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FALL FORWARD Jessica Chastain writes her own rules

San Francisco’s New Mayor Energy Route 66 Fashion to Drive For The Ojai Home Made by Mother

FALL | 2026

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CONTENTS

For what’s hot in the Golden State, visit magazinec.com

PALISADES VILLAGE Nineteen months after the fires, a shopping nirvana rises once again

TOON TOWN How animation became Hollywood’s most reliable hitmaker

AZZEDINE ALAÏA A new book celebrates the French designer who won over the west

STYLE NEWS Ralph Lauren teams up with Alabama quiltmakers on its latest collaboration

DINING NEWS It’s another star for Sierra Mar and three more Michelin-approved spots

SAINT LAURENT Celebrating Anthony Vaccarello’s 10 years of fashion, film, and theater

CONTENTS

MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

CONTENTS

For what’s hot in the Golden State, visit magazinec.com

108

DANIEL LURIE For the San Francisco mayor, showing up is key to the city’s prosperity

124

WOODY DE OTHELLO From his Oakland studio Woody De Othello transforms domestic objects, imbuing them with soul

JESSICA CHASTAIN The Oscar winner on keeping things challenging while staying out of focus

114

FASHION HOUSE Is the Mother cofounder’s Ojai sanctuary the ultimate California home?

ROUTE 66 STYLE Road-testing fall collections on California’s desert highways

131

DISCOVERIES What’s sweeter than a hotel suite? A private villa, of course

CONTENTS

MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

JENNIFER SMITH Founder, Editorial Director & CEO JENNY MURRAY Editor & President Style & Content Director ANDREW BARKER | Creative & Design Director JAMES TIMMINS

Beauty Director KELLY ATTERTON

Senior Editors GINA TOLLESON ELIZABETH VARNELL

Production PEPPER

Contributing Fashion Editor REBECCA RUSSELL

Art Director ANDREW WREN Managing Editor SARAH RUTLEDGE

Contributing Editors: Caroline Cagney, Elizabeth Khuri Chandler, Kendall Conrad, Ira Madison III, Kelsey McKinnon, David Nash, Stephanie Rafanelli, Diane Dorrans Saeks, Nathan Turner Contributing Writers: Anush J. Benliyan, Catherine Bigelow, Alessandra Codinha, Kerstin Czarra, Helena de Bertodano, Richard Godwin, Robert Haskell, Martha Hayes, Christine Lennon, Degen Pener, Jessica Ritz, S. Irene Virbila, Chris Wallace Contributing Photographers: Chantal Anderson, Christian Anwander, Matthew Brookes, Gia Coppola, Roger Davies, Victor Demarchelier, Amanda Demme, François Dischinger, Graham Dunn, Adam Franzino, Sam Frost, Adrian Gaut, Lance Gerber, Alanna Hale, Rainer Hosch, Bjorn Iooss, Kurt Iswarienko, Danielle Levitt, Emman Montalvan, Blair Getz Mezibov, Dewey Nicks, Frank Ockenfels, David Roemer, Jessica Sample, Jack Waterlot, Ben Weller Contributing Fashion Directors: Chris Campbell, Cristina Ehrlich, Petra Flannery, Fabio Immediato, Mary Inacio, Maryam Malakpour, Katie Mossman, Jessica Paster, James Sleaford, Christian Stroble, Samantha Traina

RENEE MARCELLO Publisher & Vice President Executive Director, West Coast SUE CHRISPELL

Director Digital, Sales & Marketing AMY LIPSON

Sales Development Manager ANNE MARIE PROVENZA

Executive Director, Information Technology SANDY HUBBARD Controller LEILA ALLEN

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FOUNDER’S LETTER As summer fades into fall, California has its own way of resisting the season. The light lingers, the outdoors remain gloriously accessible, and that particular California ease continues to permeate the way we live and create.

Editors’ Picks Chains made for a reaction

Take the Ojai home of the cofounder of Mother. It is relaxed without being casual, highly considered without ever feeling precious. Its renovation honors the architectural bones of the 1940s while introducing a fresh, contemporary point of view — a balance that feels quintessentially Californian. In San Francisco, we find another kind of renewal. Mayor Daniel Lurie and First Lady Becca Prowda are approaching their roles hands-on, grounded in the belief that the city’s greatest asset is its people. San Francisco has plenty of sparkle already; perhaps it needed someone to remind everyone to see it again. Our fall cover star, Jessica Chastain, knows something about reinvention, too. An actor of extraordinary range and an increasingly assured fashion presence, she has built a career on intelligence, instinct, and a willingness to take the lead. It is a pleasure to welcome her back to C for a third time as we celebrate a woman whose personal style is every bit as compelling as the characters she creates.

STEPHEN SILVER, price upon request, shsilver.com.

We also hit the road for a fashion journey along Route 66, marking the legendary highway’s centennial with a portfolio that finds glamour, Americana, and a little adventure in the California desert. Because sometimes the most interesting way forward is the long way around. And in Oakland, artist Woody De Othello is making his own road. Working in his studio, he transforms clay into exuberant, deeply personal sculptures that seem at once ancient and entirely of the moment. His work reminds us that true originality cannot be manufactured; it has to be made, in his case, by hand.

BULGARI, $9,800, bulgari.com.

From Ojai to San Francisco, Oakland to Route 66, this issue celebrates people who are building, shaping, and reimagining. California remains their muse — and, whatever the season, there is always something new to discover.

VAN CLEEF & ARPELS, price upon request, vancleefarpels.com.

Founder, Editorial Director, and CEO

JESSICA CHASTAIN wears MAX MARA.

ILLUSTRATION: DAVID DOWNTON

Jennifer Smith

Photography by VICTOR DEMARCHELIER. Styling by KATIE MOSSMAN. Hair by RYAN TRYGSTAD at Tomlinson Management Group. Makeup by KRISTOFER BUCKLE at Opus Beauty.

BUCCELLATI, $3,400, buccellati.com.

FOUNDER’S LETTER

MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

C PEOPLE “Joinery is the only place to stop for lunch in Sausalito.”

“Woods Cove Beach in Laguna when the tide is out.”

Mary Inacio

Ira Madison III

L.A.–based stylist Mary Inacio’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Grazia, Vogue, AD, and Playboy, among others. Her celebrity clients include Wyatt Russell, Kurt Russell, Denis Villeneuve, Scott Speedman, Laurie Metcalf, Luke Kirby, and Jane Fonda. For this issue, she styled our fashion portfolio, “On the Road” (page 92). MY C SPOTS Woods Cove Beach in Laguna when the tide is out • Chicken parm at Dan Tana’s • Bettina in Santa Barbara.

Ira Madison III is a cultural critic and the author of the bestselling Pure Innocent Fun: Essays. For this issue, he penned our feature on artist Woody De Othello, “The Art of the Everyday” (page 124). He lives in New York City. MY C SPOTS Found Oyster has the best oysters in L.A. • Joinery is the only place to stop for lunch in Sausalito on the drive back to San Francisco from Napa • Damian DTLA, from the same team behind two of my favorite spots: Cosme in New York and Pujol in Mexico City.

Fall Issue 2026

“I love the vibe of Santa Cruz, particularly the boardwalk.”

Victor Demarchelier

Tim Teeman

New York–based photographer Victor Demarchelier, who shot our cover story, “The Many Faces of Jessica Chastain” (page 80), has worked with fashion clients like Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Dior, H&M, and Lancôme. He has also held exhibitions in galleries including A. Galerie, Karl Hutter Fine Art, and Camera Work. MY C SPOTS Peterson Automotive Museum in L.A. • A performance by the American Contemporary Ballet • Hearst Castle, especially the iconic Neptune Pool.

Tim Teeman, who wrote “The Many Faces of Jessica Chastain” (page 80), is a contributing editor at Town & Country magazine. A former senior editor, writer, and theater critic at The Daily Beast, he has also contributed to publications including The New York Times, The Times of London, and The Guardian. MY C SPOTS Book Soup in L.A.: I support independent bookstores • I love the vibe of Santa Cruz, particularly the boardwalk • The sweep of San Francisco from the pair of 925-foot hills above the Castro.

C PEOPLE

MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

TEEMAN: JUAN BASTOS

“Hearst Castle, especially the iconic Neptune Pool.”

BEVERLY HILLS

MONTECITO

SOUTH COAST PLAZA

WYNN LAS VEGAS

highcampsupply.com

MARC BERNARDES PHOTOGRAPHY

C STATEMENTS

California Style & Culture

From top: A reimagined Palisades Village; Brunello Cucinelli (top left, inset) and TWP (top right, inset) are open, as is a new Elyse Walker boutique stocking looks from Carolina Herrera and Jacquemus (bottom middle and right, inset); the Zimmermann boutique has also returned with the line’s fall collection (bottom left, inset).

CONTRIBUTORS Kerstin Czarra David Nash Jessica Ritz Rebecca Russell Elizabeth Varnell S. Irene Virbila

It Takes a Village Palisades Village reemerges brighter than ever with new shops and neighborhood fixtures Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL

As the surrounding community continues to rebuild 19 months after the devastating fires tore through it, PALISADES VILLAGE’s mix of beloved mainstays and new additions is open. The 125,000-squarefoot shopping spot (developed in 2018 by Rick Caruso) again houses an Erewhon grocery store, the Netflix-operated Bay Theater, and Blue Ribbon Sushi. Sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann’s boutique has also returned with its fall collection. Now two Elyse Walker boutiques are here, alongside A.L.C., Isabel Marant, Reformation, and Brunello Cucinelli. “We held hands and held our breath for all these months,” says Elyse Walker, who opened her eponymous clothing boutique in Pacific Palisades in 1999. “Normally, a population builds and then you have a city center,” Walker adds. “But here, we’re going to have a hub first, and I think it’s going to really help bring together this beautiful town.” She points to Caruso’s “confidence and organization” as the key to the shopping center’s recovery. “This is all happening at a much faster pace because of him.” Caruso CEO Style MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

Culture

Design

Beauty

Dining

Corinne Verdery says watching people reconnect as the space comes back to life has been moving. “It’s a powerful reminder of what this community represents,” she says. And with the $100 million rebuild, the developers continue to hone the building materials used. “Throughout the rebuilding process, our focus has been on restoring the Village thoughtfully and responsibly and to continue prioritizing sustainable and fire-resilient materials, along with energy-efficient systems.” L.A.-based beauty emporium Violet Grey, denim maker Mother (see cofounder Tim Kaeding’s Ojai house on page 114), and resort staple Xirena all have boutiques in the Village, as well as Paige, Buck Mason, Toteme, Veronica Beard, Jennifer Meyer, and Golden Goose. Nancy Silverton’s new steakhouse, Spacca Tutto, is joining the lineup in addition to Timothy Hollingsworth’s Alphabet Bar & Grill, Trish Wescoat Pound’s TWP, Lili Chemla’s loungy Leset, and former neighborhood staples Loomey’s Toys and K Bakery. There’s a sense of renewal amid the space’s lush lawns surrounding more than 40 businesses as a slate of community-focused events kicks off, led by a farmers market each Wednesday. 15225 Palisades Village Ln., Pacific Palisades, 310-648-3215; palisadesvillageca.com.

Clockwise from top left: Zimmermann’s reopened Palisades boutique and fall collection (top left and middle, inset); Isabel Marant (top right, inset) has also returned; a path winds through the shopping center; Towne by Elyse Walker; Brunello Cucinelli is back, as are men’s fall designs (bottom, inset).

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45 ears

CELEBRATING

IN THE BAY AREA

THE VILLA MENLO PARK concierge@shsilver.com | 650.325.9500 | shsilver.com

STYLE

NEWS HAUTE HANDIWORK

Generations of quiltmakers who honed their craft in Alabama’s GEE’S BEND collective, making warm bedding out of necessity using abstract compositions, have caught RALPH LAUREN’s eye. His label’s latest Artist in Residence collaboration with textile artists from the community, Claudia Pettway Charley and Loretta Pettway Bennett, includes apparel, accessories, and home goods reinterpreting the region’s geometric denim-and-patchwork designs using found material. Cotton Polo Play bags with free-form compositions and a jacket drawing from the collective’s Housetop pattern join pillows, quilts, and ceramic dishes. ralphlauren.com. E.V.

MAKE MINE A PALOMA

The first Los Angeles boutique by Barcelona label PALOMA WOOL just opened on Melrose Avenue. “Opening a permanent space in L.A. feels like a natural step for us,” says Paloma Lanna, who founded the eponymous fashion brand, which started as an art project, in 2014 and has since gained a devoted fanbase. The inspiration, she says, “is about getting dressed and the space and ideas that are created around the act of getting dressed.” The monochrome 2,500-sq.-ft. minimalist interior is bathed in rich Southern California sunlight, which provides the perfect backdrop for the sophisticated silhouettes from the Fall/Winter 2026 collection. Beyond apparel, the boutique showcases accessories, footwear, bags, and the freshly implemented menswear line. 8410 Melrose Ave., L.A.; palomawool.com. R.R.

GO WEST LELA ROSE, with its blend of elegant dresses and western-inspired Ranch collections, seems tailor-made for Montecito, but the designer’s new boutique at The Post is her first foray into California. Rose has an eye for color and embellishment in her ready-to-wear fashion, and her new boutique, reflecting the West Coast’s indoor-outdoor architectural style, was designed in partnership with Studio DB and is decorated with her signature lasso motif. The space includes a dried-flower installation by Tedde Minogue of floral design studio Scenery and handmade metal birds in tribute to the region’s bird reserve — and avian motifs frequently turn up in the lush prints included in her collections. 1807 E. Cabrillo Blvd., The Post, Santa Barbara, 917-444-7328; lelarose.com. E.V.

