GRAZIA USA - FALL 2024

FALL2024

24

The Fall 2024 Arts Agenda.

Meet the change agents who are blazing a new path and inspiring a better future by redefining what it means to be successful.

44

Fall’s most fabulous beauty trends recall the edgy glamour of the ‘80s.

48 THE GREATS

Leave low maintenance behind. Gwen Flamberg pinpoints the best new polishpromoting essentials to up your beauty game as the temperature cools.

54 HOT LIST

This season’s top 10 most wanted.

64 SOFT CORE

For fall, Fendi introduces the Peekaboo Soft – its latest take on the coveted house icon. Lightened and deconstructed, the new Peekaboo Soft is the ultimate expression of subtle sophistication.

84

Nightlife photographer Dustin Pittman’s archive offers a social butterfly’s-eye view of 1970s New York.

90

This seasons most inspired style is found in the swagger of rock and roll mixed with the rebellious spirit of punk.

108 LOVE IS THE MESSAGE

Willy Chavarria shines a light on Chicano style and fosters its community with his namesake label.

72 DEMI LOVATO TAKES CONTROL

ON THE COVER

Louis Vuitton shirt and pants, 866-VUITTON; Earrings from Paumé Los Angeles, paumelosangeles.com.

Photography by Thomas Whiteside; Styling by J. Errico

Carolina Herrera dress, carolinaherrera. com; Necklace from Paumé Los Angeles, paumelosangeles.com.

128 BOY OH BOY!

This fall, exercise your freedom to dress however you please.

138 TIE ONE ON

It’s said that clothes make the man, but as Diane Keaton’s timeless style proves, clothes—or, more specifically, a tie—makes the woman.

144 OUT OF OFFICE

Just because you’re going to work doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice style.

152 THE PERFECT ...

When wardrobe building, consider the timely quality of your most essential pieces.

160 ALL THAT GLITTERS

The Brooklyn Museum rings in its 200th anniversary this fall with an Aladdin’s cave worth of gold.

164 SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS Autumn’s niftiest-knits out in the wild.

172 PERFECT ILLUSION

Add some drama to your dressing with this season’s most self-assured silhouettes.

184 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOPHIA!

At 90, Sophia Loren answers 8 questions. After a seven-decade career, the actress remains a singular star.

192 WE DREAM OF AFRICA Americans flock to ultra-elite South African safari camps for a full-color experience.

196 THERE'S A PLACE IF ...

For the fashion crowd, it’s not just about where to be seen, but also where to experience the best in ambiance and cuisine.

114 WALK LIKE BEARS

SEASONAL MUSINGS FROM THE MIND OF JOAN JULIET BUCK

198 A PRESTO

alessandrarich.com;

Reflection de Cartier earrings, 18k white gold, diamonds, Cartier High Jewelry necklace, platinum, ruby, diamonds, cartier.com.

EDITOR'S LETTER

WHEN I WAS SEVENTEEN, I DID WHAT PEOPLE TOLD ME DID WHAT MY FATHER SAID AND LET MY MOTHER MOLD ME BUT THAT WAS A LONG AGO I’M IN CONTROL

When creating a magazine, stories come together simultaneously, and at times it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. You know certain things feel right as you’re producing them, but the overall picture of what you’re building has yet to reveal itself. Until finally, there’s a spark that lights the whole forest on fire.

Child Star, the directorial debut of our cover star, Demi Lovato, (pg. 72) lit the flame of this issue.

A star from age eight, Lovato has almost never known a life outside the spotlight. Her ascension to the heights of global superstardom — and rocky road to recovery — have been covered ad nauseum in the tabloid press. Now, at 32, Lovato has decided to explore child stardom from the other side of the camera, with a select group of people uniquely qualified to discuss such a subject. Currently streaming on Hulu, Child Star finds Lovato in multiple intimate, no-holds-barred conversations with icons like Drew Barrymore and Christina Ricci, to discuss the good, bad, and ugly. What I find so remarkable is how Lovato refuses to let the more troubling aspects of her past define her. Like Barrymore, Lovato has emerged as a stronger woman, in charge of her own narrative and very much in control of her own future.

Speaking about being in control of one’s own future, what better time to explore this idea? In the 1970s, female rock stars owned both their power and prowess. Poly Styrene, Chrissie Hynde and Debbie Harry took control of the music scene and continue to this day to inspire designers of the next generation. (Pg. 90). Other ways to take control of your own narrative could be simply in how you choose how to dress (pg. 128) or designers who you choose to support (pg. 108).

And really, “who is in control?” is a good question, particularly when seen through the lens of Mauricio and Roger Padilha’s newest book. The cult authors and curators present Dustin Pittman: New York After Dark, which explores the idea of who was really “in charge” of the nightlife scene of the 1970s and '80s – the photographer or the subject? Wherever you stand on the topic, this new coffee-table tome is an absolute must (pg. 84).

Sophia Loren is a woman who has been in control of her image for some time now. For the past seven decades, Ms. Loren represents the best of Italian exports. In celebration of her 90th birthday, Kevin Sessums chats with the legend to get to the bottom of how this icon sees her career, legacy, and herself (pg. 184). It is not to be missed.

These days, it’s both nerve-wracking and off-putting to speak freely about the political climate of the United States, particularly as we draw nearer and nearer to the presidential election. I would love for GRAZIA USA to appeal to ALL women regardless of your political persuasions – providing that you’re a fashion obsessive, of course. And like Lovato, I am taking control of what is mine to control. I will vote, and I will vote for someone who will support whomever I choose to love, whatever I choose to do to my body and whomever I choose to welcome as my neighbor.

Someone who places importance on truth and facts. Someone who will try to bring out the best in people and foster a sense of community rather than a sense of division.

Someone in control.

JOSEPH ERRICO EDITOR & CHIEF

CREATIVE OFFICER

CONTRIBUTORS

THOMAS WHITESIDE spends his time between Los Angeles and Provincetown, MA, where he lives with his partner Michael and their three dogs. He’s photographed some of the most famous faces in entertainment. He’s also the author of Route 1 , a book that shares his adventures in Iceland. When he’s not working, he has a soft spot for all things Japanese.

Travel is always an adventure for MELINDA SHECKELLS, who canvasses the globe writing about remarkable places and experiences. South Africa was no exception where on her first safari she witnessed a kill, saw the entire Big 5 and came so close to a leopard she nearly saw it change its spots. Her work has been published in LA Times, Business Traveler , People magazine and The Hollywood Reporter

KAREN LEVITT is a stylist based in LA. "Music inspires so many of the creative choices in all my work, so having the opportunity to creative direct, cast, and style “Chic & Disorderly” for this issue of GRAZIA USA was a dream come true. I have always thought punks, goths, and rock bands are truly the chicest people and inform so much of the inspiration that guides the fashion industry so I wanted to highlight that. When I’m not working I’m likely seeing shows.”

ROXANNE ROBINSON is an award-winning media professional based in New York, formerly Paris with a focus on luxury, fashion, and fine jewelry. Off hours she favors trendy fitness classes, hanging in her garden with the family cat, or reliving old-school NYC, especially on the dancefloor.

Tod’s shirt, vest, trousers, tods.com.

JOSEPH ERRICO EDITOR & CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER

GIACOMO PASQUALINI CREATIVE DIRECTOR

GWEN FLAMBERG BEAUTY DIRECTOR

CONTRIBUTORS

CASEY BRENNAN FEATURES EDITOR

JOAN JULIET BUCK CULTURAL CRITIC

ALISON S. COHN STYLE FEATURES EDITOR

SHELBY COMROE FASHION EDITOR

ALYSSA HAAK COPY EDITOR

CYNTHIA MARTENS EDITOR AT LARGE

AMANDA PETERS EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

EMILIA PETRARCA COVER EDITOR

ROXANNE ROBINSON STYLE EDITOR

KEVIN SESSUMS EDITOR AT LARGE

MELINDA SHECKELLS SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

ANDREA VOLBRECHT PRODUCER

DIGITAL

JESSICA BAILEY INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

KARLI POLIZIANI DIGITAL DIRECTOR

CARLA VANNI EDITORIAL ADVISOR

Printing by Quad; Distributed by CMG

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© [ 2023 ] Reworld Media Italia Srl. All rights reserved. Published by “Reworld Media US” with the permission of Reworld Media Italia Srl. Reproduction in any manner in any language in whole or in part without prior written permission is prohibited.

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INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING, REWORLD MEDIA ITALIA

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HEAD OF DIGITAL, REWORLD MEDIA ITALIA

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EMAIL CONTACT @GRAZIAUSA.COM

WHAT’S OLD

This season brings back nostalgic favorites to the cultural forefront

WORDS CYNTHIA MARTENS

IS NEW AGAIN

Just as the United States was preparing for a presidential faceoff between two aging white men, Kamala Harris entered the ring, dangling the possibility of the country’s first woman president— and one of Indian and Jamaican heritage, at that—before tired voters. Will it be out with the old this November?

The arts provide much-needed respite from political cliff-hangers this fall—an opportunity to embrace nostalgia and novelty on less fraught terms.

Barbie dominated headlines following the release of the Greta Gerwig blockbuster in 2023, and perhaps you’ve had your fill of pink. But if life in plastic is still fantastic, then mosey on over to the Design Museum in London to see Barbie: The Exhibition, an escapist 65th anniversary celebration of the world’s most loved and hated doll, including a rare first edition of Number 1 Barbie, released in 1959; the best-selling Totally Hair Barbie of 1992; and more recent additions such as the first Barbie to use a wheelchair. Ken—always more of an accessory than a partner— makes an appearance, too, as does that architectural wonder, the original Barbie Dreamhouse from 1962.

Comedy in ancient Rome often relied on stock characters, and from Commedia dell’arte to vaudeville, concert halls to saloons, later generations of performers have continued to create satirical vignettes by exaggerating relatable everyday situations. Toronto-based sketch comedienne Laura Ramoso may have found success the modern way— online, thanks to clips on TikTok and

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Instagram that generated a massive following—but her comic instincts bear all the hallmarks of old-timey acts. Her favorite stock characters are Italian Dad and German Mom – based on her parents—but she has also integrated others, from “Berlin Server Who Could Not Care Less About You” to “Woman Who Makes Drinking Regular Milk Her Whole Personality” and “Museum Volunteer Desperate for Human Interaction.”

This fall, Ramoso’s The Sit Up Straight Tour takes her from Ottawa to Dallas, Portland to Winnipeg and more from September 5 through November 28. As Ramoso’s German mother might say: Ach du lieber! Hollywood loves a good sequel, and this fall, Tim Burton’s beloved “ghost with the most” is back in cinemas.

Released in 1988, Burton’s signature cocktail of fantasy, comedy and horror, Beetlejuice, told the story of the Deetz family’s arrival in a new home inhabited by the ghosts of a recently deceased couple, and the quirky, crass spirit, Betelgeuse, those ghosts engage to get the new residents out. Filled with deadpan observations by characters living and departed, the film starred a teenage Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, the only family member who could see the house’s otherworldly residents. On August 28, a Burton-directed Beetlejuice sequel – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice –debuted at the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival. In the new film, Ryder returns as an adult Lydia Deetz with a sulky teenage daughter, played by Jenna Ortega, in tow. Catherine O’Hara is also back as Delia Deetz, Lydia’s shrill, art-obsessed stepmother, and of course Michael Keaton returns in the starring role. The all-star cast also features Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, Danny DeVito and newcomer Arthur Conti.

Barbie: The Exhibition

London Design Museum

224-238 Kensington High St.

London W86AG, UK

Through February 23, 2025

Book tickets in advance: designmuseum. org/exhibitions/barbie-the-exhibition

The sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 dark comedy hit debuted at the Venice Film Festival on August 28.

Hot-air balloons are neither modern nor a practical mode of travel, but their popularity endures. Something about their vibrant appearance, and the promise of a bird’s-eye view from a basket, has cemented our fondness for these 18thcentury relics. Visit Albuquerque, New Mexico, in October, and partake in the city’s International Balloon Fiesta, the largest event of its kind in the world, billed this year as an opportunity to “Embrace the Sky.” From drone light shows at dawn and dusk, to auctions of wooden sculptures chiseled with high-tech chainsaws, pin trading, fireworks, skydiving, a special shapes balloon rodeo and vintage car parades, the fiesta, which debuted in 1972, aims to please old and young.

Further south, from November 15 to 18, visitors to León in Mexico’s Guanajuato state can participate in the International Balloon Festival, or Festival Internacional del Globo. Since 2002, the event has united pilots and tourists in an airborne

parade of color. This year, come for the sunrise takeoffs, Zeppelin show, live music, and more than 200 balloons. Acrophobic? Browse through an array of leather goods at the market stalls and sample hearty local delicacies from the safety of solid ground.

While traditional handcrafts have often been derided as less intellectually important than the visual arts, Hendi næst, an exhibit at the Reykjavik Art Museum - Asmundarsafn in the Icelandic capital, challenges the prejudice against useful designs. Homegrown artist and sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson, known for having designed “Thor’s gavel,” used by the president of the United Nations General Assembly, picked up drafting, sculpting, and woodworking skills while growing up on a farm. Through December 7, visitors to the museum can enjoy works by Sveinsson alongside those of contemporary Icelandic artists who similarly rely on folksy craft techniques in their work. Time your visit right and you can also catch sight of the “Imagine Peace

Jane Birkin, Munkey Diaries 1957-1982

Birkin, who died in 2023, penned a memoir that’s worth revisiting.

HOT AIR BALLOONS ARE NEITHER MODERN NOR A PRACTICAL MODE OF TRAVEL, BUT THEIR POPULARITY ENDURES

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

October 5 to 13, 2024 4401 Alameda Blvd NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87113

For more information: balloonfiesta.com

Festival del Globo (FIGLeón)

November 15 to 18, 2024

Metropolitan Park of León León, Guanajuato, Mexico

For more information: vivefig.mx

Hendi næst (At Hand)

Reykjavik Art Museum – Ásmundarsafn Sigtún 105

Reykjavik, Iceland Through December 12, 2024. For more information listasafnreykjavikur.is

Françoise Hardy

Immerse yourself in the autobiography of France’s beloved pop star and style icon, who died in June at 80.

Laura Ramoso

Don’t miss her North American Sit Up Straight tour, which runs from September 5 to November 28. For more information and tickets: lauraramoso.com/tour

Tower” on nearby on Viðey Island: Yoko Ono’s tribute to John Lennon, which will be lit from October 9 through December 8, and again from December 21 to 31, is powered by Iceland’s geothermal energy grid.

Cinephiles, pour yourself a glass of wine and settle into a good armchair: Film director Agnès Varda is now the subject of a new biography, A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda, by film critic and historian Carrie Rickey. Published by W.W. Norton & Company, the book explores the life of a creative woman whose feminist works are more relevant than ever.

French New Wave Cinema rejected classic filmmaking in favor of long takes, disjointed editing, and ambiguous endings. Varda, sometimes dubbed the grandmother of the movement, began her career as a photographer before turning to film, blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction. In the 1970s, she was a vocal supporter of women’s reproductive rights, signing Simone de Beauvoir’s Manifesto of the 343 together with celebrities including Catherine Deneuve and Jeanne Moreau. Later in life, she turned to the visual arts, showing works at the Venice Biennale and the Fondation Cartier and telling Interview magazine, “If you keep your eyes open and your mind open, everything can be interesting. The secret is that there is no secret.”

While you’re smoking those Gauloises, consider revisiting Munkey Diaries 1957-1982 by Jane Birkin, and The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles by Françoise Hardy.

Birkin, a fashion darling who in her heyday favored jeans, shift minidresses and wicker baskets in lieu of formal handbags, was once the subject of a Varda essay film, Jane B. for Agnès V., and a related feature,

HER COMIC INSTINCTS BEAR ALL THE HALLMARKS OF OLD-TIMEY ACTS

Kung-Fu Master, both released in 1988. Her autobiographical diaries take readers on a journey through the pop icon’s earlier swinging years and relationship with French singer Serge Gainsbourg. Though The Guardian described it as “like being trapped at a particularly demented piece of performance art, where the actors are clearly having much more fun than the audience,” fans of Birkin’s style and music can feast on the pop anecdotes.

