It’s a “trend” (read: way of life) many have been noticing for the past couple of years: smoking. Its steady rise back into mainstream culture arguably reaching a crescendo with Brat summer, the Charli XCX-fueled phenomenon-by-way-of-an-album that laid out what constitutes a “brat,” at least aesthetically: “pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra.” Note that pack of cigs was placed at the top of the list, even if XCX was largely just bullshitting/trolling the press…as is the wont of a true brat.
And yet, it was as though she “manifested” the full-fledged opening of the floodgates when it came to “social smoking” being back in a big way. Unapologetically so. For, where once there was a stigma about it, the summer of 2024 seemed to confirm something that had been brewing for a while: if the “culture” was going to be subjected to the retro practices being consistently touted and implemented by a certain administration helmed by a certain orange creature, then it wanted to at least get back one “good” retro practice out of it: the joy of smoking. No matter that everyone, by now, is well-aware of the bodily harm it guarantees.
Here, too, another factor is at play with regard to the “why” of cigarettes a.k.a. “cancer sticks” taking off so much in recent times: it’s apparent that more and more people aren’t seeing much of a viable future for the world, so why not really find (a.k.a. buy, for an extremely exorbitant price) the thing you love and let it kill you? It’s not like there’s going to be an assured tomorrow anyway, n’est-ce pas? So “let it rip.” Or, in this case, let it burn. Put another way by Jared Oviatt a.k.a. “@cigfluencers” (now the go-to person for articles about why cigarettes are “back”), “The dream of stability, owning a home, financial security feels increasingly out of reach. So the question becomes: why not do what you want? Why not smoke? Nothing matters!”
However, speaking to that aforementioned point about the exorbitant price, the people smoking are actually the ones who can own a home, do have financial security. To be sure, there seems to be something to the idea that “only” celebrities are smoking again (ergo, in some enraged people’s opinions, trying to make it “cool” again)—perhaps because the cost of a pack of cigarettes, to them, amounts to pennies. Which is why Rosalía brought an entire “cigarette bouquet” to Charli XCX for her 32nd birthday on August 2, 2024. Because, while roughly fifteen dollars a pack (when bought from a metropolitan city like L.A.) is alms to the richies, it makes far more of a dent in the average person’s so-called salary. Hence, the popularity of cigarettes among celebrities not necessarily causing a major uptick in smoking among “the commoners.” Who tend to prefer vaping anyway, a much more déclassé form of smoking, with only slightly less harmful health effects. Even so, Lana Del Rey remains committed to it, despite previously being one of the earlier known celebrities of the twenty-first century to parade her cig habit (once an indelible part of her visuals).
But then, that’s because Del Rey was always touting twentieth century views and “ideals” in the first place. It’s only now that “everyone else” has “caught up” to her (as she herself presently chooses vaping instead—to which her recent opening act, Addison Rae, would say, “Ew, I hate vaping”) by allowing themselves to fall behind. And why shouldn’t they, when everything around them reflects a society that has entered a time machine, reinvoking the worst of what “hippies” and “crusaders” fought against in the mid-twentieth century: racism, sexism and an overtly patriarchal society.
Alas, since all of that has bubbled up to the surface again with a vengeance, many seem to think that, at the bare minimum, that should include the erstwhile “glamor” of cigarettes. Before the myth of their “doctor recommended” cachet was debunked with an early 1960s study that definitively concluded cigarettes cause lung cancer. It was in 1964, with the publication of Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, that things for the tobacco industry started to get really dicey. Because that’s when the PSAs, both in print and on TV, started coming out, making increasingly indelible impressions on people as the decades wore on.
The 90s were an especially “anti-smoking” time, in terms of campaigns going hard against tobacco. One ad, seeking to satirize the supposed glamor of smoking now mostly associated with Old Hollywood films, depicted a man and woman with “movie star vibes” as the former asks, “Mind if I smoke?” Her reply: “Care if I die?” The message was out: smoking was decidedly gross, selfish and, worst of all (for men and women alike), caused impotence. And yes, it’s almost certain that’s a problem for “cigfluencer” Matty Healy, who went from dating the “wholesome” Taylor Swift to the “brat-adjacent” Gabbriette, a fellow smoker. Because, despite the 90s being always on-trend with the likes of those in the “Brat orbit,” anti-smoking isn’t something that took hold from that hallowed decade. Besides, even the it girls of the day (e.g., Kate Moss, Chloë Sevigny, Winona Ryder) clearly never paid much attention to such ads. Or the influence their unabashed smoking had on those who wanted to be like them.
Even so, that didn’t stop the effects of the anti-smoking movement at the government level, with California in particular being ahead of the curve on banning smoking in restaurants, workplaces and bars starting in 1995 (though Beverly Hills specifically started banning smoking in certain public places in 1987). Rather ironic considering that Hollywood was the place that started selling cigarettes as “glamorous” in the first place. The dive that the reputation of the cigarette took by the mid-2000s was so noticeable that it can best be summed up by Aaron Eckhart’s character, Nick Naylor, in 2006’s Thank You For Smoking, when he laments that the only people you see smoking in movies anymore are “RAVs”: Russians, Arabs and villains (the former two often neatly fitting into the latter category for Americans anyway).
Enter Mary-Kate Olsen, who, despite her twin also being a smoker, was arguably the first to really bring back cigarettes as a mark of “class” and “wealth.” This while also embodying the brat definition of wielding them as an accessory long before Charli XCX herself crystallized what brat even meant. MK’s cigarette-smoking advocacy reached an apex at her 2015 wedding to Olivier Sarkozy, an event that prompted Page Six to famously describe the reception as having “bowls and bowls filled with cigarettes, and everyone smoked the whole night.” It was a phrase—and scene—that pop culture enthusiasts couldn’t stop obsessing over. And maybe it took XCX’s Brat to “inspire” a new generation glom on to what Mary-Kate had already done for cigs anyway. Well, her and a few other 00s-era “bad girls,” including Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears (as a certain infamous 2008 Rolling Stone article phrased it, “She is an inbred swamp thing who chain-smokes”).
All of which is to say that, sure, the “coolness” of smoking has survived numerous threats to its clout in the years since the truth about its dangers was made public. But it—smoking—has always been there, just waiting in the wings to reemerge again as a viable thing to do for securing one’s “effortless” chicness. However, the fact that the confluence of retro political policies and stances on gender (de facto, gender roles) has aligned with smoking’s latest renaissance doesn’t seem like a coincidence at all. So much as an additional way to “mirror the past.” And to further undo all the human progress that was made since.
Taylor Swift is on top of the world right now as her Eras Tour enters the UK leg. Many people have compared her meteoric success, with Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department, with her 2014 popularity following the release of 1989.
It was a simpler time: Swifties weren’t concerned about masters, Taylor’s Version wasn’t a thing, and Taylor was walking around in a The 1975 shirt. She also had the ultimate girl squad, including Victoria’s Secret supermodels and Ed Sheeran.
