Last Week, Stars Were Decidedly Minimal and Definitively Glamorous

The countdown to the holidays needn’t require holly leaves and reindeer sweaters. One can be festive and cool...or so argue the world’s most stylish who last week managed to do just that on red carpets around the globe. For example, Brie Larson bloomed magnificently at a screening of Just Mercy in Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen’s floral dress in vibrant poinsettia hues. In Mumbai, Bollywood icon Deepika Padukone took a similar tonal route in a dramatic, magenta sari by Sabyasachi for the Lokmat Style Awards.

Of course, it wasn’t all hot pink on the scarlet runner. For a Little Women photo call in London, Saoirse Ronan’s wore a minimal LBD by Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino finished off with crystal-studded boots. Equally understated yet impactful were the black cape and white suit Charlize Theron chose for a special screening of Bombshell at Lincoln Center.

Elsewhere, holiday movie premieres yielded a few dazzling fashion moments. Opinion may be divided on Tom Hooper’s Cats, but Francesca Hayward’s beaded Miu Miu gown received only high praise. Likewise, Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker gave Daisy Ridley an occasion to pull out an otherworldly Vivienne Westwood Couture. The corseted blue silk gown with its detachable train was thrilling, unexpected, and—let’s just say it—a force.

Swedish Musician Ecco2K Drops a Surprise Solo Album (and an Extreme New Look)

Zak Arogundade is a man in perpetual motion. “I kind of just accepted the fact that it’s never really going to slow down from here,” said the Swedish wunderkind when we caught up with him in 2016. That was an accurate prediction. At the time Arogundade was working as a designer for Eytys in Stockholm and performing as Ecco2K with the Drain Gang (formerly Gravity Boys). Since then he’s hit the road—and the runway, having been cast to walk for Alyx by Matthew Williams. “I first met Zak many years ago when he was just beginning making music,” the designer tells Vogue. “Zak has always been into fashion, I ran into him at fabric fairs in Paris and I loved his personal style, [which] was always unique and has lots of energy. We kept in touch and when we had our first runway show I invited [him] to walk.”

Having walked, Arogundade set out to roam. E, the surprise album he’s dropping today, was recorded in Stockholm, Berlin, Los Angeles, London, Falun, and Bangkok. The only geography Arogundade explores, however, is an internal one which is distinguished by dramatic peaks and valleys. “I still feel like a manic perfectionist,” the artist says, “but my idea of perfection has changed as I’ve gotten to know myself better. I let chaos back in. That’s what allowed E to happen.” The lyrics explore the differences between perception and reality and our social versus inner selves, topics that are particularly relevant to the moment. In “Security!” Arogundade poses an interesting question: “What would you ask if you had one wish? / If you could choose only one thing to fix?”

Arogundade is known for playing with his appearance and he says he uses fashion to project “outward what I feel inside. It’s real.” Asked what his style is, he replies, “[you] could call it Graceful Brutality or...Combat Ballerina.” It’s been a while since the artist traded his signature colored braids for a more streamlined look, complete with a shaved head. “I cut my hair off when I left my day-job designing shoes,” Arogundade explains. “I guess it was some kind of Britney moment. Also, I like the idea of remaining a blank canvas...all decoration is stripped off.” The album art takes that idea in a new direction—the artist looks like he’s dipped himself in plaster or white paint. While E touches on universal themes, it’s also an extremely personal album by an artist who is increasingly in the public eye. “People have always looked at me,” said Arogundade, who is of mixed heritage (his father is British of Nigerian descent, his mother is Swedish). “Growing up where I grew up, and looking the way that I looked, there was always a very obvious difference between me and everybody else who was around.” (“All of my friends have blue eyes,” Arogundade sings with some humor on E.)

Though he’s embraced difference as a strength, the artist reveals his vulnerability on these tracks. “I feel like I’m flying and sinking at the same time,” he sings as he explores his subconscious—a feeling that’s given sonic expression by executive producer’s Gud’s tinkling soundscapes (which will be familiar to fans of Yung Lean’s “Yoshi City.” Despite its “atmospheric production,” this isn’t music for somnambulists; there’s a sense of urgency even to the dreamy tracks. And there is variety. “Time, ” for instance, evokes the sweaty, beyond-tired feeling of a magical night fading into morning. “It’s pixie music,” Arogundade says.