With her lithe build, bangs and melancholic voice, Hardy, who died less than a year after Birkin, in June 2024, was a defining figure of the French Yé-yé period in the ‘60s. Like Birkin, she had a lasting influence on fashion, famously sporting a chainlink, gold-plated mini dress inlaid with diamonds by Paco Rabanne and embodying a low-key, vaguely Bohemian look that has become synonymous with Parisian style. Hardy’s memoir offers a chance to get to know the woman whom France’s minister of culture recently described as “the very incarnation of French song.” Director Wes Anderson, for one, used her anthem “Le temps de l’amour” in his 2012 coming-of-age comedy Moonrise Kingdom—itself a dreamy tribute to youth.

A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda

Read the book all the cinephiles are talking about. For more information: wwnorton.com

GAME CHAN GERS

MEET THE CHANGE AGENTS WHO ARE BLAZING A NEW PATH AND INSPIRING A BETTER FUTURE BY REDEFINING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SUCCESSFUL

EDITED BY CASEY BRENNAN

DR. SOPHIA YEN

How the innovative physician is reshaping the landscape of women’s hormonal health care with Pandia Health

In the rapidly evolving landscape of women’s health care, few figures have made as significant an impact as Dr. Sophia Yen. As the co-founder and chief medical officer of Pandia Health, the only doctor-founded and womenled online hormonal health clinic, Yen has dedicated her career to addressing the unique needs of women at every stage of their lives.

Yen’s entrepreneurial journey began with a simple, yet profound question posed during a talk she gave to a group of physicians: Why don’t women take their birth control? The answer, she discovered, was rooted in convenience—or rather, the lack thereof. “Women are busy and have #BetterThingsToDo than to run to the pharmacy each month,” Yen explains, highlighting the barriers many women face in accessing birth control. This revelation led her to coin the term “#pillanxiety” to describe the stress women experience when they risk running out of birth control, with all the accompanying fears of unintended pregnancy or the interruption of their daily lives.

Inspired by this need, Yen initially envisioned Pandia Health as a straightforward solution: an online pharmacy dedicated to ensuring that “no one runs out of birth control on

our watch.” However, as the service gained traction, Yen realized that many women responding to their ads for free birth control delivery didn’t have a prescription. This presented an opportunity for Pandia Health to expand beyond a delivery service and offer comprehensive care. “As a doctor, I could write prescriptions,” Yen says, “and thus, Pandia Health was born: the end-to-end solution for hormonal health.”

The evolution of Pandia Health didn’t stop there. Recognizing that many women who needed birth control also sought treatment for acne, Yen added acne treatment to Pandia’s offerings, leveraging her expertise as an adolescent medicine specialist. As Yen herself entered menopause, she saw another opportunity to expand Pandia’s services. “I set out to find the best evidence-based treatment for me,” she says, “and I would share it with all those that needed it via Pandia Health.” Today, Pandia Health’s menopause practice is led by two of the nation’s 1,800 Menopause Society Certified Practitioners, both of whom are OB/GYN doctors with over 20 years of experience in menopause care. Throughout her journey, Yen has been supported by a network of mentors and communities that

have guided her through the challenges of entrepreneurship. She credits organizations like Coralus, Springboard Enterprises, and All Raise for providing invaluable resources and support. “The founders who have shared their experiences in fundraising and who have shared resources in marketing, accounting, and everything start-up are so helpful,” she says.

As she looks to the future, Yen’s vision for Pandia Health is nothing short of ambitious. She envisions the company becoming “the online health brand women trust” with plans to expand their menopause offerings and continue to innovate in the field of women’s hormonal health. “We would love to ring the NASDAQ bell as we go IPO,” she says, a goal that seems well within reach given Pandia Health’s impressive growth and impact.

In reflecting on her journey, Yen emphasizes the importance of community and persistence. “Get help, don’t do it alone,” she advises aspiring entrepreneurs. “Build your team and community.” With this collaborative spirit and her unwavering commitment to women’s health, Dr. Sophia Yen is not just changing the game—she’s rewriting the rules.

HILARY HOFFMAN

Going from Wall Street to wellness, Hoffman turned a personal need into a global fitness phenomenon

Hilary Hoffman’s journey from finance to wellness began as a personal solution to a common problem— finding time-efficient workouts while working a demanding desk job—but has evolved into a thriving fitness brand that resonates with busy professionals around the world.

Hoffman’s entry into entrepreneurship was somewhat unconventional. After nearly a decade in finance, where she spent long hours at a desk, she found herself yearning for a workout that catered to her sedentary lifestyle but still delivered real results. Her fitness program, SOTO Method—it stands for “sixty on, ten on” and is a mix of cardio and sculpting movements— was born from her own search for the right workout routine to fit her busy finance career schedule. “I created the SOTO Method in 2021 as a workout model focused on efficiency, consistency, and tangible physical and mental strength,” she tells GRAZIA USA.

The SOTO Method is now more than just a workout routine; it’s an omni-channel brand that offers both digital and in-person classes. The brand’s success speaks to a broader shift in the fitness industry, where the emphasis is increasingly on practicality and sustainability rather

than on grueling, time-consuming regimens.

Inspiration for Hoffman’s founder journey comes from the people around her. “I find inspiration from friends, colleagues, and mentors who embody the SOTO ethos of excellence, service, and discipline,” she says. Her husband, an action-oriented entrepreneur, has been a significant influence, instilling in her the philosophy of “today, not tomorrow,” which encourages urgency and calculated risks. This mindset, combined with lessons from her mentors at Goldman Sachs, has taught her the importance of frontloading her day with the most challenging tasks. “Willpower is like a muscle; it fatigues with each decision, so tackling tough tasks when your willpower is strongest sets you up for greater success throughout the day,” she notes. When it comes to planning her entrepreneurial journey, Hoffman strikes a balance between mapping out her path and embracing the unexpected. While she had a clear vision of the impact she wanted to make through fitness, she also acknowledges that the most rewarding opportunities often

present themselves as risks. Throughout her journey, Hoffman has experienced many memorable moments that continue to motivate and inspire her. “Every time someone shares their achievements and credits SOTO Method for helping them, I’m reminded of the value of this work,” she says.

KELSIE

HAYES FINE

The Popup Florist founder has bloomed in her business

Kelsie Hayes Fine’s journey as an entrepreneur has taken her from the vibrant streets of New York City to the colorful markets of Mexico City. As the founder of Popup Florist, Fine has seamlessly blended her love for design, travel, and memorable experiences into a flourishing business that has captivated hearts across the nation.

“I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age,” Hayes tells GRAZIA USA. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, Hayes moved to New York and immersed herself in the world of luxury retail. “I had the chance to design and develop a private label, which was truly formative for my career. It granted me incredible experience in the luxury retail category and what it means to build a brand.”

This early role not only honed her skills but also afforded her the opportunity to travel extensively and live bicoastally. These experiences sowed the seeds for what would eventually become Popup Florist. “I always felt that the personal attention and detail that make customer interactions memorable were often missing from the experience,” she explains. This realization, coupled with the evolving fashion and retail

landscape, led Hayes to launch Popup Florist, a concept rooted in creating unforgettable experiences with floral arrangements.

Initially envisioned as a series of popups in collaboration with brands in the retail, beauty, and lifestyle sectors, Popup Florist has since grown into a multifaceted national business. “Living in New York, I am constantly inspired,” Hayes shares. “There are so many cool and creative entrepreneurs all over the city, always doing new things. I love being a part of this community.”

Travel also plays a significant role in her creative process. “I love to travel as often as possible with my family. I’ve spent a lot of time in and around Mexico City, which is quickly becoming a favorite destination for us. It’s one of the most vibrant and textured cities in the world, and even just spending a few weeks there leaves me inspired for months to come.”

Throughout her journey, Hayes has experienced numerous memorable moments. Opening her first brickand-mortar storefront in New York City in 2018 and her studio location in the heart of the New York City Flower District in 2022 stand out as major milestones. “Both were moments that continue to motivate me and my team

to think big,” she says.

Looking ahead, Hayes is focused on growing Popup Florist and exploring new opportunities. “Our team is always brainstorming new and unique ways to challenge the industry. I look forward to this every day, and I’m excited to see where our journey takes us.” She also hopes to travel more, drawing inspiration from different cultures and their relationship with flowers, saying, “I want to continue to be inspired by flowers and the meanings they hold, and to write more books that celebrate that.”

With a book titled Say It with Flowers on the horizon, Hayes is poised to continue inspiring others through her creativity and passion.

“Remember, no one is in a better place. It’s all about evolution and your own journey. As long as you’re growing and learning, you are living your process,” she concludes, embodying the very spirit that has guided her remarkable journey.

ROBYN BERKELEY

The Live The Process founder has spent two decades learning to trust the process

From the hustle and bustle of New York City’s PR scene to the tranquil sanctuaries of yoga studios around the world, Robyn Berkley’s journey as an entrepreneur has been anything but ordinary.

“My journey began at the age of 28,” Berkley tells GRAZIA USA. “I had childhood health issues that reintroduced themselves in my late 20s. This caused me to change my life as I knew it.” This pivotal moment led her to immerse herself in the world of healing, nutrition, and cleansing. Having always been athletic, participating in dance, gymnastics, and other sports, Berkley had taken her first yoga class at 13. However, the demands of living in NYC and working in PR and brand consulting had sidelined these activities. It wasn’t until her health took a downturn that she rediscovered her love for yoga. “I fell in love with yoga; it was my escape,” she recalls. This period of self-discovery and healing was a turning point, leading her to leave her job of seven years to pursue a yoga certification—a move that was not as celebrated in the mid-2000s as it is today.

Berkley’s transformative journey took her to Bali, where she experienced her first real pause since childhood.

“It was the first time I took a break. I checked in with myself and worked through so much,” she shares. It was during this trip that the concept of Live The Process crystallized. “The word ‘process’ was infused into my psyche, and it’s all I could think about. Live The Process was born in Bali.”

2014, pioneering the luxury fashion activewear market.

The brand, initially conceived as a content and commerce site celebrating people, their processes, and products, took shape with a clear vision. “I wanted activewear that was nonbranded, had a certain design aesthetic, was feminine, elegant, and didn’t lose shape. I wanted long-lasting fabric that was soft on the body and a color palette that was core: black, nude, with pops of color,” Berkley explains. Her vision extended beyond the studio, aiming to create pieces versatile enough for “studio to street and beyond.”

Upon returning to NYC, Berkley resumed consulting to support herself. Her first client, SLT, provided invaluable experience during the height of the boutique fitness craze. Despite returning to full-time agency life, she never let go of her dream. It wasn’t until she met her partner, Jared Vere, in late 2011 that Live The Process began to take tangible form. The brand officially launched in

Berkley credits numerous mentors and experiences for shaping her path, including her parents and former boss Kelly Cutrone. “Kelly introduced me to the true world of spirituality and taught me about work ethic, creativity, and intuition,” she shares.

Looking ahead, Berkley is focused on growth. She envisions partnerships, collaborations, new classes, workshops, and global expansion.

“We’re launching a new collection with ballerina Violetta Komyshan and working on making our scent available for purchase,” she reveals. As she continues to evolve and scale Live The Process, Berkley remains committed to the brand’s ethos of authenticity, community, and living one’s process.

“Live The Process has been my biggest teacher,” Berkley reflects. “You have to trust the journey, even when it’s tough. As long as you’re growing and learning, you are living your process.”

CHEF ANGIE MAR

Chef Angie Mar’s culinary evolution and vision

Chef Angie Mar’s journey into the world of culinary excellence began in the most natural setting: her family’s restaurants and frozen food factories. “I come from a restaurant family, and I really just grew up running around my family’s restaurants,” Mar tells GRAZIA USA of her formative years. “It was those memories and that foundation that instilled in me this idea of hospitality.”

At just eight years old, Mar had two pivotal experiences that would shape her culinary path. Living an international childhood between Taipei, Taiwan, and Oxford, England, she found herself on a spring break trip to France. There, she first tasted veal liver, a dish that sparked her love of French cuisine. “I didn’t know anything could be that delicious. I wanted to stay in Paris and even begged to go to boarding school there,” Mar recalls with a laugh.

Despite her early inclinations, Mar’s path to the culinary world was not straightforward. Her family, with their immigrant mindset, steered her toward the corporate world. However, almost two decades ago, she left the corporate sphere, moved to New York City, and pursued her true calling: cooking. With formal training at a French culinary school and hands-on experience, Mar

appeared on Chopped, where she won the Grill Masters tournament; Mar bought her first restaurant, NYC’s The Beatrice Inn, in 2015 and relaunched it in 2016, marking the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey. In 2021, Mar opened Les Trois Chevaux in Greenwich Village, which earned accolades from the culinary world, and this year the space was reborn as Le B., a sleek upscale French eatery that is both refined and approachable.

For Mar, inspiration comes from various sources, but her love for classic French technique remains constant. “Only recently, in the last three or so years, have I come into my own in terms of the way I cook. I apply that classic technique to not only classic dishes but also integrate my Chinese heritage. My food is firmly rooted in American culture—classic yet modern at the same time,” she explains. Mentorship has played a significant role in Mar’s career. She highlights Jacques Pépin as a tremendous influence, praising his wealth of knowledge. Mentoring the next generation is also important to Mar: “The world of cuisine is changing every single day. It’s important to make sure that everyone working with me is given the chance to succeed. I’ve always tried to have a learning kitchen.”

Mar envisions her restaurant Le B. as a crossroads of cuisine, art, fashion, nightlife, and culture. “We’ve created this beautiful little restaurant where you walk through the doors and find yourself in this world we’ve created. It’s very special,” she says with pride. Among her beloved dishes, Mar highlights her signature TFC—a luxurious blend of foie gras, truffles, and caviar. “I love it because it’s filled with technique. Laminated bread, foie gras terrines marbled with dehydrated porcini—the idea is to take the best ingredients and let them shine.”

Mar’s journey is a testament to the power of passion, resilience, and continuous learning. As she continues to evolve and inspire, her story reminds us that true success lies in embracing both tradition and innovation, and in creating experiences that linger long after the meal is over.

Julie Macklowe’s entrepreneurial spark ignited early. “The entrepreneurial bug bit when I was in fourth grade,” she recalls. Her first venture involved buying candy in bulk from Woolworths and reselling it from her locker. This enterprising spirit, however, led to suspension from school. “The school would have preferred I played with blocks,” she quips, but it was clear that Macklowe’s path would be anything but conventional.

After college, Macklowe spent more than a decade in the high-stakes world of private equity and finance. In an environment dominated by high testosterone, she found a unique way to fit in: developing a taste for single malt whiskey. “I started drinking whiskey as a way to fit into the boy’s club and found that I really enjoyed it,” she says. Macklowe’s first major entrepreneurial leap came with the creation of V Beaute, a skincare and cosmetics company. “I wanted to work in a category where I got to create the product, the marketing, and the image of the brand,” she explains. The beauty industry resonated with her, allowing her to blend creativity with business strategy.

The inspiration for The Macklowe, her American single malt whiskey, came during a moment of reflection on her

JULIE MACKLOWE

extensive whiskey collection. Despite its global diversity, she noticed a glaring absence: no American single malts. “I decided to create it on my own,” she says.

Creating The Macklowe was a meticulous process that combined market research, brand positioning, and a deep understanding of the best ingredients and sources. The evolution from idea to execution took years, compounded by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions. However, this period also allowed the liquid to age to perfection, setting the stage for a highquality product launch.

Macklowe draws inspiration from nature, finding her best ideas during solitary walks, hikes, and bike rides. “I often have my best thoughts when I am not thinking about work at all,” she says. Living in New York City also provides a rich tapestry of fashion, art, and architecture, fueling her creative spirit.

