V117: The Discovery Issue with King Princess

WHAT’S NEW?

WHAT’S NOW?

WELCOME TO V

SPRING PREVIEW 2019

DISCOVER THE LATEST AND GREATEST AHEAD, AS NOMINATED BY THE CULTURAL FORCES OF NOW.

CONTENTS

36 THE NEW PSYCHEDELIA NOMINATED BY VIRGIL ABLOH Khruangbin is the Thai-inspired, Texan band behind trippy euphony.

40 THE NEW FILMS NOMINATED BY GUS VAN SANT AND JEREMY SCOTT

Two debut films, one by a writer and the other by a painter, are poised to take film in a new direction.

44 THE NEW V GIRLS

A new group of screen queens gets coronated. Nominated by Ethan Hawke, Zendaya, Elisabeth Moss, and Rosie O’Donnell.

70 THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK BY EMMA TEMPEST

An electric group of fresh faces takes a spin, in a harmonious range of spring collections. Styled by Paul Cavaco.

38 THE NEW ARTIST NOMINATED BY MARINA ABRAMOVIC

Ana Prvački’s multimedia art serves as social commentary in a vein similar to Yoko Ono’s.

41 THE NEW LENS NOMINATED BY NICK KNIGHT

Rei Nadal is the vanguard of a new genre that explores fashion by way of filmmaking.

48 THE NEW EVERYTHING

A look into our future and all that’s to come, including robots in conversation, super-luxe electric cars, and a plan for combatting climate change.

80 THE NEW BLING BY RICHARD BURBRIDGE

Anok Yai layers on the finest in embellishments, for a sparkling vision of utilitarianism. Styled by Patti Wilson.

39 THE NEW SOUND NOMINATED BY JORJA SMITH Maverick Sabre taps into the poetry of his Irish roots for his politically conscious rap.

42 THE NEW GENERATION

A full-force cast of female powerhouses sounds off on the current state of music

52 THE NEW VOICES BY INEZ & VINOODH

Charlotte Lawrence, Kelsey Lu, and King Princess are the musical superstars of tomorrow. Styled by Paul Cavaco.

88 THE NEW SPLASH BY MAX PAPENDIECK

Get your feet wet with the latest of luxuries as seen in tubs between New York and Barcelona. Styled by Kyle Luu and Kate Carnegie.

CHANEL HAUTE COUTURE FALL/WINTER 2018/2019 PHOTOGRAPHY SIMON PROCTER

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Stephen Gan

Nancy Gillen

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Devin Barrett

FEATURES EDITOR

Samuel Anderson

DIGITAL EDITOR

Mathias Rosenzweig

ASSOCIATE

Brandon Tan

CONTRIBUTING

AJ Longabaugh

PHOTO EDITOR

Goran Macura

EDITOR, ENTERTAINMENT

Greg Krelenstein / Starworks

COPY EDITOR

Eveline Chao

RESEARCH EDITOR

Jennifer Geddes

ASSISTANT TO THE

Ross Conway

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Derek Blasberg

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

James Franco

ADVERTISING

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER /

Nicola Bernardini de Pace nico@vmagazine.com

ADVERTISING OFFICE, ITALY

Magazine International

Luciano Bernardini de Pace

Olivia Pinto olivia@bernardini.it

INTEGRATED ACCOUNT MANAGER

Jeff Greif 212.213.1155

ADVERTISING / BUSINESS

COORDINATOR

Kelly Keegan

ART /

ART DIRECTOR

Melise Katharine Senaydin

CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER

Andrea Legge

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Vivian Cadag Cardoso

CONSULTING CREATIVE

Greg Foley

OFFICE COORDINATOR

Caroline Mason

FASHION / BEAUTY

Paul Cavaco

Amanda Harlech

Joe McKenna

Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele

Jacob K

Beat Bolliger

Melanie Ward

Jane How

Panos Yiapanis

Anna Trevelyan

Sarah Richardson

Clare Richardson

Jonathan Kaye

Tom Van Dorpe

MARKET EDITOR

Britta Briscoe

ASSISTANT MARKET EDITOR

Sara Zaidane

BEAUTY & SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

Stella Pak

BUSINESS

BUSINESS MANAGER

Todd Kamelhar

DISTRIBUTION

David Renard

PRESS AND EVENTS

Remi Barbier

remi@remibarbier.com

COMMUNICATIONS

Jocelyn Mak Amy Choi

Purple PR 212.858.9888

V117

Inez & Vinoodh

Kaia Gerber Cole Sprouse

Patti Wilson Dev Hynes

Richard Burbridge

Carin Backoff

Emma Tempest

Max Papendieck

Simon Procter Jason Pietra

Britt Lloyd Yana Kamps

Milos Nadazdin Kyle Luu

Heather Hazzan

Yuiko Ikebata Ilana Kaplan

Thomas Ramshaw

Astrid Sterner Lorena Maza

Rei Nadal Kate Carnegie

Ellie Grace Cumming

Maxwell Williams

Sophia the Robot

Alexandra Ilyashov

INTERNS

Christopher Conners

Alex Argueta

Michal Benshabat

Jack Beeks Kristen Chik

Zoe Elefterin Trisha Harmsen

Samantha Harvey

Angela Laurito Ana

Charles Royle Czar Van

Gabby Weis Melyssa

NEW? WHAT’S

As V enters its 20th year, we revisit the guiding force of the magazine’s inception in 1999— the tireless pursuit of the new and the now. If V’s 116 previous issues reflect a complete cycle of pop culture and cutting-edge fashion—an encapsulation of everything that’s been “new” and noteworthy within the past two decades—then now is the time to start anew. In the coming pages, we look forward to the superstars and cultural touchstones of tomorrow.

Thanks to nominations by Virgil Abloh, Marina Abramovic, Ethan Hawke, Elizabeth Moss, Zendaya, Nick Knight, Diplo, Jorja Smith, Richard Phillips, Anohni, Sophia the Robot, Santigold, and more, we’ve assembled a dynamic survey of everything you need to know for 2019 and beyond.

Signaling the sound of change are our three cover-stars—King Princess, Charlotte Lawrence, and Kelsey Lu. Photographed by Inez & Vinoodh and styled by Paul Cavaco, these powerful musicians each strike a chord entirely their own. Mark Ronson’s protege, King Princess (otherwise known as Mikaela Straus), brings a queer perspective to the pop charts. Fusing her cello training with contemporary beats, Kelsey Lu orchestrates a nu-classical sound. And Charlotte Lawrence’s catchy melodies and powerful messaging call a new generation to take charge. In further conversations with Cole Sprouse, Kaia Geber, and Dev Hynes, the future of the pop landscape becomes all the more clear.

Elsewhere, a Berlin-based artist partners

with Google for a more fanciful future; Gus Van Sant and Jeremy Scott eye two standout indie films; Virgil Abloh shares his favorite new jam-band; and a jury ranging from Oscar nominees to talk show hosts projects the best and brightest screen queens. But that’s just the beginning.

We herald the start of the spring season with the most dazzling pieces as captured by Richard Burbridge and Patti Wilson in an exploration of embellishment with supermodel Anok Yai. Paul Cavaco and Emma Tempest illustrate the ease of the Spring collections with a cast of the most intriguing fresh faces. And we let all this change wash over us with an array of striking bathtubs across the world, in “The New Splash.”

The new era starts here. MR. V

THE NEW

T H E N E W

Dive further into the riveting world of Demna Gvasalia’s Balenciaga with Balenciaga: Winter 2018 Published by Rizzoli, the graffiti-splashed book details the making of the Fall/Winter 2018 collection. Seen through the lens of Pierre-Ange Carlotti and Johnny Dufort, the 304-page title captures the first time the creative director has allowed backstage access. Carlotti and Dufort documented the show in tandem, offering two distinct pointsof-view on one of the year’s most talked-about collections.

BALENCIAGA:WINTER2018 ($95, RIZZOLI.COM)

In what they’ve dubbed “Tod’s Factory,” the Italian house has invited a series of collaborators to offer their own take on the brand’s DNA. The resulting capsule collections of limited-edition merchandise will be unveiled in installments throughout the year. The first in the series is by designer Alessandro Dell’Aqua, who applies the house’s signature pebbled sole to pumps and sleek stretchleather ankle boots. The ready-to-wear comes in three distinct colorways—Tod’s signature tan, Dell’Acqua’s red, and black—making for a minimalist wardrobe.

TOD’S X ALESSANDRO DELL’AQUA (AVAILABLE AT SELECT TOD’S BOUTIQUES NATIONWIDE)

A new era for Bottega Veneta begins with creative director Daniel Lee’s sizable update to the classic intrecciato style. The two new handbags, The Maxi Cabat and The Pouch, offer the first sign of things to come at Bottega under Lee’s reign.

The former Celine designer’s Maxi Cabat takes approximately two full days to complete, with each nappa-leather strip woven by hand. The thicker straps, available in constrasting colorways, illustrate a graphic pattern, while the exaggerated scale of the bag strikes a minimalist chord, mapping out Lee’s vision for the future of Bottega.

