Harper’s Bazaar

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NEWS FASHION AND CULTURE PASTICCINO BAG MODELLO VIDEO STILL: OKWUI OKPOKWASILI, PERFORMANCE VIEW OF BRONX GOTHIC, ON THE BOARDS, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, 2016, VIDEO BY PETER BORN, COURTESY THE ARTIST; VENEZIA EDITION Drawing upon BAGS: RICHARD MAJCHRZAK/STUDIO D; ALL OTHER STILL LIFE: COURTESY THE BRANDS; BOOKS: COURTESY THE PUBLISHERS. SEE THE DIRECTORY FOR SHOPPING DETAILS. = BUY ON SHOPBAZAAR.COM Venice’s rich history of weaving and glasswork, Weekend Max Mara’s Pasticcino bag gets an artisanal update with sumptuous Fortuny textiles and colorful Murano-glass beads. Named for the Italian word for “small pastry,” the soft frame clutch features cotton fabrics in shades including dusty teal and ivory with subtle metallic motifs, loomed in a convent turned factory on the island of Giudecca. It’s finished with two boules handblown on the nearby isle of Murano, a center of glassmaking for more than eight centuries. “VISION & VIRTUOSITY” On view at Saatchi Gallery through August 19, the London edition of Tiffany & Co.’s touring exhibit features more than 400 objects from its archives, including Jean Schlumberger’s 1965 Bird on a Rock brooches and the script for the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. “OKWUI OKPOKWASILI” PAUL ANDREW RELAUNCH After a successful run as creative Incorporating elements director of Salvatore Ferragamo, designer Paul Andrew is of dance, theater, and rebooting his eponymous footwear line with a collection featuring visual art, choreographer sculptural heels inspired by the works of Jean Arp and Constantin Okpokwasili’s studio Brâncuşi and open wedges constructed from hand-carved wood. residency this month at New York’s Museum of Modern Above, from top: Weekend Max Mara bags, $925 each; shopBAZAAR.com. Art explores the range of Tiffany & Co. brooch; tiffany.com. Paul Andrew mule, $1,295; neimanmarcus.com. roles Black women play in society through a series of performance pieces. THE RABBIT HUTCH, ALL THIS COULD BE DIDN’T NOBODY GIVE BY TESS GUNTY DIFFERENT, BY SARAH A SHIT WHAT HAPPENED Gunty’s debut is set in Vacca THANKAM MATHEWS TO CARLOTTA, Vale, Indiana, a formerly pros- Mathews’s first novel follows BY JAMES HANNAHAM perous car-manufacturing 22-year-old Sneha, who has just This latest effort from Hannaham hub that’s become a desolate moved to Milwaukee following follows Carlotta Mercedes, who, postindustrialist nightmare. the Great Recession for a taxing more than 20 years earlier, while On the outskirts of town sits corporate job. With enough still presenting as a man, was a shoddy apartment building money to send extra home to involved in a botched robbery. known as the Rabbit Hutch, India, she is optimistic about her During her incarceration in a inhabited by a motley crew of tenants: a tired future. Sneha befriends a local philosophy student, men’s prison, Carlotta began to live as a woman young mother, a man with a mental-health blog, Tig, and begins dating women for the first time, and was subjected to heinous abuses. When she is and four teenagers who have aged out of the foster including a ballerina named Marina. But when released and returns to her native Brooklyn, she system—among them, Blandine, whose desperate painful secrets are revealed and money troubles is greeted by a family hesitant to accept her new attempt to escape her bleak reality results in a arise within the group, Tig hatches a far-out plan identity and the difficult task of starting anew under devastating act of violence. (Knopf) that could solve their problems for good. (Viking) the constraints of her parole. (Little, Brown) HB 50 BY ALISON S. COHN AND ARIANA MARSH BAZAAR



ESCAPE THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL Creative JOURNEYS LEVEL UP your PANDEMIC HOBBY FROM TOP: COURTESY VAWAA (2); CAITLIN GARCIA-AHERN; AUGUST SAGE; COURTESY DOMAINE DE LA VÈNE, FRANCE; AMBER GUINNESS with a TRIP designed to NURTURE your CRAFTY SIDE It’s no wonder many of us channeled pandemic-related stress (and countless lockdown hours) into new pursuits like bread baking, gardening, and ceramics. “We inherently know that art heals,” says Geetika Agrawal, the founder of VAWAA (Vacation With an Artist), a company that provides “mini apprenticeships” with artists across the globe. Here, a set of travel experiences that are designed to teach a new skill and foster creativity. CALLIGRAPHY “When we opened up our workshops again,” says Agrawal, “we had the most bookings we’ve ever had.” Founded Clockwise from top left: in 2015, during a year when Agrawal met and signed up artisans Indigo dyeing in Cao Bang, and craftsmakers, VAWAA now offers courses with more than 110 Vietnam, and Japanese artists in 27 countries. Travelers can study tango with a dancer in Buenos Aires or learn traditional Japanese calligraphy in Kyoto. calligraphy in Kyoto, both with VAWAA; backstrap weaving in Santa Catarina In some cases, students can live with their teachers in their homes; Palopó on Lake Atitlán and alternately, VAWAA will help clients find accommodations. Crucial to the experience, says Agrawal, is that the apprenticeships are achiote paste for dyeing in San Juan la Laguna, both in Guatemala with led by local masters. “When you learn calligraphy in Japan, you Thread Caravan; scenes aren’t just learning about the craft, you are learning about Zen from the Arniano Painting philosophy and being immersed in the cultural context.” School in Italy and France WEAVING A former clothing designer, Caitlin Garcia-Ahern took her fascination with textiles and in 2015 launched Thread Caravan, a travel company focused on craft workshops in Central America, in collaboration with several weaving communities in Guatemala. Over the years, she has added more experiences, including ones focused on making natural dyes and ceramics in Oaxaca, Mexico, and another in Panama that combines sailing the Guna Yala islands and learning embroidery from indigenous Guna women. “The intention is to challenge yourself to learn something new,” Garcia-Ahern says, “but it’s also designed to develop a deep 2A 3 connection with the people you meet and work with, who are in many cases inviting you into their homes.” PAINTING For the British cookbook author Amber Guinness, starting the Arniano Painting School in 2014 was about sharing the 3A 4 food and landscapes of her childhood—she grew up in a restored 52 18th-century farmhouse in Tuscany—with friends of friends. She partnered with artist William Roper-Curzon to offer weeklong retreats that combined lively meals and landscape painting for people of all skill levels. Guinness and Roper-Curzon are now taking the school “on tour,” first to Pylewell Park, his family estate overlooking the sea in England, and then to a villa in France near Carcassonne. Roper-Curzon notes that since Covid, the retreats are attracting a younger crowd. “After losing two years of their life,” he posits, “many dream of learning a new creative skill, like painting, rather than partying on Ibiza.” HB TEXT BY GISELA WILLIAMS BAZAAR