Macklowe’s approach to entrepreneurship is a blend of planning and adaptability. Product development, especially in the whiskey industry, requires meticulous planning due to the long aging process. “It takes about four to five years to launch a product,” she notes. However, when it comes to sales,

the landscape is more unpredictable. “We have to stay nimble and flexible, listen to market feedback, and pivot as needed.”

The launch of the rye whiskey exemplifies this adaptability. Despite preselling the entire batch, Macklowe emphasizes the need to wait patiently for the next to age to perfection. Among the many memorable moments in her career, one stands out: the unofficial launch of The Macklowe at her 45th birthday party. “We had 1,000 people come, and Bob Moses played for nearly three hours in a leather-and-lingerie-inspired party, complete with a seven-foot Macklowe ice sculpture,” she recalls.

Looking ahead, Macklowe’s mission is clear: to build The Macklowe brand bottle by bottle, focusing on the right markets and customers. “We are constrained by the aging process of the product, as we will only bottle the highest quality liquid,” she explains. This commitment to quality ensures that The Macklowe remains a distinguished name in the world of whiskey. As Macklowe continues to carve out her legacy in the whiskey industry, her experience serves as an inspiration to entrepreneurs everywhere, proving that with vision, resilience, and a bit of boldness, anything is possible.

Julie Macklowe’s spirited journey from finance to whiskey royalty

Redefining hair care for women over 40 with Commence BROOKE SHIELDS

In the ever-evolving world of entrepreneurship, Brooke Shields stands out as a beacon of resilience, vision, and inspiration. At 59, Shields has embarked on a new chapter as CEO and founder of Commence, a hair care brand for women over 40. Shields’ five-decade career has been nothing short of remarkable. From her early days in the limelight as a child star to her acclaimed acting career and now, in her role as a pioneering entrepreneur, Shields has continually reinvented herself. Reflecting on her journey, she shares, “I’m 59 and have been working for over 50 years—and I’ve been busy this whole time! I have decades’ worth of energy and life experience that are feeding my new chapter as CEO of Commence.”

For Shields, the transition to becoming the CEO of Commence was driven by a profound desire to create something meaningful for women like her. “In this new chapter, I really wanted to create something that draws on my experience as a woman of 59, something that’s actually of use to other women like me,” she explains. “This career evolution from someone who essentially executes the vision of other people to someone who leads a team based on her own vision has been full of a lot of learning … and

a not-insignificant amount of blind faith.”

Hair damage has long been a concern for women of all ages, but after age 40, biological changes significantly impact hair health. Traditional hair care solutions often focus on surfacelevel repair, leaving deeper issues unaddressed. Commence, however, aims to create harmony between the scalp and hair strands, nourishing from root to tip.

Shields and her team have developed a line of hair care products that harness the power of sulfur-rich peptides, plant-derived stem cells, and coconut nutrients in a proprietary blend. This innovative formula, known as the Commence Complex, is designed to support healthy hair growth and scalp health, offering women a holistic approach to hair care.

The Commence collection includes three essential products designed to fortify and nourish the scalp and hair: a non-aerosol 2-in-1 Instant Shampoo; 3-in-1 Leave-In Conditioner to hydrate, nourish, and protect strands; and a Thickening Root Serum to calm stressed scalps while increasing hair density and thickness from the root to the tip.

Shields’ inspiration comes from the community she has cultivated over

the past five years. With an online following of 2 million women over the age of 40, she has fostered a space for shared experiences and mutual support. “We speak daily. We’re united—as we’re women who are all on the precipice of ‘what’s next?’ I truly have listened and learned so much from my community, and that is where I find both inspiration and motivation,” she shares. Shields’ dedication to listening and doing the work quietly, considerately, and tenaciously is evident in every aspect of her leadership. “It’s been all about building the right teams around me to give me the confidence to launch Commence,” she notes. As CEO, she leads with vision and relies on a team of industry-leading experts to fill in the gaps and help fulfill that vision. “And of course, there comes a point when you just have to take the leap,” she reflects. As she continues to lead Commence, Shields remains committed to empowering women and creating products that genuinely serve their needs. Her story is a powerful reminder that it’s never too late to reinvent oneself and pursue new dreams.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE

Fall’s most fabulous beauty trends recall the edgy glamour of the ‘80s. Gwen Flamberg discovers how to re-flex that strong-yet-sexy vibe.

INHALE DEEPLY

Brunette hair is the crowning glory of the mysterious and sultry, but it also comes with some serious benefits. “Gold tones and depth often boost youth and bring out natural features,” says hair color queen Jenna Perry, who’s responsible for the hues of ravenhaired It Girls including Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid. To maintain brilliance, Perry tells clients to shampoo and condition with colorsafe formulas (she favors the R+Co Gemstone duo, $68, randco.com) as an “essential first step.” She also recommends color-depositing conditioner and a gloss every six weeks, “especially for summer blondes looking to go dark for the new season.” All types will benefit from a weekly deep conditioning mask, like Rōz Foundation, to keep the hair’s cuticle closed, maintaining pigment and shine. $48, rozhair.com.

INHALE DEEPLY

When it comes to the fragrance of the moment, subtle need not apply. Think heady, hit-you-over-the-head notes that leave a lasting impression. But unlike your mother’s perfume during the decade of excess and extravagance, “today’s intense fragrances have refined formulas that rely on the magnification of an ingredient,” explains Linda G. Levy, president of the Fragrance Foundation. By elevating a single note or accord, “it’s a full on explosion of [scent],” she says. Case in point: Lancôme’s new Absolue Les Parfums — a niche collection of 11 scents, with the essence of roses grown at the brand’s Grasse estate, Domaine de la Rose, at the center of each. I Flamed a Rose blends the romantic blooms with patchouli and amber. $270, lancome.com.

FAVOR THE BOLD

Soon to be on everyone’s lips: velvety, saturated hues of brick red, black cherry, and crimson. Of all the beauty moves to make for the new season, a pop of intense color on the pout has the greatest impact, but it’s not for novices. “Prepping the lips is essential,” says makeup artist Kate Lee. Start by slathering on “a generous amount” of lip balm, removing it with a dampened washcloth, “preferably linen,” says the pro. Next, trace the outline with a liner that matches the natural lip color (not the lipstick shade), then fill in color from the center out. If you invest in one perfect lipstick this season, make it Chanel 31 Le Rouge Matte in Rouge Tweed — the refillable case is inspired by the mirrored staircase in Gabrielle Chanel’s Paris apartment. $195, chanel.com.

ON THE FRINGE

Bangs are back. But gone are the days of structured, spiky strands. The shape now is “more brushed and soft,” says Hollywood hairstylist Bryce Scarlett. He should know—he just elevated Daisy Edgar-Jones’s famous fringe for the Twisters press tour. Just don’t expect to wake up with perfect hair; bangs take a bit of work. According to Scarlett, that means key styling products and tools. For that full, windswept look, he suggests using a medium round brush to lift locks that’ve been spritzed with a combination of Drybar Triple Sec 3-in-1 Finishing Spray and Detox Dry Shampoo. $28, drybar.com.

Think Guy Bourdin, Patrick Nagel, Duran Duran’s Rio girl... fall beauty is cool, captivating and leaves a decidedly lasting impression

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

FEELING CHEEKY

High slash blush says, “I make my own rules,” but your fall flush can be less new wave and more nuanced. “In the ‘80s, the trend was done with heavy powder blush that was extremely vibrant and went straight up to the hairline,” says Tracee Ellis Ross’ makeup artist Romy Soleimani. For a decidedly modern finish, Soleimani suggests using a sheer serum or cream blush so “glowing skin shines through.” Put a drop of a product such as Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush in Craft on the back of your hand and “press it in with your fingers,” before using a brush to buff edges. $36, hourglasscosmetics.com.

GET RICH CHOCOLATE

A swipe of saturated brown lacquer is the express route to statement nails now. The hue “conveys sophistication and timelessness,” says celebrity manicurist Jin Soon Choi. To update the muddy shade for the 21st century, she suggests playing with finishes and adding a texture topcoat such as matte or velvet. As for shape, consider a long almond “to highlight the richness of dark chocolate and add a touch of elegance,” she says. Since dark polish makes flaws more obvious, prevent chips in the first place by applying top coat weekly (the pro recommends her JINsoon Top Gloss, $18, jinsoon.com) and dabbing on oil from cuticles to tips each night before bed. For just the right level of opacity and shine, try Les Mains Hermès Nail Polish in Brun Bistre. $57, hermes.com.

Leave low maintenance behind. Gwen Flamberg pinpoints the best new polish-promoting essentials to up your beauty game as the temperature cools.

THE GREATS GREATS

SMOOTH AS SILK

Say so long to summer-ravaged hair: Ranavat’s Mighty Majesty Renewing Leave In Treatment is loaded with lotus water and sesame oil to tame frizz, plus vitamin C-rich amla to strengthen brittle strands. Run a dab through a second-day style and delight in the alluring jasmine scent. ($58, goop.com)

SHINE ON

To achieve the sleeker-than-sleek glass hair seen on Fall runways including Fendi and Schiaparelli, apply Oribe’s Mirror Rinse Glass Hair Treatment after shampoo (and conditioner, for thicker, coarser locks), rinsing after just one minute. The weightless potion seals the cuticle for an impossibly glossy finish. ($64, oribe.com)

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

Like a dream, La Mer’s new Rejuvenating Night Cream softens fine lines, smooths crepey texture, and boosts radiance — while you do nothing but catch zzz’s. The formula is powered by a proprietary marine complex, MRA-3, which sparks skin to repair itself. ($450, lamer.com)

CHIC SCENT

The bottle may conjure an old favorite—the highly coveted Collier de Chien bracelet—but Hermès Barénia Eau de Parfum marks a first for the brand. It’s the inaugural chypre scent created by in-house perfumer Christine Nagel, bursting with sensual notes of delicate butterfly lily, oakwood, and intense, decadent patchouli. ($170, hermes.com)

NUDE ATTITUDE

Made from pure, plant-based pigments, Le Rouge Français’ Lipstick in Le Nude Kafir adapts to one’s natural lip tone and pH for a customized, ultra-flattering nude lip color on every skin tone. Bonus: It’s packed with shea butter and apricot oil to nourish the delicate pout, preventing chaps. ($62, lerougefrancais.com)

FIRM ANSWER

From the Paris-based facialist beloved by top models and celebrities for her unique fascia-movement technique (Naomi Campbell is a longtime client) Sophie Carbonari’s S Serum firms skin via active plant cells while boosting

SKIN TWIN

Fall’s return to business calls for a complexion with just a smidge more coverage. Enter Dior Forever Skin Perfect Multi-Use Foundation Stick, a cream-to-powder formula with a blurring effect. Peter Philips, the brand’s Creative and Image Director for Makeup, suggests using two or three shades to visually sculpt features. ($52, dior.com)

BRUSH WITH FAME

Detangling textured, curly, or frizzy hair just got easier. La Bonne Brosse, the wildly popular hair accessory of the fashion set, just launched a new style; the N.07 brush has two heights of rigid nylon fibers to make fast work of tangles on even the thickest manes and can be used on wet or dry hair.

($168, labonnebrosse.com)

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Chanel Haute Couture

WELL RED

The first signature red shade handpicked by Gucci Creative Director Sabato De Sarno, Gucci Rouge À Lèvres Mat matte lipstick in Rosso Ancora makes a bold statement. The velvety, deep ruby symbolizes passion, glamour and above all, a deep confidence. Plus, the Gucci-stamped bullet is divine! ($47, sephora.com)

STRONG SPRITZ

Luxe and powerful, Chloé’s L’eau de Parfum Intense packs a punch of sensual scent redolent of fresh raspberries and hyper-feminine rose before mellowing into earthy amber — the perfect expression of the brand’s boho-chic sensibility.

($168, macys.com)

OIL CHANGE

Sure, the Argan Melt-Away Cleansing Oil from Josie Maran leaves skin hydrated and nourished after cleansing (ideal as the air gets drier!) but it’s the brand’s commitment to radical sustainability that has us swooning. The amber glass bottle is made from 100% recycled glass, and it’s curbside recyclable once empty.

($38, josiemaran.com)

GLOW TIME

As you lose your summer tan, a dab of Embryolisse Radiant Complexion Cream in Apricot Glow under — or over — makeup imparts just the right amount of warm luminosity to maintain healthy outdoor vibes — even when there’s a chill in the air.

($32, us.embryolisse.com)

THIS SEASON’S TOP 10 MOST WANTED

EDITED BY SHELBY COMROE

1/ RADIANT RENEWAL

CLARK’S BOTANICALS SMOOTHING MARINE CREAM, $105, CLARKSBOTANICALS.COM

Clark’s Botanicals Marine Cream is a standout in skincare, powered by 5% sugar-derived glycolic acid (AHA) that goes beyond basic hydration to renew your complexion daily. Designed for normal to oily, congested skin, this cream does more than just moisturize—it exfoliates, clears pores, and revitalizes, bringing back a fresh, radiant glow while addressing signs of aging. Born from Francesco Clark’s personal journey after a life-altering accident, the formula is a thoughtful blend of science and nature that delivers tangible results. It’s packed with dehydrated algae microspheres to lock in moisture and reduce fine lines, glucosamine HCL to brighten and combat sun damage, and atelocollagen to firm and smooth the skin. A calming mix of jasmine, yeast, and coffee extracts soothes reactive skin, while the Jasmine Catalyst Complex ensures balanced hydration for all skin types. Committed to clean beauty, this vegan, cruelty-free cream is free from harmful ingredients, making it a mindful choice for both your skin and the environment. It’s more than just a moisturizer— it’s a skincare investment with results you can see and feel.

2/ HAPPY FEET

TOD’S YORKY GOMMINO, $1,175, TODS.COM.

In his debut collection for Tod’s, Creative Director Matteo Tamburini brings a contemporary twist to the brand’s classic Italian style. A standout from the collection, the Yorky version of the iconic Gommino loafer features leather fringes that add texture and movement to every stride. This sophisticated detail, combined with a refined metal front bar, signature handmade stitching, and the iconic rubber pebble outsole, perfectly embodies Tamburini’s vision of blending tradition with modernity.

3/

DKNY BLACK LOGO MEDIUM TOTE, $158, DKNY.COM. Your perfect fall tote found: Created as part of DKNY’s 35th anniversary collection, the DKNY Hadlee Tote is your ultimate go-to for those jam-packed days when you need both style and functionality. With ample space for all your work and daily essentials, this versatile bag is designed to seamlessly complement any outfit. Crafted for both durability and style; while reflecting the dynamic energy of New York City, the Hadlee Tote strikes the perfect balance between practicality and chic, making it a must-have for your everyday rotation, especially for those among us who see the city as their runway.

STYLISH SOUND

CHANEL PREMIÈRE SOUND WATCH, PRICE UPON REQUEST, (800) 550-0005.

Inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s vision, Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio, introduced the Première Sound watch—a sautoir necklace featuring a watch and wired headphones. This design builds on the iconic 1987 Première watch, blending Chanel’s classic elements with modern technology. The bracelet transforms into a necklace that easily connects to a smartphone or audio device. The headphones, designed for high-quality sound, offer volume control, playback, and call functionality. The Première Sound seamlessly combines timeless elegance with advanced audio technology, embodying Chanel’s spirit of freedom and innovation.

HIT THE SLOPES IN STYLE

X2 TUXEDO CATSUIT, $650, X2NYC.COM.

The tuxedo catsuit from luxury resort and ski wear brand X2, exemplifies its blend of evening wear and sportswear. Crafted from Japanese wool and inspired by black-tie attire, it features pleated shirting details for an elegant finish. X2, known for bespoke, sustainable designs, draws on the personal style and travel experiences of its designers. This catsuit reflects the brand’s commitment to combining sophistication with functionality, pushing the boundaries of ski wear while maintaining a chic, sporty elegance.

AN ICON

TIFFANY & CO. ELSA PERETTI BONE RING IN YELLOW GOLD, $4,800, TIFFANY.COM.