Katie Holmes Shows How to Dress Up Ripped Jeans

Ripped jeans fall in and out of fashion. One minute they’re an easy way to add a dose of cool to an outfit; the next they’re deemed a fad and pushed out in favor of cleaner, more streamlined denim. But it seems they’re coming back once again. Katie Holmes stepped out in New York City yesterday rocking her own pair, with intentional distressing at the knees. And her outfit gave the grungy piece an unexpectedly dressy twist, too.

Holmes wore a straight-leg, high-waisted pair by Khaite, one of her favorite labels, a jean she’s worn on the streets before. She styled them with a white blouse, also by Khaite, with puffed shoulders and a white turtleneck underneath it. Then, Holmes added on polished accessories: sleek pointy boots, a leather tote bag, and large sunglasses. Consider it another win in her long-running style streak.

Gigi Hadid Gives the White Button-Up a Grungy Twist

The latest It item being sported by trendsetters? It’s not a flashy designer bag or a statement shoe—instead, it’s the classic white button-up shirt. The wardrobe staple has been having a moment this month: Hailey Bieber gave it a cool-girl twist earlier this week, opting for an oversized fit that gave it more of a streetwear-inspired feel. Now, model Gigi Hadid has hit Paris Fashion Week wearing her own take on the piece, infusing it with a punky spirit. (It’s a decidedly new look for Hadid, even if fashion month is the prime time to experiment with one’s personal style.)

Attending an art exhibit centered around the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, Hadid wore an extra-long white shirt that was left half-way unbuttoned; it could almost be interpreted as an homage to Lagerfeld, who himself wore white collared shirts almost exclusively. Hadid then gave the crisp top a grungier finish with an oversized black suit and a pair of hefty creeper shoes, complete with a dark red lip to play up the punk-inspired vibe. Finally, her one dangly earring also proved that wearing a single piece of jewelry is often all you need. From top to toe, Hadid confidently showed that when it comes to the classic white shirt, less is more.

Gigi Hadid Brings Much-Needed Supermodel Glamour to the VMAs

The MTV VMAs are known for its loud, out-there fashions. (Remember Lil’ Kim’s iconic breast-baring jumpsuit?) And it makes sense: after all, it’s a night for music’s biggest artists to put their distinctive style on full display—maximalism is the vibe. Still, supermodels have made their mark on the red carpet here, too: the epic Versace number Cindy Crawford wore to the awards in 1992 went down in VMAs history. Leave it to Gigi Hadid to serve those high fashion dramatics this year.

Attending with her sister, Bella Hadid, Gigi hit the step and repeat in a blush-colored ensemble by Tom Ford consisting of a skin-tight corset and shiny satin trousers. On her feet, she kept the neutral palette going with metallic pumps that had a dainty toe strap. Around her neck? Tasteful chains, which ensured the look truly went for gold. Consider it a prime example of how less is sometimes way more.

Swim Skirts Are the Retro Trend to Try This Summer

It wasn’t so long ago that we were comparing women’s curves to fruits and assigning swimsuit cuts to specific body types. Skimpier bottoms allegedly looked best on petite frames, while full-coverage briefs were recommended for those of us with hips. Less fabric was considered sexier as a rule, while covered-up one-pieces were reserved for mom. Well, enough with all of that! It’s 2019, and anything goes, and we’ve more or less scrapped the rule book. High-rise bikini bottoms and maillots are now considered chic and sophisticated, not frumpy, and on the opposite token, V-cut ’80s bottoms have become a fast favorite for women of every shape and size. Who says you have to choose, though? Plenty of us have a drawer stuffed with every silhouette and trend, from barely there to full coverage.

As summer draws to a close, we have a new wild card to consider: the swim skirt—i.e., an itty-bitty miniskirt in lieu of a cheeky hipster or bikini bottom. It feels a little ’50s-ish, with the added bonus of being seriously practical. (Who needs a cover-up when your swimsuit has a built-in skirt?) We’ve seen a few one-pieces with skirts, too, like Norma Kamali’s peony pink version, which is essentially just a waterproof dress. As with any swimsuit trend, today’s swim skirts come in virtually every color and print under the sun, from Lisa Marie Fernandez’s shimmery gold set to Solid & Striped’s denim bikini.