INSIDE OUT

LELA ROSE: ALEXA VITUG

Transportive store windows evoke the outside world at the new HERMÈS boutique in San Diego, where the picturesque coastline and cliffside beaches tempt viewers out of their offices and into an alternate reality. Beyond the ceramic brick facade are escapist staples like silk handkerchiefs and ties, perfumes and the popular beauty line, home collections, leather bags and accessories, equestrian collections, jewelry and watches, and ready-to-wear clothing. 4487 La Jolla Village Dr., Westfield UTC, San Diego, 619-574-9570; hermes.com. E.V. 1. Cult favorite PALOMA WOOL has arrived in L.A. 2. RALPH LAUREN has unveiled a collaboration with Gee’s Bend collective from Alabama. 3. Shop the new HERMÈS boutique in San Diego. 4. Western styles abound at LELA ROSE in Santa Barbara.

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Style News MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

Cuvée Rosé. Chosen by the Best.

The Ritz London

Cuvée Rosé is crafted from the best Pinot Noir grapes, slowly macerated after the harvest before aging for a minimum of five years in our cellars.

Imported by Laurent-Perrier US - www.laurent-perrier.com

P L E A S E E N J O Y C H A M P A G N E R E S P O N S I B LY

STYLE

NEWS

SCENTING SUNSET

“It’s one of the most creative places I’ve ever been,” Marie du Petit Thouars says of the Silver Lake neighborhood where she’s launched a new flagship for her botany-rooted fragrance and lifestyle line, MAISON LOUIS MARIE. The space is steps from the studio where she began the plant-focused subtle fragrances, body care, candles, and diffusers. Designed with L.A. firm Via Clover, the former Sunday Times fashion editor has filled the shop with her minimalist eau de parfum bottles, creams, and oils, plus a number of books — including a volume by her great-grandfather, the botanist Louis Marie Aubert du Petit Thouars, whom the brand is named for. “I wanted to capture that same feeling [of the neighborhood], a calm place you can move through slowly and enjoy.” 3920 Sunset Blvd., L.A.; maisonlouismarie.com. E.V. 1.

BRIGHT AND BRILLIANT Digital screens evoking Newport Beach and Laguna shorelines by artist Yorame Mevorach (known as Oyoram) and architect Hugh Dutton’s light sculpture line the expansive new TIFFANY & CO. boutique in Costa Mesa. Dutton’s work brightens collections like Knot, Lock, T, and HardWear as well as Bird on a Rock and Sixteen Stone motifs, while the Peter Marino– designed space gives prominence to high jewelry and diamond designs, plus archival objects and stones found in California. 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-540-5330; tiffany.com. E.V. 1. Silver Lake welcomes the new MAISON LOUIS MARIE flagship. 2. The reimagined TIFFANY & CO. boutique in Costa Mesa. 3. Garrett Leight ARCHIVES offers up vintage eyewear. 4. CHANEL has landed in Palo Alto.

ROSE TINTED

SILICON STYLE Along with notable architect Peter Marino, CHANEL has designed a single-story boutique in the city’s open-air Stanford Shopping Center with a double-height facade of white-pleated marble and black metal. Eight salons are inside, devoted to leather goods as well as fine jewelry, watches, fragrances, and beauty plus shoes and two readyto-wear spaces currently housing Matthieu Blazy’s Métiers d’art 2026 collection presented in a New York subway station. Additionally, there’s a dedicated care-and-repair area for preserving beloved items. A selection of artwork appears throughout, just as they did at the founder’s Paris apartment at 31, rue Cambon. 313 Stanford Shopping Ctr., Palo Alto, 650-285-4920; chanel.com. E.V.

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Style News MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

MAISON LOUIS MARIE: PABLO ENRIQUEZ

Seeing is believing where vintage eyewear and Garrett Leight California Optical (GLCO) are concerned, so the 16-year-old optical brand has launched an eye-popping store dedicated to rare, vintage, and deadstock pieces aptly named ARCHIVES. Founded by Garrett Leight (son of Oliver Peoples cofounder Larry Leight), the Silver Lake neighborhood boutique has a curation of styles from the 1980s through the 2000s, including sunglasses and optical designs by Gucci, Paul Smith, Jean Paul Gaultier, Ray-Ban, Cazal, Eyevan — and, of course, Oliver Peoples. 3818 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A., 310392-2100; archives.garrettleight.com. D.N.

L.A. DANCE PROJECT

Lorrin Brubaker for L.A. Dance Project

YOUR HOME FOR DANCE IN LOS ANGELES

www.ladanceproject.org

STYLE TRENDS

CHANEL Shoes, $1,450, chanel.com.

ELEVENTY Scarf, $395, eleventymilano.com.

C Fall Selects

EMPORIO ARMANI Bag, $575, armani.com.

Office Hours

Ambitious accessories that mean business

Edited by REBECCA RUSSELL

HERMÈS Watch, $9,400, hermes.com.

C STATEMENTS

FENDI Collar, $930, fendi.com.

Style Trends: Back to Work MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

A mindful retreat the soul.

for

Book the Play On offer at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa and take 25% off plus a $100 resort credit on stays of two or more nights. OMNILACOSTA.COM

DOLCE & GABBANA Bag, $4,995, dolcegabbana.com.

MONTBLANC Pen, $2,120, montblanc.com.

JIMMY CHOO Shoes, $1,095, jimmychoo.com.

BOTTEGA VENETA Glasses, $600, bottegaveneta.com.

SAINT LAURENT Notebook, $750, ysl.com.

LORO PIANA Bag, $2,090, loropiana.com.

BRUNELLO CUCINELLI Boots, $2,850, shop.brunellocucinelli.com.

LOEWE Bag, $6,900, loewe.com.

ZIMMERMANN Scarf, $135, zimmermann.com.

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Style Trends: Back to Work MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

Opposite, clockwise from top left: Veronica Webb in a 1987 bustier dress with pins; the designer adjusting dress beads in Paris; Alaïa and Tina Turner; the Spring/Summer 1989 haute couture dress in silk organza and gold-tone steel beads worn by Turner for a Peter Lindbergh photo shoot in Paris in 1989; a Spring/Summer 1986 haute couture acetate jersey dress worn by Grace Jones.

Shape Shifter A new book traces the embrace of Azzedine Alaïa’s revolutionary designs from Paris to the West Coast Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL

From top: Naomi Campbell photographed in L.A. wearing Alaïa’s Spring/Summer 1991 collection, a collaboration with French department store Tati; Azzedine Alaïa.

After the dramatic reception Tunisian-French couturier Azzedine Alaïa received stateside in the early 1980s when laudatory ink was spilled in the fashion press and Bergdorf Goodman staged a debut show, followed by an even larger one at the Palladium in New York, a curious thing happened. Alaïa built an obsessively devoted following in America for his body-hugging designs, which helped support his independent label even as silhouettes and tastes moved in radically different directions over the next decades. But aside from a couple of exhibitions devoted to his work, most everything documenting his innovative craftsmanship is written in French and published in Europe. Now, Laura Camerlengo has edited a new volume on his rise from midcentury Tunis to Paris’ catwalks and American boutiques, Azzedine Alaïa: Sculpting Fashion (Rizzoli, $75), with fresh essays from fashion critic Cathy Horyn and editor and gallerist Carla Sozzani, as well as a new translation of one of the designer’s last in-depth conversations with Olivier Saillard, the director of Fondation Azzedine Alaïa. Camerlengo, who studied at Parsons and is the curator in charge of costume and textile arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, fills the volume with archival images, often of Alaïa draping jersey, silk chiffon, wools, or leather on models, many of whom became supers. Naomi Campbell and Farida Khelfa stand in his atelier as the designer, who trained as a sculptor at École des Beaux-Arts in Tunis,

MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

CAMPBELL: ELLEN VON UNWERTH; ALAÏA: © GILLES BENSIMON. COURTESY OF FONDATION AZZEDINE ALAÏA AND THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO

— “People were excited by the silhouettes. It was antithetical to the Japanese fashions.” —

BUSTIER: © JEAN-BAPTISTE MONDINO; BEADWORK, TURNER: PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER LINDBERGH. COURTESY OF THE PETER LINDBERGH FOUNDATION, PARIS; DRESSES: COURTESY OF FONDATION AZZEDINE ALAÏA. PHOTOGRAPH © ANDREA & VALENTINA

devised pieces for his collections, famously shown off-season at his own pace. “Alaïa was one of the last great couturiers who could make a garment himself from start to finish, and had a mastery of all parts of the construction, from fitting the pieces — working directly on the model’s body — to the final process,” Camerlengo says. Yasmin Le Bon, Tatjana Patitz, and Stephanie Seymour walked in his shows, and he made all of Tina Turner’s costumes for the singer’s triumphant Private Dancer world tour. Camerlengo even unearthed a Barneys New York ad with Christy Turlington wearing Alaïa shot by Steven Meisel and printed with the phrase, “I want to shape the future.” After Alaïa’s introduction in the states, American stores, including I. Magnin in California, constituted the largest body of retailers outside France carrying his collections. “It was America that really helped launch him as a designer,” Camerlengo says. “Early coverage talks very positively about his new styles, about how it was antithetical to the Japanese fashions of the period in particular, which were really baggy. People were really excited by the silhouettes and the shape.” Among others, Camerlengo interviewed Bette McKenzie, the former vice president of public relations at Macy’s West, for the book. “She met a lot of the designers who were coming through San Francisco,” Camerlengo says. “And she said, ‘Coming from an era of androgynous clothing, Alaïa was like a whiplash.’ ” Alaïa’s rule-breaking perspective is also a Bay Area

MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

staple. “A lot of his ethos and working mindset, particularly around existing outside the fashion system, showing when he was ready, and the engineering that’s involved in his clothes, has resonance here,” Camerlengo says. Technical precision, like Alaïa’s, is a quality celebrated in Silicon Valley, and the region’s artists embrace a similar devotion to their craft. “There’s a great connection between the way he thought and the way we operate as a community,” she adds. rizzoliusa.com. A retrospective exhibition cocurated by Camerlengo, Azzedine Alaïa: Sculpting Fashion, opens in November at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

ART & DESIGN

NEWS 1.

LAND ART A concrete bunker at Presqu’ile Winery in the Santa Maria Valley merging built and natural environments holds conceptual artist COLE STERNBERG’s new installation, along the high embankments. The show, a series of paintings by the Santa Ynez creative, whose practice is centered on environmental forces and the effect of time, is part of a multiyear collaboration between Los Angeles Nomadic Division and the Central Coast winery. The landscape itself is part of Sternberg’s palette: He buries canvases in soils and exposes them to the elements, highlighting nature’s power and the ephemerality of the work. Saturdays and2. Sundays through Sept. 20. nomadicdivision.org. E.V.

HOUSE RULES

For his new book, THE EAMES HOUSES (Phaidon, $60), Eckart Maise — the Eames Office’s longtime design consultant and a board director of the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation — spent nearly three years assembling the first comprehensive study of the couple’s residential work, gathering all eight houses they designed between 1945 and 1954. It places that architecture alongside their celebrated furniture, exhibitions, and films, revealing the same human-centered instinct for flexibility and problem-solving across every medium. That belief in connection threads through all the projects. As the architect Norman Foster writes, the work endures “not because it offers a style to imitate but because it embodies an attitude — to materials, to systems, and above all, to life itself.” phaidon.com. K.C.

FROM SOLE TO SOUL Taking compliments to heart has been an essential part of NOELIA PAHISSA’s business strategy. The Spanish entrepreneur began importing heritage avarcas sandals — which have been handmade in Minorca by Pons since 1945 — after the pairs she sported around her adopted hometown of San Diego attracted a steady stream of flattery. Fifteen years later, Pahissa and her husband, Jose Fuentes, are expanding with a curated online marketplace of home goods, which include Catalonian ceramics from La Bisbal d’Empordà, market bags, and olive oil. “Each item reflects the Mediterranean lifestyle that shaped me,” she says. avarcasusa.com. J.R.

SINGULAR VISION

San Francisco interior designer Jay Jeffers creates rooms with personality. “When the spirit allows, I like to add a wink — whether it’s a bit of whimsy, a reimagining of tradition, or sometimes the joyful abandonment of tradition altogether,” he writes in a new book, MODERN CLASSIC (Gibbs Smith, $50). The volume includes more than a dozen projects, from S.F. bachelor pads to Corona del Mar and Lake Tahoe residences and more. simonandschuster.com. E.V.

1. A new volume is the first comprehensive study of CHARLES AND RAY EAMES’s work. 2. COLE STERNBERG, the sullen roar and angry crash of the waves (2026) and solar flares revel (2026). 3. View a dozen JAY JEFFERS projects in a fresh tome. 4. NOELIA PAHISSA has expanded from avarcas sandals to home goods.

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Art & Design News MAGA Z I N E C.C O M

EAMES: COURTESY OF PHAIDON; JEFFERS: SAM FROST STUDIO (LEFT), MATTHEW MILMAN (RIGHT)

ART & DESIGN

NEWS 2.

SHAPE SHIFT Large-scale projects are staples of interiors virtuoso KELLY WEARSTLER’s oeuvre. Now that she’s teamed up with design democratizer H&M, she’s refocusing her lens. Modular pieces in unexpected shapes — furniture, lamps, decorative objects — form her H&M Home collaboration, which is designed to transform spaces with her firm’s inventive mixture of restraint and indulgence. This fall, the Stockholm-based retailer is launching her geometric interconnecting wooden chairs, plush pillowed lounge pieces that combine into sofas, and solid stone side tables snaking across spaces, following a Milan Design Week debut. hm.com/home. E.V.

LIVING COLOR

Conceptual artist GLENN LIGON’s text paintings and neon sculptures explore language using lines from literature and speeches sparking questions about meaning. Now his exploration of images based on Afrocentric coloring books from the 1960s and ’70s — marked up by children and translated into large-scale paintings — are on view together for the first time in 25 years at Hauser & Wirth’s DTLA gallery. Sept. 30, 2026–Jan. 17, 2027. 901 E. 3rd St., L.A., 213-943-1620; hauserwirth.com. E.V.