PROMOTION FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALLIE HOLLOWAY. COCO SHOP EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW YOSCARY. 1 42 1. From left: ShopBAZAAR Editorial Director Jade Frampton, 3 YOU’RE INVITED Coco Shop designer Taylor Simmons, Bonberi cofounder and Body Harmony author Nicole Berrie, and jewelry designer SIGN UP Brent Neale 2. The breakfast chat setting 3. The Coco JOIN HERE Shop pop-up shop in Nolita 4. Pieces from Coco Shop’s latest collection A STYLISH MORNING AFFAIR This spring, ShopBAZAAR and Coco Shop partnered on a power breakfast in celebration of the brand’s spring shop in New York City’s Nolita neighborhood. The event featured a panel discussion about renewal—a core part of the Antiguan brand, which was founded in 1949 and relaunched in 2019—with Coco Shop designer Taylor Simmons, Bonberi cofounder and Body Harmony author Nicole Berrie, and jewelry designer Brent Neale, moderated by ShopBAZAAR Editorial Director Jade Frampton. Discover Coco Shop and shop the brand’s latest collection on cocoshopwi.com BAZAARTHEBUZZ.COM FACEBOOK.COM/HARPERSBAZAAR @HARPERSBAZAARUS @HARPERSBAZAARUS

BEAUTY THE ART AND SCIENCE OF LOOKING AND FEELING YOUR BEST STILL LIFE: JEFFREY WESTBROOK/STUDIO D After several seasons of safe, neutral MAKEUP PALETTES, this summer VIVID, HAPPY HUES are back. Find out how a SWIPE of CHEERY COLOR, from cobalt to peach to lilac to cherry, can PERK UP YOUR FACE—and YOUR MOOD. Stila Stay All Day Dual-Ended Liquid AS MANY OF US have sought out small Eye Liner in Amber/Dark Brown (above, $30). Pat McGrath Labs MatteTrance daily sources of joy to counteract the Lipstick in Faux Pas (right, $39). stresses of the past few years, color therapy has garnered renewed attention. The idea of using color to evoke feelings of optimism, to feel more energetic—or even to quell anxiety—is appealing in its accessibility. “Studies have shown that lavender can have a soothing effect, while a soft daffodil yellow can make the brain feel happy,” says New York psychologist Sanam Hafeez. Light blue has also been demonstrated to have a calming quality, green can help you reset, and red may be invigorating. While color’s influence on mood is temporary, even a quick dopa- mine hit can help change your mindset, making a swipe of bright makeup not just trendy but therapeutic. ➤ 08/22 TEXT BY KATIE INTNER / ARTWORK BY DAVID ORTEGA 55

UT Y COLOR THERAPY 2. VIBRANT TONES needn’t be intimidat- ing, says Donni Davy, lead makeup artist on the HBO series Euphoria, where bold cosmetics reign. There are options for everyone, as “you can have a tiny blue wing with a nude lip—or turquoise shadow that extends all the way up to your eyebrows,” she says. Here, more ways to elevate the everyday with a dash of color. 1. 3. CENTER: JULIA NONI/TRUNK ARCHIVE; STILL LIFE: JEFFREY WESTBROOK/STUDIO D reminiscent of the ocean.) 4. Ready to fully embrace this trend and go even bolder? Davy suggests applying a saturated eyeshadow close to the lash line, then using a fluffy shadow brush to buff the shade over the eyelid and into the crease. 8. Lashes! Mascara in Dream Pop ($29). 2. L’Oréal Paris Voluminous Original Mascara in Cobalt Blue ($9.99). 3. Huda Beauty Color Block Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette in Blue & Green ($28). 4. Milk Makeup Color Chalk in Yo-Yo and Green Light ($18 each). 5. TooD Freestyle Color Cream in Asleep/Awake ($24). 6. Byredo Eyeshadow 5 Colours in Syren ($70). 7. M.A.C Colour Excess Gel Pencil Eye Liner in Permanent Vacation ($23). 8. Make Up for Ever Aqua Resist Color Ink 24HR Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Pink Blaze ($26). 56

