vogue, us august 2021

White House reporters following her today—all women, emotional as I relayed this coincidence of timing. When many of whom covered the Trump administration—there I composed myself, I looked up at Jill, and she, too, had was a lot of chatter, almost complaint, about how much tears in her eyes. more information they now receive: so many emails! Full I t’s very early on a stormy Monday morning in ear- readouts of calls President Biden has with foreign leaders ly May at Joint Base Andrews, and the press corps arrive in their inbox the same day—as opposed to five that follows the president (mostly middle-aged days later with just one sentence saying that it happened, white guys) is standing under one of the wings of which was usually as good as it got with the Trump folks. Air Force One trying to keep dry. When Marine One—the helicopter that flies the president from As Dr. Biden toured the call center, a woman who works here thanked her for her time and attention. “No,” said Dr. Biden, “thank you. We need you. Really. These families are the White House to his plane—lands and then roars up desperate…if your child is not happy, your whole world just to disgorge POTUS and FLOTUS (and the man carrying falls apart. You’re giving them hope and joy.” As the tour the football), it feels like a show of muscularity that is was ending, she talked to a member of the military who told particular to the United States—one that is no longer in her that he used the call center to find a counselor when he the hands of someone for whom that seemed to matter and his wife were having a “very hard time adjusting to mil- too much and for all the wrong reasons. The quasi-march itary life.” “Did you go into counseling with your spouse as across the tarmac, the crisp salute to the commanders and well?” asked Jill. Not at first, he said, but eventually. “Well, sergeants in place to greet him—it suits Joe, in his aviators, you have to,” she said. “You’re in a relationship.” so tall and thin in his impeccable blue suit. Two days later, the first lady was on yet another trip—to The president and first lady are traveling to southern Birmingham, Alabama, quite purposely traveling to a red Virginia today, a double act, both of them to give speech- state as part of the “Help Is Here” tour, meant to amplify es meant to highlight the Biden administration’s jobs how the American Rescue Plan ad- and families plan. Their first stop dresses child poverty. In nearly every “She came in knowing is at a magnet school, Yorktown way, it felt like a campaign stop: a Elementary—and Mrs. Bertamini’s speech in a gymnasium in a YWCA, the experience of being fifth-grade class in particular. There with local dignitaries, like former vice president,” says Biden, are 18 students in their third week Democratic senator Doug Jones, of in-person learning. All of them and a speech from Birmingham’s “knowing the power of the have three-sided plexiglass shields mayor, Randall Woodfin. But it was presidency—knowing that perched on their desks, along with Congresswoman Terri Sewell, in her elaborate weather-related science bubble-gum-pink suit, who stole the she could change things” projects they’ve just completed. Press show with her volume and intensi- and staff, who are cordoned off in a ty. “I am so proud to have been the corner of the room, outnumber the only Democrat in Alabama’s delegation to vote in favor students, who seem startled into silent amazement by this of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan,” she said on- once-in-a-lifetime intrusion into their precarious world. stage. She talked about the big infusions of money the After the Bidens enter the classroom—introduced as the state, county, and city would soon be receiving. She talked Very Special Guests they most certainly are—Jill makes a about the child tax credit, how the Biden administration beeline for a girl in the back of the room and then heads over is “expanding it, by providing direct payments in the to a student named Andrew. She hovers over his project, asks form of a child allowance. This year, families will receive a series of thoughtful questions, while her husband, shifting $3,600 per child under the age of six and $3,000 per child from one foot to the other, looks a little out of place—letting between the ages of six and 17.” (The checks, for more the wife take the lead on this one. Not a chance. “Come on, than 65 million children, begin landing in people’s bank Joe!” says Jill, waving him over. He hesitates for a moment accounts in July.) “This is a big plan…. Good governance and then, perhaps realizing there are cameras trained on creates an environment that allows all of our people—all him, takes control. “What do you want to be when you of our people—to reach their full potential.” grow up?” he says to one of the kids. On the flight home to D.C., Dr. Biden came to the “Fashion designer,” says the student. He turns to back of the plane for an off-the-record gaggle. It’s some- another kid. “How about you?” A music artist mumble- thing I saw over and over again—her solicitousness with mumble-mumble. “A what?” Someone on his staff says reporters, the times she apologized for keeping us wait- it louder: A MUSIC ARTIST. “Well, I’ll be darned!” ing. “I’m trying to get to know them,” she told me later. says the president. “And you?” A hairstylist, says the kid. SET DESIGN, MARY HOWARD STUDIO. “Because I don’t think it should be, you know, me versus “Holy mackerel!” the press.” She also sat down next to me for a few minutes Everyone piles back into the 20-plus-car motorcade, and to say hello. She had heard from one of her staffers that off we go, passing clusters of people now lining the roads, my mother died recently—from cancer—but what she everyone with cell phones up, many of them waving. “At didn’t know is that she died on the Saturday after the least they’re waving at us now and not giving us the finger,” election in November, the very day her husband was says one of the photographers. Suddenly the whole cara- declared the winner. Who can say why some people seem van comes to a stop. Word comes through that Joe wants to have extra capacity to feel other people’s sorrow, but to say hello to the students and teachers who have gath- there I was, in front of group of strangers, becoming ered in front of a high school, C O N TIN U ED O N PAG E 10 0 53

Gabriela Hearst’s arrival at Chloé has ushered in a whole new era for the French house. On the eve of Hearst’s debut, Rachel Donadio meets a designer intent on creating with clear-minded purpose. Portrait by Théo de Gueltzl. This Woman’s Work O N A SUNNY WINTER AFTERNOON IN “I didn’t expect there would be so much of her handwrit- PRODUCED BY KITTEN PRODUCTION. Paris, Gabriela Hearst, the new creative ing so quickly,” says Natalie Kingham, the global fashion director of Chloé, buzzes around the officer for MatchesFashion, who singles out the knitwear house’s atelier in the 8th arrondissement. and the ponchos with parka collars. Hearst, she says, has She’s about to present her first Chloé offered “a very elegant, grown-up version” of the Chloé collection with an atmospheric video woman, who, while free-spirited, also wants to know where shot at night in pandemic-empty Saint-Germain-des-Prés, her clothes come from. “I think that’s how women want to and models are parading into a room lined with racks of feel and want to look,” Kingham says. “They want to wear clothes while assistants in masks put the finishing touches clothes that are going to get them through the day, but in on each look: There’s a flowy marbleized red-and-green an ethical way—a way that makes them feel wonderful.” silk crepe dress, a chunky knit ankle-length dress, a long coat of scalloped brown-leather scales that looks, in the Hearst designed the collection in record time and showed best way, like Joni Mitchell might have worn it in 1971. it only three months after being named to the job, while Every so often, someone asks Hearst a question, and she also running her own label. She keeps a dry, playful sense nods and offers a “Oui, merci” in slightly Spanish-accented of humor about the insanely intense schedule. “I’m not French. “My French is ‘Oui, merci,’ ” Hearst says, a bit creatively unsatisfied,” she tells me as we sit on the side- apologetically, as she urges me to feel a soft, thick poncho lines of the atelier. When Hearst was named to Chloé last made from recycled cashmere with a zippered parka neck. December, many wondered why she would want the job. She already had her own successful house, which has become Reusing existing materials to make impeccably tailored popular with powerful women like Dr. Jill Biden, who wore new creations is classic Hearst. Raised on a cattle ranch a white Hearst dress with floral embroidery on the night in her native Uruguay—hence the ponchos—and married of her husband’s inauguration and a navy iteration for his to a scion of one of the most storied families in America, first address to Congress. While women are often held to Hearst, who founded her eponymous label in 2015, has a different standard than men when it comes to juggling come to embody a certain kind of intelligent, sustainable careers and families, taking on a second job, in Paris, was luxury. She communicates an urgency around the climate still a lot for Hearst, who lives in Manhattan’s West Village crisis—but she does so with elegance, joie de vivre, and with her husband, John Augustine Hearst—who goes by something of a frontier spirit. Hearst’s mandate at Chloé is Austin and is an executive and a grandson of William to bring a current of engagé environmentalism and purpose Randolph Hearst—their six-year-old son, Jack, and her to a house—previously led by the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, 13-year-old twins, Mia and Olivia, from her first marriage. Stella McCartney, and Phoebe Philo—known for a vision of carefree yet clever French femininity. When I ask Hearst why she wanted the job, her answer is both clear and direct. “Because I knew I could do it,” Hearst’s first collection, unveiled in early March, struck that balance beautifully. It uses the language of Chloé— PARIS IN A NEW LIGHT broderie anglaise, scallops, a soft color palette—while Gabriela Hearst, Chloé’s new creative director, envisions dramatically scaling back on synthetic fabrics, adding more fusing style, sustainability, and social responsibility. She wears knitwear, and focusing on upcycling and transparency about the supply chain. a Chloé leather coat and boots. Hair, Odile Gilbert; makeup, Tom Pecheux. Fashion Editor: Camilla Nickerson. 54



Photographed by Zoë Ghertner.