DESERT MODERN

Spanning nearly 10,000 square feet, the triumvirate of design stores that comprise RH PALM DESERT are the newest additions to the city’s elegant El Paseo shopping district. The light-filled spaces contain collections from RH Modern, RH Interiors pieces, and RH Outdoor seating. To soak up the desert sun, there are teak sectionals and chaises, as well as an assortment of tables, chairs, and barstools from the angular outdoor Balmain collection created by Harrison and Nicolas Condos. In addition to leather, upholstery, and rugs, the stores also contain a trove of antiques and curated artifacts as well as rare art. 73-100 El Paseo, Palm Desert, 760-766-7674; rh.com. E.V.

ARID ALLURE The deserts of North America — the Chihuahuan, the Sonoran; the Great Basin, the Mojave — display some of the most innovative and boundary-pushing architecture and design, including adobes and sitespecific modernist structures. Jessica Ritz’s new volume, DESERT DREAMING (Gibbs Smith, $50), documents the stark landscapes that draw people to arid regions and the dwellings they create. “Some California desert communities have such a startling range, from monastic and austere to extremely deluxe and architecturally bold structures,” Ritz says. She explores the grand tradition of creatives, mystics, and wanderers who make bold moves to the desert to create shelters, from Yucca Valley to Moab and Marfa, and explains how they survive and thrive. simonandschuster.com. E.V.

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LIGON: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, HAUSER & WIRTH, AND THOMAS DANE GALLERY, PHOTO: SARAH MUEHLBAUER; RITZ: SAM FROST (LEFT, RIGHT TOP), ZACHARY GRAY (RIGHT BOTTOM)

1. KELLY WEARSTLER has a new home collab with H&M. 2. GLENN LIGON, Malcolm X, Sun, Frederick Douglass, Boy with Bubbles (2001). 3. RH Diamond Dining Table by Michael Taylor, Sabine Dining Chair, Oliviero Cabinet by the Van Thiels, and Belfair Chandelier by Ian K. Fowler. 4. JESSICA RITZ celebrates desert living.

MOST

Jimmy Choo’s latest bag and shoes are attracting just the right kind of attention

Photography by LAVIENA & ECHEV Styling by MARY INACIO

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Jimmy Choo x C Magazine

WANTED

FROM LEFT: DÔEN DRESS, $598; KAMPERETT DRESS, $895.

Marking JIMMY CHOO’s 30 years, its Autumn 2026 collection is “an assertive take on glamour inspired by our heritage,” says creative director Sandra Choi. Jimmy Choo Bar Holdall Medium in Lagoon, $1,250, and Issy Pump 50 in Lagoon, $1,095.

Hair and makeup by NICOLE MAGUIRE. Model BETHEL BITWODED. Shot on location at THE PROSPECT HOLLYWOOD.

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Beyond Saint Laurent From Morocco to Malibu, Anthony Vaccarello has spent a decade expanding the brand’s universe through fashion, film, and spectacle Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL

PROFILE

The open-air Place du Trocadéro in Paris is a frequent site of Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent shows. But a crescent of sand in Malibu’s Paradise Cove drew him to California, the dunes of the Agafay Desert brought him to Morocco, and he commissioned a Doug Aitken–designed set for a Venetian island. The rigor of his silhouettes for women and men against the scale of the sky beyond them looms large in many of the Belgian Italian’s shows throughout his tenure as Saint Laurent’s creative director. Now that Vaccarello has spent a decade leading the house, his sharp, glamorous, and refined designs are tone-setters each season. But that’s just part of his cultural impact. At Saint Laurent Rive Droite boutiques in Beverly Hills and Paris, Vaccarello has also continuously staged art exhibitions and pop-ups of work by Man Ray, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Mapplethorpe, Italian design group Memphis, Donald Judd furniture, and others. (He even coaxed Sushi Park, the West Hollywood omakase strip mall spot, to open inside the Paris store.) He has also launched the house’s foray into film, Saint Laurent Productions, which is coproducing Jacques Audiard’s Oscar-winning Emilia Pérez (starring Zoe Saldaña) and Pedro Almodóvar’s Western, Strange Way of Life (pairing Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke), among other additions to the independent cinema canon from David Cronenberg and Claire Denis. Vaccarello creates wardrobes for the films (much as Yves Saint Laurent did for Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour), also tapping directors Jim Jarmusch and Wong Kar-wai for atmospheric short works depicting current collections. Over the past 10 years, Vaccarello has both embraced the codes of Clockwise from top: The austere hues of Winter 2022 set against the Eiffel Tower in Paris; Summer 2026 at the Trocadéro Gardens set with white hydrangeas; a still image from the Summer 2021 film I Wish You Were Here.

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COURTESY OF SAINT LAURENT

STYLE

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STYLE

PROFILE

the house founder — continually reinventing Le Smoking — while also pushing them in new directions far beyond the Parisian atelier. Born in Belgium to Sicilian parents, he studied sculpture at the renowned design school La Cambre (Chanel’s Matthieu Blazy is an alum) before switching to fashion. Then he worked under Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi (after earning top honors for his senior thesis from a jury including Ann Demeulemeester), launching an eponymous ready-to-wear line, and designed for Versus Versace, where he became creative director — all before landing at Saint Laurent. He shares a home in Paris with his husband, Arnaud Michaux, Saint Laurent’s image director, and their children, Luca and Lola. But he resides in L.A. seasonally as an escape after producing his annual women’s collections. At his 2019 oceanfront menswear show in Malibu, held on the edge of the Pacific, Vaccarello said he viewed L.A. as a modern-day Marrakech. “Los Angeles has that life quality that other cities don’t have — except Paris, of course,” he says. “You can feel there’s curiosity, positivity; you can breathe a douceur de vivre [sweetness of life] that I can only compare to Marrakech back in the day.” His front rows have included creatives he’s drawn to from film, art, music, and fashion, such as Laura Dern, Keanu

— “When I do men’s, I think of women’s; and when I do women’s, I think of men’s.” —

COURTESY OF SAINT LAURENT

Reeves and Alexandra Grant, Miley Cyrus, Hailey Bieber, and Amber Valletta. The gender-fluid designs in Malibu — with women’s wear among them — took inspiration from muse Mick Jagger. In the Moroccan desert where London stage designer Es Devlin installed a luminous ring-shaped set for a menswear collection of fluid coats and diaphanous shirts with bows at the neck, Deneuve was joined by Dominic Fike, Anja Rubik, and Laura Harrier. “When I do men’s, I think of women’s; and when I do women’s, I think of men’s,” he has said. For both, his interpretations are decidedly sexy. Vaccarello’s ideas continue to develop from one show to the next, across genders, in sculpted looks from sharpshouldered double-breasted wool or leather jackets to lace and miles of transparent chiffon. Over the past decade, latex-clad models have walked under the Eiffel Tower (Winter 2020) and Vaccarello presented a collection that was almost exclusively black and white (Winter 2022). He created looks that were nearly all sheer (Winter 2024) and crisply cut dresses in saturated colors (Winter 2025). Now trouser suits marking the 60th anniversary of the house staple are debuting alongside a series of silicone-coated lace dresses, a dance between severity and vulnerability sure to be distilled further in seasons to come.

From top: 1980s glamour on the Winter 2018 runway; Ethan Hawke in Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life; a film still from Where the Silver Wind Blows for Winter 2021; Anthony Vaccarello; the colorful hues of Winter 2025.

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TOON TOWN

As Hollywood battles shrinking budgets, layoffs, and an uncertain technological future, the art form once seen as child’s play has become the industry’s most reliable hitmaker Words STEVE SANDERS Illustration by DEREK CHARM

There’s something poignant about the moment when Woody, the protagonist of Pixar’s long-running Toy Story franchise, first appears in the latest installment — with a receding hairline so shiny that it glints in the sunlight. The moment is a nod, of course, to the series’ age: The first installment debuted 31 years ago. Yet the public appears to have retained its love for the franchise. Since debuting on June 9, the film has brought in $950 million globally — well beyond its estimated $250 million budget. It’s on track to be one of the highest-grossing movies of the year, behind only Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic, and top performer The Super Mario Galaxy, another animated film, which has reeled in $1 billion globally since April. The success of a middle-aged Woody, or a pair of Italian plumbers from the 1980s, isn’t an isolated event. Hollywood may be in the doldrums, but animation has been a bright spot. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has grossed more than $1 billion. Pixar’s Hoppers, about a little girl who embodies a robot beaver, has made $400 million. “In terms

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of the percentage of films that get made, they’re a small percentage, but they’re a much bigger percentage of the success in the total box office,” says Bill Damaschke, president of Warner Bros. Picture Animation. “They have a democratic quality to them.” The budgets and lead times for animated features are typically large and long, so they’re appealing to studios. At their best, they are what Hollywood calls “four quadrant” films, referring to the four key demographic groups of men, women, and people older and younger than 25. And they are paying dividends amid a deepening crisis in the industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, California’s film industry lost 42,000 jobs from 2022 to 2024, falling from 142,000 to 100,000 amid the postpandemic slowdown, the end of the streaming wars, strikes, and production moving elsewhere for lower costs. FilmLA, the trade association, says that “shoot days” in the region fell 16% in 2025 compared with the previous year. The downturn has emerged as a key issue in the race for governor. Democrat Xavier Becerra has proposed a sevenpoint plan to revive Hollywood, including an expansion of Gavin Newsom’s tax credit program and increased access to streaming data so workers have more negotiating leverage. Steve Hilton, his Republican rival, has proposed a similar raft of incentives. “The lights are literally going out in Hollywood,” he says. Against that backdrop, the surge in animated films is stark. Since Damaschke joined Warner Bros. Picture Animation three years ago, the number of people working in his division has ballooned from 20 to 250. The studio has built a slate of seven animated features set to be released over the next two years, starting in November with Cat in the Hat, an adaption of the famed Dr. Seuss book starring Bill Hader. Netflix has doubled down as well, with an upcoming slate that includes In Waves, a teenage love story, and Steps, a reimagining of the Cinderella story through her stepsisters’ eyes. Animation is also attracting the biggest stars in the world. Not Alone, a sci-fi love story from the creators of Minions and Despicable Me, is expected to be released in 2027. It stars three-time Academy Award best actor nominee Timothée Chalamet and the multihyphenate Selena Gomez, whose 400 million followers make her the platform’s third most followed person. The optimism is tempered, however, by the looming threat of artificial intelligence. In April, Disney laid off more than 1,000 people at Marvel Studios with the aim of creating what CEO Josh D’Amaro a “more agile and technologically enabled workforce.” The move sparked outcry. The Animation Guild, meanwhile, which represents more than

5,000 artists and writers, has moved aggressively to shore up worker protections under Danny Lin, who was elected to head the organization last November. “So many of our members are out of work and struggling to pay their bills, while our employers axe productions, enact sweeping layoffs to boost their stock value, and chase their shiny new toy, generative AI,” Lin says. “We will continue to organize, to fight, and to win.” Within two months of her ascension, the Guild won unionization votes at Dreamworks, Netflix Animation Studios, and Universal streaming production Ted. To get ahead of the issue, last year Netflix published guidelines for how AI is used in its productions, including written approval for a range of uses, from uploading scripts to character and story generation. This dovetails with Damaschke’s experience at Warner Bros. “We’re not implementing AI across any of our front-end pipeline,” he says. “In terms of creating new characters and creating new worlds, I’m not seeing even a widespread usage of it in the studio right now.” Nonetheless, Audrey Schomer, the author of a report on AI’s impact on the animation industry, says that some people (particularly concept artists who translate scripts into illustrations and visuals) have seen diminished opportunities. Fears of an AI jobs bloodbath, however, have not materialized — yet. “Some of those worst fears have been debunked,” Schomer says. “I don’t think that anyone in Hollywood at this point believes that the way that movies get made is that you’re just going to text prompt a feature into existence.” Yet tools are getting more powerful by the week, threatening to encroach on jobs that remain the province of human creators. That question will be at the heart of the industry’s next fight. The Animation Guild’s labor deal ends next summer. Although the deal introduced AI protections, it did not allow members to opt out of AI use or prevent

— “You’re not just going to text prompt a feature into existence.” AUDREY SCHOMER

— companies from training systems on their work. Says Brandon Jarratt, a technical director at Disney and a guide member: “We’re going to try to build on the AI language that we were able to agree to in the last contract. Anywhere that we can provide more control, and more places, where you as the creator can pull the lever and say, ‘Stop — we don’t want or need to use these tools,’ is going to be something I think that people will be interested in.” He adds, “We can’t be complacent.” Disney recently released a trailer for its 65th animated feature, Hexed, a coming-of-age story about a teen with magical powers that will hit theaters in time for Thanksgiving. It will compete with Margie Claus, a Warner Bros. movie reimagined through the eyes of Santa Claus’s wife, voiced by Melissa McCarthy. The hope is that these films, along with the many others in production, will sustain the momentum in this corner of a beleaguered industry. “I look at what audiences are going to, and it does tend to be the stuff that is of the very highest quality and is the most original,” Damaschke says. “I’m optimistic.”

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DINING

NEWS

A Side of Three Stars Big news: Michelin just made CALIFORNIOS in San Francisco the first and only Mexican restaurant in the world with three stars. This level of success has been a long time coming for chef Val M. Cantú, whose 13- to 16-course menus ($390) riff on historical and regional Mexican dishes. You might find a blue masa tostada topped with local Dungeness crab and smoked trout roe, an aguachile negro with dry-aged kanpachi, shaved pickled jicama and white peach sorbet, or quail in a deep, delicious mole negro. 355 11th St., S.F., 415-7570994; californiossf.com. S.I.V.