9. 10. 12. 13. CENTER: YELENA YEMCHUK/TRUNK ARCHIVE; STILL LIFE: JEFFREY WESTBROOK/STUDIO D. = BUY ON SHOPBAZAAR.COM 24. 14. 15. SWEET CHEEKS 16. “Orange, red, and coral are 17. flattering cheek colors on 19. 18. almost everyone,” says Bedrani. These juicy hues also impart 23. a sun-kissed look, which can 21. 20. Red has been shown to boost be heightened by topping the our perception of control blush with highlighter. For and power, so it’s no surprise another less conventional tone, “a red lipstick can instantly opt for purple. From lilac to make you feel more confident,” magenta, this shade provides a says Davy. Other shades that surprisingly natural flush. Try can be empowering: electric a liquid or cream, which is pink and fiery orange. To make easier to blend than powder. this look stay put, first outline and fill in your lips with 9. Nars Blush in Exhibit A ($32). a long-wear liner, then top 10. Keys Soulcare Sheer Flush Cheek with a complementary lipstick, Tint in Magnetic ($22). 11. Westman gloss—or one of the season’s most popular products: Atelier Baby Cheeks in Poppet ($48; a tinted lip oil. HB shopBAZAAR.com 57 Cream Blush in Blushing Pink ($18). Trophy Wife ($38). 14. NYX Line Loud Longwear Lip Liner in Hottie Hijacker Lipstick in 999 ($42). 17. YSL Beauty Rouge Volupté Candy Glaze Lip Gloss Stick in Chili Delight ($35). 18. Half Magic Sculptitude Liner in Petite Fleur and Vitaminz Plz ($14). 19. Gucci Beauty Rouge à Lèvres Liquide Mat in Lizzie Tiger ($42). 20. Urban Decay Vice Lip Bond in Shock Value ($25). 21. Hermès Hermèsistible Lip Oil in Corail Bigarade ($55). 22. Essence Lipgloss in Crazy Cherry ($1.99). 23. EM Cosmetics Serum Blush in Little Lilac ($25). 24. About- Face Cheek Freak in Big O ($18). 08/22

B E AU T Y NEWS CENTER: BETINA DU TOIT/TRUNK ARCHIVE; LANSERHOF SYLT: ALEXANDER HAIDEN; FRAGRANCE, LIP COLOR, AND LIP-COLOR SWATCH: JEFFREY WESTBROOK/STUDIO D; ALL OTHER STILL LIFE: COURTESY THE BRANDS HIGH NOTES Off-White, the fashion house founded by the late Virgil Abloh, is venturing into beauty with “Paperwork,” a new line that includes makeup, nail lacquers, and fragrance. First to debut: Solution, four genderless scents available exclusively online at Off-White’s website and retailer Farfetch. Solution No. 3 ($185) is a standout, with its fresh take on floral, featuring a classic damask rose spiked with spicy pink peppercorn and sensual ambrette liquid. VINTAGE VIBES It may look like PERFECT POUT Sunnies Face, the Filipino beauty REJUVENATING RESPITE a tanning oil from the ’80s, but brand with a cult following, is finally available Lanserhof Resorts has opened its Cay Skin Isle Body Oil ($32) won’t stateside. The first product to hit the U.S. was newest locale on the posh German leave you crispy. While the new Fluffmatte, a range of 15 matte lip shades that island of Sylt (think Deutschland’s formula recalls the original oily launched in May, and its latest is Lip Treat (above, skin bronzers, Cay Skin’s update $16), a balm with a hint of color. version of the Hamptons). Regarded as one of Europe’s most also offers broad-spectrum SPF 30 protection and leaves exclusive health-spa brands, skin glistening—but not overly Lanserhof marries modern greasy—thanks to light hydrators medicine, natural healing like squalane and sea moss. methods, and luxury. The new location has 58 55 well-appointed rooms, a full-service spa, two saltwater pools that overlook the Wadden Sea, and glass facades that provide breathtaking views of the island. SKIN SNACK The secret to all-day hydration? The “moisture sandwich,” says Sean Garrette, an aesthetician and consultant for Dior Beauty. In the summer, Garrette suggests light layers of hydration for an enduring (but not sticky) result. “Your skin can’t function properly if it’s dehydrated,” he says. His recipe: Start with a velvety cleanser like Decorté Hydra Clarity Micro Essence Cleansing Emulsion ($34), then top with a silky essence such as Dior Capture Totale Intensive Essence Lotion ($75), a ceramide-rich serum like PCA Skin Hyaluronic Acid Boosting Serum ($120), and a plush cream like Make Super Cell Deep Moisture Cream ($38). HB TEXT BY JAMIE WILSON BAZAAR