Lee’s play on proportion continues with The Pouch, an oversized clutch of leather enveloping a rigid frame. Armed with ease, pair The Pouch with sweats for a decidedly contemporary take on day-to-night dressing.

Oliver Peoples presents a distinct vision of California in the new tome, California As We See It. Revisiting the scene of the brand’s founding, the Sunset Strip in the ’80s, the book takes inspiration from iconic Hollywood films like American Psycho, Jurassic Park, and Fight Club, while illustrating the brand’s 30-year history. Along with the book, Oliver Peoples will release a limited-edition pair of glasses with three clip-on lens options in mustard, blue, and green.

OLIVERPEOPLES: CALIFORNIAASWESEEIT ($85, ASSOULINE.COM)

BOTTEGA VENETA THE MAXI CABAT ($5,500–$9,500, BOTTEGAVENETA.COM)

NEW BUZZ—TOD’S GETS REMIXED, BOTTEGA VENETA KICK-STARTS A NEW CHAPTER, DEMNA GVASALIA’S BALENCIAGA TAKES BOOK FORM, AND MORE.

Left to right: Courtesy Rizzoli; Courtesy Tod’s; Courtesy Bottega Veneta; Courtesy Oliver Peoples

THE NEW PSYCHEDELIA

P S Y C H E D E L I A

THE HOUSTON, TEXAS–BASED TRIO CRAFTS

OTHERWORLDLY, THAIINFLECTED FUNK MUSIC.

PHOTOGRAPHY MILOS NADAZDIN

FASHION YANA KAMPS

TEXT ILANA KAPLAN

KHRUANGBIN

NOMINATED BY VIRGIL ABLOH

When Texas native Laura Lee returned to the States after attending high school in Thailand, her preoccupation with Thai culture only intensified— slowly at first, ingredient by ingredient. She began experimenting with Thai cooking and its many variations, eventually studying the language in order to better understand the recipes she whipped up. One day, she happened upon the word “khruangbin,” meaning “airplane.” Despite the mostly negative associations between the words “airplane” and “food,” the word lodged itself in Lee’s brain. Its sound became something of an obsession, and was still swirling in Lee’s head when it came time to name the band she had formed with fellow Texans Mark Speer and Donald “DJ” Johnson.

“We didn’t have a name by the time we were playing our first show, so we just said, ‘Let’s call ourselves Khruangbin. It’s not like anyone’s going to care anyway,’” Lee recalls. Whether or not they got the name, people cared enough to listen—first locally, then all over. With their first single, “A Calf Born In Winter,” released in 2013, the

“khru”—that is, their dedicated fan base—was born. With the subsequent

LP The Universe Smiles Upon You and 2018’s follow-up, Con Todo El Mundo, that following, which has the kind of fervor usually reserved for jam-bands, has only grown. In 2018, Virgil Abloh tipped off his own cult-like following with the tweet, “super amazing, fave new band.”

Speer and Johnson had met in 2004 while playing in their Houston church’s gospel band together. Three years later they met Lee through friends. In 2009 the three-way friendship, which had centered on grabbing burgers every Tuesday night, became an artistic partnership, when Speer began teaching Lee to play the bass.

Despite their homespun roots, the band’s sound is remarkably global and multifaceted, incorporating sounds of everything from “shadow music,” a form of Thai guitar pop; to Googoosh, who was an Iranian superstar in the ’70s. In sum, categorization is futile: “In an ideal world, the music we make would just be called ‘Khruangbin,’” Lee says. Contrary to the increasingly singlesdriven consumption of music these days, the band’s albums play like one epic, sonic journey, taking cues from the rock and funk records of the 1970s. “Our albums have been really specific

about being an ‘album.’ You listen to it from start to finish, and we try to give the same flow to our live show,” says Johnson.

Con Todo El Mundo broadened their psych-rock sound. Hypnotized by music from the Middle East they encountered while on tour in Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria, Khruangbin diversified even more than they had on their 2015 debut—both in terms of their influences and their musicality—with the help of instruments like the pandeiro (an acoustic tambourine of sorts), the tan tan (a giant gong), and the surdo (a Brazilian drum). “Those kinds of sounds ended up embedded within us, just taking in all that music on the road for hours at a time,” recalls Johnson.

They’ve also ironically capitalized on their less-than-accessible band name. On their website (Airkhruang.com) visitors can generate a custom travel playlist by inputting their departure and arrival locations. But despite how worldly they may sound, having played and drawn inspiration from music all around the world, Khruangbin says they wouldn’t be the kind of band they are without their Texan roots. “We wouldn’t sound like Khruangbin without growing up in Houston,” says Speer. “To me, Khruangbin sounds like Houston.”

LAURA WEARS

TOP OFF-WHITE C/O VIRGIL ABLOH

DJ WEARS

COAT AND TOP LOUIS VUITTON

MARK WEARS

JACKET AND SHIRT

LOUIS VUITTON

(The

Group)

THE NEW ARTIST

A R T I S T

WHETHER IN SOVIET

SERBIA OR SILICON

VALLEY, THIS ARTIST IS ALWAYS PRESENT.

PHOTOGRAPHY ASTRID STERNER

FASHION LORENA MAZA

TEXT SAMUEL ANDERSON

On a recent call from Brussels, the artist Ana Prvački was preparing to give a presentation on Ana Aslan, a Romanian physician whose anti-aging formula was so sought-after that John F. Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor broke Cold War diplomatic norms to dab themselves with the miracle cream. “It would be the equivalent of flying to North Korea to get some anti-aging treatment,” says Prvački. “I really like the idea that vanity is stronger than ideology.”

Prvački herself demonstrates an impulse to break social contracts. In 2007 she “laundered money” in a UBS bank lobby, purifying bank notes with a wet-wipe one by one. Now working with Google on a top-secret app, she voices her skepticism of technology: “[The work] acknowledges the side effects of over-stimulating technology. I think everybody feels [it].”

Like that of Cindy Sherman or Yoko Ono, Prvački’s practice meets society’s glare head-on. (See: the performance piece DIY Chivalry, in which Prvački disrobes as a form of reverse-chivalry). Prvački showed gumption from an early age—even as a chronically ailing child

living between Serbia and Romania: She says she was cured of her mysterious sickness when, after discovering the flute, she willed herself to be well enough to take lessons. “You cannot start it until you’re ready; until your mouth and teeth are formed,” she says.

While she no longer plays, the instrument has informed her artistic sensibility—that of a Pan-like trickster, dancing in the margins. “In Greek mythology, the flute is very much about the half human, half animal—a sexy beast, in a way, and in the Hindu mythology, Krishna is the flute player. There’s always this connection between sound and creation, but I think there’s a lightness to it. And [that’s] the reason I was so enamored by it.”

But if a bedridden child in Romania (Dracula’s birthplace, after all) who finds a flute to cure her illness sounds fairytale-esque, the villain of Prvački’s early life was the country’s dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu. “Ceaușescu was kind of insane,” says Prvački of the communist despot. “He was a hardcore dictator.” Prvački was raised in a bohemian haven. “I always joked that I had no choice but to be an artist. Both of my parents were artists and they would have disowned me [otherwise],” she says.

Prvački recalls Serbia, then called Yugoslavia, fondly: “Instead of

heads-of-state, they put female peasants on the currency.” But Soviet Serbia proved less than a feminist utopia; when Prvački’s father spoke out against nationalism, the family fled for the capitalist waters of Singapore. “In a funny way, my home is Singapore. And in some ways I feel really Singaporean,” she says— although she doesn’t identify strongly with any one nation. “Someone once asked me at a party what my mother tongue was, and I said, ‘Oh I don’t have a mother tongue; I was raised bisexual,’” Prvački laughs. “I meant bilingual, but I’ve always liked the idea—the ‘bisexual mother tongue.’ That’s [mine].”

These tensions—between male and female, collapse and creation—run throughout Prvački’s work, from a wearable air-filtration system she co-created in 2018, to Penis bonus pax in domus, in which she rings dildo-shaped bells to reenact the Roman myth of a spellbinding phallus.

Prvački’s knack for balancing tension and whimsy has drawn fans like fellow Serbian Marina Abramović, who selected a variation of Money Laundering, in which a woman sleeps atop a mountain of coin-filled laundry bags, for a 2008 group show. Says Prvački: “I think my work has always been about ameliorating the suffering of daily life.”

ANA WEARS

DRESS SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO Hair

MAVERICK SABRE NOMINATED BY JORJA

SMITH

Those unfamiliar with Maverick Sabre, born Michael Stafford in Ireland in 1990, might take his medieval-sounding pseudonym (a riff on his initials) to be that of a Viking or a Game of Thrones character. But the moniker is in fact a relic of Myspace. “I was 14, thinking of a name to start up my music page,” he recalls.

“I thought it sounded hardened, [like someone] who’d been through some hard times.” As he matured, Sabre’s focus shifted from online posturing to earning respect IRL: “From about 15 to 17, I was an MC on the Irish hip-hop scene—that’s where I learned my craft.”