Hearst communicates an urgency about the climate crisis—but she does so with elegance, joie de vivre, and something of a frontier spirit. SLEEP NO MORE Hearst created, with Bas Timmer of Sheltersuit Foundation, repurposed sleeping-bag parkas (which are not for sale) and backpacks (which are, with a portion of proceeds going to Sheltersuit). Model Adut Akech wears a Sheltersuit & Chloé coat. Chloé dress.

she says. Hearst tells me she had a dream in 2017 that she cannot allow that as a species,” she continues, nor can she would design for Chloé, and later lobbied the house’s CEO, abide by it “as a businessperson, as a woman, as a mother.” Riccardo Bellini. (“He thought I was crazy,” she says.) The house has a long tradition of strong women design- But her emphasis on sustainability and her track record ers, with the notable exception of Lagerfeld, who blazed of strong accessories were a good fit with Bellini’s plan to a trail at Chloé with softly feminine dresses before leaving refocus the brand with what he calls a “purpose-driven for Chanel in 1983, and Paulo Melim Andersson, who led business model.” Hearst leveled with her family: If she the house briefly after Philo. Under McCartney, it became took the job, “the ones that are going to be screwed are the go-to French house for the joyous flirtatiousness of the you, because I have less time for you,” she told them. If late ’90s; Philo, who took over in 2001, virtually defined they had said no, she says, “I wouldn’t have done it—that’s the boho-glam look of her era. More recently, creative the reality.” They told her to go for it. directors Clare Waight Keller and Natacha Ramsay-Levi Hearst is tall, with high cheekbones, chin-length ash- produced well-received collections. With Hearst, though, blonde hair, and pale eyes. On the day we meet, she’s dressed Chloé is telegraphing a new focus on values as much as on in her first Chloé collection: a chunky, mustardy-green knit trends—or at least signaling that values are the latest trend. pullover, a long off-white pleated wool skirt, and cream-col- Today’s Chloé woman has different priorities. Bringing on ored crepe wedge-heel boots. Large gold cutaway earrings Hearst is “very courageous,”says Olivier Gabet, the director frame her face, which has little makeup. For all the stage of Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs. “She’s less known to management of launching a new collection, Hearst is ines- the public, but she has the guts and the vision to bring Chloé capably herself and bracingly open about the challenges back to what made it strong in the ’60s and ’70s.” she has faced. The house was founded in 1952 She tells me she sees the Gabrie- by another Gaby: Gaby Aghion, a vivacious entrepreneur from a la Hearst line as Athena, the Greek “For me, it’s about a Chloé goddess of wisdom and war—a more Greek-Italian Jewish family who, with cerebral femininity; clothes for wom- woman,” Hearst says. her husband, Raymond, left her native en who are running companies— “And as a woman, Alexandria, Egypt, after World War II. while Chloé is Aphrodite, the sometimes we want to feel In Paris, Aghion and Raymond, a gal- goddess of love, a more sensual younger, sometimes we lerist and anti-fascist activist, frequent- power, younger. In pitching Bellini, ed Left Bank cafés and intellectual she produced a 92-page booklet of want to feel older. circles. (Their son, Philippe Aghion, images with a Venn diagram of where What we never want to is a world-class economist known for the two houses would overlap in his theories of how creative destruction concepts, including “Handcrafted,” feel is boring” can lead to economic growth.) Aghion “Sustainability,” “Wholehearted,” didn’t need to work but saw a gap in and “Purpose-driven.” But she also the market between haute couture and articulates clear stylistic differences. “You will never see a bespoke tailoring and began designing fresh cotton dresses Gabriela Hearst woman in a pair of sweatpants in the air- that reminded her of home—the pink and beige of the Egyp- port,” she tells me. You’ll never see a scallop, a key element tian sand, which she said “feels like silk in your hands”—and of Chloé’s stylistic DNA, in Gabriela Hearst. Hemlines selling them to boutiques with her own label. Thus was born for Gabriela Hearst will never go above the knee; Chloé’s high-end prêt-à-porter. Chloé was always “very feminine, will. It sounds like the mythical Chloé girl is growing up. very sensual, chic, very intelligent,” Gabet says. And while “For me, it’s about a Chloé woman,” Hearst says, though Chloé was born in the heyday of French existentialism, he she wants Chloé to keep its youthful spirit. She draws inspi- says, “now it’s a question of environmentalism.” ration from her 13-year-old daughters and from friends in B orn Gabriela Perezutti Souza in 1976, Hearst their 80s. “As women, sometimes we want to feel younger, is the fifth generation of her family raised sometimes we want to feel older,” she says. “What we never in Uruguay. Her father’s family emigrated want to feel is boring.” from northern Italy, her mother’s from Por- tugal via the Azores and Brazil. Her mother, Now she aims to apply the sustainability approach of Sonia, still lives in Uruguay, off the grid, her own smaller house at the much larger Chloé. “Doing it successfully, for me, will mean having a luxury brand at a much higher scale in volume than Gabriela Hearst,” on a solar-powered ranch. (Family snapshots of Hearst she says. “It’s a very ambitious target but something as a girl with her mom on horseback sometimes show up that wakes me up every morning to want to do this job.” on the Gabriela Hearst Instagram.) Hearst is the eldest For all Hearst’s drive, though, the most important thing of four. For first grade, she was sent to Uruguay’s capital, in her life isn’t fashion but family and friends. Her com- Montevideo, to live with her grandmother and attend the mitment to sustainability comes from a place of righteous posh British School. “This was pre-globalization,” Hearst anger. She tells me about a 2017 trip she took to Turkana, says of her childhood. “We didn’t have cable TV until I in northern Kenya, with Save the Children, a charity that was 15.” From early on, she knew she would leave. “It she and Austin support, where she saw malnourished was very predictable, my future, if I didn’t make changes,” children and women who had to walk for miles for water. she tells me. “You would marry someone from a similar “It was infuriating to think that—today—families have background, you would send your kids to the same school, to choose between migration and famine,” she says. “We you would become a member of the lawn tennis club.” 58

She wanted more. She spent a year of high school in the size that it is, but we’ve decided to go slow because it Australia, came back to Uruguay to study communi- didn’t make sense from a sustainable perspective.” cations, tried modeling in Paris and Milan, and then Chloé is trying the same approach and has committed to moved to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood reduce its carbon emissions and water consumption by 25 Playhouse—the Meisner Technique. “It’s about perform- percent by 2025 (its headquarters and its Paris boutiques ing from a place of honesty,” she says. While excellent already operate on 100 percent renewable energy). The training, it wasn’t for her. “I was not very good at taking house has also begun a collaboration with the Sheltersuit direction,” she says. She worked as a waitress and in a Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit that has made a parka retail showroom. In 2003, in Brooklyn, she started her with an attachable sleeping sack for the homeless and first clothing line, Candela, silk-screening T-shirts—the for refugee camps—a creative solution to a desperate first one depicted a winged woman riding a horse, inspired problem. For Hearst’s first Chloé collection, Sheltersuit’s by her mother. founder, the Dutch designer As the label started to take Bas Timmer, designed a line off, Austin Hearst became of colorful backpacks using an investor. The two had Chloé deadstock fabrics, with met through mutual friends a percentage of the sales sup- at a party in Buenos Aires porting the nonprofit, whose in 2004. “I didn’t like him at Dutch workshop is staffed first—he knows that,” she by refugees. (The sleeping says, direct as always. But parkas themselves are not they stayed friends. In 2011, for sale.) “She calls it altruis- her father died. They had tic design,” Timmer tells me been very close. There were when we meet for a chat in the inheritance lawsuits, and Place des Vosges. He’s wear- when Gabriela ultimately ing a rain jacket and a hood- prevailed and inherited his ie sweatshirt he’s fashioned ranch, Austin sent her a giant from fabric in the Chloé ware- bunch of white flowers with house. “With this collabora- a note that said, “Nobody tion, there’s a chance that we fucks with my baby.” The can disrupt a bit the fashion couple married in 2013—a industry, even the nonprofit City Hall wedding (she wore industry,” he says. “If Chloé Valentino), then a big party takes this step, we can inspire at the Museum of Natural more brands.” History (she wore Dior). While Hearst doesn’t have Austin Hearst is also a formal design training, she cofounder and investor in sketches copiously. She the Gabriela Hearst label. keeps a dream journal to She had wanted to name it EARNING HER STRIPES gather ideas and operates simply Perezutti, her sur- largely on instinct. She also name, but a friend told her Akech exudes joyous sophistication in an electric knit frock. works closely with her best Chloé dress and mules. that no one would be able to friend and muse, Stephanie pronounce it, so she settled on Gabriela Hearst: her design, de Lavalette, a cofounder of the Gabriela Hearst brand his investment. “It was never a ‘Let my wife have a hobby’ who has joined her at Chloé. The two met in the early situation,” she tells me. “This is a business.” I ask her how aughts and were roommates on Bank Street when de she and Austin balance the marriage and the work, and Lavalette, who is French, still worked in finance. “Gabri- she rolls her eyes. “Do you like to have budget meetings at ela likes to say that I’m the president of GSD—getting 11 o’clock at night in your own bed?” shit done,” de Lavalette tells me with a smile. She helps In 2019, LVMH became a minority investor in Gabri- produce the fashion shows and the bags, oversees market- ela Hearst. The brand is sold only at a few retailers and ing and communications, and is an all-around sounding her own two shops, in New York and London. Hearst’s board. “My role has also changed as the company has Nina bag, produced in small quantities and inspired by grown,” she says. Hearst is the godmother to de Lavalette’s the sculptures of Botero (and named after Nina Simone), son, who is close with Hearst’s son. They’ve been there for has long waiting lists. Oprah wore one to the wedding of each other through the births of children and deaths of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry; Markle herself wore parents. Talking to de Lavalette, I understand why another one a few months later. Hearst is savvy and seems to have word in the Venn-diagram overlap between Hearst’s label found the sweet spot where sustainability and exclusivity and Chloé is “Friend-Tribe.” meet. “We had many opportunities for very rapid growth, De Lavalette and I are sitting over green tea in Hearst’s and we declined those,” she says when I ask how she rec- office at Chloé. There are family photos and art and poet- onciles sustainability with producing four collections a ry books on the shelves: Allen Ginsberg, Pablo Neru- year for two different houses. “My business could be triple da, Hilma af Klint; a book on CONTINUED ON PAGE 101 59