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BEAUTY HAIR CARE SMOOTH Operators A summer crop of NOURISHING HAIR and SCALP OILS BOOSTS SHINE, TAMES FRIZZ, and BALANCES SKIN. Here, our favorite SLICK PICKS—and how to use them. COMBINATION THERAPY These SCALP OILS Moisturizing the skin CENTER: ANGELA MARKLEW/THE LICENSING PROJECT; STILL LIFE: COURTESY THE BRANDS multitasking oils are designed to and removing buildup are these safely treat both scalp and hair. formulas’ goals, since a healthy While application strategies vary scalp sprouts fuller hair. “Dullness, from blend to blend, most brittleness, or a lack of volume double-duty formulas can be can start at the root,” says applied conservatively as a smoothing, frizz-fighting, leave-in Helen Reavey, celebrity hairstylist, treatment—or slathered on as a trichologist, and founder of hydrating mask (then rinsed out later). Some to try: Ranavat Mighty Act+Acre hair care, who cites Majesty Fortifying Hair Serum follicle-clogging buildup as a ($70), Pattern Jojoba Oil Hair common cause of weakened Serum ($25), and Wildpatch strands. Most scalp oils are meant Heirloom Coconut Body & Hair to be used as a prewash treat- Melt ($32). Extra-lightweight oils, ment, massaged into the scalp to such as Guerlain Abeille Royale loosen debris, then shampooed Scalp & Hair Youth-Oil-In Serum out. Try JVN Complete Pre-Wash ($135), may also be used on Scalp Oil ($28) or Moroccanoil dry hair as a shine-boosting styler. Dry Scalp Treatment ($40). Richer And Squigs Gooseberry Delight blends, such as Nuele Nighttime Hair Oil ($34) can be applied as Scalp Serum ($34), can also be a preshampoo scalp soother left in overnight to condition dry and strand smoother: Massage skin, then washed out in the a.m. into the scalp, finger-comb through the hair, then rinse out. HAIR OILS Strand-centric DEEP ROOTS formulas are used primarily to protect the hair and dial up shine. Using oil blends to treat hair and the scalp has origins Most versions are also surprisingly in the 5,000-year-old system of Indian Ayurvedic medicine. lightweight, helping to make Shalini Seneviratne, founder of holistic beauty brand locks lustrous but not lank. For Wildpatch, was raised in the tradition and has been oiling best results, these blends are her hair for as long as she can remember. The usually applied to clean, damp practice, she says, is “the first beauty ritual many South Asians learn.” The rest of the world has been catching hair as you would a leave-in on to its myriad benefits, as the global hair-oil market is conditioner. Comb through or mist projected to reach $3.9 billion by 2024. HB on and style as usual. Try Bread Hair-Oil ($24), Act+Acre Cold TEXT BY JAMIE WILSON BAZAAR Processed Hair Oil ($48), or Fable & Mane HoliRoots Hibiscus Hydrating Hair Oil Mist ($29). 60

ASTROLOGY ^ ~ LEO ARIES JULY 24–AUGUST 23 MARCH 21–APRIL 20 Instead of keeping quiet It may be time to see that a about a business grievance, power battle exists between voice your objections— yourself and someone even if you receive caustic close to you, which can be responses. Something has to change, and you’re the awkward. Find a way to only one who can handle it. confront it in an open way or the situation won’t improve. LUCKY DAY: THE 21ST. Peace reigns in a once- LUCKY DAY: THE 9TH. unsettled area. Opportunities spring from an unlikely source. KENJI TOMA/TRUNK ARCHIVE ) $ VIRGO TAURUS AUGUST 24–SEPTEMBER 23 APRIL 21–MAY 21 You’re tired of people who The path to success will seem have trouble parting with sure until an ethical dilemma cash whining about feeling financially disadvantaged. presents itself. The urge to You may be tempted to pick look after your own interests up the bill, but that could first will be brief, as you of all set up resentment and a rift. people know the difference LUCKY DAY: THE 12TH. between right and wrong. Being seen as a unique LUCKY DAY: THE 14TH. individual boosts your ego. Someone whispering in your ear provides answers. 1 3 7 * LIBRA SAGITTARIUS AQUARIUS GEMINI SEPTEMBER 24–OCTOBER 23 NOVEMBER 23–DECEMBER 21 JANUARY 21–FEBRUARY 19 MAY 22–JUNE 21 When a series of mishaps Someone injecting radical Domestic decisions may Your energy may be depleted, leads you to lose confidence ideas into a long-term plan seem daunting, but your especially in areas where in someone, you’ll consider will infuriate you, but step intuition will grow, giving back and adopt a dispassion- you clarity on even complex you have little support. While seizing control. However, matters. Those opposing you’ll benefit from new that’s not the answer; instead, ate outlook midmonth. your views will come around Objecting on principle could if you are firm but polite. cosmic shifts boosting your present your concerns, lead to missed opportunities. dynamism and focus, resist as risky as that might seem. LUCKY DAY: THE 1ST. pushing yourself to burnout. LUCKY DAY: THE 18TH. Unexpected visitors put LUCKY DAY: THE 3RD. Out of the blue, a mystery LUCKY DAY: THE 4TH. An unusual intervention brings a smile on your face. Kind words lift a weight is solved. everyone together. from your shoulders. | 6 9 ! SCORPIO CAPRICORN PISCES CANCER OCTOBER 24–NOVEMBER 22 DECEMBER 22–JANUARY 20 FEBRUARY 20–MARCH 20 JUNE 22–JULY 23 Go out of your way to Regardless of your willing- Try not to succumb to others’ Differences of opinion over reassure others that your ness to wrestle with a tough greed or to compromise your property or investments sit situation, accept the idea that own high standards simply to uneasily with you, and your latest adventure won’t problems don’t always have keep the peace. Unfortunate threaten close relationships. circumstances have led you patience will run out by But also recognize that excit- solutions. Also consider someplace you don’t belong; month’s end. Don’t remain ing developments could be a that sometimes, doing noth- you may need to move on if silent until you reach a boil- distraction, so you’ll need to ing is more productive than things are unlikely to change. ing point; speak up while you balance the old with the new. still sound sane and sensible. trying to do everything. LUCKY DAY: THE 23RD. LUCKY DAY: THE 20TH. Hard work yields LUCKY DAY: THE 26TH. Taking things with a grain of LUCKY DAY: THE 27TH. rich rewards. Inspiration arrives at By taking a chance, just the right time. salt resolves issues. you outwit a rival. 08/22 AUGUST PREDICTIONS BY PETER WATSON 61