Jennifer Aniston, We Beg You, Get on Instagram

Rumors about a Friends reunion have been buzzing since, well, basically the minute the beloved show went off the air in 2004. Accordingly, every time a group of the original cast members gets together, speculation arises about whether or not they’re finally scheming for a surprise redo. And obsessive Friends stans know that this past month has been Instagram gold in that area: Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, and Jennifer Aniston have been hamming it up for loads of selfies as of late, gathering for various #girlsnights sans the boys (David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry).

On Sunday evening the trio was back at it, channeling their inner Monica, Phoebe, and Rachel: The three actresses appeared on Kudrow’s Instagram feed, with the actress captioning the (very grainy?) photo: “Halfway there…,” hinting yet again that another Friends reunion may be underway. All that’s missing is Ross, Chandler, and Joey to make it complete. Cox also posted a selfie from the same night, hers a more crowded—and possibly wine-fueled?—group selfie. Their latest meetup follows another time earlier in the month when they got together to celebrate Cox’s birthday.

I hereby argue that the only thing that would make these mini Friends reunions truly complete would be contributions from Aniston herself, who decidedly does not have an Instagram page. Imagine the content possibilities: Aniston looking flawless and chic by the pool; Aniston Storying herself shopping at Gelson’s; Aniston captioning a photo with “We were NOT on a break,” sending thousands of people worldwide into cardiac arrest.

Aside from Perry, Aniston is the only Friends star to not be on the social media platform. (Even Schwimmer, who has only posted four times, has gotten in on memes from the show.) It makes sense, given how fiercely private Aniston is (and with every tabloid constantly asking whether she is okay or not). But how great would it be to see Aniston re-create some of Rachel’s chic Ralph Lauren looks from the show. My God, even Diane Keaton is on Insta.

Perhaps if the world starts trending #LogOnJen, she’ll get the hint. She might be too busy to notice, unfortunately: Her latest movie with Adam Sandler, Netflix’s Murder Mystery, has surpassed Bird Box as the streaming giant’s film with the biggest opening weekend. Yet another missed opportunity: my kingdom for a Boomerang of Jennifer Aniston popping some Champagne.

Miley Cyrus’s New Style Chapter Is All About Vintage

Lately the most fashion-forward thing a celebrity can do is develop an understanding of the vintage market. A great find from season’s past has the ability to resonate in a way looks direct from the runway can’t and style-savvy stars are learning to use archival fashion to great effect. A hippie at heart, Miley Cyrus has always shown an affinity for pieces from the late 1960s and early 1970s, and her latest look revisits the work of a master designer of the era: Yves Saint Laurent.

Out to dinner last night at London restaurant Gymkhana, Cyrus wore a series of retro pieces bringing back everything from a 1990s Prada crystal evening bag to a platinum double C necklace from Chanel. Even with all the vintage finery, nothing could take attention away from the Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche dragon vest she wore over a plain white T-shirt and wide-leg trousers. Royal purple with gold embroidery and a braided trim, it was a statement in and of itself that elevated every other element of Cyrus’s outfit.

With her new EP, She is Coming, set for release later this week, Cyrus has been making the publicity rounds while providing hints about the direction of her latest chapter. Already spotted onstage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend Music Festival in a slinky Tom Ford for Gucci minidress and on the EP’s cover in a well-worn Sex Pistols “Never Mind the Bollocks” crop top, it’s clear that vintage is an important part of Cyrus’s style. More than merely looking good, her habit of recycling the best in old school designer wares aligns with her sustainable, animal-friendly fashion outlook. And what’s cooler than that?

How Will “Camp: Notes On Fashion” Change the Way We Dress?