EDGING FORWARD Chloé’s scalloped edges once signified girliness; with Hearst’s debut, they now delineate grown-up, thoughtful glamour. Chloé leather dress and belt.

FRINGE BENEFITS Hearst looked homeward to her native Uruguay for Chloé’s all-enveloping artisanal ponchos. Chloé puffer-poncho. All clothing and accessories at chloe.com. In this story: makeup, Ana G de V. Produced by Alexis Piqueras at AP Studio Inc. Details, see In This Issue. LOCAL PRODUCTION BY HABITANT; SET DESIGN, EMMA VIVIANA GONZALEZ.

ON THEIR GAMES For American swimmer Simone Manuel, gymnast Sunisa Lee, and sprinter Noah Lyles, the Tokyo Olympics can’t come soon enough. By Robert Sullivan.

PRODUCED BY STEPHANIE O’CONNOR. GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY “You go through these roller-coaster emotions,” says Simone Manuel, a sprint freestyle swimmer who took two golds and two silvers at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Free People bralette. Commando bikini briefs. Hair and makeup, Kaori Nik. Fashion Editor: Tonne Goodman. Photographed by Dana Scruggs

D on’t forget: Even PRODUCED BY OVERFLOW PRODUCTIONS, INC. though they are poised to take place in 2021, the Olym- pics that we’ve all been waiting for are still the 2020 Olympics. From the perspectives of the athletes, it’s as if they’ve been at the starting blocks all along, waiting to burst out, to dive or mount, throw or take one long last leap. From the point of view of everybody else, the notion of athletes returning feels like that next moment in a relay, when a baton from life before the pandemic gets passed on to a runner after, the teams joyfully picking up speed in a new world—and, somehow, speeding us along with them. Sure, logistics are always changing, with health precautions like so many crucial hurdles, but the anticipation is building, with more competitions and the return of qualifying meets. “Me, personally, I am somebody who loves to be social,” says Noah Lyles. America’s 200-meter sprinting star has already won in New York and surged ahead late—his trademark— to win at the USATF Golden Games in California. “I love to go out and hang out—and practice—with other people. I love it! To train with others and get that excitement, that…edge!” As was the case for everything else, the schedule for the 2020 Olym- pics did not go as planned. At the beginning of March 2020, Simone Manuel, who won two gold and two silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olym- pics and was planning on continuing her streak in Tokyo, had just finished up a swim meet in Des Moines while talking to her mom. Rumors about the virus were flying. “My mom “I want to go out there and be somebody who’s the first to do something,” says Lyles, who was inspired as a kid by gymnast Gabby Douglas. “The Olympics hits everybody” Photographed by Hype Williams 64

RUNNING START For Noah Lyles, a 200-meter sprinting star, training within COVID protocols was tough. “I’m somebody who loves to be social,” he says. Louis Vuitton Men’s coat, shirt, tie, and pants. Grooming, Jennifer Beverly. Fashion Editor: Alex Harrington.

was saying, ‘Should you be taking She did her best to keep things in Bolt–like tendency that Bolt himself LYLES: PHOTOGRAPHED BY HYPE WILLIAMS. LEE: PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOSH OLINS. MANUEL: PHOTOGRAPHED BY DANA SCRUGGS. pictures with fans? Should you be perspective, but like everyone, she has noticed, along with Lyles’s speed. signing autographs?’ ” Manuel, 24, missed the least extraordinary things, (“He looks like he wants to do great recalls. Three days after she got back like a trip to the mall or to the nail things,” Bolt told USA Today this to her home in California, the pool salon—and if you follow her on In- spring.) It’s a pre-race strategy that she trained in closed up, the 2020 stagram, you already know that she Lyles compares to that of a lion, games still theoretically on. “And is not fooling about her nails, a tiny which rests by day but comes out nobody had a plan,” she says. detail that makes her photo finishes strong when it’s time to attack and even more impressive. Fortunately, amaze. Forgoing a mane, Lyles was A gymnastics version of that hap- swimming is a kind of therapy for recently spotted wearing a leopard- pened to 18-year-old Sunisa Lee, her, but Zooming with her mother and-camo-print running suit—and, who goes by Suni. A veteran of the and father in Texas did not replace as always, entertaining socks. “I’m U.S. team that won the gold at the hugging them. “I went on walks, and heavily into fashion,” he says, “and 2019 world championships in Stutt- I’m not a walker!” Did she turn into it’s funny, because in my high school gart, Germany, Lee was practicing one? She breaks into laughter. “No!” years, all I wanted to do was run, so I her uneven-bar magic at her gym very much didn’t care about how in the suburbs of St. Paul one day Perspective reminds us that, for I looked. I basically dressed like a and doing Zoom workouts at home better or worse, perseverance is in dad—a non-cool dad.” the next. Time stood still—until it the definition of an Olympic athlete, didn’t. “It’s crazy how fast the time and for these games, perseverance is As a young girl, Lee was always has gone,” she says. being tested, only more. Lyles and grabbing her mom’s phone to watch his brother, Josephus, who is also gymnasts flip, then repairing to One by one, athletes everywhere a professional sprinter, played just the nearest couch or bed to try one concocted new ways to train or res- about every sport growing up, but out. Her father spotted her in those urrected old ones. In Florida, Lyles it was during the USATF Nation- days and then, as her gymnastics worked out on grass and on week- al Junior Olympic Championships, improved, organized fundraisers at ends took up roller-skating—a hob- when Noah lost during the high-jump local Hmong restaurants to help pay by that initially shocked his trainers, finals, that his mother, Keisha Caine for travel to national and then inter- until they saw that it was less about Bishop—herself a standout runner— national meets, coaxing Lee to sing, speed and more about a vibe. “I fig- saw the 12-year-old transforming which she loved. “My dad would pick ured out that a bunch of my friends, into a champion. “After he lost, he some songs,” she remembers, “and like, love to roller-skate. I actually came over to me,” Bishop recalls, I’d say, ‘What is this song?’” (Once it got pretty decent.” Lee started run- “and I said, ‘Hey, Noah—how’re ning with her teammates, outdoors, you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m great.’ I and cooking with her mom, indoors. said, ‘Are you disappointed that “It’s just so much healthier,” she says. you didn’t win?’ He said, ‘Nope, I’m (She reports, also, that it tasted great.) good—I’ll come back next year.’ ” It Thanks to her coach, Manuel man- doesn’t hurt that Lyles has an Olym- aged to find a backyard pool seeming- pian’s physical mechanics (in stride ly designed for her needs: two lanes, frequency and length) or that he (like with poolside race clocks and starting Lee and Manuel) is a student of his blocks. “You’re in California, and you sport. “You hear this a lot,” says his have really big swim and water-polo coach, Lance Brauman, “but he is fans, so everybody has these massive built to run.” pools,” she says. Was she surprised at such a made-for-closed-swim-centers The first Olympics that amazed setup? “Yes,” she says, “but at the him were the 2012 London games, same time, if this were to be anywhere, when he was 15 and mostly watched it would be in California!” gymnastics. “I just thought Gab- by Douglas was the coolest person The pool’s owners donated its because, one, she was young,” Lyles daily use to Manuel and her former says. “Two, she was Black, and three, Stanford teammate Katie Ledecky, she was the first to do something.” but the initial rush of fortunate feel- (She was the first Black woman to ings gave way to more complicated win the Olympic all-around gymnas- emotions in the shut-down world. tics title.) “I just thought, Yeah—I “Sometimes I felt a little guilty,” want to go out there and be some- Manuel recalls. “It was hard doing body who’s the first to do something. it knowing that the Olympics were The Olympics hits everybody.” He postponed. You go through these also wants to entertain, his race roller-coaster emotions—you’re plan so closely mind-mapped that thinking, Ah, it’s another year to his way of keeping cool is putting get better, and the next you’re like, on a show for the cameras—a Usain But I was ready for it right now.” 66

BY AIR, BY LAND, AND BY SEA right: Gymnast Sunisa Lee in a Dion Lee bodysuit. below: Manuel in a Givenchy dress. above: Lyles in Adidas.

