“That’s so fetch!” When we first heard Mean Girls, the Broadway musical version, would be adapted into a movie, we were excited to see what a 2024 version of one of our all-time favorite films would look like. That enthusiasm doubled when we heard who would be stepping into the high-heeled shoes of the Plastics. We stan Reneé Rapp, of course, but we also love a fresh face and couldn’t wait to see Avantika Vandanapu and Bebe Wood in action. Wood—whose previous credits include Hulu’s Love, Victor, Ryan Murphy’s The New Normal, and ABC’s The Real O’Neals—is so fun to watch as the catty but vulnerable Gretchen Weiners. Not only does she deliver on the laughs, but she also has a noteworthy musical number in “What’s Wrong With Me.” What’s more, she’s a fashion risk-taker and lover of all things vintage—a woman after our own heart.
My experience auditioning for Mean Girls was… Totally surreal! I grew up with Mean Girls. I truly can’t remember a world before it. In fact, did the world even exist before Mean Girls? It was such an honor to be considered for the part and totally insane and thrilling to actually be cast. It really is a dream come true.
I was excited to put my own spin on Gretchen Wieners by… The nature of my being me! Gretchen is such an iconic character that so many incredible actors have touched. It’s easy to overthink it! I tried my best not to fall into that trap and trust that, by virtue of my being a different performer, the performance will be different. At the same time, I think the essence of Gretchen will always be the same. Tina’s writing is so brilliant. Gretchen’s voice is so clear. Sometimes, as an actor, if you’re going out of your way to try and make a character different, you can actually stray from who said character really is in a way that will hinder you.
If I could go back to one day on set, it would be… The day we were shooting “I’d Rather Be Me” and a full-on blizzard broke out. That whole sequence was done in two very long takes. From the cafeteria to the outside area, we don’t stop. We had done it a few times, making it outside each time. The weather seemed perfectly fine! But then, we did it again, and when Janis (Auli‘i Cravalho) opened the door, it was fully snowing. We were all like “WTF?!” It was hysterical. We had to go home and film the rest another day. Aha ha!
The stories and/or characters that make me feel excited to work in this industry are… Stories about women with big minds, hearts, and ideas. I also feel excited about stories that thematically touch on the nuances of life and humanity, all the beautiful little things that lay within the in-between.
Outside of acting, some of my other passions include… Music and songwriting!! I am passionate about so much, but music feels more like my soul. I released my debut EP 21st Century Hippie back in 2021, but I’m excited to record some new stuff I’ve been working on. I also love art, history, poetry, nature, antiques, and my cat and puppy!
If you catch me off duty, chances are I’m wearing… Ooh! It depends on the season. In spring and summer, I love a white cotton number. Turn-of-the-century Edwardian underwear is really my 21st-century outerwear in the summer. In the winter, you can catch me in knitwear, my long black Max Mara coat, and a wide-leg pant. These seeded denim trousers from Carrier Company are my favorite. I also always wear little gold hoops.
When it comes to fashion, I’m a total sucker for… Vintage! Clothes tell stories. I like to think about who wore something before me. And it’s good for Mother Earth—yay sustainability!
My winter wardrobe would not be complete without these three pieces:
You’ve been embraced as an It girl on TikTok over the past couple of years. How would you describe your everyday approach to beauty and style?
My everyday approach to beauty is enhancing my natural features and finding those little things that make me special. When I watch beauty tutorials on my makeup looks by other people, they often try to just copy what I’m doing, but that’s not always necessarily the best thing to do. I think you should look at my videos, take your pieces from it, and spin it in a way that fits your face. For example, if my contour is sitting up here because I have a higher cheekbone, that doesn’t mean yours needs to be there. I think it’s really all about looking at yourself and figuring out the parts of your face that can be enhanced.
I take a very classic approach when it comes to fashion. One thing I always say since it’s been installed in me since I was younger is to never follow trends. A lot of the time when you follow trends, you’ll look back five years from now and wonder, “What was I thinking?!” I stay true to a really timeless style, which allows me to never look back and question the fashion decisions I’ve made in the past. I really gravitate toward classic suit blazers, nice trousers, a good belt, and having staple jewelry, which is so important to help pull an outfit together. You can have the simplest outfit on, and if you also have fabulous earrings, you look so luxe and chic.
We can never get enough of your “get ready with me” videos, luxury shopping hauls, and photo shoots. What message do you hope to impart to your viewers and followers?
When people look at my content, I want them to feel inspired. About [my recent] luxury haul in particular, I had no idea the effect it would have on people. They instantly went out and treated themselves to amazing products! I love to be an inspiration and push people toward things that they would never ordinarily do for themselves and become what they didn’t think they could be. I also hope I can inspire people with their style and health journeys!
I just posted about the Pressed Juicery juice cleanse that I did, and so many people responded to that saying that they wanted to step their game up and start the year off right. There were so many benefits to that cleanse! It helped with bloating and made my skin so glowy. I also hope that … the workout and fitness routines I post … can also inspire people to feel good inside and out.
How has becoming a mother shifted your self-view?
It has made me more aware of a lot of things than I was before. It’s made me become a lot more healthy because, of course, I want to give my daughter the healthiest options for when she’s eating and when she’s out and about to avoid chemicals. My approach to health and wellness has grown and improved with her in my life, which has been really interesting and fun. I love having a lot of positivity around her, so in my daily life, I try to remain super happy and positive all the time, which I have always done. Now, I think about creating a safe space and energy for her. It’s been the best journey ever! She’s the sweetest, cutest little girl, and I just can’t wait to be her mom for the rest of her life.
What are some things you’re looking forward to in 2024? Are there any projects you can share with us?
My day-to-day consists of my activewear brand, so I’m really excited for the future of that and have a lot of exciting things coming. We’re still a really small team, so it’s fun! I’m wearing a lot of hats, so it’s nice to see everything coming to life, and all of the aspirations and dreams I had for the brand are really starting to form.
Juggling the ebbs and flows of adult friendships is something Dobrev knows well. “People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime,” she says. For Dobrev, whose life and schedule are as busy and unpredictable as it gets, planning has always been key to cultivating deeper relationships. She’s great with a schedule and makes a point to pencil in time with friends when she’s in their area. FaceTime and social media have been a big help too. “I’m very lucky I have incredible friendships,” Dobrev says. “They are also very understanding of the fact that we’re not going to be the kind of friends who talk every single day about every single thing.”
Dobrev is nothing if not a realist, and she’s definitely not one to beat around the bush. It’s that directness that makes her such a great friend, actor, and producer and what also attracts her to like-minded creative folks such as Cram and stylist Kate Young. “I say how I feel, and I don’t sugarcoat too much, and that’s both my Achilles heel and one of my greatest assets,” she says.
Young, like Dobrev, is straightforward and direct, and that kind of personality can come in handy when the right red carpet look is on the line. The A-list stylist, who also works with Dakota Johnson, Michelle Williams, and Julianne Moore, has been an ideal match for the actor, both in personality and fashion tastes. Dobrev can confidently say that her style has evolved dramatically since the two started working together. She cringes thinking back on some of her earlier red carpet looks. “I don’t know why nobody had an intervention with me,” she laughs. These days, the two have fun playing with a variety of styles and silhouettes, whether it’s a stunning gold sequin gown for the CFDA Fashion Awards, a leggy skirt-and-blazer combo by Nensi Dojaka, or an unexpected Chanel denim-on-denim look. Again, is there anything Dobrev can’t do? Young has been instrumental in creating a more elevated and chic vibe for Dobrev. “She’s the ultimate cool girl,” she says of Young. We can say the same about Dobrev.