What is Camp? It’s a question many of us have been asking in the lead-up to the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, “Camp: Notes On Fashion,” which opens to the public on May 9th, a few days after next Monday’s Met Gala. For answers, look no further than Susan Sontag’s text of a similar title, “Notes on Camp,” which inspired the theme: “Camp is the love of the exaggerated, the ‘off,’ of things-being-what-they-are-not,” Sontag offers; “Camp is a woman walking around in a dress made of three million feathers”; “The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious.” Those are just a few of her 58 points.

In short, Camp is capital-F fashion. It’s unbridled. It’s extra. It’s fun! To the average museum-goer, the clothes on display in “Camp” will also look straight-up unwearable. We aren’t arguing, either; the joy of Camp is that it ignores the boundaries of what society has deemed “wearable” or “practical” (or maybe even “clothes”).

That doesn’t mean Camp isn’t accessible, though. In fact, “Camp” might just awaken the least-likely fashion fan out there. The Costume Institute’s annual exhibitions have a track record for influencing the way we dress, perhaps best exemplified by the surge in popularity for robes and silk jackets after “China: Through the Looking Glass” bowed in 2015. In the wake of 2016’s “Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology,” we saw an interest in both the “manus” half—i.e., garments with a sense of the hand, like embroideries and crochet—and the “machina” contingent, which influenced the futuristic, Blade Runner vibes we’ve seen on and off the runway ever since.

You can draw a line between last year’s “Heavenly Bodies” exhibition and the darkly-romantic dresses we loved on the Fall 2019 runways, as well as the goth revival on the streets. It’s not so much that designers and street-stylers are consciously taking inspiration from Met Gala themes; rather, the Met seems to anticipate the mood of the moment or a shift in fashion’s subconscious and start a ripple effect.

How will that play out post-“Camp”? I’m glad you asked. Here’s my pie-in-the-sky hope: First, that celebrities get appropriately campy on the Met Gala red carpet (this is not the year to play it safe!) and that in the months to come, designers, editors, and fashion fans outside of the industry find themselves inspired to have a little bit of fun with fashion, too. Think: exaggerated ruffles, giant shoulders, feathers, kitsch, corsets, trompe l’oeil, gender-bending, and nostalgia to the nth degree. Plenty of designers were already thinking along those lines for Fall 2019, so we’ll have options come September: Prada’s Frankenstein prints, Thom Browne’s trick-of-the-eye suits, Christopher Kane’s fetish gear.

This isn’t to say you have to scrap your personal style and embrace Camp around the clock; that isn’t feasible for most people with limited closet space. You can love Camp and still be a proponent of a less-is-more agenda on the days you aren’t feeling a hot pink dress. Fashion has lately been of those two extremes: going-for-it extravagance or elegant, pared-back simplicity. It’s the middle-of-the-road stuff that feels uninspired.

But there’s a difference between “simplicity” and the chilly, ultra-minimalist vibe we’re seeing from so many of the direct-to-consumer upstarts carving out a corner of the industry and influencing how millennials dress. Allow me an aside, if you will: In subway ads and on Instagram, these companies are hawking subscription plans so you don’t have to make any choices; they’re focusing on basics so you don’t have to take any risks; they’re proposing “uniform” dressing and instructing you to buy fewer garments to streamline your life. Their san-serif logos and branding all look the exact same. That isn’t minimalism; that’s just lacking personality. I’m all for T-shirts and shopping less frequently, but it’s the messaging that bothers me—both as a fashion editor and a consumer—because it suggests there’s something shameful or wrong about self-expression; that it’s a mark of intelligence to reject fashion. (Saturday Night Life even parodied the phenomenon in a recent skit called “Fashion Coward,” in which Emma Stone, Aidy Bryant, and Kate McKinnon shop in a bland store for “clothes that suggest the general idea of a person”: navy T-shirts, brown sweaters, “pants for the legs,” and a zip-up hoodie that “doubles as an invisibility cloak.”) I keep coming back to the fact that fashion is a traditionally feminine, women-oriented industry, yet most of these hyper-minimal brands are run by guys in tech. That doesn’t exactly add up.