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THE PERFORMANCE ISSUE HAIR: LACY REDWAY; MAKEUP: ROMY SOLEIMANI; MANICURE: GINA EDWARDS; ETTORE SOTTSASS TARTAR TABLE: © 2022 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/ADAGP, PARIS A great PERFORMANCE can be TRANSFORMATIVE; the greatest are TRANSCENDENT. But they are often also EXPRESSIONS of something DEEPER: an intense PASSION, a dedicated PRACTICE, an inner STRENGTH, a SENSE of SELF and SPACE. They can MOVE us, INSPIRE us, CHALLENGE us, and fill us with ANGER or JOY. This issue explores the POWER of PERFORMANCE from all those vantage points, as a beacon of CONSCIOUSNESS and CONNECT- EDNESS in an age of UNCERTAINTY, of shared BEAUTY, HUMOR, HUMANITY, and GRACE. Photograph by COLLIER SCHORR / Styling by SAMIRA NASR Dress, GIORGIO ARMANI. High Jewelry earrings and studs, BULGARI. Boots, ALEXANDER MCQUEEN. 08/22 63

TESSA THOMPSON TAKES Her TIME Photographs by COLLIER SCHORR Styling by SAMIRA NASR

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TESSA THOMPSON has NEVER been OBSESSED with chasing MEGASTARDOM. But with her HANDS in MULTIPLE Hollywood FRANCHISES, a thriving PRODUCTION COMPANY, and a DETERMINATION to make SPACE for STORIES that aren’t BEING TOLD, she’s ACHIEVING IT—on her OWN TERMS. T Story by LAUREN MICHELE JACKSON essa Thompson cherishes a slow burn. “I know The week before was the Met Gala. This year’s spectacle had that a lot of my contemporaries don’t agree with me, but I think the unfortunate luck of aligning its stars with the backdrop of being underlauded in your time sometimes is not a bad thing,” breaking news: the leak of an opinion drafted by Supreme Court she tells me. We’re awaiting brunch in New York City at a favorite Justice Alito effectively overturning Roe v. Wade. That something spot in SoHo, and here the actor, who stars this summer in the somewhere is always on fire during any red-carpet romp is a given, highly anticipated latest installments of two major franchises—Thor: though a leaked Supreme Court decision presaging the end of Love and Thunder, from Marvel Studios, and HBO’s Westworld, abortion rights as we know them gives quite a coloring to the flame. back for a fourth season—is only just ambiently referring to herself. Thompson tells me another attendee put it to her this way: “He was like, ‘It’s one of those moments that you’ll try to look back and It is a Tuesday in early May and we’re seated outdoors, graced remember exactly where you were when you got the news, and we by the kind of weather embraced by only the genuinely citified, will have been watching Lenny Kravitz perform “American Woman.” ’ ” with stark patches of shade too chilly for too-confident notions of springtime attire. But the sun feels delicious. The dark humor writes itself. But Thompson isn’t overly precious; the pageantry is the point. “I always see the red carpet Thompson loves New York. She spent her childhood going as [creating] a character,” she says. What she wears—a starbursting back and forth between Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and her birthplace trail of bubblegum tulle by Carolina Herrera at this year’s Met, a of Los Angeles. She comes back to the city often. “It suits my sculpted hooded jacket over bike shorts from Schiaparelli’s latest personality better than the isolation of Los Angeles,” she says. haute couture collection to the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party— “There’s that kind of serendipity” about New York: You might run depends on the nature of the event. “It’s always a costume to me.” into a friend or catch a show. (Thompson, a professed “Pamela Anderson enthusiast,” recently saw Chicago, with Anderson in the Our breakfast sandwiches arrive—mine with eggs, hers without. role of Roxie, as well as Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize– and Thompson says she has never had an egg but is not uninterested Tony Award–winning A Strange Loop, which she calls “undeniably in how the other half lives. She confesses that during filming for fantastic”; she also has plans to see the Deana Lawson show at Creed III, out early next year, she nudged a production assistant— MoMA PS1 with a friend, the musician Dev Hynes.) also, coincidentally, her brother—into divulging the breakfast orders of her castmates. One actor, she reports, had six hard-boiled eggs Or you might clock the doppelgänger of a minor internet for breakfast. “Or eight,” she corrects. “No, eight.” sensation from back when. “That guy looks so much like …” Thompson’s eyes scan the restaurant, tracking left to right over Thompson likes to keep abreast of things on set, a panoramic my shoulder. “Remember Prison Bae? He looks a lot like him.” sensibility that her Creed III costar Jonathan Majors describes as a “vibration.” “She gives off such a deep understanding of the world “Well, I think he has a modeling contract. Who knows?” and a deep understanding of who she is as an artist and a woman ➤ “Too bad we’re not scouts.” 66 B A Z A A R