Cara Delevingne waves the Union Jack flag behind Taylor Swift onstage during The 1989 World Tour at Hyde Park on June 27, 2015
The “Bad Blood” music video cemented the girl squad as a piece of history, as the likes of Selena Gomez, Kendrick Lamar, Lena Dunham and Gigi Hadid all came together for the star-studded music video.
More recently, the singer enjoyed a night out on the town in London’s Notting Hill, accompanied by old friends Lena and Cara Delevingne, as well as some new pals – Kate Moss, Stella McCartney, and Phoebe Waller Bridge.
WATCH: Taylor Swift – Her Relationship Timeline
But Taylor has certainly gained – and lost a few friends since the iconic music video came out. Here’s a look at Taylor’s girl squad – then and now.
Taylor’s friendship with Selena is a tale as old as time, as they bonded while both dating a Jonas brother in 2008. Their friendship has only gotten stronger over the years, with Selena calling Taylor her only celebrity friend.
Lena Dunham
The Girls creator is a big reason as to why Taylor identifies as a feminist. The singer explained in a Guardian interview that being friends with Lena showed the songstress a new approach to feminism: “Without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realise that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.” Lena doesn’t even seem to mind that Taylor is best friends with her ex, Jack Antonoff.
Taylor counts Gigi as one of her close friends, explaining that the model “has this incredible ability to see all sides of a situation and simplify it for you, to see the complexity of people.” They are often seen spending time together, and Gigi even caught up with Taylor in Nashville on the Eras Tour.
The model became friends with Taylor after meeting during the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and their friendship blossomed as Cara joined Taylor onstage during her 1989 show. Cara joined Taylor during the AFC Championships, as Travis’ Kansas City Chiefs took on the Baltimore Ravens.
The Challengers star played a key role in the “Bad Blood” music video, appearing to be good friends. However, they haven’t really been seen together since, and fans have speculated this might be because Zendaya reportedly liked some tweets ‘dissing’ the singer during her feud with the Kardashians.
Paramore’s powerhouse songstress remains a close friend of Taylor’s, with her band supporting her on the European leg of the Eras Tour, ten years after initially featuring in the “Bad Blood” music video.
Taylor’s close relationship with Karlie Kloss has long been subject to speculation from Swifties, as they were once the best of friends. Karlie appeared at several shows during the 1989 tour, and they took photos together on walks.
Fans believe that when Taylor fell out with Scooter Braun over the sale of her masters, Karlie took the famous manager’s side as they had also been close friends. Now, Taylor only follows the model on Instagram, and Karlie was spotted in a distant seat when the Eras Tour hit California, as opposed to in one of the priority seats.
The Haim sisters are close friends of Taylor’s, after opening for her during the 1989 tour. They have since featured on her evermore album with “No Body, No Crime”. They also appeared in Taylor’s “Bejeweled” music video as evil step sisters.
Taylor and Blake are close friends, with the singer naming characters in her track “Betty” from the critically acclaimed folklore album after the actress’ three (at the time) children. The duo can often be seen going out for dinner together, and Blake even accompanied her bestie to the Super Bowl.
Taylor and Lorde seemed to bond as young singer songwriters, with the “Royals” singer spending time on the RED tour with her. Taylor even hugged Lorde during a performance of “22”. But the “Solar Power” singer has certainly had her critiques of Taylor, as she once described being friends with her as being “like having a friend with very specific allergies. There are certain places you can’t go together. Certain things you can’t do”. The duo went to lunch and Lorde reportedly apologized for her public comments about the singer.
Taylor and Emma became friends in 2008, after meeting at the Young Hollywood Awards for Hollywood Life magazine. She described her as “a pretty normal girl”, and Taylor once said that Emma gives the best advice after a breakup. Taylor’s song “When Emma Falls in Love” is reportedly about the Oscar winning actress.
When it comes to street style stars, few individuals have garnered as much attention as Alexa Chung. The English It girl created the blueprint for today’s social media influencers, parlaying a permanent seat in the fashion front row to brand collaborations and eventually her own label. But Chung’s path to success actually began in the modeling world, where she got an early start appearing in teen magazines before landing a gig as the co-host of the British television program Popworld in 2006. Within five years, Chung’s fashion savvy would make her a global sensation, bringing with it a list of milestone achievements that included an eponymous Mulberry handbag, a Madewell collaboration and a British Vogue cover—all in just three months.
“It’s all about effortlessness. It’s all about looking underdone,” Chung said in a 2010 interview with theNew York Times when discussing her signature beauty look of tousled hair and various stages of overgrown fringe. That effortless approach has always applied to her sartorial choices as well, where Chung is as likely to turn to rock stars like Mick Jagger and George Harrison for inspiration as she is to female style icons like Jane Birkin or Kate Moss (though she’s certainly looked to both of them, too). “As much as I love denim and men’s tailoring, I also have this weird affection for very girly, saccharine gowns and dresses,”Chung has said of her styling choices, which often blend masculine and feminine pieces in unexpected ways.
While Chung’s red carpet looks often embraced those girlish elements with the detailed gowns expected of more formal events, her off-duty moments have always served as a perfect way to showcase the amalgamation of her style references. With a wardrobe packed full of vintage finds, casual denim and coveted designer pieces, Chung’s effortlessly cool street style looks always had a touch of accessibility to them, too—something that no doubt helped her to become a style icon in her own right.
Whether you’re looking for a bit of style inspiration or feeling nostalgic for early 2000s fashion, take a look back at some of Chung’s most memorable off-duty fashion moments.
When she wasn’t being photographed outside of fashion shows, Chung brought her street style stardom to Glastonbury Festival, where she traded her usual ballet flats for more practical Wellies.
Alexa Chung. (Photo by Ray Tamarra/Getty Images)
2009, in New York City
The official launch of Mulberry’s Alexa handbag (named after and inspired by Chung, of course) was still be a few months away, but as the British brand’s muse, Chung got to debut the bag a little early during New York Fashion Week. The it bag of the aughts, Mulberry would go on to relaunch the bag more than a decade later as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
Alexa Chung. (Photo by Danny Martindale/WireImage)
2009, in London
Trench coats featured prominently in Chung’s wardrobe over the years, but until she started designing her own (both with her namesake label and as collaborations with other brands), a classic Burberry trench was her go-to. For the fashion house’s spring 2010 show (she also served as the afterparty’s DJ), Chung paired her trench with another classic: a little black dress, which she accessorized with a pair of black boots to sit front row with celebrities like Emma Watson and Mary-Kate Olsen.
Alexa Chung arrives at the “Chanel Ready to Wear” show as part of the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2011. (Photo by Lorenzo Santini/Getty Images)
2010, in Paris
At first glance, Chung appears to be in a typical Chanel ensemble, but a closer look reveals that she opted to pair her grey Chanel tweed jacket with lace-trimmed bicycle shorts (and polka-dot printed tights) to attend Paris Fashion Week.