I can’t imagine a sharper contrast to all of that than Bertrand Guyon’s flamingo suit and headpiece for Schiaparelli, or Jeremy Scott’s “bouquet dress” for Moschino, or Alessandro Michele’s feathered gown and sequined Paramount logo for Gucci, all of which feature in this year’s exhibition. No, you don’t have to wear feathers and sequins; you don’t even have to wear a ruffle. But at the very least “Camp” should inspire you to let your freak flag fly just a little.

Kozaburo Akasaka, Last Year’s LVMH Special Prize Winner, Is Launching His First-Ever Women’s Jeans With J Brand

It’s been barely a year since Kozaburo Akasaka won the 2018 LVMH Special Prize for his hand-stitched, culture-blending menswear. A single Kozaburo collection might include references as disparate as the kimonos of his native Japan; changshans from China; Bruce Lee’s on-screen style; Buddhist symbols; and Western shirts and jeans inspired by a Texas road trip. Those things have more in common than you might expect; denim, for example, is central to both American and Japanese style. Many of Akasaka’s jeans come with sashiko stitching, a traditional Japanese reinforcement technique, or he’ll team a denim work jacket with an oni-inspired belt.

Akasaka does all of this through the lens of Mottainai, a Japanese term that relates to a feeling of regret over wastefulness. Sustainability and upcycling are at the center of this boundary-pushing, conceptual label. While the common assumption is that sustainable practices can take something away from an aesthetic, the opposite is true for Akasaka. Look no further than his intricately-woven sakiori jeans for proof of that.

His other best-selling jeans—shin-length, sculptural “3-D” flares—have become a particular signature for Akasaka. He was wearing a dark-rinse pair with heavy boots when I met him in his Bed-Stuy studio; he made a convincing case for guys to abandon their skinnies once and for all. Women are obsessed with flares at the moment, too, and his latest project is particularly good news for them: Akasaka has collaborated with J Brand on a special capsule of jeans—his first-ever for women—launching today.

Each pair is made from deadstock denim and scraps from the Los Angeles brand’s vast archives, some of them dating back to the early 2000s. There’s a version of his curvy flares in multiple shades of denim; paneled jeans with exposed zippers; and graphic, streaky gray jeans dyed with a special pigment in lieu of bleach. For those, he explained that he’d wanted to “show the feeling of the collection in a stroke of Japanese calligraphy,” but wanted to find an alternative to bleach, which is harmful to the environment. His decision to eliminate bleach dovetails with J Brand’s own commitment to more sustainable practices. For Spring 2019, which is in stores now, J Brand developed a “bleached” denim treatment using baby powder, of all things, and by 2020, the company hopes to be fully sustainable. That mostly comes down to reducing its water and chemical usage, but championing artisanal processes like Akasaka’s is an important (and more tangible) step.

“I think a lot of people are surprised by this collaboration, but I really appreciate what J Brand is doing with their development from a sustainable perspective,” Akasaka said. “I’m interested in recycled materials and creating something artisanal, and they’re doing the same thing in a different way.” In his studio, the finished jeans looked of a piece with the silk sukajan jackets and heavier-weight men’s jeans from his own Fall 2019 collection: Several pairs had raw edges and extra-long red threads dangling from the seams—he called it a wabi-sabi touch. Despite the fact that the collaboration’s cropped flares come in J Brand’s signature stretch denim (as opposed to Akasaka’s preferred rigid cotton), the silhouette looked winningly similar. “I’d never worked with stretch denim before, and at first, I really didn’t like it,” he admitted. “But now I do. It accommodates a lot of different shapes and is so easy to wear.”

We have a feeling those will be the first to sell out. Starting today, you can pick up your pair on J Brand’s website, as well as at Barneys, Selfridge’s, and Lane Crawford; prices start at $428.

“Who Wouldn’t Want to Do the Versace Show?” Stephanie Seymour Reflects on Her Milan Comeback

In 1991, Stephanie Seymour was not yet the household name she would become. She was just starting out as a runway model, having appeared in editorials since the ’80s, arriving in Milan as the “new girl” backstage. Her first show may have been for Jil Sander’s Fall 1991 collection, but it was on the Versace runway days later that Seymour cemented herself as the catwalk’s newest star. With Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista, and Karen Mulder, Seymour strutted—trust, this is a capital S strut—the runway in a black off-the-shoulder dress and thigh-high boots, posing with the rest of the model clique at the back of the runway to signal the start of the show.