To your point, you’ve both been acting from such a young age. Cole, you’ve been vocal about the fact that it wasn’t always a choice. It was often out of financial necessity. Kathryn, you’ve likewise been in the industry since you were 4. How does that influence your current approach?
CS: When a lot of people talk about acting, they talk about the beauty and the passion of acting, and they forget that it’s also a job. The healthiest relationship is somewhere in the middle, where you can go, “Alright, I ideally want to do one for me and one for the coffers.”
KN: We found a lot of common ground, and we had some amazing discussions about it on [the set of] Lisa Frankenstein. I felt like I was so similar in my approach, where we take it seriously, but we don’t identify with it. I’ve been an actress since I was 4. Every experience I had has been like candy. It’s just been fun. I went to real school my whole life, so there was this experience of “Is school real, or is the job that I’m on set for real?” Neither one of them felt like reality. I was class president, and I did the commencement speech and everything. I loved school and being a kid who was super uncool and then going to set and shooting 15-hour days and then going back to school and having to take five tests. These are the things that have made me who I am, and I wouldn’t change anything.
I can’t help but think that this mindset is really unique to folks like you who have been doing this job for so many years. It’s essentially the defining experience of your life. Did you ever look back and maybe feel any type of resentment or regret about the way that the industry made you grow up quicker and faster than kids your own age?
CS: Great question. I don’t hold resentment. It comes with an incredible amount of privilege, and also, you do kind of know what you’re signing up for. I might not have had as much agency over career decisions as a kid, but it made complete and logical sense at the time as to why we were doing the thing that we were doing.
KN: What’s funny is I feel like I’m just getting started all the time. Every time I finish a project, I feel like I’m never going to work again. To piggyback on what Cole is saying, the longer you do it, the less you need to do your job. I don’t need anything to do my scene. I don’t need a coffee. I don’t need five minutes to get ready. If you say “action,” I’m ready. [Cole is similar to me in that way.] I wonder if it’s because we did grow up as child actors. The roles have required more of me as I’ve matured simply with age and material. Now, the material just asks more of you. I feel like I’m just getting started because now I’m at a new level.
Brooks’s award show morning routine looks a little something like this: She starts with a calming salt bath with bubbles as Al Green plays in the background. She then jumps into the shower to rinse off— “A lot of people don’t do that, but I do,” she says—and wash her hair. She lotions up really well and orders breakfast. On the menu: Fruit, an iced green matcha with almond milk (a new favorite), and of course, lots and lots of water.
When Brooks’s glam team, stylist Jennifer Austin, hairstylist Tish Celetine, and makeup artist Rebekah Aladdin, arrive, that’s when the real fun starts. Brooks and her team have booked out a lengthy four hours for the getting ready process, because if experience has taught her anything, things come up, so it’s better to be prepared. The vibes in the room are immaculate—dancing is a must—and the champagne is flowing. There’s only one goal, and that is to soak up and enjoy every moment.
Long before she nabbed the part of Eli’s mother Frankie, Tonkin was your average fan of Dalton’s most-talked-about work. She remembers the book being everywhere in Australia when it first came out. It was the book-club book at the time, and her mother gifted her with it for Christmas in 2019. When she got the job a few years later, Tonkin revisited the material, and this time, reading it was a bit surreal. Instead of picturing someone else as Frankie, she was picturing herself. The original text ultimately became Tonkin’s bible while filming. “Having a book, especially a book so detailed as Trent’s book, was so invaluable for creating this story,” Tonkin says. “Television is also a very different medium, but it just added such a strong foundation.”
In addition to the book, Tonkin consistently referred back to an interview with Dalton where he explained his reasons for writing the book. “[Trent] shared that he was sitting with his mom, who Frankie is based on, in the garden with his young daughters. He shared that his mom turned to him and said, ‘I wouldn’t change anything in my life because it all led to this moment sitting here with you and watching my grandchildren dancing in the sunlight,’” she says. “For me, every time I would have a question about a scene or a line, it all just went back to that. … Even though things can be really hard and so unfair and so painful, there is something to be gleaned out of it. Hopefully, we’re all lucky enough to get to the end of our lives and look back at the patchwork of what got us there and think the same thing—that I wouldn’t have made any different decisions because I would have not wanted to change anything. For me, that was essentially the essence of the book and the essence of the show as well.”
Throughout the series, we see Frankie at different stages of her addiction—going through withdrawals, doing drugs, and recovering—but despite her sometimes questionable decision-making, Frankie’s love for her children is her North Star always. For Tonkin, this became her objective and driving force throughout the six months of filming. “Just because she doesn’t always make the perfect choice as a mother doesn’t mean she’s not a good mom, and it doesn’t mean she’s not trying to be a good mom, so for me, it was holding onto that piece of information. She just loves her kids so much, and she’s doing the best she can, and sometimes, that is it,” Tonkin explains.
Where the role became truly transformative for Tonkin was in the research. She immersed herself in as many books, blogs, and podcasts on addiction and recovery as possible. She read countless firsthand stories from people struggling with addiction themselves as well as their families. “I’ve always had so much compassion for people who struggle with addiction, and the stigma that people aren’t trying their best is just not true,” she says. “Looking at people’s stories like that versus this cliché idea of doing drugs, there’s a reason for it. There’s remorse. There’s guilt. There’s pain.”
There’s a line in the show that says, “It gets so good that you’ll forget it was ever bad.” It goes back to the message Dalton shared about his mother: After it all, she has no regrets because it got her to where she is today. Tonkin still repeats that line to herself all the time, especially when things aren’t good. It’s a constant reminder that, despite any turmoil in life, there is still hope.
For her first red carpet of 2024, Anna Diop came out with a bang in the form of a bejeweled tangerine minidress straight off Gucci’s S/S 24 runway. “I wanted to communicate effortlessness and chicness while also being in something that catches the eye,” Diop tells us following the event. Check, check, and check! The bold number was the epitome of joy. It was the perfect look to usher in an exciting new year on-screen for the actor and, more specifically, celebrate The Book of Clarence, a film that is nothing short of a good time.
Directed by Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall and The Great Gatsby), The Book of Clarence is an epic biblical comedy-drama about a man struggling to make a better life for his family who risks it all to carve his own path to a divine life. The film most notably features an incredible ensemble of Black excellence consisting of Diop, LaKeith Stanfield, Alfre Woodard, Omar Sy, Nicholas Pinnock, and rising star Michael Ward. “It’s a film that does the near impossible, in that it hits the comedy nail on the head, it hits the drama nail on the head, and it hits the action nail on the head,” Diop says. “I’m excited for people to come to the theater and really be entertained in the way film is meant to.”
Welcome toPortrait Session, an intimate photo series and interview featuring some of our favorite people of the moment.