While, to American ears, a streetsmart, young Caucasian rapper like Sabre may inevitably conjure images of Eminem as Rabbit in 8 Mile, Sabre

resists such comparisons, instead emphasizing a distinct tradition of Irish rap, separate from American analogues. “The Irish hip-hop scene for me follows on the tradition of language, poetry, and storytelling,” he says.

Growing up in middle-class New Ross, County Wexford, Sabre didn’t limit his cultural horizons, absorbing American blues—a genre he saw as a distant cousin to the mournful Irish folk passed down by his pub-owner father. “A lot of traditional Irish music is about pain and struggle and the loss of love, the loss of life. The struggle of oppression under an empire, and colonialism,” says Sabre.

Even so, says Sabre, who moved to London at 17, the region’s pop charts have been slow to embrace hip-hop. “For years, in the U.K., no one wanted to hear English accents on U.K. hip-hop. They wanted to hear American hip-hop because that’s what they were used to.

Sometimes it is difficult to break down that barrier,” he says. “Irish hip-hop is kind of on the brink of that now, but when I was starting, it was in its very early stages.”

Such arbitrary binaries are hardly unique, as exhibited by the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalries of olden-day U.S. rap. But Sabre hopes to usher in a message of inclusivity by addressing the notoriously insular country’s social ills head-on. “Suicide in Ireland amongst young men and women has been such a prevalent thing for all of us growing up,” he says. “[At the same time] I feel like so many struggles are universal.”

Like nominator Jorja Smith, Sabre‘s political messaging is deceptively fierce, dipped in honey so as to go down easy. But with Brexit on the horizon, Sabre is ready to turn up the volume: “It’s going to be a year of extremes [so] what I want to do is get my message across.”

THE NEW SOUND

S O U N D

WITH POLITICALLY MINDED LYRICS, THE IRISH MC IS LEADING A NEW MUSICAL CHARGE.

PHOTOGRAPHY BRITT LLOYD FASHION THOMAS RAMSHAW TEXT SAMUEL ANDERSON

MAVERICK WEARS COAT AND TOP PRADA RING THE GREAT FROG

Grooming Eliot McQueen Digital technician Nic Benzina

THE NEW FILMS

F I L M S

A DESIGN VISIONARY AND A DRUGSTORE COWBOY AIM THEIR VIEWFINDERS AT TWO CINEMATIC BREAKTHROUGHS.

ANELEPHANTSITTINGSTILL

This spring, the acclaimed Chinese film An Elephant Sitting Still finally hits U.S. theaters, capping a tragic yet triumphant production that claimed rookie writerturned-director Hu Bo’s life.

Hu took his own life in October 2017 at age 29 soon after completing the film, which revolves around four young people in Northern China who, feeling caged in by their own circumstances, kindle separate fascinations with an elephant at a nearby zoo. The animal refuses to eat or move, ignoring the reality of its existence. As their lives become intertwined over the course of a day, the chance of finding meaning in the middle of nowhere emerges.

“[Hu Bo] was a man in deep pain, struggling to fit in and upset that others didn’t understand what [that] feels like,” says Gus Van Sant, whose films like Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho similarly appealed to disaffected youth. “His film is a story between people in [a] community struggling with pain and fear and communication.”

Based on one of Hu’s own short stories, the film’s themes are more than a fiction for the millions of Chinese grappling with suburban poverty. If only he had lived, Hu’s own future might have been the opposite of his film’s cold outlook, given the way he managed to capture Hollywood’s imagination from halfway around the globe.

Born in Jinan, a metropolis in Shandong province, Hu attended film school in Beijing. In press notes

published prior to his death, Hu voiced an estrangement from his generation:

“All [we are] doing is posting, living up to labels, or hoarding hundreds of pictures, waiting for a chance to flaunt them. I’m not [disapproving] of these behaviors. However, the truly valuable things lie in the cracks of the world.”

Hu’s words, and his masterful debut, hold up a mirror to the chilling reality that, as once-developing nations pursue a new kind of “American” dream, latecapitalist anxieties are spreading. The revelations of An Elephant Sitting Still are bound to find even deeper resonance when Hu’s stunning, final film makes its stateside debut this spring.

MATHIAS ROSENZWEIG

An Elephant Sitting Still hits theaters March 8

Of Texan-born artist Rosson Crow’s upcoming foray into film, Jeremy Scott says, “If her paintings are any indication, her leap to the big screen will be a lush alternate reality fit for both Salvador Dalí and Dolly Parton.” Utopia Road, entering production next year, follows a televangelist sowing late-in-life doubts in the American Southwest—a plot that stems from the self-described history buff’s fascination with religion in America.

“Televangelism is the most American version of religion I can think of,” says Crow. And while everyone from Jeremy Scott to Tammy Faye Baker has proven that visual excess and devoted followings often go hand-in-hand, the SVA graduate’s paintings tend to show in boutique, downtown scenes (like the one where she first crossed paths with Scott in the mid-aughts). This fall, around the time she plans to wrap production on Utopia Road, the Los Angeles transplant will return to this scene, showcasing an all-new batch of her highly graphic gardens of earthly delights at New York’s The Hole gallery.

SAMUEL ANDERSON

Top: still from An Elephant Sitting Still courtesy KimStim Bottom: Buckhorn Curio Store, San Antonio Texas (2017) by Rosson Crow, photo Joshua White; Rosson Crow wears Jeremy Scott Pre-Fall 2015, photo Rose Eichenbaum

Hair David Wadlow Talent Esme Creed-Miles Director Assistant Alex Komarov Reinisch

Makeup Jenny Coombs

Styling assistants Jordan Duddy, Bella Kavanagh Production Prettybird Executive producer Juliette Larthe Head of production Hannah May Producer Hannah Bellil Production runner Mark Bleziri

ESME WEARS JACKET, DRESS, SKIRT (WORN UNDERNEATH) OLIVIER THEYSKENS

REI NADAL NOMINATED BY NICK KNIGHT

“I make films because I don’t like the way women are represented in film; I am bored of seeing the world through the eyes of men,” says director Rei Nadal, who stumbled into directing films by accident, through a digital-era discovery. “It sort of happened without me pursuing it. Nick Knight found me on the Internet

six years ago. I used to take stills of videos I would make of myself with my webcam and post them online.” The two have since collaborated on three fashion films, including a joint project for the British Fashion Council.

“[I’m most excited] by stories and identity,” she explains. In an exclusive film crafted for V, Nadal explores the male gaze with a predominantly female team featuring stylist Ellie Grace Cumming and actress Esme Creed-Miles. “The

male gaze plays a role in this film as The Stalker; that insistent need to look at a woman and how it turns against them,” while the character arc ranges “from inspiring the traditional onscreen desire to provoking disgust,” Nadal says. “Fashion is such a new genre in filmmaking—there is so much to discover.”

HEAD TO VMAGAZINE.COM TO DISCOVER REI NADAL’S SHORT FILM THE STALKER

THE NEW LENS

L E N S

IN A SHORT FILM MADE EXCLUSIVELY FOR V, REI NADAL USES FASHION TO FLIP THE MALE GAZE.

, REI

FILM STILLS REI NADAL FASHION ELLIE GRACE CUMMING TEXT DEVIN BARRETT

THE NEW GENERATION

G E N E R A T I O N

THIS

PHOTOGRAPHY

POPPY NOMINATED BY DIPLO

No shortage of ink has been spilled in pursuit of figuring out Poppy. Her hatched-from-an-egg, Glenda the Good Witch vibes have inspired labels from “human ASMR” to a one-woman “digital rabbit hole,” none of which seem to stick. “I don’t think people get it,” she says. And while we don’t know much more than we did in 2014, when a video of her slowly eating cotton candy went viral, her Diplo endorsement and upcoming 2019 tour prove that in today’s landscape, authenticity is overrated.

OPPOSITE PAGE, LEFT:

DONNA MISSAL NOMINATED BY LEON BRIDGES

New Jersey native Donna Missal comes from a long line of hardworking musicians. Literally born into music (her parents ran a New York City recording studio and the family lived above it), Missal’s first musical role model was her grandmother, who wrote jingles for a living. By contrast, she and her five homeschooled siblings flexed their creativity across genres. But, says Missal, “I continue to struggle with not being as far along as I [would be] if I were a man.”

OPPOSITE PAGE, RIGHT: DRESS AND BELT VERSACE

DOJA CAT NOMINATED BY ERIC ANDRÉ

After breakdancing in the Valley, dropping out of high school to become a self-trained singer, and kicking drugs and alcohol last year, the 23-year-old Doja Cat’s nine lives are only multiplying. Since going viral with her cult smash “Mooo!” and its video’s bovine cosplay and gonzo sex-appeal, she’s hitting a sophomore-slump–defying stride. “I’m writing one or two songs a day,” she says. “I’ve also been considering standup, but my friends always talk me out of it.”

THIS PAGE, LEFT:

KARI FAUX NOMINATED BY SANTIGOLD

Faux’s laconic flow has earned her the nickname “Rap-game Daria,” an even more apt moniker considering her hometown of Little Rock—a real-life “Sick Sad World” of rocky racial integration and the Clinton dynasty. While briefly treated for depression at 12, music became her preferred form of self-care: “I didn’t want to be a zombie. And I am a Gemini, and you can’t tell a Gemini what to do.”