Almost 30 years later, Seymour was back on the Versace runway, closing Donatella’s Fall 2019 show in a glittering, bondage-inspired black dress. “Who wouldn’t want to do the Versace show again after 20 years?” Seymour mused backstage pre-show, where she had just finished rehearsal and was getting her hair touched up by Guido Palau. “It feels different, but the same,” she continued, saying that after all these years, her single tip for the runway is still “relax, relax, relax.”

Remembering her early days, Seymour said, “I never did shows until I started doing the Versace shows, and they were all, always, really fun. Backstage was really fun, and the girls would all give me lessons because they knew that I had no idea how to walk on a runway. We were all really close and we had a great time.”

Casting director Piergiorgio Del Moro called Seymour one of Versace’s iconic muses; he and Donatella had been hoping to confirm her for a show for several seasons. This time, in Milan, everything came together perfectly—take the audible gasps heard in the front row when Seymour appeared as proof.

Delphine Arnault Reveals the 16 Industry Experts Joining the LVMH Prize This Year

In just two weeks, the Fall 2019 ready-to-wear season will officially begin in New York—but if you’ve been paying attention, you know fashion week is always happening somewhere. In the next couple of months alone, Vogue Runway will cover shows in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Madrid, and Tbilisi—and many more cities—in addition to the “main” circuit. In our increasingly digital world, it’s never been easier for a designer to get noticed, regardless of where they are in the world. The LVMH Prize is a consistent reminder of that; the pool of talent seems to become more global by the year. In 2018, for instance, Executive Vice President of Louis Vuitton and founder of the LVMH Prize, Delphine Arnault, revealed they got a record number of applications from Asia, particularly China. “The Prize is international, and so is fashion,” she tells Vogue.

Naturally, the panel of experts who choose those finalists should be international, too. “It is important that the diversity of experts be a reflection of the diversity of styles and realities in our industry,” she continues. Their perspectives and focuses within fashion are diverse, too. “The interesting thing with this industry is that it is constantly evolving, thus creating new opportunities. The presence of influencers like Aimee Song and Chiara Ferragni, for instance, is a novelty in the Prize and reflects their growing clout in our field.”

Song and Ferragni (who was also named an ambassador) are among the 16 experts Arnault is welcoming to the LVMH Prize this year. Their hybridized careers—as models, bloggers, designers, consultants, et al—also represents Arnault’s belief that a variety of voices and talents are crucial to providing the strongest mentorship to the designers. “Obviously with the internet, businesses are crossing over—from print or brick-and-mortar to digital,” Arnault says. “But also the other way around. [The experts’] perspectives on creation today is invaluable, and their interactions with the semi-finalists will help these young designers gather critical feedback to enable them to grow.”

Arnault shared the full list of new experts exclusively with Vogue. Watch this space to see which designers inch closer to earning the top prize; we’ll meet the semi-finalists on March 1st and 2nd, during Paris Fashion Week, and the grand prize will be awarded in June.

Aizel Trudel, CEO & founder, Aizel

Rami Atallah, co-founder & CEO, SSENSE

Aimee Song, founder of Song Of Style

Loïc Prigent, director

Angelo Flaccavento, independent fashion critic; editor at large at VogueItalia; editor at Business of Fashion

Naomi Campbell, top model and philanthropist

Chiara Ferragni, digital entrepreneur and CEO of TBS Crew SRL

Ashley Heath, publisher, director, and editor-in-chief of POP and Arena Homme+ magazines

Joerg Koch, founding editor-in-chief and creative director of 032c; editor-in-chief of SSENSE

Ezra Petronio, editor and creative director of Self Service

Kevin Ma, CEO & founder of Hypebeast

Edward Enninful OBE, editor-in-chief of British Vogue

Suzanne Koller, Fashion director of M le Monde

Marie Chaix, stylist and fashion editor of Double Magazine

Elizabeth Von Guttman, co-founder of System Magazine and co-founder of Fashion In Tech

Alexia Niezielski, co-founder of System Magazine and co-founder of Fashion In Tech