After six seasons, The Crown is taking its final bow this month. Following the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 up until 2005, the award-winning Netflix historical drama has consistently given us spectacular performances from industry greats such as Olivia Coleman, Matt Smith, and Helena Bonham Carter, to name just a few, while also skyrocketing the careers of some noteworthy new faces (Claire Foy and Emma Corrin, anyone?). With part two of season six hitting the streamer today, we predict that kind of star-making power will unfold once again as the story focuses on the early courtship of Prince William and Kate Middleton at St. Andrews. Since season six casting news broke back in fall of 2022, fans have been eager to see newcomers Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy’s portrayal of the infamous royal couple. Plucked from obscurity, the actors stand to have a major breakout moment following their screen debut. So if they weren’t already on your radar, they should be now.
The first time I met McVey was during our photo shoot for this story at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. He was delightfully charming, cracking jokes in between poses for the camera. Clearly poised for a bright future. Our second meeting took place a few weeks later, albeit virtually. In that time, the actor’s schedule was jam-packed with premieres, junkets, and press appearances galore, but he didn’t appear phased. Part one of the final season came out in November, but since he’s not in those first episodes, he likens the experience to being on a roller coaster that is slowly making its way up the hill. The anticipation of what’s on the other side is there, but the rush hasn’t fully hit yet. McVey expects that will come later, after part two drops. “I’m sure when it does go out, it will be nuts, and I won’t be prepared for anything,” he said.
Not surprisingly, we’ve found ourselves invested in another corset drama. Can you really blame us, though? The romantic storylines, fancy balls, and beautiful costuming make for a guilty pleasure simply too good to resist. The latest in a series of enticing period pieces sweeping us off our feet is The Buccaneers from Apple TV+. Based on the unfinished novel by Edith Wharton and set in 1872, the show follows a close-knit group of socialites from New York who enter London’s polite society in search of husbands and titles. The eight-part series has it all—Anglo-American culture clash, a complicated love triangle, and a female-centric soundtrack featuring the likes of Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo. Perhaps most importantly, it has a fantastic cast made up of Hollywood’s brightest young stars, which you know we love here at Who What Wear.
For newcomer Aubri Ibrag, it was a dream project that couldn’t have come at a better time. Having just signed with an American agent after wrapping the Australian series Dive Club, she had her sights set on doing a period piece next. Traveling to Los Angeles by wave of Sydney, Ibrag was sent the script for The Buccaneers. “I feel like I manifested it in a sense,” Ibrag told us via Zoom last month. At the time, Ibrag was in the midst of a full-on fixation phase where all she could talk and think about were period dramas. There were no questions. She had to book this.
To say Sasha Colby is well known for her mastery of drag is a vast understatement. Walking into the Werk Room for RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, her fellow queens were gooped and gagged at competing against drag royalty. Formerly Miss Continental 2012, the legend stood out with fierce confidence and beauty, coupled with tight, polished performances and the ability to make us all feel like she was Mother, warm yet in command. After snatching the RuPaul’s Drag Race crown, Colby became the fourth transgender queen to win, confirming her already solidified icon status across the globe.
So what’s next for America’s Reigning Drag Superstar? Sasha Colby Hair, a line of hair extensions embodying her iconic ponytail style, which, in Sasha’s words, allows anyone to “unleash and embrace their fierce inner diva.” Yas, queen! In collaboration with Salon Xtensions, the line is available in 10 exciting colors of 28-inch ponytails, each made of a unique fiber blend for a human hair look and feel at an accessible price point ($99). “Making this ponytail not only user friendly but affordable was really important to me,” Sasha tells StyleCaster over Zoom, explaining that developing an inclusive and accessible collection was of the utmost importance. An easy, affordable way to become an honorary member of the House of Colby? Add to cart!
Below, Sasha dishes on hair, the power of transformation, and feeling snatched.
Image: Preston Meneses
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
StyleCaster: You looking stunning.
Sasha Colby: Thank you! How are you? Nice to meet you.
StyleCaster: I’m great. Congratulations on the launch. It’s such a big deal!You’re launching with the pony, your signature style. Why is that the first product, and how did you come up with the idea?
Sasha Colby: My pony has always been my signature. It’s been my activation piece for myself to like, feel activated in drag. And I love how it makes me feel pulled up and snatched, like a little kitten with a whip. It’s gotten me through 20 years of great drag, and I just thought that it would be so fun. This is more a response to a lot of the fans and people who watch the show and love the ponytail. They want to know how to do it. They want a ponytail tutorial. So all of these people and fans asking really got me thinking about, how do I make this accessible to the masses?
StyleCaster: Do you have tips for people who are new to wigs or extensions or any sort of hair?
Sasha Colby: I mean, the hair journey is a fun journey. It’s a way to really express what you’re feeling. And especially nowadays, there are so many varieties and different venues of hair choices that you can really play and be so many different characters or alter egos, just to have a little more spice in your life.
StyleCaster: Totally. I always joke when I have my gay friends over, or even my straight friends, I always bust out the wigs and we just start playing around with them.
Sasha Colby: Oh, we do that all the time! I mean, especially when you have a wall of wigs and people come to your house.
StyleCaster: And the straight boys always want to try one.
Sasha Colby: They want the longest, like, diva hair.
StyleCaster: Do you have any thoughts on the power of transformation, or the power of drag in that regard? It’s like a superpower.
StyleCaster: Absolutely. The idea of having the ponytail is an extension of what drag is, which is being able to transform yourself into whatever you need. Actually, that’s the fun thing about drag, to transform yourself into whatever you may need at that point in your life. If you feel like you’re not very confident or a little shy, putting on drag, transforming yourself, and giving yourself the confidence that you feel is exterior actually brings out what is already inside you, which is beautiful.
My pony has always been my signature … I love how it makes me feel snatched and pulled, like a little kitten with a whip.
Sasha Colby
StyleCaster: The line is very reasonably and accessibly priced. Why was that important for you?
Sasha Colby: Making this ponytail not only user friendly but affordable was really important to me. I make my own ponies. My best friend and I, we’ve kind of came down to this formula, but we use human hair. We were buying bundles, and it’s great for drag and Drag Race, but not really feasible for everyday life or the traveling drag we need. So I really wanted to make sure that the hair quality was easy. Just pull it out, brush it, shake it out, and it’s brand new.
Whereas with human hair, you’re gonna have to be a little more careful with it and prep it more. So that saves time. And that helps with a lot of people who are maybe intimidated with using a lot of tools and all of that. This could just be for them. And those are the same people that I feel that watch Drag Race and that this particular price point fits for: the younger drag queens, maybe single moms, who knows! That’s the lovely thing about this ponytail, is it can cater to everyone and I really wanted that.
StyleCaster: It comes in a variety of colors. Do you have one that you gravitate towards or is a favorite?
Sasha Colby: For myself, I have Pele on right now. This is a pony that you will get when you order your Sasha Colby ponytail. It’s 28 inches long, and it’s a nice, full pony. I definitely have my tutorials up on my Instagram and my social media so you can always check that out. It’s really easy to do. This one just matches perfect for any ginger, but I do have a bluer tone that’s more for that auburn, darker red girl. Also, a bunch of blondes, a bunch of browns, just like the basic colors right now, 10, which is an amazing selection. But stay tuned because we definitely have more colors coming for you.
Image: Preston Meneses
StyleCaster: That was my next question: What else can hair fans expect?