Alexa Chung attends the Miu Miu Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2011 show during Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
2010, in Paris
In one of her early Jane Birkin-esque looks, Chung wore a long-sleeved gingham dress with Valentino Rockstud flats and disheveled fringe.
Alexa Chung arrives at the Stella McCartney Ready to Wear Spring / Summer 2012 show during Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
2011, in Paris
Perhaps most central to Chung’s wardrobe is denim in its many forms. “It’s weird how much I’m obsessed with it,” she told BritishVogue, where she even wrote an entirecolumn dedicated to the “most practical and versatile of materials.” Photographed in Paris on her way to the Stella McCartney spring 2012 show, Chung opted for a denim minidress, which she paired with snakeskin platform heels.
Alexa Chung arrives for the Miu Miu Ready to Wear Spring / Summer 2012 show during Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by Trago/Getty Images)
2011, in Paris
In a prime example of the “very girly” looks Chung said she has an affinity for, the model-turned-television presenter wore a ruffled ivory blouse with a navy-striped pinafore dress and bow-adorned ballet flats.
Alexa Chung seen attending the Mulberry fashion show at Claridges Hotel. (Photo by Neil Mockford/FilmMagic)
2012, in London
Having established herself as a Mulberry muse, Chung attended the spring 2013 show in a ballerina off-duty ensemble that included a ruffle-trimmed grey sweatshirt, pink satin shorts, ballet flats and an animal print version of her Mulberry Alexa bag.
Alexa Chung sighting on September 18, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Olga Bermejo/FilmMagic)
2012, in London
There wasn’t a look too casual for Chung to sport front row, as evidenced by this ultra-effortless outfit that she wore during London Fashion Week. Black skinny jeans may have slightly dated the look, but Chung’s Bella Freud sweater, ankle boots and utility jacket would work just as well today.
Alexa Chung seen leaving BBC Radio One on September 5, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Neil P. Mockford/FilmMagic)
2013, in London
Following the release of her book, It, Chung was spotted out in London wearing a pair of edgy leather shorts with zipper detailing. True to form, the new author added a feminine twist to her look with a white blouse that included an eyelet Peter Pan collar.
Alexa Chung attending the Longchamp flagship store launch party. (Photo by Mark Robert Milan/FilmMagic)
2013, in London
For the opening of Longchamp’s London flagship store, Chung styled a black vinyl bustier dress with a cozy cream-colored sweater and houndstooth ankle-strap pumps.
Alexa Chung in the East Village. (Photo by Alo Ceballos/GC Images)
2014, in New York City
This casual look that Chung wore while out in New York City was comprised of all her summer wardrobe staples: denim shorts, a button-up blouse, sneakers and cat eye sunnies.
Alexa Chung is seen arriving at Shoreditch House. (Photo by Niki Nikolova/GC Images)
2014, in London
A few months later, Chung went a more dressed up route for an evening out in London in a printed dress with a thigh-high slit from the Burberry Prorsum fall 2014 collection and a Charlotte Simone Popsicle scarf.
Alexa Chung. (Photo by Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images)
2014, in London
In another quirky fashion week look, Chung paired some borrowed-from-the-boys overalls with a white button-up, Birkenstocks and girly accessories in the form of a pastel-colored Chanel Candy necklace and baby-pink Shrimps Daisy faux fur clutch.
Alexa Chung seen leaving the Banking Hall, 14 Cornhill to attend the Emilia Wickstead show. (Photo by Alex Huckle/GC Images)
2014, in London
To attend the Emilia Wickstead spring 2015 show, Chung selected a full Bella Freud look that included a grey miniskirt and a striped crew neck sweater—the latter of which added a casual feel to her more formal strappy heels and Mark Cross Grace Box accessories.
Alexa Chung. (Photo by Simon James/GC Images)
2014, in London
To attend the Topshop Unique show in 2014, Chung wore a look from the brand that included a leopard print skirt and lemon yellow mock turtleneck sweater. A soft pink lip and Brigitte Bardot-style pigtails that were tied off with pink bows played up the television presenter’s post-summer tan, and she accessorized with a pair of Prada ballet flats and a pink Chanel Milk Carton crossbody bag.
Alexa Chun arrives at the Chanel show. (Photo by Pierre Suu/Getty Images)
2014, in Paris
Chung put her own spin on the quintessential Chanel look to attend the French fashion house’s spring 2015 show, styling a navy jacket and bow-adorned blouse with a grey miniskirt. A classic black Chanel bag and lace-up flats with an open heel served as her only accessories, and she opted for a slightly more polished beauty look of clean makeup and glossy waves.
Alexa Chung. (Photo by Mark Robert Milan/GC Images)
2015, in London
Following the London debut of her collection with AG Jeans, Chung was spotted heading to an after-party in a denim minidress from her collaboration, which she expertly styled with crystal-embellished tights, heeled ankle boots and a multi-color fur bomber from Byte by Giuliana Teso.
Alexa Chung leaves Browns Focus x Ashley Williams x Coca Cola Fashion Week party. (Photo by GC Images)
2015, in London
A month later, Chung accessorized another look with fur—this time opting for a burnt orange stole that she casually threw over a long-sleeved black minidress and carried alongside her go-to Louis Vuitton x Frank Gehry bag.
Alexa Chung attends the Glastonbury Festival. (Photo by Danny Martindale/WireImage)
2015, Glastonbury Festival
At the 2015 Glastonbury Festival, Chung dressed up her Hunter boots with a Bella Freud metallic minidress that wasinspired by ‘90s supermodel Kate Moss.
Alexa Chung seen at BBC Radio One on September 22, 2015. (Photo by Neil Mockford/Alex Huckle/GC Images)
2015, in London
Chung let the orange faux fur collar on her Shrimps Hokus coat serve as the only pop of color in her otherwise neutral ensemble that included black skinny jeans, a slightly oversized grey sweater and black heels.
Alexa Chung at Chiltern Firehouse on February 18, 2016. (Photo by Mark Milan/GC Images)
2016, in London
Out in London, Chung wore one of her signature looks: a trench coat, blouse, blue jeans and ankle boots.
Alexa Chung attends the Vogue.com Met Gala Cocktail Party. (Photo by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)
2016, in New York City
Ahead of the 2016 Met Gala, Chung was spotted on her way to a cocktail party hosted by Vogue, where she styled a powder blue coat over a simple black top, fitted leather pants and heeled sandals. Chung stuck with her usual cat eye makeup, but she added a touch of sparkle to her tousled bob with a few rhinestone-embellished clips.
Alexa Chung is seen during a shoot in Soho on June 9, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Alo Ceballos/GC Images)
2016, in New York City
Wearing denim on denim, Chung teamed a shearling denim jacket with a pair of cropped jeans. To break up the monochromatic look, which also consisted of a navy blue sweater, the television presenter added red block heels.