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and a citizen of the world,” Majors explains. He likens her to Diane “No, I am also petty and salty,” she says. “But the thing is…in Keaton or Eartha Kitt: “She’s quite eclectic and rare.” (The castmate terms of awards, there’s no objective truth about what’s fine and who ate all those eggs? “That was me,” Majors confesses.) what’s good in a work. It’s all subjective. So what do you do?” Thompson’s interests, though, stretch beyond what she can Still, Thompson is grateful for the route she has taken in do on set or onscreen. Last year she launched Viva Maude, a produc- Hollywood. “I feel really lucky in my career to have gotten to play tion company dedicated to developing “inclusive stories with the kind of protagonist as a Black woman that we don’t necessarily inventive creators.” Its announced projects include adaptations of always see,” she says. Josie Radek, from 2018’s Annihilation, comes Who Fears Death, the critically acclaimed Africanfuturist novel by to mind: Thompson plays the depressive physicist with an unas- Nnedi Okorafor, and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, the 2020 suming intensity that could be childlike or ancient. Charlotte Hale, National Book Awards finalist by Deesha Philyaw, as well as a series Thompson’s character in Westworld, a cagey—and caged—executive, for HBO based on Luster, the sensational debut by Raven Leilani. is another; it’s a show about robots called “hosts.” “You don’t always The roster not only reflects Thompson’s keen literary intuition, it understand the mechanism completely,” she says. “I don’t mean also offers a glimpse of just what “inclusive” and “inventive” mean this in an ominous way, but we”—the actors—“are kind of the hosts.” in this context. “How do we create worlds where the kind of protag- onists that we don’t often get to see get to take up space?” Thompson Even at the scale of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thompson muses. More explicitly, she names “folks of color” and those who searches for “the very human thing” in her characters. In Thor: are “queer” or otherwise “marginalized inside of Hollywood.” Love and Thunder, she returns as Valkyrie, the smart-mouthed former bounty hunter opposite Chris Hemsworth’s titular Norse The company name comes from the beloved 1971 film Harold god. “It was kind of just one big messy experiment,” she says of and Maude, which was underappreciated in its day. “People didn’t Ragnarok. Stuffed with jokes and innuendo, that film attracted really get it or know what to do with it,” she explains. an inordinate fervor for its off-kilter, slightly deranged brand of humor relative to the rest of the Marvel franchises, a sensibility Recognition can take a while. attributed to both the quirky mind of director Taika Waititi and the camaraderie of its cast. T  hompson understands how hard it can be to make a movie. “They’re like small miracles,” she says, When Thor: Love and Thunder opens, Valkyrie rules Asgard, particularly “ones that are singular and bonkers.” but the malaise is thick. “She has this job,” Thompson says. “She’s She’s referring here to the 2018 film Sorry to Bother certainly more healed and healthy than the last time we found You, writer-director Boots Riley’s surrealist satirical her, and she loves her job, but she also is sort of…it’s lost its luster.” commentary on capitalism, in which she starred opposite LaKeith Stanfield. Riley had offered Thompson the part The rut rings familiar. Thor: Love and Thunder was the first of Detroit, an around-the-way artist in Oakland, years earlier. By set Thompson returned to as filming resumed across the industry the time Sorry to Bother You hit theaters, Thompson had already after the onset of the pandemic: “That was something that was starred in Creed and Thor: Ragnarok. really perfect to explore post spending a year of being like, ‘What am I when I’m not working? Do I exist?’ ” Passing was another one of those small miracles. The film stars Thompson, who was also among a rare group of Black and Going back to work also got Thompson thinking about her Asian American creatives who helped finance it. The director, own place in an industry in need of change. She’s not, she says, Rebecca Hall, had adapted the script from the 1929 novel by that “kind of actor who was so immersed in character that they Nella Larsen a decade before; it took seven years, Thompson only had eyes for their particular contribution.” Rather, “I come points out, before the vision was deemed cogent enough by onto a set and I’m seeing everything.” That cognizance extends ➤ the powers that be to get the ball rolling. That’s seven years for the adaptation of a novel no self-respecting student of American “I am also PETTY and literature would leave off the shelf, though it wasn’t always so, SALTY. But the thing is… Thompson reminds me. Acclaimed by critics upon its release, Larsen’s novel nonetheless lapsed into obscurity for much of in terms of AWARDS, the century following its birth, eventually recovered by readers there’s no OBJECTIVE who thought we might learn something from the interiority of TRUTH about what’s the Black women at its center. FINE and what’s Passing was overlooked—or, in rubbernecking parlance, GOOD in a WORK. snubbed—at the Oscars. That was a mistake, I think, recalling It’s all SUBJECTIVE. the tug-and-parry magnetism of Thompson and Ruth Negga in So what do you DO?” the film. I tell Thompson so. Her response—“You win some, you lose some”—strikes me as admirably mature, and I tell her that too. 08/22 71