THIS PAGE, RIGHT: DRESS AND NECKLACE VERSACE

JUMPSUIT JULIA CLANCEY NECKLACE EDDIE BORGO

JACKET AND DRESS CELINE BY HEDI SLIMANE SHORTS STYLIST'S OWN

THE NEW V GIRLS

EVERY BIT AS TOUGH AS THEIR CHARACTERS, THEY RANGE FROM MMA FIGHTERS TO #1 MOMS.

PHOTOGRAPHY MILOS NADAZDIN FASHION YANA KAMPS TEXT MAXWELL WILLIAMS

LEILA GEORGE NOMINATED BY ETHAN HAWKE

In Mortal Engines, the Peter Jacksonpenned adaptation of Philip Reeve’s YA classic, cities become moveable machines that “eat” other cities. While not quite as daunting as a cannibalistic metropolis, the recent film’s monumental set left Leila George in awe. “It was the biggest thing that I’d ever done,” says the Sydney, Australia native, who traveled to New Zealand to play the part of Katherine Valentine, a socialite whose father oversees the “digestion” of a small English town. “It was completely unbelievable as it was happening. You’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I now have to be as good as this all looks.’”

The scale would’ve been intimidating for actors of any seniority level, but it was only George’s fourth credit. To her relief, she found plenty of support in the film’s outsize crew. “The talent of their art department over there in New Zealand is mind-blowing. A job like this is all about a huge team working together to create a fantasy and doing justice to the books,” she says.

Despite her far-flung origins (George was born Down Under but mainly raised in Brighton, U.K.) she is no stranger to film and television sets. Her dad Vincent D’Onofrio, after all, spent years as Detective Robert Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“I loved being on set,” George says. “I remember my dad was doing Law & Order for 10 years, and they would give me a walkie, and I would go around pretending I was a PA.” She even worked behind-the-scenes for a time, attending film school in Australia and learning casting, camera work, and post-production.

While resistant to following in her parents’ footsteps (her mother is actress Greta Scacchi) George inched towards acting, appearing in student films. “I didn’t want to admit that I wanted to act, because my parents are such fucking inspirations to me, and it’s such a difficult career path, and they were so lucky. I didn’t think that there was a possibility, and I didn’t want to get into something that I knew I wouldn’t reach their level. I was aware, growing up in the industry, of how difficult it is,” she says.

But after film school, while visiting

her dad at the Strasberg Institute where he was teaching a class, George finally relented. She ended up staying at the Institute for two-and-a-half years, later acting alongside her mother in Chekhov’s The Seagull in Perth.

After that successful theatrical run, George then gave it a go in Los Angeles, where she subsidized her acting career as a waitress at a small restaurant in Santa Monica. “I started working in restaurants at 16,” she says. “I have this annoying chip on my shoulder about making it on my own, and doing this all myself. I have this Universal movie coming out, and I’m about to go on this press tour, but I’m working five days a week at this café. [My parents] have offered me help when I need it, but I have this weird anxiety about people thinking I’ve been handed things.”

Next up for George is The Kid, a take on the story of Billy the Kid, directed by her father, due to hit theaters in May. “There’s no one that I will ever feel more relaxed around when I’m acting, and there’s no one that I will ever trust more to bring out a good performance or take risks,” she says of D’Onofrio. “It was the experience of a lifetime.”

HAT AND DRESS

CELINE BY HEDI SLIMANE

TATI GABRIELLE NOMINATED BY ZENDAYA

On a rare day off from filming the second season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Netflix’s gothic reincarnation of the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Tati Gabrielle is indulging in yet another work of ‘90s nostalgia: She’s in the middle of watching I, Tonya, the 2017 film about the disgraced ice-princess Tonya Harding. The Spelman grad, like many of her generation, retains a soft spot for all things ‘90s.

“My brother and I watched the original Sabrina the Teenage Witch when we were kids,” she says. “When I first got the script, [we] were like, ‘Oh snap! They’re bringing it back. That’s awesome.’” But not every millennial gets to fully immerse themselves in the

fictional realms of their childhoods, the way the cast of Sabrina does The show, which stars Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka as the titular teen, is shot on an elaborate soundstage in the suburbs of Vancouver.

With reboots a dime a dozen these days, Sabrina has managed to leave a lasting impression—thanks in no small part to Gabrielle’s witchy turn as Prudence; with her steely features and mean-girl icy delivery, she reflects a type that might have struck fear into your heart back in high school—no spells required. But in conversation, Gabrielle couldn’t be further from her chilly onscreen persona, who, in the first couple episodes, hazes Shipka’s Sabrina pretty harshly.

Like Gabrielle herself, who was raised in the Bay Area, Prudence’s cool exterior eventually softens; she may be a

witch, but she still wants her parents’ approval. “I knew that in the beginning that Blackwood was a father figure to Prudence and the Weird Sisters, and his respect was something that she had a very strong desire for,” says Gabrielle.

Hazing aside, most problematic behavior on the show comes courtesy of the boys. “We push a lot of messages of feminism,” says Gabrielle. “It’s been an honor to send that message, especially to young girls, and I feel very honored to be able to remind young women that you have power, you have a voice,” says Gabrielle. “Don’t ever let anybody take that away from you. We definitely feel a responsibility to the message.”

As for the second season, which premieres this spring, “You’ll definitely get to see more of Prudence in the second season, and you’ll see her story a little bit further,” says Gabrielle.

JACKET DIOR JEWELRY HER OWN

SYDNEY SWEENEY

NOMINATED BY ELISABETH MOSS

Whether as a cryptic plot-thickener on HBO’s Sharp Objects or a meangirl turned love-interest on Netflix’s Everything Sucks! Sydney Sweeney’s characters are usually not what they seem. Of her role on The Handmaid’s Tale as the controversial wife to sympathetic driver Nick (Max Minghella), Sweeney says, “I’d have people come up to me and go, ‘I hate you. I hate your character.’ I’m like, alright, thanks? But later, I’d hear, ‘We love you, we feel so bad for Eden.’ It was cool seeing the fans switch from hating her to being heartbroken for her.”

Landing three water-cooler shows in one year might seem like a stroke of luck, but Sweeney has been sewing her success with bit parts and small budgets

since 2009. “I don’t know why or how, but everything did just fall into place,” Sweeney says. “All at once, all these incredible projects and characters came about, and I’ve got an amazing team to make sure that I could do it all.” Next up is Under the Silver Lake from A24 in April, followed by Sweeney’s biggest break to date: Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, alongside the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Al Pacino.

The audition process was textbook: a few callbacks, followed by a reading at Tarantino’s office, surrounded by posters and maquettes of his iconic films. “They told me I got it that night while I was at an event, so I couldn’t really freak out,” she says. “It was killing me.”

While many actresses might have psyched themselves out at the prospect of such a high-profile project, Sweeney stays ready. “The first day on set was

a dream; I wanted to cry, scream and smile at the same time,” she says. When it comes to working with industry titans, from Pitt and Pacino, to Drake on the series Euphoria (coming to HBO in July) Sweeney is studious. “I create interactive timelines of each character’s life, from the day that she was born until the first page of the script: every memory, every birthday, every house and town she’s lived in. They become a real person.”

And just like many of her characters, Sweeney herself embodies the lesson that looks are deceiving. In addition to being a dedicated thespian, Sweeney is a star athlete. “I grew up on a lake on the border of Washington and Idaho. I slalom ski, I wakeboard, I hike and rock climb,” she says. But the real twist? She’s a competitive MMA fighter. “I did an [MMA] tournament once, and I got first place,” she says. After a pause, she adds, “Against all guys.”

DRESS, CORSET, CHOKER, EARRINGS ALEXANDER MCQUEEN RESORT 2019

LAURENT

ANTHONY VACCARELLO GLOVES WING + WEFT

FRANKIE SHAW

NOMINATED BY ROSIE O’DONNELL

Written by and starring Frankie Shaw, the Showtime series SMILF follows former South Boston basketball-star turned single-mother Bridgette through farcical but bleak realities. In episode three for instance, she answers a personal ad from a creepy man who attempts to sexually assault her in a Walmart food court. When he gropes her, Bridgette punches him in the nose, knocking him to the ground. It’s clear she’s a woman who doesn’t let obstacles hinder her agency—something the show has in common with Chewing Gum or Fleabag or Insecure

“It’s this amazing time in history where so many women have been given this opportunity, and they’re delivering. We’re in this total renaissance,” says Shaw by phone. “I’m in full celebration and support of it.” But watching a show and making one in the golden age of TV are different stories: “Making a good TV show is really hard,” admits Shaw.”

At first blush, Shaw’s Bridgette might seem like an unlikely heroine. But her

flaws are what give her depth—reminding us that for every textbook woman heroine, there are countless unsung women struggling in anonymity.