Alexa Chung arrives at the Miu Miu show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2017 (Photo by Pierre Suu/Getty Images)
2016, in Paris
Miu Miu was a show not-to-be-missed for Chung, who has praised designerMiuccia Prada, saying that she expertly “plays with tropes, [and] kind of redefines femininity each time.” That ability to experiment with different fashion elements was key for Chung as well, who introduced a new way to wear a pink slip dress at the spring 2017 show by pairing it with leather and fringe. Chung’s Western-inspired jacket included silver fringe and crystal embellishments throughout, and she completed the look with black lace-up boots.
Alexa Chung is seen in the East Village on December 12, 2016. (Photo by Alo Ceballos/GC Images)
2016, in New York City
To keep cozy during the winter season in New York City, Chung wore an oversized shearling coat with her trusty jeans and a baby-blue turtleneck.
Alexa Chung seen attending Jimmy Choo x Annabel’s private party held at Jimmy Choo Bond Street. (Photo by Ricky Vigil/GC Images)
2017, in London
For a Jimmy Choo event held at Annabel’s London, Chung opted for a statement leopard print fur coat that she made slightly less formal with leather pants, a red cardigan and black heels.
Alexa Chung seen attending Simone Rocha at Lancaster House during London Fashion Week. (Photo by Neil Mockford/GC Images)
2018, in London
Another casual fashion week moment for Chung came at the Simone Rocha show in London, where the television presenter sat front row wearing a green bomber jacket by Katharine Hamnett. Chung chose a black and pink sweater from her newly-launched fashion line, plus a pair of cropped jeans that showed off the crystal embellishments on her ankle boots.
Alexa Chung attends the Celine show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2019. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
2018, in Paris
Chung added a rock and roll twist to the little black dress by combining it with a statement lemon-yellow coat that was trimmed with fur at the collar and sleeves and lined in leopard print.
Alexa Chung attends the Valentino show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2019. (Photo by Pierre Suu/Getty Images)
2018, in Paris
In a slightly more sophisticated take on her day-to-day look, Chung attended the Valentino spring 2019 show in Paris in a printed blouse from the fashion house that she paired with wide-leg white pants and a navy sweater tied over her shoulders. Heeled loafers replaced her usual flats, and Chung completed her look with a studded, floral embossed handbag, pearl earrings and a pale pink lip.
Alexa Chung attends the Miu Miu show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2019. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)
2018, in Paris
Breaking the Paris Fashion Week rules once again, Chung headed to the Miu Miu show in the tiniest pair of leather shorts that were decorated in studs and laced up the front.Referring to the ensemble as her “juvenile delinquent” look, Chung styled her hot pants with an oversized sweater and a more exaggerated take on her tousled waves and cat eye makeup.
Alexa Chug wearing black coat, cropped vinyl pants, heels is seen outside Christopher Kane during London Fashion Week February 2019. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
2019, in London
An expert when it comes to an all-black look, Chung was spotted out during London Fashion Week in a black coat worn over a knit sweater and cropped leather pants that were belted at the waist.
Alexa Chung is seen on day one of the Glastonbury Festival on June 28, 2019. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
2019, Glastonbury Festival
Back at Glastonbury, Chung gave fans a preview of her upcoming collaboration with British brand Barbour by wearing one of her own designs to the music festival. The entrepreneur’s take on a trench coat included gingham lining and a slim belt, which Chung paired with an airy white dress, boots and a crossbody bag.
Alexa Chung is seen wearing beige pink two tone trench coat outside Rochas during London Fashion Week September 2019. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
2019, in London
A few months later, Chung sported a very different trench look in a pink tulle Simone Rocha design that she added her usual tomboy flair to by styling it with vintage Levi jeans and her own Alexa Chung x Superga sneakers.
Alexa Chung during London Fashion Week Fall Winter 2020. (Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)
2020, in London
Chung switched things up during London Fashion Week in 2020, opting for a more formal style in a billowy white gown from the Simone Rocha spring 2020 collection. In keeping with the aesthetic, Chung chose a classic camel coat, embellished ballet flats and oversized pearl earrings that she showed off by slicking her hair back (and adding a matte red lip for good measure).
Alexa Chung is seen during Paris Fashion Week – Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/GC Images)
2021, in Paris
Leave it to Chung to make a beret at Paris Fashion Week look cool rather than cliché. The fashion front row veteran chose a navy beret for the Dior spring 2022 show, which she styled with a navy bralette, silver high-waisted shorts and an oversized white blazer.
Alexa Chung attends the Loewe Womenswear Fall/Winter 2022/2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)
2022, in Paris
Chung cozied up in a full-length fur coat to attend the Loewe fall 2022 show. She added colorful accessories with her red heels and blue Loewe Flamenco clutch bag, which complemented the multi-color knit dress from the fashion house’s spring 2022 collection that was covered by her coat.
Alexa Chung attends day seven of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)
2023, At Wimbledon
Chung’s go-to sartorial choices were a perfect pairing for Wimbledon, where she injected a touch of color to her vintage Levi’s and neutral button-down with a fuchsia cable-knit sweater tied around her shoulders.
Alexa Chung is seen on August 13, 2023. (Photo by MEGA/GC Images)
2023, in London
A trendier take on her off-duty uniform, Chung was spotted out in London wearing oversized jeans and a half-buttoned striped blouse, which she accessorized with flats, sunglasses and a raffia woven Loewe tote bag.
Alexa Chung outside Dior. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
2023, in Paris
On her way to the Dior spring 2024 show, Chung introduced a different take on the naked dress by pairing a floral embroidered balconette bra and matching high-waisted briefs with a sheer skirt and cardigan set worn under a more conservative coat (all from the Dior fall 2023 collection).
Chalk it up to the ’90s being a huge part of my formative years, but I believe that that particular decade was one of the most stylish to date. While I usually enjoy perusing red carpet photos or editorials from the ’90s, there is one other photo locale that never disappoints when it comes to great fashion inspiration: the airport. I live in casual-cool outfits, and this is where celebrities tend to shine in that department. In fact, if you have an upcoming trip planned, I highly recommend taking a look at some of the best airport style of that time.
There are a plethora of chic ’90s airport looks archived on the internet, but I narrowed it down to eight that are classic and effortless yet spot-on with the current trends. These ensembles—from the likes of Kate Moss and Jennifer Lopez—would seriously look right at home now in the terminals of some of the most stylish cities in the world. Think straight-leg jeans, sleek boots, cool outerwear, and much more. Keep scrolling to see each airport outfit, and be sure to bookmark this page for any future travel plans.
When it comes to party dressing, no one does it with quite the level of finesse as Kate Moss, the ’90s supermodel who’s responsible for wearing one of the most iconic naked dresses of all time. Her 50th birthday party was never going to be an exception. For the momentous occasion, which started with lunch at Brasserie Lipp in Paris’s Saint-Germain district, Moss hosted an intimate dinner at Laurent followed by an after-party at the famed Ritz Paris. While her low-key lunch was more of a “leggings and fur coat” type of affair, according to a photo posted on the Instagram account of Brasserie Lipp chef Pascal Jounault, the evening’s lineup of activities called for a far more festive getup.