Sasha Colby: We can expect a lot with this ponytail line. We’re working on new colors. We’re going to have a lot more variations of colors (fun colors also), and I’m working on ombrés. So if you have darker hair, and you want to be blonde that day, it’ll make sense with the ombré pony. And also, we’re gonna have a lot more textures we’re playing [with]. So even though this is heat-safe and you can style the straight one, we’re going to have a lot of different beach layers, beach curls, big round curls, and a lot of textures for our POC girls. So we’re really excited for that.
StyleCaster:You are obviously iconic for your hair and the pony. Do you have any other drag inspiration or celebrity inspirations that you look up to for hair?
Sasha Colby: Oh, celebrity hair-spirations… I love a ’90s model. I love a layered cut. That’s just like my go-to. I’m actually currently under this ponytail rocking the Rachel from Friends. Yesterday, I had my hair in a claw, half up, half down and I looked like Sarah from The Craft. So I think I’m in my ’90s era right now.
StyleCaster: You’re going on tour next year, so what can we expect?
Sasha Colby: Oh, yes, we will be going on tour. My one woman show called Stripped. We’ll be hitting 22 cities all over the continental U.S. (and Hawaii!), so I’m very excited to be performing at home. You can expect a really stripped down version of what I always show you. What Sasha Colby is. I like to say it’s a peek behind the inner workings of my mind. What inspires me, what I live for. And just sharing stories and getting to know the audience, which I think is really stripped down and what a lot of people are craving right now.
StyleCaster: Over the past few years on Drag Race, and in the drag world period, we’ve seen the boundaries being pushed—from inclusivity and identity to more avant garde performance. What is your hope for the future of drag?
Sasha Colby: That it just keeps on expanding everyone’s perceptions of what art, beauty, gender, and really, to be alive is. From being a safe haven for queer people that were kind of ostracized and we couldn’t be in everyday society, we found this, this thing called drag, to give us a sacred place. And it was very much for the queer community, but is now opening up and really expanding the perceptions of queer community and of art for cis people, straight people, heterosexual people. It’s like the new sports, you know?
StyleCaster: All my straight friends love it. My family loves it.
Sasha Colby: It’s a great a common denominator.
StyleCaster: I think we all crave having fun. And that’s what it is.
Sasha Colby: You cannot not feel like you want to be yourself or do something daring when you’re watching someone else dare.
StyleCaster: You took home the crown on your season. I was obviously rooting for you. What was it like watching your daughter, Kerri Colby, on the previous season when she competed?
Sasha Coby: Watching Kerri in Season 14 was so fun. I love her. It was so nice to watch the world fall in love with her and her personality and being like the narrator of the show. She’s just so fun to watch and so relaxing and such a star.
StyleCaster: You recently attended your first fashion week. Do you see yourself getting more involved in the world of high fashion?
Sasha Colby: I definitely feel inspired, since I was young, with high fashion and the fashion industry. Not just the beauty aspect or the models, but really fashion, the clothes. I just love learning about fashion through history. And I would love to be more in the fashion world, be a fashion girly. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like watching drag, really! When you go to these fashion weeks, everyone’s in their order. Everyone’s in their artifice. And they project who they want to be and are just these fantastical people.
StyleCaster: One final question. What else are you looking to accomplish in the future?
Sasha Colby: Oh, you know, just, sky’s the limit for me right now. I’m really excited to travel more, perform more, meet more fans, and make more connections. And also, just getting into telling more stories through my music and through acting.
“I’m a huge vintage lover,” Verlaque tells us the morning after the screening. “I saw this vintage Vivienne Westwood dress, and it was black and had this giant red lip on it and some teeth out, and the lipstick was sort of dripping.” From the moment the actress saw the black minidress while pursuing a vintage fair in her native New York, she knew she had to have it. The piece happened to be sourced by one of her favorite vintage stores, James Veloria, and felt like the perfect look for a press moment. “This was during the strike, so mind you, I was very depressed and trying to manifest that the strike would be able to end before [the film came out] or that we got a deal so we could promote it,” Verlaque says. “I saw it and thought, ‘I’m just going to get it, and if I get to wear it for something Thanksgiving related, then perfect, and if not, I’ll save it for the next one.’”
You could say Verlaque manifested her next red carpet appearance in that moment. When she got the call months later from Sony that they were moving ahead with a premiere, albeit with barely a week’s notice, she went straight to her closet. “It was great to have a special piece like that,” she says, referencing the dress. “I also like throwing things together myself, so I was quite happy with the way it turned out.”
Congrats on More Is More! To me, it felt like your first book, Cook This Book, was really teaching us the fundamentals, and More Is More is like, “Okay, now, let’s have some fun.” In your own words, how would you describe More Is More?
You pretty much nailed it. … [With] Cook This Book, you’re in elementary school. You’re learning how to cook. You’re learning the basics and the building blocks that are foundational and the important techniques in order to prepare you for the next book, More Is More, which is in your college. You’ve got it all under your belt, and now, you just party, basically. You still need to work hard because cooking is still work, but it can be a lot more fun, and you can loosen up a bit more and feel less stressed about the precision of the process because you’ve permitted yourself to do so.
The second book is really about cooking more with your own intuition and according to your own palette and your own kitchen and the way you want your food to taste. The recipes are still recipes, but the ask of the reader is [to] make sure it tastes good, and don’t stop until it does. If you don’t like a certain ingredient, swap it out for something else. Empower yourself to cook food that tastes really delicious to you and not in a stressful way. It’s a bit more improvisational and loosey-goosey.
What would you say makes a recipe a Molly Baz recipe?
I think it’s recognizable-ish dishes that get turned on their head in terms of flavor profile and the way they come together. That has always been the sweet spot for me. We all know and love steak au poivre. It’s a classic dish people have been making in France forever, but what is the Molly version of it? Well maybe it’s chicken au poivre, and we’re using chicken legs instead of steak, and we’re putting miso in the sauce and tarragon instead of the classic traditional ingredients because we’re a little bit less tied to tradition.
My recipes are not dogmatic in terms of being like, “This is the way things are supposed to be done,” and that’s what’s so exciting about cooking to me. … There’s so much in the world to draw inspiration from and so many ways to reinvent things. The exciting part of developing recipes for me is, How can we look at this beloved classic dish in a new way and breathe new life into it? That’s what I think is a successful Molly recipe.
As both a recipe developer and writer and a consumer of cookbooks yourself, what are the most important elements to you when writing a cookbook?
There are a lot of things. Number one, if there is not a picture for the recipe, people will not make it. So I will never write a cookbook with a recipe that doesn’t have a photo. It’s just a waste of everyone’s time, especially mine. Number two is the formatting of a recipe. What I think is really tricky about recipes is that there are just tons and tons of words on a page, and it’s really easy to get lost, and it’s hard to find where you were, and you have to jump back from being in the kitchen to finding your place on the page.
A lot of recipes assume a lot of the reader, and I try to remove all of those assumptions when writing recipes and writing books. That means organizing the ingredient list in a way that is efficient and makes sense in your kitchen. So I’m going to tell you everything you need to grab from your pantry and everything that you need to grab from your fridge all in one block in the recipe so you are not darting around the kitchen like a crazy person going to the fridge for milk and then going to the pantry for flour and then “Oh, I also need eggs—now, I’m back at the fridge.” It’s so inefficient, and it starts to get so much more chaotic.