PASSING THE BAR For Lee, Zoom workouts have given way to Tokyo travel plans. “It’s crazy how fast the time has gone,” she says. Alaïa dress. Hair and makeup, Peter Phung. Details, see In This Issue. Fashion Editor: Max Ortega. PRODUCED BY TYLER COPELAND.

“She really puts everything into it,” felt viscerally—and while once she says Lee’s coach Jess Graba. might have talked less about her own “Not just the gymnastics but experiences, she’s now ready to share to be everything she can be” more, for her own sake and the sake of others. “When you are telling was Bette Midler’s version of “Wind on water so much that they win,” other people what you’re feeling,” Beneath My Wings.”) The Twin Cit- Manuel says, “but it’s okay.” she says, “you never know who you ies area is home to the largest urban affect—you could be helping them Hmong community in the U.S., and After she finished Stanford, where through the same storm.” when Lee wins, she is winning for the she studied communications and Hmong neighbors who supported her African and African American stud- W henItalked in the gym and supported her father: ies, 2020 was to be Manuel’s year with the While helping a friend, he fell off a to concentrate on the Olympics, athletes as ladder, suffering a spinal-cord injury with summertime the final lap of the sum- that paralyzed him from the chest four years of prep. The summer, of mer was down a few days before Lee won a course, marked the beginning of his- about to gold, a silver, and a bronze medal toric mass uprisings, and as the first begin, Manuel had been to a meet at the national championships in Black woman to win an individual and remembered all the things you 2019. Her father FaceTimed Lee at medal in Olympic swimming, she forget—hotels, logistics—and had the nationals from his hospital bed was acutely aware of the swimming just returned from a three-week rest. to cheer her on, but no one knew pool as a historic site of racial con- She’d gone back to Sugar Land, Tex- what she was going through as she test in modern American history: as, her hometown, to binge-watch attempted a bar routine that she had The pool was like the lunch count- Good Girls (“They’re not good upgraded in difficulty. As she aced er at the start of the Civil Rights girls!”) and savor Shipley’s glazed the landing, the commentators pre- movement, when, for instance, acid doughnuts (“a pillow of goodness”). dicted Tokyo gold. was poured in a pool in the vicinity Lyles had just begun to run 200s of Black bathers. Later, as suburbs again too, and watching him come The very sound of water would expanded and cities continued to out of the first turn was like watch- cause Simone Manuel fits of joy as segregate, the ability to swim marked ing someone turn on a jet pack, an a child—she laughs as she remem- both access and privilege, as it does explosive speed he describes like a bers fierce attempts to fling herself today. (The percentage of Black physicist: “When you come out to into the tub, anybody’s tub, whether members in USA Swimming is, by the straightaway, if you stay in the undressed for it or not. “Whenever I their own accounting, somewhere middle or come even closer to the heard the water running, I would just in the single digits.) Immediately inside of the lane, you will actually get super excited, kind of like when following her wins at Rio, Manuel take all that speed that you built up, a dog is ready for a walk,” she jokes. was on MSNBC encouraging Black and it will force you out.” Her older brothers were on the swim children in the U.S. with little or no team, and after watching them she swimming ability—69 percent—to Suni Lee had just aced the bars at a announced to her parents she could learn. (“You can do it,” she said, meet in Indianapolis, a 10-hour drive swim. She wasn’t kidding. “Why is still standing poolside.) Later she with her teammates to an event that Simone not doing what the others are noted that, according to the CDC’s was spectator-less but televised—a doing?”her mother asked the instruc- last study, in 2014, Black children strange and pressure-making com- tor when she spotted her daughter are 5.5 times more likely to drown bination—and her coach was rav- swimming across the pool on day two in swimming pools. Television ing. “She really puts everything into of lessons. “Why isn’t she…floating?” announcers throughout her ascent in it—not just the gymnastics but to The response: “Some kids are just the sport tended to describe Manuel be everything she can be,” says Jess ready to swim.” Her brothers can still as “coming out of nowhere,” when Graba. She came with a new bar beat her—but not because they’re she was there—usually, after the routine and, as per her custom, faster. “Their technique is so terrible, finish, on a podium—all along. In spoke to nobody beforehand but at and then I’m laughing and choking her own telling, it’s a bias she has last, when she landed, broke open a huge, winning smile. After all, she had left the earth, launching into her Nabieva—the technical term for when, to the layperson, she is soaring like a bird. “I am literally flying over the bar and catching it,” Lee says. “It feels so cool.” @ Photographed by Josh Olins 69

Omar Sy’s sensational, stylish turn in the Netflix series Lupin has made him more than the leading man of our moment. Alexandra Marshall reports on a French star at the forefront of a new wave. Photographed by Jonas Unger. Scene Stealer “M y sense of adventure comes from generation came into its own, a different view began to take PRODUCED BY KITTEN PRODUCTION. the place I grew up,” says Omar Sy, hold. Sy is 43; his cohort includes stars like Debbouze, who the star of Lupin—the Netflix series went on to have a huge career in comedy, and the stand-up that has become an international comedian Gad Elmaleh; actors like Aïssa Maïga and Tahar phenomenon—and easily the most Rahim; and filmmakers like Roschdy Zem. As they gain beloved actor in France. (Three times success and creative recognition, the drab, grim, piously Sy has been voted France’s favorite person, on an open well-meaning banlieue dramas of French cinema have given ballot.) The place he’s talking about is Trappes, one of the way to shows like Lupin, which are aspirational, gorgeous, infamous banlieues about 20 miles west of Paris, which, col- upbeat, and not at all preachy. “Thank God people of this lectively, occupy a complicated place in the French national generation now have the means to express ourselves in fash- imagination. Banlieues are suburbs outside major cities ion, literature, and art,” Sy says. “We speak of ourselves, filled with housing projects that were cheaply construct- and we’re stylish and sexy.” ed for immigrant workers during France’s postwar labor shortage. As jobs dried up in the 1980s and ’90s, austerity Lupin is certainly stylish and sexy—a breathlessly paced settled in and xenophobia flared, giving the banlieues a caper series loosely based on Maurice Leblanc’s belle forbidding reputation, either to be pitied or shunned. “In epoque literary character Arsène Lupin. “Lupin is one Europe, city centers are for the rich,” explains Sy, the third of those characters who’s been done so many times, he’s of seven children born to a Senegalese father and Maurita- really part of the French firmament,” says Sy, a creative nian mother. “The more outside you live, the more outside producer alongside showrunner and writer George Kay. the bubble you are, and it’s hard to come in.” (“Netflix wanted Omar Sy attached to that IP,” says But Sy was happy in Trappes, where soccer pitches Kay.) It was Sy’s idea to use Lupin as the inspiration for opened onto pastures and forests, and his friends had a modern character, Assane Diop, the son of a Senegalese immediate family from everywhere. “Mediterraneans, West immigrant whose father passed on his love of Leblanc’s Africans, Greek, Polish, Romanians,” Sy says. “I heard so novels. Diop’s race, and the social invisibility it sometimes many languages and tasted so much food! I’d go up to the provides, adds another layer of subtlety to the idea of fifth floor and be in Greece, downstairs in the Maghreb. the master thief. Diop, who can disappear in many ways, It pushed me to have an open spirit.” It was a friend from uses it to his advantage as he avenges his father’s death. the neighborhood, Jamel Debbouze, a comedian with a lunchtime show on the national station Radio Nova, who “I wanted Assane to win all the time and have great gave Sy his big break, inviting him on to impersonate a victories and stick two fingers up at the establishment,” retired football star. (“I’d have loved to be a player,” says says Kay. “Omar was down for that completely, but he was Sy, who was 19 at the time, “but I wasn’t any good.”) At also encouraging of his failures. Why not have a character the station he met the comedian Fred Testot, and soon the who could win without breaking a sweat but can’t work two became Omar et Fred, an improv and sketch-comedy out what to buy for his kid’s birthday? Those conversations duo who starred in a series of shorts on the national net- were cool to have with Omar.” work Canal+. Minor comedic turns gave way, bit by bit, to meatier roles—anything the young actor, with his sparkling Sy wouldn’t have had the clout to develop a splashy charisma and impeccable timing, could get. TV series were it not for The CONTINUED ON PAGE 102 France has no legal recognition of ethnicity, and cultural difference has historically been difficult to affirm, much ON TOP OF THE WORLD less celebrate, without being seen as a threat to an idealized, Sy, photographed in Paris, is easily the most beloved implicitly white notion of universal Frenchness. But as Sy’s actor in France—even before his breakout role as Assane Diop in Lupin. Dior Men coat. Dolce & Gabbana sweater and cap. Boss pants. Hair, JAYR; makeup, Angloma. Fashion Editor: Michael Philouze. Details, see In This Issue. 70



The New Bags (and boots and belts and baubles) are graphic, oversized, textured, plucky, and, perhaps strangest of all: perfectly useful. Photographed by Théo de Gueltzl.

