRAPHY BY Omar Sartor STYLED BY Alessandra Faja
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Fendi’s new capsule of Baguette bags pays homage to the craftsmanship of regional Italian artisans.
GOLDEN GIRL PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Ricardo Gomes STYLED BY Rita Melssen
42
Barbara Palvin channels a tough-sexy vibe with dramatic looks and embellished accents.
PRETTY SLICK STEPPING OUT PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Mikael Schulz
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With bold hues and saturated pigments, beauty takes a walk on the wild side.
BY Sophie
Shaw PHOTOGRAPHY BY Domen & Van de Velde STYLED BY Lieve Gerrits
50
From glossy eyes to wet-look hair, summer beauty is all about a dewy finish.
FRAMES OF REFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Huy Luong
96
Head back into the light with dramatic, oversized sunglasses straight out of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.
SMELLING THE DAISIES BY Evan
Ross Katz PHOTOGRAPHY BY Greg Swales STYLED BY Danielle Goldberg
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With a new baby, new music, and new residency in Las Vegas, mega pop-star Katy Perry’s life has a new tempo.
A MOMENT IN TIME BY Stefano Tonchi PHOTOGRAPHY BY
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Maripol
Dior Womenswear Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri and legendary pop icon Maripol reminisce about the golden age of disco and Fiorucci.
EMILY BEECHAM IS ON A ROLL BY Sophie
Shaw PHOTOGRAPHY BY Leonardo Veloce STYLED BY Rose Forde
104
The critically acclaimed actress is accelerating her return to film with a slew of high-profile, period-focused pieces.
EASY LIVING BY Maura
Egan
112
Along the quiet coast of North Portugal, interior designer extraordinaire Jacques Grange has found an idyllic home in the village of Comporta.
NO FILTER BY Kat
Herriman
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From Yayoi Kusama’s Tate Modern shows to the recently opened Superblue in Miami, overwhelmingly sensory experiences have swept social media by storm.
FOR THE LOVE OF FASHION BY Sabrina Abbas
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY Danielle STYLED BY
Levitt Rebecca Ramsey
As a Louis Vuitton ambassador, Laura Harrier is taking her love of fashion to the next level.
FIRST NOT LAST BY Piper
McDonald & Tori Nergaard
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L’OFFICIEL’s history was shaped by Black models whose own stories have gone largely untold. Here, their legacies in fashion and beyond live on.
L’LOOKBACK BY Piper
McDonald & Tori Nergaard
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As has long been seen in the pages of L’OFFICIEL, swimwear has always invited us to take life a bit less seriously.
PUBLISHERS
Marie-José Susskind-Jalou, Maxime Jalou CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
CHAIRMAN
GLOBAL CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
Benjamin Eymère
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GLOBAL DEPUTY CEO
CONSULTING GLOBAL CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER
GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR
Maria Cecilia Andretta
Stefano Tonchi
Robert D. Eisenhart III
GLOBAL DIGITAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
GLOBAL HEAD OF CONTENT PROJECTS AND FASHION INITIATIVES
Joshua Glass
Caroline Grosso EXECUTIVE EDITOR
GIAMPIETRO BAUDO BOOKINGS EDITOR
CASTING DIRECTOR
FASHION FEATURES EDITOR
Joshua Glasgow
Jennifer Eymere
Laure Ambroise
SALES AND MARKETING MANAGER
SENIOR EDITOR
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
ART DIRECTION
Sara Ali
Sabrina Abbas
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Giulia Gilebbi
INTERNS
Carmenlucia Acosta, Jennifer Bindman, Alice Cavallo, Alexa Dark, Mina Dragani, Robbie Gutman, Greta Jelen, Tamara Jiji, Irene Kim, Johnny Rabe, Siena Stern
CONTRIBUTORS CREATIVE DIRECTOR
TREY LAIRD CONSULTING EXECUTIVE MANAGING EDITOR
DESIGN DIRECTOR
ART EDITOR
Regan Solmo
Michael Riso
Kat Herriman
PHOTOGRAPHY
PRODUCTION
FASHION
FEATURES
Domen & Van de Velde, Jules Faure, Ricardo Gomes, Danielle Levitt, Alessandro Lo Faro, Myles Loftin, Omar Sartor, Mikael Schulz, Leonardo Veloce
Dana Brockman, Lauren Tabach-Bank
Jason Bolden, Marco Costa, Alessandra Faja, Rose Forde, Lieve Gerrits, Danielle Goldberg, Rita Melssen
Michael Cuby, Evan Ross Katz, Cristina Manfredi, Piper McDonald, Tori Nergaard
In this Issue
Greg SWALES
Rebecca RAMSEY
Huy LUONG
Maura EGAN
Maripol
PHOTOGRAPHER
STYLIST
PHOTOGRAPHER
WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHER
“Smelling the Daisies”
“For the Love of Fashion”
“Frames of Reference”
“Easy Living”
“A Moment in Time”
“For this story with Katy Perry in her hometown, I wanted to capture her raw and natural. We only used daylight and timed each shot according to the sun.”
“The shoot was such a great day—Laura Harrier is incredibly collaborative, and every person on the team brought a dynamic energy. They played so well off one another.”
“The world does look different through designer sunglasses.”
“I stumbled upon Comporta 10 years ago when a friend told me about this quiet beach town close to Lisbon. I was going for a day trip but I ended up spending a week, because even though everyone was fabulous and stylish, they were also so friendly and warm.”
“It was fun to shoot these Polaroids in Venice Beach with Graylen Eastwood wearing the supercool new Dior collection. The conversation with Maria Grazia and Stefano also helped me improve my Italian.”
After shedding her anxieties, Willow Smith is ready to bare her transparent soul. Mere days before the world went into lockdown, Willow Smith locked herself inside a 20-foot box at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art for 24 straight hours. She did so in the name of performance art, inviting guests to silently watch through a glass pane as she and her frequent musical collaborator, Tyler Cole, cycled through what they described as the “eight stages of anxiety.” For many, the COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered as a time when our collective mental health was shaken. But for the youngest child and only daughter of actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, the unheralded period of chaos that defined 2020 will stand out as the crucial time when she finally learned how to properly manage many aspects of her own anxieties. Smith’s MoCA installation coincided with the release of an album with Cole, titled The Anxiety, and, like that 10-song
effort, found the pair working through their respective histories with the disorder. The 20-year-old singer intended for the exhibition to raise awareness about anxiety; still, she had no idea how personally cathartic the experience would prove to be. Just over a year later, she reflects now on the day-long experience as “emotional turmoil.” The extended time in “the box,” as the face of Onitsuka Tiger describes it, forced her to confront some uncomfortable truths and emotions. But where she might have once been able to distract herself with any number of other diversions, the then-worsening pandemic—and the worldwide quarantine it mandated—left the newly-minted performance artist alone to wrestle with everything head-on. “It was a crazy parallel,” says Smith, joking that she crawled out of a literal box only to immediately exchange it for a more symbolic one. But like many musicians before her, she used
By MICHAEL CUBY Photography MYLES LOFTIN Styled by JASON BOLDEN
the free time to dive headfirst into new music. Only this time, it was different. The Anxiety was the product of a 19-year-old only recently coming to terms with the fact that she had long been wrestling with the condition. By the time she began recording her new music, however, Smith, who still realizes that she’ll never be able to truly “conquer” her anxiety and the insecurity that comes with it, had at least been armed with a set of new tools meant to help contend with it. With so much about her changing on the inside, all while the world seemed to be crashing and burning outside, it’s no wonder Smith found herself desperately seeking out “a new journey, a new goal” during quarantine. She eventually discovered it in the beloved sounds of her youth—namely, pop-punk artists of the aughts like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore. The stylistic shift finds the young performer in good company, as the genre is currently
IT would BE ONLY RIGHT FOR MY MUSIC to REFLECT MY MENTAL and EMOTIONAL STATE at THIS TIME.
experiencing a widespread cultural resurgence, thanks to the popularity of artists like Machine Gun Kelly and The Kid Laroi, trending challenges on TikTok, and Kourtney Kardashian’s very public current relationship with legendary Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. Smith, typically a producer of experimental R&B and singersongwriter-indebted pop, had experimented with rockadjacent sounds before (most prominently on The Anxiety, but also on earlier tracks, like “Human Leech,” from her 2017 album The 1st), but for a long time, she was fearful of fully stepping into this new arena, despite her longtime reverence for the genre and the culture surrounding it. At least part of this fear stemmed from what she thought was a limit to her vocal range. After spending over a decade comfortably crooning over sultry production, the shift in genre would force Smith to expand her vocal palette. On “Transparent Soul,” the lead single from her new project, for example, Smith gives into pop-punk’s token bratty speedshouting in the song’s verses but blends that with soaring vocals in the title-referencing chorus. The singer personally reached out to Barker to ask him to contribute percussion, which he does on several of the album’s tracks. And when combined with her own skillful guitar-shredding, the propulsive emo energy of Blink’s best work shines through. Coincidentally, the other aspect of Smith’s insecurity was also key to her eventual inspiration. From the ages of 4 to 10, Smith accompanied her mom on tour—around the same time she became a box office sensation thanks to The Matrix, Jada was the frontwoman for nu-metal band Wicked Wisdom. Such were some of the younger Smith’s first musical experiences, and predictably, watching her mom keep crowd after crowd entertained had a profound impact on the impressionable child. Also influential were some of the unsavory facets that affect Black women in the rock realm. “My mom got so much hate,” she admits. “It was intense racism and sexism, just packed on to the tens. People giving her death threats, throwing glass at her onstage. Some crazy stuff went down when she was touring with her band.” “I got to see that hate firsthand,” she continues. “It was so scary to me, and I think I internalized a little bit.” But as she worked through her anxiety in other parts of her life, the singer also found that she could shed some of the insecurities she had about her music, too. “Every time I feel that coming on, I just go back to my memories of my mom and how she would deal with actual physical danger—she just rose above it,” she adds. “Obviously, she was scared. But she really showed me what ‘womaning up’ really was, by taking a stance and not being afraid of other people’s judgements and perceptions. I really wanted to just go within that place in myself and try something new, regardless of what my insecurities were.”