While en route to Laurent alongside her daughter Lila Moss, boyfriend Nikolai von Bismarck, and friend Haider Ackermann, the birthday girl was spotted donning a floor-length sheer dress made entirely of black lace. With it, she added a bevy of diamond jewelry, including bracelets and earrings, and a black Alexandra King cape lined with gold silk. Given the winter temperatures, she appeared to have swapped her cape for a much warmer piece of outerwear later on in the evening: a Penny Lane–esque Bob Mackie coat that makeup entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury arrived at Laurent in, according to W.
Below, see both versions of Moss’s 50th-birthday outfit, the likes of which will, no doubt, serve as party style inspiration for many years to come.
You know someone is a true style icon when they continue to provide inspiration decades after they first rose to fame. That’s certainly the case with Kate Moss. Her low-key yet sophisticated looks are perfect examples of what “British-girl style” is made of. She’s done it again with the chic fall outfit she was recently photographed wearing around the streets of London.
While Moss typically wears skinny jeans, she’s switching things up lately. Moss opted for a pair of subtly loose jeans, and the styling trick she utilized is perfectly on-trend for fall/winter 2023: a simple cuff. Cuffed jeans are one of the freshest trends of the season, with buzzy brands like Agolde, Loewe, and Reformation diving right in. But if you don’t own a pair of jeans that were specifically designed to be cuffed, not to worry—you can easily do as Kate Moss did and cuff a pair of full-length jeans you already own. That said, if you are interested in pre-cuffed jeans, read on to shop some of the best pairs on the market this season.
When it comes to style inspiration via celebrities, you can rest assured that you’re in good hands with supermodels. The supermodels I’m referring to in this case are Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss, two of the most eternally chic women on the planet. Coincidentally, both women stepped out in similar looks from opposite sides of the pond this week, and they answered an important style question you may have: What are the best jeans to wear with ballet flats?
According to both Crawford and Moss, the answer is cropped straight-leg jeans. Crawford wore her pointed-toe ballet flats with cropped white jeans and a lightweight button-down blouse while Moss wore her traditional black ballet flats with cuffed jeans, and a leather jacket. It makes perfect sense that they’d opt for cropped jeans, as ballet flats have very thin soles and long, baggy jeans tend to swallow them up. You’d be wise to follow the OG supermodels’ lead. Scroll to do so by shopping cropped jeans and wallet flats that I highly recommend.
Kate Moss is a perennial beacon of style, so when she steps out in even the most casual outfits, we tend to take notice. Recently, the supermodel was spotted wearing a seemingly off-season look during a rainy day in London. Clad in baggy cargo pants, a black turtleneck sweater, and a water repelling trench coat, Moss capped off her look with a pair of super simple black ballet flats. And guess what? She still manages to look supremely chic, despite the inclement weather.
So, while this look may bit a little too layered for the hotter-than-average summer temperatures we’re experiencing stateside, that doesn’t mean it’s too early to add this outfit to our fall fashion mood board. Ahead, shop a selection of green cargo pants, black sweaters, chic trench coats, and of course, classic ballet flats so you can copy Kate Moss’ casual look any day of the week.
Umbrellas are optional but encouraged—especially if you’re having a good hair day.
When Kate Moss made a surprise appearance on Bottega Veneta’s spring 2023 runway, perhaps the biggest shock was what she was wearing. The icon who launched a thousand Pinterest boards had traded her glam It Girl ensembles for simple, oversize jeans and a Kurt Cobain–worthy flannel-print shirt. The moment turned out to be a trend indicator of sorts, as the season hummed with white undershirts, reimagined denim (rendered in leather at Bottega Veneta or comically oversize at Vaquera), and quirky dad caps on street-style stars. Welcome to the new era of normcore—and all the 2010s nostalgia that comes with it. We’ve been living in a period of maximalist fashion during the pandemic, and now that more-is-more approach is starting to rub off on even the humblest of garments for spring. Just look at Miu Miu’s layered T-shirts or Peter Do’s, Alaïa’s, or Valentino’s oversize, reimagined button-downs: The most classic of wardrobe staples are coming back into style with a subversive vengeance.
It all goes back to the early 2010s, when normcore was born. Part of the reason for its sudden return is that “we’re in a neo-yuppie moment,” says Sean Monahan, founder of trend forecasting group 8Ball and cofounder of the now-defunct collective and trend forecasting group K-Hole, which brought the term normcore to the masses in 2013. The new, more upscale normcore wave isn’t exactly what it was 10 years ago. The blandness has transmuted into something slightly more complex, and underlying it is also a hint of prep: Think less Jerry Seinfeld, and more Carolyn Bessette Kennedy or Princess Diana. Both women were idolized for their minimalist aesthetic, and their old-money style is finding a new audience with those who’ve burned out on dopamine dressing.
“We’re moving on from the ’90s but continuing with this minimalist trend, but [this time it’s] less austere,” says Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. One might wonder if a possibly impending recession is cause for the shift, but Steele doesn’t think so. “Usually, economic factors are not really that important, unless they’re devastating, like a major economic depression,” she says. “It’s much more likely that this has to do with a wider shift from maximal-ism to minimalism.” Adds Monahan, “Once you leave the confines of certain downtown neighborhoods, it’s hard to tell if people are going to the office or the gym or to meet their friends. It’s just a total collapse into casualness.”
At Valentino’s spring 2023 show, Pierpaolo Piccioli reimagined classic white shirting.
Christina Fragkou
What might look ho-hum is actually quite subversive—and driven by irony. Take, for instance, what Monahan calls the “persistence of the meme baseball hat.” He recently bought a New York Post camo cap “because it’s such a funny object,” but he also cites Instagram-famous brands Praying and Hollywood Gifts as examples of this kind of tongue-in-cheek dressing. Likewise, the original normcore “was mostly about this acceptance of the emergence of social media,” Monahan says, “and the inability to do the hipster thing and find un-Googleable or unidentifiable treasures in thrift stores or from small labels.”
Normcore’s second coming finds us in the same boat, but this time we’re even more chronically online and glued to TikTok’s ever-changing array of crazes: balletcore, the tennis obsession, the “old money” look, the “clean girl” aesthetic. Amid an endless cycle of trends, being basic has never felt so good.
This article appears in the March 2023 issue of ELLE.
Kristen Bateman is a contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Her first fashion article was published in Vogue Italia during her junior year of high school. Since then, she has interned and contributed to WWD, Glamour, Lucky, i-D, Marie Claire and more. She created and writes the #ChicEats column and covers fashion and culture for Bazaar. When not writing, she follows the latest runway collections, dyes her hair to match her mood, and practices her Italian in hopes of scoring 90% off Prada at the Tuscan outlets. She loves vintage shopping, dessert and cats.