From Strip Mall to Stardom Ten years ago, Jonathan Yao opened a restaurant in a nondescript West L.A. strip mall. At first, he offered the Taiwanese food his mother cooked. Gradually his tasting menu introduced elements from SoCal’s other Asian cuisines. Three years later, he got one Michelin star. He moved to a much larger space at the posh Row DTLA. The latest guide gives KATO two stars for its food, service, and wine and cocktail program. The seasonal parade of dishes might include Peking duck–style quail, a translucent golden century egg, a savory doughnut stuffed with uni (sea urchin) and topped with jamón and caviar, or slow-grilled lamb with northern Chinese barbecue spice. 777 S. Alameda St., L.A., 213-797-5770; katorestaurant.com. S.I.V.

It took ENCLOS just six months to win two Michelin stars — and another year to receive a third. Brian Limoges, the chef, is classically trained, curious, and wildly in love with Northern California. The kitchen is lucky enough to benefit from the owner’s 16-acre Stone Edge Farm. A restored 1890s Victorian in downtown Sonoma with 30 seats is the intimate setting for the seasonal eight- to 10-course tasting menu ($295), which may list spiny lobster croustade, amberjack pluot consommé with fermented daikon, and a Japanese-inspired clam “chowder” custard with white asparagus and caviar. 139 E. Napa St., Sonoma, 707-387-1724; enclos-sonoma.com. S.I.V.

A Michelin Detour Perched high above the Pacific, Post Ranch Inn enjoys the best position along the fabled coast of Big Sur. Now its restaurant, SIERRA MAR, has been awarded a prestigious green star from the Michelin Guide for its extensive sustainable practices. Hoon Kang and Reylon Agustin, the executive chef and culinary director, pulled it off with a skilled team and a network of local fishermen and farmers — and the inn’s organic garden. Reserve for the sunset and a $185 tasting menu that features dishes like Monterey abalone congee and guinea hen with onion soubise and cherries. The sommelier will guide you through an impressive list of 3,200 wines. 47900 CA-1, Big Sur, 831667-2800; postranchinn.com. S.I.V.

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ENCLOS: ADAHLIA COLE AND COLIN PECK; KATO: COLLEEN O’BRIEN; SIERRA MAR: KODIAK GREENWOOD

Made in New England

sffallshow.org @sffallshow

2026 Show Dates Oct 15 -18 Opening Night Gala on Oct 14

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER

Nancy Meyers on watching her daughter Annie transform a 1946 Beverly Hills house into a home straight out of one of her mother’s movies

Words by NANCY MEYERS Photography by ROGER DAVIES

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My daughter, Annie, has always been the go-to person for recommendations in our family. Need a suggestion for a beautiful hotel? A great doctor? The coziest pajamas? You name it, Annie is the one who can tell you where to find it. And to be honest, she’s not just the go-to person for our family. She’s also the go-to person for all of her friends and even all of my friends. So, when Annie began a remodel of a 1946 house in the Flats of Beverly Hills, she was stepping into new territory, but I knew she would tackle it head-on. Annie and Robby were married at my house in 2012. I remember one day, right before the ceremony, I mentioned I was getting all new mulch for the planting beds so everything would look fresh. Annie and I looked at every color of mulch, and I clearly remember her laughing at me as we judged which mulch would be best. Well, like mother, like daughter... Annie has now put me to shame with her attention to detail. Annie’s journey into house remodeling has been an epic adventure, and not just for her but for her thousands of followers on Instagram. Annie dove into the world of construction knowing that what she didn’t know might be a handicap. She immersed herself in books on remodeling and construction. As the work began on her house, she wasn’t afraid to ask questions or to question the answers she was given. On occasion, she would run ideas past me, but I found she always knew what was best. Her instincts were impeccable. Annie read all the great interior design books and began to fall in love with home decor. Once she started the design process, she would pop by my house with her arms full of L.L.Bean bags piled high with wood samples, stone samples, fabric and carpet samples. Honestly, it was so much fun to be included.

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NANCY MEYERS PORTRAIT: ZUMA PRESS

Clockwise from top: This Oak House is a country colonial house designed by Gerard Colcord; an alfresco spring lunch; Nancy Meyers.

Featured: 24275 Via Malpaso, Monterey

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Clockwise from top: A deep soapstone sink in laundry room “makes flower arranging a breeze,” Annie says; an antique Swedish cabinet and a rattan chair sourced from Belgium in the dining room; the exterior of This Oak House; the original Colcord staircase; Annie Meyers-Shyer.

— “She would pop by with samples. It was so fun to be included.” — And it wasn’t just me Annie would sometimes ask, What do you think? She began to include her Instagram followers in her choices of marble, paint, flooring, and fabrics. Annie turned her account into almost a collaboration with her followers, and I think everyone loved being a part of the process. The fact that she was new at this and asked the questions we all might have had (and others we probably wouldn’t have thought of ourselves) made her followers feel extremely comfortable and excited to join in her decision-making. Annie gave a tremendous amount of thought to every detail of her home. She amazed me. I can tell you from my own experience — a house is never really finished. Don’t panic! I mean that in a good way. Houses seem to get better and better, shaped by the memories we build within them. Annie and Robby’s house is off to a remarkable start. It’s so welcoming, so peaceful and timeless in its design. By now, I’ve had breakfast in their charming kitchen and dinner in their airy dining room, and I’ve even slept over. (Of course, Annie did extensive mattress research, and I can promise you it all paid off.) From This Oak House, by Annie Meyers-Shyer; chroniclebooks.com.

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M T. V E E D E R , N A PA VA L L E Y

RAISE D O N THE MOUNTAIN. R E F I N ED IN THE GLASS.

J O I N T H E A DV E N T U R E AT M T B R AV E W I N E S .C O M

EMMAN MONTALVAN

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FALL

2026

80 How Oscar winner Jessica Chastain keeps things challenging and her own life out of focus

92 A century after Route 66 connected Chicago and L.A., we road test Fall’s collections on its desert highways 108 For San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, showing up is the key to the city’s prosperity 114 Is the Mother cofounder’s Ojai sanctuary the ultimate California home? 124 From his Oakland studio, Woody De Othello transforms domestic objects, imbuing them with soul

The actor finds liberation in transformation, taking on roles that challenge convention while keeping her own life beautifully out of focus

Photography by VICTOR DEMARCHELIER Styling by K ATIE MOSSMAN Words by TIM TEEMAN

MAX MARA shirt, $695. Opposite: TOM FORD blazer, $5,550, and shirt, $2,980.

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THE MANY FACES OF

tain Jessica Chas

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GUCCI dress, $8,900. JIMMY CHOO shoes, price upon request. VAN CLEEF & ARPELS ring, $13,000. Opposite: GIVENCHY BY SARAH BURTON shirt, $5,900, and pants, $2,200. VAN CLEEF & ARPELS ring, price upon request.

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SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO blazer, $4,200, pants, $2,250, and shoes, price upon request. VAN CLEEF & ARPELS ring, $27,300. Opposite: LOEWE shirt and skirt, prices upon request. JIMMY CHOO shoes, price upon request. POMELLATO ring, $8,350.

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— “I love the simplicity of my quiet life off-screen. It allows me to go wild and unhinged on-screen.” —

he trailer for Jessica Chastain’s horror movie Other Mommy seems innocently domestic at first. Her character ponders lunch prep with, we assume, a daughter. Then her tone darkens: “You were in my heart. Can I go into your heart?” A kitchen fire erupts, and Chastain is suddenly revealed as a maniacally grinning spiderlike creature contorted under a table. “One of the best jump scares I’ve ever experienced,” one cinemagoer opined online as the trailer went viral. In the movie, based on Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, Chastain plays a mother and her demonic doppelganger, Other Mommy. Just like her character, Chastain, 49, is a master shape-shifter. After studying at Juilliard, then building a film and TV career, her breakout role was ostracized housewife Celia in The Help (2011), for which she won a raft of award nominations, including an Oscar. In 2012, she secured another Oscar nod for portraying a CIA analyst in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. Her lone Oscar win was for playing TV evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye in 2022, which was produced by her company, Freckle Films. Chastain achieved her A-list status by avoiding typecasting. Her roles are calculated chameleonic exercises for an actor focused on being known for her work rather than her private life, variously transforming into a spy, a zookeeper, an astronaut, and a gambler in movies including the critically lauded Interstellar, The Martian, and Molly’s Game. She has also appeared on Broadway — again to award-nominated acclaim — in The Heiress (2012) and Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (2023). Chastain says the latter “wrecked” her, but that she will return to Broadway. In a New York photography studio, a fresh Chastain metamorphosis is in full swing. For one, her familiar long hair has been supplanted by a bob, which she unveiled on Instagram in April. After the dress-up of the photoshoot, Chastain (now in casual daywear) and her team are all business. A car has been ordered. Assistants relay messages. You sense she’s an innate multitasker, adept at switching focus in a blink. Taking a seat — we may be on the move soon — Chastain laughs about the response to the Other Mommy trailer. “They added some limbs to create that effect,” she says. “My only forms of exercise are moving suitcases around and yoga. I’m glad it surprised people who probably first thought it was a macaroni-and-cheese commercial.” In another upcoming Chastain movie, Heartland, she plays a country music singer searching for her niece. “My character was run out of Nashville and has been hiding on a pecan farm for 20 years,” Chastain says. The role means she’ll be singing country again, just as she did playing Tammy Wynette in George & Tammy.

DIOR shirt, $6,600, and skirt, $9,100. POMELLATO earrings, $6,050. Opposite: BALENCIAGA dress, $4,790. GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI shoes, price upon request.

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— “I like playing characters who aren’t the perfect wife, mother, partner. I like thorny edges because that’s what life is.” — “I like switching up my genres,” Chastain says. “I approach all my roles differently and create a workbook for each character — questions, notes, everything I should know about them.” There’s a rigorous method behind her many roles; on and off camera she seems to be a focused boss. She’s as engaged talking about spending time in nature with her family and New York as her cherished home city as she is about the roles she plays, the projects she produces, and the advocacy she’s proud to front. These different identities (work and home, fiction and reality, actor and producer) require strict boundary maintenance, she says. Her experiences of parenting and motherhood — she and husband, Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, have two children — did not inform her role in Other Mommy, and she declines to discuss her home life. “I don’t think about my family when I’m acting. I don’t want the worlds to overlap. I have very strong boundaries. But just as in The Tree of Life [2011], when I didn’t have children and I played a mother, I don’t think you need to experience something to play it. I use my imagination and do my research.” When playing extreme characters like Other Mommy, “I keep the chaos on-screen,” Chastain says. “I love the simplicity of my quiet life off-screen. The calmer my day-to-day life is, the more it allows me to go wild and unhinged on-screen.” Her family life is “more important to me than what’s on-screen,” Chastain says. “My simple life is the most important thing to me. I don’t want people to know much about me because I want to protect my work [and] my privacy and keep the chaos out.” A broader intent underscores Chastain’s opting for so many different fictional faces — and the projects she oversees heading Freckle Films. The aim of the production company, which she founded in 2016, is “to discover material that has female characters at their core and seeks to tell stories of underrepresented characters that have been hidden from our screens for too long. It is our ethos to celebrate voices that aren’t frequently heard, and to aid audiences in understanding alternative points of view.” “I like playing female characters who aren’t the perfect wife, perfect mother, or supportive partner,” Chastain says. “I like thorny edges and complications because that’s what life is and women are. The film industry — especially in the United States — tries to sand down women’s sharper edges to something softer, more palatable and well-behaved. I want young girls to see women who don’t behave, whose voices are louder, or who don’t play by the rules that have been established and that don’t work. The idea that women can be anything, not just what society dictates, is important for both little girls and boys to see.” As a feminist — Chastain walked in the 2017 Women’s March and helped lead Hollywood’s TimesUp movement in 2018 — she won’t “sign up to a role that feels old-fashioned in how it views women. And I’m happy to tell a director, writer, or studio about why I might pass on a project because of that.” The blur of activity when we meet is likely because the shape-shifting comes with a dizzying amount of juggling. Running Freckle Films is a job in itself, alongside Chastain’s acting and advocacy, which often dovetail. In a forthcoming miniseries, Off Weeks — she and costar Ben Stiller are executive producers — she has ensured her femme fatale character is

“more than the stereotype that you usually see.” Chastain is still calling on Apple TV+ to release The Savant, a show about an anonymous woman who infiltrates online hate groups. She’s the star and an executive producer. The drama, inspired by a 2019 Cosmopolitan article, was postponed days before its scheduled release in September 2025 and immediately after Charlie Kirk was killed. Variety reported it would be released this July, but it wasn’t. “It’s an incredible show, and it’s important the public sees it,” Chastain says. “This is a real woman, a hero, who has sacrificed so much to keep us safe. She deserves to be acknowledged. Apple knows how I feel. Indefinite limbo is not a good thing. I hope they make an announcement soon.” Are the progressive causes, including LGBTQ rights, that she has spoken out on currently imperiled? “I look at history,” Chastain says. “After periods of progress there have always been backlashes, but the general direction is incrementally positive.” She has charted this evolution in her industry. “I was just on a production call — all women. Of course, I have my own company. I understand the privilege I have because of my success. All I can do is compare 15 years ago to now, where we have female camera and sound operators. We haven’t fully succeeded. We haven’t erased discrimination. But we are in a completely different place.” Observing the status of women’s rights under the Trump administration, Chastain says, “It’s horrible, what has happened to women’s bodies and all that, but the Women’s March created an avalanche of unity and collective consciousness. Even though there are efforts to deny rights to many groups of people, you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. I don’t see this country going back to the 1930s and ’40s.” Sexism persists in Hollywood, Chastain says. “It’s present in every industry. In Hollywood it’s magnified because the media attention makes it harder to commit horrible acts of violence, misogyny, and abuse. I would say it’s a constant problem, and I don’t think we should ever take our foot off the gas to annihilate it. No healthy society should discriminate against or diminish other people.” Contrary to traditional thinking, Chastain says this is a boom time for actresses of advancing years, citing the variety of female roles and other women — like Amy Adams, Margot Robbie, Reese Witherspoon, and Nicole Kidman — who also run their own production companies. “There are so many artists who are in charge of their careers and not in a situation where they have to ask someone else to value them. When I made [the 2022 woman-led spy thriller] The 355, I was like, ‘Why wait for someone in an office building to greenlight this project, to say these actresses have value?’ ” Chastain’s resolute self-possession bloomed early. She grew up in Northern California, raised by her single mother, Jerri (and eventually her stepfather, Michael). She has said she was “withdrawn and ill at ease…I always marched to my own drum, but was then lonely because I didn’t fit in.” The family was poor, “which in some ways gives you more freedom,” Chastain says. “I never had the fear of, ‘If I don’t become successful as an actor it will ruin my life.’ I didn’t have anything to lose.” After performing in local theater productions, she won a scholarship to Juilliard that was funded by Robin Williams. Continued on p. 139

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Hair by RYAN TRYGSTAD at Tomlinson Management Group. Makeup by KRISTOFER BUCKLE at Opus Beauty using Dior Forever Foundation. Manicure by JULIE KANDALEC at Star Touch Agency.