ONITSUKA TIGER OPPOSITE PAGE—Jacket, bra, and pants ONITSUKA TIGER PREVIOUS PAGE AND ON THE COVER—Jacket, bra, pants, and shoes ONITSUKA TIGER ABOVE—Jacket
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And now, while she’s quick to correct anyone who might conflate the nu-metal of her mother’s Ozzfest-approved musical venture and the playful pop-punk of her own
latest work, Smith is indeed proud to be carrying the torch for Black women working under the rock umbrella. “I just wanted to fulfill that desire that I had ever since I was 10 or 12 of singing rock music, of being a Black woman singing rock music,” she lets off, pausing ever so briefly to emphasize the word “Black” in a way that effectively reveals how important representation is for her. This importance pops up in other aspects of her work, too. Though music is Smith’s primary focus for the time being, she has also been working on several other projects on and off over the last few years. She’s been writing The Black Shield Maiden, a work of historical fiction, while also developing a six-years-in-the-making anime that she hopes to turn into a graphic novel. Both stories center Black women who “struggle with the pushback they get in the world.” Similarly, Smith feels a certain strength with her work with Onitsuka Tiger, specifically being a Black woman serving as as the fashion brand’s global ambassador. She describes the popular sports shoe as “some futuristic, but also utilitariantype shit,” and admits to identifying with the Japanese brand’s history of going “full slay mode, full savage mode.” Then, there’s the fact that Bruce Lee, a hero of Smith’s, wore Onitsuka Tiger. “He was one of the most savage MFs I’ve ever seen,” she jests. “I need to be on some Bruce Lee-type shit!” On the topic of heroes, Smith lights up when asked about getting the chance to work with one of her childhood idols on the upcoming album—on a song called “Grow,” which features pop-punk fixture Avril Lavigne. The song finds the two singers trading verses about the never-ending pursuit for self-actualization over throwback Barker drums and zippy guitars that easily recall some of Lavigne’s biggest hits. Smith wanted the single to be a juxtaposition between the “super angsty” energy of most pop-punk tracks and the “more evolved spiritual concept” that she had been exploring lyrically. The idea to recruit Lavigne came naturally, particularly since Smith figured that the singer, who famously signed a multi-million dollar recording contract when she was only 16, would be able to relate to many of the song’s themes. As she explains, “I feel like our journeys of just figuring out who we are while being in the spotlight so young [had many similarities].” Of course, being in the spotlight hasn’t been all bad. In recent years, Smith has become accustomed to sharing intimate details about her personal life in a very public way thanks to Red Table Talk, the Facebook Watch talk show she hosts alongside her mother and grandmother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris. It’s there where she first opened up about her sexuality, coming out as both queer and polyamorous in 2019. And after speaking more freely about her interest in ethical non-monogamy in an episode from April 2021, the talk show’s resident Gen Z surrogate promises to have these discussions in even more detail on the upcoming album. “It would be only right for my music to reflect my mental and emotional state at this time,” she responds about the topic. “I’ve really never been the type to talk a whole lot about romance or my sexuality in my music, but on this 16
Jacket, dress, shoes, and socks ONITSUKA TIGER
Jacket, pants, and shoes ONITSUKA TIGER and shorts ONITSUKA TIGER
OPPOSITE PAGE—Jacket
Jacket and shorts ONITSUKA TIGER OPPOSITE PAGE—Jacket ONITSUKA TIGER HAIR: Vernon François MAKEUP: Raoúl Alejandre PROPS STYLIST: Daniel Horowitz PRODUCTION: Dana Brockman VIEWFINDERS PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Suze Lee VIEWFINDERS LIGHTING TECH: Evadne Gonzalez PHOTO ASSISTANT: Kadar Small STYLIST ASSISTANT: John Mumbo PROPS ASSISTANT: Jade Soensen PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Chris Olsen
album, it definitely comes out a lot more.” Naturally, she credits her work at the Red Table with pushing her to feel more comfortable to “bring [these conversations] into my own [musical] space.” But she also thinks this kind of lyrical rawness is key to the ethos of her new sound. “It’s rock-androll, man!” she exclaims. “It just feels so good to feel like I have no secrets. I’m a transparent soul!” But what about that other, older music—the music that didn’t address these topics, the music from her youth? Who could have predicted that this wise-beyond-her-years performer is the same one who, in 2010, recorded “Whip My Hair,” the free-soaring debut single that catapulted a then 9-yearold “Willow” into superstardom, seemingly overnight. Smith admits that, for a long time, she hated the song—an experience not unfamiliar to young pop stars who break out with a studio-manufactured radio hit years before they’re allowed to find their own sound. “For so long, I wanted to condemn that time of my life and forget it, just kind of push it under the rug,” she confesses. “I really regretted it.”
The CONTENT in MY SONGS HAS ALWAYS BEEN CENTERED around SELF-LOVE and THE UNIVERSE AND OUR HUMANITY’S DIVINE PATH, about EXPRESSING ONESELF and BEING UNAPOLOGETIC.
power from which she derives much of her strength. She’s been honing this bond, in some form, since childhood thanks to her mom’s interest in a wide array of spiritual practices. Last year, she commemorated that reverence with Rise, a collaborative EP she recorded with kirtan singer Jahnavi Harrison, and most recently, she had the connection permanently inked into her arm with an elaborate tattoo sleeve. The wise-speaking 20-year-old seems most grounded when detailing her spirituality; it’s no surprise that she sees the presence of The Divine “underlying” almost everything she comes into contact with. In the months following her performance-art exhibit at MoCA, as Smith learned to manage her anxiety, experimented with new sounds, and eventually wrote her new record in its entirety, the young artist was sure to keep up with her daily spiritual practices—especially yoga, which she’s been learning to treat as more of a lifestyle choice than a physical fitness exercise. At first glance, the quiet and peace usually associated with these mindfulness practices may seem at direct odds with the louder, brasher, and altogether more intense energy of the music she also recorded during this time. But for Willow Smith, the different energies all work together to create something truly harmonious and beautiful—just like the three different goddesses, Kuan Yin, Saraswati, and Kali, she now has emblemized onto her left arm.
But recently, she’s begun to reconsider her stance. “I realized that the content in my songs has always been centered around self-love and the universe and our humanity’s divine path, about expressing oneself and being unapologetic,” she continues. “I listened to ‘Whip My Hair’ not too long ago, after many years, and realized that it’s the same message. I’m not saying anything that’s against my values, and on top of that, I’m saying things that are in harmony with my values. I kind of just had a huge aha and was like, ‘Yo, don’t condemn this side of your life because it gave you a foundation and a platform and a fan base of so many loving individuals who have been by my side through this whole crazy, topsy-turvy journey that I’ve had. Now, I would never take it back.’” Like many things in her life, Smith credits this realization to her connection with The Divine, the feminine spiritual 21
TIME AWAY
A dreamy escape full of gorgeous pastels and soft flounces is a much-needed reset for the senses. Photography ALESSANDRO LO FARO Styled by MARCO COSTA
ABOVE, FROM TOP— Top, skirt, and
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shoes BLUMARINE Bag BENEDETTA BRUZZICHES; Coat and dress MSGM Hat AMORPHOSE; Sweater, dress, and clip VERSACE OPPOSITE PAGE—Sweater, dress, shoes, and clip VERSACE PREVIOUS PAGE, LEFT— Dress and tops PHILOSOPHY DI LORENZO SERAFINI PREVIOUS PAGE, RIGHT— Top, skirt, and shoes BLUMARINE Bag BENEDETTA BRUZZICHES
Top and pants LOEWE MSGM Hat AMORPHOSE
OPPOSITE PAGE—Dress
and pants LOEWE; Dress, shoes, and earrings CHANEL Hat PASQUALE BONFILIO OPPOSITE PAGE—Dress AMORPHOSE Glasses BIDET À BOIRE MODEL: Kacie Hall FABBRICA MILANO HAIR: Serena Polh MAKEUP: Greta Agazzi PHOTO ASSISTANT: Eleonora Tinti STYLIST ASSISTANT: Maria Alessia Simonte ABOVE, FROM TOP—Top
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The ARTof
KNOWING Fendi’s new capsule of Baguette bags pays homage to the craftsmanship of regional Italian artisans. Platimiro Fiorenza has an unusual craft. The artisan, hailing from Sicily, was named a Living Human Treasure by UNESCO and is one of the leading experts in the 12th century tradition of red coral setting. Some of his works are kept in the Vatican Museums, but there are others that can be carried on the shoulder. Fiorenza is just one of the artisans Fendi tapped for its Hand in Hand project, for which the Italian fashion house asked 20 artisans across Italy to imagine their own versions of the iconic Baguette handbag. Introduced in 1997 by Silvia Venturini Fendi, the Baguette quickly reached It bag status and has had countless iterations over the years. Now that the silhouette is back, it has become the perfect canvas to showcase the work of individual artisans across Italy—from Sardinia, where the women of the Su Marmuri textile cooperative weave rugs, fabrics, and home accessories on manual looms; to Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where the family-run workshop of Carnica Arte Tessile produces jacquard and brocade fabrics in linen and cotton using techniques that date back to the 1700s. For the new project, each craftsman produced only 20 Baguette bags, each with its own signature.