If we’re talking about famous mother-daughter duos, these two take the cake. Kate and daughter, Lila Grace Moss-Hack, were spotted on a balcony in Rome, Italy, in 2021. Kate poses in a chic all-black look, while Lila snaps her mother’s photo in a black crop top and printed maxi skirt. We all need a supportive photographer in our lives! The two have attended the Met Gala, sat front row at Dior shows, and Lila is even following in her mom’s modeling footsteps. She is signed by her mother’s modeling agency, Kate Moss Agency.
Like a certain once-beloved apricot exfoliator, skinny jeans seem to have developed a bad reputation. If you balked at clicking on this article, I get it. Skinny jeans seem downright passé compared to the other myriad of denim options on the market. But hear me out: Sleeping on this style may mean missing out on a highly versatile category of bottoms.
Think of Audrey Hepburn in a turtleneck and topknot. An effortless French woman like Emmanuelle Alt breezing past in a Breton-stripe top. Evergreen Itgirl Kate Moss slinking around London in yet another flawless outfit. What do these looks have in common? All three are anchored by black skinny jeans, cropped at the ankle. The look is equal parts sophisticated, chic, and cool.
Between the covers of any good book are pages that transport and enrich the mind of its reader. In 2022, leaders in the fashion industry turned to various texts to inspire their upcoming collections, deepen the knowledge behind their curations and find personal liberty within their identity.
Major book releases swept the fashion community this year, like Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue’s Edward Enninful’s memoir, “A Visible Man,” in September. Other books like Safia Minney’s made an urgent call to regenerative fashion and a closer look at today’s fashion system.
Across the fashion, leaders and experts like FIT Museum Director Valerie Steele and Business of Fashion Senior Correspondent Sheena Butler-Young reflected on their reading this in 2022. Favorite books span topics, eras in time, country in focus and connections to fashion.
See below for the 34 favorite fashion books that leaders in the industry read in 2022.
Jacques de Bascher: Dandy de l’ombre by Marie Ottavi, $24, available here
Photo: Groupe Robert Laffont
“A page-turner about Karl Lagerfeld’s great love, a decadent dandy of the 1970s, this has been an essential source for all the recent books about Lagerfeld, including Ottavi’s own biography, ‘Karl.’” — Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Trendy, sexy et inconscient: Regards d’une psychanalyste sur la mode by Pascale Navarri, $21, available here
Photo: PUF
“I’m working on a book about fashion and psychoanalysis, so I read with great interest this book by a French psychoanalyst exploring the unconscious aspects of contemporary fashion.” — Stelle
Pretty Gentlemen: Macaroni Men and the Eighteenth-Century Fashion World by Peter McNeil, $52, available here
Photo: Yale University Press
“A brilliant account of a controversial moment in men’s self-fashioning.” — Steele.
Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham, $40, available here
Photo: One World
“Black Futures, by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham, and The New Black Vanguard, by Antwaun Sargent, are my top reads for 2022. The authors are true visionaries. I was inspired by them while working on my memoir, Wildflower. I have always had a desire to forge a new creative path, and I hope to lift up others through my own personal journey.” — Aurora James, creative director and founder of Brother Vellies, founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, author of “Wildflower“
The Colors of Sies Marjan by Sander Lak, $65, available here
Photo: Rizzoli International Publications
“I treasure my little collection of fashion monographs, and my new favorite is this book on the much-mourned label Sies Marjan. Designer Sander Lak is a virtuoso when it comes to color, and I love the way he organized everything by hue. Paging through this felt like a first-class flight straight into his genius brain.” — Véronique Hyland, Fashion Features Director at Elle, author of “Dress Code“
What Shall I Wear? by Claire McCardell, $24, available here
Photo: Harry N. Abrams
“This was a very kind gift from Tory Burch, who wrote the excellent foreword to this reissued version. Claire McCardell’s 1956 answer to the eternal question is very much of its time, but also feels relevant today. She maintains that fashion should be fun, and the same sense of ease that she brought to her designs is evident in her prose.” — Hyland
“This book is a daily reminder to myself to never ever compromise or conform on the things that really matter to me. Quinn’s photography of interesting people taking bold fashion risks is inspiring from a style and dressing standpoint, but also as a powerful statement against racism, ageism and homophobia. There should be no limits on beauty, style and self-expression. Quinn’s work is an apt assertion that fashion is at its best when it serves as a vehicle of change, not an endorser of status quo.” — Sheena Butler-Young, senior correspondent at Business of Fashion
Token Black Girl: A Memoir by Danielle Prescod, $25, available here
Photo: Little A
“I can’t think of one Black woman I know — in fashion or elsewhere — who hasn’t felt like 15-year-old Prescod flipping through the pages of glossy magazines in the ’90s and early aughts, seeing beauty defined as everything we’re not. Through the lens of Prescod’s life story, it powerfully unpacks the reverberating negative consequences of white supremacy in media, while gently reminding us of the power we have to recover from and reject ideologies that harm us. This book is much-needed wink — an ‘I see you, girl’ — to Black women, but it’s also a must-read for all women, period.” — Butler-Young
Africa: The Fashion Continent by Emmanuelle Courrèges, $65, available here
Photo: Flammarion-Pere Castor
“The more I scratch the surface of diversity, equity and inclusion issues in fashion, the more I uncover about the inherent biases we all have about beauty, style and influence. The title of this book alone disrupts long-held assumptions about who or what gets to define fashion. Courrèges takes the reader on a journey of discovery where you get to meet all of these amazing African designers, artisans, boutique owners and stylists whose work push the boundaries of innovation and craftsmanship. It features vibrant, awe-inspiring images of people adorning colors, prints, fabrics and patterns (Xhosa beaded embroidery, for example) and body artists using their vessels to advocate for change, hair tousled and contorted in fascinating and expressive fashion, street style that’s inherently environmentally conscious. It’s a true homage to a forgotten part of fashion’s roots.” — Butler-Young
Celebrate That!: Occasions by Kate Spade New York, $35, available here
Photo: Harry N. Abrams
“My ultimate — feminine, witty and whimsical — guide to planning a celebration however big or small. As an editor working in New York City, I’m constantly surrounded by big moments: cover stories, splashy fashion week shows, star-studded events. It feels like my friends always expect me to deliver something comparable when I host. This book has fun, thoughtful recipes and tips, like how to make a ginger mojito or plan a unique fundraiser for my son’s school, that make me seem way cooler and fashion-y of a host than I am. It also doubles as a self-help guide with cute reminders to celebrate moments — like making your bed, getting through a tough conversation or not spilling your coffee on a fancy coat — that we take for granted each day.” — Butler-Young
Karl Lagerfeld Unseen: The Chanel Years by Robert Fairer, $85, available here
Photo: Abrams
“Written by photographer Richard Fairer — whose previous work SCAD FASH highlighted in our exhibition entitled “Robert Fairer: Backstage Pass — Karl Lagerfeld: Unseen captures amazing access to one of fashion’s most iconic and fascinating figures. Through his behind-the-scenes images, Fairer provides a unique perspective that fashion fans dream of seeing!” — Rafael Gomes, creative director of SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film