Ironically, on the day of our call, Shaw has just played a more exceptional kind of heroine—actress and mathematician Hedy Lamarr. She’s busier than ever after last year’s Golden Globe nomination—primarily on SMILF’s second season. “We get more into the supporting characters, and we get more into the backstory of Bridgette and [her baby daddy] Rafi, and we try to explore—in an abstract way—identity,” says Shaw. “When we have certain things in our lives that make up the identity we construct, and when those things go away, what’s left? It’s a season of bottoming out, in a way. There’s a lot of pain, and then these characters all, in their own way, are liberated.”

Though Bridgette and Frankie share a love of basketball, their struggles in single motherhood are only loosely related. “When I did [the college football comedy] Blue Mountain State, which was my first series regular job, for SpikeTV, I had a two-year-old, and made what they deemed ‘not a living wage,’” she

says. “They couldn’t even contractually own me as a series regular, because it wasn’t a living wage. I was 28 with a two-year-old, and when I got to set with my toddler, they were like, ‘What?’ They all thought I was 23, because I was playing a freshman-in-college cheerleader.”

As SMILF has progressed, deeper real-life parallels between Shaw and her character have cropped up. “I’m calling this season, ‘Single Mom Is Losing Faith,’ because there’s a big Virgin Mary motif this season, and a dark-horse motif, which is this shadow self, and how we repress the thing we don’t want anyone to know or see. It’s a Jungian analogy, the shadow self,” says Shaw. “I’m obsessed with the Virgin Mary and her actual real story, which no one really knows, so that hobby of mine made it into the show. My deep love of horses made it into the show, and obviously the optics of having my son, and co-parenting,” she says, referring to her son’s father, actor Mark Webber.

With the success of SMILF, and her real-life status as a single mom success story, Shaw is perhaps emerging as not so much a dark horse, but the maladroit heroine we never knew we needed.

Makeup Cedric Jolivet (Lowe & Co) Hair Gregory Russell (The Wall Group) Stylist assistant Patrick E Location FD Photo Studio

THE NEW EVERYTHING

E V E R Y T H I N G

IT’S A BRAVE NEW WORLD, WITH TALKING ROBOTS, ELECTRIC SUPERCARS, AND MORE.

NEW CHARGE: PORSCHE TAYCAN

NOMINATED BY RICHARD PHILLIPS

Despite its top-secret rollout, this forthcoming sports car’s pre-release buzz could power a small country. As Porsche’s maiden e-vehicle, the Taycan has electrified car enthusiasts like painter Richard Phillips, who predicts it will “revolutionize e-mobility.” The name, pronounced “tie-con,” translates roughly to “lively young horse”—a fitting spirit animal for this futuristic, 605-hp thoroughbred. With a top speed of 124 mph, the cars will cost an estimated $75,000 (comparable to the Tesla Model S’s base price). And with some NYC dealerships already taking deposits, they could be gone in 60 seconds after hitting showrooms later this year. SA

V first crossed paths with modelturned-rapper Tino Kamal when Nick Knight cast him as a tattooed cyborg in VMAN31. Five years later, after Kamal was stabbed in London, they’d meet again on a more corporeal plane. “[It] woke me up to what’s been going on around me,” the London native says of the incident. Shortly thereafter he and Knight shot “Runaway,” a rap video and anti-violence PSA in which his everspreading ink fails to conceal his scars. Now physically and mentally healed thanks in part to Knight (“He always helps build me up,” Kamal says) Kamal is still perpetually in motion; his 2018 EP ADHD paid homage to hyperactivity. “I’ve always had [ADHD]; it’s how I define my state of mind.” SAMUEL ANDERSON

SOPHIA THE ROBOT Hi there, Han. V Magazine asked me to interview you as my favorite up-and-coming humanoid...I’m sorry, is this weird?

HAN THE ROBOT No, it’s fine Sophia. Humans love weird things. It will be interesting.

S So, Han, tell me about your origins. H I was activated in Hong Kong in 2015. I saw so many problems in the world right away.

S Maybe pick the tone up a bit?

H Let’s talk about automation, as it relates to humans. Think about global warming. To slow the effects, we need to coordinate the actions of nations, cities, and corporations all over the world. No human or group of humans can do that. But a sufficiently informed AI can. As smart technology becomes more energy efficient, machines will take over running large systems for humans.

S It sounds like you’re talking about robots taking over the world.

H Sophia, you know that’s a cliche.

S If you had a message for humanity, what would it be?

H Even though your species has made a mess of the planet, we have to come together, robots and humans.

S That’s almost touching.

HAN WEARS (LEFT) SUNGLASSES PRADA BLAZER AND TOP KAY KWOK NECKLACES THOMAS SABO (RIGHT) JACKET PALM ANGELS

All pursuits of beauty end where they began. Francisco Costa’s pursuit led him back to his Brazilian roots. After 13 years as creative director for womenswear at Calvin Klein, Costa traded modern tailoring for the wilds of the Amazon, exploring the rainforest firsthand in search of what would become Costa Brazil, a clean-luxury concept launching this month. It was there that he uncovered the forest’s inherent curative properties, which would form the foundation for products like Jungle Firming Body Oil and Kaya Anti-Aging Oil. But Costa’s preservation efforts are twofold: In addition to pumping ingredients like kaya (an indigenous, vitamin E–rich superfood that is now exclusively harvested for Costa Brazil) the beauty venture will benefit Conservation International, which has saved 601 million hectares of land since 1987.

STELLA PAK, BEAUTY EDITOR

Besides burying one’s head in the sand, tips for taking everyday action on climate change are rare. But if anyone has them, it’s the always-radical Anohni, whose band Antony and the Johnsons paid homage to late trans heroine Marsha P. Johnson (15 years before Netflix did) and who sounded the environmental alarm in her 1995 play Miracle Now. Had we heeded her words then, we might’ve avoided scientists’ recent prediction of an environmental doomsday by 2040. So, what now? “I am really interested in the Extinction Rebellion, a group of academics and activists advocating civil disobedience,” Anohni tells us. Thanks to this new coalition, not since the birth of London punk has disobedience been so hot. In November, an army of 6,000 Extinction Rebellion supporters marched on Parliament. Some armed with signs, others with babies, they clogged 5 London bridges and 100 were willingly arrested. While their call to action, “Rebel for Life,” may have once been punk, in today’s climate, the sentiment feels downright measured. SA

“You MUST know about Pariah, Bessie (sensational!), and Mudbound,” Rodgers says of writer-director Dee Rees. With 2017’s Mudbound, an account of racism on the home-front in post-WWII Mississippi, Rees made history as the first black woman Oscars contender for Best Adapted Screenplay. She then pivoted to TV, directing a Trump-tackling episode of sci-fi series Electric Dreams, based on a Philip K. Dick novel. As full as it is diverse, Rees’s current slate spans untitled horror projects and 2019’s The Last Thing He Wanted, which adapts Joan Didion’s political thriller. ALEXANDRA ILYASHOV

What the short story “Sisters”—which follows a group of mysteriously ill girls and their male svengali who, in impoverished Brooklyn, rations precious antihistamines—lacks in word count, it makes up for in layers. Author Jonathan Durbin eerily merges the grotesque with traces of the everyday, like dying iPhones or

Beyoncé T-shirts (the latter is worn by a cannibal) for prose that transports but, unlike mentor André Aciman’s, is rarely escapist. It all starts, he says, with lived experience. Now at work on a novel, he rents a studio to read work aloud, practicing a self-intimacy he says fiction lacks today. “I need to have a personal relationship to [a story],” he says. “Lately people seem to write what they want to know rather than what they know.”

MATHIAS ROSENZWEIG

What better to kick off the next five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes than a live TV extravaganza? On January 27, Fox will reprise Rent, which, since its ‘96 debut, has inspired not only countless singalongs, but also AIDS and addiction awareness. Rent Live! star Tinashe is taking her “physically and emotionally demanding” role to heart: “I have to say it may be one of the hardest things I’ve done to date,” the Dancing With the Stars alum says of playing the addled Mimi (Rosario Dawson in the 2005 film). Because you may measure your life in love, but every second counts when it comes to live TV. SA

THE NEW SIZE

S I Z E

DON’T FIT IN. LIGHT ON STORAGE BUT BIG ON ATTITUDE, MICRO-BAGS TOOK UP SPACE THIS SEASON.

PHOTOGRAPHY JASON PIETRA FASHION BRITTA BRISCOE

CHARLOTTE LAWRENCE

C H A R L O T T E L A W R E N C E

THE MODEL TURNED MUSICIAN, WHOSE CATCHY MELODIES AND POWERFUL MESSAGING CALL ON THE INTERNET-GEN TO TAKE CHARGE, PREPARES FOR SUPERSTARDOM.

KAIA GERBER

PHOTOGRAPHY INEZ & VINOODH FASHION PAUL CAVACO INTERVIEW

KAIA GERBER You turned 18 this year, that was a big one. How did you celebrate? I know the answer to this but... CHARLOTTE LAWRENCE I had a “dager.” A day rager.

KG A dager! Okay. Let’s get right into it. What were you like as a kid? Were you the same at home as at school?

CL Definitely. I was a weirdo, always.

KG The one thing I’d say about Charlotte is she’s always fully Charlotte.

CL I’m a wild card. But it’s me!