By CRISTINA MANFREDI Photography OMAR SARTOR Styled by ALESSANDRA FAJA
With bold hues and saturated pigments, beauty takes a walk on the wild side with a blast from the past. Photography MIKAEL SCHULZ Styled by MIMI KIM
MANOKHI MANOKHI Earrings ANANYA PREVIOUS PAGE—Top TOME Bracelets STYLIST’S OWN ABOVE—Necklace
OPPOSITE PAGE—Gloves
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THE BARONESS Brooch CHANEL THE BARONESS Earrings ANANYA MODELS: Aubrie Williams NEW YORK MODELS Erica Honing THE INDUSTRY NY MAKEUP: Misha Shahzada HAIR: Clara Leonard THE WALL GROUP ABOVE—Gloves
OPPOSITE PAGE—Gloves
After 12 years alongside Nicolas Ghesquière and a brief stint at Dior with Raf Simons, newly appointed artistic director of Courrèges Nicolas Di Felice brings the famous space-age fashion house back to life. You were born in the post-industrial Belgian city of Charleroi. How has architecture influenced you? NICOLAS DI FELICE: It’s not the architecture of Charleroi that inspires me, but rather its harsh, dark side, which is also popular and very lively. I love this city for its contrasts. What inspires me in my work is precisely the contrast between Charleroi and Paris. If I had to keep an image of my childhood, it would be those car trips where we went from a field as far as the eye can see to a club in a hangar whose façade was lit up with a bright neon pink. El Dorado, in a Las Vegas spirit. L’OFFICIEL:
Did your interest in fashion originate with MTV? NDF: We didn’t have access to fashion magazines. There were no billboards. So between the 1980s and 2000, my first glimpses of fashion were on MTV. It helped me understand that we can create our own character and universe. L’O: What were your years at Balenciaga like? L’O:
From Nicolas Ghesquière, I learned precision. Even though I was already a very precise person, I had a great respect for the material, and I loved to sew. But at Balenciaga, it was a level above. Each stylist had to make a few pieces, but each one was more than merely completed—it was perfect. I learned to be precise not only in my way of working, but also in what I expect from the people with whom I work. Before making images, I am first a technician. I make clothes, and I’m proud of it. NDF:
And with Raf Simons… NDF: It was a relatively short time. I have fond memories of Raf when he was at Dior. He is a romantic and passionate person. But his focus at Dior was very much on drawing. When I was a student at La Cambre, we had to draw pieces in a pragmatic—not artistic—way. I spent a year drawing, but what I really love is creating clothes on the body: cutting, pinning, making, and redoing. L’O:
By LAURE AMBROISE Photography JULES FAURE
The fashion of André and Coqueline Courrèges was geometric with the A-line miniskirt; avant-garde in its volumes giving free rein to the freedom of the body; and optimistic in its colors. What is your vision for Courrèges? NDF: What I mainly remember from their work is that their clothes were made to be worn. That was their wish. I like André’s preoccupation with taking his fashion to the streets. I also remember his quest for purity and simplicity. When you remodel a house, you must obviously respect its heritage. But there is also a moment when it is your own vision that you have to put forward. I offer simple things. I have no intellectual pretensions, even if I think a lot. L’O:
When you were appointed artistic director of the house, one of the first things you did was a reissue of the brand’s strongest pieces in a much more eco-responsible vinyl. NDF: It is a new fabric on a 100 percent eco-friendly cotton jersey base and the polyurethane on it is 70 percent derived from vegetables. I am a creator with social and societal concerns. L’O:
Why this first collection of reissues? NDF: It is important that these pieces remain and exist. L’O:
Tell us about your first show at Courrèges, which took place in a white cube built at La Station, a cultural center in the north of Paris? NDF: When I learned that the show would not be face-to-face, I had to change my mind very quickly. I felt locked away, and that’s where the idea came from. While the models were doing their last lap, a drone filmed people climbing the walls of the cube. L’O:
What is the concept behind the Fall/Winter 2021 collection? NDF: It begins with heritage pieces that evoke the Courrèges salons of the past. The very first look is a kimono coat whose construction, pockets, and sleeves are inspired by an André Courrèges coat, which is part of our archives. He wears it in a very touching photo that I adore, in which he poses very proudly in front of his shop. I also paid tribute to the workshop years of the house from 1960 to 1967. As the show unfolded, I showed little by little that I was more comfortable with what I had in my hands, to make room for my own universe. Several silhouettes express this feeling. You have the two worlds: That of the house’s history, and mine. L’O:
STYLED BY:
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Kenzia Bengel de Vaulx MODEL: Ivana Trivic HAIR AND MAKEUP: Caroline Fouet
BEFORE MAKING IMAGES, I am FIRST A TECHNICIAN. I MAKE CLOTHES, and I’M PROUD of IT.
Barbara Palvin channels the tough-sexy vibe of the original Supers, with dramatic looks and embellished accents. Photography RICARDO GOMES Styled by RITA MELSSEN
KAIMIN Stockings and garter AGENT PROVOCATEUR Shoes MALAN BRETON MARC JACOBS Briefs ATELIER BISER Tights FALKE PREVIOUS PAGE—Dress and earrings ROBERTO CAVALLI Boots RINALDY YUNARDI Gloves GREGORY KARA ABOVE—Coat
OPPOSITE PAGE—Sweater
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ABOVE—Bodysuit
KAIMIN Bra and briefs AGENT PROVOCATEUR MARINA HOERMANSEDER
OPPOSITE PAGE—Dress
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ABOVE—Dress, shoes, and tights GUCCI HEAVEN BY MARC JACOBS Pants and belt ROBERTO CAVALLI Hat KELSEY RANDALL HAIR: Andy LeCompte MAKEUP: Kali Kennedy TAILOR: Sam Ososki PHOTO ASSISTANT: Montrell Hull
OPPOSITE PAGE—Top
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From glossy eyes to wet-look hair, summer beauty is all about a dewy finish. Time to hit refresh. Whether emerging from an ocean swim or a dip in the pool, there’s a certain effortlessness to the resulting glistening skin and water-slicked hair. Before drying off, consider embracing the damp look favored on the runway this season by Versace, Chloé, and more. To imitate watersplashed dewiness, apply a flexible hold gel to towel-dried hair. Concentrating the product on the roots and combing through will create a sleek, modern look, while incorporating it evenly from roots to ends and tousling it with your hands
produces a more laid-back, beachy effect. For the face, the key is to prep the skin with as much moisture as possible, layering toner, serum, and a face cream underneath glowenhancing makeup like an illuminating primer and liquid foundation. Going bolder, add gloss to your lips, cheeks, and eyelids for a high-shine finish. Perfect for beating the heat, the wet look will keep you cool, in all senses of the word. —Sophie Shaw
Photography DOMEN & VAN DE VELDE Styled by LIEVE GERRITS
Bag BOTTEGA VENETA MESSIKA
PREVIOUS PAGE—Earrings
Dress DRIES VAN NOTEN Sunglasses GUCCI and leggings VERSACE Shoes CUSTOMMADE Ring ANAPSARA MODEL: Amber SUPERMODEL MANAGEMENT HAIR: Joeri Rouffa MAKEUP: Liselotte van Saarloos PHOTO ASSISTANT: Laura Berrou MAKEUP ASSISTANT: Michelle Braspenninckx STUDIO: Elimage OPPOSITE PAGE—Top
TOMFORD.COM
Turning through the pages of L’OFFICIEL, you can easily observe a century of fashion. But we can also trace 100 years of women’s history, and follow their battles for and progress toward equal representation and greater autonomy. Issue after issue—there are over a thousand in our vast archives!—women and fashion have marched together: From Madame Vionnet and Jeanne Lanvin’s call to liberate women from the constraints of corsets that mirrored the suffragettes’ fights for equal rights in the 1920s; to the creation of feminine “uniforms” by Coco Chanel to dress a new kind of working woman in the ‘30s and during the First World War; from the freedom of the comfortable and versatile wardrobes created by Sonia Rykiel and Diane von Furstenberg during the women’s liberation movement of the ‘70s; to the powerful, radically inclusive activist moment of today. You can see this journey of style and substance culminate in our conversation with Maria Grazia Chiuri, who we invited here to reminisce with her friend and creative collaborator, Maripol. Chiuri, the first female creative director for Maison Dior, is just one of the many women we lift up and celebrate in this issue, asking them to tell us their stories, their challenges, and their victories. The young, multitalented Willow Smith
speaks openly of her personal journey toward a more confident and vulnerable version of herself as she finds a new voice in her next music project. Actress Laura Harrier shares her precocious and voracious relationship with fashion and what it is like to work closely with Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière. Acclaimed stage and film actor Emily Beecham discusses her attraction to challenging roles, and the dramatic juxtaposition of her new, diametrically opposed characters in two postpandemic projects: Disney’s upcoming Cruella and Emily Mortimer’s recently debuted The Pursuit of Love. And the mega pop star Katy Perry opens up in her first interview after becoming a mother, reveling in her unmitigated delight of motherhood and the unconditional love of her new daughter, Daisy. Looking back at the many challenges posed by racism and systemic inequity, we also recognize the courageous Black models of the late ‘60s and ‘70s who defied the prejudicial fashion system, took the runways of Paris by storm, and opened the door to a new age of inclusiveness that is only now being more fully realized. This centennial year and always, we celebrate the strength and fearlessness of the many women who broke down gender barriers, in fashion, in the world at large, and in the pages of L’OFFICIEL.
With a new baby, new music, and new residency in Las Vegas, mega pop-star Katy Perry’s life has a whole new tempo. By EVAN ROSS KATZ Photography GREG SWALES Styled by DANIELLE GOLDBERG
Staring into Katy Perry’s pixelated eyeballs through the screen, where she sits in the backyard of her Santa Barbara home, I’m compelled to call her dichotomous. For I’ve witnessed two very clear versions of her over the years. There’s Katy Perry, the church kid turned cartoonishly larger-than-life pop star, who has made a career of smashing records (including scoring five No. 1 singles from one album, a feat equalled only by Michael Jackson), fashioning the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show ever, and becoming the most-followed woman on Twitter. And then, there is Katheryn Hudson, who first revealed her truest self to the world in the 2012 documentary, Part of Me, which followed the singer throughout the exhaustive 124 sold-out shows of her California Dreams tour. With her marriage imploding and the kind of tears that send you into heaving breaths, we voyeuristically watched Hudson, outfitted in her trademark peppermint-swirl-themed bustier with mechanized pasties made to look like after-dinner mints, modulate into Perry. A fake smile flickers onto her face and she becomes a real-life Velma Kelly (minus the murder) ascending onto the stage at the beginning of Chicago’s “All That Jazz.” But with Perry, thanks to a perspicacity that comes with time and experience, there’s a gradation. This, that, and the other. “I have gone through a real journey in the past few years of having fun with costumes and lights and props and theatrics, but I have another life at home and it’s very small and normal,” she says from her sun-drenched Southern California backyard. “I don’t feel like I have to be ‘on’ anymore, and I think that’s because I’ve figured out both my professional and personal lives. I’ve weaved them together to be a full-fledged functioning human...of sorts.” Levity creeps in as she laughs at her own self-reflection. “I used to be really upset about going out into the world with no makeup on. Even for something like this, I’d be like, ‘Let’s do some hair and makeup,’ and now I’m like, ‘You know, I’m good. I know who I am. And what you think of me is none of my business.’” I’m reminded of RuPaul’s signature line: “Unless they gonna pay your bills, pay them bitches no mind.”
One could say—and should say—it’s been a big year for Perry. Last August she gave birth to her first child, Daisy Dove Bloom, with her partner, the actor Orlando Bloom. Two days later, she released her sixth studio album, Smile, deemed by many a return to her familiar fizzy pop and scaling hooks. Several months later, in January of this year, she performed her song “Firework” live in front of the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. These happenings were all synergistic by design. The lead single from the album, “Daisies,” is a tribute to her Daisy, and the Washington D.C. performance was threaded to her as well. “I just thought about my daughter [when she turns] 36, and thought, ‘What kind of world am I going to be leaving her with?’ So I was really singing for climate change and for leaders that are taking big, bold steps to address it.” All that and she still found time
I don’t FEEL LIKE I HAVE TO BE ‘ON’ ANYMORE, and I THINK THAT’S BECAUSE I’VE FIGURED OUT both MY PROFESSIONAL and PERSONAL LIVES.