The Blonds: Glamour, Fashion, Fantasy by David And Phillipe Blond, $65, available here
Photo: Rizzoli International Publications
“In The Blonds, David and Phillipe highlight their 20 years in the fashion business through images and bold, elaborate creations. Blurbs from The Blonds and their star-studded clientele offer readers unique insights and inspirations behind their collections and collaborations.” — Gomes
Ring Redux: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection by Ursula Ilse-Neuman, $39, available here
Photo: Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt
“Corresponding with a recent a SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah) exhibition, Ring Redux reexamines the traditional image of the ring as not just jewelry, but a contemporary art form, finding inspiration in the modern and sculpturally reimagined rings in the Susan Grant Lewin collection.” — Gomes
Embodying Pasolini by Tilda Swinton and Olivier Saillard, $75, available here
Photo: Ruediger Glatz/Rizzoli International Publications
“Commemorating their fourth collaboration, Embodying Pasolini is Tilda Swinton and Olivier Saillard’s ode to Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. By presenting costumes from Pasolini’s film, Swinton and Saillard pay homage to one of the most important names in Italian cinema, sharing his work with hopefully a new generation interested in the convergence of fashion and film.” — Gomes
Regenerative Fashion by Safia Minney, $40, available here
Photo: Laurence King
“This compact sustainability handbook from social entrepreneur Safia Minney features interviews with more than 30 industry insiders, like Chloé Chief Sustainability Director Aude Vergne and Daniel Windaier, the CEO and Founder of Bolt Threads, a biotech company that’s partnering with brands like Stella McCartney to put mycelium leather bags ‘grown’ from fungi spores on the runway. It gave me fresh hope about the ways the fashion industry can lower its carbon footprint and actually improve the environment if creative people put their heads together.” — Alison Cohn, deputy fashion news editor at Harper’s BAZAAR
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The Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese by Kim Jones, $135, available here
Photo: Nikolai Von Bismarck/Rizzoli International Publications
“I’m an English lit nerd at heart, so there’s something really delightful about this photo essay, which features portraits of Kim Jones’ friends — like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Bella Hadid — channeling the spirit of Bloomsbury, the 20th century community of British writers, intellectuals and artists that included Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West and Vanessa Bell, dressed in looks from the Fendi artistic director’s first couture collection. There are also excerpts from diary entries and correspondence and snippets of Woolf’s Orlando.” — Cohn
Yves Saint Laurent at Home by Jacques Grange, $95, available here
Photo: Marianne Haas/Assounline
“Designers are storytellers who creating entire worlds through clothing, but we don’t often get to experience their personal environs. This book offers an intimate view into Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s beautiful homes in Paris, Deauville and Marrakech, showing how their deep appreciation for art and design informed Saint Laurent’s work in fashion.” — Cohn
Rebel Stylist: Caroline Baker — The Woman Who Invented Street Fashion by Iain R. Webb, $50, available here
Photo: Acc Art Books
“British stylist Caroline Baker worked with just about every magazine (Nova, British Vogue, i-D, The Face) and just about every photographer (Helmut Newton, Hans Feurer, Guy Bourdin, Sarah Moon) while also collaborating with Vivienne Westwood; that was an inspired pairing, because she’s just as original and maverick as the brilliant Westwood. As a stylist, Baker riffed on vintage, army surplus, thrift, recycling and punk at a time when everyone else was still in the thrall of the news out of Paris. What makes this book a must-read? Author Iain R. Webb is a friend of Baker’s, so this is the inside story of a woman whose work is a masterclass in the art of style and subversion.” — Mark Holgate, fashion news director at Vogue
Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions and Everyday Life by Kari Marie Norgaard, $36, available here
Photo: MIT Press
“This Norwegian author interviews the inhabitants of a ski town in Norway about how they’re coping with climate change and why our modern culture at large is so disconnected from the environment. It illustrates how we, individually and culturally, must reconnect with our emotions and grief around climate collapse and environmental loss in order to get activated to make radical changes in our society. I think this is especially true in fashion, where overproduction and overconsumption is predicated on deliberate disassociation from our bodies and the Earth.” — Becca McCharen-Tran, Founder and Creative Director of Chromat
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem, $18, available here
Photo: Central Recovery Press
“This feels like it should be required reading for every white person in fashion who believes in the importance of inclusion and diversity. It illustrates through somatic exercises how racial trauma lives in white and Black bodies, and offers ways forward to a place of healing. There’s so much healing we need to do in fashion when it comes to racial trauma, not only through ensuring more diverse casting or hiring, or how we perceive race in the fashion industry, but really attuning to the physical sensations in our body when we feel excluded or included, how it constricts or expands when we feel truly safe. We all have a responsibility to make the fashion industry a safe and welcoming place, and this book offers really tangible ways in which we can start that healing in our own bodies.” — McCharen-Tran
Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green, $20, available here
Photo: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
“‘It’s not about the dress you wear,’ Diana Vreeland once quipped. ‘It’s about the life you lead in the dress.’ Well, then, the best-dressed woman I’ve read about all year is not a traditional fashion plate, but the late, great Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers, who went on to compose the music for the unsinkable ‘Once Upon a Mattress,’ write the novel ‘Freaky Friday’ and lead ten other creative lives. Her memoir, co-authored with New York Times critic Jesse Green and published eight years after her death, is exhilarating, funny, dishy, heartbreaking and the most enjoyable book you’ll read all year. Did I mention funny? Show me one other fashion book that made you laugh.” — Erik Maza, executive style director at Town & Country
A Left-Handed Woman: Essays by Judith Thurman, $32, available here
Photo: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
“Judith Thurman’s Two For One, her 2008 profile of the Cuban designer Isabel Toledo and her husband, the artist and illustrator Ruben Toledo, is just one reason why her new collection of essays, A Left-Handed Woman, gets my vote for the best fashion read of the year. Isabel died in 2019 — Ruben continues to make incredible work, including a recent cover of T&C — but nearly 15 years after its publication, Thurman’s profile remains one of the most considerate ever published about a designer, as well as a poignant portrait of creative partnership.” — Maza
Selbstverständlich: a Century in Fashion by Akris, $88, available here
Photo: Lars Muller Publishers
“A murderer’s row of fashion journalists contributed to a monograph to mark the centennial of the Swiss label Akris.” — Maza
Prêt-à-Porter, Paris and Women by Alexis Romano, $38, available here
Photo: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
“French ready-to-wear fashion has been woefully understudied until now. Romano communicates its history through an analysis of photographs from Elle and other popular magazines; the rich selection makes this book as visually compelling as it is informative.” — Colleen Hill, curator of costume and accessories at the Museum at FIT