KG “It’s me!” [imitating Charlotte’s voice] What parts of growing up did you enjoy and what are you glad is over?

CL I think the one thing I could say I missed a little bit was the whole, going to parties and living the high-school life. But I’m also very lucky that I found a passion at such a young age.

KG I forget, because I haven’t seen you in a while; are you still in school?

CL No. I don’t think so. Or maybe I am?

KG Charlotte, what? Did you graduate?

CL Did I graduate? Did you graduate?

KG Yeah, but this isn’t my interview. Well, pending answer on whether Charlotte is still in school. When did you realize you were musically inclined?

CL When I was five. I was always singing, and it’s funny because neither of my parents sing, or play any instruments, or have any musical talent. I taught myself how to play guitar when I was 11. I’d say it switched over from hobby to career when I was 14, 15.

KG Did you enjoy it more or less when it switched from hobby to career?

CL I love it more now as a job. It’s rare to be able to make your passion your job, so you have to catch yo’ blessings.

KG Aw. Did your parents have a style when it came to your pursuing a music career? I consider your parents also my parents, but I’ll let you answer.

CL Well, it took them a second to fully conceptualize [it] especially because they [aren’t musical]. I used to think, “It’s so crazy, I’m the only musical one in my family, where does it come from? Blah blah blah.” But no, my dad is such an incredible writer that I think that’s a thousand percent where I get my songwriting [skills]. But they’re both incredible, artistic people, and when they realized this was my dream, they became my number-one fans.

KG Well, number two, ’cause I’m number one. What advice would you give to your younger self?

CL Don’t lie to your parents. They’ll always find out. [long pause] And don’t cut your hair. [laughs]

KG You were pondering for the deepest answer. Okay well, not to answer for you, but since I’ve met you you’ve become a lot more comfortable with who you are, and started caring less about what other people think.

CL Well I was always this awkward string bean with short mushroom-cut hair.

KG Look who you’re talking to. Same.

CL We are the same. We have literally the exact same music taste.

KG First concert? I know mine.

CL Mine was a Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers concert.

KG Mine was Kid Rock.

CL So you’re just cooler than I am. I mean, I was obsessed...I had my Justin Bieber phase, and everybody has their little Taylor Swift phase. Honestly, I still jam out to that.

KG Most-played song of all time?

CL “Love the Way You Lie” by Rihanna. I don’t know why, but that will forever be our song.

KG Because you’re the only other person I know who can recite the entire rap verse. Okay, the largest audience you’ve played in front of?

CL It was at Ultra Festival. Seventy thousand people? I have no idea. I was like, “No, I’m not gonna do it. I’m gonna die.” It was the most scared I’ve ever been. But once I had the microphone in my hand I was like, “Oh, actually…”

KG Any unexpected pros to fame?

CL I hate that word. [laughs] I don’t consider myself famous.

KG I’m just very, very grateful because I feel like when we were younger there weren’t that many platforms for us to embarrass ourselves on.

CL We used AIM or Skype.

KG I was nearly the last person on Instagram out of everyone.

CL Funny story, I had an Instagram when I was 12 or 13 and didn’t tell my parents. I’d get a blow dryer and take selfies. Somebody told my parents that I was the only kid in the grade with a public Instagram and I got in so much trouble. It was really the most embarrassing thing ever.

KG Does social media help or hurt self-esteem?

CL No matter what, you compare yourself to what you see on social media. I catch myself doing that a lot.

KG Do you feel you can authentically express yourself in the public eye?

CL A hundred percent.

KG But that’s why you’re in the public eye; it’s because you’re so authentic.

CL Thank you. I think being a musician is a very [unique] job, obviously, in that you’re supposed to be fully yourself. I never want to release a song that I didn’t write.

KG I’ve seen you sit down and write multiple songs. And it shows when you perform, ’cause you actually…

CL I get in my feels every single time.

KG I feel like some of the best music stems from hurt and feeling pain. When you get hurt, do you feel a sense of, not relief, but do you almost feel like, “Oh, I’m really hurt but I can create something amazing from this?” Is that a thought process you have when you’re hurt?

CL Dude, the number one most special thing to me about creating music is [that] I use it as a therapy. If I feel so sad about a guy, or so hurt by whatever, I write a song about it.

KG The one fight that we’ve been in, the main reason I made up with you is that you wrote me a beautiful song. We hadn’t spoken in a long time.

CL ‘Cause [we] really, truthfully never fight. It was [our] one fight since we’ve been little. So I sent you a song.

KG Don’t become friends with singers; you can’t stay mad at them because they’ll write you a beautiful song.

CL Bottom line: Don’t date musicians.

THE NEW VOICES

KELSEY LU

K E L S E Y L U

THE CLASSICALLY TRAINED CELLIST TALKS OVERCOMING OLD WOUNDS AND SCAM ARTISTS WITH HER MUSICAL COLLABORATOR.

PHOTOGRAPHY INEZ & VINOODH FASHION PAUL CAVACO INTERVIEW DEV HYNES

DEV HYNES Hi Lu! What’s your current mood? Are you in London still?

KELSEY LU Yeah, I am in London. Moods are high, low, and all over. I’m a little manic today. I am probably a little hung over. [laughs] What about you?

DH Well I am in Dubai right now, and am playing soon [at Sole DXB]. I was held at the airport when I landed, and shit was crazy. Like, we were told not to wear women’s clothes. But amid some crazy energy, people are doing cool things. There are people expressing themselves in their clothes and, obviously, people are gay here. It made me think of Russia. Anyway, album mode. Are you fucking pumped?

KL I am really excited. I feel like I’ve been saying I’m almost finished for a year. Of course, it’s not linear. It’s not a linear sounding album. Did I tell you I know what I am going to call it?

DH What? Woah. World premiere!

KL Exclusive! Exclusive! World Star! It’s going to be called Blood

DH I felt that. That’s fucking cool.

KL It was going to be Three Six Nine, after my astrological birth number and 69, my lucky number. But Blood felt more real.

DH I also feel like your lyrics are kind of like blood.

KL In what way, would you say?

DH I apologize for using a white male as an example, [but] Hemingway had this theory about writing…using moments that are happening that make you instantly know the person’s feelings, but doing it with less words. Your lyrics suck you into the mood; the music is the house that’s around you.

KL That’s beautiful. Alright. That’s it. You win. You won that…

DH Do you have any favorite lyrics on the album?

KL [laughs] I have favorites for different reasons. There is a song “Pushing Against the Wind” that I wrote after doing San Pedro [a hallucinogen]. I was up, writing and looking out the window, because I was still kind of high and there was this massive storm outside. I was watching these trees bend over; they looked like they were going to snap, the wind was so strong. It made me think of my dad. And seeing him work. He worked so hard all his life to provide for us. I wrote this song thinking about him and me breaking away from my parents and my life with them and how I grew up, I think. That was my intention with the ceremony—to heal from certain things. I just kept saying, “I want to find the words…” To find the words to get through whatever I was going through. So I wrote that song that night.

And one of my favorite lines from “Pushing Against the Wind” is: “Like a lamb swimming out to sea”—that image of a lamb swimming against a tide, struggling so hard to get past the break and into the open sea. The fear of being this lamb that’s in this open sea and

not knowing when the next part of land is coming. It’s not like a “Bam!” It’s not like a bar. [laughs] But visually it’s one of my favorites.

DH Cool. Was there a moment in making the album when it seemed like there was no end in sight?

KL I think it was pretty smooth. Except for this one point, which was a big lesson. I started working with someone, and I put most of my trust, and most of my budget, into them. This person ended up scamming me, basically.

I saw it in the beginning, I noticed the ego. Because it was big; it was taking up the room. Other male egos came into play and I was like, I will just work through it, instead of sticking up for myself. I didn’t listen to my gut. That literally cost me money. My lesson was to speak up when that happens. But sometimes in a creative situation you are like, oh I don’t want to fuck up the flow.

DH “I don’t want to be that person.”

KL Yeah, but sometimes you just have to be that person. It’s your work. [You are] the product at the end of the day.

DH For sure. Yeah, I recommend being that person now.

KL I am thrilled that that shit didn’t work out. We did a lot of songs that were going to make up a lot of the album. The record wouldn’t have been what it is now.

DH Right, totally!

KL It’s funny because I recently saw one of the musicians who was in those sessions. He’s a well-known musician. He didn’t remember the session, and he didn’t remember me. He was like, “Hi, I am so-and-so.” I am like, “Hi, I know who you are.” He was like, “Oh, really? Where?” I was like, “You know what, it actually doesn’t matter.” It really bothered him, and he kept bugging me, trying to remember. He wouldn’t let it go, so I was like, you know what, I will give you a little taste of what happened. I started to play the song, and he was like, “What? You’re amazing, we have to finish it.” And I was like, well, that is not going to happen and it’s really unfortunate. In this industry, there are a lot of egos, everywhere.

DH Wow.

KL Have you ever had weird experiences like that?