I’m immediately charmed by her—her in her sports bra with two necklaces dangling from her neck (one that reads “Daisy Dove” and the other a custom design of the flower) and, true to her word, a makeup-free face. She’s serving realness, and I’m eating it up, no crumbs. Maybe it’s a calculated realness, crafted with as much meticulous detail as the pop superstar with whipped cream exploding from her breasts. I choose to believe the realness was, well...real. ‘Cause the thing is, we’ll never know. And why live in uncertainty?
PROENZA SCHOULER Earrings HARRY WINSTON MAX MARA Pants and shoes NINA RICCI PREVIOUS PAGE—Jacket and skirt PROENZA SCHOULER Shoes SALVATORE FERRAGAMO Earrings HARRY WINSTON RIGHT—Jacket
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to do the “normal” stuff that one does in a global pandemic, like binge The Queen’s Gambit and Succession (“It’s the best TV show out there, period,” she confirms confidently) and fall back in love with books. Her current favorite? David Brooks’ The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life. It’s this extended time at home with her family that’s given her the ability to recalibrate. “I’m grateful that I didn’t try to keep continuously climbing career mountains. I was like, ‘I think that there is another mountain to climb that has as beautiful of a view, if not even more fulfilling.’” In many ways, Daisy allowed Perry to create without criticism, comparison, expectation, or fear of failure—something she’s been plagued by throughout much of her career, thanks in part to her stratospheric success since its start. “As a performer I’ve always relied on the love and acceptance and validation of the outside world and that ultimately can waver at times,” she admits. “When you have a child, you have someone who looks at you and doesn’t know anything on your resume, doesn’t know anything about your bank account, doesn’t know anything, doesn’t care, and just loves you. Unconditional love. It’s just...everything I think I was looking for.”
I’D HEARD about UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, BUT now I’M REALLY EXPERIENCING IT. THERE’S A WHOLENESS that HAS HAPPENED. Daisy’s birth brought Perry a sense of wholeness, and helped heal deep-seated wounds that she’d developed over the years. “I always felt like I was walking around with a little bit of pain in my heart concerning love,” she says, her eyes slowly trailing to elsewhere in her mind. “And my fiancé has done a great job at really helping to mend that. But this just went underneath all that and got so deep. It’s just there, that love is there.” Her penetrating gaze returns, focused, assured. “I’d heard about unconditional love, but now I’m really experiencing it. There’s a wholeness that has happened.” It’s in this relationship with Bloom, and now their beautiful Daisy, that the honeymoon phase—or the “zsa zsa zsu,” as Carrie Bradshaw once called it—now feels unending; layered by a deep foundation that has, through time, extended below the surface to depths previously closed off. Perry’s infectious smile practically beams at the mere mention of her fiancé. “I was able to witness him and his fatherhood,” she says. (Bloom has a 10-year-old son, Flynn, with ex-wife Miranda Kerr.) “The way that he showed up for him and continues to show up for him, and the efforts that he makes and the distance he goes, I think that’s one of the reasons I made that conscious decision. “I was like, ‘Here’s the father of my future children.’ I could see his kindness, empathy, care, and tenderness. I courted that. I was like, ‘Okay, this is different.’ 64
Coat HERMÈS Bodysuit SKIMS Pants VERSACE Necklace HARRY WINSTON
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And this is his first girl, so it’s a totally different feeling for him. I’m really, really grateful to have him. And he really shows up in a huge emotional way, which is unique for me.” Like many new mothers—or perhaps anyone who has spent the last year in relative isolation—Perry is using these major shifts to reflect on her life as a whole. “I had 35 years of calling the shots and doing what I wanted to do, zipping all over the world and taking care of my career,” she says. “Now I have this huge responsibility to look after such an incredible gift. It makes you quite vulnerable and reminds you of your own childhood that you want to probably do differently. I want to do it differently.” But, of course, she also experienced reservations. “I was nervous to be a mom,” she admits, saying
YOU JUST GOTTA LEARN HOW to GET OUT OF the BURNING CAR ALIVE. EVERY ONCE in A WHILE, YOU CAN GO BACK in and SAY, ‘HERE’S MY MAGIC TRICK.’
she went on a “healing journey” to figure out why that was, got to the source of it, and did the work to seek resolution. “Now I get it. Now I realize this is it. This is the living part. Every day I’m like, ‘When can we go for a walk? When can we go for a swim?’ There was a good 12 years where none of that smallness existed. It was amazing to live big and wild, but sometimes it’s nice just to throw the ball on the grass and watch your daughter laugh from the simple joys of the dog coming and bringing it back.” Daisies. Mountains. Grass. Maybe it’s true what they say, nature is healing. Perry is clearly falling in love with a world more tranquil than the bombast of the ever-probing spotlight, which she says can be overwhelming. “You just gotta learn how to get out of the burning car alive. Every once in a while, you can go back in and say, ‘Here’s my magic trick.’ I think that the music and the message are empowering and helpful for people, but you don’t want it to be all-consuming. You want to carve out a real life as well.” That real life, or the “smallest, best life” as Perry refers to it, has meant ample time with her family—and not just Orlando and Daisy, but their extended family as well, including Perry’s parents as well as her brother and sister. There’s Taco Tuesdays and Pancake Sundays, which feature jazz music and Danish pancakes (her brother-in-law is Danish). “When you spend this much time with your family, there are a lot of opportunities for healing.” She’s also begun considering her future—and not just one that includes an upcoming Las Vegas residency and a new song and video, “Electric,” for a collaboration with Pokémon, but further down the line. “What is that next interval of my life and what does that look like? And where do I find that fulfillment? I’ve always had this dream of going to school and learning either about psychology or a combination of psychology and philosophy. And I know once I get into an educational program and a structure, I’ll see all these subjects that I want to learn about. I know that’s something in the future for me, but Vegas definitely comes first.” Opening this winter, the residency will see Perry join an all-star lineup of rotating talent including Céline Dion, Carrie Underwood, and Luke Bryan as well as Zedd and Tiësto at the new Resorts World Las Vegas. The return to the stage will mark Perry’s first live performances since before the pandemic. When I ask her if she’s nervous or at all apprehensive to step back out, she scoffs, making it clear that the off switch can very easily flip back on when needed. “I know that when I go back on the stage, I’m going to do my best and give it my all as I always do with my projects.” But until then? “I’ve been professionally busy since I was 13, and now I’ve really stopped to smell the roses.”
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socks PRADA Jesus Guerrero MAKEUP: Michael Anthony NAILS: Kim Diem Truong PRODUCTION: Dana Brockman VIEWFINDERS PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Molly O’Brien DIGITAL TECH: Amanda Yanez LIGHTING ASSISTANTS: Yolanda Leaney and Sebastien Keefe STYLIST ASSISTANTS: Alexis Asquith and Jamison Diertrich PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Jeremy Alvarez SPECIAL THANKS Rosewood Miramar Beach OPPOSITE PAGE—Dress, shoes, hat, and HAIR:
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Dior Womenswear Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri and legendary pop icon Maripol reminisce about their most recent collaboration for the French maison’s Pre-Fall 2021 collection and their memories of the golden age of disco and Fiorucci. You have often collaborated with Maripol, but never before in such a close partnership. How did you meet and how was this collection born? MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI: I was obsessed with [Maripol] back in the day. I had all of her books. I wanted to know her since my time at Valentino. When I arrived in New York, my only goal was to meet her, but I didn’t know how. By chance, at a dinner with Blondie [Deborah Harry], I was speaking about my passion for Fiorucci, for Maripol, and for her outfits, and she said to me: “I’m a friend of Maripol’s!” and called her immediately. We spoke to each other on the phone, and we met the next day. I was a super fan—she was a great reference. STEFANO TONCHI:
You’re right, the very next day! In a building of Andy Warhol’s Factory. MGC: I was fascinated by the Factory. We had found the space to do a presentation there, and my dream was to have Maripol’s photos. So I invited her, and while showing her the space proposed she should shoot the Polaroids. MARIPOL:
Maripol, what did you think when you received that phone call? MP: They phoned me in the middle of the night. I spoke to Maria Grazia, and the next day we met—the first thing she did was hug me. I won’t even tell you all of our adventures, from Paris, the tension of a Haute Couture show... ST:
By STEFANO TONCHI Photography MARIPOL
Maripol was the first to know I was leaving Valentino. I called her and said, “I need an official portrait. Nobody knows. You are the only one who can take these photos of me. You must come to Paris immediately.” MP: I remember that I took these photos of her and then rushed to make a flight to Tokyo. I had the opening of an exhibition the next day! MGC:
Returning to this collection, was there a special moment that you remember fondly? MP: When Maria Grazia called me in September, she was preparing the Spring/Summer 2021 collection. I arrived in the new office and saw her with Fiorucci’s book in her hand and a particular light in her eyes. “We will make a collection, together, inspired by them,” she said. I didn’t shoot the clothes, but the beauty. It was my first time shooting beauty for Dior. Then they called me again in December to shoot together. The initial project wasn’t a lookbook, I just had to take my photos. During the shoot, Maria Grazia saw all the photos right away, and she liked them so much that she decided that I would also do the lookbook. “Maripol has a soul, her photos are fresh, energetic,” she said. I really enjoyed collaborating with her. I know that she is a fighter and she had to fight for this collection because she was going to use “new” materials for Dior, such as plastic and sequins. The photos had to portray this. I took so many polaroids that eventually the studio floor was covered with them. When I got home, I got a call and they said, “We’d like you to shoot the digital campaign as well.” ST:
Let’s talk about the Dior Pre-Fall 2021 collection that has just debuted in Shanghai. It is definitely something special. There are many elements that are not part of your lexicon, Maria Grazia— colors like lime green and orange, animal prints, mirrors—that I didn’t expect from the usual Dior. MGC: The collection was born from a very specific moment in our lives. We were all influenced by the pandemic and approached fashion with disenchantment. Personally, it was necessary to remind myself of what made me fall in love with the world of fashion in the first place. I looked to the fashion world from years ago—specifically during a pop moment—when my first encounters with the industry took place thanks to Fiorucci in Milan. I was a curious young woman experiencing a period of great change and novelty. The Fiorucci store in Milan was the only one different from everything else…they had American jeans, military jackets, and an inimitable selection of vintage. When I arrived at Fiorucci and saw the enormous selection, it was like entering the gallery of an explorer who brought back objects from the outside world that you had never seen before. This collection was meant to recall the memory, the discovery, the pleasure, and the fun. It reminds us why fashion is much more than it is described today. It is a way of expressing oneself, a way of living.