Tiffany & Co. has introduced a ring inspired by the iconic Bone cuff, originally designed by Elsa Peretti in the 1970s. Peretti, a pioneering jewelry designer known for her ability to blend organic forms with sleek modernity, first debuted the Bone cuff as a tribute to the natural world, drawing inspiration from the human body’s contours. This 18k yellow gold ring continues Peretti’s legacy, designed to gracefully hug the finger, whether worn traditionally or as a knuckle ring. With its powerful yet effortless style, the ring encapsulates the elegance and strength that Peretti’s designs have long been celebrated for, further cementing her influence in the world of jewelry design.

7PLUMPING POWERHOUSE

DIOR’S PRESTIGE LA MICRO-HUILE DE ROSE ACTIVATED SERUM, $350, DIOR.COM.

Dior’s Prestige La Micro-Huile de Rose Activated Serum is an advanced antiaging powerhouse for face and neck, enriched with Nutri-Rosapeptide, sourced from the incredibly resilient Rose de Granville. Inside, 10,000 microbeads deliver key nutrients to speed up skin recovery, boost plumpness, and lock in deep hydration. The formula is supercharged with micronutrients and omegas making it a potent solution for visibly rejuvenated skin. Tested under extreme conditions, including post-laser treatment, the serum has been shown to double skin recovery time, make skin three times plumper, and reduce wrinkles by a third in just one month. Dior’s commitment to sustainability is reflected in the packaging, crafted from recycled glass and decorated with organic ink.

8/ BACK TO SCHOOL COOL

PRADA LEATHER BOMBER JACKET WITH PATCH, $8,800, PRADA.COM.

This oversized bomber jacket from Prada combines classic style with a modern twist. Made from soft leather with a subtle worn effect, it features ribbed knit trim at the collar, cuffs, and hem for a comfortable fit. The standout detail is the college-style logo patch, which adds a vintage feel to the design. Complementing this nostalgic element is the sleek, geometric triangle logo, giving the jacket a distinctive and sophisticated edge. This piece effortlessly merges retro aesthetics with contemporary style, making it a versatile addition to any wardrobe.

EMPORIO ARMANI CARGO JEANS, $375, ARMANI.COM. He’s not called il Maestro for nothing. These cargo-style Emporio Armani jeans are the perfect blend of functionality and style, making them an excellent choice for fall. Featuring a mid-rise waist and a wide, straight leg, they’re crafted from pure cotton denim that’s designed to feel sturdy and durable. The hard-wearing fabric is ideal for the cooler months, providing both comfort and warmth as the temperatures drop. Versatile and designed for everyday wear, these jeans transition seamlessly between seasons, making them a must-have for your fall wardrobe. 9/

10 AUTUMN’S AROMA

DONNA KARAN CASHMERE & TIARE FLOWER, $150, DONNAKARAN.COM.

From the Donna Karan Cashmere Collection, Cashmere & Tiare Flower is a modern floral fragrance that captures the multifaceted nature of a woman. This scent radiates joyful sophistication, balancing tropical freshness, delicate florals, and rich, ambery woods. It opens with the bright, sun-kissed notes of bergamot and sweet lemon, leading into the captivating warmth of Tiare flower, which adds a creamy sweetness. The fragrance wraps up with the comforting depth of vetiver, leaving a luxurious, cashmere-soft finish.

CORE Soft

For fall, Fendi introduces the Peekaboo Soft – its latest take on the coveted house icon. Lightened and deconstructed, the new Peekaboo Soft is the ultimate expression of subtle sophistication

PHOTO: ELLEN FEDORS

PHOTO: ELLEN FEDORS

Demi Lovato takes CON TROL

As co-director of her new documentary, Child Star, Lovato debuts her talents behind the camera as well as in front of it.

Before Demetria Devonne Lovato became Demi Lovato—or before she began her acting career on Barney & Friends at the ripe age of eight—she would sit with her great-grandparents in their living room in Irving, Texas, and watch television. “I just have this memory of Shirley Temple appearing on their TV, and I thought: I’m going to be the next Shirley Temple,” she recalls at the beginning of her latest documentary, Child Star, which was released on Hulu September 17. “If she can do it, I can do it. And I did.”

Sounds like a fairy tale, right? A young girl dreams a big dream, chases it, and ultimately achieves it with flying colors. It’s a path so many have sought—and continue to seek. Well, she wants you to know that it didn’t come without a price. “I didn’t realize that it would have such a negative impact on my mental health,” Lovato adds of her nonstop, triple-threat career, which includes dozens of TV and movie credits and eight Billboard-charting albums. “And unfortunately, sometimes that looks explosive, like an incident where you punch your backup dancer on an airplane or you overdose from heroin.”

We’re not even at the film’s five-minute mark, and she’s already laying it all on the table. Both incidents—the first occurred in 2010 and the second in

2018—have been covered extensively. Lovato was the most-Googled person on the planet the year of her near-fatal overdose, and at 32, she’s already starred in three documentaries that touch upon her struggles with addiction, mental health, and an eating disorder: Demi Lovato: Stay Strong (2012), Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated (2017), and Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil (2021). So there’s no need to rehash it all here, but Lovato isn’t shying away from her past, either. Child Star arguably marks the beginning of a new chapter for her—one where she can look back at her life and career thus far with some critical distance. As co-director, she was able to go behind the camera and focus on listening and learning.

“At the end of Dancing With the Devil, I turned to my producer, Michael Ratner, and I said, ‘I have a new idea,’” Lovato recalls over Zoom one morning from her home in Los Angeles. She hadn’t seen a documentary about child stardom before—one that takes a more macro approach, tracing the history of children singers and actors, from Shirley Temple to Drew Barrymore to those of the present day, with firsthand interviews that unpack the complex, often harmful side effects of the experience. “I said, ‘I want to do this.’ And he said, ‘Let’s go.’”

Lovato reached out to

director Nicola Marsh, whose documentary, Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story (2022), about a professional skater who is transgender and nonbinary, caught her attention. (Lovato came out as nonbinary in 2021, although she now uses both she/her and they/them pronouns after embracing her femininity once more.)

“I’d always seen Demi, but I didn’t know that much about her,” says Marsh, who eventually

“I’M GRATEFUL THAT I WAS ABLE TO HAVE THOSE CONVERSATIONS BECAUSE IT MADE ME FEEL LESS ALONE.”

came on board as co-director alongside Lovato. “And this woman comes down the stairs dressed in black with a Korn T-shirt on and a bunch of piercings, no makeup, glasses. … She doesn’t smile easily. I mean, she does professionally, but she’s quite serious. And I was like, I love this person.” Together, they made a list of current and for-

Stella McCartney blazer, trousers, stellamccartney. com; Paumé Los Angeles ring, paumelosangeles. com; Lovato’s own hoop earrings, worn throughout; Christian Louboutin shoes, christianlouboutin.com.

Marc Jacobs coat and skirt, marcjacobs.com; Seymoure gloves, seymouregloves.com.

mer child stars that they’d like to interview. In the end, they got Drew Barrymore, whose career began when she was 11 months old; Christina Ricci, who starred in her first film, Mermaids (1990), with Cher when she was nine; Kenan Thompson of Nickelodeon’s All That and Kenan & Kel; fellow Disney Channel stars Alyson Stoner and Raven-Symoné; and the Gen Z sensation JoJo Siwa. Lovato’s in-depth conversations on camera

“I THINK WE HAVE TO HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE SO THAT THE FUTURE GENERATION OF CHILD STARS DON'T STRUGGLE AS MUCH AS WE DID.”

with each of them are compassionate and shockingly candid, as they relive uncomfortable moments and reveal struggles similar to her own.

“I was tired of being on camera,” Lovato tells me of her decision to direct. She’s staring at her computer camera, wearing minimal makeup; thick-rimmed, black cat-eye glasses; and a black T-shirt. It occurs to

me that the disassociation I often feel on Zoom, where I am trying to be present in my mind and body while staring at a small, talking head version of myself, is perhaps some very, very light version of how Lovato has felt her entire life in the spotlight. With Child Star, although she is the one conducting the interviews and her career serves as the organizing principle, she is, for once, not the main subject of the film.

“I think she’d be quite happy for it to be even less about her, to be honest,” says Marsh. “She would say to me all the time, ‘Lord knows the world doesn’t need another documentary about me.’ But I’d tell her: ‘You’re the thing that gives this a voice.’”

Remarkably, Lovato was able to take her ego out of the equation—a rarity for a documentary where one of the subjects’ names is in the credits—and focus on getting the best material she could from others. (She’s so good at interviewing that I tell her she could pivot to a career in journalism, although I wouldn’t recommend it.) “She’s basically being critiqued on camera by friends and colleagues, and she’s owning it and leaning into it,” says Marsh. “She’s also the director, so she could have easily said, ‘Take those pieces out. I don’t think they make me look very good.’ But never once was there even a whisper about toning it down.”

“I mean, you weren’t the

nicest person,” says a very understanding Raven-Symoné, who guest-starred in a 2010 episode of Sonny With a Chance, the Disney Channel show on which Lovato played Sonny.

Lovato also has a frank conversation on-camera with Stoner, with whom she filmed Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). “The last few years of working together felt really challenging,” says Stoner, who now uses they/them pronouns. “The treatment did feel drastically different.” They sigh and take a deep breath on camera. “My heart is racing,” they admit. “I do remember a sense of walking on eggshells. There was definitely a lot of fear of a blowup.”

Lovato apologizes and acknowledges that Stoner’s feelings were valid. “It felt good to clear the air,” she says in retrospect. “Talking to people who knew me at a different time in my life was challenging because I wanted to apologize for my behavior. I wasn’t the nicest person to work with at times because I was struggling so much internally, and I was under a lot of pressure. But having those conversations with Alyson and Raven was really cathartic. They were so lovely, so incredible, and so receptive, and I was so grateful for that.”

Lovato’s interviews with fellow child stars reveal that, unfortunately, her experience was not unique. Many of them struggled

“IT

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with addiction, body image issues, and general feelings of exhaustion and isolation. At least two of them were extorted by the adults in their lives. But thankfully, they can laugh about some of it now. At one point, Lovato and Ricci, for example, compare notes about how they snuck alcohol on set. They also help each other put back the pieces and fill in the blanks, as a number of them can’t recall swaths of their childhoods, perhaps as a trauma response. Before reaching out to Raven-Symoné for an interview, Lovato didn’t even remember that they’d acted alongside each other on her Disney Channel show. “Hearing that from some of the participants in the film was so relieving to me because I thought I was the only one who didn’t remember a lot of my past,” she says. “I’m grateful that I was able to have those conversations because it made me feel less alone.”

In this way, the film is not about any one child star but the machine that creates them—and, in some cases, breaks them. Networks like Disney help to fuel the dream of child stardom with shows like Hannah Montana and Sonny With a Chance, which are about becoming famous, and profit massively off of the merchandise, albums, tours, etc.. But what we don’t often see is how the real-life stars pay the mental and emotional price. Child Star shows the

good, the bad, and the ugly, which is notable considering that Hulu is owned by Disney, but it doesn’t point any fingers, either. “My personal decisions led to where I am today, and the accountability is really on myself,” Lovato says.

If she’d known the high price of fame, though, she may not have wanted it so badly growing up, and the film aims to lay out the facts. Stoner cites a statistic that people who experience fame have an average lifespan that is younger than non-famous people. (After her overdose, Lovato experienced three strokes, organ failure, and a heart attack.) They also say fame has addictive properties similar to those of drugs and alcohol. “So if that’s the case, why are we hooking a child to a drug that’s fundamentally altering their brain chemistry and future development?” they ask.

The film is a cautionary tale but also a hopeful one. JoJo Siwa, who is now 21, represents what the next generation of child stardom looks like, which is to say, extremely online. She tells Lovato that she posts anywhere from 250 to 300 times a day on social media—a statistic that shocks even Lovato, who has 266 million followers. “My whole day is filmed,” Siwa says. “There’s nothing left for me at the end of [it].”

Siwa and her generation are more aware of mental health, though, and comfortable sharing their personal identity with the

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world. In 2021, without meaning to, Siwa came out publicly as gay and held her ground when the president of Nickelodeon called.

“Doing that—speaking out and just saying, ‘This is who I am,’ without telling anybody first—I think that was so brave,” says Lovato, who came out as bisexual in 2020. “I didn’t come out until I was 25, so anytime I see someone of a younger age than 25 coming out, I just think it’s so incredibly courageous.”

“THAT'S

WHY I SET OUT TO MAKE THIS FILM—TO GET MORE ANSWERS.”

Lovato doesn’t want to discourage young people from following their dreams, she just wants to protect them as best she can. When she was growing up, the California Child Actor’s Bill, also known as the Coogan Law,

safeguarded a portion of her earnings from exploitation and abuse until she turned 18. Social media stars do not yet have these same protections, however, and Lovato has become an advocate alongside Chris McCarty, a Gen Z activist and founder of Quit Clicking Kids, as well as Washington State Rep. Kristine Reeves to put more regulations in place for the next generation. She’s even offered to testify.

“I think we have to hold people accountable so that the future generation of child stars don’t struggle as much as we did,” she says. “I don’t know if that’s even possible—if child stardom just has that effect on people, or if it’s the conglomerates that play a role. I don’t know. That’s why I set out to make this film— to get more answers.”

Considering that so much of her childhood escapes her memory, it makes sense that she’d want to retrace her steps in order to move forward. The film ends on an optimistic note with a song she says she wrote as a letter to her younger self and inner child. “Can’t stop you. / Don’t want to. / Here’s what I wish I knew,” she sings. “The sharks in the water will teach you to swim. / The thorns on the roses will thicken your skin. / People might hurt you and break promises. / But darling, I promise you this: you’ll be okay, kid.”

At the moment, Lovato, who used to do something like 70 shows in 90 days with almost no time off, is enjoying spending quality time at home with her fiancé, singer-songwriter Jordan “Jutes” Lutes, and her dogs, Batman, Ella, and Pickle, as well as her family and friends. She’s in the studio working on a new album, but she’s not rushing it. “I don’t know what it sounds like yet, but we’re moving along,” she says.

On the subject of cooking, a renewed passion of hers, a huge smile crosses her face. “It’s very therapeutic—and a big fuck you to my eating disorder that I used to have,” she says. “I’m working on building my confidence in the kitchen and also finding freedom with food. I’ll find a recipe online or elsewhere, and I’ll make it and give it to my fiancé, and he loves it every time. I think he might be biased, but we have a great time in the kitchen.”

Of course, she’s still a high achiever with high standards. One time, a cake took her four hours to make and “smelled like a fart.” So she started over. The next one took her seven hours. But she’s not giving up and is also being kinder to herself. “I recently made spinach bow tie pasta from scratch, and it was really, really good,” she says, beaming. “I was really proud of that.”

HOURS

Brooke Shields and Jack Nicholson at Calvin Klein’s apartment before going to Studio 54, 1981

Halston surrounded by an entourage including Bianca Jagger, Victor Hugo, Karen Bjornson, Nancy North, Bill Dugan, and Connie Cook at the Met Gala, 1981

Pat Cleveland, Martin Snaric, Halston, and Marina Schiano at Regine’s, 1980

Jackie Kennedy Onassis at the Met Gala, 1979

Brothers Mauricio and Roger Padilha, co-authors of a culty series of Rizzoli monographs chronicling the work of Antonio Lopez, Stephen Sprouse, and other colorful New York characters, trace their love of all things downtown to studying the boldface names on the party pages in W magazine as Long Island teens in the 1980s. “This one time when I was 16, I told our parents I wanted to go to the Palladium to meet Dianne Brill,” Mauricio recalls. “They said, ‘You can go, but you have to bring your 13-year-old brother so you guys can keep an eye on each other.’” This was in the days before clubs bothered to card, so off the boys went on the LIRR, inaugurating a series of extracurricular nightlife adventures where they met many of their glossy heroes.