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well beyond breakfast orders: “Right now, the focus is so squarely Love, a ’60s romance that skirts the usual strictures placed upon on Covid, but I hope eventually there’s also a conversation around portrayals of Black pasts. “We wanted to make something that felt the kind of hours that are worked.” Because at the end of the like a fucking delightful period film in the tradition of The Way day, “there’s glamour, and also everyone’s just a worker, is a worker.” We Were—these films that have occupied so much space in Hollywood, but they have been so aggressively not us,” she says. T  hompson’s father is a musician, but she never “Yes, Black people were taking to the streets and struggling, as we harbored any dreams of fame growing up. continued to do. But they were also making love and listening to “I don’t know what I wanted to be,” she says. music and wearing dope outfits and hanging out on the beach “I think I was always attracted to ideas, industries and being silly and dancing. We were doing all those things.” in which you had to connect with people.” She had the stuff, though, working through the Bard’s Luster’s Raven Leilani felt an “immediate trust” in Thompson, greatest hits first as a lark—cast as Hermia in a production of A who first approached her about adapting her novel in 2020. “We Midsummer Night’s Dream at her Santa Monica high school—and talked for a long time just about the art,” Leilani tells me. “I feel then as an 18-year-old professional with the Los Angeles Women’s like she understood both the joy and challenges of adapting what Shakespeare Company. She began auditioning for television in is essentially the consciousness of a Black woman.” between treading the boards, and in 2005 she became a regular on the second season of Veronica Mars as Jackie Cook. It was a The main character of Luster is Edie, who is bordering on sour sketch of a character whose brand of angst Thompson would shiftless, rolling in the bramble of her 20s when circumstances more freely channel in a truer breakout role nearly a decade find her living alongside the white wife and adopted Black child later, as the soft-militant radio-show host Sam White of the 2014 of her white, married boyfriend. Thompson is “deeply obsessed” film Dear W hite People. “I remember when Dear W hite People with the book, as am I; we both read it in a day. (A sentence I’ve came my way,” she says, “to finally be like, ‘Oh, I could be seen underlined: “I creep around the house and try to be racially neutral.”) in something and also really the subject of a narrative, not just the object of it.’ ” “My dream with something like Luster is to be able to allow audiences to discover a young Black woman in all of her beauty Thompson is getting used to the rhythm of the franchise and brilliance and messiness,” Thompson tells me. (She says she thing, which can be “trippy.” But it comes with a fandom that can would have cast Leilani as Edie if Leilani had been agreeable. “Oh sometimes go overboard in its speculation about her personal my God,” Leilani responds when I tell her this, falling into laughter. life. Much was made of Thompson’s 2018 appearance in Dirty “That is incredible. I can’t believe she said that.”) Computer, the visual companion to the album by Janelle Monáe, whom she has known for years. (In one shot, Thompson’s face Thompson’s interest in telling different kinds of stories is emerges between Monáe’s pink ruffled pant legs.) Thompson not to be mistaken for the rote sort of slogans for representation doesn’t expend any energy on the subject and says she is resigned so often bandied about these days. Conversations about diversity to the gossip. “It’s par for the course,” she says. very rarely consider “diversity of idea, thought, or presentation,” she says. “And for me, it’s not enough that we get to exist in frames.” The pandemic was also an opportunity to reestablish the terms of her job: what she does and why. Viva Maude culminates I bring up one frequent critique, the sense that “Black movies” Thompson’s yearslong introduction to behind-the-scenes dealings, are seen as a genre unto themselves and taken seriously only as which began with projects like Little Woods and 2020’s Sylvie’s vehicles for narratives of struggle and triumph. And yet, says Thompson, what about that indelible wide shot in 12 Years a Slave? “How do we CREATE Instantly, I know the one. In the scene, Solomon Northup, played WORLDS where the by Chiwetel Ejiofor, is halfway lynched, panting and heaving. kind of PROTAGONISTS Director Steve McQueen keeps our view broad, leaving Northup that we don’t OFTEN in the middle of the frame while the unrelenting work of the plan- get TO SEE get to tation continues in the background. “You see the whole plantation TAKE UP SPACE?” just operating as if a human isn’t hanging from the tree,” Thompson says, “which is what America has done to us for so long.” To dismiss that film in the name of so-called “slave stories,” Thompson implies, would be to miss the elemental quality of filmmaking. Appraisals of Black artists often overfocus on their work as content in a way that “eclipses also what we’re doing inside of the work,” says Thompson. “And that is frustrating.” She hopes to beget a sea change, altering the calculus of the kinds of productions that are green-lit. “Hollywood is such that…” She trails off. “Love it or leave it, and obviously I love it enough to not have left it.” HB 74 B A Z A A R

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GOING Places

This page: Tuxedo jacket, turtleneck, and pants, PROENZA SCHOULER. Earrings, SWAROVSKI. Ring, NOA FINE JEWELLERY. Boots, JONATHAN SIMKHAI. Opposite page: Top and skirt, THE ROW. Earrings, JIL SANDER. Choker, NOA FINE JEWELLERY. Fall’s easy MIX of monochromatic MAXIS, embellished A-LINES, and textured KNITS is made for MOVEMENT, captured amid the BUSTLING streets and BLUE vistas of TANGIER, Morocco Photographs by VINCENT VAN DE WIJNGAARD Styling by ISABELLE KOUNTOURE 08/22 77