“I’m fascinated by the minds of highly creative people, and I was gripped by Enninful’s memoir from its first few sentences. I devoured this honest, captivating account of his life and career.” — Hill
In America: a Lexicon of Fashion by Andrew Bolton and Amanda Garfinkel, $50, available here
Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
“This book contains over a hundred garments that were on display for both rotations of this exhibition highlighting pioneers in American fashion, as well as emerging young designers. It’s a beautifully-designed publication, as well as a substantial fashion reference book, including full length images and detailed shots of the garment. Any reader interested in fashion history will also appreciate the text that accompanies each object.” — Julie T. Lê, associate museum librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute
Nadine Ijewere: Our Own Selves by Lynette Nylander and Nadine Ijewere, $55, available here
Photo: Nadine Ijewere/Prestel Publishing
“Our library at the Costume Institute has hundreds of books on male photographers who have dominated the fashion world from the beginning, so it’s wonderful to see the work of a female BIPOC artist highlighted in book form for future generations to be inspired by. This monograph celebrates the work of fashion photographer Nadine Ijewere, who made history as the first Black woman of Jamaican-Nigerian descent to photograph a cover of American Vogue in 2021. Along with her fashion editorial work is a personal series called ‘Tallawah’ (which means strong and fearless), a project she worked on in 2020 in collaboration with hair stylist Jawara Wauchope celebrating the beauty and strength of Jamaican women and their unique hair culture.” — Lê
A Time Before Crack: Photographs from the 1980s by Jamel Shabazz, $40, available here
Photo: powerHouse Books
“I heart New York, and Jamel Shabazz is one of my favorite photographers who documented hip hop culture and fashion in the streets of NYC from the mid-70s to the 90s. For this publication, he revisited his photographic archive and rediscovered a treasure trove of unseen images that reveals a new nostalgic visual diary of life in New York and the street style of those people he connected with throughout his career.” — Lê
Really Free: the Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe by Nellie Mae Rowe, $50, available here
Photo: Delmonico Books
“Finding this artist has opened my creative side again. It has really been wonderful to read about her life, see and feel her art. She should be given a medal.” — Peter Jensen, fashion professor at SCAD, designer of Yours Truly by Peter Jensen
Fashioning the Afropolis: Histories, Materialities and Aesthetic Practices by Kristin Kastner, Reina Lewis and Basile Ndjio, $132, available here
Photo:Bloomsbury Visual Arts
“So few books focus on the influential and visually stunning fashion culture of the African continent. I love this book for its mix of scholarly study and rich visuals. It helps push past stereotypes we hold in the west on what African fashion is.” — Elizabeth Way, Associate Curator of Costume at the Museum at FIT
Africa Fashion by Christine Checinska, $45, available here
Photo: Victoria & Albert Museum
“This is another important book that illuminates the multifaceted creativity of fashion on the content. Africa Fashion accompanies an exhibition at the V&A in London. For those who can’t travel, the book immerses you in the gorgeous fashions on display and the designers’ histories and inspirations.” — Way
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Before there was TikTok, there was YouTube. The old me would sit down with a snack and watch storytimes, challenges, moving out videos, makeup tutorials, cooking shows, you name it. I ended my nights with budding influencers Emma Chamberlain, Tana Mongeau, James Charles, and David Dobrik.
To me, YouTube videos always felt a bit more intimate. Instead of a few minutes, an average YouTube storytime could go as long as an hour. And, although TikTok has ruined the attention spans of many, it was almost always captivating.
One of the best – and longest running – series on YouTube is Vogue’s Beauty Secrets. With over 275 episodes, you get the chance to sit down and watch a celebrity get ready in their bathroom. There’s something so wholesome about some of the biggest names in Hollywood telling you what makes them feel beautiful.
Better yet, you get to see what products your fave celeb is using. Some of them are clearly plugging their own brands or partnerships, but lately, it’s become the standard to recommend somewhat affordable products so everyone watching can buy, too.
Vogue’s got supermodels like Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber, rising stars like Euphoria’s Storm Reid and White Lotus’ Haley Lu Richardson, and even icons like Zoë Kravitz and Alicia Keys. While everyone has jotted down HB’s Kosas recs from her segment, I’ve gone and done research for the rest.
This year, if you’re struggling to find a gift for someone who loves all things beauty but has everything already, see what products their fave celebs are using. Confidence comes from within, but using the same cleanser as Ciara can’t hurt it either.
I’ve sat down and watched almost every Vogue Beauty Secrets from the past year and rounded up the best products you won’t want to miss out on. Let’s dig in.
Nobody has skin quite like R&B royalty, Ciara – she even got her husband, Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson, into skincare. Luckily for the general public, she takes us through her glowy routine.
If you want to get rid of dark spots, even out your skin tone, and brighten your complexion, try her go-to OAM Vitamin C Cleanser. OAM, founded by Ciara, is affordable with quality ingredients so you aren’t getting scammed by celeb skincare.
Maude Apatow
One of our favorite nepo babies and Euphoria breakout star, Maude Apatow has one of the trendiest skincare and makeup routines I’ve seen. Filled with NARS, Charlotte Tilbury, Armani, and Laura Mercier, her routine is accessible and damn good.
Seemingly ageless and always gorgeous, Kate Hudson’s Beauty Secrets video is seriously relaxing. She’s so casual about getting ready that it feels like you’re in the room with her. Her key to beautiful skin? Sleep, water, and supplements.
Her InBloom Beauty Aura supplements contain Marine Collagen for the ultimate hair, skin, and nail vitamin. Beauty really starts from within.
Natalia Bryant
Model and daughter of the late NBA star, Kobe Bryant, Natalia shares her skincare routine for those with sensitive skin. She uses a lash serum which is such an underrated product in the beauty community, but one of the few products that deliver genuine results in no time.
Kate Moss is the OG It-Girl. She has a surprisingly minimalistic routine, but the perfect gift here is the Droplette Microinfusion Device. This cool skincare gadget dissolves capsuled skincare ingredients that transform into a mist on your face and set them deep in your skin.
Another favorite is the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette, which you’ve probably heard of from TikTok. This adorable palette has everything a makeup lover can ask for: contour, blush, and highlight in gorgeous, glowing shades.
Billie Eilish
I couldn’t write about Vogue Beauty Secrets without including my queen, Billie Eilish. Billie’s on-tour skincare routine is mostly Biba de Sousa, an LA-based skincare brand that bridges luxury and clinical skincare.
Of all the nepotism babies in the fashion industry, perhaps no one’s modeling career was more inevitable than Kate Moss‘s daughter, Lila Grace Moss. When you inherit your supermodel mom’s exact face, you’re bound to have a fair amount of success, to say the least. Lila Grace is definitely one to watch, and her latest red carpet moment is proof.
Attending the Fashion Awards in London on Monday, Lila Grace wore a completely sheer black dress with a halter neckline and bell sleeves. As for her underpinnings, she chose a simple black thong, which was visible underneath her diaphanous dress. Scroll down to see what Lila Grace Moss wore on the 2022 Fashion Awards red carpet.