GABRIELA HEARST dress, $13,900.

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ON THE

From left: Kat wears HERMÈS dress, $8,700, pullover, $6,250, and scarf, $660. POMELLATO ring, $6,400. Valentine wears HERMÈS top, $2,125, skirt, $4,700, and boots, $4,550. CARTIER watch, $24,800.

ROAD Photography by EMMAN MONTALVAN Styling by MARY INACIO

A century after Route 66 first connected east and west, its spirit of freedom lives on in the California desert

From left: Valentine wears RALPH LAUREN bustier, $3,290, and pants, $1,890. JIMMY CHOO boots, $2,295. Kat wears RALPH LAUREN top, $7,000, pants, $3,490, scarf, $695, and boots, $1,490.

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GIORGIO ARMANI gown, $5,500, and jacket, price upon request. POMELLATO bracelet, $25,200.

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Kat wears DOLCE & GABBANA top, $1,395, jeans, $1,295, and corset-style culottes, $1,045. POMELLATO necklace, $30,250. Valentine wears BURBERRY pants, $5,195, and scarf, $1,550. HARRY WINSTON earrings and bracelet, prices upon request.

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MIU MIU dresses, from $2,400. GRAFF earcuff, $4,000, ring, $3,000, and bracelet, $9,500.

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CHANEL dress, price upon request, shoes, $1,450, and ring, $975.

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CELINE shirt, $2,450, pants, $1,550, scarf, $590, and shoes, $990. POMELLATO earrings, $5,050.

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Kat wears PRADA dress, $7,400, socks, $1,350, shoes, $1,650, and bag, $3,450. Valentine wears PRADA sweater, price upon request, and skirt, $5,900.

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Kat wears LORO PIANA top, $1,500, skirt, $6,900, and cagoule, $725. VAN CLEEF & ARPELS brooch, price upon request. Valentine wears CHANEL vest, $3,700, skirt, $6,500, and earrings, $775.

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BOTTEGA VENETA shirt, skirt, and scarf, prices upon request. GRAFF earrings, $13,600, and bracelet, $10,100.

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Hair by BRYAN GAW at Art Department using Kenra Professional. Makeup by KARINA MOORE at Art Department using YSL Beauty. Prop styling by PETER GUERACAGUE at Walter Schupfer. Model KAT JAMES at Ford Models @katjameskat. Model VALENTINE at Vision Los Angeles @b1tchiest.

SAINT LAURENT bodysuit, $5,900, skirt, $4,200, shoes, $3,300, and earrings, $2,500.

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“YOU CANNOT DO THIS JOB FROM BEHIND THIS DESK.”

For Mayor Daniel Lurie and First Lady Becca Prowda, San Francisco’s next chapter means more than investment and infrastructure. It’s about showing up — because a city thrives when its people participate in its future Photography by ALANNA HALE Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW

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San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and his wife, First Lady Becca Prowda, traverse stunning city views aboard the Powell/Hyde Street Cable Car line.

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— “I don’t think it’s a ‘secret’ that Becca is a ‘weapon.’ ” DANIEL LURIE

—

QUICKFIRE WITH MAYOR DANIEL LURIE

First app you open in the morning? After checking work emails and texts I go to ESPN. If you weren’t mayor, what’s the job you’d like try for one day? Managing one of our sports teams, probably the 49ers. Which S.F. landmark always stops you in your tracks? The Golden Gate Bridge. You’re introducing a visitor to San Francisco. What’s your first stop? Jessica Silverman’s gallery. Exceptional contemporary art in our amazing Chinatown neighborhood. Go-to remedy when you need to clear your mind? Diving into a Netflix show like British crime thriller Legends. Do you ever shed your suit-and-tie uniform? For outdoor events, I’ll wear Levi’s. At home, it’s sweatpants and a hoodie. San Francisco’s superpower is …? Our creative class: artists, chefs, entrepreneurs — not just the tech industry. It’s that person opening a small art gallery on a dream.

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n a soft, fog-free summer morning, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and his wife, First Lady Becca Prowda, gamely board the Powell/Hyde Cable Car line at Aquatic Park. As the car climbs the city’s hills, Lurie, a devoted San Francisco native, notices the traffic stacking up behind. At the crest of Nob Hill, the cable car pauses for photographer Alanna Hale to hop off and find her light, documenting the couple against San Francisco’s skyline. Nearby, members of the mayor’s security detail enter the intersection, guiding cars around the city’s 153-year-old rolling landmark. Lurie watches the idling queue, brow furrowed. He remarks, sotto voce: “Bigelow, we’ve got to keep the economy of San Francisco rolling.” It’s a new variation on his catchphrase — “Let’s go, San Francisco!” — underscoring his sense of civic urgency. Traffic isn’t simply traffic. It’s commerce, culture, momentum, and confidence — the required mechanics as Lurie steers the city into a “boom loop” era of economic revitalization. But beneath the boosterism is an oldfashioned idea of civic life: service. For Lurie and Prowda, loving a city means showing up for it, on the streets and in its neighborhoods. Twenty months into the job, Lurie retains a record-high 74% approval rating. San Francisco is on the rise: AI start-ups, flush with funding, are clamoring for impressive hard-copy buildings. North Beach nightlife throbs with lines of vibecoders at Vesuvio Cafe. Korean American food culture sizzles at SOHN, in the formerly industrial Dogpatch neighborhood. At the 1915 Beaux-Arts City Hall, we’re seated in the mayor’s impressive wood-paneled office suite, elegantly reimagined by designer Stanlee Gatti. Works by local artists adorn walls, on loan by the Jessica Silverman and Anthony Meier galleries. Following a second query regarding the city shedding its postpandemic “doom loop” narrative, Lurie asks: “Why do you keep using that term?” Admittedly, it’s a lazy shorthand for this new-era mayor, who insisted on being paid just $1 annually during his first term. In the rearview mirror of the $134,000 zero-emission Rivian R1S, which he donated for official city use, Lurie sees only a shining city on the rise. “Look, I ran for mayor because there was some truth to that critique,” he says. “Now our economic recovery is the envy of the world, visible by a rise in tourism and conventions. According to the SF Police Department, we’ve achieved a historic 30% drop in overall crime. Global leaders visit this office — not to see me but to study our innovative solutions to economic and street crises.

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Corporations, such as The Gap or Visa, are stepping up to engage in civic partnerships. It’s not just AI. But in creating investment with Anthropic or OpenAI, we want our employees to use that technology efficiently while assuaging the fears of those who worry they will be left behind.” Inspired by his mayoral hero, former Senator Dianne Feinstein, Lurie is out walking the streets every day. “You cannot do this job from behind this desk,” he says. “Like Mayor Feinstein, when I notice an issue on our sidewalks, I’ll call department heads and ask, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ And when I notice things working, I’ll pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, good job.’ ” It is a distinctly hands-on version of public service, expressed daily on Lurie’s Instagram account, where he identifies local heroes, celebrates civic events, and boosts mom-andpop businesses. Lurie especially loves it when people stop on the street to tell him what’s going on. We wonder if he’s met Mayor Zohran Mamdani, his Instagram-savvy New York City counterpart. “We’ve only exchanged texts,” Lurie says. “Listen, I love New York — it’s the second best city in the country. I’m hopeful for his success. But I’m really proud that, in January of this year, San Francisco was the first city in the country to expand access to free early education childcare, ages zero to five, for families of four who earn less than $230,000 annually.” As Lurie travels every corner of the city, Prowda can be found commuting to Sacramento, where she also serves as director of protocol for Governor Gavin Newsom, embracing Instagram’s GPS data features. (“That’s how I keep track of Daniel,” she says.) In September Lurie and Prowda celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. They met in 2001 working at Robin Hood Foundation, a poverty-fighting organization in New York. In 2004, Lurie, 49, returned home to attend the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy. By 2005, he was ready to launch his Tipping Point Community, a Bay Area–wide anti-poverty nonprofit. Prowda, 48, also moved west in 2004, impressed by Newsom, who was then mayor. She sent him a cold-call inquiry letter, which landed her first City Hall gig as his confidential secretary. After a stint as deputy director of protocol, Prowda moved to the private sector, working for almost 10 years as director of community affairs for Levi Strauss & Co. “I can’t think of a better team as guardians of San Francisco: Becca and Daniel are brilliant champions of the city I love so much,” Newsom

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said. “There’s a reason I’ve worked with Becca for so long: her optimism and expansive vision, combined with a careful attention to detail of diplomatic nuances on the world stage that can make or break a foreign trip. She’s the best.” A 2024 San Francisco Chronicle profile on Prowda cited her deep insider City Hall experience as a “secret weapon” for Lurie, the first San Francisco mayor in more than a century to win office without prior government experience. “I don’t think it’s a ‘secret’ that Becca is a ‘weapon,’ ” Lurie says, smiling. “Her instincts are excellent: She’s always thinking about how we look out for every San Franciscan, not just a select few. She also understands what makes this city so special, which is our creative class, neighborhoods, and parks. If there’s something I’m not sure about and I ask her point of view, or even if I don’t ask her, she gives it to me.” In January 2025, across the street from the City Hall, beneath blazing blue skies, Prowda proudly introduced her husband to a crowd of 1,000 gathered for his inauguration. “Service is a value standing at the core of our family. It’s what inspired Daniel to devote his life to fighting poverty and to this city. It’s not enough to just live in a place; you must take action to make that place better,” she said. “Whether it’s picking up trash on

— “Daniel has achieved key goals that encourage people to invest. I don’t just mean money.” NANCY PELOSI

— your neighborhood streets, serving a meal to someone in need, or giving directions to a turned-around tourist, service brings us closer.” Lurie and Prowda live in Pacific Heights with their daughter, Taya (15), and son, Sawyer (12). Their very public profile renders the idea of making an anonymous run to the grocery store a nonstarter. “I’m a pretty private person. The nature of this [First Lady] role is different than my preferred behind-the-scenes role,” Prowda says. “But to be a champion, shining a light on the uniqueness of San Francisco, is an incredible opportunity.” Prowda admits that family dinners remain a white whale. “Part of our responsibility as parents is striving to establish a normal routine. But with our complicated schedules, we typically arrive home in the late evening. So it’s either takeout burritos or someone throwing together a dish. But sharing that precious moment around the kitchen table creates a feeling of balance.” Dropping off the kids at school and attending their events — Sawyer plays baseball; Taya studies at the San Francisco Ballet School — remain a top priority. In September 2023, when Lurie announced his mayoral bid, naysayers immediately pounced on him as a wealthy dilettante who lacked practical government experience. But it wasn’t as if Lurie had spent the previous 20 years manning a lemonade stand. Tipping Point, a highly regarded nonprofit, is a favorite of local tech titans. It operates without an endowment and disperses all funds within the same calendar year that they’re raised. Since its inception, it has raised more than $475 million and funded 397 regional organizations dedicated to housing, families, education, and employment programs. For Lurie, it was also his first experience in uniting private philanthropy, civic institutions, and people working on the ground to tackle problems that government had struggled to solve.

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Lurie’s ties to said titans and billionaires are criticized by progressives, who point to a lack of government accountability. Notably, Lurie has relied on a Bloombergian public-private model of civic investment that supplements taxpayer funds with private donations. This has allowed him to increase funding for homelessness and behavioral crises and create free citywide cultural opportunities. Bob Fisher, a scion of Gap Inc., has no issue with this model. He is a founding board member of the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation, a nonprofit that has raised $60 million to revitalize the city’s business district. “We support the mayor’s initiatives by raising money from people who possess the capacity,” he says. “And we invest those funds in downtown projects that benefit all San Franciscans.” He also notes that the city has long had doubters of this strategy: “If a city project involving civic leaders is successful, they theorize it must be elitist and benefiting billionaires. But the billionaires, who desire to improve our city, are capable of taking care of themselves.” Growing up, Lurie was captain of his University High School soccer team. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Duke University (Prowda went to Barnard College). In the summers, he interned in the congressional office of Nancy Pelosi. After college, he was a field organizer on the 2000 presidential campaign of former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley. His father, Rabbi Brian Lurie, was the executive director of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, helping global refugees fleeing persecution. His mother, Mimi Haas, is a prominent arts philanthropist and the president of her family foundation, which focuses on early childhood education. Her second husband, Peter Haas, was a great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss, who started his eponymous denim brand in San Francisco in 1853. (Endless news reports lackadaisically dubbed candidate Lurie as “heir to the Levi’s fortune.” He is related to the family through his mother’s marriage to Haas and is but one of many direct Levi descendants.) “I didn’t grow up strictly religious, but I take pride in my faith,” Lurie says. “I love the Hebrew concept of tikkun olam — to repair the world. And in the Jewish tradition, saving one life is like saving the whole world. That’s a lifelong thread I learned from my parents.” In a midsize metropolis with a population over 800,000, the city and county of San Francisco employs more than 34,000 workers across 60 departments. In July, the 11-member Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Lurie’s $17 billion budget. This includes closing the city’s $642 million deficit and setting aside $1.3 billion in case of federal cuts. Lurie managed to avoid City Hall layoffs and give raises to police officers and firefighters. Betting on that recovery, in August JPMorgan Chase (the nation’s largest bank) pledged $200 million for a 342-unit housing development on the central waterfront and $15 million for affordable housing. (The agreement is part of the company’s American Dream Initiative, which commits $750 billion nationwide through 2035.) CEO Jamie Dimon told the San Francisco Chronicle that with crime down and new zoning plans up, Lurie “is doing all the right stuff.” Lurie is also focusing on the arts as a leading component of the city’s success. He streamlined the Arts Commission, Film SF, and Grants for the Arts into one department and appointed Matthew Goudeau, former San Francisco protocol director and a veteran of five mayoral administrations, as the city’s inaugural executive director of arts and culture. In July, Lurie and Goudeau celebrated a groundbreaking on the $140 million, 17-story development Artists Hub on Market Street near Zuni Cafe, part of a private $100 million philanthropic gift that provides 94 affordable housing units for working artists, including offices, rehearsal spaces, and an 88-seat theater. The revamped department’s efforts — which include incentives for local film jobs and vendors — recently welcomed actor-director Joseph Gordon-Levitt as he shot his new AI Netflix thriller on the streets of San Continued on p. 139

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Heather Mist Collins and Tim Kaeding, with Chopper and Fiona, on the front lawn of their historic Wallace Neff house. “Up here, weekends and weekdays look pretty much the same,” Collins says. “Dog walks and working on my book.”