JUST FOR KICKS Everybody talks about form meeting function— what about function meeting fun? Model Anok Yai wears gold-toed Schiaparelli boots (schiaparelli.com) with a wild-style Louis Vuitton x Fornasetti dress (louisvuitton.com). Fashion Editor: Alex Harrington.

UPPER HAND Yai plays an utterly enchanting game of catch in Prada gloves (replete with pockets!) and a knit-trimmed jumpsuit; both at prada.com.

EARTHLY DELIGHTS Yai keeps things in perspective with an almost planetary shoulder bag and a perfectly coordinated Conner Ives jacket and skirt; all at connerives.com. 75

SUPERSIZE ME There’s a golden haze on the meadow—and a huge crimson bag smack-dab in the spotlight. Marni bag; marni.com. Bottega Veneta dress; bottegaveneta.com.

WORKS LIKE A CHARM A magic mushroom, but make it fashion. Yai wears a Marni necklace and knit bodysuit ($1,490); marni.com. 77



HEAD CASE Classics go fantastic when an arresting clutch by Louis Vuitton x Fornasetti (louisvuitton .com) meets a Kenzo oversized sweater (kenzo .com)—all bold lines and blown-out proportions. 79

SOFT FOCUS An S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA. bag (srstudio.com) that, joyously, resembles something out of a childhood toy box is the perfect vessel for flowers—and a worthy companion for this shapely Alexander McQueen knit dress (alexandermcqueen.com). 80

VINE AND DANDY Yai heads up an ivy league all her own with Valentino boots ($980; valentino .com) below a voluminous JW Anderson dress (jwanderson.com).

ABOUT FACE Don’t be fooled by its homespun, seemingly hodgepodge coziness; this two-toned balaclava is pure, immaculate, joyful Miu Miu ($510), as are the twisted, crocheted face masks worn as a bandeau top ($725 each). All at miumiu.com. 82

READY TO ROLL Yai is heaven on wheels in a Bottega Veneta belt ($2,500) and roller skates ($2,100; both at bottegaveneta.com) over and under a Dolce & Gabbana dress ($1,895; dolcegabbana.com). In this story: hair, Christian Eberhard; makeup, Cécile Paravina. Details, see In This Issue. PRODUCED BY KITTEN PRODUCTION; SET DESIGN, IBBY NJOYA.

GOOD SPORT Bieber’s Alexander McQueen jacket (alexandermcqueen .com) features surprisingly roomy sleeves—all the better to move in it. Alo biker shorts ($56; aloyoga.com). Jennifer Fisher earrings. Fashion Editor: Camilla Nickerson. Outer Limits This fall, jackets have been reimagined: Bombers come in tweed, capes are quilted in nylon—and Hailey Bieber models them all. Photographed by Stefan Ruiz.

THE MORE THE MERRIER Bieber’s multilayered look is as polished as it is easy to wear. Louis Vuitton jacket, embroidered dress, T-shirt dress, and balloon skirt; louisvuitton.com.

MAKE IT WORK By Chioma Nnadi I am still somewhat It wasn’t until I moved haunted by the mem- to New York in the early ory of my first “state- aughts that I truly began ment” jacket: the to embrace the transfor- school blazer I wore as a mative power of a great child growing up in ’90s London. “You look like a little jacket. I was working at an indie magazine downtown gray mouse,” said my mother, reaching to pinch my cheeks when I scored my first really grown-up version—an over- as I emerged, ready for my first day of seventh grade, sized navy Helmut Lang with frayed edges—at a sample dressed in a knife-pleated gray skirt and matching V-neck sale the visionary designer held before closing his SoHo sweater. I shrugged on the imposing gray jacket over my studio in 2005. When Vogue called me a few years later on scrawny shoulders as if it were a giant cinder block—Mum a Friday afternoon asking if I could come in at short notice had insisted on buying it with “room left to grow.” The for a second interview, I was relieved to find that jacket expression on my face did, in fact, read like a small fright- hanging over the back of my chair. It didn’t matter that I ened animal’s. Having to wear a school uniform was bad was wearing jeans: With this thrown over my shoulders, enough, but somehow the awkward, too-big proportions I was ready for anything. set off a spiral of anxious thoughts. Watching the new collections this past February, I saw that big-jacket energy explode all over again. A few in par- What I didn’t understand as a kid, I now fully appreci- ticular, worn here by Hailey Bieber, seem primed for where ate as an adult: Those slightly off-kilter proportions are we find ourselves now. And with their off-kilter scale and often what makes a good piece truly great. I am reminded streetwise swagger, maybe they’re just the thing to bridge of this as I slip on a hot-pink Jacquemus jacket in the that ever-narrowing gap between work life and life life. fitting room at Dover Street Market on a Saturday after- Personally, I’d experiment by layering them up two by two, noon in Manhattan in late May. The feeling is both foreign perhaps over Prada’s new second-skin printed bodysuits. and strangely familiar, the look itself so right for now: extra-wide in the shoulder, square through the body, and Whatever it is, it won’t be uniform. @ so long in the sleeve I can barely see my fingertips in the mirror. After months of working from home swaddled FLYING COLLARS in droopy sweats, the prospect of dressing for a real-life The popped plaid on Bieber’s quilted Burberry jacket ($990; office gives me back-to-school butterflies—in a good way. burberry.com) is nothing less than a tartan calling card. 86

HINT OF GLINT Graphic printed knits serve as a base layer for a satiny bomber and tweedy blazer. Stella McCartney jacket ($1,750) and blazer ($1,895); stellamccartney.com. Prada long johns; prada.com. Jennifer Fisher earrings.

PUFF PIECE The hue of this quilted jacket ranges from energizing to attention-grabbing, depending on your perspective. Eckhaus Latta jacket, $575; eckhauslatta.com. Max Mara blazer $1,690; maxmara .com. Fendi skirt, $1,850; fendi.com.

MAKE ROOM With voluminous tangerine-colored satin sleeves and single-breasted body, this jacket makes a statement all by itself. Why complicate things by adding anything else? Junya Watanabe jacket, $2,355; dover streetmarket.com. In this story: hair, Jimmy Paul; makeup, Fara Homidi. Details, see In This Issue. PRODUCED BY PREISS CREATIVE.