Something that most recipe developers don’t do—and it drives me bonks—is not reiterating the ingredient quantity that is listed in the ingredient list in the recipe. It’s like, you know vaguely how much parm you need, but of course, you don’t have it memorized, and then you get down in the recipe, and it’s like, “Stir in the parm,” and you’re like, “How much parm?” You have to go back up to the top of the page and find the parm in the ingredient list. Why wouldn’t you as a recipe developer just say “stir in half a cup of parm” so they don’t have to do the work? So much of the formatting of my recipes has been thought through endlessly and tirelessly to remove any excess chaos that might enter the brain because it is my belief that extra noise makes cooking more stressful for a novice than a professional because there are more assumptions that they can just make, so they don’t have to read every word and reference every single ingredient. That’s what makes it not fun. Nobody is trying to not have fun. So let’s make it fun and not stressful.
Emma Chamberlain, style icon and digital creator, has taken over a classic Levi’s silhouette yet again in time for the holiday season. Enter the latest project between the 22-year-old and the American heritage denim house: the It’s Giving Season campaign, featuring a fashionable spin on classic Levi’s pieces and a tightly curated guide of tried-and-true brand staples Chamberlain has high up on her wish list for giving and receiving this year.
Since joining the American denim label earlier this year as a guest creative director and brand collaborator, Chamberlain has remixed some of Levi’s pieces into elevated, cool Gen Z takes. Lest we forget, fans of the 22-year-old who have been watching her YouTube content since the mid-2010s know her personal lore surrounding the brand’s heritage 501 jeans runs deep. (In fact, she can match all of her Chamberlain Coffee characters to a Levi’s style—if that doesn’t exude dedication, I don’t know what does!)
While Chamberlain’s former collaboration focused on adding a few personal touches to her favorite pieces, her latest It’s Giving Season collaboration with Levi’s expands upon her unique creative vision, blending funky and cool elements with what she calls “grandma chic.” Unlike her first edit with the brand, though, Chamberlain explained that her latest round was a much more expansive, collaborative effort, from the gifting curation to the vibe of the homey photo shoot.
Do you want to start by walking me through your skincare routine?
That sounds like a really great way to start. I have always, always, always washed my face at night no matter what, even if I don’t have makeup on. I like to go to bed with clean skin. I want it working for me while I sleep. I’ll use retinol—the Rapid Wrinkle Repair is what I use because it’s around, and I have it. I’ve learned that I can trust it, and I don’t need to go fancy. I just really stick with what I know and trust.
Every other night, I’ll use the Hydro Boost, the hyaluronic acid, because retinol is really putting your skin to work and saying, “Hey, get to work, regenerate, turn over cells. Let’s go.” And then hyaluronic acid is just like, “Let’s just bring moisture to the surface of the skin barrier, and let’s plump you up and quench your thirst and make you look dewy.” So that is my combo. I have a new product that I love, which is the Hydro Boost Water Cream. It’s a nighttime cream. It doesn’t have SPF, but it goes right in. It’s almost like it absorbs directly into your skin. You’re almost not rubbing it in your skin. [It] just kind of goes, “Oh, I recognize you.”
That also sounds nice for a summer-to-fall transition.
For sure. You need all the love you can get, especially going into the colder months.
If you had to leave the house in under five minutes, what are some staple beauty products that you would use before you leave?
I would start with SPF. You’ve got to have your SPF on. As a matter of fact, I like to layer it a lot, but the Hydro Boost moisturizer during the day has an SPF of 50. So if nothing else, then you know you’re golden. If I have five minutes, I could get totally ready in five minutes. The one fancy thing that I love is Gucci Westman’s Westman Atelier. You know the foundation stick? I would use a little bit of that. It’s just like a concealer or any ruddiness that I want to cover up and do a little brow and a little bit of cheek, and I’m off. I rarely remember to do mascara. I rarely do anything like lips or anything. So if I have those things done, I’m out the door.
Are you a fragrance person at all? Do you ever wear perfume?
Yeah, I do. Right now, it’s Gypsy Water.
I like that one. It’s an easy everyday perfume. What would you say your beauty philosophy is?
My beauty philosophy is “less is more.” I just want to look like myself. I can’t say that I’m particularly gutsy with my beauty choices either in what I wear—clearly [laughs]—or in makeup and hair. I mean, I did chop all my hair off. In that way, I just wanted something fresh and different, and that felt really, really good. But for the most part, I want to look like the best version of me that I can. So I’d rather take care of my skin and give my hair every bit of advantage it can. Really, for everything, it’s just about moisture. That’s true of your hair. It’s true of your skin. It’s really just how much moisture can you pack in and repair the cells you have.
I feel like a lot of people are thinking about chopping their hair like you did for fall. Do you have any styling tips that you’ve learned now that you have shorter hair?
I would just chop it and then find what works for you. For me, what I loved is that I never use a blow-dryer. But it just dried so much more quickly. I always use Virtue 6-in-1. That’s one hair product that I can count on. I know how to use [it], and it feels good. It doesn’t feel like I have junk in my hair. So I do a little of that, and I’m gone.
I love it. Always better to do less. On your Instagram, I feel like you have so many good gardening and DIY home hacks. Do you have any beauty hacks that you do?
My beauty routine really is my beauty hack. It’s consistency. It’s really just about consistently wearing sunscreen. It’s so boring. But at your age especially, you have to be so careful because it feels great to get a tan. You guys all do this. Look at me. I’m your 50-year-old self. I’m telling you [to] wear sunscreen [and] get a spray tan.
Oh my god, if you’re my 50-year-old self, then I am on the right track.
You’re gonna be golden—not to worry. It’s so nerve-wracking being your age. It really is. You’re supposed to be married, and everything is about checking off these next boxes. There’s such a time pressure it feels like to all of it, and it’s going to work out. You’re gonna be great, even if it’s messy. I mean, it doesn’t always work out like you think it’s going to, but it’ll work out.
That’s great advice. I needed to hear that. Going back to your Instagram, I feel like it’s such a happy corner of the internet. What has it been like to build your presence on Instagram?
Well, I went into it kicking and screaming. I’m actually really private, but there are things about myself I am willing to share. I don’t like, personally, to share my kids. But I am happy to talk about parenting and mothering. It’s just like, Where do I feel an openness? It’s been fun to open up that part of myself and share it with people because I do it with Mo Grosser, who’s worked with me for 10 years. Years ago, I just said, “Hey, guess what? You have a new job. We’re doing social media. And it’s, it’s you. Guess who I’m hiring? You!” She went to film school, and she’s so good at recording and editing me because we’re together all the time. I don’t have somebody weird following me around. Mo is like my right hand. She’s so great about it. It happens really naturally. It’s really fun to share with people and to come up with silly things.
Let’s talk about footnotes. By the way, I love footnotes as a concept. I love footnotes as a tool. I love footnotes stylistically. I’m a Virgo and a nerd, so of course, they speak to my joy, but talk to me about your relationship to footnotes because they are such a critical part of this book.