Away from Mother’s L.A. headquarters, its cofounder and his wife have created an Ojai sanctuary so drenched in California cool, it could star in one of his campaigns Photography by ROGER DAVIES Words by CHRISTINE LENNON

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Top: The wallpaper in the sitting room was reproduced by Iksel from a fresco in a villa outside Rome. The green-andblue colorway mimics the palette of the garden. Bottom: The Sulphur Mountain view. Opposite: Collins under the pergola in one of three outdoor seating areas.

— “I want guests to feel like they can walk around barefoot in their pajamas here.” —

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nce Tim Kaeding and Heather Mist Collins arrive in the East End of Ojai on a Friday afternoon and pass through the iron gates of their Wallace Neff house, down the long driveway and through a two-acre orchard of citrus trees, it takes some convincing to get them to leave. The ideal weekend at their second home begins with dinner (with their two sons) of home-baked Jon & Vinny’s pizzas in their woodfired oven, spicy tequila cocktails inspired by a drink at Rory’s Place (a favorite restaurant in town), followed by a night swim. “Ideally, friends would come up Saturday and stay Saturday night,” Collins says. “Then on Sunday morning we do yoga on the lawn with our teacher, Susie. Sometimes I can talk people into going into town for the farmers market or to get ice cream. But mostly they like to stay put.” Kaeding, the creative director and cofounder of L.A.-based fashion brand Mother, and Collins, an artist and writer, bought the classic fivebedroom house in 2018. Since then, they’ve infused it with so much artistry and casual charm that it’s enough to make a person believe in real estate kismet. Collins does.

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Collins designed the pool pavilion and its elegant but functional plastered kitchen, which has become the entertaining hub of the house. Steel-and-glass windows and doors open up to create an indoor-outdoor flow. A fireplace made of stones sourced on the property keeps things cozy in the winter.

GRAFF Tilda’s Bow yellow gold and white diamond bracelet, $28,000, and necklace, $55,000; Be Together yellow gold and pavé white diamond bangle, $26,800, and ring, $8,400; Laurence Graff signature facet

Maison C Coven wallpaper covers the primary bathroom, but the view from the open window steals the show. Opposite: Family time at home centers around the pool and the newly built pavilion, designed to blend with the home’s traditional architecture.

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“I’d seen photos of Neff’s other house in Ojai, the Libbey Ranch, and I always had that in the back of my mind,” she says. Glass magnate Edward Libbey commissioned Pasadena-based Neff to design this famous property in town as an equestrian ranch, along with the Libbey Stables, which eventually became a part of the Ojai Valley Inn. “Then this house just appeared for sale one day. That old California spirit is still intact in this architecture. All the new-build stuff is fine, but it doesn’t speak to me the same way.” People tend to take 100-year-old Spanish Colonial–style houses with an architectural pedigree a little too seriously. They see an elegant 1920s home, with low stone garden walls and a storybook guest cottage, and lean into the wrought iron and dark-wood drama. “It can read a little heavy, a little Dracula,” Collins says. “That’s what I’m trying to pull back in any of the rooms that still have some of that flavor. We’re working on a more easygoing feeling, which is really my goal. I want guests to feel like they can walk around barefoot in their pajamas here.” Collins likes to open the windows and let the light in. She takes a breezy approach to color and texture, using creamy marble, brass fixtures, pops of pink and coral, woven seagrass rugs, plenty of houseplants from her friends at The Tropics, and contemporary art with an irreverent sense of humor. She has monogrammed Leontine Linen pillow shams in every bedroom, thick hand-blocked linen curtains, vintage beds and furniture throughout, and walls covered in custom wall covering murals by Iksel for Schumacher, Gracie, and de Gournay. The proper textiles are balanced with cheeky humor, like a vintage braille issue of Playboy displayed under a glass box.

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— “One of my favorite features is that you can access the outdoors from every room.” — “One of my colleagues says that if you put anything under glass, it becomes precious,” Kaeding says, pointing to a small clay sculpture of cheese his son Cooper made in elementary school, which is also displayed this way. “It could be a pair of socks and it would look important.” Collins, who grew up in Northern California, was first introduced to the Central Coast and grand old houses during visits to her grandmother’s home in Montecito. A pair of colorful antique ceramic Foo Dogs from that house stand like sentries on either side of the front walkway. Her father was a passionate collector of early California landscapes. A painting he gave her years ago that sits in the foyer features a view of citrus orchards in Ojai, which Collins interpreted as another sign that the house was meant to be. And aside from replacing a bathroom and some water-damaged walls, and updating the plumbing and electrical systems, the couple have largely kept the house intact. “One of my favorite features of this house is that you can access the outdoors from every room,” she says, pointing out the two terra-cotta-

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In the updated kitchen, open shelving, a long racetrack table, and a woven seagrass rug keep things casual and cozy.

— “My colleague says if you put anything under glass, it becomes precious. It could be a pair of socks.” — 122

tiled exterior stairwells that lead to the primary suite and the second-floor bedrooms. “I believe that’s one of Neff’s signatures.” The most significant addition to the five-acre property is a pool pavilion the couple designed with a large conversation area, a fireplace, the aforementioned pizza oven, and bifold windows that open the kitchen — finished in durable Tadelakt plaster — to the fresh air. One of the drawbacks to living in an agricultural community (known for its citrus) is that pesticides can present health concerns. When they moved here eight years ago, they were neighbors with the actor Diane Ladd, who was active in advocacy for organic growing. Collins has since joined local and state efforts to reduce farming with harmful chemicals that linger in the air and water. “There’s a much longer-running effort beyond our group,” she says. “People like filmmaker Rebecca Tickell, who made Kiss the Ground and also a short film specifically about Ojai, and Patty Pagaling, who runs a local grassroots educational resource and outreach program nonprofit called Transition to Organics, are incredibly knowledgeable. They work directly with farmers and the county ag commissioner’s office. We recently organized a lunch with the agricultural commissioner to talk about how farmers and residents can work together more constructively, because ultimately farmers’ livelihoods are at stake too.” Kaeding is originally from Illinois, but he’s also working to ensure the long-term health of his adopted home state, albeit economically. He and his business partner, Lela Becker, have spent 16 years building Mother into a major player in the international denim market, producing 90% of their garments in their downtown sewing shop. Although Kaeding moved to L.A. somewhat reluctantly after living in New York for 15 years, he has a relaxed and affable demeanor that feels right at home here. Whether he’s barefoot on the lawn with his younger son, Cole, or assessing the pros and cons (mostly pros) of having an indoor grill in the pool house, the surroundings suit him. “I grew up in Chicago, and my partner, Lela, grew up in Sonoma. We were both raised by single mothers in the ’70s, with a lot of freedom kids don’t get anymore,” he says, commenting on Mother’s stylistic origins in late-20th-century contemporary Americana. “That’s really the spirit the brand grew out of. Our son has a friend just down the street here in Ojai, an 11-year-old who rode his bike over alone the other day. I was so happy to see kids can still do that here.” Last year, Mother suffered a setback when their first retail location, in the Pacific Palisades, was completed just before fires ravaged the community. The structure, which they had designed with Pam Shamshiri, was lost, including all the recently installed inventory. They rebounded quickly, rebuilding the Palisades shop (see page 47) and adding two more locations: one in Beverly Hills opened in August 2026, and another in downtown Manhattan is coming later this year. “Opening physical stores has been genuinely exciting,” Kaeding says. “It’s the first time we’ve had a space to actually tell our story in person, rather than just online or through wholesale, where a lot of that narrative gets lost once it hits a department store floor.” If he feels any stress running a 250-employee global fashion enterprise stocked by the likes of Nordstrom and Net-a-Porter, none of that is apparent as he and Collins stroll across the wide lawn, past their two dogs basking in the sun, abundant raised vegetable beds, and the slatebottom lap pool, with a vast blue sky and view of Sulphur Mountain in the background. “It feels almost spiritual how we ended up here,” says Collins, who experiences the same joy on the property today as she did when they discovered it and began making it their own. “This whole house has a kind of golden light to it. You feel it in every room.”

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Top: Family time at home centers around the pool and the newly built pavilion, designed to blend with the home’s traditional architecture. Bottom: Collins and Kaeding designed the landscaping themselves. The addition of a mature olive tree shades the kitchen and the attached patio. “There’s always a shady place to sit outside here. It shifts throughout the day,” Kaeding says.

Top: A sitting area separates the primary suite from the secondfloor bedrooms and includes a raspberry linen George Smith couch, vintage chrome-and-leather chairs, and a Terry O’Neill photo of Brigitte Bardot. Bottom: Collins and Kaeding designed the landscaping themselves. The addition of a mature olive tree shades the kitchen and the attached patio.

Interior styling by EMILY BOWSER at Sally Reps. Hair and makeup by KARINA MOORE at Art Department.

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THE ART OF THE EVERYDAY As his acclaimed exhibition travels to California, Oakland sculptor Woody De Othello transforms domestic forms into meditations on consciousness, ancestry, and connection Photography by JASON HENRY Words by IRA MADISON III

Othello, above, and left, in his Oakland studio crafting fortified against strife, a new nkisi-inspired sculpture that will be part of his exhibition at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

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Opposite, clockwise from top left: Othello scores his clay; the artist stands before finished pieces fresh out of the kiln; a wellworn toolbox holds the implements Othello uses throughout his process.

— “I’m shaping the clay. The clay is, in return, shaping me.” —

ll that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change.” In 1993, Octavia Butler wrote these words in Parable of the Sower, her speculative novel set in a dystopian America. Her protagonist Lauren possesses hyper-empathy, the ability to physically sense the pain of others. Most artists are attuned to the world around them, but sculptors — who shape their visions with their hands — may be among the most connected. Every piece of clay Woody De Othello touches, he changes into everyday objects that become surrealist versions of themselves. Like Butler, whom he greatly admires, he uses speculation to explore what it means to be human. Across his practice, Othello transforms the often overlooked — including telephones, clocks, chairs, jugs, combs, plants — into sculptures that feel quietly sentient. Swollen in scale and at times punctuated by oversize ears, hands, or expressive faces, these familiar forms become meditations on memory, spirituality, and what it means to be conscious in the world. Zooming with Othello in his Oakland studio about what inspires him is like entering a library. Aside from Butler (“of course, the GOAT”), he name-checks academics and writers like Michael Pollan, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and African ontologist Malidoma Patrice Somé. “I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff around consciousness,” Othello says. “Contemporary ways to practice shrine building, healing, and ceremony. Right now, I’m reading a lot of Afrocentric scholars. I’m rereading Cheikh Anta Diop’s The African Origin of Civilization. He’s essentially writing to all the Eurocentric Egyptologists, asking how the originators of Egypt could be from Europe and Asia when there’s so much emphasis on the predecessors of Egypt and Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Kush.” Those questions around consciousness, ancestry, and perception are embedded throughout his sculptural language. Othello’s first solo outdoor exhibition, Guardian Spirit, installed along the East River in New York City, features four large-scale bronzes and three totemic redwood sculptures. One of the sculptures, titled thought in mind, features an enlarged landline phone and comb leaning against each other. Of the sculpture, Othello says, “I’m using the everyday, commonplace thing to point back toward this idea of consciousness and being awake

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and being alive. I feel like the phone’s a recurring motif. You never know what phone call is gonna change your life. There’s so many biblical verses that talk, ‘Do you hear the call? Are you chosen?’ It goes back to all the ear[s] in the work too. There’s this kind of listening deeper than just using your auditory functions. How do you use your entire body to listen and perceive?” Other sculptures in the Brooklyn exhibition feature melded hands and ears that mirror nkisi, a sacred power figure from the Kongo peoples of central Africa. The tension between ordinary and metaphysical lies at the heart of Othello’s practice. Household objects become stand-ins for the human body, whereas familiar domestic forms are transformed into vessels for memory, ancestry, and Black spiritual traditions. Rather than depicting people directly, he allows everyday objects to carry the emotional weight of being human. Recognition has come quickly for Othello’s quietly monumental forms, which resist easy categorization. Equal parts sculpture, design object, and spiritual totem, they caught the attention of Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco and Karma in New York and Los Angeles, which represent him. Othello was raised in Miami by Haitian immigrant parents. Art wasn’t part of his regular upbringing, but he says, “I do remember my mom sometimes, on the phone, she would just doodle on envelopes. I didn’t really grow up around art per se or go to museums, but I feel like Haitian people are very craft-y, whether it’s giving this dress for church or decorating our house or preparing food. There’s a lot of color and a lot of texture growing up.” Othello’s work ethic comes from his parents, whom he describes as “old-school Black. I was never late for school, perfect attendance, did our homework — Dad sat down watching over us while we did our homework.” That discipline extended into his teenage years: He enrolled in ROTC throughout high school and almost joined the military before discovering art. “I’ve always prioritized sleep and exercise,” he says. It wasn’t until becoming an undergrad that he realized being an artist was a viable career path. When an artist came to speak at his school in Boca Raton, Othello asked what else he did for work. The artist replied, “This is my job. Making art is my job.” He says, “I was just like, ‘Oh shit, I could totally do this’ because I felt like I was already a better artist than him at that point.” Call it cockiness or betting on himself, but learning has been central to Othello’s journey. After he studied printmaking, a roommate encouraged him to experiment with sculpture, leading him to a ceramics class that became an obsession. “I became addicted because of how hard the medium was,” he says. “You spend time making something, get attached