We’re sliding back into the swim of going out—and getting spruced up for it. So put on your spikiest heels and most feathery frocks—it’s high time for fashion that pulls no punches. Photographed by Oliver Hadlee Pearch. give me

SHAPE SHIFTER Long and lithe or graphic and voluminous? Model Mona Tougaard does on-the-town dressing in two dramatically different—but similarly striking—ways. Loewe dress and shoulder bag; loewe.com. Andy Wolf Eyewear sunglasses. Pomellato earring. Charlotte Chesnais ring. opposite: Marni bodysuit ($1,590), skirt ($1,690), and boots; marni.com. Fashion Editor: Carlos Nazario. the night

RISING TO code, were straightforward in cut, I’ve read them; I understand the sen- THE color, and texture—like a sensible timent. I beg to differ: I do not dress OCCASION haircut. Once a year, though, on the up for myself—I dress for other peo- first Monday in May, I was embold- ple, and a year spent at home with no By Chloe Malle ened by the sartorial majesty of the dinner dates, parties, or weddings to occasion to wear something more dress for has only confirmed that. A fter a year when extravagant to the Met gala, and it Like all of us, I have missed seeing evening dress was likely comes as no surprise that the people during this long year, but I replaced by the most eccentric, over-the-top dresses have also missed them seeing me. nap dress, aren’t we often resulted in the liveliest memo- all desperate to be ries and the best evenings. The pail- The problem is that I no longer glamorous again? lette-and-shell-embellished Rodarte know how to get dressed. In late During the five years that I covered transformed me into a magical mer- spring I had plans to meet two friends events for Vogue from my post on the maid, even though in reality I looked for drinks at the Odeon in Tribeca. I editorial staff, I dressed up in black more like a shipwrecked dragon; the was half-vaccinated and hadn’t been tie three times a week. Sometimes I jet-plumed Ferretti frock not only out of the apartment all week except had time to go home or get my hair erased any nervous feelings of being to walk my dog, Lloyd. Opening my blown out, but often I simply dragged an ugly duckling—it made me feel like closet, I felt like I was greeting old my borrowed sequins or satin to the an extra in Black Swan. And in a year friends: some the easy confidantes office in a garment bag—along with a spent observing practically the same you can add to any dinner party; oth- tote stuffed with Manolo BB pumps, bedtime as my one-year-old, these ers who require a bit more effort but a pair of earrings, and my makeup high-wattage looks were the ones I whose eccentricity or wicked sense bag—and under the harsh lighting found myself reminiscing about. of humor makes the work worth- of the Condé Nast bathroom scraped while; and those you keep in your life my hair back into a tight bun, slicked Sitting in front of our computers because they were with you at your it with pomade to tame the flyaways, in oversized knits to watch the Zoom college graduation or helped you and swiped on an additional coat shows of the fall 2021 collections through your first day of a big job. I of mascara. Like most routines, it felt like a taunting reminder of what was happy to finally be reunited with became second nature and, some- we did not have access to: Paco Ra- all of them, but the paralysis I experi- times, tedious. Now, though, years banne’s gilded girls in jewel-encrusted enced was similar to the anxiety I have later and after months curled on the chain mail; Louis Vuitton’s sequined felt when returning to social settings. couch in nothing more coordinated sirens stalking through the Louvre to than the two pieces of an Entireworld the tune of Daft Punk’s “Around the While I once knew that my Marc sweatsuit, I pine for those days—even World” (when the only place I was Jacobs tweed blazer works with my the fluorescent bathroom lighting. going was around the block to the navy Belgian loafers, which can be bodega for more Reese’s). Carbon- swapped out for suede pumps for din- For all those many galas and fêtes, ated with the newly liberated frisson, ner, now everything was a blank slate. I tended to wear borrowed sample everything on the fall runways seemed I was surprised to find myself gravi- dresses that, while up to the dress to be fringed, feathered, or bejeweled. tating toward pieces I loved, rather The collective message appeared than tried-and-true closet workhors- to be “Go big or stay home”—and es. I reached for my father’s mono- considering how sick we are of the grammed Charvet shirt, layered under latter, it’s time to embrace the former the bugle-beaded Michael Kors cardi- with the same vigor we embraced gan that long ago migrated from my sourdough starters. mother’s closet to mine. I added me- tallic Tabitha Simmons Mary Janes Dressing up again is emotional and a passementerie-appliquéd Alix because it signifies coming togeth- of Bohemia bolero. When I finally er again. And while the new clothes checked myself in the mirror in my may be fantastical, designers such building’s lobby, it was too late—I as Jonathan Anderson saw them as made Helena Bonham Carter look being more about “projecting what a like Phoebe Philo. The muscle memo- new reality will hopefully be,” as he ry was gone. C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 1 0 3 said at the time of his show in March. “Believe it, and it will happen.” The LET’S GET TOGETHER collections celebrated hand-wrought romance and, yes, tactility—the abili- from near right: Model Malick Bodian ty to finger the pearly shell shards on wears Dries Van Noten. Model a friend’s Bottega dress IRL. Chili Dia wears a Louis Vuitton dress Over the past several years, a (louisvuitton.com). Tougaard wears raft of essays and manifestos have a Givenchy dress (givenchy.com). Model emerged centered on reclaiming the Ifrah Qaasim wears a Louis Vuitton power of dressing solely for oneself. dress and boots (louisvuitton.com). Musical artist Luv Resval wears Celine Homme by Hedi Slimane. 92



FULL FEATHER Tougaard is extraordinarily, exuberantly in plume in a Bottega Veneta dress and earrings; bottegaveneta.com. beauty note Stand out from the flock with a contoured pout. Hourglass Panoramic Long Wear Lip Liner in Eden’s creamy, water- resistant formula provides a rich color payoff that doesn’t smudge.

SITTING PRETTY Tougaard and Dia offer two glinting, winking examples of the kind of all-out glamour we’ve been missing. Dia wears a Chopard earring and Brother Vellies sandals. Tougaard wears a Milamore earring and Del Core sandal. 95

PARTY PEOPLE PRODUCED BY FARAGO PROJECTS; SET DESIGN, SATI LEONNE FAULKS. Bright colors, bolder jewels. top left: Dia wears a Bottega Veneta dress; bottegaveneta.com. Swarovski necklace. Bodian wears a Lanvin jacket, shirt, and pants. above: Tougaard wears layered tops and a bracelet, all by Paco Rabanne; pacorabanne.com. left: Del Core jacket, pants, and sandals; delcore.com. 96

FLASH MOB The more shimmer, the better—no matter where it is you end up. from far left: Tougaard wears an Ambush dress; ambushdesign .com. Milamore earring. Qaasim wears a Loewe dress; loewe.com. Agmes earring. Dia wears a Paco Rabanne dress; pacorabanne.com. Chopard earring. In this story: hair, Yann Turchi; makeup, Hiromi Ueda. Details, see In This Issue.

Index 2 1 13 11 Causes for Celebration From ethically produced jewelry to artisanally crafted separates and accessories supporting organizations like World Central Kitchen and Space for Giants: Here’s where good style meets good works. 98 A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 V O G U E . C O M

1. DIARRABLU PANTS, $135; DIARRABLU 3 .COM. 2. ULLA JOHNSON DRESS, $765; ULLAJOHNSON.COM. 3. JACQUIE AICHE x FASHION TRUST ARABIA NECKLACE, $675; JACQUIEAICHE.COM. 4. STUDIO 189 SKIRT, $275; STUDIOONEEIGHTYNINE.COM. 5. ALEJANDRA ALONSO ROJAS SWEATER, $835; ALEJANDRAALONSOROJAS.COM. 6. PROUNIS RING; PROUNISJEWELRY.COM. 7. LOEWE BAG; LOEWE.COM. 8. COLVILLE THROW, $1,055; MATCHESFASHION .COM. 9. STELLA JEAN FOR FAO COAT, $1,132; SAKSFIFTHAVENUE.COM. 10. VICTOR GLEMAUD CLOG, $345; THEREALREAL.COM. 11. HARWELL GODFREY PENDANT; HARWELLGODFREY.COM. 12. ALTUZARRA TOTE BAG, $1,195; ALTUZARRA.COM. 13. BROTHER VELLIES SANDAL, $495; BROTHERVELLIES.COM. 14. POMELLATO EARRINGS; POMELLATO.COM. FOR MORE INFORMATION— AND TO SHOP THE ISSUE ONLINE— GO TO VOGUE.COM/SHOPPING DARIO CATELLANI. VOGUE, 2020. PRODUCTS: COURTESY OF BRANDS/WESBITES. 9 7 99 8 10