BOTTOM—Portrait
of Maria Grazia Chiuri
ST:
luxury brands have now made theirs. From the work behind logos, to the artists, he was much more than a clothing seller. MP: Really brilliant. MGC: I can’t even define him as a designer; it’s an understatement. It was indeed a particular period of our lives: mine, yours, Maripol’s. There was an underground and an establishment. Fiorucci’s fashion wasn’t Dior’s fashion, so to speak. How did you reconcile your Dior with the Fiorucci universe? MGC: Dior had a presence at that time, but it was somewhat unapproachable for young people and very old-world. It all started with my reflection on how things change over time, how symbols and their meanings evolve. There is a focus on leopard, which, for Dior in the 1950s, referred to Mitzah Bricard. With Fiorucci, leopard is taken and distorted; it becomes part of a super pop language. There was also a personal need to re-appropriate fashion in a more free and fun way. ST:
This COLLECTION REMINDS US why FASHION IS MUCH MORE than IT IS DESCRIBED TODAY. It IS A WAY OF EXPRESSING oneself, A WAY of LIVING. MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI
Do you think these shops still have something to teach us? MGC: Absolutely, yes. Those shops were an experience. I believe that [Elio] Fiorucci was not only a proponent of great changes, such as packaging—he was the first to make boxes for t-shirts—he experimented with everything that a lot of ST:
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Maripol, how did you meet Elio Fiorucci? MP: Before Studio 54, there was this club called Enchanted Garden. I took a lot of photos there. When I attended those renowned clubs as a young woman, I wasn’t able to buy big brands, so I made my own clothes and jewelry. One day a woman, Mirabella, approached me and said, “I want 300 pairs of earrings like yours for Fiorucci.” Earrings that I had made by hand; this is how the first jewelry collection started. Elio used to say, “Maripol and I have antennas—we are precursors of the future.” ST:
How is the New York of today different compared to that of the 1970s? And why did you choose to move to Los Angeles? MP: I don’t feel like I’ve left NYC forever. Right now, with the pandemic underway, it has been more difficult to get around, but I usually commute between the two cities. Actually, if I were to move permanently, I would probably choose a European city. Maria Grazia says I should go to Rome. The other option is Paris. A lot of things have changed in NYC from the ‘70s and ‘80s—it’s a totally different world. When I arrived in NYC, the city was bankrupt. You could do one job a month and be able to pay all the necessary expenses. Working in the artistic field meant meeting all
the characters: artists, writers, filmmakers. We lived at night—we had clubs, discos, parties. Now, tell me a place where all this happens with the same vitality. Maria Grazia, let’s speak now about Italy. What did you do there in the early ‘80s? MGC: I was in Florence! With all our Florentine designers and very little money. We really had fun. We were all penniless and in love with fashion. It is so different now that it is almost indescribable. That was a radically unique historical moment. We had nothing, and yet we were content. ST:
ST:
We were hungry for novelty. At the time there were two currents that were popular: punk and disco. Which were you a part of? MGC: I’ve always been pretty disco, but I admit, I had a moment with Sergio Zambon. A bit punk—not extreme like Sergio— but for a while I only wore black. It was almost a uniform. We were actually more naïve in some aspects. We didn’t even know who we were; it was all a discovery. I remember one trip in particular to London, in which I left dressed in one way and returned in another. When we returned, the parents of the friend who was with me came to pick us up and did not recognize us. ST:
Was this collection somehow a real leap into the past? Was it the result of the pandemic, from being locked up? MGC: It is mainly because I find myself working with a very young generation. In my studio, they are all 24-27 years old. They have a different approach to fashion. Sometimes you even struggle to explain your past to them. It is certainly interesting to note how they see things in a totally different way. On the other hand, the different approach to this passion is evident. I am a little perplexed—we lived for adventure. The new generations know everything, but they lack that fearless spirit that we had. ST:
Elio FIORUCCI USED TO SAY, “Maripol AND I HAVE ANTENNAS— WE are PRECURSORS of THE FUTURE.” MARIPOL
The risk of discovery. MGC: Exactly! I travel to see a certain material...The idea of making a collection while holed up in a studio does not belong to my generation. MP: That’s exactly what Elio understood! One day he gave me $2,000 and a plane ticket from New York to Tokyo and Hong Kong, and I had to go around all the neighborhoods to find the hidden gems. MGC: I traveled all over Tuscany by car looking for artisans, suppliers...It was very enriching. I think at this point I know all the artisans and all the suppliers in Italy. You met a lot of interesting people, not just artisans but real artists. When I was trying to make embroidered bags it was an absurd proposal at the time. Those were the years of Prada and black nylon. Embroidered bags were not on people’s radar. There was this challenge to create something new. Sometimes they discouraged you from doing so because you did not know how to start, but we had the spirit of fashion and luck. Now it is very different. I try to keep this philosophy as much as possible. ST: It was truly a world to experience. In all fields, even in journalism, you had to throw yourself in and try. Let’s talk about music now. During the ‘60s and ‘70s, music dictated fashion. Is it the other way around today? Is it fashion that dresses music? 76
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ST:
I believe that there has always been a connection between the two universes; everything is interdisciplinary. If I have to be frank, and talk about talent, I find that in those years there were more creative people. It’s not easy to create a style. In the end, everyone copies the icons of music, such as David Bowie. The approach to fashion is very superficial today. It is thought that it can be done easily.
MGC:
I BELIEVE that THERE has ALWAYS BEEN A CONNECTION between MUSIC and FASHION; EVERYTHING IS INTERDISCIPLINARY. MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI
Maripol, you have worked with many musicians by also working with their look, their image—you created Madonna’s look for “Like a Virgin.” Could you still do that today? Is the stylist’s job the same as it used to be? MP: Sometimes I think that, because I am in Hollywood, I should go back to styling. But then I change my mind. I prefer taking photographs and filming to styling. I can give advice, but I could never do that job again. I remember one day Cher came to my loft in NYC and tried on all my jewelry and fell in love with it—it’s not the same job. If I had to dive back into the world of fashion, I would like to become a costume designer, not a stylist. MGC: You are talking about iconic memories, crazy moments that were born from a deep relationship. Maripol and Madonna knew each other. It was necessary to get in tune with that person, to share a common project. Today, both for the countless requests and for the new way of styling, we no longer share a common background. It is very different. MP: I just got back from working with Grace Jones in Jamaica. Grace is 70 and coming out with a new record, and I’m helping her with it. She is a fashion icon. I would love to make a book inspired by her persona and create a real Graceinspired capsule collection. ST:
Can we say that with this Pre-Fall 2021 collection, you wanted to return to the past? To your origins? MGC: Exactly, origins! The basic things that give life pleasure. Little is said about the pleasure of the body, but it is necessary. Dancing, listening to music, letting off steam, being part of a community...this is the basic engine of the whole collection. ST:
I like your idea of being pragmatic women. MGC: This is a community, a factory of female artists. We do what we want to do, without fearing the judgment of others. Long live women! ST:
MODEL
Graylen Eastwood HAIR Ashlee Rose MAKEUP Sam Visser PRODUCTION Annee Elliot Rosh and George Wolf SPECIAL THANKS Budman Studio
PHOTO ASSISTANTS Tina
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From Yayoi Kusama’s Tate Modern shows to the recently opened Superblue in Miami, overwhelmingly sensory experiences have swept social media by storm. But what is the distinction between art and attraction? When the Tate Modern opened its 2012 Yayoi Kusama retrospective, the curators probably knew it would be big. It was, after all, the first major European survey of a ground-breaking conceptual artist. What they couldn’t have predicted was the global frenzy that one of the works— “Infinity Room,” a barber shop of mirrors infinitely lit with fairy lights—would ignite. Nearly a decade later, Katy Wan, the curator behind Kusama’s two new iterations of “Infinity Room” opening at the British museum this summer, admits that the revival exhibitions’ purpose is twofold: to provide access to visitors chomping at the bit to experience the artist’s now widely-snapped installations for themselves as well as provide a moment of pause to “reassess Kusama in light of her rise to global acclaim, helped in recent years by the rise of social media.”
By KAT HERRIMAN
It was, however, the ubiquity of social media that brought the Museum of Modern Art’s 2013 iteration of artists Hannes Koch and Florian Ortkrass’s “Rain Room” to the attention of masses. Who could miss supermodel Karlie Kloss strategically backlit in a white skirt? Her caption of choice documenting her visit: “no umbrella needed #RainRoom.” Of course, the only place one might have wanted one was in the queue that wound around the block for weeks. Surely Karlie didn’t have to wait like the rest of us. As the 2010s ticked by, the popularity of these all-body art experiences took off, nurtured along by hashtags and influencers but also by a bemused art world happy to see a new kind of engagement taking place in its halls. Museums took down their no-pictures signs, which had once protected visitors and paintings alike against the evils of flash photography. The hassle of individual photo documentation—stop, pose, click—became the rhythm of the art space and encouraged new curatorial infatuations. QR codes were installed as wall labels. People took pictures of them, too.
ABOVE, TOP—“Almost Earth,” 2021, by Jesse Wilson. Installation view inside Meow Wolf’s “Omega Mart” in Las Vegas, photographed by Kate Russell LEFT, FROM TOP—“Cosmic Cave,” by Pip and Pop. Installation view inside Meow Wolf’s “House of Eternal Return” in Santa Fe, photographed by Kate Russell; “Fractalife,” 2021, by Claudia Bueno. Installation view inside Meow Wolf’s “Omega Mart” in Las Vegas, photographed by Kate Russell OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM TOP—”Madame Curie,” 2011, by Jennifer Steinkamp; “Retinal 3,” 2020, by Jennifer Steinkamp. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London PREVIOUS PAGE—”Flowers and People, Cannot be Controlled but Live Together–Transcending Boundaries, A Whole Year per Hour,” 2017, by teamLab. Installation view of Every Wall is a Door, Superblue Miami, 2021. © teamLab. Courtesy of Pace Gallery
It was only when someone bothered to ask if all this was still indeed art with a capital “A” that the music stopped and the yardstick of context and pedigree emerged to parse out the intruders. Existing art institutions and galleries like David Zwirner, Jeffrey Deitch, MoMA, and the Tate could transform their halls into playgrounds, life-size AI puppet theaters, or giant hamster cages and call it art. Yet the sprinkle-flecked Museum of Ice Cream established in 2016 by Maryellis Bunn and Manish Vora was decidedly not, even though the dessertinspired funhouse necessitated the labor and ideas of artists to be realized. If only its owners had focused on securing a gallery partner rather than corporate sponsors like Dove and Tinder, maybe it would’ve been better received by association. Luckily for Bunn and Vora, their fanbase doesn’t seem to care. Its block-wrapping popularity wasn’t squelched by an exposé of its abusive labor practices, nor by a global pandemic. This April, the Singapore Tourism Board announced that the country will be hosting the first international iteration of the MoIC after its expansion from its New York headquarters to a Miami pop-up. If anything, as a case study MoIC proves just how flimsy the word “museum” can be on its own. The MoIC is a press-favored frontrunner in an expanded landscape of new experience-focused institutions that are charging ticket fees for the privilege of walking around inside Hollywood-studio-sized sets. The New York Times and other outlets have dubbed these startups as outposts of the “experience economy”—a new term that already carries with it the miasmatic whiff of canned frivolity, or worse, straight entertainment. Yet these spaces often try to eschew this kind of classification by any means necessary, including titular callouts to the high arts such as L’Atelier des Lumières in Paris and Artechouse in New York.