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to it, and then it blows up in the kiln or comes out looking completely fugly. It has a way of humbling you.” That patience is evident in every finished work. Othello’s sculptures are built over weeks, sometimes months, with richly layered glazes that create remarkable depth and luminosity. Deep greens, burnt oranges, smoky blues, and velvety blacks pool and shift across the ceramic surfaces, giving each object a tactile richness that feels simultaneously ancient and, at times, futuristic. Othello draws a direct line between ceramics and his own artistic development: “I’m shaping the clay, [and] the clay is actually in return shaping me. I don’t know if I wasn’t working in ceramics, if I would be as interested in African ontology, you know?” Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions, and Othello feels the connection to African history: “It’s like learning more about my ancestors and where I came from. I think the material has been a huge part of my own self-discovery and self-study.” Othello pursued an MFA at California College of the Arts, partly to immerse himself in the California Clay Movement, with artists such as Viola Frey, Robert Arneson, and Ken Price, expanding ceramics beyond function into contemporary sculpture. “All the other educators I’d come into contact with had their MFA,” he says. “I could’ve just moved and figured it out, but I wanted that structure.” The influence of that tradition can still be felt in his work, though his visual language is entirely his own, blending African diasporic histories, speculative fiction, neuroscience, and spirituality into clay forms that exist somewhere between dream and reality. The 2022 Whitney Biennial was a breakthrough that he describes as “a pinch-me moment.” (David Breslin, the show’s cocurator, has since included his work in a group show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.) “I do remember my whole family, my immediate family, coming out for that Whitney opening. My dad was reconnecting with one of his friends from Haiti that he hadn’t seen in 30-plus years.” Another highlight was participating in Art Basel Unlimited, a space for large-scale works, earlier this year. “I was looking at some of the other names, like Chris Burden, Theaster Gates, Torkwase Dyson. I was like, Wait, wait — I guess we’re really here at the table.” This fall, Othello celebrates a homecoming of sorts when his acclaimed museum exhibition, coming forth by day, will make its California debut at Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis, following its run at Pérez Art Museum Miami. Named after the ancient Egyptian funerary text commonly known as the Book

of the Dead, the exhibition brings together ceramics, bronze, wood, and works on paper exploring transformation, consciousness, and rebirth through his distinctive vocabulary of animated domestic forms. The California presentation feels especially significant as he brings his most ambitious body of work to the state whose ceramic legacy helped shape his artistic language. Othello has lived in Oakland for 10 years, which he didn’t imagine at first, since moving to New York or Los Angeles seemed like the obvious choice. “L.A. is a lot of fun, but there’s just peace here to me in the Bay. I fell in love with being outside and hiking and being around trees. I fell in love with being able to ride my bike. I really love the grocery stores here.” He’s married with a newborn (he and his wife met on a dating app during the pandemic — “a Raya success story”), and a typical day begins at 5 a.m. He meditates, works out, spends time with his daughter, Violette, before her nap, and reads a book before hitting his studio. “We live in our studio, so the commute is very chill. I walk downstairs, work for a little bit, maybe go to the farmers market or go for a walk. I’m able to parcel out chunks of time to work. Now, with the baby, I’m not working six hours in the studio straight. I work for two hours, stop for another two hours, come back for another hour. It’s very much making the most out of these pockets of time.” Oakland, for Othello, is what his wife refers to as “real 1990s living,” where he can stop during a bike ride to have a conversation with a neighbor. And having a child has opened up his community to more than just artists; he has friends who are firefighters, accountants, and software engineers. He has also found a music studio and a glass studio to collaborate with. “The work opens it up to other makers because I feel like I’m very much in the space of nothing happens by yourself,” he says. “The galleries do a lot; I’m not gonna hate.” Othello credits the people and institutions that have supported his career, including Jennifer Inacio, who curated coming forth by day, and Jenée-Daria Strand, the assistant curator at Public Art Fund, which brought Guardian Spirit to New York. For Othello, that sense of connection extends beyond art — to family, community, and something larger than himself. “God just sends you angels along the way. Many angels have helped me. Not to get too spiritual or woo-woo, but if God wasn’t an all-giving God, and if God didn’t love us, none of this would be here. So we’re only here because Source continuously provides for us, so it’s kind of up to us to pay that energy forward, however we can.”

— “I became addicted because of how hard the medium was.” —

Opposite, clockwise from top: A wall of richly hued glazes reflects Othello’s instinct for color and experimentation; brushes await the artist’s next work; Othello works clay by hand, coaxing an expressive sculptural form from the raw material.

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CINDY CRAWFORD: MATTHEW BROOKES; ROSE BYRNE: ADAM FRANZINO; ADRIA ARJONA: JACK WATERLOT; MADELYN CLINE: BJORN IOOSS

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A heated swimming pool is just one of the luxuries that await you at La Residencia’s Robert Graves Villa in the village Deià on Mallorca.

Sweeter Than Suites

Private pools, personal chefs, and stunning locations: four exclusive villas redefining the ultimate hotel stay

SALVA LOPEZ

Words by KERSTIN CZARRA

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Clockwise from top left: The exterior of Villa Robert Graves, renovated by Studio Ashby, is an ode to art and craftsmanship; the bright and airy rooms are rich in eclectic furniture and art; a quietly elegant sitting room provides a respite from the midday sun; a fully equipped kitchen and dining room are there when you don’t feel like walking to the hotel’s restaurants; views of the picturesque village of Deià.

— The villa looks at the Tramuntana mountains on one side and the Mediterranean on the other. — DEIÀ, MALLORCA, SPAIN

Robert Graves Villa, La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel

LA RESIDENCIA: SALVA LOPEZ, COURTESY OF LA RESIDENCIA; COURTESY OF VILLA D’ESTE

Just a short walk from La Residencia, in the heart of the artists’ village of Deià, LA RESIDENCIA’S ROBERT GRAVES VILLA occupies a stone house named in tribute to the writer — a fitting address on a coastline that has pulled poets and painters into its orbit for a century. Stacked against the hillside, the villa looks out over the jagged spine of the Tramuntana mountain range on one side and a sliver of Mediterranean on the other. Inside, the house reads less like a hotel villa and more like an heirloom Mallorcan home: terra-cotta floors, thick stone walls that keep out the heat, and dark-wood furniture with a hand-rubbed patina that passes for real antiques. The open living room centers on a working fireplace, while the kitchen is built for actual cooking. Three bedrooms and two marble bathrooms are spread across three floors. Outside, a heated pool sits on a tiled terrace with olive trees close enough to throw shade, and there’s a barbecue built for long, wine-heavy dinners with no restaurant schedule to keep. And because the villa sits under La Residencia’s roof in every way but the front door, you can walk down for a Miró art tour at the hotel’s namesake bar — 33 original works are on loan from the artist’s estate — or enjoy a sunset spa treatment on an open-air terrace, then walk back to a house that’s entirely your own. belmond.com/hotels/europe/mallorca/deia/belmond-la-residencia. WHY LEAVE? When you can join a sunrise “first light” walk into the Tramuntana with a photographer or saddle up for the hotel’s donkey trail through olive groves, ending in a shepherd’s hut picnic.

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CERNOBBIO, COMO, ITALY

Miralago Luxury Apartments, Villa d’Este La Collezione

Clockwise from top: The Villa d’Este floating pool rests directly on Lake Como; a balcony is a perfect place to spend an afternoon; every Miralago Luxury Apartment overlooks the waterfront of Cernobbio; discreet luxury is the vibe throughout the eight residences; the exterior of Miralago Luxury Apartments boasts the iconic details of the region’s historic villas.

The level of privacy, service, and detail at VILLA D’ESTE LA COLLEZIONE’S MIRALAGO LUXURY APARTMENTS puts them much closer in spirit to a private villa than a standard hotel room. Housed in the reimagined former Miralago Hotel, eight lakefront residences unfold across four floors, a contemporary take on la dolce vita built around a dialogue with the water outside. Sisters Nathalie and Virginie Droulers of Paris led the design, translating the proportions and light of Lake Como’s villas into something quieter: airy palettes, restrained materials, fabrics chosen for texture over statement. Each floor’s two adjoining one- and two- bedroom units can combine into a single 2,045-square-foot residence — three bedrooms, en suite baths, a full kitchen — with the feel of one contiguous floor, windows framing the lake on one side and the town’s center on the other. Caffè Miralago anchors the ground floor, open morning through aperitivo. Upstairs, a private chef will cook in the residence’s kitchen on request, backed by a 24-hour team built around twice-daily housekeeping and tailormade experiences. Full privileges extend next door to Villa d’Este: the sports club and its trademark floating pool, eight lakeview tennis courts, waterskiing, canoeing, a spa wrapped in green marble with a softly bubbling wall waterfall, and 25 acres of baroque gardens dotted with follies like the Temple of Telemachus. miralagoluxuryapartments.com. WHY LEAVE? Take a short drive to Villa d’Este Golf Club for a round on one of Europe’s most storied courses.

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Clockwise from top left: Stunning sunsets are on tap daily on Peninsula Papagayo; a tub with a view from one of the four primary suites; the 25-meter infinity-edge pool is a great seat for a sunrise or sunset; each of the four primary suites has museum-quality Costa Rican art; the outdoor dining room at Villa Guayacán is built for a party.

PENINSULA PAPAGAYO, COSTA RICA

Villa Guayacán, Nekajui, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve

COURTESY OF VILLA GUYACÁN: COURTESY OF THE ESENCIA MANSION

VILLA GUAYACÁN commands one of the most coveted vantages on Peninsula Papagayo, a bluff overlooking a scattering of forested islets in the Pacific, with Witch’s Rock and Santa Rosa National Park in the distant view. Clay tile rooflines and deep wood-beamed overhangs reflect the vernacular architecture, while walls of glass and timber doors blur the line between inside and out. The estate spreads across two levels with 10 bedrooms, from primary suites with outdoor showers to a pair of bunk rooms built for kids, anchored by a 25-meter infinity pool that seems to spill into the bay beyond. Reclaimed hardwood, hand-set stone, and a museum-quality collection of exclusively Costa Rican art run through the rooms, while gardens planted with species native to the Guanacaste region root the property firmly in its landscape. To optimize every moment, two butlers are on call around the clock, a private chef and servers provide twice-daily meals, and a wine cellar and three kitchens are standing by for whatever you’re craving. You can also draw on the resort next door, including a beach club reached by funicular, the Nimbu Spa, an Arnold Palmer–designed fairway, and a cluster of tennis, padel, and pickleball courts. ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/lirrz-nekajuipennisula-papagayo. WHY LEAVE? Head into the 200-acre Palmares Preserve for a guided aerial adventure through the treetops — seven ziplines and 21 obstacles strung 30 feet above a tropical dry forest.

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Clockwise from top left: The pool is lined with bespoke tiles designed by artist Marcel Dzama; an aerial view of Hotel Esencia; a bedroom with Oaxacan rugs and handcarved furniture; a covered terrace has a hammock with view of the pool area below.

XPU-HÁ, MEXICO

The Esencia Mansion, Hotel Esencia Hidden within the jungle canopy of Hotel Esencia’s 50-acre estate — once the private retreat of an Italian duchess — THE ESENCIA MANSION is architect Giancarlo Valle’s take on a house that feels excavated from its surroundings rather than built on top of them. Rising four levels above the treeline, the 10,000-square-foot villa unfolds in sculptural volumes softened by a hand-tooled feel: tiles from Guadalajara, rugs woven in Oaxaca, furniture carved by Cancún craftsmen, stone set by hand into the floors in patterns pulled from the region’s visual language. The entire third level is the master suite — a light-drenched bedroom, a grand bath with an indoor-outdoor plunge pool, and a fitness studio and an office opening onto a terrace with a hammock over the main pool below. Three junior suites round out the house, each with a private terrace and a separate entrance. One floor up, the rooftop delivers 360-degree views over jungle and sea, another pool, and a covered terrace built for nightly sunsets. The main living room opens onto a dining terrace over the pool, its tiles a commission from artist Marcel Dzama, while the eat-in kitchen hides a full-staff area and a wine cellar for a private chef to work unseen. A screening room seats 20 more. Despite the sense of total remove, you’re a five-minute walk from the beach and hotel, where you can enjoy one of three restaurants — including Taiyo, a Japanese-Mexican fusion — or duck into their Temazcal sweat lodge at the newly renovated spa, voted Mexico’s best by Forbes magazine. hotelesencia.com. WHY LEAVE? Take the hotel’s private helicopter beyond the canopy for a day trip to Chichén Itzá UNESCO-protected ruins.