The Padilhas’ latest effort, Dustin Pittman: New York After Dark, adds to their demimonde pantheon the very nightlife photographer who shot the party pictures that first captured their imagination. They worked with Pittman to catalog close to 300 of his archival images spanning the years 1969 to 1983, many previously unpublished, including photos of Andy Warhol, Halston, Bianca Jagger, Lou Reed, Madonna, and assorted anonymous partygoers. “Dustin is compulsive about photographing, but he’s not one for archiving and labeling,” says Roger. “He literally just photographs, throws the film in a box, and then goes out again. He takes thousands of photos every night,

and he shoots every night of the week still to this day.” The book is a veritable time capsule of a still-gritty Gotham where the uptown vibe of Regine’s—a society disco that required tuxedos and evening gowns for entry—and the punk sensibility of the downtown rock club Max’s Kansas City met on the dance floor at Studio 54.

Pittman grew up far from this heady orbit on a farm in the Adirondacks, and his success is due to a combination of grit and a series of fortuitous encounters with the glitterati. He discovered the art of photography aged seven at the Treasure Island newsstand at the local mall. “I said, ‘Mom, I know you’re going to be about three hours so let me stay here and look at magazines,’’’ Pittman recalls. A Boys Club of America photography course taught him the basic principles of composition. “I would photograph my cows and just keep on practicing,” he says. Pittman got his first taste of city life when as a teen in the 1960s he took the Greyhound Bus down to New York to attend Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix gigs with his older brother who was living in the Village. But it was a chance meeting with Liza Minnelli when he was hired as a local production assistant for the 1969 film The Sterile Cuckoo shot near his home in Hamilton County that clinched the idea of making it in the city that doesn’t sleep. “Liza said I should come to New York and go to art school,” Pittman says.

He enrolled at School of Visual Arts after atten-

Lou Reed, 1974

Divine at Karl Lagerfeld’s Versailles party at Studio 54, 1979

ding Woodstock, trading the barnyard for Bethesda Fountain where he took to shooting Super Eight films of the artists and activists— including a few Warhol superstars—who congregated in Central Park on Sundays. “Ingrid Superstar said that she wanted me to meet somebody,” Pittman says. “She took me down to The Factory and introduced me to Andy.” Pittman’s credits his time at 33 Union Square West with helping nurture his cinema verité–like photographic style. There’s an uncommon intimacy to Pittman’s celebrity photos, thanks to his being friends with many of his subjects. Ask for the story behind, say, a picture of Divine sporting a magnificent pouf hairstyle at Karl Lagerfeld’s Versailles-themed Studio 54 party, and he’ll tell you how they were once neighbors and he’d see the drag icon taking out the garbage in house slippers.

During this period, Pittman found cheap accommodation in Alphabet City where he stayed for years. “I paid $12.50 a month for a railroad apartment with a pull chain toilet and a bathtub in the kitchen that I used as a table on 14th Street between Avenues C and D,” he says. “It gave me the freedom to go out and pursue my artistic dreams and passions because of the low overhead.” As for how Pittman came to specialize in nightlife photography, he insists that he’s never thought of it as such. “Day for night, night for day—it was all like one,” he says. “I always had my camera with me.”

A typical 24-hour period

might start with late afternoon brunch at Max’s Kansas City (owner Mickey Ruskin would put out chicken wings and chickpeas for the regulars), followed by a Velvet Underground gig; shooting vignettes in the back room with Andrea Whips, Eric Emerson, and other friends from the Factory crew; then ending up at someone’s loft in the wee hours for an impromptu jam session.

As the decade went on and Pittman’s reputation grew, he was given swishier assignments like covering the Met Gala, and he continued to befriend everyone he encountered from Vogue’s imperious editor Diana Vreeland to swans C.Z. Guest, Nan Kempner, and Pat Buckley. “When I photographed Jackie O., she didn’t treat me as a paparazzi,” Pittman says. “We’d be in the Temple of Dendur, and she would sit down with me at one of the tables and have a conversation.”

Volumes have been written about the legendary Studio 54, but Pittman says what made it so great was its democratic sensibility. “At Studio 54 it didn’t matter if you were from Beverly Hills or Bensonhurst, they let all kinds of people in,” he says. “It was the first club where you could be from anywhere and dance with Diana Ross or Liz Taylor.” Among his favorite photos is a wide-angle shot of New Year’s Eve revelers on the dance floor captured at the stroke of midnight. “It was like being in Oz, except I didn’t want to go home to Kansas,” he says.

Pierre Cardin and Raquel Welch at the Met Gala, 1982

Reveler at Studio 54, circa 1977–79

“AT STUDIO 54 IT DIDN’T MATTER IF YOU WERE FROM BEVERLY HILLS OR BENSONHURST.”

Klaus Nomi at Xenon, 1979

Diana Vreeland and Liza Minnelli at Studio 54, 1979

Studio 54’s New Year’s Eve Celebration, 1979

C

CHIC &DIS OR DER LY

PHOTOGRAPHY

This seasons most inspired style is found in the swagger of rock and roll mixed with the rebellious spirit of punk.

JIMMY FONTAINE

STYLING

KAREN LEVITT

Celine by Hedi Slimane coat, celine.com; Bulgari necklace, rings, bulgari.com.

FASHION

Zumi Rosow—Musician/ The Black Lips Band/ Model/ Jewelry Maker

Dolce & Gabbana jacket, dolcegabbana.com; Rinaldy Yunardi earpiece, @rinaldyyunardi

MAAD—- Artist/DJ/Curator What is chic to you? Effortless confidence is chic to me! Its all about feeling comfortable in your skin and owning it. Being unapologetically yourself is very chic.

Tom Ford bustier, pants, tomford.com; Tiffany & Co. earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, tiffany.com.

FASHION

Izabella—Musician/ Niis band/ model / music educator

Marc Jacobs coat, marcjacobs.com; Noir Kei Ninomiya top, shop-us. doverstreetmarket.com; Paumé Los Angeles earrings, paumelosangeles.com.

vancleefarpels.com.

Dolce & Gabbana top, gloves, dolcegabbana.com; Van Cleef & Arpels brooch,

Kate Clover—Musician, Songwriter

FASHION

McQueen by Seán McGirr coat, alexandermcqueen.com; CHRISHABANA earrings, necklaces, sunglasses, chrishabanajewelry.com.

Carmen—Columbian Model/ Artist

Staz Lindes—musician from The Paranoyds + 2m8o/ flower sniffer/ clay player/ fashion model based in Los Angeles What is a Luxury to you? Being able to step outside my house barefoot. Going to the garden to pick fruit and lettuce. THIS IS LUXURY!!

Nina Ricci dress, ninaricci. com; Zana Bayne corset, shop.zanabayne.com.

Philipp Plein coat, plein.com; Versace top, versace.com; Ashton Michael leather top, ashtonmichael.com; Bootzy Couture collar, bootzycouture.com; Dolce & Gabbana hat, dolcegabbana.com.

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Dani Miller—Musician/ Singer for Surfbort & Trashworld/ DJ/ Aggressive Smiler

What’s chic to you? Chic is not caring what thinksanyone of you. Chic is big black sunglasses. Chic is cheetah print. Chic is being wild, having fun rocking out on planetspaceship earth. To be Chic is to be kind, to be chic is to be butdepressed then push on through to the good times

Below: Thom Browne shirt, vest, coat, thombrowne.com.

Opposite page: Gianfranco Ferre from Paumé Los Angeles bodysuit, paumelosangeles.com; Bootzy Couture collars, bootzycouture.com.

Versace

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Philipp Plein sweater, plein.com; Van Cleef & Arpels earrings, vancleefarpels.com.

CLOVER, ZUMI ROSOW, MAAD, STAZ LINDES AT VISION LOS ANGELES, IZABELLA AT MARGAUX

AGENCY, CARMEN AT ONE MANAGEMENT

ANNIKA AT STORM MANGEMENT LA, SURIYA AT SELECT MODEL LA, JESSIE AT STORM MANAGEMENT LA

LOVE

Willy Chavarria shines a light on Chicano style and fosters its community with his namesake label

ROXANNE ROBINSON

WORDS

Willy Chavarria loves a good mass. Growing up Catholic, thanks to the deep faith of his Mexican American grandparents, the rituals and rites of the church are a source of comfort for the 57-year-old designer whose namesake brand has been shaking up preconceived notions of beauty since 2015. His Spring/ Summer 2023 “Please Rise” show, which Madonna attended, even took place in a church on Lower Fifth Avenue and imagined clerical garb as fashion.

After a seminal fall collection that featured signature styles adopted on the female-identifying body, Chavarria is having a moment. Grazia USA sat down with the creative in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn, headquarters to find out what’s next for the rising label.

The gritty studio dates back to a vintage-centric side gig, Palmer Trading, that he and husband David Ramirez—now the Willy Chavarria COO/CFO—started in 2010 that capitalized on the designer’s role at the flag-laden Double RL brand. Through this venture, his eponymous label was born.

The hectic space that housed Chavarria’s collection as it blossomed lacks private space. Thus, we conduct this interview from two leather armchairs placed squarely in the room, chatting while keeping an eye on the busy studio. One can’t help but compare it to a confessional without the secrecy. Chavarria is refreshingly transparent.

The interview begins with a faux pas as an urn containing Mexican Copal—an aromatic tree resin, burned daily along with sage and palo santo to cleanse the air and bring good vibes— is knocked over. Chavarria chuckles at this yet insists an assistant “burn something” to keep away bad juju that may jinx the designer’s winning streak.

Still riding on the buzz of the Fall/ Winter 2024 show—during which Chavarria directed and produced a

This page: Willy Chavarria runway looks from Fall/ Winter 2024. Opposite page: Photographer Marco Ovando and designer Willy Chavarria photographed by Emmanuel “CHINO” Salazar.

“NUNS WILL GREET YOU, BLESS YOU – ‘CAN I TAKE YOUR HABIT, I MEAN COAT?’”

14-minute collection-adjacent movie, “Safe from Harm,” featuring model Paloma Elsesser and the recurring cast of Latino models that serve as congregants in the Church/House of Chavarria—finds the designer and crew prepping for a June trip to Paris during the men’s collections to do some meet and greets and gather content.

“My brand is such an American story that resonates in the Americas, but we are doing more sales in Europe,” he said. The collection is sold at various Dover Street Markets; Antonia, Milan; Ssense, Montreal; Boon The Shop, Seoul; and Nubian, Tokyo, among others.

“It performs well in Europe, but I want people to understand the vibe,” he says. Indeed, Mexican American, aka Chicano style, is markedly nuanced, differing from other Latin American countries. Chavarria can’t assume his European audience gets that. Hence, Chavarria and his inner circle, including photographer Marco Ovando, are heading to Paris for the show action.

“I’ve never gone to Paris where I didn’t have to work,” he says, referring to his past roles, such as senior vice president of design at Calvin Klein, which he balanced with the brand until 2023. “This trip allows Paris to get familiar with Willy Chavarria. I’m warming up the waters to show my collection there one day.”

In tow were the Chavarria crew, essentially plucked from New York’s diversified streets and evident in his

first show in 2017. First-time models bearing loads of tattoos included Chachi, aka Erik Martinez; Manuel Rivera; and Yuji Rico, whose mother now participates in the vision and whose look, to the uninitiated, could be read Hispanic gang-style. Yet Chavarria’s laser-sharp fashion aesthetic, known for its oversized tailoring trend, elevates it to Chicano chic.

“I saw Manuel on the street smoking a blunt on his way to work with a swag so hard I had to meet him. His own embodiment became and important part of the vision,” he recalled

“Timing was everything in this case. I credit my talent and my team for taking something that was not seen as beautiful and giving it the elevation and spotlight it deserves,” he reflects, adding, “2020 opened a lot of doors for people.” Chavarria cautiou-

Models from left to right: Erik Martinez (Chachi), Jonathan Gonzalez, Emmanuel “CHINO” Salazar shot by Marco Ovando during June 2024 trip to Paris.

sly uses the word wokeness, feeling it’s morphed into something other than its initial meaning.

Timing and divine intervention manifested the film too as despite being a professed workaholic, Chavarria says he couldn’t have made it while still juggling his former Calvn Klein role. When project director Lennon Chuang of Matte Projects summoned Chavarria to a location in Ridgewood one frigid January day, the designer sensed the vibes.

“When I walked into the space, I immediately felt holy. I smelled the church; it was musty. I saw the crucifix and thought, this is it,” he recalled, feeling joy learning it was a convent.

Like the sisters, the film depicts the Chavarria tribe living together. Characters express boredom, listlessness, lust, and are struggling at times yet surrounded by love and community.

“It is an intimate way to communicate, seeing the reaction to the clothes up close in real-life scenarios. I would love to do another film,” he confessed.

Paloma Elesesser’s casting plants the seed for Chavarria’s entry into a proper women’s collection. This show featured more feminine styles adapted from men’s silhouettes on his runway than previously. He envisions his wares as gender-neutral, though retail hasn’t caught on yet. “In my lifetime, I doubt we’ll see distribution or sales models that accommodate large-scale gender-fluid shopping,” he observed.

Chavarria has grown the business by adding Ramirez, two designers, an e-comm team, studio manager along with Ovando and creative director/ artist Jess Cuevas. “We are getting serious; this is a power team here to win.” Part of the plan will be a new Manhattan-based headquarters that

is more prime-time ready to accommodate wholesale activity and private one-on-one clients, an expanding area. He also just teamed up with Allen Edmonds to create a brand signature shoe, The Jalisco.

“Nuns will greet you, bless you –‘Can I take your habit, I mean coat?’” Chavarria jokes referring to his plans to open a Manhattan studio.

Recently Chavarria started walking in his shows, inspired by the team. The designer is a sophisticated embodiment of the brand aesthetic with a confident stride, in part due to his age.

“The timing is perfect. I’m happy it’s happening to me right now. I am smart enough to know what is going on, be grateful for it, and am confident about what I am doing when I walk into any room,” he said. Being in his star-designer phase in his 50s tracks with the generation who earned

Film still from the Safe From Harm film with Yuji Rico, left and Erica Trujillo, right, shot by MATTE Projects. Right: Still photos from Chavarria’s debut film effort “Safe From Harm” shot by MATTE Projects.

“I DON’T TRY TO ACT YOUNG; THAT’S NOT A GOOD LOOK. I WANT TO EMBRACE MY AGE AND MAKE IT COOL.”

success the long and hard way.

“I feel sorry for kids out of school who think it’s just going to happen; many are so entitled they deserve this, and then it doesn’t work out. Paying your dues is extremely important,” he advised matter-of-factly. Taking his time has paid off; he was a 2018 International Woolmark Prize finalist, a 2021 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Winner, and a 2022 IMG and State of New York small business grant recipient. He won the 2022 Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Designer Award in Fashion Design, and in 2023, he won the first-ever Latin American Fashion Designer of the

Year Award and the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year Award.

The sage wisdom that comes with age also works to Chavarria’s advantage. “I don’t try to act young; that’s not a good look. I want to embrace my age and make it cool,” he continued. His community and fans think he’s cool. At the launch event in June for a collaboration with the trendy Patron of the New store in Lower Manhattan, the designer was flanked by an adoring public lining up to take photos with him, chatting with guests nonstop: “I felt like Santa Claus, and my head was spinning around talking to everyone.”

“Paris was the perfect backdrop for our story of human dignity and love for the unseen; it resonates with power. I left feeling Paris loves Willy; in some ways more than I feel in New York,” he said, reflecting on the trip, adding, “Some people would be so generous to say, ‘I love your work’ passing on the street, melting my heart. My crew heard, ‘Those are the Willy guys’ walking around the city.”

With the band of worshippers the designer has culled thus far, Chavarria is firmly established as the lead charge of fashion’s Chicano-style aesthetic. Not bad for a kid from Fresno, Calif., whose parents’ interracial marriage

during the segregated ‘60s meant initially living in his Mexican father’s hometown of Brawley as brown-skinned folks weren’t allowed after sundown in his Irish mother’s hometown of Coalinga. It’s a duty and legacy Chavarria reveres.

“I feel responsible, like any artist or creator, for doing something with cultural influence that affects people; nowadays, so many people are interested in the fashion industry,” he says. “Community is important; everyone searches for it, but it’s hard to find. It’s a matter of finding your squad. I want to do my part by imparting my work that is beautifully rooted and legit.”