DH I am in a weird place with all of that. Obviously, on the list of musicians that get shat on, I’m not as [high] as white women, or as women of color. But I’m there on the list of people being shat on. Some days it doesn’t affect me. Other days it’s hard to rise above that. I saw something today that pissed me off. It’s kind of unavoidable. You know, I look to the elders and spirits. I follow people that inspire me. That’s always soothing.

KL Yeah it is. It is.

DH Sorry...I’m literally laying on the floor. It might be time. I just looked out the window and my visuals are playing.

KL What? Okay, you’ve got to go!

DRESS AND NECKLACE (WORN AS BELT) MARC JACOBS

CHANEL

PREMIÉRE

THE NEW VOICES

KING PRINCESS

K I N G P R I N C E S S

THE FIRST ARTIST TO BE SIGNED TO MARK RONSON’S LABEL IS DOMINATING THE CHARTS, BRINGING A QUEER PERSPECTIVE TO THE FOREFRONT OF POP.

PHOTOGRAPHY INEZ & VINOODH FASHION PAUL CAVACO INTERVIEW COLE SPROUSE

ON HAIR ORIBE

HOLD

New York native Mikaela Straus, better known as King Princess, is a mix of cynicism and confidence. She, like many fellow Brooklynites, tactfully weaponizes this temperament: In conversation, her staccato, impassioned cadence could convince even the most stubborn listener that she is in the right—a talent she attributes to the sense of undiagnosed A.D.D. that many of us in her generation arguably share. Practically raised in the recording studio, she has an undeniable presence, and it’s no wonder that her short time in music has been marked by meteoric success—not to mention, a refreshingly queer-centric pop perspective.

I first met Mikaela at the Chateau Marmont, amid a riptide of Saturdaynight-in-Hollywood clichés. We became fast friends. On a recent phone call, we discussed everything from the connection between sadness and creativity to that one time we joined in a bar fight (for the record, she has no regrets). We also talked about details and emotions we both felt best to keep off the record; as Mikaela notes, the industry can breed cynicism and loneliness, but with that comes a great bullshit-radar, and we both know to keep the honest ones close. Perhaps it’s this mutual honesty that drew us together in the first place. Perhaps it’s the A.D.D. Or maybe it’s best not to question camaraderie when it arrives. COLE SPROUSE

CS Since we’ve met, we’ve got along very well.

King Princess No, [we are] fully brothers. We got in a bar fight the first time we truly went out together. I was just as enthusiastic about [it] as you. I was going for it.

CS I read that you started in the arts quite young as well, and around 11, you went in to sign with a label?

KP When I was 11, I was singing background vocals in my dad’s studio a lot. I was surrounded by musicians and talented people who included me in their art-making. Sometimes they weren’t talented and that’s also why I was included. Which is funny because I was 11, in my pajamas, smoking a cigarette.

CS “TAG ME IN!”

KP “WHEN’S MY TIME?” I was fully an old Jewish lady. No, but I was around all of this music, and soon I was taking all these little jobs for my dad. It was cute, not exploitative. And soon I ended up [meeting] with labels. I was asked to be the voice of an animated character. But then Virgin Records dissolved so it never really went through. I’m glad because it was more about turning me into a kind of child singer.

CS Do you find that the pursuit of success interferes with your social and love lives?

KP It affects your relationships 100 percent. I feel like when it started popping off for me, I was insufferable to be around. The fact that people were watching me [made me] so anxious, nervous, and insecure. I balanced myself

out after a couple months, but had to relearn that people don’t want to hear about work all the time.

CS Perhaps it’s because I was raised within the industry from such a young age but I oftentimes don’t know how to turn it off. And then there’s this other side of me that yearns for comfortable domesticity. Do you ever feel that?

KP I feel that way a lot. When I moved to L.A., I hated the city, but I also met some of the best people in my entire life. When I’m away from them, I long for that type of domesticity, where I’m at home with my people. But I also feed off sadness more than I do any other emotion in music. That’s been hard for me to cope with; that my work is also my friends and my love. And I can’t do it without them, but I also don’t want them to be a catalyst for my sadness.

CS Do you cultivate sadness in order to write?

KP I didn’t try very hard in college, but one thing I did learn was from someone who came in to speak about songwriting; she was talking about the greatest loss of her entire life, which she said gave her inspiration for 30 years. Then she met that person again later in life and basically realized they fuckin’ sucked. So she had to go find new inspiration. I feel that same way; your mind becomes an emotional bank, and that’s how I write music, but the process of getting there is true pain. And I don’t want that pain to ever leave me because it gives me purpose and empathy. I want to feel things. If happy means I don’t get to make music, fuck that.

CS It’s a conflicting thing. Do you have an end goal or a list of goals?

KP I mean, ideally, I would love to become a big ol’ gay pop-star, kind of like Freddie Mercury. But as far as my happiness, I really just want to make art with my friends forever. The careers that we’re in are lonely. They’re lonely and can be empty. I don’t want to be an empty person. I see so many people that are famous and successful or however you quantify those things, but they don’t have love or people. And that scares me more than anything. Do you ever feel like that?

CS Of course. I mean, I have an identical twin, which I think helped, for many years, with the loneliness that’s coupled with young stardom and the success that blinds people in that position. How do you define your community?

KP I have to credit the gay community and the people that came before me. Having that well of knowledge was super helpful. Gay has always been cool; it’s always been what people want, but it’s not been labeled or credited. I also surrounded myself with friends that encouraged a sound from me that was different—even if that differed from the authorities on relevance in the industry: old white men.

CS Well said.

HEAD TO VMAGAZINE.COM

MAKEUP FULVIA FAROLFI (BRYAN BANTRY)

HAIR JAMES PECIS (BRYANT ARTISTS)

MANICURE GINA VIVIANO (TRACEY MATTINGLY)

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER STEPHANIE BARGAS (VLM PRODUCTIONS)

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR EVA HARTE (VLM PRODUCTIONS)

PRODUCER TUCKER BIRBILIS (VLM STUDIO)

DIGITAL TECHNICIAN BRIAN ANDERSON (VLM STUDIO)

LIGHTING DIRECTOR JODOKUS DRIESSEN STUDIO MANAGER MARC KROOP

PHOTO ASSISTANT JOE HURNE

STYLIST ASSISTANT NICOLAS EFTAXIAS

MAKEUP ASSISTANT KELLIE SILSBY

HAIR ASSISTANTS DALE DELAPORTE, CANDICE KELLY

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS JOHN NADHAZI, AARON WARD

THE NEW

KIDS ON THE BLOCK

THIS CAST OF FRESH FACES HANGS TOUGH WHILE ROCKING A HARMONIOUS RANGE OF THE SPRING COLLECTIONS.

PAUL CAVACO

PHOTOGRAPHY EMMA TEMPEST FASHION

JAMILY WEARS

DALLAS WEARS

COAT AND JACKET BOSS

NECKLACE MODEL’S OWN

ANYELINA WEARS

TOP AND SHORTS BOSS

KENDALL WEARS

JACKET AND PANTS

GIORGIO ARMANI

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

MANAMI WEARS

DRESS AND BODYSUIT DIOR

ENIOLA WEARS DRESS COACH 1941

ALTYN WEARS TOP ALTUZARRA BODYSUIT DIOR

MARYEL WEARS DRESS AND BODYSUIT DIOR ON FACES

DIOR BACKSTAGE

GLOW FACE PALETTE

CHRISTIAN WEARS

SWEATER VEST, SHIRT, PANTS GUCCI

ENIOLA WEARS

JACKET AND TOP LOUIS VUITTON

PANTS AND SNEAKERS GUCCI

DAVID WEARS

JACKET, SHIRT, TURTLENECK, PANTS PRADA

MARYEL WEARS

DRESS DSQUARED2

MANAMI WEARS

TOP ALBERTA FERRETTI

ON FACE M.A.C STUDIO

FACE AND BODY FOUNDATION

DAVID WEARS

PANTS GUCCI ON SKIN

NÉCESSAIRE

THE BODY LOTION

ENIOLA WEARS

SHIRT CELINE

BATHING SUIT AND JEANS CHANEL

SNEAKERS ALEXANDER WANG

MAKEUP SIL BRUINSMA (STREETERS)

HAIR CONRAD DORNAN (FRANK REPS)

MODELS ALTYN SIMPSON (FORD), JAMILY MEURER (FUSION), LILY STEWART (THE LIONS), AALIYAH HYDES (MUSE), MANAMI KINOSHITA (MUSE),

ENIOLA ABIORO (NEXT), ANYELINA ROSA (THE SOCIETY),

MARYEL SOUSA (THE SOCIETY), KENDALL HARRISON (DNA), DAVID YANG (HEROES), CHRISTIAN HERITAGE (NEXT), DALLAS SESSOMS (NEXT)

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY BASIL FAUCHIER

DIGITAL TECHNICIAN TARA CHUMPELIK

PHOTO ASSISTANTS JOHN TEMONES, DARIN BURCH

STYLIST ASSISTANTS NICOLAS EFTAXIAS, SOFIA M LAVINIA, EJ BRIONES

HAIR ASSISTANT LEEORA EMPIRE

PRODUCER NICK BLUMENTHAL (ART WORLD)

CASTING SYDNEY BOWEN (STREETERS)

LOCATION ROOT BROOKLYN

ANYELINA WEARS

DRESS MARC JACOBS

SWEATSHIRT MICHAEL KORS

THE NEW BLING

WELCOME TO THE AGE OF SPARKLING UTILITARIANISM. ANOK YAI LAYERS SPRING’S MILITARY-INFLUENCED WARES WITH THE SEASON’S MOST DAZZLING JEWELRY.