Interestingly enough, I’m a Pisces, and Virgos and Pisces are sort of antithetical to each other. I feel that I have organization, but to a Virgo, it seems like chaos. I think footnotes have the same application, in that I wish I could say it was the organization of thoughts, but really, it’s that every single road that I created in this city has a side street and an alley and then a sewer. That’s just the way that my mind works. It’s not linear. I wish that it was so that I could find peace. I would constantly have these interjections that I believed in my heart of hearts were essential to essays, but then in the body of the essays, they would totally disrupt the flow. It’s like, “How do you not talk about Miss Claudette when you’re talking about Rosa Parks?” The footnotes were this reprieve where I could include essays that were too short for the full book, or they were half ideas or footnotes that were historically important but not necessarily rhetorically important in the literal body of the text in a way that did them justice. … If you don’t care, you could read the essay start to finish and not have anything disrupted, but the footnotes are important to my own logic.
To me, it’s such a thoughtful way of presenting information and ideas because you are giving a “choose your own adventure” aspect to the reading process. What are you in the mood for? How deep do you want to go? It actually feels quite generous of you.
I used to read encyclopedias as a kid, the Britannica, front to back, and I would retain that information, and it’s all these fun facts. That’s where I come from as a reader—just being like, “What fun facts can I share at a dinner party?”
I sometimes think about the youngs coming up in this day and age and not having the physical encyclopedia in their house, and I think they’re really missing out in one area. Yes, they have all of the information in the world on their phone, but there’s something about an old-school encyclopedia.
One-hundred percent. Also, I grew up with dial-up internet. You’d get a phone call, and you’d be like, “Nooooo!” You’d have to start Dexter’s Lab game all over again. It was so boring. I don’t remember how we entertained ourselves if not for having those old-school history books, encyclopedias, and finding things. Just finding things and the why.
Do you have a favorite essay? Does it change?
I don’t have a favorite essay. They’re so different. It’s like picking a favorite child. Everyone has one, but they wouldn’t say. It depends more on the mood. I’m more surprised when individuals talk to me about what essays they specifically connected with. That, to me, is actually more exciting. When I did a podcast with Dua Lipa, she was the first person to ever talk to me about my book, and she really connected with the “WikiFeet” essay. That was surprising to me. I guess it makes total sense. You also have one, wow. When I was talking to my friend Chris Murphy at Vanity Fair, he really connected to the affirmative action essay. He went to Princeton and boarding school as well, so we could connect in that space of our lives, and we’ve been friends for years. But it was just really fascinating to see what friends, new and old, what really touched them.
While you might not have a favorite per se, is there one that you enjoy reading out loud more than others?
“WikiFeet” is the essay that I performed live for years and then wrote it in my book and continued. I did a speech at Harvard Law School, and I read that essay. It was wild. I love HLS. I love ivy—you know, ivy towers.
I’ll get right to it. I follow you on Instagram and TikTok, and you always look so bronzed. What’s your go-to product, and what’s your routine like?
My favorite self-tanner is Bondi Sands Technocolor ($27) in the color Emerald. The way Technocolor works is you take this skin quiz, and it finds the color that best suits your skin. Honestly, it’s been great for me. It gives my skin a nice glow, and it’s a good color for me.
As far as my routine goes, I definitely exfoliate before. I try to do my due diligence when putting on the tanner, making sure I get in every crevice and everything is covered. Sometimes I’ll put lotion on the parts of my skin that are drier so the self-tanner doesn’t stick too much to those, which is how I try to make it look as flawless as possible. Then, obviously, with the upkeep, moisturizing and putting lotion over the self-tanner is super important to have it last as long as possible.
Do you have a favorite moisturizer and exfoliator for your body?
Bondi Sands has a Self-Tan Eraser ($24) and an Exfoliating Mitt ($9). As far as lotion goes, I’m not too picky. I try to do something fragrance-free because my skin is super sensitive. The self-tanner is also fragrance-free, which is why I like the Technocolor especially.
This is kind of a fun question. Let’s play Fuck, Marry, Kill with self-tanner, hair extensions, and lashes.
I’m going to kill lashes because I don’t normally use those. We’ll fuck hair extensions, and we’re going to marry self-tanner.
Those would be my exact picks. Speaking of beauty products, in general, there are a few beauty products you’re definitely known for using: the Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi Drops, the Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Contour Wand, and the Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil. If you had to only keep one, which one would it be and why?
I think that I would keep the Hollywood Contour Wand ($42) just because I’m obsessed with a bronzed look, and besides having bronzed skin already, I think it definitely does a good job of creating that nice contoured and sculpted look for your face.
Contour is my favorite part of my makeup routine.
It makes such a difference.
What is a beauty product that you’ve been loving lately? Is there one you’ve recently discovered that you’re excited about?
I have loved the Bondi Sands Technocolor Self-Tanner. I discovered it while I was still on Accutane, which made a big difference to me because it makes your skin so sensitive to the sun, and self-tanning helps a lot.
Definitely. Is there a product that we’d be surprised to know is in your makeup bag?
Surprisingly, recently, I’ve been using black or brown eyeliner to line my waterline. I’ve been using them from Ilia. I know I’ve been kind of known throughout the past year for this white-eyeliner look, but I have been experiencing and I’ve been liking the dark colors for my waterline. I think that would be shocking for some people to hear.
That is shocking actually. I feel like you’re so known for the white liner. You’re switching things up!
Being the hyper-organized person she is, what do you think draws her to someone like Steven, who feels a bit messy in life and his decisions?
AH: [Me, Rebecca, and Peter Dinklage] had a lot of conversations about that, about what it is, and the fact that their beginning would have been really messy. Falling in love with a patient is a really big deal. I actually called a therapist I know to say, “Walk me through exactly how this would work,” because I sensed it was a big deal, and she talked me through exactly why it’s such a big deal. They just got hit by this really strong need to be together, and I think they honored it and respected each other so much. They were ultimately such a safe choice for each other, [in] that they were both suffocating.
Peter and I had a lot of conversations about how do we have anti-chemistry, like in a way that brings the audience in. We don’t want to repel people with the anti-chemistry, but you have to be like, “Oh yeah—no, no, no.” Also not in a violent way. The way we usually think about people who shouldn’t be together is they’re miserable in these really toxic ways, and it’s like [Patricia and Steven] are not necessarily toxic. It’s not like that, but neither one is particularly thriving.
RM: They are functional as a couple.
AH: They are so functional. They are functional to the point of dysfunctional.
Can we talk about her faith and why she is so drawn to the Catholic church?
RM: I think that finally real faith is a bit of a mystery. I don’t think you can say, “I have faith because of this.” The way that I wrote her is that she has a father who is Jewish, her mother was Catholic, but she went to Catholic school. She’s a person with a big religious capacity, and some people are born like that. That was the religion that she finds herself more and more keenly drawn to. I don’t think there’s a logic to that, and that’s one of the things that undercuts her very logical secular life, is this other thing. It’s, in a funny way, this wild part of her, even though we don’t necessarily see religious faith as being that, but I think at its purest form it is.
AH: It’s funny. I was really lucky I got to go to the opening night of the opera in New York, and it was Dead Man Walking. I think we’re all familiar with the story, and in it, there’s an aria where the lead character is describing herself. She’s a nun, and she’s saying Jesus was a hothead, and so am I, and I just remember thinking, “Oh that’s funny. We don’t often think about it in those terms.” For Patricia, what Rebecca is saying is really interesting—that idea that she has these urges. She has these desires, and they are really out of step with what we understand to be a modern woman.