THE DOCTOR IS IN I could have. . . . I think part of that got intoxicating. The Bidens are gardeners. knocked out by being vice president. Joe once planted a rose garden for Jill at CONTINUED FROM PAGE 53 And I realized that I probably—whether their house in Wilmington for her birth- I’m right or not—knew more about the day, and Jill has put in a “little cutting including a group of Navy ROTC, flags issues than most people because I’ve garden” here at the White House “so erect. The guys in the press vans leap been around so long.” that if I go to visit somebody, I can make out and race toward the front of the them a bouquet. motorcade, and by the time I get there, Jill was hesitant to take on the “role the Bidens are just stepping out of the of the wife of the United States sena- “The flowers here…I mean…I’m out armored Cadillac known as the Beast. tor,” he says—even as she would cam- here every morning at six with the dogs,” I watch, with some trepidation, as Pres- paign by his side in those Senate years. she says. Do they run around? “Yeah. ident Biden walks off down the road and “But it was clear to me that she knew I throw the ball. They get water.” She into the grass. He crouches into a deep exactly what she would do if she were insists we take a stroll over to look at knee bend, impressive for a 78-year-old, first lady. And so she came in, I think— the roses. “They just popped this week.” as a little boy carrying a tiny American knowing the experience of being vice Everyone got so bent out of shape over flag comes toward him. He embraces president, knowing the power of the Melania redoing the Rose Garden, but the child as Jill lingers on the macadam presidency—knowing that she could I think she made it better, I say. “Appar- behind him in black-and-white stilettos, change things.” He remembers the first ently she put in these walkways. Are looking every inch a goddess at 69. It’s time she spoke in front of a truly big these, like, some of the most beautiful moments like this with the Bidens— crowd, “and I was like, That’s my girl. roses you’ve ever seen?” Suddenly a few hugging children!—that bring home just So proud. She would just go do it, and Secret Service guys and her senior advis- how incomprehensibly irregular and out she got better and better. And she started er, Anthony Bernal, come pouring out of place our previous president and first saying, ‘Joe, you gotta put a little more of the West Wing. “Somebody was like, lady really were. emotion into what you’re doing.’ ” ‘Stop! The first lady’s out there,’” says Bernal, laughing. “I’m like, ‘What is the I had talked to Joe Biden on the phone I ask if becoming president and first first lady doing...?’ ” It is a reminder of a few times—once at their beach house in lady affected their marriage. “Yeah, what a tight ship they’re running, espe- Delaware, the grandkids swirling around, it has,” he says, and an almost pained cially today, with three different camera eating cheesesteak hoagies, when some- expression crosses his face. “I miss her. crews setting up around the White House one handed me a cell phone: Joe wants to I’m really proud of her. But it’s not and the president preparing to give a talk to you—but I had never met him in like we can just go off like we used to. televised speech in the East Room. person. On the flight back to D.C., I am When we were living in Delaware and fetched from the back of AF1, brought married, once a month we’d just go up Back under the trellis, I ask Dr. Biden to somewhere in the middle of the plane, to a local bed-and-breakfast by our- how she’s adjusting to life in the White and deposited in a conference room in the selves, to make sure we had a romantic House. “You know, it has this sort of sky: all burled walnut, plush carpeting, time to just get away and hang out with magical quality to it. One room is just and dim table lamps. When the presi- each other.” more beautiful than the next, and you’re dent and first lady appear, I tell him that sort of in awe. Everyone here works I think I’ve met every person in his family You might need to schedule that in, so hard to create this world because I over the past 13 years. “God, it doesn’t I joke. think that they understand the kind of seem that long,” he says. pressure that Joe and I are under. They “But all kidding aside, that’s part of make the rooms beautiful, and the flow- “You have,” says Jill. “You met Mom- the problem. You can’t. I’m not com- ers and the food are perfect. And you Mom and Val,” Biden’s mother and sis- plaining. It’s part of the deal. But this have the balconies. And, of course, our ter, “all the kids.” life prevents it.” He looks at Jill. “It’s grandkids had been here a lot with the just harder. Don’t you think that’s right?” Obama kids. So they knew it but not I ask if he’d given any thought in all as intimately, of course, as us living these years to what kind of first lady “Oh, yeah,” she says. here ourselves.” Suddenly you can hear Jill would be. “We never talked about “And the other thing is, she’s been Champ and Major, the Bidens’ German this, so I’m probably going to get you traveling all over the country,” says shepherds, barking in the distance. Jill’s in trouble,” the president says to Jill— Biden. “And doing major events for ears perk up.… “Listen,” she says, smil- before insisting that he never wanted to me…and for the country. And so I’ll find ing, “the dogs.” live in the White House. It was part of that I’m working on a hell of an import- his reluctance to run for the office in the ant speech and I’m distracted. And then In most couples with pets, there’s usu- first place. “It was ‘Hail to the Chief’ and I may not be working on one and I want ally one person who pays them a little all that stuff when I was a young senator. to go and hang out with her, and she’s more mind, senses their needs—even But I never had a desire for that piece of working on an important speech! Or expresses feelings through them. (Timmy it.” He adds that he thinks the Obamas grading papers. We have to figure out a is bored, I will say when I’m the one who’s kind of had a similar view. “There was way—and I mean this sincerely—to be bored.) It’s a pretty good bet that per- no real upside to living physically in the able to steal time for one another. I think son is Jill. Unbidden, she says, “…and White House. It’s the greatest honor in that’s the deal.” then there was all the dog drama.” She the world…but there’s no privacy. And lets out a mordant chuckle (both dogs the pomp-and-circumstance part is not The next day, I’m sitting in the Jackie temporarily left the White House after a something we’ve ever gone out of our Kennedy garden with Jill. Like its coun- pair of nipping incidents by the boister- way to look for.”But Trump vanquished terpart, the Rose Garden, which is on ous Major). “I knew it was going to be his reluctance. “I think the same thing the other side of the South Portico, just hard for the dogs. I mean, Champ’s going was sinking in with you,” he says to Jill. outside the West Wing, this one was on 14, you know? And to move him in “About the state of the country.” He redesigned in the ’60s by Bunny Mellon. and have him get used to it? And then turns to me. “Jill said, ‘You gotta run. It has been tinkered with over the years, Major....I mean, let’s face it. He hadn’t Because there’s so much at stake.’ So this but it remains fundamentally the same: been around so many people in forev- was the first time I ran…without think- ridiculously beautiful. And because it is er. But now, at every turn, somebody’s ing about any of the accoutrements of, early May, there are enormous, perfect you know, I could have Air Force One or blooms everywhere you turn, the smell 100 AUGUST 2021 VOGUE.COM

stepping out or somebody’s coming Thompson Biddle. Jill Biden hasn’t Fishnetgate? “It’s amazing how much around a corner. So I guess I felt...I really had much time to think about how she people pay attention to every little tried hard to make everybody comfort- intends to entertain once things open detail.”Then she adds, just for the record: able. Make it feel like home. We brought up a bit more, but says this: “I want the “And they weren’t fishnets. They weren’t family pictures down and put them all White House to feel comfortable. It’s like around. And so, you know, we’ve adjust- my beach house, where you feel like you lace. They were very pretty stockings.” @ ed.” (Champ died peacefully of old age can just come in, and your bathing suit as this issue went to press.) is sandy, but it’s okay to sit down on the THIS WOMAN’S WORK chair. I want people to feel that way, that I ask her what she thought about what they’re comfortable, that it’s their house. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 59 Joe said on the plane last night. “Well, Not like, ‘Oh, I can’t touch this.’ ” it’s true because we’re both so busy. And sacred geometry—the notion there’s so we have to, I think, try a little hard- “There’s just thousands and thou- metaphysical meaning in shapes and er to make time for one another. Even sands of people who have pictures of patterns found in nature, which Hearst the thing about having dinner together: themselves with Jill and Joe Biden,” says tells me she’s been reading about lately. Sometimes we eat on the balcony; last the Washington Post’s Mary Jordan, who (During the pandemic, like so many of night we ate in the yellow Oval, upstairs. has attended numerous Biden events at us, she spent a lot of time with Netflix; It’s just part of the day that we set apart, the vice president’s mansion. “Because her favorites are a docuseries on rock and we still light the candles, still have the they’re always together, and they threw and roll in Latin America and David conversations, still put the phones away.” parties, and they allowed people to take Attenborough’s documentary A Life on pictures. A lot of people don’t do that. Our Planet.) On one wall of the office is The Bidens clearly intend to spend Jill and Joe were always there, and it’s a collage about climate change by the time at the beach in Delaware—the clear they like people. And Jill doesn’t Brooklyn-based artist Dustin Yellin, a White House got clearance to land act her age, either, which is great.” As an good friend. The two met at a Beast- Marine One in the parking lot at Gor- example, she tells me a story about the ie Boys storytelling performance in dons Pond in Cape Henlopen State day the Bidens hosted a picnic on the Brooklyn—both are fans—and bond- Park, which is just minutes away from lawn at the U.S. Naval Observatory. “It ed over their shared urgency about the their summer house. But Dr. Biden wor- was a really hot summer day, and all of environment. She and Austin are sup- ries whether Joe will be able to make a sudden, Jill came out with a squirt gun porters of Yellin’s Pioneer Works art the time, and there’s the hassle of how and started squirting Joe. It was just this space in Brooklyn. Asked to describe cumbersome everything gets with staff spontaneous, funny thing. I think they Hearst, Yellin responds, “Mystical and and security. “I’m going in about a week. just get a kick out of life. That kind of kind and generous. Fiery. Unrelenting— Joe hasn’t yet. I think it’s going to be thing is hard to fake.” is that an adjective?” a lot harder for him. I don’t know. It’s just harder. I don’t know how he could Jill Biden’s relationship to fashion I understand what he means a few actually go on the beach.” seems to have been complicated by the weeks later, when, walking with Hearst pandemic. She is a very stylish person on a crisp spring morning, I ask if she They are, however, escaping to their who even in jeans and a cashmere sweat- remembers her first trip to Paris. I’m not home in suburban Wilmington, to the er over an untucked chambray looks expecting what comes next. She tells me house that Joe famously designed him- totally pulled together. But for now, at she had gone there to model for the Next self. It is in a beautiful part of that infa- least, she does not want to talk too much Agency. “From age 18 to 21, I was bat- mously dreary city, situated on a lake, about it. It’s that reading-the-room tling eating disorders,”she says, stopping with a big swimming pool. Talking about thing: When you ask Dr. Biden a ques- on the sidewalk to look me directly in the it, I’m reminded all over again that the tion that she does not want to answer, eye. “I was bulimic in a very, very deep Bidens are really not creatures of Wash- she flashes a winning smile that says very way. I would spend days just throwing ington, despite their more than 40 years clearly, “Let’s move on.” Even Elizabeth up. It was an addiction like any other of service. “We have the best of both Alexander, her communications direc- addiction.” Her parents were extremely worlds,” says Dr. Biden. “We have our tor, looks uncomfortable when I bring it worried and thought modeling in Paris home in Delaware; we have grandkids up. Dr. Biden doesn’t work with a stylist: was a terrible idea. “But I had a pass- in Delaware. Finnegan and Maisy are at “It’s all her,” Alexander says. Fine, then port, and I had saved $5,000, and I’m Penn. They say, ‘Nana, we hear you’re I’ll say it: She’s wearing a lot of Brandon like, ‘I’m going,’” she says. “There was coming home; can we come down and Maxwell. She is also wearing a lot of a therapist, I don’t remember his name, have lunch?’ Then they clean out the young, emerging, and diverse designers. who said to my parents in front of me, refrigerator; they take bags full of food “I think that’s important: You try to ‘She goes to Paris, she dies.’ I was like, home. And then, in D.C., we have grand- lift up other people,” Dr. Biden says. ‘Okay. I’ll die in Paris.’” kids here—Naomi’s here. She just got her “I like to choose from a diverse group first job as a lawyer. So she comes over, of designers. When I was planning my It was an awful time and one Hearst and she’ll do movie night with us, or she’ll Inauguration outfits, that’s one of the hasn’t talked about publicly before. play tennis with her boyfriend. We have things I considered.” “When I look back, it’s like all the bad friends in both places. I guess our home ideas put together,”she says. She got help base has sort of stretched from Delaware When I point out the Instagram and today urges anyone battling eating to Washington. It’s just bigger now.” account that someone started last sum- disorders and mental-health issues to do mer, drjillbidenfashion, she looks sur- the same: Confronting her anorexia and We have moved into the White House prised. “No, I haven’t seen it.” Someone bulimia changed her life. “When you deal for the end of our interview, to the Ver- is dutifully posting everything that you with any addiction—and no matter at meil Room, on the ground floor. It is wear, I say. “Oh, great,” she says with a what age—and you come out alive on the painted a rich yellow with green drapes, comic roll of the eyes. And then this: “It’s other side, you know there is hope. But and there is a fair showing of modern kind of surprising, I think, how much you have to face your own demons; you art that I recognize as acquisitions from commentary is made about what I wear have to face the parts of yourself that the Obama years. It also houses a col- or if I put my hair in a scrunchie. I put you need to heal. I think that makes you lection of silver-gilt tableware gifted to my hair up! Or the stocking thing.…” a stronger person.” the White House in 1958 by Margaret We’re sitting now on a bench in the Parc Monceau, talking about femininity 101