Chavarria and models from the Fall/Winter 2024 fashion show pose ‘Last Supper’-style for the show’s finale. Photographed by Diego Bendezu. Top left: Amara Gisele photographed by Diego Bendezu.

WITH JOAN JULIET BUCK

Seasonal musings from the mind of our resident cultural critic.

WALK like BEARS

Thefirst summer of endless rain, I replaced my waterlogged Repetto ballerinas with jelly boots like a pair of clear hard candies, the mint ones with the cold sheen of melting icebergs that are called Polar or Ice. Opaque at the toe-box, the jelly plastic shed pigment as it rose to become as see-through at each calf as an unwashed window. I liked wearing them over bare feet for a jellyfish-polar bear effect. They were dreadful and wonderful, the perfect footwear for climate change, and I would have them still, had I not recklessly worn them to France, where my Deauville hostess seized up at the sight of them and ordered them out of the house.

The French have been criticizing my feet forever. I was born with six toes, put on pointe at five, love to walk, and shoes always hurt. In Paris in the ‘80s, I came to know the elegant Helène Rochas, who was the incarnation of 20th century performative femininity. She lived by strict rules of self-presentation, never ate fish because it was bloating, separated her eyelashes with a straight pin, wore sober pale couture suits and pumps with two-inch heels. She caught sight of my hilarious summer polka dot platform sandals with giant bows and told me to never wear witty shoes.

“Men have fantasies about feet,” she explained, “fantasies of submission and dominance, and they don’t want any visual jokes to interrupt their reverie and spoil their fun.” She was even more stern as she warned me off what she called les baskets, the French term for sneakers, high-tops, or running shoes. “Jamais, jamais ça,” she said. Never, never that.

Rita Ora

I hid my sandals with giant bows and shopped at a boutique Helène had heard about that specialized in wide feet, which is now so long gone you can only find its shoes on Poshmark. I’d grimly shove my stockinged feet into oddly narrow triangular shoes that rose in a slope that seemed gentle but was not, and install the backs of my feet at the exact place where they’d be most efficiently pounded from below at every step by the jolt of metal heel-cap against hard sidewalk. The balls of my feet burned with a high-pitched pain underscored by the dull thud of mashed toes, but I kept wearing those shoes because Helène said the boutique catered to wide feet and the heels didn’t look very high. Each age has its own delusions.

I desperately needed relief from the pain of

From top: Alexander McQueen Armadillo shoes, 2010. Jane Birkin in her “baskets”, 2021.

Pile of old trainers. Alaskan Peninsula Brown Bear walking like a bear.

trying to summon up performative femininity, and occasionally donned the one pair of sloppy gray nylon plastic soled baskets I owned, so I could run errands without weeping. One day, I recklessly ventured into an elegant street where such abject displays of comfort were unknown and where I ran straight into the elegant Helène, who was deeply disappointed to see what I had on my feet. She ordered me to throw out les baskets. I did.

But fashion is a head-snapper, and almost before the garbage men had collected the running shoes—which were, in truth, very ugly—the French magazines were praising Jane Birkin for being “a l’aise dans ses baskets”—at ease in her sneakers. This was a confusing expression, because until Jean-Louis Dumas of Hermés created the Birkin bag for her, Jane Birkin never carried a bag, only huge peasant baskets.

Jane Birkin’s rejection of performative femininity, her proof of authenticity, was lauded exactly when it was most needed: that was the year Hermès began to commercialize the Birkin bag as the symbol of relaxed personal authenticity.

By the time I was running Paris Vogue 10 years later, half the fashion editors came to work at ease in dirty baskets.

But the boss was supposed to teeter about. I wore flats during the Paris Vogue years, Donna Karan mules, lace-up ghillies, anything I could walk in, and was much scolded by fashion legends, photographers, and the two great shoe designers of our time, both my friends, both appalled by the shape of my feet and my insistence on finding shoes that would not hurt.

Shoe designers are just a touch per-

verse. Manolo Blahnik’s multilingual effusions suggest a light touch, but his taut sketches reveal an implacable will in the swoop of the instep as it plunges from ankle joint to toe cleavage. He’ll set a frizzle of lace or gleaming glass and metal on the vamp to distract from the height of the heel, for which he long ago found the perfectly balanced placement in the precise continuation of the leg, never at the back, never too far forward. For decades, he’s applied this golden rule to his shoes that only hurt if you really want them to. His shoes have so much character that the late Eric Boman shot an entire photo book of shoes paired with their non-shoe twin counterparts, as playful and delightful as a party game.

Christian Louboutin is as playful and takes

more risks. He apprenticed at the Folies Bergères, opened his shop when he was 29, made red soles his trademark, and applied what he’d learned about walking in impossible footwear from showgirls to his insanely high heels and even taller platforms. In her 60s, Tina Turner could still dance in them for an entire stadium show.

I collected his golden sculpted heels as distressed as the pillars of ancient temples, red satin ballet pointe shoes with kitten heels, ankle-strap sandals in antique gold leather. I could not dance in any of them for more than five minutes, but at the Paris Air Show, I climbed a skinny metal ladder into some kind of warplane before I realized that I was wearing Christian’s draped silk wedge mules, six inches tall and as hard as a geisha’s getas. The man in uniform climbing the ladder behind me, his nose to the heels of my mules, must have expected me to fall on him at every step. I did not; the built-up mules were steady. A little heavy, very high, they were wide and comfortable.

Those of us whose feet have always hurt suspect designers of being dark princes of fetish-wear, committed to inflicting pain, but neither Manolo Blahnik nor Christian Louboutin design for pain.

Alexander McQueen, though, hewed close to his nightmares and said he wanted people to fear the women he dressed. One day in London in 1998, he terrified a fashion audience by having the beautiful Paralympian Aimée Mullins stride out on prosthetic wooden legs carved with a pattern of flowers. We didn’t know she was a Paralympian, so we interpreted the message as a hint to cut off our legs, so we too could have wooden ones carved with flowers by Alexander McQueen.

Justbefore his suicide in 2010, McQueen showed disturbing pale green boots he named “Armadillo,” hybrids of reptile and submarine. Now, 14 years after his death, his successor Sean McGirr presented calfskin-covered boots that end in hooves.

But instead of being horrified, I find this cheery news. The long fight between the pain of heels and the slop of sneakers came to a kind of truce when every woman began to wear some version of baskets, mainly sneakers, with everything, and for every occasion. At the Cannes Film Festival, women refused the red carpet high-heels rule, and flats have become the apparel of resistance.

No one cares about elongating their legs any more. Young girls are auctioning off photos of their feet in a sort of OnlyFans situation, and the hottest next shoe is the Mary Jane, so that Alice in Wonderland is deployed against the gender-fluid comfort footwear that belongs in the drugstore orthotics aisle. Classic Nike, hot On or middle-aged New Balance, the shoes—canvas, nylon, polyurethane, Lycra, mesh, or vegan leather—are decorated with laces, elastic straps, Velcro bands, the main components of ankle braces, casts, and foot stabilizers. Their soles—rubber, plastic, or foam—always look squashed. The marshmallow aesthetic leads us straight back into Uggs from 30 years ago, which are basically shearling tubesocks.

But this animal thing gives me hope. I’d had a flirtation with Martin Margiela’s split-toe cloven hoof shoes, but he called them ‘tabis’ after Japanese socks, and they just weren’t animal enough. At the end of last year, to complete the repair of a foot injury, I attended an Alexander Technique workshop. There we were, some 15 of us, in a Franciscan monastery overlooking Malibu, being taught to walk like bears.

Walk like bears?

I thought I’d mis- heard what the teachers said, but no, it was definitely bears.

Michael Gelb and Bruce Fertman, who collaborated on the new book Walking Well, explained that bears and humans are both plantigrades, species that walk on the entire surface of their feet. Bears are bipeds only at whim, but we humans have no choice. Stability is earned once we learn how to stop clenching. How to stop tensing. How to stop dreading.

It was so simple, and so long coming.

The other Alexander teachers—there were a pack of them—showed us how to walk like a bear, stable and slow, peeling our bear paws off the ground, one paw after the other. And then there were other animals. The training was fascinating, pleasurable, and it made a difference.

I keep going to these classes, these workshops. At the last one, half the participants were barefoot, the other half shod. It didn’t matter, it was whatever worked for you. On the second morning, a beautiful older woman told us, with tears in her eyes, that she had finally apologized to her feet.

From top: Lithograph of Alice and the Cheshire Cat by John Tenniel. Jellyfish on a beach. Christian Louboutin shoes. Manolo Blahnik sketch. Maison Margiela’s tabi boots.

She’s

PHOTOGRAPHY

KAREL LOSENICKY STYLING ANNA SGURA

GOTTA HAVE IT

Fall’s most covetable looks from some of the season’s best collections

Chanel jacket, top, trousers, earrings, choker, sunglasses, 800-550-0005.

Gucci dress, briefs, choker, boots, gucci.com.

Dior top, skirt, earrings, boots, 800-929-DIOR.

Louis Vuitton top, pants, bag, 866-VUITTON.

BOY BOY! OH

This fall, exercise your freedom to dress however you please

PHOTOGRAPHY

OLIVIER DESARTE

STYLING

SELIN BURSALIOGLU

Emporio Armani shirt, vest, trousers, tie, armani.com; Celine by Hedi Slimane loafers, celine.com.

Louis Vuitton shirt, vest, skirt, hat, shoes, 866-VUITTON.

Hermès jacket, shirt, hat, sneakers, hermes.com; Guess jeans, guess.com.

Pinko jacket, pinko.com; Michael Kors shorts, michaelkors.com; Hermès boots, hermes.com.

Dior top, jacket, hat, 800-929-DIOR.

Celine by Hedi Slimane sweatshirt, celine.com; Kaos vest, trousers, kaosstore.com

Gucci coat, shirt, shorts, scarf, shoes, gucci.com.

MODEL JULIA KNOLL @THE

TIE ONE ON

It’s said that clothes make the man, but as Diane Keaton’s timeless style proves, clothes— or, more specifically, a tie— makes the woman

Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, 1977

Whenwe’re introduced to Diane Keaton’s defining character Annie Hall, the protagonist of the Woody Allen film of the same name for which she won the 1978 Academy Award for Best Actress, she’s dressed androgynously in a tailored vest, dress shirt, wide-leg trousers, and an even wider blue and white polka dot silk tie, with her shoulder-length brown hair tucked into a bowler hat. Her love interest tells her he loves what she’s wearing, and she responds with one of her charming non sequiturs, “Oh you do? Yeah? Well this tie is a present from Grammy Hall,” referring to a grandmother who lives in Wisconsin. It’s hard to overstate the influence that scene has had on fashion at the time, helping popularize traditionally menswear-coded attire for a female market and making Keaton an enduring style icon.

In Keaton’s photo album-like personal style memoir, Fashion First, out this month from Rizzoli, the actor born Diane Hall and nicknamed Annie showcases her remarkably consistent look through hand-annotated red carpet moments, magazine editorials, street-style shots, and even a bowler hat baby photo. At 78, Keaton still favors the same silhouettes she wore nearly five decades ago as Annie Hall (these days from Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci). TikTok loves her for it. Annie Hall stans offer how-to-tie-a-tie tutorials on the social media platform as Gen Z discovers the joys of la-di-da style. And famous necks from Zendaya and Anne Hathaway to Janet Jackson and Selma Blair have sported ties in recent months

Windsor knots were also all over the Fall/Winter 2024 runways. At Loewe, Jonathan Anderson sent out a trio of Annie Hall look-alikes in striped silk ties, pastel shirts, cashmere vests, and balloon trousers. “Diane is so uniquely herself, an icon, and a true individual,” says Thom Browne, who showed ties with half of his layered tailored looks. “The fact that when we see women in ties on the catwalk today, the first thing that comes to mind is Annie Hall is a testament to the film’s lasting impact,” says Marta Franceschini, an fashion historian and curator who worked on the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Fashioning Masculinities exhibit. For Franceschini, they also recall the Regency-era trendsetter Beau Brummell, the father of dandyism widely credited with being a pioneer of the necktie. “In the early 19th century there was this satirical pamphlet called Neckclothitania that explained to men the many myriad of ways in which they could style their neck,” she says.

Diane Keaton on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, 2014

Moschino

Giorgio Armani

LaQuan Smith

Hodakova

Ottolinger

Thom Browne

Loewe

Elisabetta Franchi

Noir Kei Ninomiya

Ralph Lauren Collection

Alberta Ferretti Vaquera

Zendaya in Ralph Lauren Collection, Selma Blair in Schiaparelli, Ella Emhoff in Thom Browne, Janet Jackson in Thom Browne, Anne Hathaway in Ralph Lauren Collection

Now, it appears, designers are proposing inventive ways for women to style themselves. Ties are a must-have accessory for Fall/Winter 2024, both at tailoring-centric labels like Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, where they were they were given a Western spin with fringed suede pants and cowboy hats, and in rather less expected quarters such as purveyor of catsuits and other high-wattage evening looks LaQuan Smith. “While updating the iconic Annie Hall look, I aimed to infuse contemporary elements that resonate with today’s fashion while maintaining the classic charm that Diane Keaton so effortlessly embodied in the film,” says Smith of his pinstripe vest minidress worn with a tie and glossy knee-high boots. Other designers freed ties from the association with tailoring tradition. They were shown with twisted riffs on sweats at Ottolinger, a leopard padded shrug and wide-leg jeans at Vaquera, and a minidress made from upcycled leather trousers at Hodakova. At Noir Kei Ninomiya, a wool jumpsuit sprouted five tie-shaped faux leather protuberances.

It’s been said that Ralph Lauren invented the Annie Hall look, but in the foreword to Fashion First he attempts to set the record straight. “I am often credited with dressing Diane in her Oscar-winning role as Annie Hall. Not so,” he demures. “Annie’s style was Diane’s style. Very eclectic. She loved floppy hats and oversized men’s jackets. She loved dangly neckties.” Lauren did design a tuxedo jacket for Keaton, plus several of the tweedy blazers worn by Allen. But the rest of Keaton’s costumes largely comprised Goodwill menswear finds she pulled from her own closet. The famous polka dot tie was the same one she had previously worn with a white Richard Tyler suit to present at the 1976 Academy Awards. “It was not the norm back then for a woman to wear a suit in general, let alone to the Oscars,” Keaton recalls of her dapper getup. “I am not sure how I gathered the courage but, to be honest, I think I just didn’t care. I wanted to feel like myself, and wearing a suit was the only way.”

Although Keaton didn’t wear many Ralph Lauren garments in Annie Hall, what is clear is that she and the designer were stylistically simpatico. “I remember in the 1970s going into Ralph Lauren’s store,” says Keaton. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was the beginning of women’s clothes being slightly more masculine—but not too masculine that you couldn’t pull it off.”

Lauren, who first made his name with a line of four-inch wide ties called Polo, put women in tailored separates beginning with his debut women’s collection for Spring/Summer 1973. “Ever

“Annie’s style was Diane’s style.”

since she came to my early fashion shows … we just clicked,” recalls Lauren. “I liked her style, and she liked mine.” In a review of his Fall/Winter 1978 show held three weeks after Keaton won her Oscar, former New York Times fashion critic Bernadine Morris remarked on the abundance of “man‐tailored suits” and ties in the lineup and noted that “Diane Keaton, Annie Hall herself, leaned forward in her front‐row seat at this one, clapped happily and murmured ‘perfect.’”

Today, tailoring telegraphs ease and polish for people of all genders and women’s wear designers have adapted each piece of the classic Saville Row three-piece suit and made it their own. See: Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s custom Chloé pantsuit and former first lady Michelle Obama’s Monse deconstructed vest with crisscross lapels for their speeches at the Democratic National Convention. Interestingly the one bit of haberdashery that hasn’t quite gone mainstream for women in the halls of power— yet—is the tie. Early adopters at Chicago’s United Center included Harris’s step-daughter Ella Emhoff, who wore one with a Thom Browne shrunken plaid suit, and stylist and influencer Tina Leung, who styled a Max Mara herringbone double-breasted jacket and high-slit midi skirt with a tie in the same fabric. “A tie just brings a look up a notch and pulls it all together,” says Leung.