Part of the reason that she is having a hard time opening up to them is because it doesn’t make sense to her. It doesn’t make any logical sense, and she doesn’t know what part of herself she has to deny in order to follow this path, but ultimately, it is a mystery. I think that there’s a very long, continuous streak of mystics in our species in our history, and she is one of them.
RM: It doesn’t match her life—it pulls her apart.
AH: She has such a mystical life, but it kind of bubbled up inside of her until she couldn’t repress it anymore.
When Gerber’s not putting her comedy chops to the test alongside the greats, you’ll likely find her curled up somewhere with a good book. It’s not out of the norm for her to be rotating between three or four at a time—usually a memoir, a novel, a short story, or a poetry book. She is an enthusiastic consumer of literature, one who will happily ham it up with you about her latest book finds. Recent favorites include Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman, Lucky Dogs by Helen Schulman, and Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki.
“When people think of Kaia Gerber’s Instagram, [I don’t think] they expect to go on and basically see me only talking about books,” she says. Looking for a place to connect with others and start purposeful conversations, Gerber created her own online book club. Each month, she shares a new book with her 9.6 million followers, inviting either the author or a special guest to join her live. “I decided, Why not use this book club as a way to highlight authors and encourage people to read but also as a door or window into conversations that are really difficult to have?” she says. For this reason, she’s quite particular about the titles she chooses each month, basing it on the kind of dialogue she wants to spark. For August, Gerber hosted a live with author Alex Auder to discuss her memoir Don’t Call Me Home, a story that tackles being raised by a Warhol superstar and the intimate bonds of mother-daughter relationships. “I get to have these really incredible authors or people who just have so much insight into these topics. I am a very curious person in my life, and I think it lives in my book club as well,” she adds.
So where does modeling fit into all this? It’s obvious Gerber is leaning more into acting these days, but she is quick to clarify it’s not one or the other. The two can live harmoniously in her life. For the moment, she’s enjoying being more selective with the fashion projects she commits to. “I have fun doing it now because I get to come in and do really special, meaningful things with people that I have really deep, wonderful relationships with,” she says. The Valentino Haute Couture show is one example. Working with longtime friend Hedi Slimane as the face of Celine is another. “I love working with Celine because I really feel like it’s the coolest version of myself, and it’s not at all how cool I am in real life,” she says. Even her fashion choices on the red carpet, for which she collaborates with stylist Danielle Goldberg, are meticulously selected and have intent behind them.
He’s right! Duchovny is very good—even if she doesn’t quite believe it herself yet. Now 24, the Los Angeles native has been working steadily for the last six years but has a habit of telling people she’s still “trying” to act, her imposter syndrome rearing its ugly head. I suspect that will all change shortly. In a spring-summer doubleheader, Duchovny took to the small screen this April in Hulu’s eight-part psychological thriller Saint X, a series based on Alexis Schaitkin’s novel of the same name, and this month, she is starring opposite Matthew Broderick and Uzo Aduba in the Netflix limited drama Painkiller.
Painkiller centers on the origins of the opioid crisis in America, following its perpetrators (Purdue Pharma), its victims, and one investigator’s quest for the truth. Duchovny delivers a breakout performance playing Shannon Shaeffer, a recent college graduate and new recruit to the Purdue sales team.
I should mention this isn’t the first time this story has been told on-screen—and it probably won’t be the last. Last year, Hulu released the Emmy-nominated miniseries Dopesick spotlighting the same origin story. The opioid crisis is still very much a prevalent issue facing Americans, and Painkiller effectively demonstrates this by sharing real stories of families who have lost loved ones to opioid addiction at the beginning of each episode. It’s a reminder of the ongoing struggle and how dire the situation remains. “I’m psyched that this story is getting told as much as it is,” Duchovny says. “Let’s keep talking about it. Let’s keep doing it. Putting this on Netflix is huge because so many people open their Netflix at the end of the day, and if this can be a part, along with everything else, of educating people, then bring it on. Keep ’em coming.”
Knowing how this very real story plays out, it’s easy to judge a character like Shannon out of the gate. Duchovny knows this, but the actress also found it easy to empathize with her. Shannon is a young woman fresh out of college, her gymnast dreams dashed due to injury. She’s trying to escape an unstable home environment when she is presented with this seemingly great opportunity to make money and help people.
“She’s being told that she’s going to alleviate people’s pain and that the better she is at her job, the more people are out of pain,” Duchovny says. “It gets more complicated as the red flags start popping up.”
“I’m telling my kids this is the royal wedding.” — TikTok user89984382348
Sofia Richie Grainge is the internet’s new princess. The 24-year-old has been in the public eye since she was a teenager, but this past April, she hit an inflection point when she got married at the iconic Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the South of France and took the whole internet with her. The result was a newly crowned It girl. Group chats lit up. “This is my Super Bowl.” “Wedding of the century.” Over 400 million TikTok views later, the Sofia Grainge effect is in full swing. Women overhauled their closets in favor of Grainge–inspired sophistication, trendy styles were suddenly rendered distasteful, and influencer-marketing companies started offering branding lessons based on the wedding. At a moment in time when catchphrases like “quiet luxury” and “stealth wealth” have burrowed into our collective cultural consciousness, Grainge checks the boxes. In an AI-obsessed era, people have never been more aware of authenticity vs. artifice (raise your hand if you download the BeReal app), but the lavish wedding studded with celebrities somehow resonated as relatable and real. She found her moment, and she is the moment. And as I learned in our hour-long conversation, she has big fashion-industry plans for her next moment.
First, let’s go back to where it all began: falling in love with her now husband, Elliot Grainge. “We started off just as friends. I would always tell him, ‘Whoever you end up with is the luckiest girl.’ I thought that person is going to be really loved, appreciated, and worshipped. And then I realized one day… Why can’t that lucky girl be me?” Grainge tells me over the phone. Her past relationships were heavily documented in the celebrity news world, yet her partnership with Grainge flew relatively under the paparazzi radar—perhaps a hint of the quiet luxury of it all to come. Post-wedding, the couple came to symbolize the #relationshipgoals many hope to manifest in their own lives. It wasn’t just a pretty, Vogue-approved wedding. It was proof to all the internet girlies to never settle and hold out for the relationship you deserve. To hear Grainge talk about their love, it’s easy to become enamored with the fairytale of it all. “When we started being romantic, he just gave me a different feeling,” Grainge shares. “It was a feeling of safety. It was the feeling of really being appreciated. I knew when we started dating that he was my husband. It wasn’t a ‘Do you think one day he’ll propose?’ It was like, ‘This is my husband—100%.’ I felt this love for him that I never felt ever in my life.” Royal-wedding material indeed.
With a leveled-up romantic life, the internet loves to point out that Grainge also upgraded her style. Grainge cites Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as her ultimate style muse, and after a wedding weekend replete with Chanel, cream linen, and sleek buns, she cemented her status as the poster girl for the quiet-luxury trend. But it turns out she doesn’t completely identify with the buzzword of 2023. “Quiet luxury, the term, it sounds really nice, so I’m not knocking it,” she says. “But [my stylist] Liat Baruch and I started working together properly about three and a half years ago, and when we met, our word was ‘timeless.’” For Grainge and Baruch, it isn’t about chasing a trend or aligning with the zeitgeist of a moment. Rather, they’re tapping into clothing as a source of strength and confidence. “I feel powerful in what I wear. I really tuned into myself and asked, What am I wearing when I feel my most powerful self? And that was in more sophisticated, timeless attire,” she adds.