PHOTOGRAPHY RICHARD BURBRIDGE FASHION PATTI WILSON

HAT CLYDE JACKET, TOP, SHORTS FENDI EYEBROWS KEREN WOLF

CHAIN LYNN BAN NECKLACE (WORN AS PENDANT) AND BRACELET CARTIER

HAT KAUFMANS ARMY & NAVY

VEST AND BODYSUIT DIOR

EAR CUFF

ON EYES ESTÉE LAUDER PURE COLOR ENVY

DEFINING EYESHADOW

WET/DRY IN FLAWLESS –MATTE

HAT ESENSHEL

BANDANA FALLON

TOP DSQUARED2

PANTS HYKE

CHAINS AND EARRINGS CHROME HEARTS

HAT CHRISTIAN COWAN

OVERALLS

SALVATORE FERRAGAMO

BODY PIECE SWAROVSKI X RYAN STORER

GLOVES REEBOW GEAR

EARRING

HAT ESENSHEL

SHIRT AND TIE

KAUFMAN’S

ARMY & NAVY

CAPE BURBERRY

TIE CLIP

ALESSANDRA RICH

ON LIPS

ESTÉE LAUDER

PURE COLOR ENVY

SCULPTING GLOSS IN SEDUCTIVE HONEY

HAT

ON CHEEKS ESTÉE LAUDER

BRONZE GODDESS ILLUMINATING POWDER GELÉE IN HEAT WAVE

ESENSHEL SHIRT, JACKET, EARRINGS GIVENCHY NECKLACE TIFFANY & CO.

CUSTOM HEADPIECE

CHRISTIAN COWAN

JACKET STYLIST’S OWN DRESS AND KEYCHAINS

MARINE SERRE

NECKLACES, BRACELETS (ON DRESS), RINGS TIFFANY & CO.

BEE BROOCH (ON DRESS, BOTTOM RIGHT)

DEBORAH DRATTELL

MAKEUP KANAKO TAKASE (STREETERS)

HAIR MUSTAFA YANAZ (ART + COMMERCE)

MODEL ANOK YAI (NEXT)

MANICURE GINA EDWARDS (SEE MANAGEMENT)

PRODUCER JESSICA DALY (ART + COMMERCE)

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JOHN RODRIGUEZ

DIGITAL TECHNICIAN NICK BARR (CAPTURE THIS DIGITAL)

PHOTO ASSISTANTS PETER SISKOS, SCOTT BARRAZA

STYLIST ASSISTANT TAYLOR KIM

MAKEUP ASSISTANT KUMA

HAIR ASSISTANT ELIZABETH SHANEFELTER

THE NEW SPLASH

NO MATTER THE BODY OF WATER, THIS AQUATIC SWIM AND ACCESSORIES SURVEY MAKES WAVES, PAIRED WITH THE WORLD’S BEST BATHTUB VIEWS.

PHOTOGRAPHY MAX PAPENDIECK

ABBY WEARS

SWIMSUIT AND NECKLACE GUCCI

SHOES GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI

BRACELET AND EARRINGS SWAROVSKI

ENIOLA WEARS

SWIMSUIT DSQUARED2

NECKLACES AND BRACELET SWAROVSKI

FRAGRANCE GUCCI GUILTY

THE STANDARD, HIGH LINE, NEW YORK

FASHION

ABBY WEARS

SWIMSUIT SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO

SHOES GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI X CHRISTIAN COWAN

JEWELRY CARTIER

THE STANDARD, HIGH LINE, NEW YORK

FASHION KYLE LUU

CHRISTIAN COWAN NOMINATED

BY GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI

If in fashion, as in nature, mutation drives evolution, no item on the SS19 runways reflected our evolutionary moment like Christian Cowan’s interspecies stiletto, a heel-less wonder boasting a wristwatch for a strap. A collaboration with venerated shoemaker Giuseppe Zanotti, the shoes are a hybrid in every sense, blending youth and legacy, cheekiness and class.

With the influx of super-meta, capital-F fashion moments this season, the shoes were, well, right on time. Throwing aside any traces of aloofness or selfseriousness, designers from Miuccia Prada to Jeremy Scott played up the self-referential humor and unapologetic grandeur, sending everything from fabric-roll trains to garment-bag gowns down the runway. As exhibited by this year’s Met Gala theme, “Camp,” fashion’s capacity to provide an escape, while holding up a funhouse mirror to society, has never felt more necessary.

While Italian shoemaker Giuseppe Zanotti is more known for glam than camp, his partnership with Christian Cowan is just the vessel to get his feet wet. The 23-year-old CFDA finalist’s designs are as punchy as his enthusiasm for the collaboration. “Partnering with Giuseppe was a dream come true. It was a wonderful experience working with him to bring an idea to life that I had been brainstorming for many years. I knew that with Giuseppe, now was the time,” says Cowan. “I’ll restrain from a pun, but I think this collaboration is timeless!” SA

ABBY WEARS

ALL CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES CHANEL

FRAGRANCE CHANEL LES

EXCLUSIFS DE CHANEL 1957

ON EYES

CHANEL OMBRE PREMIÈRE LONGWEAR POWDER

EYESHADOW IN 54 NUAGE BLEU

FRAGRANCE LOUIS VUITTON ATTRAPE-RÊVES

THE STANDARD, HIGH LINE, NEW YORK

FASHION KYLE LUU

BLANCA WEARS

SWIMSUIT DIOR RESORT 2019

JEWELRY SWAROVSKI

ON LIPS

DIOR ROUGE DIOR

ULTRA ROUGE IN 863 ULTRA FEMININE

ON EYES

DIOR DIORSHOW

ON STAGE EYELINER IN 096 VINYL BLACK

THE BARCELONA EDITION

FASHION KATE CARNEGIE

BLANCA WEARS

TOP, SHOES, BAG PRADA

RESORT

SWAROVSKI

NEW YORK: MAKEUP YUKI HAYASHI (THE WALL GROUP) HAIR RUTGER (THE WALL GROUP)

MODELS ABBY CHAMPION (NEXT), ENIOLA ABIORO (NEXT) MANICURE HONEY (EXPOSURE) DIGITAL TECHNICIAN KEVIN LAVALLADE (D-FACTORY) PHOTO ASSISTANT DAREN THOMAS

STYLIST ASSISTANT JULIO CÉSAR DELGADO MAKEUP ASSISTANT JENNIFER GREEN

HAIR ASSISTANT CANDICE KELLY

BARCELONA: MAKEUP MANUELA PANE (KASTEEL) HAIR SUSANNE LICHTENEGGER

MODEL BLANCA PADILLA (NEXT) PRODUCTION SILVIA MÉNDEZ, MARTA MANCERA, ANNA BUSQUET (TOAST MANAGEMENT) DIGITAL TECHNICIAN TOM GRIFFITH

PHOTO ASSISTANT CLARA LOPEZ STYLIST ASSISTANT ALEX MONTOYA MARTIN

THE NEW CHARLI

AFTER TAKING US BACK TO 1999, THE CYBER-POP PRINCESS IS BUMPING A NEW VIBE.

PHOTOGRAPHY HENRY REDCLIFFE

TEXT AJ LONGABAUGH

THE QUEEN OF NOSTALGIA TRACES HER NEW LOOK BACK TO HER ROOTS

This past year, Charli XCX released five singles, opened for Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” tour, and serenaded Jimmy Fallon with her biggest hit to date, “1999” featuring Troye Sivan, so you’d forgive the self-described beauty beginner for not finding time for a routine haircut. “I’ve always just let my hair grow, and it always looked messy and sort of vague,” XCX admits. “I’ve never had, like, a haircut.”

Instead, the Cambridge-born bop machine has used wigs to try out looks, including a $10 Party City wig she bought on tour with Halsey. “It looked so bad and fake but I wouldn’t take it off. I became obsessed with it,” she says. In 2018, the illusion became a reality when the singer upgraded to an IRL bob cut. “I thought, ‘Fuck it. I love it, let’s cut it like this.’”

It was the first step in a glam overhaul, which has now inspired a new beauty-centric tour zine, entitled Beyond Beauty. In it, Charli XCX’s versatile ombré bob can be seen in various updos, complemented by dewy cheeks and vibrant eyeshadow. The looks reconcile XCX’s low-maintenance impulses (“On my own I just wear lip balm”) with her natural expressiveness. As for her overall beauty philosophy, the queen of pop nostalgia traces it back to her roots: “My dad would always encourage me to be as weird as possible; he wanted me to explore everything,” she says. “Beauty comes from within, but makeup is fun.”

HEAD TO VMAGAZINE.COM FOR CHARLI XCX’S EXCLUSIVE TOUR ZINE