Diane Keaton presenting at the Academy Awards, 1976

—RALPH LAUREN

OUT OF OFFICE

Just because you’re going to work doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice style

PHOTOGRAPHY MATTHIAS OGGER

STYLING CALVIN NYMON

Burberry coat, trousers, glasses, burberry.com; Etam top, us.etam.com; Dior belt, 1 800 929 Dior; Messika bracelet, earrings, messika.com.

FASHION

On

Burberry

burberry.com;

left:

coat, jacket,

Messika earrings, messika.com. Balenciaga boots. On right: Balenciaga top, balenciaga. com; Tom Ford glasses, tomford.com; Burberry boots, burberry.com.

ferragamo.com;

Ferragamo dress, trousers, shoes,

Messika earrings, necklace, messika.com; Burberry bag, burberry.com.

On top: Burberry dress, burberry.com; Proenza Schouler gloves, proenzaschouler.com; Messika earrings, messika.com. On bottom: Prada dress, shoes, prada.com; Falke socks, falke.com; Messika earrings, messika.com.

Bottega Veneta shirt, jacket, skirt, bag, shoes, sunglasses, bottegaveneta. com; Fursac tie, intl.fursac. com; Messika bracelet, earrings, messika.com.

Chanel jacket, vest, skirt, tights, earrings, necklace, belt, shoes, 800-550-0005.

On left: Etam top, shorts, etam.com; Proenza Schouler gloves, proenzaschouler.com; Fursac ties, intl.fursac. com; Balenciaga boots, balenciaga.com. On right: Dsquared2 jacket, trousers, shoes, dsquared2. com; Etam boxers, etam. com; Ralph Lauren shirt, ralphlauren.com.

Es aruntis aut et aciur simagnam ad magnatur? Nulla comnis nonsequamAm dolorum

When wardrobe building, consider the timely quality of your most essential pieces

PHOTOGRAPHY JETTE STOLTE

STYLING NINO CERONE

The

PERFECT...

Chanel jacket, trousers, belt, earrings, necklace, hat, brooch, shoes, bag, 800-550-0005.

FASHION

On top: Dolce & Gabbana shirt, pants, shoes, dolcegabbana.com; Bruna The Label earrings, brunathelabel. com. On bottom: Dolce & Gabbana dress, boots, dolcegabbana.com.

Marina Rinaldi dress, us.marinarinaldi.com; Bulgari necklace, bulgari.com.

Marciano by Guess dress, marciano.com; Cartier earrings, bracelet, cartier. com; Dolce & Gabbana shoes, dolcegabbana.com.

Louis Vuitton sweater, skirt, boots, 866-VUITTON.

Ferragamo cape, dress, ferragamo.com; Tiffany & Co. bracelet, tiffany.com; Aigner bag, us.aignermunich.com.

G

A ATH T LL TLI RT S E

The Brooklyn Museum rings in its 200th anniversary this fall with an Aladdin’s cave worth of gold

WORDS ALISON S. COHN

Afunerary mask from the glittering tombs of ancient Egypt, a goldground painting of the Madonna and child, Charlize Theron’s Dior J’Adore dress encrusted in shimmering beads and sequins, and an 18-karat Marc Quinn sculpture of Kate Moss: These are just a few of the more than 400 seemingly disparate objects assembled for Solid Gold, a major exhibition commemorating the Brooklyn Museum’s bicentennial that opens November 15. Cross-disciplinary in scope and incorporating pieces ranging from painting, sculpture, and film to fashion and jewelry, the show’s throughline is the enduring appeal that gold has held across 6,000 years of human history. It’s a fitting subject for one of the oldest and most encyclopedic art museums in the United States, which traces its origins to 1824, nearly half a century before the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded across the East River in Manhattan.

“Gold—could we have picked a bigger topic?” quips the exhibit’s organizer, Matthew Yokobosky, senior curator of fashion and material culture at the Brooklyn Museum. It’s uncertain just when humans first encountered gold and began to create decorative objects out of it; the earliest surviving examples are gold beads discovered in Egypt dating to the fourth millennium B.C.E, before

This page from top: Cartier Elton John World Tour Brooch, 1989. Elizabeth Taylor wearing Joseff of Hollywood jewelry in Cleopatra, 1963. Opposite page from top: Mummy Cartonnage of a Woman, probably Hawara, Egypt, 1st Century. Dior Spring/Summer 2004 haute couture.

the development of written language. But gold was as integral to ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean and pre-Hispanic Americas as it is to the contemporary fashion world. Across the globe, gold has come to symbolize the apex of beauty, honor, joy, ritual, spirituality, success, and wealth.

“A keyword search for ‘gold’ on our collections management system yielded quite a vast array of objects,” says Yokobosky, noting the museum’s extensive holdings of Quattrocento paintings, Japanese folding screens, and objets de vertu. Yokobosky narrowed down a field of 4,000 candidates that were either made of gold or gold in color to 240 after examining them in person. “Your screen makes gold look really beautiful no matter what kind of gold it is, so photographs that you see online can be very deceiving,” he explains. Organized into eight largely chronological sections spread across the Cantor Rotunda and fifth floor galleries in the museum’s West Wing, Solid Gold will present historical works from the permanent collection in what the Yokobosky calls “collisions” with 20th- and 21st-century fashion and accessories, sparking conversations across millennia. Yokobosky sourced the latter from houses including Tiffany & Co., Bulgari, and Dior, an exhibition sponsor.

The Ancient Gold gallery places the aforementioned cartonnage—dating to the 1st century C.E., its gilded surface depicts a woman with snake bracelets coiling up her arms—beside a Cartier Scarab bracelet, a prototype of the Joseff of Hollywood fly necklace Elizabeth Taylor wore in the 1963 film Cleopatra, and Nefertiti and King Tut-inspired masks milliner Stephen Jones created for John Galliano’s Egypt-themed Dior Spring/ Summer 2004 haute couture show. Nearby, a helmet from 18th-century

Iran featuring metal mesh made of steel and gold links sits with a Fall/ Winter 1971 Paco Rabanne goldtone metal chainmail dress and a custom look The Blonds fashioned for Rihanna in 2010 from 24-karat gold-plated crystals and spikes. Elsewhere in Solid Gold, there are several examples of bridal regalia that span cultures and continents: Fulani hand-beaten gold bridal earrings measuring 10 inches in diameter, a Rajasthani silk gauze bridal veil embroidered with gold couching stitches, a Nepalese dowry necklace made with repoussé faceted gold disks, and a Yves Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 1993 haute couture ivory-and-gold silk damask wedding dress.

Some of the contemporary fashion pieces are made with real gold such as Marc Bohan’s Dior Fall/ Winter 1962 haute couture Aladdin ensemble, an evening dress and matching robe-like coat woven with gold on a black ground, and Demna’s Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2023 haute couture Liquid Gold gown fashio ned from gold and glass. But most aren’t. “Gold is heavier than lead so I think people were happy when Lurex came around,” says Yoko bosky, referring to the metallic synthetic yarn trademarked by the Lurex Company, Ltd., in 1946, which can be woven or knitted with other fibers to mimic the glimmering effect of priceless fabrics woven with gold thread.

Solid Gold

Lurex fabric from the 1940s by textile designer Dorothy Liebes, who hel ped popularize the mate rial innovation through her influential “Liebes Look,” which combined vivid color and lush texture with a glint of gold, along with a selection of Lurex looks. Some of the hi ghlights: a Hubert de Givenchy Fall/Winter 1982 sequin-embelli shed Lurex and cotton knit evening

Lorenzo Monaco, Madonna of Humility, ca. 1415–20. On top: Balenciaga Spring/Summer 2020

“GOLD—COULD WE HAVE PICKED A BIGGER TOPIC?”

dress; a Gianfranco Ferré Spring/Summer 1992 leather jacket finished with Lurex, crystal, and baguette embroidery; and a Anna Sui Fall/Winter 2007 Lurex and chiffon blouse. Other golden styles on display include a Gareth Pugh Fall/Winter 2011 technical cape stitched with metallic laminated tiles and Demna’s Balenciaga Spring/Summer 2020 haute couture Golden Ballroom Dress featuring a capacious Mother Ginger-esque skirt made from crinkled papery gold metallized polyester.

Gold itself is eternal—and recyclable. Throughout the exhibit, pieces nod to the ways gold can be melted down and reformed as if new again, like teamLabs’ immersive digital work “Gold Waves” depicting an infinite aureate ocean and Zadik Zadikian’s site-specific installation “Path to Nine” comprising 999 recycled gold ingots. The Gold Techniques gallery highlights the wide array of methods from gold leafing and gilding to goldwork embroidery used by goldsmiths, artisans, and designers working with gold, whether to construct objects or for applications across surfaces. “Gold is just used in so many different ways,” says Yokobosky. “It’s so malleable.”

From left: Gareth Pugh Fall/Winter 2011. Rihanna wearing The Blonds, 2010. Jean Dupas and Jacques-Charles Champigneulle, Panel from the Normandie Ocean Liner, ca. 1934

Below: Coclé artist, Plaque with Crocodile Deity, 9th century

Gucci knit, shorts, boots, gucci.com.

Autumn’s niftiest-knits out in the wild

PHOTOGRAPHY

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS

SIMONE FALCETTA

STYLING ANNA SGURA

Louis Vuitton sweater, skirt, 866-VUITTON.

Michael Kors Collection turtleneck, michaelkors.com; Yamamay briefs, yamamay.com; Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, jacquesmariemage.com; Luisa Spagnoli boots, luisaspagnoli.com.

Marciano by Guess cardigan, marciano.com; Peserico swimsuit, us.peserico.com.

ILLUSION

Fendi sweater, skirt, fendi.com.

Karl Lagerfeld dress, karllagerfeldparis.com; Jil Sander earrings, jilsander.com; AGL boots, agl.com.

Loewe blazer, trousers, shoes, loewe.com.

N°21 dress, shoes, numeroventuno.com; Falke socks, falke.com.

FASHION

At 90, Sophia Loren answers 8 questions.

After a seven-decade career, the actress remains a singular star.

WORDS KEVIN SESSUMS

Sophia Loren, New York City 1959

PHOTO:

“Do I like being photographed? It depends on the day.”

Above: Sophia Loren in a scene from the film Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow, 1963. Below: Cary Grant and Sophia Loren on the set of The Pride and The Passion, circa 1957.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Sophia Loren–the child, the sex symbol, the artist, the actor, the woman–has always been a survivor. Now at 90, she is a marvel of sensibleness, sophistication, experience.

As a young woman, she was an old soul submerged beneath sensuality, that soulfulness that seduced us as much as her beauty. As an older actress, embedded within her mining of characters and scenes is the memory we share of her younger self, not a yearning to return to it but an appreciation of the longing she could engender within us.

In 1962, she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as the mother in Vittorio De Sica’s brilliant and moving Two Women. The story centered on Loren’s character trying to protect her young daughter and herself from the ravages of the Marocchinate, the term used for the mass rape and killings committed during World War II  after the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy. She was riveting as she attempted to relinquish her beauty, but instead it bore more deeply into her.

But Loren has been more than a legendary cinematic bombshell. She has been a fashion icon as well, beginning when she was crowned Miss Elegance in the 1950 Miss Italian pageant at 15. By 1981, she was the first actress to launch a perfume, the namesake “Sophia,” and soon afterward she also created her own line of eyeglasses. Long before either of those accomplishments, however, Dior designed custom gowns for her in Arabesque In The Millionairess, she wore belted dresses by Balmain. On the red carpet in Cannes, Loren donned gowns by Emilio Schuberth. Paparazzi photographed her in Rome in the 1960s sporting Gucci and giving it even more glamour. No one could cock a Givenchy hat like she could or arrive at an event looking better in Armani. She was a muse to both Balenciaga and Valentino.

Loren, who has a close relationship with her sons, Edoardo and Carlo, is

also a loving sister to Maria, an Italian television personality and columnist once married to Benito Mussolini’s jazz pianist son, Romano. (Yes, Loren once had a Mussolini as a brother-inlaw, another example of how the narrative of her life reflects Italy’s.) From a little girl in Mussolini’s fascist Italy longing for her father to the most beautiful woman in the country—who millions claimed to be the most beautiful one in the world—to her later years as a kind of materfamilias for her home country, she has manifested a melange of Italian female archetypes.

And yet coupled with it all—the wisdom, the beauty, the artistic veteran—is the narrative of her childhood and her birth, her poverty, her fortitude, which can soften our perceptions—just as it toughened her. We continue to find ourselves in her cultural presence, this woman who presents herself to us, plainly and forthrightly, in the service of her craft, her art, her life’s missions of acting and being a mother while remaining calm under our collective gaze while we project our needs onto her image. And at 90, she still allows us to do so.

QUESTION No. 1:

What is the source of the grace you have been able to summon in order to navigate your life—privately and publicly—which has been both difficult at times and yet so blessed?

Sophia Loren: Grace comes from understanding yourself to the point where you are comfortable with every part of you. Grace comes from being at peace with who you are and that peace or self-serenity ripples out and touches others in the form of grace. Because grace is really balance. Balance doesn’t mean that you don’t also try to better yourself, but it does mean that you are not defined by your insecurities, you are defined by acceptance and the desire to look at all parts of you and work on them with patience and empathy, not anxiety and despair. The good news about turning 90 is that you don’t have time for negati-

vity and unbaked ego led emotions anymore, those naturally fall by the wayside leaving you to focus on what matters, on what makes you happy, whatever that may be. Even happiness frankly is not my main objective, what I try to pursue is peace and serenity. Happiness is often as transient as fireworks but peace and serenity can last a lifetime.

QUESTION No. 2

How have you dealt with being objectified as a sex symbol, and did such objectification morph and alter over time? You have said, “You have to be born a sex symbol. You don’t become one. If you’re born with it, you’ll have it even when you’re 100 years old.” Could you speak as well to being a sex symbol still at 90?

Loren: First of all, the term sex symbol has always made me somewhat uncomfortable. I am not naïve, I understand why I would be called a sex symbol, but it is such a minute part of me, or such a thin layer of who I am that I can’t help but not give it any true weight. And maybe that’s why I am a sex symbol, because I don’t care to be one and that insouciance or the fact that I don’t take it seriously is sexy. If you rely on your looks too much, not only people feel it but also you rely on something that is a fake friend, a false ally because eventually whether you like it or not “aesthetic beauty,” the one born from without, will inevitably desert you and then, what are you left with if that’s all you counted on, if that was the only source of your strength? Beauty might be the front door to a person, or the front façade of a person, it could be the reason why people give you the time of day at first but then once the person has walked in through the front door, beauty disappears and what people respond to is who you are inside, behind the front façade. That’s what matters–the beauty inside. It’s a cliché because it’s true. And that [inner] beauty is not as homogenized as the outer one, that beauty shines the brightest according to how unique and emotionally rich it is.

Being grounded has also a lot to do with it. Being grounded makes you open and accessible to all sorts of people, which in turn makes you all the richer humanly and this kind of beauty is ageless and timeless. In fact, it improves with age.

QUESTION No. 3

Chaplin said, “I feel that, when I direct you, I am the director of an orchestra.” With which instrument do you most identify and why? Also, would you like to talk about any of your directors regarding those with whom you adored working, like Chaplin, as well as those with whom you found it more difficult? In addition, do you like being photographed? Some actors don’t.

Loren: My mother was a concert pianist, my son Carlo is a conductor whose specialty instrument is piano, so I would say that I relate to piano the most because it is the closest thing to an orchestra. It can be used for a solo as much as part of an orchestra. I like that. When I act, even if I am the protagonist of a film, I don’t see myself as the “lead,” I see myself as part of a team, part of an orchestra. Yes, I might be the “first violin” or the “featured pianist” but always in relation to a greater ecosystem. I am at the service of my character, of the story, of the director.