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On With THE SHOW The RETURN this year of LIVE PERFORMANCES wasn’t just welcome, it was TRANSFORMATIVE, as ACTORS, DRAMATISTS, DANCERS, MUSICIANS, COMEDIANS, and ARTISTS of all stripes RETURNED to the STAGE—and the INTIMACY of IN-PERSON AUDIENCES— with a NEW URGENCY Story by SORAYA NADIA MCDONALD Photographs by JODY ROGAC Styling by ZARA MIRKIN T he world is falling apart. It feels like we’re the cast of seven Black women. The first Black woman to both choreo- Antrobus family in Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of graph and direct a Broadway show in more than 65 years, Brown Our Teeth, somehow going about our lives while made subtle changes, switching out Martha and the Vandellas for a shift in a geological epoch or two rages just outside. “I’m So Into You” by SWV. She added Shange’s poem “Ego” from Coup hearings bookmark a yearslong nappy edges. Like Oh God, for colored girls transmits rejuvenation. pandemic. A leaked draft of a SCOTUS opinion forecasts the end of the constitutional right to abortion. An electric- “It’s the idea of resilience that always is going to be in the fabric car edgelord who was supposed to save the planet with style and of everybody—and Black women especially,” Brown says. “The idea batteries has proved to be more Wizard of Oz than science-fiction of being faced with the most devastating circumstances, but then messiah. Yet there is reason for hope. So sayeth artists making you’re able to push through. Even though there is a poem that ends their way through the existential muck of life. with the killing of her kids [by her partner], after that, it’s at that Take Oh God, a Show About Abortion, created by comedian moment that she says, ‘I found God in myself and I loved her. Alison Leiby and presented, for its run at New York’s Cherry Lane I loved her fiercely.’ There’s a future past what we think is the end.” Theater, by her friend and colleague Ilana Glazer. Leiby’s one-woman show is about the absurdity of life as a woman. She had an abortion Uptown and around the country, Dance Theatre of Harlem when she was 35. Leiby had reached a level of economic security spread a similar gospel in a ballet set to the music of Stevie Wonder. that could accommodate a baby, but she did not want to become Choreographed by Robert Garland, Higher Ground continues in a mother. This was not an unwanted pregnancy that arose out of the principled, pointed spirit that gave rise to the company. Arthur tragic or violent circumstances. It was an inconvenience. Saying Mitchell famously cofounded the dance troupe in 1969 during a that out loud every night was powerful. time of existential unrest, eager to respond to the assassination “It’s not quiet, but it’s organically radical, effortlessly radical,” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The funk of Higher Ground wafts Glazer says. Oh God is an extremely Jewish American show in its ever more relevant. Company members gift Mitchell’s sensibilities rhythms, its sensibilities, its running conversation between gener- to one another as much as they do to an audience. ations. In some ways, it’s a nervy successor to an earlier feminism articulated by Ntozake Shange, the late writer of the choreopoem It’s evident in the way they speak about dancer Yinet Fernandez, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. who immigrated from Cuba to further her dance career. She This season, a revival debuted on Broadway, helmed by the dimin- worries about her parents at home, left to deal with the reper- utive dreadlocked dynamo that is Camille A. Brown. Relying on cussions of decades of hostile U.S. foreign policy. only projections and screens for set pieces, she focused on the “There’s this fortitude and strength that I just kind of feel just by you being there,” dancer Lindsey Donnell says, addressing Fernandez directly. “You have this resilience.” It’s a quality that’s also top of mind for Mikhail Baryshnikov. ➤ 88 B A Z A A R

“The past few years have INSPIRED ME to FOCUS more on CELEBRATING our JOY, our LOVE, and our CULTURE as a SUPERPOWER.” KYLE ABRAHAM, CHOREOGRAPHER Mechanic’s gown, WILLY CHAVARRIA. Shirt, GIORGIO ARMANI. Tie, J. PRESS. Boots, PRADA.

Jacket, YOHJI YAMAMOTO. “How can I TRUST MYSELF to be a PERFORMER the audience members can trust? How can I PREPARE and PRESENT a TIME and PLACE for MY AUDIENCE? I ask MYSELF these QUESTIONS.” EIKO OTAKE, PERFORMANCE ARTIST

Dress, PROENZA SCHOULER. Jewelry, PATRICIA VON MUSULIN. “There’s a FUTURE PAST what WE THINK is THE END.” CAMILLE A. BROWN, DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER

On left: Shirt and turtleneck, PRADA. Pants, MR PORTER. Shoes, GRENSON. Hat, Trotter’s own. On right: Jacket, DOLCE & GABBANA. Clothing and accessories, Thompson’s own. “EVERYTHING that you do in a PERFORMANCE … MATTERS, and it should be with PURPOSE.” TARIQ “BLACK THOUGHT” TROTTER, MUSICIAN AND ACTOR “I feel like I’m a NEW ARTIST. I feel like I’m STARTING AGAIN.” AHMIR “QUESTLOVE” THOMPSON, MUSICIAN AND FILMMAKER

“I want to perform EVEN LESS than I did before....I like a more HYPER- FOCUSED special ENGAGEMENT. Maybe a ONE-NIGHT performance.” DEV HYNES, MUSICIAN Tuxedo blazer, turtleneck, sweatpants, and shoes, BALENCIAGA. Hat, Hynes’s own.

“EVERYTHING WE DO—not only PERFORMANCES, but going into COMMUNITIES, TEACHING CLASSES, the REP WE DO, the MUSIC WE DO, the CHOREOGRAPHERS we use—EXPANDS PEOPLE’S MINDS.” LINDSEY DONNELL, DANCER From left: Yinet Fernandez, Derek Brockington, Lindsey Donnell, Micah Bullard, and Alexandra Hutchinson from the Dance Theatre of Harlem. All clothing, PRADA. Earrings, PATRICIA VON MUSULIN.



Jacket and shirt, GUCCI. Tie, J. PRESS. “The HORSE’S BACK gets HIGHER every time you JUMP into the SADDLE … and I’m definitely getting smaller, so there’s that, but I’m HAPPY to be ONSTAGE AGAIN.” MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV, DANCER AND ACTOR

Coat, ALEXANDER McQUEEN. Earrings, PATRICIA VON MUSULIN. Tights, FALKE. Sandals, JW ANDERSON. “I WALK into the THEATER on a daily basis with MORE OPENNESS and GRACE for EVERYONE around me, as well as for MYSELF.” SUTTON FOSTER, ACTOR AND SINGER

“If I’m going to “The show really DO THIS, has a JEWISH I’m going to TELL IT as it FEEL … POKING HAPPENED at the THING TO ME.” until you get to ALISON LEIBY, the TRUTH COMEDIAN AND WRITER of the THING.” On left: Coat, CHANEL. Brogues, GRENSON. ILANA GLAZER, On right: Coat and earrings, CHANEL. COMEDIAN AND WRITER