— Four levels above the treeline, the villa unfolds in sculptural volumes. —

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WELLNESS

MIRROR, MIRROR

As beauty and wellness enter the era of predictive intelligence, they’re in the AI of the beholder Words by KELLY ATTERTON

The next spa experience may not begin with a massage or a facial. That’s the vision behind Midjourney Medical’s planned San Francisco flagship, Midjourney Spa, which is set to open in 2027. Best known for its AI Image generator, Midjourney surprised many when it announced its expansion into healthcare through a new form of medical imaging it calls Ultrasonic CT. Guests will step into an immersive full-body ultrasound that uses only sound, water, and 60 seconds to produce whole-body images in an environment that feels more like a spa than a diagnostic center. It may sound like science fiction, but the announcement offers a glimpse of where

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NEWS

beauty and wellness are heading: a future where AI doesn’t simply respond to what’s visible, but also helps predict what comes next. After years of tailoring products and treatments to consumers’ needs, the industry is shifting from personalization to prediction — using AI, biomarkers, and longitudinal data to anticipate changes before they become visible. Lancôme recently introduced Cell BioPrint, an AI-powered skin assessment that combines protein biomarker testing with image analysis to estimate biological skin age and forecast how skin may respond to ingredients before visible changes occur. Rather than measuring today’s skin, it predicts tomorrow’s.

— “Consumers will expect beauty experiences to adapt to them.” —

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The shift extends to the home. SWAN’s AI-powered mirror analyzes both skin and makeup, monitoring subtle changes over time. “Consumers will expect beauty experiences to adapt to them rather than asking them to adapt to beauty,” founder Colby Mitchell says. She sees AI not as a replacement for dermatologists or estheticians, but as a tool that helps consumers better understand their skin before they ever step into a professional’s office. “We’ve always viewed AI as a tool that extends professional expertise rather than competes with it,” she says. Beauty has always reflected who we are today. Increasingly, it’s trying to understand who we’ll be tomorrow. The mirror is no longer simply reflecting us; it’s beginning to remember us. SWAN’s AI-powered mirror tracks complexion changes over time for a more proactive approach to skincare that “extends professional expertise.”

LUMINOUS RESTRAINT Seven essentials to create fall’s soft, ethereal looks

From left: LIVE TINTED primer stick, $34, livetinted.com; EIGHTH DAY mask, $225, eighthdayskin.com; MERIT mascara, $28, meritbeauty.com; DRIES VAN NOTEN lip care, $180, driesvannoten.com; RÔZ mousse, $40, rozhair.com; ZOUCK face oil, $118, zouck.co; KS & CO. texture stick, $39, theksandco.com.

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WELLNESS

NEWS Haute Contour An appointment with JASON DIAMOND, MD, is one of Hollywood’s most coveted beauty bookings. His Metacine skincare line offers everyone else a way in. The original InstaFacial Collection became an immediate sensation, and the Contour Collection narrows the focus to individual features, delivering “precision rejuvenation” to expressive, age-revealing areas. EyeLift is a treatment for crepiness, puffiness, dark circles, and lost definition around the eyes, whereas LipLift addresses the dryness, fading definition, and volume loss that develop in the lips over time. drdiamondsmetacine.com.

Water’s Edge Originally accessible by invitation only, BOTNIA ATELIER is now welcoming the public to one of California’s most distinctive facial experiences. Set aboard a houseboat on Richardson Bay in Sausalito, the intimate studio is where insights from the treatment room are brought back to the lab to refine Botnia’s formulations. Founded by Justine Kahn, an aesthetician and formulator, the Atelier is equal parts treatment room and creative workspace. Every facial is tailored to the individual and may incorporate sculpting facial massage, rose quartz massage spheres, buccal massage, gentle electric cupping, freshly blended botanical masks, and LED therapy. botniaskincare.com.

Road Trip “Bringing JONES ROAD to California feels like coming home to customers we’ve known for years,” says Bobbi Brown, the legendary makeup artist and the brand’s founder. The fiveyear-old brand recently opened its first California boutique on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, with a signature collage wall, pale wood details, stone tables, and oversize photography alongside Jones Road’s lineup of makeup, skincare, and tools, plus limited-edition kits curated by Brown. Stations offer shade matching, makeup lessons, and bridal appointments, along with dedicated space for community events and private gatherings. jonesroadbeauty.com.

Elevator Pitch L.A. has become the capital of optimization, where wellness often means a cabinet full of supplements, peptide stacks, and the latest biohacking trend. SISTERLY is making the case for less. Already stocked at Harrods, the Irish wellness brand is now available in the U.S. exclusively at Laurel Supply. Its hero product, The Elevator, is a once-daily sachet that’s dissolved in water or juice, delivering 23 essential nutrients. The supplement is only the starting point: Sisterly has also built a devoted following through sea swims, run clubs, educational events, and community-led gatherings. “Feeling well isn’t just about nutrients,” cofounder Louise O’Riordan says. “It’s about feeling connected, supported, and seen.” sisterlylab.com.

Words by KELLY ATTERTON

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THE MANY FACES OF JESSICA CHASTAIN Continued from p. 88 From the beginning, acting was “like an anthropological experiment learning about people and humanity, an exercise in empathy,” Chastain says. She’s less alarmed than some in Hollywood about the impact of AI, including the creation of nonhuman movie star Tilly Norwood. “I am not disturbed by it because I don’t think anything with ‘artificial’ in its title can replace human beings, especially when it comes to storytelling. I started in the industry because I loved cinema, seeing Meryl Streep and Isabelle Huppert. Watching an artificial avatar like Tilly Norwood may be interesting, but it won’t be as inspiring as watching them.” Chastain has guarded her privacy since she was young, studying the industry “as an outsider and audience member. I came to realize I didn’t know anything about the personal lives of the actors I loved most. If I don’t maintain that boundary of privacy, I’m diluting the work because I’m telling the audience so much about my personal life that they are carrying that baggage into the movie theater. I want them to believe me as the character on-screen.” “I’m a shy person,” she adds. “I even feel shy when people sing me ‘Happy Birthday.’ It’s interesting that I’ve chosen a career where people look at me because in my personal life, I don’t want to be the center of attention. I just want to kind of disappear.” When she and her family recently went camping in Arizona, she was “stopped all the time” while grocery shopping. “That’s why I live in New York,” she says, laughing. “I can disappear here. I take the subway every day. Sometimes people go, ‘Oh Chastain!’ But in this city I am never the most important part of a stranger’s day. I love it here, the inclusivity and diversity. I’m such a New Yorker. This is my city.” Chastain returns to California frequently for work and to see her mother, stepfather, and grandmother. “When I go, I don’t stay in Hollywood,” she says. “I stay by the ocean. I like to be close to nature. California has such incredible vistas. I love the towns up and down the coast. My favorite drive is along the Pacific Coast Highway, from San Francisco to L.A. When I graduated from Juilliard, three girlfriends from school and I flew to San Francisco, rented a convertible, and drove it.” She particularly loves Big Sur, Pismo Beach, Santa Cruz, Fort Bragg, and — off the highway — the town of Solvang. Chastain, who is vegan, says her favorite California restaurants are the plant-based Crossroads in Los Angeles and Millennium in San Francisco. Back in New York, she is plotting her Broadway return. “It’s been three years,” she says. “I’m ready. I’m reading really exciting scripts.” Choosing the winning script depends on what the play involves. “Doing A Doll’s House eight times a week wrecked me,” Chastain says. “Sitting in a chair as I did for the whole show sounds easy. It wasn’t. You want to move. Emotionally, every night for four months, it was like having a panic attack. When I’m acting I feel everything. I know the situation is fake, but the emotion and the stress on my body are real. I had never taken anything to help me sleep until that play, but my doctor said to me, ‘You’re not sleeping. You have to sleep.’ I had so much energy after the show. I would come home and eat a full meal at 2 a.m. For my next play, I have to consider ‘What experience am I going to have? Am I going to be able to sustain it for four months?’ ” Another appointment beckons, with Chastain solicitously firming up a future phone date so we can finish our conversation. As assistants descend to prepare for her next meeting, I ask how she feels about turning

50 next year. “I don’t think of it as a benchmark,” she says. “I think people who become obsessed with their age and numbers and feel sad about it are usually people who don’t feel they have accomplished the things they want, or don’t have the things they want. I don’t think about aging. Honestly, I feel really satisfied. I have achieved way more than I would ever have imagined.” Asked about her new bob (styled by celebrity hairdresser Renato Campora), Chastain laughs. “I wanted something fun for summer. I felt like a paper doll, I had had the same look for so long. This cut is incredibly classic, timeless, and chic. I’m excited to explore another facet of my personality.” The shape-shifting, personal and professional, will continue in earnest. “I’ve got to do some Tennessee Williams,” Chastain says about her dream future roles. “His writing speaks to me in a profound way. I’d love to play Alma in Summer and Smoke and/or Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire.” Whichever character guise she assumes next, or whatever project she produces — this movie star in perpetual motion — Chastain remains zealously focused on plurality and purpose. “My main question is, ‘How can I be of service?’ I don’t want to just sit around. I want to participate and be challenged.”

“YOU CANNOT DO THIS JOB FROM BEHIND THIS DESK.” Continued from p. 112 Francisco. Lurie also met with Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s chief global content officer, as she and Gatti scouted San Francisco for the 2027 Vogue World event. Wintour was dazzled, announcing in August that the city was the perfect setting for her global fashion extravaganza, praising its diversity and creativity: “San Francisco is a city like none other. There’s a history of rebelliousness here, as well as incredible innovation.” Lurie’s one-time “boss” Pelosi noted that while instilling civic confidence, he hasn’t allowed pure politics to dominate his vision: “Daniel has achieved key goals that encourage people to invest. And I don’t just mean money: I’m referring to investments of enthusiasm in the city where people live and work.” As a young girl growing up in Maryland, Pelosi recalled her mother’s 12year service as First Lady of Baltimore. She knows well from that juggling act: mom, supportive spouse, and civic cheerleader. That experience informed Pelosi’s enthusiasm for the success of Prowda’s One City Day, a July initiative across every supervisorial district, which Pelosi helped kick off at Golden Gate Park. More than 4,000 volunteers — including such corporate sponsors as Dolby Laboratories, Lululemon, Google, and the Emerson Collective — showed up to participate in 170 service projects, like planting trees, picking up trash, mural painting, and serving meals at local nonprofits. “This event for city residents had a purpose, achieved goals and spoke beautifully to the effectiveness of Becca’s leadership,” Pelosi says. “She is a first lady for this century. People even said to me, ‘Becca is so terrific, she could be mayor of San Francisco.’ But I’m like, hang on, one family member at a time!” For all the talk of doom-to-boom loops, billion-dollar budgets, and San Francisco’s return to confidence, the couple’s most consequential idea is also the simplest: A city is not only revitalized by investment or infrastructure, but also by the people willing to participate in its future. For Lurie and Prowda, service is less a slogan than a way of belonging. It means showing up — for the city, for its neighborhoods, for each other. “Seeing people invest in our city, I love San Francisco even more,” Lurie says. “We are the greatest city in the world.” RUNOVER

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WHEN IN

PALM SPRINGS

Christine Vendredi Architectural and natural wonders lured the Palm Springs Art Museum’s director to the desert from the City of Light Interview by ELIZABETH VARNELL

As I drive by the San Jacinto Mountains each morning, I see the most incredible landscape. The visual impact of light is absolutely unique, and of course the second element is architecture, specifically by John Lautner. As an architectural historian born in France and working mostly in Tokyo, Paris, and Lausanne, Switzerland, I was not as familiar with American design, so my first visit was really a shock. The Bob Hope house, the setting for one of Nicolas Ghesquière’s first Cruise shows as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton, brought me here. When I moved to the area, I chose my bank because BANK OF AMERICA had such a spectacular building. You can bank in such style here. Stay at the PARKER for design and historical value — there are splendid gardens and interiors. The KIMPTON ROWAN is great and very different. It’s part of modern Palm Springs and very urban. I’m a big fan of the KORAKIA, probably because of my European roots, and there you’ll find a Mediterranean blend of South of France meets Morocco. Each morning, I either go to ECORE FITNESS for Pilates or walk in the Twin Palms neighborhood with semi-mass-produced architecture of the 1960s. On the weekend, if I hike, my favorite is in Southridge, with views of Lautner’s Elrod house. I discovered ACE HARPER jeans when I moved here. She’s a local designer. TRINA TURK is perfect for caftans to wear by the pool,

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Clockwise from left: Christine Vendredi at the Palm Springs Art Museum, a Rudi Baumfeld–designed Bank of America, Parker Palm Springs, Korakia Pensione, the case study Aluminaire House, Plaza Theatre, the Parker’s Passion Fruit Rickey.

HOUSE OF LOLO for T-shirts that only American designers know how to make, and RTH SHOP for unisex clothing. My favorite place to eat is BAR CECIL. The chef is fantastic and he can do anything, from brasserie steak frites to mussels in wet curry. He has a way of twisting things, and you’ve never seen potatoes and omelets like his at LIVS. With PAULBAR/FOOD, behind the door you’re going to find a beautiful bar and small eatery. At MENTOSA, I start with a matcha — just water and green tea — a taste I developed from my years in Japan. The city is packed with design stores. At MARKET MARKET, pieces from the 1930s to 2000s are staged in meaningful groupings. JC STUDIO in Perez Art District has a very interesting point of view, and all the jewelry from Belgian designer Yves Kamioner is unique. The PALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM’s ANNENBERG THEATER has so many events and screenings. The PLAZA THEATRE reopened last year: There’s the look of a starry night on the ceiling. At Empire Polo Club in Indio, I alternate between COACHELLA and STAGECOACH in the spring — there’s something for everyone. Palm Springs Art Museum executive director Christine Vendredi was formerly the director of art, culture, and heritage at Louis Vuitton. In addition to organizing global exhibitions, she has authored several books on architecture.

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VENDREDI: COURTESY OF PALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM; ALUMINAIRE: ALBERT FREY AND A. LAWRENCE KOCHER, ALUMINAIRE HOUSE™, 1931, PALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM; KORAKIA: LONGVIEW STUDIOS

— “You can bank in such style here.” —

ONLY THREE INGREDIENTS.

C MAGAZINE

CALIFORNIA STYLE & CULTURE

FALL

2026