The director that taught me everything I know, that helped me “unlock” whatever it is I had inside so the camera could capture it is Vittorio De Sica. He was and still is my mentor. When I work, I can still hear his voice whispering directions in my ear, I can still feel his gaze upon me full of encouragement and paternal love. I drew so much courage and bravery from that gaze, that gaze made me who I am today.

Do I like being photographed? It depends on the day. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Being photographed is exactly the opposite of acting. When you act, your job is to react to everything around you, every

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

“The good news about turning 90 is that you don’t have time for negativity.”

Sophia Loren and her husband, film producer Carlo Ponti, circa 1960

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

moment calls for a different emotional color. Being a model is to hone in on the color the photographer is seeking and when you find it, freeze in that moment until the photographer tells you to shift. So really, being a model and being an actor are two opposite things.

QUESTION No. 4

Do you remember anyone intersecting with your life and unexpectedly teaching you a lesson that has stayed with you ever since? How has kindness played a part in your life?

Loren: Kindness is everything. It’s what every relationship should be based on because kindness is not just kindness, when you are kind to someone, it also means that you respect them, that you see them, that you acknowledge every layer of who they are. Kindness is essential to me maybe because I grew up in a time during the Second World War when kindness was replaced by vitriol and bombs, but underneath the rubble, in the basement and tunnels where he hid from the attacks, there was a lot of kindness. That kindness shown to us by our neighbors, or the stranger huddled next to us waiting for the sirens to stop, or the family relative. That brand of kindness is what kept us safe and sane. I want everyone to feel that kindness.

QUESTION No.

5

I appeared as Alan Strang in Equus with Tony Perkins when he played Dr. Dysart, so I have a personal connection to this question. What are your memories of dear Tony? And, in his memory, what has taught you the most about love and selflessness and human understanding?

Loren: I remember Tony as a very generous actor, thoughtful and open. I loved looking into his eyes, he had such a rich enigmatic inner life. He was able to shift so effortlessly and so quickly from light to darkness, from goodness to mystery. It was incredible to behold. Being an actor really means

to be a reactor to whatever your scene partner throws your way and that means being a good listener. Tony was an amazing scene partner because he was so present and responsive. What he taught me was to remind me to listen.

QUESTION No. 6

You have said that your mother, Romilda, did not really know how to dream, and you had to teach yourself how to do so. Could you describe your life as a mother and how it has differed from your mother’s? What did family once mean to you and what does it mean to you now?

Loren: It is no secret that my greatest wish in life was to become a mother. It wasn’t easy for me to get pregnant but when I finally did and held my sons, nothing could prepare me for that rush of unconditional love. Family has always meant stability and serenity to me, something that growing up with a single mother in Italy in the 1930s I was in want of. My mother raised my sister and me in a time of war, in a time of prejudice against women who weren’t married, so our family was under constant assault from the judgmental gaze of others. Growing up like this was not easy and I credit my mother for overcoming the stares, the vitriol and creating a life for us that was as smooth as possible.

Now that I have children, I realize that the role of mother changes as your kids grow. At the start of their lives, you are a protector, as they grow up, you are an educator. When they hit the teenage years you are a combination confidante and guardrail, and then when they become adults, you are an ally and a sounding board. I love all the stages.

QUESTION No. 7

How has fashion served your image and your career? Could you comment on the difference between fashion and style?

Loren: Frankly, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about fashion. I like

“Kindness is thing.everyIt’s what every relationship should be based on.”

it, I like to wear beautiful things, I have had the good fortune to be dressed by the best but fashion per se has never defined me. I always go for simplicity and the type of style that doesn’t wear me. I like to wear the clothes, not the other way round. Timelessness has always been my thing, that and the color red, and sometimes I let red wear me.

QUESTION No. 8:

What would your young self— Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone—ask of “Sophia Loren”? And what would Sophia Loren ask of Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone?

Which of those two names is indeed more deserving now of those quotation marks around them? Who is the more real you after 90 years?

Loren: The question is too intellectual for me. The two spellings of my name are who I am, no distinction between them at all. They are wholly interchangeable to me.

Sophia Loren receiving an Academy Honorary Award at the 63rd Academy Awards, 1991. Below: Sophia Loren in the 1960 film La Ciociara

WE DREAM OF AFRICA

Americans flock to ultra-elite South African safari camps for a full-color experience.

WORDS MELINDA SHECKELLS

Americans have been obsessed with the romantic notion of the African safari for decades. Depicted in iconic films such as Out of Africa and The African Queen and unforgettable advertising campaigns ranging from early 1980s Banana Republic to 2010s Louis Vuitton, the idea of becoming one with the wild and looking picture-perfect while doing so seems to never go out of style.

“Most of our clients in the bush are from America,” says Liz Biden, creator of the Royal Portfolio, one of South Africa’s most celebrated hoteliers, who has been setting the scene for Africa-loving aesthetes since 1999 when she and her husband, Phil, transformed her home in the Thornybush Game Reserve in Greater Kruger National Park into Royal Malewane, a compound of ultra-luxury lodges and private for elite travelers. Royal Malewane offers lodging for every safari seeker, such as the traditional Malewane Lodge, the colorful and modern Waterside, and the more casual and quiet Farmstead. In addition to those accommodations, there are three private villas.

in the bush. I think I will build separate units and have guests so we don’t have to sweep out the cobwebs and things when we go there.’ I looked for the very best staff I could find. Royal Malewane was built and opened in 1999. There were only 12 of us, and from there it grew. I just built this place without any plans, and we just put things in that I have always enjoyed from my travels. Then it took off and did very well. We did the same thing with our beach house and little wine farm. Our first three places were our private homes, which we turned into private hotels.”

Phil and her son later joined the business so she could concentrate on the things she loves while “they deal with the ghastly financial reports,” Biden quips.

Her formula for the “perfect stay,” also the title of her book, is to share lovely things and hire loyal people who are experts in their fields. The Royal Portfolio brand book describes the properties as unashamedly expensive but providing value for money.

The Royal Portfolio also includes Birkenhead House, a beach house in the whale-watching capital of Hermanus; La Residence, a wine estate in Franschhoek, South Africa’s gourmet capital; and The Silo Hotel in Cape Town, all designed by Biden.

Biden’s entry into hospitality was a happy accident. She explains, “I was in fashion; I had six stores. When I turned 50, I sold the business, and for two days, I thought, ‘What can I do?’ I told my husband, ‘You know, a piece of land [we own]

While at Royal Malewane, you might meet the family of a Texas real estate mogul celebrating a significant life milestone or go on a game drive alongside George Lucas. This is where the billionaires and celebrities play. (Paul Allen, Elton John, Bono, Richard Gere, and French President Nicholas Sarkozy have all stayed.)

The Thornybush Reserve has an unfenced, shared boundary with Kruger National Park where animals can pass freely. Guests can access day and night game drives in a private safari vehicle led by guides and trackers who teach you more in an afternoon than you could ever learn from books or television about the delicate

Above: At Royal Malewane, luxury suites and villas have their own pools, a true hallmark of the luxury safari camp. Below: Hotelier and designer of The Royal Portfolio, Liz Biden is celebrated for using color, which eschews the typical safari palette.

ecosystem. It is expected to see the Big Five (rhino, lion, elephant, leopard, and buffalo) as the habitats at Royal Malewane include open grasslands, scrub, rivers, waterholes, and wooded areas. There are sightings of leopards and wild dogs—species rarely seen in other safari destinations. Walking safaris are also an option to hear the hidden stories of the wilderness, and star safaris highlight the night sky. Guides share insights and expertise on safari photography, such as finding the right place and time for the perfect shot. Guests receive a personal safari photo album at the end of the experience, chronicling the adventure.

According to Virtuoso’s 2024 Luxe Report, which taps into research from 20,000 travel advisors, escaping to Africa for a slow safari or taking part in wildlife conservation efforts tops the travel lists of those seeking once-in-a-lifetime ultra-luxury experiences (of course, such adventures require the perfect look like head-to-toe Alo in Safari-friendly colors Gravel or Chestnut or the timeless Brunello Cucinelli safari jacket). Eighty-nine percent of Virtuoso advisors have seen an uptick in requests for exclusive use, private, or exceptionally high-end experiences, including African safaris for celebrations and trips of a lifetime. The mindset of the luxury traveler is also shifting from focusing on a trip to-do list to an emphasis on how one feels during

“People say, ‘You can’t put red with pink.’ I do, and it looks amazing.”

Every imaginable amenity is available to Royal Malewane’s billionaire and celebrity clientele for a personalized and hightouch experience that includes wellness, food and wine, and some of the best Big 5 viewing in Africa.

travel. Research identifies that travelers prioritize curiosity and exploration (77 percent), joy and happiness (65 percent), and awe and wonder of nature (57 percent) as the top emotional drivers.

To answer this demand, Biden always has big reveals to spark emotions. In 2025, she will unveil the first tented camp at Royal Malewane.

“We’ve never done tents before,” she says, noting there aren’t many tented camps in South Africa but while “we own our land, in Botswana and Zambia, you don’t usually own your land, so you can’t put any permanent structures up.” But to appease the insatiable appetite of safari-seekers, “guests love the idea of sleeping in a tent.”

When Biden met with the tent-makers in Johannesburg, she made a surprising request. Forever eschewing convention and the typical safari color palette, she asked to see their color chart and firmly decided on pink tents.

“My son said, ‘You can’t do pink in the bush.’ And I said, ‘It’s the color of Africa.’ If you go to Marrakech, it’s that color—the rose pink of the walls of Marrakech, and I love Marrakech.”

If there is one thing to know about Biden that is evident from her work, she loves color: “I’ve never had a day’s training, so I’m not scared of color. People say, ‘You can’t put red with pink.’ I do, and it looks amazing. It makes me happy. I couldn’t just do a room in white or beige. If you can live in color, why live in beige?”

For four decades, Biden has traversed the world treasure hunting, salvaging, and relic shopping, and she makes her way through South Africa between her four hotels, installing those found objects. The

mother of reinvention, she constantly changes out a chair here, a knickknack there, and a fabric over here. She travels frequently and sometimes packs four suitcases (for the things that make a room interesting, “a beautiful decanter, a lovely plate, a nice milk jug, all in beautiful colors”), forever hunting her version of the Big Five: rugs, vases, chairs, textiles, and credenzas.

“I have a storeroom, and when I see something interesting and different, I’ll buy it. My storeroom is very full at the moment. If I look for an object when needed, I won’t find it, so I will buy it now and store it. It’s funny; there is always a place for everything one collects,” Biden says. “I start with the premise that each room must be different. But in terms of a process, it’s more a case of me finding inspiration in something and going from there. It might be a painting that sets me off. Other times, it might be a carpet or a piece of fabric.

“In a room, I always like to put something old, something new, something fun, and, of course, lots of color, and it just makes a room interesting. If you just get old stuff, it’s very heavy; if you just get modern stuff, there’s no depth. I’m never going to retire. I will carry on collecting and changing things until I die.”

Part of what attracts Biden’s customers back again and again—willing to pay anywhere from $2,600 to $20,000 or more per person for Royal Malewane—is the exceptional service from the guides, butlers and lodge team, creating deep connections to the place, the people and the animals. Seeing a roaming leopard with its hypnotic spots up close or watching a baby elephant trumpet water from your private plunge pool—all authentically priceless.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR EUROPEAN ELEGANCE THAT MEETS DOWNTOWN COOL...

THERE’S A PLACE

For the fashion crowd, it’s not just about where to be seen, but also where to experience the best in ambiance and cuisine. From elegant bistros to exclusive hotspots, here are the top restaurants setting the stage for fashionable dining this season. Whether you’re looking for a taste of European elegance, a downtown cocktail hideaway, or a luxurious uptown experience, these restaurants have captured the attention of the city’s trendsetters.

EDITED BY CASEY BRENNAN

RAF’S The latest from the team behind the Michelin-starred Musket Room, Raf’s has quickly established itself as a fashionable retreat. Inspired by the grand cafés of Italy and France, Raf’s combines old-world sophistication with downtown flair. The century-old space, once home to Parisi Bakery, now features a blend of feminine elegance and eclectic charm, with candle-lit tables, vintage chandeliers, and intricate mosaic floors. With an all-day menu curated by James Beard-nominated chefs Mary Attea and Camari Mick, Raf’s is the de facto cafeteria for the fashion set.

CAVIAR KASPIA—Caviar Kaspia, the legendary Parisian eatery, has made its mark on New York with a chic new location at The Mark Hotel. Combining the elegance of Paris with New York’s sophisticated vibe, this venue is where the city’s fashion elite come to indulge. Designed by Jacques Grange, the restaurant exudes luxury with emerald green mohair banquettes and a striking Belgian Black marble bar. The menu, which celebrates the “Art of Caviar,” includes indulgent dishes like the iconic – and oft-Instagrammed - twice-baked potato with caviar. With its deep roots in the fashion world and collaborations with designers like Jacquemus, Casa Blanca and Giambattista Valli, Caviar Kaspia is not just a dining spot—it’s a lifestyle experience.

THE NINES—Nestled in NoHo, The Nines has quickly become a go-to for New York’s style set. This opulent piano bar, with its rich red interiors, plush velvet seating, and glittering chandeliers, channels the allure of Old Hollywood while offering a modern nightlife experience. The Nines is where the city’s fashion crowd unwinds after a day of shows, drawn by its intimate yet grand ambiance. The expertly curated cocktail menu only adds to the venue’s appeal, making it the ideal spot for those in the know.

LE DIVE For those seeking a slice of Parisian cool in NYC, Le Dive is the place to be. Located on the bustling Lower East Side, this chic, French-inspired bistro has become a favorite among the fashion crowd. With its terrazzo tables, checkered floors, and effortlessly cool vibe, Le Dive offers a casual yet elegant atmosphere perfect for peoplewatching. The menu, featuring natural wines and simple French bites like oysters and steak tartare, draws in models, designers, and editors alike, making it a hotspot for pre-show drinks or leisurely evenings.

JEAN’S Since opening last fall, Jean’s has quickly become the new favorite hangout for NYC’s in-the-know crowd. This new-American bistro, crafted by industry veterans Max Chodorow, Ashwin Deshmukh, and Bernardo Metsch, offers a blend of nostalgic charm and contemporary flair with a menu featuring refined yet approachable dishes like Tuna au Poivre and Farm Chicken, all made with produce ingredients from Chodorow’s own New Hope, Pennsylvania farm. The cozy, warm atmosphere—complete with mirrored walls to catch all the action in the buzzy dining room, a fireplace, and a marble bar—makes Jean’s the perfect destination for intimate dinners or lively nights out, especially during Fashion Week.

PRESTO! A

PHOTOGRAPHY JEFFREY WESTBROOK

STYLING J. ERRICO

FULL GALLOP

At Seán McGirr’s debut collection for McQueen, the newly minted creative director made great strides to connect the storied past of the brand with the future of the house. One such way of linking past with present was seen in these anthropomorphic hoof boots that came trotting down the carpark/catwalk. House founder, Lee (Alexander) McQueen’s own flirtations with animal-cumhuman designs are now the thing of legends. One needs only to say the words ‘armadillo shoe’ for images of Plato’s Atlantis, (or Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”) to come flooding back to mind. Fast forward to today, where McGirr takes this idea even further, completing his leather, (or calfskin) equine-inspired boots with a distinctive horseshoe sole, and with one version featuring a naturalistic single silk ponytail at its back zip closure. If early indications are correct, they have already secured their place in the cannon of McQueen icons and are an assuredly stomping success. But one must act fast to lock up these boots in one’s own closet paddock, as they are almost already sold-out! So, it’s off to the races!

ON LEFT: McQueen by Seán McGirr silk nylon tarpaulin pencil skirt, $1,190, hoof boot in black with single silk ponytail, $3,390, cross-bar bag, $3,330, alexandermcqueen.com. ON RIGHT: McQueen by Seán McGirr doublebreasted trench coat, $4,400, hoof boot in brown, $2,990, alexandermcqueen.com.