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO DENY that INTERACTIVITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN FOUNDATIONAL TO ART SPACES and THEIR SUCCESS. Meow Wolf is the exception—at least by name. Started by a group of artists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the collective has grown over the past decade from a guerrilla-style psychedelic art and music pop-up producer into a multi-million dollar real-estate-holding conglomerate. Its goal from the beginning was to open up new audiences for working artists jaded by the conservatism and competitiveness that seemed baked into the existing creative taxonomies. Its most recent project is “Omega Mart,” a haunted grocery store environment in which visitors are invited to meditate on the pitfalls of consumerism. “If there’s anything that the art world has continually done over the centuries, it’s been to reject something initially as not good enough to be art,” states Caity Kennedy, a founding member of Meow Wolf and its Senior Creative Director. “So when we receive criticism for creating work that is too entertaining or
popular or, worse, enjoyable, it’s disappointing to me because it is a judgment that shows a lack of curiosity.” Indeed, it’s easy to make a list of “haunted houses” that have been certified by the art establishment as “real art”—the Park Avenue Armory turned its drill hall into walkable Snow White hell in 2013 for Paul McCarthy’s “WS”; three years later, Pedro Reyes produced a political haunted house for Creative Time; and, in a project funded by Art Production in 2019, Lucy Sparrow created an interactive grocery store of felted products. That same year, Meow Wolf announced it was going to open an art hotel in Phoenix, while Hauser and Wirth debuted its own, the Fife Arms, in Scotland, and Maja Hoffmann announced the completion of several hotels convenient to her private art compound Luma Arles. “Anything sensory that doesn’t have another function is a form of entertainment even if it’s challenging or niche,” Kennedy continues. “For any art world to assert an exception reveals more about the high entry point of their intended audience rather than what is art.” Superblue, a new hybrid institution backed by art world stalwarts Pace Gallery and tech disruptor Emerson Collective, threatens to confuse things even further. Its first iteration is on view in Miami next door to the Rubell Museum’s legendary private collection, and includes installations by internationallyknown artist hitters like James Turrell and teamLab, attracting both art world pilgrims and thrill-seekers alike. The project does not use language like “attractions’’ to describe its programming as Meow Wolf does, though, and instead plans on forging its own architectural vocabulary. To this end, Co-Founder and CEO Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst sees the launch of Superblue as the first experiment in an ongoing dialogue driven almost exclusively by artists that were previously hindered by the limits of exhibition turnover and funding. She explains that the ability to create year-long residencies and generate ticket sales allows the new institution to back dream-sized immersive artworks 83
that normal galleries and museums cannot. “Ultimately we are here to serve artists and help them stage their most ambitious projects without limitations,” explains Dent-Brocklehurst. Like Meow Wolf ’s Kennedy, Dent-Brocklehurst is dubious that “experiential art” is a new genre, preferring instead to see Superblue as an evolution of the work started by Land Artists, architecturally minded practitioners like Colette and Gordon Matta-Clark, and institutions like Mass MoCA, The Kitchen, and the Armory, which have always lent their halls to largescale ambitions.
It’s true. Digging into the history of art spaces, it’s impossible to mark when they became experiential. The Louvre, for example, first let people roam its halls when artists were still in residence working on canvases that draped from floor to ceiling. MoMA’s founding director Alfred H. Barr Jr. famously hosted “Joe Milone’s Shoe Shine Stand” in the building’s lobby in 1942, offering museum-goers a chance to get their own shoes polished in the bejeweled throne of Sicilian immigrant Joe Milone. (Eventually Barr was thrown out by the board for being too avant-garde.) Even if the relationship was not recognized in real time, it’s impossible to deny that interactivity has always been foundational to art spaces and their success. Perhaps this means social media’s current dominance in conversations is only a phase—a growing pain that will soon collapse into our understanding of these institutions. If the past is any indication, artists will have to lead the way.
ABOVE, LEFT, FROM TOP—”Massless
Clouds Between Sculpture and Life,” 2020, by teamLab; “Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries,” 2017, by teamLab. Installation view of Every Wall is a Door, Superblue Miami, 2021. © teamLab. Courtesy of Pace Gallery ABOVE, RIGHT—Installation view of Leo Villareal: Harmony of the Spheres, 2020. Courtesy of Pace Gallery OPPOSITE PAGE—“Infinity Mirrored Room–Filled with the Brilliance of Life,” 2011/2017, by Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy of the artist and the Tate Modern
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When Leo Villareal, a Pace Gallery-represented artist with Superblue projects already in the works and a career focused on public interventions, is asked how to negotiate social media’s dominance in these spaces and the sense of gimmickry they create, he pauses. “I don’t mind people documenting. I’d like for people to have an experience where they feel comfortable to [do] as they please,” he says. “But part of me thinks that perhaps if the conditions were right, my work could be a space where you might want to put away your phone and just be. Then you could do whatever you want without feeling the pressure that you need to perform an interaction—whether that’s for the sake of the work or for social media likes. What makes me optimistic about Superblue is that they are actively engaging in these discussions. Accessibility is an afterthought but [an] essential ingredient every step of the way from the philosophy to design and funding.” Villareal’s emphasis on a kind of generosity as essential to this kind of work is echoed in a conversation with artist Jennifer Steinkamp, a veteran of this field who began projection mapping before the term existed, bringing to life her multichannel environments which vaporize the boundaries between image and architecture. Steinkamp says that gratitude is perhaps an essential ingredient in all installation art, because from the beginning the artist has a sense of duty as a host. “When you’re dealing with audiences, you must acknowledge you’ve taken steps to manipulate their spaces and take their money,” she says. “There is a certain amount of generosity that needs to be reciprocated.” Steinkamp isn’t yet sure what she thinks about Superblue’s Miami location, but does know that the billboards around LA advertising an immersive Van Gogh experience drive her mad. She agrees that these are inherently different kinds of venues, though Steinkamp is loath to put a name to exactly why living artists should always be involved in the creation and maintenance of art spaces. “It’s all a matter of intention in the end,” she says. “You really would need to ask the artist and then you might find the answer.” If Steinkamp is a crystal ball of technologies to come, fortunes are looking up for Superblue and Meow Wolf, so long as they keep their eyes on the art.
Laura Harrier is a self-proclaimed fashion girl. “I think I came out of the womb that way,” she says. “I don’t know where this obsession came from—it was very far from my suburban middle-class childhood— but I’ve always loved beautiful things.” The actress, who made her big film debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming and has since gone on to star in the Spike Lee-directed film BlacKkKlansman and Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood, has reconciled her love of clothes with an ongoing partnership with Louis Vuitton. After being invited to the French house’s show in Paris—and immediately clicking with creative director Nicolas Ghesquière—Harrier has gone on to attend many more shows, star in campaigns for the brand, and don custom looks by Ghesquière on the red carpet. “With [Nicolas] it’s always about more than just the clothes. He takes inspiration from architecture, art, and design, and references so many moments throughout history, but the collections always feel fresh and modern,” says Harrier. By SABRINA ABBAS Photography DANIELLE LEVITT Styled by REBECCA RAMSEY
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L’OFFICIEL’s history was shaped by Black models whose own stories have gone largely untold. Here, their legacies in fashion and beyond live on.
In June 1970, Collins would make history as the first nonwhite cover model for L’OFFICIEL. Dressed in swimwear by Courrèges, Collins was photographed by Roland Bianchini, a frequent L’OFFICIEL contributor, alongside an uncredited white model. Collins’ cover would come off the heels of an American outcry over Black model Donyale Luna’s 1966 Harper’s Bazaar feature photographed by David Bailey, which
resulted in Southern advertisers pulling their placements, and an ultimate ban on Luna ever appearing in the magazine again. This permanent ban on the model, which was enacted in reaction to racist disapproval by Bazaar owner William Randolph Hearst, was never lifted, lasting until her untimely death in 1979. While Hearst’s action specifically targeted Luna’s career, the act was exemplary of the obstacles preventing diverse talent from covering magazines or walking runways stateside. While it suddenly had become possible to become a Black fashion model, racism still stood firmly in the way of true success. Collins still took great strides in becoming one of the first Black couture models, and the first consistent non-white model in L’OFFICIEL’s editorial spreads. Paco Rabanne would select Collins as a frequent collaborator, forever tying her to the booming mod fashion trends of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Thanks to her talents in bringing these fresh designs to life, Collins became synonymous with the fashion of the time and an inarguable staple on the runway and in editorial photography.
By PIPER McDONALD & TORI NERGAARD
Models photographed for L’OFFICIEL in 1932-1999
Before there was Adut Akech, Naomi Smalls, Naomi Campbell, or even Grace Jones, several models of color laid the important groundwork, breaking through longstanding racial barriers. Towards the end of the 1960s, cultural tides were turning, and more diverse faces began taking their rightful places in popular media. Although iconic performer Josephine Baker was recognized for her popularity in France throughout many early issues of L’OFFICIEL, it was not until 1969, when Sandi Collins began her work with the magazine, that Black models became a consistent fixture in editorials. Yet despite her watershed work with the magazine, Collins’ name—and those of other pioneering models of color—has been left out of much of fashion’s history.