It turns out there is immense power in what Sofia Grainge chooses to wear. Google searches for “Chanel wedding dress” saw a 500% increase the day after the L.A. native got married in three custom Chanel looks. So how did the wedding-weekend outfits seen round the world come together? Grainge chose to work with Baruch, a close family friend and stylist, to dream up her library of French Riviera looks. “Liat is a genius at what she does,” Grainge tells me. Once they got the work, the curation process came naturally: “It was like two friends sitting on a couch. It was so easy and laid-back, and we just started making mood boards together,” she explains.
Grainge says Chanel has been her favorite designer her entire life, so naturally, the house was her first choice to design her wedding dress. “When I heard that they were open to working with me for the wedding, I immediately hopped on a plane and met with their head of couture in New York City,” she says. Grainge admits to being a bit intimidated at the start. Chanel is, well, Chanel, and she didn’t want to step on the toes of people who clearly know what they’re doing. Despite initial nerves, “they really made me feel comfortable to have an opinion and put in my two cents. They were so hands-on, lovely, and attentive,” she recalls. The couture-level attention to detail stood out to Grainge. “They would say, ‘The buttons are a little bit too white. We’d love to dye them to make them a bit more cream,’ and I’d fly to Paris to make sure the hem was hitting just right,” she adds. “It was honestly one of the most amazing, fascinating experiences of my entire life.”
Initially, the plan was just for the ceremony gown, but after months of trying to figure out the rehearsal-dinner and after-party looks, she realized nothing goes with Chanel but… more Chanel. “That’s when I went back, and I asked, ‘Would you guys be open to doing two more dresses for me?’ And they were so kind to take it on,” Grainge shares. Nine months and seven flights to Paris later, the dresses were finally ready: a beaded rehearsal-dinner outfit inspired by a look from Chanel’s F/W ’97 couture collection worn by Stella Tennant, a lace wedding gown with a halter neckline and a resin water droplet–adorned veil, and a double-layer minidress with a signature 3D camellia flower inspired by an F/W ’93 look worn by Claudia Schiffer for the after-party.
The looks were so stunning, in fact, that Anna Wintour herself decided to upend Vogue’s content plans for the wedding. Grainge recounted the experience of being with her sister Nicole Richie in Paris at the Chanel atelier for a fitting when the house’s creative director, Virginie Viard, told them, “We just had a wild experience. Anna Wintour was just here, and we gave her a quick preview of your dresses. She would really love if her team could cover your final fitting.” Naturally, the sisters were on board: “Nicole and I gave each other a sister look like we’re freaking out.” Wintour and the Vogue crew materialized in Paris four days before the wedding to capture the final fitting, a moment Grainge describes as “surreal.” The original arrangement was to do the standard after-the-fact wedding feature, but now, the Vogue team would edit the fitting footage in just a few days and make a splash by dropping all the behind-the-scenes dress details as the bride walked down the aisle. The anecdote highlights Wintour’s foresight. She knows a new It girl when she sees one.
While Vogue’s content plans were highly orchestrated, Grainge’s were the exact opposite. The launch of her TikTok came about more organically that weekend. “My friends were like, ‘How cool would it be if you started a TikTok and showed people in real time what was happening?’ I thought, ‘You know what? That’s so refreshing, and that’s a great idea.’” Grainge posted her first-ever TikTok from France two days before her wedding, a GRWM (that’s “get ready with me” in internet speak) for a prerehearsal dinner. Perhaps being a newcomer to the space had its own charm. “I actually feel like a grandma on TikTok. Fun fact: I don’t even know how to edit a video,” she admits. However, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t intention behind her videos. “I feel like a lot of content around large events is so planned, and they’re so calculated. The content that I created around my wedding was organic, and I wasn’t pushing anything or hiding anything waiting for a magazine to publish. I was just being myself and letting people live through it with me in real time,” she says. As for why she felt the need to share, Grainge seems as geeked out on the fantasy aspect of an A-list French Riviera wedding as the rest of us: “I really wanted to take people along with me because I felt like holy crap—this is a fairy-tale moment. I need to share this with people.”
And a fairy tale it was. A buyout of an iconic hotel that’s hosted everyone from Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso to Jane Birkin and Jackie O. A guest list dotted with notable names like Cameron Diaz and Paris Hilton. A mountain of white and cream roses. Those Chanel dresses. Musical performances by Lionel Richie, Stephen Sanchez, and Good Charlotte. Fireworks over the Mediterranean Sea.
This event was the stunning result of a year’s worth of planning, and Grainge had a hand in everything. “There was not one thing with my party planner that I didn’t want to be involved in.I wanted to pick the flowers. I wanted to pick the color of the linen. Every single thing about my wedding had Virgo written all over it,” she jokes. As for the moment she’ll tell her children about? “Standing under the chuppah, we would squeeze each other’s hands and look out into the crowd and take in the faces that traveled to be with us, our families and our close friends. When are we ever going to have every single person we love the most together? It was magic,” she says.
It wasn’t until several days into their honeymoon when Grainge realized the rest of the world felt the magic too. “My husband looks at me, and he says, ‘I think people are freaking out over this,’ and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’” The newlyweds were on a deserted island in the middle of the Maldives with no service, and when they finally got home, that’s when she felt it. “I left my house, and tons of people were coming up to me. I was being stopped right, left, and center,” she says. “It was so sweet, but it was also like, ‘Oh my god, I forgot that people tuned in and loved and saw my wedding. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, you did?’ It was a very surreal and kind of a wow moment for me, and I was really flattered. The amount of love I felt also from people on the internet filled my heart and made me really happy.”
Even though Grainge may have been the last to know, it’s clear she has captured the world’s attention. Her fortuitous wedding of the century and unassuming social strategy have made her essentially synonymous with good taste and elevated style. As for what’s next, like any Virgo worth her planner, she is a few steps ahead and is deep into preparing for an exciting launch: her own clothing line—not a collaboration or a capsule but a full-fledged brand helmed by Richie Grainge.
“The aesthetic is very my vibe,” she tells me of the line. “I made sure, trying on every single sample, that it embodies the aesthetic that I’ve been wearing. It’s 100% me.” Even though the brand will encapsulate Grainge’s style, she doesn’t have plans to be the face of the line, taking a page from her sister’s playbook: “I’ve watched Nicole design for years with House of Harlow, and it has definitely been inspiring for me. I’ve taken notes, and I’ve learned a lot. We don’t need to be people that just throw our names on things. We can be passionate and be involved.” Her aim is to focus more on the design, and she’s taking her time to make sure it comes out exactly how she envisions.
“I’m co-designing with our designer named Cass. She’s brilliant, and it was kind of the same vibe as when I started putting together wedding looks with Liat,” she says. “I had Cass come to my house, and we sat in my backyard in sweatpants. We started with things in life that inspire us. For me, it was art and music. We built this whole story based on things that inspire us.” When pressed to share her dreams for the line, Grainge hesitates. I suggest milestones like showing at New York Fashion Week or a dream celebrity wearing the line, and in true Grainge fashion, she remains humble. “I want whoever buys it to feel good in it. I hope that people connect with it. I hope people love it,” she says. If it’s anything like her wedding, it’s sure to have a more significant impact than anyone could have anticipated.