and motherhood. Nearby, pink trees are me earlier, “have a big problem on their Shahidi saw The Intouchables at 11, and coming into leaf. Hearst, who is wearing hands because the generations that are it not only became her favorite film but a tweed cashmere knit dress and no coat, coming up are really not interested in worked as a sort of way forward for her has long been inspired by strong women, consuming, in having too much of any- as a comedic actress. “There’s a level of from the medieval mystic Hildegard von thing.”We’re walking back from the park realism Omar hits, even in comedy,”Sha- Bingen to the journalist Oriana Fallaci, to her hotel now, and have met up with hidi says. “The effect that film had on famous for her tough interviews with de Lavalette along the way. When I ask me. . . . I’ve always been a creative person world leaders. She’s proud of having Hearst what would define success, she and didn’t know whether acting was the designed a suit for Chelsea Manning turns to de Lavalette and laughs. She’d avenue, but seeing his work in that movie for her first major interview after her like to live a good long life, she says— showed me exponential possibilities.” release from prison. maybe even get a good night’s sleep. Sy, his wife, Hélène, and their four Hearst’s identical-twin girls were But then she focuses. As ever, she kids moved in 2012 to Los Angeles, monoamniotic, she tells me, and shared has a mission: “Can we really make a where he has picked up supporting both a placenta and an amniotic sac—a low-impact global business? Obviously roles in Hollywood franchises like very high-risk pregnancy. “I have nev- I have the idea, but it takes a lot of peo- X-Men and Jurassic World. (A fifth er been so scared in my life,” she says, ple to execute it,” she says. “That’s what child has since been born, while Hélène “because I didn’t know if I could psy- runs CéKeDuBonheur, a nonprof- chologically overcome losing them. I we’re striving for.” @ it that works to bring classes, events, never prayed so much.” She went into and celebrity visits to children’s wards Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital SCENE STEALER at French hospitals, and Siyah Organ- in Manhattan at week 26 and spent ics, a Sénégalo-American organic- the next eight weeks there, monitored CONTINUED FROM PAGE 70 food-supplements company.) But it is around the clock. “The risk is that they’d in French cinema, where Sy remains strangle themselves with the amniot- Intouchables, the 2011 comedy in which prolific, that he continues to stretch his ic sac,” she says. Her then-husband, he played a home-care aide to a wealthy talent. The sumptuously filmed 2016 Franklin Isaacson, who works in ven- quadriplegic. Sy’s performance was a drama Chocolat required a new level ture capital, slept at the hospital every sensation (The Intouchables remains the of preparation. It’s based on the true night. The twins were born healthy. “I’ve most widely seen French-language film story of a 19th-century Black clown who lived through a lot of things that put in the world), making him the first Black became a national sensation, only to feel things in perspective,” she says. actor to win a César Best Actor award, the deep sting of racism and end his life France’s version of an Oscar. In her 2020 in obscurity. “Chocolat was the first film Her reshaped priorities come through documentary Où sont les Noirs?, about where I was telling myself, I’m an actor,” in her designs, which are for women with the long road to inclusion in French Sy says. “Before that, I said, I’m a comic a strong sense of self—women who know pop culture, the author and filmmaker who does movies. It was a lot of physical what it means to feel joy as much as to Rokhaya Diallo titled a whole chapter work, and big physical preparation for have fun. When she’s in Paris, she has vid- “The Omar Sy Effect.” “The cinema is a role isn’t something we do much of in eo calls with her twins. They help point still so white in France,”she tells me, “but France. It wasn’t easy. It was based on the way to the future. They don’t want it’s gotten better for Black actors in the a real person, and I felt his ghost with fast fashion. Fashion houses, she told last 10 years. Omar is a locomotive.” The Omar Sy effect wasn’t limited to France. The actress and producer Yara In This Issue $28; wearcommando THE NEW BAGS embroidered dress, .com. Tailor, Allison 72–73: Boots,price T-shirt dress, and Table of contents: THIS WOMAN’S Cohen. 64–65: Coat, upon request.Dress, balloon skirt, priced 12: Dress, price upon WORK shirt, tie, and pants, price upon request. upon request. request; louisvuitton 55: Leather coat priced upon request; 74: Gloves (price upon 86: Celine by Hedi .com. Cover look: ($16,359) and boots louisvuitton.com. request) and jumpsuit Slimane houndstooth 12: Tailor, Leah ($1,595); chloe Tailor, Bonnie Lewis. ($3,050).75: Bag blazer (worn under Huntsinger. Editor’s .com. 56–57: Dress 67: On Lee: Bodysuit, and skirt suit,priced quilted jacket), letter: 14: Top right ($4,995) and slides $760; dionlee.com. upon request.76: Bag, $2,950; celine.com. photo: Leather belted ($695). Dress at (704) Skims bandeau bra, $4,990. Dress, $19,500. 87: Long johns, dress, $12,395; (702) 366-0388. Slides $28; skims.com. 77: Necklace,$1,690. priced upon request. 675-9998. Bottom at nordstrom.com. 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Sweater ($675) Hannemann. upon request) and 46–47: In this story: $38; freepeople.com. and cap ($225); bag ($26,100). Tailor, Leah Huntsinger. Commando bikini, dolcegabbana.com. OUTER LIMITS Sunglasses, $358; Boss pants, $248; 84: Jacket, $3,450. andy-wolf.com. hugoboss.com. In Earrings, $550; Earring, $4,650 this story: Tailor, Nina jenniferfisherjewelry for pair; pomellato Hannemann. .com.85: Jacket, .com. Ring, $566; 102 A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 V O G U E . C O M