Collins’ role as a groundbreaking model of color is uncontested, but, at the same time, is vastly unreported. While Luna, her contemporary, would be remembered as one of the first Black couture models, it was not common practice during this era to credit models within the pages of the magazine, leaving her work mostly unattributed. Collins would later become a familiar face for lovers of vintage fashion magazines, and has even been incorrectly identified over the years as Diana Ross—which she admitted was flattering but, still, she’d prefer to receive the proper acknowledgment for her work. Collins found success in working for Paris-based magazines like L’OFFICIEL, and with various French couturiers; she largely relocated to Paris in 1966 due to ongoing racism in America. Still, following her transatlantic move, it would take four years of concentrated effort and uphill battles as an original Black couture model before she would land her L’OFFICIEL cover. And Collins would not be the only Black model during the ‘60s and ‘70s who would choose to leave America behind and pursue a somewhat more welcoming industry abroad. Pat Cleveland, one of the best-known Black models of the era, also chose to leave the United States for Paris in 1971 due to American magazines’ refusal to put Black models on their covers. Across the Atlantic, she
SANDI COLLINS
PAT CLEVELAND
PAT CLEVELAND
SANDI COLLINS
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SANDI COLLINS
ABOVE LEFT, FROM TOP—Sandi
Collins in Chombert and André Sauzaie (R), photographed by Roland Bianchini for L’OFFICIEL in 1969; Sandi Collins in Ungaro photographed by Roland Bianchini for L’OFFICIEL in 1969 ABOVE RIGHT, FROM TOP—Sandi Collins in Courrèges and unknown model in Pierre Cardin photographed by Roland Bianchini for L’OFFICIEL in 1970; Pat Cleveland and two unknown models in Givenchy photographed by J-L Guégan for L’OFFICIEL in 1971; Pat Cleveland and an unknown models in Lanvin photographed by J-L Guégan for L’OFFICIEL in 1971; Iman in Ungaro and Saint Laurent Rive Gauche photographed by Franck Horvat for L’OFFICIEL in 1985; Tyra Banks in Maurizio Galante and Yves Saint Laurent photographed by Bruno Bisano for L’OFFICIEL in 1994
TYRA BANKS
landed on L’OFFICIEL’s September 1971 cover, enveloped in a Christian Dior fur coat, making her the second Black cover model following Collins, and the first Black model to receive a solo cover from the magazine. Cleveland, who was part of Andy Warhol’s crowd and spent her time in Paris with other creatives and models like Antonio Lopez and Donna Jordan, ruled the runways of Paris.
career. Originally from Somalia, Vairelli was discovered on the dance floor of a Paris disco at the age of 21 before she went on to strut down the runways for many of Saint Laurent’s collections in the 1980s. She credits the designer with helping her understand how to put different materials together, a useful skill when starting her most recent creative endeavor in the world of jewelry. Vairelli continues to model, recently appearing alongside her son in a campaign for French designer Marine Serre. With her striking features and an enduring, effortless aesthetic, she recently appeared on L’OFFICIEL Italia’s Spring 2021 cover. A significant amount of work remains to be done by the fashion industry to combat systemic racism and engage the work of Black models and creators in a way that both celebrates and supports the Black community. These early figures left an indelible mark on fashion: In forcing the issue of representation in magazines and on the catwalks, their work challenged the status quo and began a movement toward inclusivity in the fashion industry and beyond.
MOUNIA
More Black models would soon follow suit. In the late 1970s and ‘80s, the Martiniquan model Monique-Antoine Orosemane, known simply as Mounia, began her work as a top Haute Couture model and the first Black muse to Yves Saint Laurent. Throughout her career, she helped create some of the designer’s most memorable moments, receiving a standing ovation as she sauntered down the runway of his show-stopping 1978 “Broadway Suit” collection. In the pages of a 1980 spread in L’OFFICIEL, also photographed by Bianchini, Mounia selected her favorite pieces from Saint Laurent’s latest collection. Posing for the magazine in a classic spencer jacket while holding a cigar, she exuded the seductive glamour of the era. Amalia Vairelli was another disciple of the Saint Laurent crew who modeled for L’OFFICIEL throughout her prolific
AMALIA VAIRELLI
ABOVE LEFT, FROM TOP—Mounia in Yves Saint Laurent photographed by Roland Bianchini for L’OFFICIEL in 1980; Amalia Vairelli and Malick Diagne photographed by Axle Jozeph for L’OFFICIEL Italia in 2021 RIGHT, CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP—Aaliyah in Acne Studios and Van Cleef and Arpels photographed by Danny Lowe for L’OFFICIEL in 2018; Models photographed by Dougal Macarthur for L’OFFICIEL in 2019; Niko Riam in Saint Laurent photographed by Betina du Toit for L’OFFICIEL in 2018; Gabrielle Richardson in Celine photographed by Kathy Lo for L’OFFICIEL in 2018
As contemporary Black models continue to push boundaries and enforce change, it is more important than ever to consecrate the stories of the people who laid the foundation. While Cleveland, Vairelli, and even supermodel and frequent L’OFFICIEL star Iman would continue modeling well beyond the 1970s and ‘80s, Collins would quickly step back from Parisian couture, minimizing public knowledge of her impact. Collins, now 78 and long retired from modeling, replies with a single statement when asked to reflect on her historical editorial work—“Working with L’OFFICIEL Paris and your photographer brings one word to mind: righteous.” 95
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Having gone into neutral for the pandemic-forced break, the critically acclaimed actress is accelerating her return to film with a slew of high-profile, period-focused projects. By SOPHIE SHAW Photography LEONARDO VELOCE Styled by ROSE FORDE
“In our business things go from zero to 100 quite quickly,” says Emily Beecham. And surely she would know. The British actress had been in production nearly non-stop up until the compulsory pause caused by the global pandemic. Spending quarantine at her home in Hackney, London, the initial shock eventually gave way to a moment to “breathe and enjoy things that don’t usually get to be enjoyed.” For Beecham, that meant making time for music, but also pining for her other passion of watching live theatre. “It makes you look at something with a whole new lens or perspective that you’ve never used before,” she reflects. “It wakes you up. I love that.” An admirer of film and theatre from an early age, Beecham enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts as a young actor, and soon found herself on the way to critically acclaimed cinematic roles. In 2009, she won the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Trailblazer Award for The Calling, and she returned to the festival in 2017 to take home the prize for Best Performance in a British Feature Film for Daphne, in which she plays a flawed, hedonistic young woman. She’s also recognized for her martial-arts-heavy performance as The Widow in the popular AMC post-apocalyptic drama series Into the Badlands.
IN OUR BUSINESS THINGS GO FROM ZERO to 100 QUITE quickly. In 2019 there was the thriller Little Joe, directed by Jessica Hausner and co-starring Ben Whishaw, where Beecham plays a botanist who engineers a plant that has antidepressant properties capable of making people happy. After breaking company policy to take a sample home to her son, the scientist begins to suspect that the plants aren’t as harmless as she believed. The role earned her the
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title of Best Actress at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, an unexpected win for Beecham, who had already returned to London after her film’s screening. She rushed back to the Croisette just in time to accept the award for her paranoiariddled performance. “Instinctually, I am drawn to more challenging subjects,” says Beecham. “Or something that feels a bit daring or excites me.” Since coronavirus restrictions began lifting, productions resumed and the actress’ life accelerated as quickly as it hit the brakes. Now in Berlin, she’s currently filming Netflix’s upcoming series 1899. Created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, the team behind the popular German sci-fi mystery series Dark, the period drama centers on a European migrant steamship on course from London to New York that encounters another vessel adrift at sea. Viewers can expect the unexpected when the passengers discover the horrors of what’s aboard. “It’s inspired by what unites us and divides us, and about how fear can trigger the latter,” the actress shares. Brexit was an influence on the show, interpreted through the lens of its 1899 setting and the relationships between different cultures at the time. Although the series’ primary language is English, it’s a multilingual show featuring an international cast. “Just hearing all of these languages together, it’s extremely unusual,” Beecham says. “I’ve never done anything like this before.” 107
Her other projects look at connectivity and relationships in a whole different way. The Pursuit of Love, which recently premiered on BBC, examines the friendship between cousins Linda Radlett, played by Lily James, and Fanny Logan, Beecham’s character. Tackling author Nancy Mitford’s comedic voice, the Emily Mortimer-directed miniseries juxtaposes the antics of the romance-obsessed Linda with Fanny’s more conventional path. Spanning 17 years between the two world wars, Fanny narrates the genial yet genuine story about her family and womanhood. “Emily and I talked an awful lot about family and all sorts of themes,” Beecham says. “She made these characters so well—the dynamic between the two girls and their friendship. It’s about the pursuit of identity, pursuit of meaning, and searching for the kind of love you want.” Digging into the friendship between the two characters, the actress reflects, “They’re like magnets, there’s a real push and pull in the relationship. One minute they are strangers to each other, and the next minute they are the same childhood best friends.” Part of the conflict for the women lies in their conformity, or lack thereof, to the societal expectations for young women at the time. Linda prioritizes finding love, letting her quest lead her to a first husband with whom she has a baby girl (whom she leaves to be raised by the child’s paternal grandparents), then a second husband, then a relationship with a wealthy French duke. Meanwhile, Fanny follows the traditional route of getting married, having a child, and making motherhood her main role, even if it means sacrificing her own career as a writer. “Linda makes wild abandon look so seductive, but she has really tumultuous lows,” Beecham says. “And Fanny is grounded, has determination, ambition, dreams for her writing, and is pretty level-headed, but yearns for a slice of Linda’s exhilarating lifestyle.” Both of their journeys are framed by the notoriety of Fanny’s mother, who is referred to as The Bolter because of her habit of jumping from marriage to marriage. “The Bolter is vilified by society and the girls grow up with fear and judgment of that label,” the actress says. To understand The Bolter and her impact on the young women, Mortimer and her cast looked at a real-life parallel, watching the documentary Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words. The Old Hollywood star made the choice to live apart from her children, and the documentary gives an intimate look at her private life with commentary from her kids and the actress herself, highlighting what Beecham describes as the children’s feelings of loss and Bergman’s desire for freedom. The consequences of Bergman’s maternal choices, and similarly The Bolter’s, can be seen in Fanny and Linda’s attitudes towards women’s agency. “Fanny’s feelings of abandonment and loss of her mother as a child and [leads to] the responsibility she now has as a mother. And Linda, feeling trapped, leaves her young child for adventures and romances elsewhere.”
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Today, Beecham says, “the idea of femininity is much more malleable” and women aren’t as boxed in as Linda and Fanny were, but it’s easy to sympathize with the expectations that they face. “Obviously, sexual identity is much less rigid than it was in the 1940s and we have much more freedom nowadays, but I think this story is very relatable because the girls are always at this shifting point and trying to work out ways in which they can find their authentic selves. I really love this quote that Linda says, about being a woman: ‘It’s so difficult being a woman, they cut off your wings and then they’re so surprised when you don’t know how to fly.’” Written in the 20th century by a female author and being retold in 2021 by a female director, the audience gets to see a story about womanhood—what being a daughter and wife and mother and sister and friend means—created by those most familiar. Beecham, who says she’s spoken with more female directors in the past few years than the entirety of her career, finds that working with other women really does make a difference to how stories take shape. “They discuss the conflict of the identity of who the character wants to be or thinks they are, and also the challenges and adversities they have,” the actress explains. “The obstacles, not only externally but also internally, that create this conflict of identity of who you’re supposed to be. They encourage a lot more self-awareness.”
INSTINCTUALLY, I AM DRAWN TO MORE challenging SUBJECTS. OR SOMETHING THAT FEELS A BIT DARING or EXCITES ME.
Identity is a main theme of Beecham’s other big release this summer—Disney’s highly-anticipated Cruella, in which we see how the stylish villain Cruella de Vil came to be. As Emma Stone’s antiheroine finds herself amid the rising punk scene in 1970s London, she develops a rivalry with her boss, designer Baroness von Hellman, played by Emma Thompson. A fashionable feud ensues, complete with stunning costumes by Jenny Beavan. Beecham’s character, Catherine, whom she describes as “warm,” is a foil to the fierceness of Stone and Thompson, which is reflected in Catherine’s clothes. According to the actress, the stylized costumes were vital to embodying her character—even if that came at the cost of comfort. “I have a huge headpiece, and sometimes I have to lie down between takes,” Beecham shares. She also mentions a puff skirt that she says reflects Catherine’s “soft” disposition. Costumes, in fact, have always been a powerful tool for the actress to relate to her characters, especially for stories set in a time distant from our own. “Period costumes are helpful because they are quite inhibiting and dictate how women keep conforming,” Beecham explains. In The Pursuit of Love, she wears smart-looking plaid separates in the feminine silhouettes of the 1920s and ‘30s. Her neutral color palette is often a touch more sophisticated than that of Linda’s, underscoring the difference between the two characters’ dispositions. For 1899, Victorian Era garb is expected, with long skirts and mutton sleeves. FENDI Earrings ALIGHIERI and pants SALVATORE FERRAGAMO Shoes MALONE SOULIERS Earrings CARTIER Bracelets LANVIN HAIR: Maki Tanaka MAKEUP: Justine Jenkins PHOTO ASSISTANT: Federico Cavarelli STYLIST ASSISTANT: Shannon Clayworth RIGHT—Dress
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Being on set and getting into costume have taken on greater meaning in the past year, after the prescribed breather from work. “It’s a very social activity, filming on set, because you have to be alright being constantly surrounded by people and talking to people all day, every day. Touched, dressed, everything,” Beecham says.” After production for The Pursuit of Love was pushed back, along with that of 1899, returning to acting came with a sense of gratitude. Beecham muses, “I feel really appreciative to be around people all the time.”
Along the quiet coast of North Portugal, interior designer extraordinaire Jacques Grange has found an idyllic home in the village of Comporta. Comporta, Portugal, the quiet coastal stretch of windswept dune beaches, pine forests, and verdant rice fields just an hour south of Lisbon, is often compared to other places at other times. People might say, It’s St. Tropez in the ‘70s. It’s the Hamptons in the ‘80s. It’s Ibiza in the ‘90s. When the Parisian decorator Jacques Grange first spotted the area’s 7.5-mile long beach with enormous dunes on a flight from Lisbon to Faro 35 years ago, he was immediately reminded of Africa. “It was like another world. The luxury of it is the nature that surrounds you,” says Grange, who recently broke ground on the Atlantic Club, a new, private residential community here that features 22 units designed by the decorator.
By MAURA EGAN
After that fateful flight, Grange asked his friend Vera Iachia, a Portuguese decorator and his former protégé who happened to own a home in Comporta, about the area. She invited him to visit her at her tiny thatched beach hut, which, at the time, had neither electricity nor water. Most residents navigated the beach via dune buggies and the rice-field canals by colorful wooden canoes. Grange was enraptured by the idyllic lifestyle and eventually bought Iachia’s mother’s former bungalow in the town of Carvalho. Despite being known for his lavish interiors (his clients have ranged from Yves Saint Laurent to Sofia Coppola to the Mark Hotel in New York), he opted for a no-fuss look for his humble retreat. He kept the simple shack-like exteriors and whitewashed the interiors. Grange outfitted the rooms with Moroccan rugs, rattan furniture, and colorful Portuguese ceramics. “I love the sea. I love the climate. I love the freedom here,” he explains. The Espirito Santo, one of Portugal’s biggest banking families, recognized that freedom when they first came to the region in the 1950s, when Comporta was still a rural backwater in Portugal’s agricultural Alentejo region. The local population was made up of rice farmers and fishermen. The Espirito Santo clan bought up a huge swath of the region and turned it into their summer playground. Various factions of the family settled into different clusters of traditional fisherman shacks and transformed them into mini-compounds. The aim was to be discreet about their new summer retreat—family members may have stocked their humble beach cabanas with family heirlooms and
The LUXURY of IT IS the NATURE THAT SURROUNDS you. JACQUES GRANGE
LEFT, FROM TOP—View
from the Atlantic Club, photographed by Alexandra de Csabay; Sketch by Jacques Grange; Plans for the Atlantic Club by Madison Cox RIGHT—Jacques Grange and Madison Cox, photographed by Pierre Passebon OPPOSITE PAGE—Terrace outside Jacques Grange’s home, photographed by Nicolas Matheus PREVIOUS PAGE—Exterior of Jacques Grange’s guest house, photographed by Nicolas Matheus
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precious antiques, but one would never notice from the outside. In 1974, after the Carnation Revolution that dismantled Portugal’s then-authoritarian regime, the country’s banks were nationalized and Espirito Santo Group lost many of its assets. Many of the family members left Portugal to do business elsewhere and abandoned their homes in Comporta. But in the ‘90s, Iachia, a member of the Espirito Santo dynasty, and others started to return and began to distribute land to people outside the family. After Grange moved into his compound, a wave of other fashionable friends—including the French-Arab model and muse Farida Khelfa, shoe designer Christian Louboutin, industrial designer Philippe Starck, and the German artist Anselm Kiefer—began to purchase properties here. Many friends, like Françoise Dumas, the Paris-based fashion publicist, would come to visit Grange and his partner Pierre Passebon for a few summers and ended up buying places of their own. “It’s so authentic, and the Atlantic here is much warmer than in France,” says Dumas, who used to own a vacation home in Biarritz.
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But no matter how cosmopolitan Comporta’s new residents were, there was always a tacit understanding to respect the low-key nature of the place. In fact, the entire region is a protected nature preserve. The Espirito Santo family had always maintained strict building codes to prevent the type of developmental sprawl that plagued areas like the Algarve. While some infrastructure was installed—schools, civic buildings, and some modern residential properties—the most coveted vacation homes were still the traditional, lowslung fisherman shacks, which the newcomers decorated in that unassuming boho-chic style. Most days are spent outdoors with leisurely family-style meals served under the straw roofs and refreshing dips in the pool. “You just go from house to house, from lunch to dinner,” says Dumas. When people do venture out, it might be for a horseback ride through the dunes or shopping for espadrilles and caftans at Lavanda or antiques and works by local artisans at the Stork Club, the gallery that Grange runs with his BELOW—Jacques
Grange’s home, photographed by Nicolas Matheus off Jacques Grange’s bedroom, photographed by Nicolas Matheus
OPPOSITE PAGE—Terrace
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longtime partner Passebon and their pal Marta Brito do Rio. “It’s just for fun and for friendship. We wouldn’t do it if it was work,” says Grange. Lunch at Restaurant Sal at Pego Beach draws a crowd on weekend afternoons. Multigenerational families linger over dishes of grilled octopus, clams, and bottles of local sparkling wines while their children play nearby in the sand. In the evenings, the action moves over to the Museu do Arroz restaurant, housed in a former rice husking mill, which is the region’s defacto country club. “But this isn’t St Tropez,” says Dumas. “This is a very simple place.” A few small, discreet hotels have opened up over the years, like The Sublime, which offers eco-friendly bungalows on a former cork tree plantation, and the Casas Na Areia, a group of seaside thatched-roof houses that feature white sand instead of traditional floors. Luxury group Aman has been developing on a beachfront resort for over a decade, which some locals gripe about.
FOR me, COMPORTA IS ENJOYING the LANDSCAPE and DOING NOTHING. JACQUES GRANGE
There is probably no better person to understand Comporta’s homegrown, barefoot lifestyle than Grange, so it seems fitting that he is the mastermind and aesthete behind the Atlantic Club. The 25-acre plot backs up against the ocean with spectacular views of the rice fields and forests. Grange has enlisted his longtime friend Madison Cox to design the grounds. The thatched houses will all be done in the traditional candy striped blue-and-white palette. Cox wants to take a “zen but refined” approach to the gardens. “You don’t want it to feel too urban or sophisticated,” he explains. To that end, he’s planted loads of lavender, oleander, and fruit trees like figs and pomegranates. The key is working with the untrammeled landscape that is already here. “The luxury for me here is how wild it feels,” says Grange. “For me, Comporta is enjoying the landscape and doing nothing.” ABOVE, FROM TOP—Françoise
Dumas’ home, photographed by Alexandra de Csabay Dumas in her dining room, photographed by Alexandra de Csabay OPPOSITE PAGE—Françoise Dumas’ kitchen, photographed by Alexandra de Csabay LEFT—Françoise
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Unpacking swim suits from winter storage often represents the arrival of summer after a long time without the sun. From the one-piece to the bikini, swimwear has been a vital topic within the pages of L’OFFICIEL since its inception in the 1920s, showcasing the It girls of the moment as they splashed through the beautiful beaches of the Côte d’Azur. In 1946, the bikini made its debut—thanks to French automobile engineer and fashion designer Louis Réard— and shook up more than just the swimwear industry. These barely-there garments represented the dawn of a new age for women in the 1950s and ‘60s and reflected a slowly changing social climate of freedom in which women felt more liberated to wear what they liked.
While swimwear helped to free the female figure, it also released fashion publications from the restraints of taking couture so seriously. Parisian Haute Couture—and the magazines that covered it—dealt primarily in elegance, luxury, and glamour. Swim editorials, however, opened the door for stories steeped in fun with a twinge of kitsch. Taking on the trendiest accents and accoutrements each season, swimwear has always requested its wearer enjoy the latest fashion novelties. It is playful and meant to be enjoyed, and the fashion images dedicated to showing swim reflect this attitude. While swimwear is ever-changing from one season to the next, its commitment to carefree hedonism is constant. —Piper McDonald & Tori Nergaard
Terroir is important to us, too No cork needed.
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